Prompt Cast
Scam websites prey on vulnerable people in New York City taxis
TLDR Scam websites like yellowcabnyc.com and PetAmberAlert.com target vulnerable people who have lost items in taxis, charging them $47 to file a report but providing no actual help in retrieving their lost items. Despite efforts to shut them down, these websites continue to operate and make significant profits.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
A woman named Liz lost her camera in a cab in New York City and tried to file a report on a website called yellowcabnyc.com to get it back.
04:07
A website called yellowcabnyc.com charges $47 to file a report for lost items, but it is not affiliated with the Taxi and Limousine Commission and does not actually help people retrieve their lost items.
08:03
A website called yellowcabnyc.com targets vulnerable people who have lost items in taxis and charges them $47 to file a report, but does not actually help them retrieve their lost items, and despite the city's efforts to shut it down, it continues to operate and make a significant amount of money.
11:45
PetAmberAlert.com is another website owned by Mark Jakubecek that appears to be a scam, and when confronted about it, he refuses to meet in person and instead asks for questions to be emailed to him.
16:21
Mark's website, which is a scam, dropped the price of its services after being contacted by the reporters, indicating that he was panicking and trying to mitigate the negative attention.
20:06
The speaker mistakenly called a number he thought was Delta Airlines to change his flight, but it turned out to be a scam company posing as Delta, and after a heated phone call, the scammers changed their tune when they found out he was a journalist.
24:01
Google does police the ads that appear in search results, but it is difficult to determine where the sites that scam people fall on the scale of policy violations, as Google does not provide clear explanations.
28:08
Google does not provide clear explanations for why certain sites that scam people are allowed to advertise, and it is difficult to determine where these sites fall on the scale of policy violations.
32:07
The hosts ask listeners to share any experiences they have had with scams on Google ads.
Categories:
Technology
Society & Culture
