31–40 of 40 posts
If someone's life is so desperate that doing this is worth the time investment, I can't begrudge them it. Likewise with those poor souls who survive and are thankful to eat rotting refuse from dumpsters. Perhaps the income will help them lift themselves up to the point they can pursue a more satisfying life.
I feel like the best strategy to combat this would be to create lightweight virtualization and automation tools that could be easily deployed by anyone, thereby destroying any company that comes up with these stupid strategies. Just burn the whole system down to the ground, salt the earth, and leave it to be a weird blip in internet history. EDIT: I'm a guy who builds thing and occasionally takes a chance at trying t…
Trust me, people have been trying to cheat the system with stuff like what you are saying. The advertising companies know how to detect that stuff quickly and ban the abusers.
this assumes it is in their best interest to do so..
An 'acceptable level' of ad fraud could conceivably require a bigger spend on the part of the customer to reach the same audience, and therefore bigger revenues/profits to the ad network
Anyone who helps to wreck the advertising economy is doing a valuable public service.
wreck? Such scams is effectively similar to shoplifting, CC fraud or just an additional tax/tariff - i.e. it increases the friction and expenses in the system and the most of the burden to cover it ultimately falls upon the weakest participant in the system - usually the consumer.
I used to do this awhile back and yes it is true. You could make around $1,000-$2,000 per month in gift cards doing it with maybe 50-70 phones. Most apps being used were 100% passive. The only thing you needed to do was restart the phone every 24 hours. The apps would run and show ads to you and just loop over and over. So what about electricity costs? for running 70 phones 24/7 in a month, that was about $10 more in…
You have my support for bleeding advertisers (and paying taxes ;) ) but I do want to point out one thing which is sometimes overlooked: > some I think were reported stolen as well If true, that incentivises phone theft. The only reason people steal phones is because there's a market. Every purchase of a stolen good directly incentivises that thief to steal once more. It's a very direct link. If you've ever had anythi…
From what I can tell, the protections put on newer phones by the vendors has massively crushed the stolen phone market. Modern phones are locked to a google or apple account and basically only usable as a) parts for repair or b) if you can phish the password from the original owner, you can unlock them.
Basically, discouraging people from buying used phones, lest they be stolen, is a way less effective mechanism for reducing theft than this kind of structural change.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have my support for bleeding advertisers (and paying taxes ;) ) but I do want to point out one thing which is sometimes overlooked: > some I think were reported stolen as well If true, that incentivises phone theft. The only reason people steal phones is because there's a market. Every purchase of a stolen good directly incentivises that thief to steal once more. It's a very direct link. If you've ever had anythi…
> The only reason people steal phones is because there's a market. From what I can tell, the protections put on newer phones by the vendors has massively crushed the stolen phone market. Modern phones are locked to a google or apple account and basically only usable as a) parts for repair or b) if you can phish the password from the original owner, you can unlock them. Basically, discouraging people from buying used…
This is straight out of 'Armageddon: The Musical' by Robert Rankin. "On this particular morning, Rex sat in his homemade armchair, facing the flickering TV screen. His was the classic seated posture of the Active Viewer. Relaxed yet attentive, right thumb and forefinger about the remote controller, expression alert, eyes wide. But here all similarities ended. Rex Mundi was fast asleep. His old Uncle Tony had taught h…
This is straight out of 'Armageddon: The Musical' by Robert Rankin. "On this particular morning, Rex sat in his homemade armchair, facing the flickering TV screen. His was the classic seated posture of the Active Viewer. Relaxed yet attentive, right thumb and forefinger about the remote controller, expression alert, eyes wide. But here all similarities ended. Rex Mundi was fast asleep. His old Uncle Tony had taught h…
Man I love Robert Rankin. I read the Brentford Triangle "trilogy" when I was in college in the 80's. I used to laugh almost uncontrollably on the bus when reading his books which prompted some funny looks from other passengers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Man I love Robert Rankin. I read the Brentford Triangle "trilogy" when I was in college in the 80's. I used to laugh almost uncontrollably on the bus when reading his books which prompted some funny looks from other passengers.
I think my favourite is still 'The Book Of Ultimate Truths'.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have my support for bleeding advertisers (and paying taxes ;) ) but I do want to point out one thing which is sometimes overlooked: > some I think were reported stolen as well If true, that incentivises phone theft. The only reason people steal phones is because there's a market. Every purchase of a stolen good directly incentivises that thief to steal once more. It's a very direct link. If you've ever had anythi…
> The only reason people steal phones is because there's a market. From what I can tell, the protections put on newer phones by the vendors has massively crushed the stolen phone market. Modern phones are locked to a google or apple account and basically only usable as a) parts for repair or b) if you can phish the password from the original owner, you can unlock them. Basically, discouraging people from buying used…
I used to do this awhile back and yes it is true. You could make around $1,000-$2,000 per month in gift cards doing it with maybe 50-70 phones. Most apps being used were 100% passive. The only thing you needed to do was restart the phone every 24 hours. The apps would run and show ads to you and just loop over and over. So what about electricity costs? for running 70 phones 24/7 in a month, that was about $10 more in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzrDT50_IK8 Sums up the end of that era, same chap.