Hacker Read top | best | new | newcomments | leaders | about | bookmarklet login

He sent me some "sources" in a private google drive link that was access restricted and required me to enter email address to request access -- which I wasn't going to do, as said personal also makes his living doing multilevel marketing and as a "life coach"; not a contact list I have any desire to be on.

And, yeah, seems legit, right?



sort by: page size:

Can't tell if this is legitimate or not... but either way I wouldn't submit anything - it's probably just a ploy so that your email is added to his database...

it seemed to be part of some larger 'communication and marketing' package he was subscribed to. I was getting monthly email updates, etc - ghostwritten by someone else. It wasn't bad, but video responses to everything was annoying. It felt like he was intentionally trying to hide something.

(I asked him to email me, he did, now I've removed the address for spam reasons.)

He used a personal email address in an old forum post when trying to recruit help building a censorship proof market place.

The email was coming from his email address, using his business’s name, and advertising his business

Agreed, the first thing I thought was 'Where did he get a list of 30,000 email addresses?' Buying lists is technically illegal in the US. Sure, the chances of you being hauled in are slim to none, but it's still slimy as hell.

This guy built a side hustle nefariously.


I'm flagging GP for being spam. The personal story is probably made up.

He has john.w.smith and is repeatedly typing in john.smith, and also hands it out to humans who then want to contact me about his things.

Apparently for many sites, user retention & money are more important than verifying an email address up front. He visits the scummiest betting and dating sites, so I'm not very surprised.


>"After you pay $10, I'll email you to start the conversation. You then share whatever it is you're looking for feedback on, and I'll tell you exactly how I feel about it. Most submissions are handled within a few hours, but some might take up to a few days. All submissions are completely private." //

Assuming he is an honest actor in this process he can't share your submission with anyone as then they wouldn't be private. It is specified that it is he, Jordan, who will email you, he will say how he feels.

It could have been set up differently to allow for scaling but part of the drawn I think is that it's a real, named and identifiable, individual that you are contacting.

Of course "Jordan" could be a made up person and this could be a way to gather information for social manipulation or straight-out blackmail, but you know ...


No - he included a different email address in the book to gather feedback from readers. This email address was then linked to his personal Google accounts (how, is not described - but I bet Krebs On Security would know how).

The author of this article came across as a major creep to me. They guy checks emails from 6 months ago and keeps going back to her blog to verify stuff....WTF? I'd be more concerned about this guy than her silly affiliate links.

I also want to add that he emailed me under false pretences. He conjured up an imaginary world in which we were close friends and I cared about what he did at the hackathon and what he’s doing afterwards (I’ve never met the guy). He undoubtedly wanted me to believe that he handwrote this email for me alone when its a copy-paste marketing email that he’d reused many times.

Not only is it dishonest and wastes my time, the execution is so bad I feel embarrassed for the guy (really? You “arrived” at a virtual hackathon?)

Edit: Oh my god and I almost forgot. He sent this to me at 3:21 AM!


I doubt he viewed my page (I was a random customer from years ago), but the fact that he might have connected his e-mail account sounds plausible.

Here is the full text of the email: https://community.expensify.com/discussion/7632/protect-demo...

It looks like he used his access to millions of customer emails to spam them with his political views.

> I know you don’t want to hear this from me. And I guarantee I don’t want to say it.

This whole thing just reeks of narcissism and delusion. And that's saying something, since I mostly agree with him otherwise. I can't imagine this did anything but piss off a lot of people.


Thanks for the link! I don't know, he asked for information initially, I sent him a reply almost immediately and then he just never replied. I don't know if my messages end up in spam, it doesn't seem very likely that he's getting them and just ignoring me..

He seems to have posted a response claiming it wasn't him who sent the emails: https://blog.pingpad.net/what-happened-5675fd00e744

How do we know this is actually his site, and not someone collecting emails for nefarious purposes?

I sent you an email to your inbox mentioned in your user profile. Someone tried to sell me that website as well and I did some research about him (got his skype, his email, and even his address ).

I hadn't considered that; it seems plausible.

It seems like he was just trolling more than anything else. I'd love to read the replies he references in his email!

next

Legal | privacy