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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Dec 7th 2010 3:00pm




Filed Under:
ecommerce, reputation, threats


Guy Who Bragged About How Bad Reviews Helped His Online Store's Ecommerce Ranking Arrested

from the so-much-for-that-plan dept

Remember the recent story of the ecommerce store operator who claimed he was thriving by being obnoxious, because all of the bad reviews were increasing his Google rank? It's been interesting to watch what's happened since that NY Times article was published. Within days, Google announced that it had tweaked its algorithms to deal with that and similar situations, noting that being bad to customers is unlikely to be a good long term business strategy. It also might lead to jail. The NY Times is now also reporting (as sent in by Robert Ring) that the guy profiled in that original story, Vitaly Borker, who seemed so proud of his angry tirades against customers, has now been arrested for mail fraud, wire fraud, making interstate threats and cyberstalking. So much for that strategy.

14 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  •  
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    Brad S (profile), Dec 7th, 2010 @ 3:11pm

    Finally.

     

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  •  
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    cgt (profile), Dec 7th, 2010 @ 3:18pm

    WIN!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 3:29pm

    I guess now we know what's in a name.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

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    David, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 3:31pm

    And the kicker is that his customer abuse wasn't what helped his ranking, it was because Blomberg and a couple of other high profile publishers linked to his site in a post about a lawsuit against him.

     

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    Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 3:41pm

    Borker

    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

     

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    •  
      identicon
      AC, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 4:05pm

      Re:

      You for got to add "BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Too bad the NYT couldn't get interviews with the CEOs of those like Monsanto, Haliburton, insert big pharma, DirectTV, etc, etc, etc. I wonder what the minimum required income is for getting out of punishment for this kind of racketeering/fraud/intimidation.

       

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  •  
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    James, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 3:59pm

    Win: Sweet, swift justice.
    Fail: Linking to the walled garden of the New York Times.

     

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  •  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 4:36pm

    Um.. Is this making being an asshole against the law? I see As long as hes not doing anything wrong and only being an ass I say let him eat cake.

     

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    •  
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      pix, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 5:10pm

      Re:

      Did you miss the part about threats and cyberstalking? I doubt he would actually harm someone, but some of the emails and phone messages he left with dissatisfied customers were disturbing. Read the full article from the NYT. It's pretty shocking.

       

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        Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 6:36pm

        Re: Re:

        I agree with this, and I am glad he's been arrested, but I'm still puzzled by the fraud charges. The 'customer care' he's admitted to definitely puts him down for harassment, as well as whatever else death threats, etc. make him liable for; I just can't see how that counts as fraud.

         

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          DSchmeling (profile), Dec 7th, 2010 @ 7:16pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          I'm fairly certain that calling in and posing as someone else to get credit card disputes dropped qualifies as fraud, and pending a legitimate recollection, he sent counterfeit products and listed them as real products on a number of occasions.

           

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    •  
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      Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2010 @ 5:16pm

      Re:

      Read the damn article.

       

      [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

    •  
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      DSchmeling (profile), Dec 7th, 2010 @ 7:14pm

      Re:

      See the bits about mail fraud, wire fraud, making interstate threats and cyberstalking? Yeah, he's not being arrested because for being an asshole, he's being arrested for being an intimidating, threatening, and fraud committing asshole.

      Turns out that harassment, threatening violence, and fraudulent business practices will get you arrested. Usually.

       

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