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Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

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Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#41

Post by nitwit005 »

onion2k wrote: post #36
nitwit005 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can afford buying a thousand used iPhones to start such a business, you aren't exactly living in poverty. Spam operations back in the day probably cost even more given what hardware and bandwidth used to cost. Even if they weren't trying to BS you, people committing crimes often come up with some sort of story to justify the whole thing. People like to be the hero of their story.

If you can afford buying a thousand used iPhones to start such a business, you aren't exactly living in poverty. Or you start small and grow. Or you borrow money to start. Or you find an angel investor who is rich. Etc. Kind of like any other start up really.

There's a minimum scale below which no one would bother to hire you. No one is going to hire someone with 4 phones set up.

If you can get business loans and financing, that's just another version of not exactlty being poor.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#42

Post by baybal2 »

Clickfarming used to be a big business in Russia around early 200x.

It was de-facto the only "Internet business" at the time, and, I admit, my first introduction to making money in the Internet.

All other things that got Russia its later fame like the huge carding scene, industrial scale spam ops, and such evolved out of it.

Ironically, out of all of that, the warez scene died out first, due to its own success. When people were getting their first fibre/dedicated copper Internet connections, people stopped paying even the measly $3 for warez copies on physical CDs.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#43

Post by marak830 »

wpietri wrote: post #7

There was a reply here, now dead, that I wanted to discuss: "Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy." I'm adamantly opposed to spam, and back in the early days of the web (…

Just before my son was born, I was struggling to find a stable job.

So I worked on online web dev jobs for some seriously shady characters.

I made between 10 and 15 sites that they would buy databases and mass mail users in various industries to try and get them to sign up for really shitty programs. (One for example was a roofing company promising 100's of clients).

The amount of work I did on the back end to track everything about the users, fingerprint them and send a report about where in the multipage process they were up to and what they had filled in (but not submitted!) was crazy.

My point being, I hated every single moment of that. But I needed to get money for my family.

If I had it had a good offer that required spamming forums and bypassing bot catchers, I would have done that too.

Sometimes you are in a position where you have to weigh your family's needs vs the general good.

One last point, or reiteration. I hated every. Single. Moment. And I am ashamed that I was in that position by my own fault (not picking a more secure job). I won't blame anyone else for it and I agree I did a bad thing. But if I was in that situtation again, I would do it again.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#44

Post by anonymous5133 »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #2

I've always wondered a software simulator wouldn't work? Like a bunch of phone VMs behind a proxy.

Let's just say you're not the first one to think of that "bright" idea. People running on VM and behind a proxy are easy to detect so you don't get paid for it.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#45

Post by weego »

nradov wrote: post #14
wpietri wrote: post #7

There was a reply here, now dead, that I wanted to discuss: "Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy." I'm adamantly opposed to spam, and back in the early days of the web (…

Most of those people are just lying about their circumstances to elicit sympathy. They're no different than any other con artist.

And yet we praise the engineers and architects of mass digital surveillance under the guise of social media as the elite of the tech industry

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#46

Post by baxtr »

Trias11 wrote: post #3

That's how they perpetuate "Made in China"===(Fake|Crap) I was wondering why is obscure, crappy apps in apple store get so many positive reviews. Apple/AMZN need to up their game in reviews/ratings domains.

That’s what you read into it. I thought: what a clever bunch! It’s all in your head

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#47

Post by toxik »

pjc50 wrote: post #39
playbigwin wrote: post #37

[flagged]

The alternative might have been trying to "contain" China like Iran. Not cooperating with China does not make China go away.

Little trading with China would have slowed their development down enough that it would have been more difficult to control the population. The Tiananmen protests and subsequent government-approved slaughter in 1989 would have been a lot harder to ignore if things weren’t going so well.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#48

Post by VvR-Ox »

wpietri wrote: post #7

There was a reply here, now dead, that I wanted to discuss: "Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy." I'm adamantly opposed to spam, and back in the early days of the web (…

TLDR; This is how our system works

Good analysis - it's all just about money (which means existence).

Too bad many people don't want to see that and still believe in "the american dream" and other fairy tales so they can keep up serving for these few parasites until they die.

That's why I totally understand a lot of criminals (doing stuff that doesn't really harm others like shoplifting or selling drugs that aren't killing people) - they just try to survive.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#49

Post by trevyn »

marak830 wrote: post #43
wpietri wrote: post #7

There was a reply here, now dead, that I wanted to discuss: "Hey man, I'm just trying to feed my family. I have kids so that means I can behave however I want so long as it benefits my kids. And rather than trust some reviews on a platform anyone can sign up for, how about you do some reading on the app developer and their ToS and Privacy Policy." I'm adamantly opposed to spam, and back in the early days of the web (…

Just before my son was born, I was struggling to find a stable job. So I worked on online web dev jobs for some seriously shady characters. I made between 10 and 15 sites that they would buy databases and mass mail users in various industries to try and get them to sign up for really shitty programs. (One for example was a roofing company promising 100's of clients). The amount of work I did on the back end to track…

I'm curious, how deeply did you investigate social services (food banks, shelters, etc.) available in your area?

This is not an accusation — I don't claim to know your individual situation. Yet I suspect that in many cases where people say "I'm doing this to feed my family", there is actually a larger component of preserving pride and reluctance to ask for help.

The irony is that this is part of what dehumanizes the system and perpetuates the cycle.

Re: Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

#50

Post by distant_hat »

trevyn wrote: post #49
marak830 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just before my son was born, I was struggling to find a stable job. So I worked on online web dev jobs for some seriously shady characters. I made between 10 and 15 sites that they would buy databases and mass mail users in various industries to try and get them to sign up for really shitty programs. (One for example was a roofing company promising 100's of clients). The amount of work I did on the back end to track…

I'm curious, how deeply did you investigate social services (food banks, shelters, etc.) available in your area? This is not an accusation — I don't claim to know your individual situation. Yet I suspect that in many cases where people say "I'm doing this to feed my family", there is actually a larger component of preserving pride and reluctance to ask for help. The irony is that this is part of what dehumanizes the…

If you are not in the first world, those services are nonexistent.
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