Reasons To Hesitate On Zer01's Unlimited Mobile Offer 122
alphadogg writes with an excerpt from Network World that might save you some money: "Imagine downloading a two-hour HD movie in three minutes to your new cell phone, then plugging the phone into your TV to watch the film. Make unlimited phone calls, surf online as much as you like and send unlimited text messaging for $70 a month, without a contract. Sign up to sell the same service to other people and get $10 a month for each person you sell to.
That's what a group of related companies including Zer01 Mobile, Buzzirk, Global Verge and Unified Technologies Group are promoting heavily online and at industry trade shows. The offer is attractive enough to garner coverage in top business and technology publications, at least one positive review from an analyst and even a 'best in show' award from a magazine at the CTIA wireless industry trade show earlier this year. Does it all sound too good to be true? If so, that's because it probably is. What little information is available about the services is technically inconsistent, and doesn't match up with public records."
The laws of physics called (Score:5, Insightful)
They want to speak with someone over at Zer01, something about "exceeding sane limitations of the electromagnetic spectrum".
An HD movie in 3 minutes? Even if they are calling "480p" HD, there is no way in hell that is transfering wirelessly in 3 minutes to a cellular device.
Trying to sign everyone up as a sales associate just proves it is a scam.
Full stop (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA
One key player in the network of companies is Mark Petschel. He's the CEO of Global Verge, the multilevel marketing firm...
Whenever MLM [wikipedia.org] (multi-level-marketing) rears its ugly head, that's a good sign for me to avoid company like the plague.
MLM (Score:5, Insightful)
That makes it multi-level-marketing (read: "legal pyramid scheme"), which should be an instant clue to anyone to avoid it.
Also, reading the article, it's a $70 initial fee to do the MLM part, and $40 monthly fee, which means if you sign up 5 people, it will take 7 months to break even.
You can probably make money faster by picking up loose change.
Re:Full stop (Score:5, Insightful)
Ponzi pyramid peddler (Score:3, Insightful)
It sounds like all this guy does is set up ponzi schemes and then the state shuts him down, the circuit court rules that he must pay fines, but all he does is move on to the next ponzi.
So, where do I sign up and give him my $70?
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:2, Insightful)
something about "exceeding sane limitations of the electromagnetic spectrum".
Actually, it was a prank call. The "electromagnetic spectrum" is not a finite resource. It would be more practical to say "with existing technology and certain economic factors, paying $70 for this is flatly unfeasible."
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:5, Insightful)
8 GB in 180 seconds = 364.09 mbps.
um.... no
It's funny, and a bit disturbing... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder how it works. Is it the charm that sociopaths are known for that allows certain people to do it? Are the rules different in certain areas? Are most of the barriers actually illusory/psychological? Why doesn't an attempt to legally incorporate a new business include a "do any of your officers have a background in crime, particularly white collar crime?" check?
Contempt of Court (Score:2, Insightful)
Just throw the CEO in jail already...
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:4, Insightful)
They are claiming use of the 2100mhz spectrum. Given the spectrum they are claiming to be using, there is no way to use cellular technology (wireless towers, multiple customers handled per tower) to get those types of speeds.
Sure, if they crap all over everyone's licensed EM bands they could maybe pull it off, but even then they would encounter issues with running enough fiber out to every single cell tower to support users on any arbitrary tower pulling down in excess of 200mb/s, assuming a well compressed, somewhat short, 5GB HD movie.
It is just not possible with using a cellular network laid out how we presently do it. Even using some futeristic weird uber-mesh network it would be hard as hell to pull off, and even then, you would need more than just some small slice of the 2100mhz band.
Movie in 3 minutes? No problem...! (Score:5, Insightful)
You can have a two hour movie at 1080p resolution in 1Mb of data if you're not too fussy about image quality.
Resolution is one thing, bitrate is something else.
Everything you know is wrong! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's funny, and a bit disturbing... (Score:4, Insightful)
A lot of crime floats under the radar. If you've been scammed out of a few hundred bucks, you can try getting the police interested but likely they won't be. Better to take the guy to small claims court, if you can find him to lay a summons on him. Eventually if somebody scams enough people out of enough money they may rise out of the general level of scum up to a point where law enforcement will get interested. But it takes a while, and some people manage to avoid consequences for a good long time. It's a little harder if you're a corporation and have to be or look semi-established, but there's still inertia/time lag before you get noticed and somebody decides they have a case against you. Look at ZZZZ Best.
As for business licensing requiring a clean slate - even if this were a good idea, the guys who take your money and give you a license are bureaucrats, not cops. And you don't pay them enough to have them check everybody who comes in the door for past misdeeds.
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:4, Insightful)
Screw the wireless part! I want to see a drive that can dump 5GB in 3min, within the constraints of a phone's power capabilities!
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:4, Insightful)
The "electromagnetic spectrum" is not a finite resource.
Yes [wikipedia.org] it [wikipedia.org] is. [wikipedia.org]
Re:The lies! (Score:5, Insightful)
He's not selling to technical people who can do the math.
He's selling to people who will hear the pitch and think, "Holy shit, people will line up around the block to get HD movies on their cell and plug it into their TV! I've GOT to invest in this right now, and get in on the ground floor."
Look at what he's got already: postive reviews, awards, and a front page on /. I guarantee you that the next rounds of adverts in an investment magazine will have these awards highlighted.
"Holy shit, not only is this a great-sounding idea, but it's won a CTIA award. It's... fucking legitimate! Cut this guy a cheque, and do it before some other asshole does!"
The system requires travelling to other dimensions with different physics in order to work, but other than that, it's a great idea.
scams and profit (Score:2, Insightful)
Rarely do fake pyramid scam companies collect real income in a recession with the increasing number of sufficient savvy consumers increasing. Therefore they must get their employees to pay the company instead of paying their employees. Its a law of reverse proportions scams (I made that law up).
Step 1 Create fake miracle product.
Step 2 Hire employees as product advocates swearing by the awesome majesty of imaginary hardware/service.
Step 3 Convince employees to pay employer instead of being paid themselves.
Step 4 PROFIT!!!!!!!!!! and Create a new identity to hide from the multi-state angry mob of rightfully vengeful customers.
Re:MLM (Score:3, Insightful)
I haven't completely read the article, but this doesn't sound like MLM. In MLM, a person will get a cut of the revenue from the people who sign up under the people he signed up. This sounds like a discount for a referral, which can be perfectly legit. My webhost will give me a hosting credit if I refer someone who signs up. I've never even tried to get the credit, even with people I did suggest use my host, but that isn't MLN -- it's an incentive to make a referral.
Note: I am not a MLM junkie by any stretch of the imagination, and like every(logical)one else, view all MLM schemes as scams. I don't see single level discounting as multilevel though, and they can be quite legitimate as a way to get an occasional discount, but are obviously not a way to make a living.
Re:It's funny, and a bit disturbing... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ditto the fundraising organizations (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The laws of physics called (Score:2, Insightful)
Lovely lovely speeds, on an isolated unpopulated cell tower. Two customers on that tower downloading movies? Speed cut in half. Aww crap, 100 people? You are going to be waiting awhile.
And again, speeds would need to be around 45 MegaBYTES per second, well over 300mbit, and even if we cut that down to just 100mbit per second, do you really think companies are going to run enough fiber to give each user on a tower 100mbit of bandwidth on every cell tower in a city?
The difference between what almost any standard can theoretically support and what you actually get is pretty significant, but large numbers do make for nice press releases.
Re:And yet he's out...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:scams and profit (Score:3, Insightful)
The trick is to scam the scammers. Find other 'salespeople' and give them enough hints that this may be a profitable scam. Paying to get in is a subtle trick to get your salespeople more commited (they already have something at stake) and to give them the impression they can really make some serious money with this. Somebody must have done the maths on this after all? (yes, and those people politely decline...)