The NY Times published an article a few days ago about an online retailer (run by Vitaly Borker a.k.a. Tony Russo, a.k.a Stanley Bolts) who intentionally verbally abuses, threatens sexual assault and violence, e-stalks, and commits identity fraud against many of his customers all in a grand scheme to get SEO links from irate customers on review websites.
And it works, to a certain extent, for him, so it’s understandable to garner from this chilling anxieties about online shopping. But there is one simple consumer tip than can save you a whole lot of trouble and allow you to click “add-to-cart” without trembling in fear: just do a search for the company’s website that you’re about to buy from and read the reviews. Anyone who even searches for DecoreMyEyes.com and looks at even a handful of reviews will know what they’re in for, and these reviews aren’t run-of-the-mill delays in shipping or even sub-par merchandise. It’s much worse than that.
Something interesting that Times failed to pick up on, and which Borker failed to mention, is that DecoreMyEyes.com (which doesn’t really get that much traffic actually) has several scam websites, all using the same copywriting. That’s the way these things work, if one site gets shut down, business-as-usual is just set up on another site (or a dozen).
Eyeweartown.com
BuyEyeGlasses.com
EyeWearUS.com
GlassesExpo.com
The Salty Droid sniffed these out for searching for a particular gem of a sentence found on DecoreMyEyes.com: “Sometimes its hard to shop on the internet for items.” It’s strange that new copy wouldn’t be written for each site, but that would require more civil typing on the keyboard and less time “threatening to commit an act of sexual violence too graphic to describe in a newspaper.” It’s all about priorities.
The tales found in the Times article and on the scores of website review sites are chilling (it turns out if you send your eyeglasses to be repaired, you won’t be getting them back, and if you ask for them back you will be called stupid and told “Shit happens, just look at 9/11”), but there are far worse things in the world to channel all your Worry and Fear into. Just do a little digging before you order from an online shop (and do even more before you send off anything you value monetarily or sentimentally to be handled by unknown hands.) Excessive, and in the case of decormyeyes.com, graphic negative reviews should steer you clear of having to endure year long battles with an abusive asshole over a pair of knockoff sunglasses and $400. And if you don’t find anything at all, it might be best to stay away as well.
From the article, and common sense, it seems like although the customers are suffering quite a bit, Borker is the one who’s really paying the price for all this damage. He can’t be leading a very happy life if the majority of his time is spent yelling at strangers and worrying about whether or not their complaint won’t be rescinded from the credit card company, which would mean he’d lose revenue and have to find another person willing to set up another account for him. The New York Times piece also illustrates that in the end he’s really not raking in that much dough. Even though it’s scummy and sounds easy, it seems like this guy is putting waaaay too much effort and blood-pressure into running a not-that-lucrative scam.
Google was called into question for being a party to helping this guy with his search engine ranking, because, yes, it sucks that these websites are ranking so highly on keywords, but I think real problems could arise if Google started making real judgment calls on websites. It’s better to remain neutral.
