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I Worked for a Criminal Organization

openmonstervision.github.io

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Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#51

Post by samplatt »

bArray wrote: post #50
samplatt wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of non-regular-maintenance jobs are easy & quick to do but break the law - for example, deleting the catalytic converter or EGR from the exhaust system will give your engine better performance and economy, but is illegal since it increases emissions. Lots of places will do it anyway on a cash job if they think they can get away with it, because it's relatively easy money. A shop replaced my failed catalytic con…

> A shop replaced my failed catalytic converter ($1200+ > replacement) with a straight pipe ($20 pipe and $200 of > time) many years ago because they (correctly) assessed me > to be a broke-ass student who wouldn't tell on them. The mechanic may have even made even more money by scrapping your catalytic converter. In the UK, swapping the exhaust out for a straight pipe is a common (illegal) modification for greater p…

>The mechanic may have even made even more money by scrapping your catalytic converter.

Oh, certainly. Not to mention that removing it would have been a larger & more difficult job, which I'd have to pay for... OR they can get less money but it's (very) easy money.

>completely removing the air-filter (dangerous)

Good god... Who the hell does that? What ricer would willingly risk killing their motor from eating some leaves (or a piece of gravel!) for a minuscule performance increase? The risk:reward scale there is just bananas.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#52

Post by saber6 »

ikeboy wrote: post #21
saber6 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] as far as I can tell. It appears the law in this case feels differently. The owners claimed under legal penalty that they had certain assets (paying customers, needs for IP addressing, etc). These statements appear to have been completely false. Thus, the trial. And yes, lying to ARIN (or any RIR) about your customer base (need for IPv4 addressing) is just plain crappy. IPv4 addressing is a common resource -…

No, they were not charged for any of the things claimed to be crimes in the article. The trial is about different alleged wrongdoings than OP is going on about.

You sound extremely defensive with regard to this article — to the point that I am speculating whether or not you have vested interest in shooting down legitimate commentary.

You have responded to multiple comments with baseless FUD-like claims.

To which I contend.....

I smell Astro-turf!!!

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#53

Post by rblatz »

Koremat6666 wrote: post #15

May be I missed it but can someone tell me what was the crime the company was committing ? Almost any company will have defensive strategies such as stalling LEOs and Warrants in whatever way they can. A lot of this is not really "crime" as in kidnapping people or shooting people dead in some alley. Is having shell companies a crime ? I know a ton of bay area "startups" than engage in these sort of tricks to maximize…

I read a few other posts on the authors blog and I think overthinking is a common issue for them.

The strangest one was they flew in for an interview the night before, got settled in at 11pm and decided not to sleep because they had to check out at 9am.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#54

Post by wpietri »

Karishma1234fff wrote: post #44
Spooky23 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fraud. You didn’t miss it. Everything after that first question were excuses for why it’s ok to break the law.

Which law is being broken? Also (in my personal opinion) criminality should be obvious to a general person, some kind of complex technical illegality may not make the whole company a "criminal organization". A lot of reputed companies like Google get fined on regular basis world over does not make them criminal organizations. A lot of companies would also willingly break the law depending on the risk tolerance they h…

> criminality should be obvious to a general person

This standard would work for about 5 minutes before a criminal complicated things enough that their crime was no longer obviously wrong.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#55

Post by blincoln »

ikeboy wrote: post #4

> They insisted I never talk to any LEO Nothing wrong with this ... >PTR records, Enabling Spam Doesn't say why that's illegal. At best it says they had customers that broke the law. >Often both the CEO and Vice President would talk openly about how one of our clients was violating the TOS of several companies. Not criminal even for the client, at least assuming the HiQ v Linkedin case is upheld. And not illegal for…

>> They insisted I never talk to any LEO

> Nothing wrong with this ...

Depending on where they're located, failure to report certain types of crime to law enforcement may itself be a crime.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#56

Post by kylehotchkiss »

samplatt wrote: post #51
bArray wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A shop replaced my failed catalytic converter ($1200+ > replacement) with a straight pipe ($20 pipe and $200 of > time) many years ago because they (correctly) assessed me > to be a broke-ass student who wouldn't tell on them. The mechanic may have even made even more money by scrapping your catalytic converter. In the UK, swapping the exhaust out for a straight pipe is a common (illegal) modification for greater p…

>The mechanic may have even made even more money by scrapping your catalytic converter. Oh, certainly. Not to mention that removing it would have been a larger & more difficult job, which I'd have to pay for... OR they can get less money but it's (very) easy money. >completely removing the air-filter (dangerous) Good god... Who the hell does that? What ricer would willingly risk killing their motor from eating some l…

The answer is: every old Japanese car with their hood open on a Friday evening at sheetz.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#57

Post by hrktb »

blincoln wrote: post #55
ikeboy wrote: post #4

> They insisted I never talk to any LEO Nothing wrong with this ... >PTR records, Enabling Spam Doesn't say why that's illegal. At best it says they had customers that broke the law. >Often both the CEO and Vice President would talk openly about how one of our clients was violating the TOS of several companies. Not criminal even for the client, at least assuming the HiQ v Linkedin case is upheld. And not illegal for…

>> They insisted I never talk to any LEO > Nothing wrong with this ... Depending on where they're located, failure to report certain types of crime to law enforcement may itself be a crime.

Reporting the issues to the legal department, which then deals with it could be a ways around this.

For blatant issues (i.e. there's a dead body) you'd still be expected to act on your own, but on any greyer area you'd be covered.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#58

Post by dannyw »

blincoln wrote: post #55
ikeboy wrote: post #4

> They insisted I never talk to any LEO Nothing wrong with this ... >PTR records, Enabling Spam Doesn't say why that's illegal. At best it says they had customers that broke the law. >Often both the CEO and Vice President would talk openly about how one of our clients was violating the TOS of several companies. Not criminal even for the client, at least assuming the HiQ v Linkedin case is upheld. And not illegal for…

>> They insisted I never talk to any LEO > Nothing wrong with this ... Depending on where they're located, failure to report certain types of crime to law enforcement may itself be a crime.

In many, if not most companies, taking legal matters into your own hands without involving your company’s legal team will surely get you reprimanded if not fired.

Just like how you would get fired if you sent out a legal demand letter to another company without legal being in the loop. Law enforcement is no different: they are not your friend.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#59

Post by vl »

gruez wrote: post #39
hackermailman wrote: post #13

Not uncommon in some cities in Canada to find out you're working for a criminal outfit if writing point of sale/restaurant software where they want you to produce one receipt for the customer and a different one for the restaurant or salon or shady car mechanic that then pockets the unreported tax aka a 'zapper'. Profitek was busted once, InfoSpec Systems, zappers are in high demand

>where they want you to produce one receipt for the customer and a different one for the restaurant or salon or shady car mechanic that then pockets the unreported tax aka a 'zapper'. Isn't this super easy to discover if you use any sort of electronic payment? Salons and restaurants might be cash based, but who pays their mechanic in cash?

But how exactly are you going to discover it? If transaction is deleted from the local log, you need to subpoena all payment processors and cross-reference, which takes non-trivial amount of effort.

I new a guy who was developing hacked firmware for POSes in the 90ies. One of the cool features he had is that at the end of the day the owner could unlock secret mode, enter amount of sales he wanted, and POS would create entire fake log spaced through the day and print it on tape, update electronic counters and then lock, and again behave like normal terminal ready for inspection.

Re: I Worked for a Criminal Organization

#60

Post by bArray »

samplatt wrote: post #51
bArray wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A shop replaced my failed catalytic converter ($1200+ > replacement) with a straight pipe ($20 pipe and $200 of > time) many years ago because they (correctly) assessed me > to be a broke-ass student who wouldn't tell on them. The mechanic may have even made even more money by scrapping your catalytic converter. In the UK, swapping the exhaust out for a straight pipe is a common (illegal) modification for greater p…

>The mechanic may have even made even more money by scrapping your catalytic converter. Oh, certainly. Not to mention that removing it would have been a larger & more difficult job, which I'd have to pay for... OR they can get less money but it's (very) easy money. >completely removing the air-filter (dangerous) Good god... Who the hell does that? What ricer would willingly risk killing their motor from eating some l…

> Good god... Who the hell does that? What ricer would

> willingly risk killing their motor from eating some leaves

> (or a piece of gravel!) for a minuscule performance

> increase? The risk:reward scale there is just bananas.

A lot of people do it. In the UK you've also got tonnes of rain regularly too, meaning all sorts of crap is sprayed into the engine bay area, both dry and wet.

The performance gain is surprisingly high given how simple the action is, the throttle becomes more responsive and you can audibly hear the engine taking gulps of air. Of course that comes with the associated risk. If you're a student with a £300 car and you want to pretend it's a race car, little tricks like this cost nothing for a little speed boost.

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