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Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

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Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#91

Post by ClumsyPilot »

ljm wrote: post #71
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It must be the full document plaintext and date signed with your private key and should be verifiable with your public key by a court before a claim is even approachable. This is called a notary public. Its a routine requirement with immigration documents. .They can also certify copies as true. In UK for sone reason it costs over £100, and noone uses them, but in eastern europe its common and notarising documents i…

Can’t speak for every country in Europe but once you get a national ID or residence permit in some of them then the card will contain a chip with a certificate that can be used for public key crypto. If you need to sign something then you sign it with your ID. Same ID can get you into your accounts online. No different to Estonia’s digital ID scheme a decade ago.

> once you get a national ID or residence permit in some of them then the card will contain a chip with a certificate that can be used for public key crypto

H.Can you use them at home to sign lime a rent agreeement or something? What equipment do you use them with?

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#92

Post by inglor_cz »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #55
baz00 wrote: post #2

Someone did this recently to me i.e. showed me something I'd signed which I didn't. Fortunately this lead to their demise as I am friends with their manager which was unknown by the party in question. Historically I tend to try something on with employment contracts too - I return an unsigned copy to the company. Only 1 out of 6 companies I worked for didn't just stick it in a filing cabinet and forget about it. Ulti…

> It must be the full document plaintext and date signed with your private key and should be verifiable with your public key by a court before a claim is even approachable. This is called a notary public. Its a routine requirement with immigration documents. .They can also certify copies as true. In UK for sone reason it costs over £100, and noone uses them, but in eastern europe its common and notarising documents i…

Yeah, in Czechia you pay approx. 1,5 eur for a verified signature. Your identity is verified against your national ID or passport. Every post office, every notary and every barrister can do that.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#93

Post by retrac »

asnyder wrote: post #22
keltex wrote: post #19

Reminds me of a SPAM email we get quite frequently, the "World Company Register". The attached PDF reads, "To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion." Then at the bottom in tiny type it says that you've agreed to a 3 year insertion at 995 Euro per year. I can see small businesses easily falling for this.

Still surprises me that tactics like these are legal. There shouldn't be a concept of fine print... The whole notion is ripe for abuse. Same with elder scams. Too many potential avenues for scams via contracts.

It's probably not a valid contract, assuming a fair hearing. The scammers would not sue the victim here, most likely. They get their money from these schemes purely through fear and anxiety and vague legal threats. A simple, pay us what we tricked you into signing or we'll sue you, often gets an impaired or naive victim to pay up even though they owe nothing legally or morally and the threat is empty.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#94

Post by arcbyte »

ghaff wrote: post #62
arcbyte wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The signature is just a physical manifesting of assent. It's presence is indicative that you've agreed to what you're signing. Signature comparison is a line of defense. More broadly, There's a whole set of practices that assume a relationship. You scoff at signatures, but in their heyday, my local banker knew me and knew my signature and he could spot a general forgery or even unusual patterns. Every economic transa…

Of course, even in large cities, IDs are not required for voting in many states. As you probably know, it's a very contentious topic.

Thats poor phrasing on my part. Voters dont generally need IDs in the US. I meant "need" in the sense that IDs aren't even a desired issue in the political process.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#95

Post by thayne »

Mandatum wrote: post #9
jacquesm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone forged my signature on docusign on a pretty official document and I raked them over the coals for it. Highly annoying these services, they don't do even the most basic verification that the person signing really is the person that should be signing.

They do. You just won’t pay for it. When you sign a mortgage or take out a loan and it’s all online, lenders will pay someone to come to your house, take a photo of you, verify it, and then video tape you signing. It’s just not convenient.

The solution is state-backed asymmetric cryptography, ideally with the private key on a hardware token that is protected by a pin. There would need to be a process for replacing a lost or stolen key, but that process could require physical presence.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#97

Post by sidewndr46 »

readams wrote: post #38
keltex wrote: post #19

Reminds me of a SPAM email we get quite frequently, the "World Company Register". The attached PDF reads, "To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form. Updating is free of charge. Only sign if you want to place an insertion." Then at the bottom in tiny type it says that you've agreed to a 3 year insertion at 995 Euro per year. I can see small businesses easily falling for this.

If you register a trademark, you'll get multiple fake bills in the physical mail for hundreds of dollars to similarly record the trademark in various "registers." The fine print says it's not a bill but a solicitation, but of course it's just a scam in reality.

I get these even though I have never registered a trademark or company at my address

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#98

Post by ghaff »

DarkmSparks wrote: post #58

Putting aside any ethics questions. Sounds like the guys on their way to court did actually sign the contracts. Not sure there is much get out clause for them tbh, Im not aware of any court anywhere that will take "didnt read the contract" as a get out of jail free card. Always read the contract kids.

And the kids should floss their teeth daily too.

I mean, at one level, yes?

But if someone seemingly legit asks me to appear on a webinar--I'd be asking more questions about traveling to an event--I'm pretty much going to say yes. And if they send over some apparently routine paperwork including publicity rights and so forth, it's realistically only getting a quick skim.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#99

Post by indymike »

ghaff wrote: post #32
8organicbits wrote: post #10

> until recently the online tool who.is indicated that the [Polish arbitration court, Pan-Europejski-Sąd-Arbitrażowy] PESA website was set up by Villa Europa itself in September 2021 Quite alarming. Is it normal to charge speakers such high fees? I remember some conferences giving free admission to speakers as encouragement.

The norm at tech conferences is to waive conference fees. For certain types of speakers (industry analysts, headliners for keynotes, other people that conferences want that can't afford to pay their own way), it's normal to cover some expenses and pay them to a greater or lesser degree. I have never in decades literally paid to speak at a conference. (Sponsoring companies may of course have a sponsor package that inc…

> But directly paying to be a speaker? Absolutely not normal.

The only time it's normal to pay to speak is when you are sponsoring an event.

Re: Scientists hit with massive bills after speaking at COVID-19 ‘webinars’

#100

Post by johngladtj »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #56
pas wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do they even have jurisdiction? have the speakers agreed to arbitration? otherwise it's just more spam. edit: ah, okay, so they signed a "license agreement", which is basically a scam. welp.

They likely put a binding arbitration clause into the initial contract for speaking.

Why would a contract that is in dispute change the jurisdiction?

The point is that the contract is invalid, so it makes no sense that it would be valid for jurisdiction

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