The Pulitzer prize-winning news nonprofit Propublica looks at Arise Virtual Solutions, part of the secretive world of work-at-home customer service companies that help large corporations shed costs at the expense of workers. And thanks to the pandemic, “business is booming.” Arise lines up customer service agents who work from home. It then sells this network of agents to blue-chip corporations. Arise…
Tag: eBay
Amazon Deletes 20,000 Reviews After Evidence of Profits for Posts
Amazon has deleted approximately 20,000 product reviews, written by seven of its top 10 UK reviewers, following a Financial Times investigation (Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source) into suspicious activity. From a report: The FT found evidence the users were profiting from posting thousands of five-star ratings. Those who had their reviews deleted included Justin Fryer, the number…
Former IT Director Gets Jail Time For Selling Government’s Cisco Gear On eBay
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: A South Carolina man was sentenced this week to two years in federal prison for taking government-owned networking equipment and selling it on eBay. The man, Terry Shawn Petrill, 48, of Myrtle Beach, worked as the IT Security Director for Horry County in South Carolina, the Department of Justice said in a press…
Cringely Predicts the U.S. Can’t Stop WeChat
An anonymous reader quotes long-time technology pundit Robert Cringely:
Forty-five days from now, we’re told, President Trump will shut down TikTok and WeChat. TikTok, maybe, but WeChat? Impossible… Trump has a chance of taking down TikTok, the short form video sharing site, because that service is dependent on advertising. He can force the app out of U.S. app stores (though not out…
Right to Repair Advocates Accuse Medical Device Manufacturers of Profiteering
A new Motherboard article interviews William, a ventilator refurbisher who’s repaired at least 70 broken ventilators that he’s bought on eBay and from other secondhand websites, then sold to U.S. hospitals and governments to help handle a spike in COVID-19 patients. He’s part of a grey-market supply chain that’s “essentially identical to one used by farmers to repair John Deere tractors…
7th Former eBay Employee Charged In Cyberstalking Campaign Targeting Natick Couple
A seventh former eBay employee is now facing federal charges in connection with a cyberstalking campaign that allegedly targeted a Natick couple who wrote critical content about the company in its newsletter. From a report: Philip Cooke, 55, of San Jose, Calif. is charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Cooke, who was a former Santa…
Body Cam with Military Police Footage Sold on Ebay
“A security researcher was able to access files on a Axon body-worn camera he purchased from eBay that had video files of Fort Huachuca Military Police officers conducting investigations and filling out paperwork,” reports the Arizona Mirror: The files were able to be extracted after the researcher, who goes by KF on Twitter, was able to remove a microSD card from…
Six Former eBay Employees Charged in Federal Cyberstalking Case Targeting Natick Couple
Six eBay employees including a former police captain in California last year engaged in a relentless campaign of harassment and cyberstalking of a Natick couple that published a newsletter critical of the online retailer, sending items including fly larvae, live spiders, and a bloody pig mask to their home and travelling to Massachusetts to conduct surveillance of the victims in an…
eBay Port Scans Visitors’ Computers For Remote Access Programs
AmiMoJo shares a report: When visiting the eBay.com site, a script will run that performs a local port scan of your computer to detect remote support and remote access applications. Many of these ports are related to remote access/remote support tools such as the Windows Remote Desktop, VNC, TeamViewer, Ammy Admin, and more. After learning about this, BleepingComputer conducted a test…
Will Comic Books Survive Coronavirus?
As Marvel cuts staff and publishers stop selling new titles, artists, shop owners and writers worry for the future of an industry worth billions. From a report: There are no new comic books. Steve Geppi, head of Diamond Comic Distributors, which distributes nearly every comic sold in the anglophone world (or used to), announced this on 23 March, though senior industry…