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At last,
the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook
are revealed for all to see!
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It has become blatantly obvious that the mainstream media has fallen out of
love with the Internet and all things "dot-com."
Two Net-related issues that have the potential to affect thousands of NZers
appear to have been all but totally ignored by TV and some of the major daily
newspapers.
I refer to the Telecom DSL billing scam and the domain name protection racket
I reported on Friday.
Now maybe I've been working in my shed too long, but I've heard nary a word
from the mainstream media about these two cases where people stand to get their
wallets emptied by the unscrupulous business activities of Net-related
businesses.
Checking the news websites of INL, The NZ Herald and OneNews revealed no
sign of any general public warning about the ING scam.
Okay, so I've done my best to publicise the risks, and IDG have also spread
the word -- but neither Aardvark nor IDG reach anywhere near the number of people
that the NZ Herald, or TV news does. And remember that it's the very
Net-neophytes who are unlikely to read industry-specific applications who
are most likely to get caught by these schemes.
Internet NZ (formerly ISOCNZ) has complained to the Commerce Commission,
requesting an investigation into the activities of
ING and
they issued a press release to this effect -- but why has it been ignored
by the media?
Come on InternetNZ -- give your PR company a rocket. One of the biggest
failings of ISOCNZ was its inability to reach the media and maintain a
(favourable) public profile. Hell if I can get my ugly face on TV just
because I build jet engines, I'm sure a decent PR company ought to be able
to do more than mail, fax and email out a press release.
The Employers and Manufacturers Association also issued a
press
release that was published by
NewsRoom -- but I'm not
sure that it wasn't without errors.
"The Melbourne operation wants $250 to register the
new suffixes though they can be obtained locally for $74" ?
The level of confusion shown by the EMA in their press release is typical
of that which has allowed these Aussies to try and trick local nameholders
into parting with A$250, and potentially receiving absolutely nothing in
return.
I checked the
Consumers' Institute
website for any warnings as to the ING scam -- not a sausage.
Nothing on the Commerce Commission
website either.
Given the slow pace at which the media and authorities have responded to the
ING racket, it's clear that their offer of a 10% discount for faxing your
order (and credit-card details) back within 48 hours was driven by an awareness
that they'd have a few days before the general public became "informed"
consumers.
Surprisingly enough though -- news of the guilty verdict handed down
in the defamation case brought by Patrick O'Brien against Alan Brown made
the news within hours of it being announced.
(Stuff,
NZ Herald)
Nice to see the media has its priorities sorted -- right?
If anyone has been duped by the Aussie scheme, or heard of others who have,
please drop me a line -- it would be nice to know
if there are victims.
Save The Aardvark Fund
Yes, I have had several donations to the Aardvark fund and I thank those
who put their money where their mouse is :-)
If guilt is gnawing away inside you then there's still time to donate.
Just drop by and
hand over your loot.
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