My wife and I enjoy watching The Good Guys on Fox. I got sucked in by Tom Hank’s son, Colin’s, amazing likeness to his dad. However, the real star of the show is Bradley Whitford. His character, Dan Stark, is a throwback from the 70’s. It’s not likely to win many awards as the plot each week is very much the same, but it’s a good cop show if you keep your expectations in line.
Dan Stark prides himself on “busting punks” – his catch phrase for any criminal, small or large. So when The Digerati Life emailed me a story about a punk that needs busting, I thought, “What would Dan Stark do?” Unfortunately, Dan Stark doesn’t know how to use a computer. This is where I’ll step in and attempt to do a small part in busting a punk… and you can help.
Who is the punk? Well the New York Times wrote about DecorMyEyes and Vitaly Borker. I recommend click on either of those links and read the story. The short version is that this punk sells designer eyeglasses. Sometimes those glasses are counterfeit. Dozens of customers have complained and he responds with threatening emails… emails that border on death threats. Why? Well he realized that when people complain about his business he gets people to link to him. Since Google only cares about publicity, whether it is good bad, he shows up high in the search engine… and more people find his business and end up buying his product.
So how do you bust this punk? I’m trying to call attention to the NY Times article (and I ask you all to spread the word). However, I noticed a couple of tweet from Five Cent Nickel that are worth mentioning:
- If people want to hurt DecorMyEyes they’d search for relevant terms on Google and click the ads leading to the site.
FYI: If you search for ‘lafont glasses’, DecorMyEyes has an ad at the top of the search results. Use that information however you like. ;-)
Update: I’m striking the 2nd point as it seems that DecorMyEyes has pulled their ad.
I hope you’ll join me in helping busting this punk. And in the meantime, here are some personal finance links:
Money Writers:
- Brip Blap asks is working for a salary ““ a bad deal?
- Digerati Life posts want more jobs? Cut the red tape!
- Frugal Dad presents 10 ways to invest $1,000 dollars, without putting a dime in the stock market.
- Generation X Finance shares five great gifts you can make for under $5.
- Million Dollar Journey explains how we paid off our mortgage in 3 years.
- Money Smart Life asks what can you learn about money from a turkey dinner?
- My Dollar Plan presents 10 inexpensive Christmas gifts under $10.
Top PF Posts:
- Free Money Finance and the truth about market timing.
- The Smarter Wallet blogs making gifts for friends & family.
- One Million and Beyond talks about everyday home problems that could be costing you money.
- One Frugal Girl writes holiday budget: yes, no, I don’t think so.
- 20s Money explains job guy vs career guy vs entrepreneur.
- Christian PF shares how to save hundreds of dollars by taking a day off work.
- Saving to Inve$t says hope for the best prepare for the worst – smart money moves.
- Clever Dude on dealing with wasteful, selfish people.
- Debt Maven with musings on my bf/money relationship.
Lazy man – I enjoy your blog and appreciate the article!
My contention is … our own bad habits and financial foolishness are “punks” that cause us more trouble and grief than anyone else ever could.
Let us bust our own personal punks first before we take up our pitch forks and go on our crusade to bust everyone else.
Thanks!
Contrarian,
That’s a smart thought, but I disagree. However, when it comes to people sending life-threatening to others, the philosophy changes. Protecting consumers, physically and financially, is my top-most priority.
When in doubt, I believe in helping others. This is an example of that.
“FYI: If you search for ‘lafont glasses’, DecorMyEyes has an ad at the top of the search results. Use that information however you like. ;-) ”
That’s not the ad that’s showing up for me – people may want to excercise some caution to make sure they are clicking on the right ad.
Grrrr… it seems he pulled his ads. That tells me it is working.
I’ll update the article.
Hey Lazy Man, I haven’t been visiting your site long but I enjoy your link posts am adding you to my Google Reader. I wanted to let you know that I have a blog with some posts that you may find interesting. I recently completed a four part series on investing which probably doesn’t interest you since you are lazy, but I’m sure there are some other things that will!
I’m not a lawyer but it would seem to me that if you sell counterfeit goods and threaten people that it should warrant some sort of criminal charges.
Ok… reading the whole article it sounds like the police in NYC are “building a case”. And he was already sued once for selling counterfeit goods. Hopefully more press will lead to something more happening against him.