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Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

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Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#31

Post by milesf »

aresant wrote: post #6

Wow, busted. Appears their DBA was "Yellow Pages United" - hah! Their fake-directory was called "The Business Book" and members also received submission to https://www.yellowpagesunited.com/ . Compare that logo to the one at http://www.yp.com and you can see the beggining of the problem. These guys had a true pump model - they're even a testimonial for a high-volume FAX website - http://www.faxcomanywhere.com/custome…

Some quotes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Pages

"The term YellowPages is not a registered name within the United States and is freely used by many companies."

also

"In some countries, the familiar "walking fingers" logo is not protected as a trademark and may be used by anyone."

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#32

Post by obiefernandez »

bphogan wrote: post #26
milesf wrote: post #18

Obie tweeted about this: "Hashrocket is NOT connected with any wrongdoing. The gov is doing its best to railroad my partners but they are fighting back!! (PLS RT)" http://twitter.com/obie/status/17608288414

And as I said on Twitter... If I were in his situation I would keep my mouth shut and would be directing all questions to my lawyer. Otherwise you run the risk of increasing the guilt by association. This kind of stuff can ruin a company. I understand the desire to publicly defend your biz partners, especially if they're your friends. So if you trust your friends enough to put your name and business on the line for t…

I talked to my lawyer and he was fine with me publicly commenting on it, especially since the mainstream media is doing its best to turn this into a huge story.

AND

I do trust my partners enough to my name and business on the line for them. They are innocent.

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#33

Post by cookiecaper »

aresant wrote: post #6

Wow, busted. Appears their DBA was "Yellow Pages United" - hah! Their fake-directory was called "The Business Book" and members also received submission to https://www.yellowpagesunited.com/ . Compare that logo to the one at http://www.yp.com and you can see the beggining of the problem. These guys had a true pump model - they're even a testimonial for a high-volume FAX website - http://www.faxcomanywhere.com/custome…

yellowpagesunited.com is down now. Anyone with a mirror of the logo?

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#34

Post by milesf »

cookiecaper wrote: post #33
aresant wrote: post #6

Wow, busted. Appears their DBA was "Yellow Pages United" - hah! Their fake-directory was called "The Business Book" and members also received submission to https://www.yellowpagesunited.com/ . Compare that logo to the one at http://www.yp.com and you can see the beggining of the problem. These guys had a true pump model - they're even a testimonial for a high-volume FAX website - http://www.faxcomanywhere.com/custome…

yellowpagesunited.com is down now. Anyone with a mirror of the logo?

Take out the https:// and you're redirected to http://www.bizyellow.com/

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#35

Post by ww520 »

duckpunch wrote: post #16
washed wrote: post #5

Mark Smith funded and funds Hashrocket. Hashrocket isn't profitable without Mark Smith. If Obie had no knowledge of this scam then I feel sorry for him and this situation. I guess "The Rails Maturity Model", the Hashrocket Way and BizConf includes taking scam money and pretending to be profitable.

You're confusing Hashrocket, the web development company, with United Directories, the company being charged. The people being charged are essentially initial investors. Pointing a finger at Hashrocket in this scenario is not unlike blaming every startup that was invested in by an angel or VC that later ended up involved in fraudulent activity. None of this means that Hashrocket is not at all at fault, but based on t…

Aren't those people charged executives of Hashrocket as well?

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#36

Post by [deleted] »

obiefernandez wrote: post #23

Importantly: 1) Hashrocket has absolutely nothing to do with the criminal complaint 2) In the USA people are innocent until proven guilty Now if you're interested in this case, read on... There are hundreds of independent yellow pages (including Yellow Pages United) that legally use the term Yellow Pages and the "walking fingers" logo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Pages My partners have been doing direct mail…

[deleted]

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#38

Post by mbpr »

obiefernandez wrote: post #32
bphogan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as I said on Twitter... If I were in his situation I would keep my mouth shut and would be directing all questions to my lawyer. Otherwise you run the risk of increasing the guilt by association. This kind of stuff can ruin a company. I understand the desire to publicly defend your biz partners, especially if they're your friends. So if you trust your friends enough to put your name and business on the line for t…

I talked to my lawyer and he was fine with me publicly commenting on it, especially since the mainstream media is doing its best to turn this into a huge story. AND I do trust my partners enough to my name and business on the line for them. They are innocent.

while not illegal, the direct marketing online yellow pages biz is shady as hell, comparable to online lotto's, online deals and foreclosures database purveyors, and "punch the monkey"-style advertisers (all legal businesses that employ many people). Not something I'd consider as a value-added business, more sucker-traps than anything else. The fact that "yellow pages" and the logo are up in the air makes that entire industry a massive gray area. I wouldn't want to be associated with that. What would we say if 37signals launched a bargain network service tomorrow? . . . not illegal, but goodwill down the drain.

Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case

#39

Post by Poop »

washed wrote: post #22
jackowayed wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hashrocket isn't profitable? Why not? Consulting is a pretty straight-forward business model, and they're pretty well known, so they shouldn't have much trouble charging enough to cover their costs.

Pay everyone way more than they're work then buy a beach front office. It's easy to spend money that you do not respect.

How much do rocketeers make?
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