Did you miss the part where the ads were offering things like stolen credit card info and unregistered firearms, too?
vmaziman@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 10:08
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Asking tech giants to start policing people sounds like it can get bad really quickly…but at the same time letting them do nothing also sounds terrible
Endorkend@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 10:40
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That's an interesting take.
These companies are accepting money from criminal enterprises to advertise criminal enterprises.
You don't need them to police people, you need them to stop being overt criminals themselves.
Chozo@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 10:39
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How does that do anything for the problem the author writes about, though? They're not complaining about their own feed being spammed with this stuff, they're complaining that it's so rampant in the first place and that Meta does little to nothing to prevent it.
AbsolutelyNotCats@lemdro.id
on 27 Aug 2023 11:14
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How does that do anything for the problem the author writes about?
Nothing, but hopefully it’s helpful for anyone that reads it
Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 11:47
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How would Revanced help with IG ads? (Sincere question - I'm occasionally on IG and the ads are obnoxious. )
AbsolutelyNotCats@lemdro.id
on 27 Aug 2023 12:12
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Of course, there are patches for many apps now. I’ll attach a screenshot:
<img alt="revanced patches for ig" src="https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/5bc62c3a-4b78-44a3-b93c-38c43fb7304d.png">
The specific patch, which is the only one you should be using normally, is to remove ads from Instagram.
Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 13:04
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Thanks. I didn't know Revanced was used for more than one app.
These are probably the “random” ads iPhone users get because of the “Ask not to track” feature.
RobotToaster@infosec.pub
on 27 Aug 2023 10:48
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Aren’t those ads personalised to your browsing history?
coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 11:17
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Should that be a reason to get adds for illegal things? … at all?
deadcream@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 11:21
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They are personalised by the "bucket" that data collection companies like Google or Facebook placed you into based on profiling. Browsing and search history is only one of the factors that is taken into account when you are profiled, there are myriad more ways to collect data about you.
And then what ads you see is determined by what advertisers think your "bucket" wants. If you are male in your 20s living in rural USA and advertisers think that males in their 20s living in rural USA are interested in guns, then that's what you will see - even if you never clicked on gun ad or searched for guns on Google.
Bonehead@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 11:27
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Tangently...you read one gay rights article and suddenly your ad feed is filled with hot single dads in my area...
DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
on 27 Aug 2023 11:35
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Nice 👍
iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 16:40
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Do you have a link to the article?
Iusedtobeanadventurer@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 13:29
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Personally whenever I go to Instagram all I get are cat videos and ads about “targeted mushrooms” and kava drinks…
Or you just happen to live in an area with many addicts.
Kalkaline@programming.dev
on 27 Aug 2023 11:55
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Surely these are at least partly honeypots for law enforcement, right?
deranger@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 16:55
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Some, sure. I asked my weed dealer to show me a bit on how this works. You’d be amazed at how much dealing is done over clearnet on FB messenger, whatsapp, etc. Little to no technical security. Selling drugs online has become much more mainstream than it was during the $10 bitcoin days. Not that I’d personally use clearnet for drugs, but that’s where a ton of deals are happening. This article only confirms what I’ve already seen.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 19:03
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Yep, so much stuff that used to be on TOR moved to discord. Then if they are smart they use Signal or Session, but I have heard of a lot of stuff just straight on FB… it’s crazy. I guess with that many transactions, it’s a really though game of whackamole. Especially since the internet made it much easier to deal drugs without needing to hold huge quantities at once.
goaskalice3@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 02:58
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How would one find the discord groups so I can be sure to stay away from them?
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 27 Aug 2023 20:37
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That wock is absolutely fent, and with those prices, that LSD is probably 25i.
The DMT seems legit tho
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 27 Aug 2023 12:20
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says something
merthyr1831@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 12:51
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lucky 😮💨 all mine are weight loss scams and laptop deals
traveler@lemdro.id
on 27 Aug 2023 14:21
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I don’t get it why and how they get away. I mean I do get it, but it’s astonishing the amount of the shit these big corporations get away with. They’re pretty much profiting from crime and nobody does anything against them.
Echo71Niner@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 14:25
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it’s astonishing
people still not blocking ads, use adblock!
traveler@lemdro.id
on 27 Aug 2023 14:27
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If you use the app there’s no blocking it sadly. What people should start doing it’s stop using that platform all together
Mr_Vortex@lemmy.sdf.org
on 27 Aug 2023 14:36
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I use an alternative side-loaded Instagram app called Instander which blocks ads and comes with other nice features. I don’t use the platform much anyhow, but when I do it makes the experience actually tolerable.
Echo71Niner@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 14:54
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People use the app, have their info exploited and than complain this is the only way to use a service that is exploiting your clicks, and yet, you don’t stop using it, really weird.
thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.ml
on 27 Aug 2023 15:42
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eh, I’m a photographer/videographer. sadly I more or less need to use it if I want anyone to find me…
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 27 Aug 2023 15:44
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PiHole doesn’t work when ads and legitimate content are both served from same domain.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 27 Aug 2023 20:26
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That is true, didn’t think about that.
grue@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 18:11
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No, what people should start doing is demanding that governments actually enforce the law against Facebook for acting as an accomplice to the myriad crimes the article discusses. Facebook should be dissolved and executives should go to prison.
People shouldn’t be forced to use a adblocker for a platform to be usable.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 00:35
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As opposed to when?
At what point in internet history do you think website advertising was tolerable? Because in my eyes, it’s always been an aggressive obstacle to usability, since the dial-up era.
I mean, you either pay the service so you don’t have to watch ads (like YouTube Premium) or you see ads that aren’t criminal behaviour or spam.
Either way, I fail to understand how people got into the mindset that every service in the internet should be both free and ad free.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 14:35
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Movie piracy can be both, and it’s straight-up illegal. Hosting text is nothing in comparison. Images and video snippets are barely more than that. If all a website provides is bandwidth and storage, we all have that in spades, and if a website can’t let us share it, then a website is the wrong model.
Running a glorified chat server and image board in the year two thousand and fifty gigabits should not be remarkable. You are currently on a service patched together by randos hosting servers for fun. It replaces a website which, despite strenuous effort, made fuck-all revenue from a highly constructive and ordered community of millions.
I fail to understand how people got into the mindset that every website needs to make money. Some worthwhile and widely-desired things simply lose money, and that’s fine. Expecting to monetize your family would be gross. Expecting to monetize community is not much better, and equally fruitless. Squeezing any blood from that stone requires some fundamental betrayals of what those relationships mean and why people seek them.
Social media sites only turned a profit when they undermined democracy. Advertising is propaganda for sale. If you think capitalism prevents us from even talking to one another without being gouged for the privilege or subjected to destabilizing abuse, then torches and pitchforks are on your left.
If criminals are advertising the crimes they are committing, I don’t imagine law enforcement are going to be falling all over themselves to put a stop to it, because it makes their job a lot easier.
traveler@lemdro.id
on 27 Aug 2023 20:59
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Are law enforcement actually doing it? Because if they were people were not always making those ads.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 27 Aug 2023 22:20
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Sure, assuming that their job is filling beds in prison rather than actually reducing crime.
The job of law enforcement is enforcing the law. Enforcing the law is supposed to discourage people from breaking it.
Does it work? I would guess that it is more effective than not enforcing the law.
Is it the best way to reduce crime? I doubt it.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 28 Aug 2023 20:12
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But conceivably they could be enforcing the law by putting pressure on these companies to stop facilitating advertising of illegal services and thereby the flow of business. If they instead just don’t bother with that so that they can use these ads to pick out and track down the juiciest, lowest effort prosecution targets, representing a small proportion of the total market, that’s pure corruption with little to no social benefit.
To be clear I don’t actually know if this is what is going on, but if it was it would be reprehensible.
CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 14:41
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I don’t use Instagram altogether, this isn’t about me. The main audience of Instagram (and other Meta platforms) are teens, whom you should not expose to such advertisements. Some are not tech literate and are capable of blocking Meta’s ads on a DNS level or with some other trickery. Look at the broader audience, this isn’t a “Me” post.
Yes, ignore the root problem and instead cover it with a bandaid solution.
If someone had a cut on their leg that had turned black and smelled like rancid meat, would you just tell them that no one should go out in public without pants and deodorant?
swan_pr@lemmy.ca
on 27 Aug 2023 15:00
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You sound like you didn’t read the article. This not about seeing ads or not, it’s about large corporations allowing and making profits off advertising criminal activities.
allowing and making profits off advertising criminal activities.
You mean the same ones that could be easily blocked by extensions so none of us would be talking about it right now and giving them more clicks? you clearly missed the point.
The post title is the title of the article, where an investigative journalist intentionally manipulates the algorithm to produce this result. If he used an ad blocking extension, he’d be unable to hold Meta accountable for what they are doing.
So maybe calm down about that given the context, and perhaps establish the context before you decide to click reply.
solidsnake2085@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 14:40
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Easy, just delete Instagram.
nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl
on 28 Aug 2023 04:12
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Well, Instagram did just that for my little book publishing company. I signed up for a business account in the hopes of selling some books, putting up some ads, and posting a few updates, only to get a fucking PERMABAN during fucking SIGNUP.
So you are right and it really is super easy.
nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl
on 28 Aug 2023 04:13
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(ffs i should’ve sold drugs damnit)
NAS89@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 15:17
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Similarly, my YouTube shorts are filled with gambling videos and “get rich quick scheme” videos. Seems as though “do not recommend channel” blocks the channel but assumes you have some growing interest in the topic.
I just want to watch woodworking shorts and plumbing videos T_T
10EXP@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 20:42
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Maybe do Not Interested and then Do not recommend channel?
Unless doing the former just hides the video immediately and doesn’t let you do the latter, in which case just call me a fool.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 21:02
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deleted by creator
10EXP@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 03:39
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ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 05:38
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Doesn’t seem to have, no. I’ve had all that stuff turned off for ages on my account, and you can also turn it off to a limited extent on a single browser even if you’re not signed in.
boringbisexual@lib.lgbt
on 28 Aug 2023 10:56
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I just got an extension that removes shorts. I tried blocking channels, saying I wasn’t interested, pressing the thumbs down button, but it would still show trash like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.
Remmock@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 15:40
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ITT: People who are so quick to suggest ad blockers they miss the point of the conversation.
30mag@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 17:14
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My facebook ads are almost always drugs. microdose ketamine study, psilocybin mushroom kits, CBD/THC gummies, online doctor visits for generic Lexapro…
ineedaunion@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 18:40
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Dang I need some of those mushrooms and ketamine microdosing.
PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 19:09
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Mushroom spores are legal. The ketamine shit might, in some cases, be legit but won’t be covered by insurance.
Mindbloom advertises ketamine microdosing. I can’t imagine that it isn’t either a scam or a honeypot.
EnderWi99in@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 23:20
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It's not a honeypot. It's a genuine company. I am not sure if what they do is actually helping anyone but to my knowledge the treatments are pretty expensive.
Ozymati@lemmy.nz
on 27 Aug 2023 19:39
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I went on Edge, logged into Facebook, then proceeded to google various horse related things and visit the resulting websits. Now my ads are all about horses. I don’t own a horse, never been especially into them. But they’re nice and inoffensive in my feed.
Using umatrix. Difficulty is these are the ads presented as part of the feed so they’re difficult to block. Like the promoted posts on reddit.
EnderWi99in@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 23:19
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Yeah I get a lot of those as well. Anxiety, ADHD, and autism stuff mostly. I keep shooting down the ads as I suffer from none of these things. No idea why it keeps pushing that crap.
Gestrid@lemmy.ca
on 27 Aug 2023 18:22
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All my Twitter ads are just about AI images.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 00:33
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Which is especially funny, given the countdown until that’s no longer a market. It’s like using a refrigerator to sell ice.
Astroturfed@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 18:24
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Drugs or Chinese scam products. Had a friend tell me he ordered something that never showed up, turned out they sent these super cheap toothbrushes in the mail and then tried to use that tracking info as proof he received what he bought. They just allow anyone who will pay to advertise illegal shit, scams, whatever it’s the wild West.
tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk
on 27 Aug 2023 18:34
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You’re clearly a known customer for those products :p The algorithm is never wrong…
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 19:00
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So basically the silk road moved to Instagram & Telegram… pretty ballsy, I wonder how much of it is honey potting?
That’s a pretty good deal for a hot Nina with all the fixings… also I see a lot of fentanyl pills in those listings.
Didn’t those fake oil carts that were getting people sick come from Instagram? The ones with vitamin D oil as filler
There are still a bunch of darknet markets though, it’s two different demographics buying at each
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 22:51
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Yeah, there will always be dark markets. But it’s nothing like, nor do I think it ever will be like it was in its hay day. I don’t check regularly, but last I looked these markets have nothing close to the user base of even the days of agora/dream/Wallstreet. You could buy quantities of stuff at user level for real cheap. As they started cracking down, it all started to turn into bulk because no one wanted to deal with transaction frequency risk, I suspect it’s the same today.
Catasaur@lemmy.catasaur.xyz
on 28 Aug 2023 14:51
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I was on the original Silk Road back in the day, those were the golden years. I don’t fuck with drugs anymore because even the non-hard stuff is completely tainted with fetanyl these days.
LeatherRebel@leminal.space
on 27 Aug 2023 19:47
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im getting the wrong type of ads lol
EnderWi99in@kbin.social
on 27 Aug 2023 23:16
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Yeah I just get fed with bullshit on ADHD and Autism nonstop.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 19:51
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This shit’s going on in centralized big-name websites, while Lemmy instances fret about discussing piracy and ban people for being impolite to bigots.
I fucking hate the modern web.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 22:22
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You don’t hate the modern web. You hate people.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 23:25
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No I definitely hate many disparate elements of the modern web. Browsers are controlled by an advertising giant that can’t even operate a decent search engine anymore. Legislators are still trying to demonize pornography, of any kind, as if two adults fucking in private is child exploitation… somehow. Every website that centralized disparate forums / galleries / chatrooms simultaneously went pants-on-head crazy in a panicked frenzy to make N+1 dollars.
I also hate people who demand “be polite!” without viciously cracking down on actual trolls saying stupid shit to bait blunt correction. And those trolls, obviously. It doesn’t have to be exclusive. There’s plenty to go around.
stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 00:35
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I felt the same way but with the Reddit thing I started switching up some of my sites.
Have you used any of the SearX instances? Works just as well as google for the most part
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 01:16
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I have now, and I’m underwhelmed. As a test case I used a repeated failure point for Google and DDG: ‘“Apple I” keyboard’. As in, keyboards for the Apple I, which came before the Apple II. (I have some very stupid hobbies.) Major search engines overwhelmingly return Apple iWhatever keyboards, or just Apple keyboards in general, with occasional vintage or retro hardware tossed in. The handful of SearX instances I tried returned nothing.
LetKCater2U@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 02:34
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Have you tried Apple 1 instead of I?
stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 04:06
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Yeah for niche stuff it’s not going to perform well (yet) sadly but 1 day!
Squander@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 19:53
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If I pay more can I get some ads for drugs, money, and weapons?
30mag@lemmy.world
on 27 Aug 2023 20:24
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How do you advertise stolen credit cards?
The_Mixer_Dude@lemmus.org
on 27 Aug 2023 21:24
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If their stolen credit cards worked why are they selling them?
deranger@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 21:36
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Because it’s one more degree of abstraction from the fraud and thus slightly safer. People absolutely sell working CC numbers online.
ericbomb@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 03:00
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I mean I don’t wanna just do cash advances on 100 stolen credit cards. That’ll get you caught so fast.
Legit crypto exchanges won’t accept credit cards anymore, they want a bank account attached.
You can use it to deliver stuff to like a nearby location you can like pick up, then sell I guess? But how often can you do that?
Using in stores assuming you have a physical card is dangerous because if it’s reported stolen by the time you use it, they’ll let the cops know and turn over the camera stuff.
Compare to, send the CC info to a random person, get $200 in crypto, and let them do one of the above and take all the risk. If you have 1000 stolen cards that is just so much safer and faster.
redcalcium@lemmy.institute
on 28 Aug 2023 08:06
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They work but very risky to use. Much better to sell them off instead of using them yourself.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 27 Aug 2023 21:28
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Pixelfed
Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
on 27 Aug 2023 21:35
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Ain’t that many thots there. Could be a good it bad thing.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 27 Aug 2023 21:55
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U saying there’s an untapped market? 😏
Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 02:08
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If only there was a Pixelfed instance that hosted OnlyFans, Cosplayers, and random exhibitionists. Everyone else could just subscribe to it.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 28 Aug 2023 03:00
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Oooohhh nooooooo!~ :3
reverendsteveii@lemm.ee
on 27 Aug 2023 23:57
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Are the drugs any good?
whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
on 28 Aug 2023 01:54
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Mine is all for phone cases. How do I get the ads for drugs?
Redredme@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 06:29
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Al the author, he clearly knows.
Daft_ish@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 02:18
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Preamble to the shitty internet bills that will get passed on a holiday weekend at 2am?
goaskalice3@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 02:55
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I’m trying to kick an opiate habit and seeing that I can buy them on Instagram is not helping
Catasaur@lemmy.catasaur.xyz
on 28 Aug 2023 14:48
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If it helps, there’s a 99.9% chance they just take your money and not send any drugs
goaskalice3@lemmy.world
on 29 Aug 2023 05:13
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That’s exactly why I’ve never actually tried one of these things. I had someone on Reddit message me once and give me a dude’s telegraph info and it was so obviously a scam.
The dude asked what I wanted and I said something really vague and he immediately said “okay how many” without clarifying. Then when I didn’t respond, he sent a screenshot of allll his notifications from messages he was getting from “happy customers”
TheLurker@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 03:08
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Are you telling me if I remove all my ad blocking infrastructure I’ll get ads for drugs?
Hmm maybe I need to rethink my network design. 🤔😆
theangryseal@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 11:53
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I may or may not have acquired exactly the acid in those pics.
I definitely did not.
Or did I?
It looks identical actually and I’m willing to bet it came from the same place.
If I actually had it that is.
MargotRobbie@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 03:53
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Now here’s the exact problem with the so called “personalized” ads, that Google and Facebook serves what the advertisers think you want to see, instead of what you actually want to see.
This is the fundamental conflict of interest which the obvious conclusion is that online banner/video advertisements doesn’t work, and has never worked, because ultimately, no matter how many times you shove ads in people’s faces via a thoughtless machine, you can’t “trick” people into liking something. What people want is thoughtful, sincere recommendations by real people, which is why we have seen the rise of sassy brand Twitter accounts being so successful for a time: because there is a real person behind it.
(Of course, it’s really funny if you take blatant advertisment to its logical extreme, and even that seemed more effective.)
Of course, Google and Facebook will never admit that they’ve been lying to everyone and themselves for more than a decade, because to do so is to admit that their entire business of Web 2.0 was built on an absurd and illogical premise of again, if you show people ads for things they never asked for a thousand times, then you can brainwash them into liking something.
In other words, Google and Facebook’s entire advertisment business model, if you really think about it, is really no different than pick-up artist logic, and. They. Just. Won’t. Go. Away.
Maggoty@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 07:48
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Turns out though you can absolutely trick them into believing conspiracy theories with social media ads.
theangryseal@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 11:51
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Learn the TRUTH about this thing you’re already primed for by your bias!
click
Holy crap! He’s a alien! U cud tell frum the eyez!
👁️👁️👀👽
FracturedEel@sh.itjust.works
on 28 Aug 2023 15:17
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You can absolutely trick people into liking drugs too
Halosheep@lemm.ee
on 28 Aug 2023 21:44
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The ads that I mind the least and the ones I find the most effective are sponsors for creators that I like. Short sponsor segments really don’t annoy me as much and I have actually tried a couple products that have advertised that way.
That said, almost all of them sucked in the end but that’s another subject entirely.
DryTomatoes4@lemm.ee
on 28 Aug 2023 21:45
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Pretty much every industry works by tricking people into liking things.
Like the razors with four+ blades on them, people buy them cause the commercials say “more blades is better”.
People wouldn’t seek out extra blades if they weren’t tricked into liking it. They are objectively worse than single blade razors.
Exactly. If it didn’t pay off these companies wouldn’t keep shoveling money to Facebook and Google to show their ads time and time again. Marketing is expensive. If it didn’t at least break even then nobody would be doing it anymore by now. Obviously it works, otherwise I wouldn’t ever know what the fuck a squarespace or a goddamn raid shadow legends is.
Zengen@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 12:12
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Well sir. Given that the algorhythm designed for procuring that content is literally the best at its job bar none. And having also had personal experience with this. One of two things or both is happening. #1 you like to partake in partying and you seek that out sometimes. And the software knows that. #2 you associate with drugs dealers who are in your social media circles.
Let’s be clear. This content isnt shown to you just because. Its being shown to you because you have displayed a pattern of seeking where these items come into play or you talk to people who regularly engage in this.
I’m a 28 year old man. I have never been shown a targeted advertisement for feminine hygiene products. Also I had never seen advertisements on social media for literal drugs and shit until I went thru a phase where I developed a pretty bad coke habit for a while and had a lot of dealers in my phone.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 28 Aug 2023 12:39
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You assume that the algorithm works perfectly. It does not. Sometimes, the data points it connects on people is “male person living in Kansas” and just serve you ads with those keywords. Which means one day you see an ad for Cheerios, the next day you see an ad for your local crystal meth store.
Mostly_Frogs@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 12:49
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crashoverride@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 15:35
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I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that 100%. To an extent maybe, but there are ads that get presented to me sometimes that is just wild out of the blue and I’m like what the fuck. I didn’t do anything to suggest. I might like this at all. So I can understand what this person saying
tallwookie@lemmy.world
on 28 Aug 2023 22:14
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stop following rap/hip-hop artists
Sibbo@sopuli.xyz
on 28 Aug 2023 22:26
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We thought they would use crime prediction for putting us to jail, but instead they just advertise
WhyDoesntThisThingWork@lemmy.world
on 29 Aug 2023 05:23
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Where I live it’s largely the same though on facebook marketplace and not on instagram. Counterfeit money, weapons (which are almost completely illegal where I live, even basic non-lethal things like pepper spray and tasers) and more than anything prostitution. The thing is, these are “sponsored ads” which are all supposedly screened and approved manually. Also you can report them and Facebook won’t take them down.
Before someone suggests it cause I’ve seen this response a couple times in this thread already: No, I am not searching those things or related products on Facebook or elsewhere on the web.
Also Met’s estimate that only 1 out of every 2000 ads violates their policy is straight up laughable. There’s no way they themselves believe that. I would say at least 25% of the ads I see are of this nature. Literally dozens a day.
threaded - newest
The biggest media corporations are allowed to advertise literal crime. Meanwhile saying the word cigarette on tv will get you jail time.
Smoke
Are you smoking yet?
I am smoking. Inside.
.
I don’t see a problem. Shroom time babey
You don't see a problem when Instagram's target market is teens and young people?
Did you miss the part where the ads were offering things like stolen credit card info and unregistered firearms, too?
Asking tech giants to start policing people sounds like it can get bad really quickly…but at the same time letting them do nothing also sounds terrible
That's an interesting take.
These companies are accepting money from criminal enterprises to advertise criminal enterprises.
You don't need them to police people, you need them to stop being overt criminals themselves.
Exactly. Meta is an accomplice to all these crimes! Why do so many of the folks in this thread and elsewhere fail to realize that?!
How the fuck is vetting the ads on their platform “policing” people?
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How does that do anything for the problem the author writes about, though? They're not complaining about their own feed being spammed with this stuff, they're complaining that it's so rampant in the first place and that Meta does little to nothing to prevent it.
Nothing, but hopefully it’s helpful for anyone that reads it
How would Revanced help with IG ads? (Sincere question - I'm occasionally on IG and the ads are obnoxious. )
Of course, there are patches for many apps now. I’ll attach a screenshot:
<img alt="revanced patches for ig" src="https://lemdro.id/pictrs/image/5bc62c3a-4b78-44a3-b93c-38c43fb7304d.png">
The specific patch, which is the only one you should be using normally, is to remove ads from Instagram.
Thanks. I didn't know Revanced was used for more than one app.
I tried that. Got it installed with default settings and looked no different. Half my feed is suggested bullshit.
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After all, you are using Instagram… Just without promoted ads
Wtf does their browser history look like to be getting those sorts of ads?!
In the article he states that he kept clicking on those ads on purpose, in order to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
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I saw that double post ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I would be very curious to see the algorithm adapting to that:
User: click on shrooms ad
AI: Oh he likes shrooms with his cocaine! Let’s try a marijuana to snort with his cocaine.
These are probably the “random” ads iPhone users get because of the “Ask not to track” feature.
Aren’t those ads personalised to your browsing history?
Should that be a reason to get adds for illegal things? … at all?
They are personalised by the "bucket" that data collection companies like Google or Facebook placed you into based on profiling. Browsing and search history is only one of the factors that is taken into account when you are profiled, there are myriad more ways to collect data about you.
And then what ads you see is determined by what advertisers think your "bucket" wants. If you are male in your 20s living in rural USA and advertisers think that males in their 20s living in rural USA are interested in guns, then that's what you will see - even if you never clicked on gun ad or searched for guns on Google.
Tangently...you read one gay rights article and suddenly your ad feed is filled with hot single dads in my area...
Nice 👍
Do you have a link to the article?
Personally whenever I go to Instagram all I get are cat videos and ads about “targeted mushrooms” and kava drinks…
It all checks out ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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Or you just happen to live in an area with many addicts.
Surely these are at least partly honeypots for law enforcement, right?
Some, sure. I asked my weed dealer to show me a bit on how this works. You’d be amazed at how much dealing is done over clearnet on FB messenger, whatsapp, etc. Little to no technical security. Selling drugs online has become much more mainstream than it was during the $10 bitcoin days. Not that I’d personally use clearnet for drugs, but that’s where a ton of deals are happening. This article only confirms what I’ve already seen.
Yep, so much stuff that used to be on TOR moved to discord. Then if they are smart they use Signal or Session, but I have heard of a lot of stuff just straight on FB… it’s crazy. I guess with that many transactions, it’s a really though game of whackamole. Especially since the internet made it much easier to deal drugs without needing to hold huge quantities at once.
How would one find the discord groups so I can be sure to stay away from them?
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That wock is absolutely fent, and with those prices, that LSD is probably 25i.
The DMT seems legit tho
says something
lucky 😮💨 all mine are weight loss scams and laptop deals
I don’t get it why and how they get away. I mean I do get it, but it’s astonishing the amount of the shit these big corporations get away with. They’re pretty much profiting from crime and nobody does anything against them.
people still not blocking ads, use adblock!
If you use the app there’s no blocking it sadly. What people should start doing it’s stop using that platform all together
I use an alternative side-loaded Instagram app called Instander which blocks ads and comes with other nice features. I don’t use the platform much anyhow, but when I do it makes the experience actually tolerable.
People use the app, have their info exploited and than complain this is the only way to use a service that is exploiting your clicks, and yet, you don’t stop using it, really weird.
eh, I’m a photographer/videographer. sadly I more or less need to use it if I want anyone to find me…
Pihole oughta do it.
PiHole doesn’t work when ads and legitimate content are both served from same domain.
That is true, didn’t think about that.
No, what people should start doing is demanding that governments actually enforce the law against Facebook for acting as an accomplice to the myriad crimes the article discusses. Facebook should be dissolved and executives should go to prison.
ReVanced says they support removing timeline ads from Instagram. I don’t use Instagram, so I haven’t tested it, though.
People shouldn’t be forced to use a adblocker for a platform to be usable.
As opposed to when?
At what point in internet history do you think website advertising was tolerable? Because in my eyes, it’s always been an aggressive obstacle to usability, since the dial-up era.
I mean, you either pay the service so you don’t have to watch ads (like YouTube Premium) or you see ads that aren’t criminal behaviour or spam.
Either way, I fail to understand how people got into the mindset that every service in the internet should be both free and ad free.
Movie piracy can be both, and it’s straight-up illegal. Hosting text is nothing in comparison. Images and video snippets are barely more than that. If all a website provides is bandwidth and storage, we all have that in spades, and if a website can’t let us share it, then a website is the wrong model.
Running a glorified chat server and image board in the year two thousand and fifty gigabits should not be remarkable. You are currently on a service patched together by randos hosting servers for fun. It replaces a website which, despite strenuous effort, made fuck-all revenue from a highly constructive and ordered community of millions.
I fail to understand how people got into the mindset that every website needs to make money. Some worthwhile and widely-desired things simply lose money, and that’s fine. Expecting to monetize your family would be gross. Expecting to monetize community is not much better, and equally fruitless. Squeezing any blood from that stone requires some fundamental betrayals of what those relationships mean and why people seek them.
Social media sites only turned a profit when they undermined democracy. Advertising is propaganda for sale. If you think capitalism prevents us from even talking to one another without being gouged for the privilege or subjected to destabilizing abuse, then torches and pitchforks are on your left.
If criminals are advertising the crimes they are committing, I don’t imagine law enforcement are going to be falling all over themselves to put a stop to it, because it makes their job a lot easier.
Are law enforcement actually doing it? Because if they were people were not always making those ads.
Sure, assuming that their job is filling beds in prison rather than actually reducing crime.
The job of law enforcement is enforcing the law. Enforcing the law is supposed to discourage people from breaking it.
Does it work? I would guess that it is more effective than not enforcing the law.
Is it the best way to reduce crime? I doubt it.
But conceivably they could be enforcing the law by putting pressure on these companies to stop facilitating advertising of illegal services and thereby the flow of business. If they instead just don’t bother with that so that they can use these ads to pick out and track down the juiciest, lowest effort prosecution targets, representing a small proportion of the total market, that’s pure corruption with little to no social benefit.
To be clear I don’t actually know if this is what is going on, but if it was it would be reprehensible.
I think I agree.
You sound like you love to see ads, otherwise why the fuck are you not blocking them using extensions?
You can’t block ads in a app. This should be common knowledge.
Instander.
Is that Homelander’s Instagram?
Hahahahaha, no lol. It’s a “fork” of instagram with some quality of life improvements (and no-ads)
Joke is on you, stop using the app.
You can just patch it
I don’t use Instagram altogether, this isn’t about me. The main audience of Instagram (and other Meta platforms) are teens, whom you should not expose to such advertisements. Some are not tech literate and are capable of blocking Meta’s ads on a DNS level or with some other trickery. Look at the broader audience, this isn’t a “Me” post.
No relation to Instagram, this is about the internet as a whole, no one ever should be online without at least 5 adblocking extensions.
Yes, ignore the root problem and instead cover it with a bandaid solution.
If someone had a cut on their leg that had turned black and smelled like rancid meat, would you just tell them that no one should go out in public without pants and deodorant?
You sound like you didn’t read the article. This not about seeing ads or not, it’s about large corporations allowing and making profits off advertising criminal activities.
You mean the same ones that could be easily blocked by extensions so none of us would be talking about it right now and giving them more clicks? you clearly missed the point.
I didn’t miss the point, the point is not about seeing ads or not. Expand your thought process a bit.
The post title is the title of the article, where an investigative journalist intentionally manipulates the algorithm to produce this result. If he used an ad blocking extension, he’d be unable to hold Meta accountable for what they are doing.
So maybe calm down about that given the context, and perhaps establish the context before you decide to click reply.
Easy, just delete Instagram.
Well, Instagram did just that for my little book publishing company. I signed up for a business account in the hopes of selling some books, putting up some ads, and posting a few updates, only to get a fucking PERMABAN during fucking SIGNUP.
So you are right and it really is super easy.
(ffs i should’ve sold drugs damnit)
Similarly, my YouTube shorts are filled with gambling videos and “get rich quick scheme” videos. Seems as though “do not recommend channel” blocks the channel but assumes you have some growing interest in the topic.
I just want to watch woodworking shorts and plumbing videos T_T
Maybe do Not Interested and then Do not recommend channel?
Unless doing the former just hides the video immediately and doesn’t let you do the latter, in which case just call me a fool.
deleted by creator
Has changing your preferences from adssettings.google.com helped?
Doesn’t seem to have, no. I’ve had all that stuff turned off for ages on my account, and you can also turn it off to a limited extent on a single browser even if you’re not signed in.
I just got an extension that removes shorts. I tried blocking channels, saying I wasn’t interested, pressing the thumbs down button, but it would still show trash like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.
ITT: People who are so quick to suggest ad blockers they miss the point of the conversation.
My facebook ads are almost always drugs. microdose ketamine study, psilocybin mushroom kits, CBD/THC gummies, online doctor visits for generic Lexapro…
Dang I need some of those mushrooms and ketamine microdosing.
Mushroom spores are legal. The ketamine shit might, in some cases, be legit but won’t be covered by insurance.
Yeah I’ve looked into the ketamine treatments. $2800
Mindbloom advertises ketamine microdosing. I can’t imagine that it isn’t either a scam or a honeypot.
It's not a honeypot. It's a genuine company. I am not sure if what they do is actually helping anyone but to my knowledge the treatments are pretty expensive.
I went on Edge, logged into Facebook, then proceeded to google various horse related things and visit the resulting websits. Now my ads are all about horses. I don’t own a horse, never been especially into them. But they’re nice and inoffensive in my feed.
LifeProTip
Have you tried ublock origin?
Using umatrix. Difficulty is these are the ads presented as part of the feed so they’re difficult to block. Like the promoted posts on reddit.
Yeah I get a lot of those as well. Anxiety, ADHD, and autism stuff mostly. I keep shooting down the ads as I suffer from none of these things. No idea why it keeps pushing that crap.
All my Twitter ads are just about AI images.
Which is especially funny, given the countdown until that’s no longer a market. It’s like using a refrigerator to sell ice.
Drugs or Chinese scam products. Had a friend tell me he ordered something that never showed up, turned out they sent these super cheap toothbrushes in the mail and then tried to use that tracking info as proof he received what he bought. They just allow anyone who will pay to advertise illegal shit, scams, whatever it’s the wild West.
You’re clearly a known customer for those products :p The algorithm is never wrong…
So basically the silk road moved to Instagram & Telegram… pretty ballsy, I wonder how much of it is honey potting?
That’s a pretty good deal for a hot Nina with all the fixings… also I see a lot of fentanyl pills in those listings.
Didn’t those fake oil carts that were getting people sick come from Instagram? The ones with vitamin D oil as filler
There are still a bunch of darknet markets though, it’s two different demographics buying at each
Yeah, there will always be dark markets. But it’s nothing like, nor do I think it ever will be like it was in its hay day. I don’t check regularly, but last I looked these markets have nothing close to the user base of even the days of agora/dream/Wallstreet. You could buy quantities of stuff at user level for real cheap. As they started cracking down, it all started to turn into bulk because no one wanted to deal with transaction frequency risk, I suspect it’s the same today.
I was on the original Silk Road back in the day, those were the golden years. I don’t fuck with drugs anymore because even the non-hard stuff is completely tainted with fetanyl these days.
im getting the wrong type of ads lol
Yeah I just get fed with bullshit on ADHD and Autism nonstop.
This shit’s going on in centralized big-name websites, while Lemmy instances fret about discussing piracy and ban people for being impolite to bigots.
I fucking hate the modern web.
You don’t hate the modern web. You hate people.
No I definitely hate many disparate elements of the modern web. Browsers are controlled by an advertising giant that can’t even operate a decent search engine anymore. Legislators are still trying to demonize pornography, of any kind, as if two adults fucking in private is child exploitation… somehow. Every website that centralized disparate forums / galleries / chatrooms simultaneously went pants-on-head crazy in a panicked frenzy to make N+1 dollars.
I also hate people who demand “be polite!” without viciously cracking down on actual trolls saying stupid shit to bait blunt correction. And those trolls, obviously. It doesn’t have to be exclusive. There’s plenty to go around.
I felt the same way but with the Reddit thing I started switching up some of my sites.
Have you used any of the SearX instances? Works just as well as google for the most part
I have now, and I’m underwhelmed. As a test case I used a repeated failure point for Google and DDG: ‘“Apple I” keyboard’. As in, keyboards for the Apple I, which came before the Apple II. (I have some very stupid hobbies.) Major search engines overwhelmingly return Apple iWhatever keyboards, or just Apple keyboards in general, with occasional vintage or retro hardware tossed in. The handful of SearX instances I tried returned nothing.
Have you tried Apple 1 instead of I?
Yeah for niche stuff it’s not going to perform well (yet) sadly but 1 day!
If I pay more can I get some ads for drugs, money, and weapons?
How do you advertise stolen credit cards?
If their stolen credit cards worked why are they selling them?
Because it’s one more degree of abstraction from the fraud and thus slightly safer. People absolutely sell working CC numbers online.
I mean I don’t wanna just do cash advances on 100 stolen credit cards. That’ll get you caught so fast.
Legit crypto exchanges won’t accept credit cards anymore, they want a bank account attached.
You can use it to deliver stuff to like a nearby location you can like pick up, then sell I guess? But how often can you do that?
Using in stores assuming you have a physical card is dangerous because if it’s reported stolen by the time you use it, they’ll let the cops know and turn over the camera stuff.
Compare to, send the CC info to a random person, get $200 in crypto, and let them do one of the above and take all the risk. If you have 1000 stolen cards that is just so much safer and faster.
They work but very risky to use. Much better to sell them off instead of using them yourself.
Pixelfed
Ain’t that many thots there. Could be a good it bad thing.
U saying there’s an untapped market? 😏
If only there was a Pixelfed instance that hosted OnlyFans, Cosplayers, and random exhibitionists. Everyone else could just subscribe to it.
Oooohhh nooooooo!~ :3
Are the drugs any good?
Mine is all for phone cases. How do I get the ads for drugs?
Al the author, he clearly knows.
Preamble to the shitty internet bills that will get passed on a holiday weekend at 2am?
I’m trying to kick an opiate habit and seeing that I can buy them on Instagram is not helping
If it helps, there’s a 99.9% chance they just take your money and not send any drugs
That’s exactly why I’ve never actually tried one of these things. I had someone on Reddit message me once and give me a dude’s telegraph info and it was so obviously a scam.
The dude asked what I wanted and I said something really vague and he immediately said “okay how many” without clarifying. Then when I didn’t respond, he sent a screenshot of allll his notifications from messages he was getting from “happy customers”
Are you telling me if I remove all my ad blocking infrastructure I’ll get ads for drugs?
Hmm maybe I need to rethink my network design. 🤔😆
I may or may not have acquired exactly the acid in those pics.
I definitely did not.
Or did I?
It looks identical actually and I’m willing to bet it came from the same place.
If I actually had it that is.
Now here’s the exact problem with the so called “personalized” ads, that Google and Facebook serves what the advertisers think you want to see, instead of what you actually want to see.
This is the fundamental conflict of interest which the obvious conclusion is that online banner/video advertisements doesn’t work, and has never worked, because ultimately, no matter how many times you shove ads in people’s faces via a thoughtless machine, you can’t “trick” people into liking something. What people want is thoughtful, sincere recommendations by real people, which is why we have seen the rise of sassy brand Twitter accounts being so successful for a time: because there is a real person behind it.
(Of course, it’s really funny if you take blatant advertisment to its logical extreme, and even that seemed more effective.)
Of course, Google and Facebook will never admit that they’ve been lying to everyone and themselves for more than a decade, because to do so is to admit that their entire business of Web 2.0 was built on an absurd and illogical premise of again, if you show people ads for things they never asked for a thousand times, then you can brainwash them into liking something.
In other words, Google and Facebook’s entire advertisment business model, if you really think about it, is really no different than pick-up artist logic, and. They. Just. Won’t. Go. Away.
Turns out though you can absolutely trick them into believing conspiracy theories with social media ads.
Learn the TRUTH about this thing you’re already primed for by your bias!
click
Holy crap! He’s a alien! U cud tell frum the eyez! 👁️👁️👀👽
You can absolutely trick people into liking drugs too
Fuuuuuuck the Sacklers.
The ads that I mind the least and the ones I find the most effective are sponsors for creators that I like. Short sponsor segments really don’t annoy me as much and I have actually tried a couple products that have advertised that way.
That said, almost all of them sucked in the end but that’s another subject entirely.
Pretty much every industry works by tricking people into liking things.
Like the razors with four+ blades on them, people buy them cause the commercials say “more blades is better”.
People wouldn’t seek out extra blades if they weren’t tricked into liking it. They are objectively worse than single blade razors.
Exactly. If it didn’t pay off these companies wouldn’t keep shoveling money to Facebook and Google to show their ads time and time again. Marketing is expensive. If it didn’t at least break even then nobody would be doing it anymore by now. Obviously it works, otherwise I wouldn’t ever know what the fuck a squarespace or a goddamn raid shadow legends is.
Well sir. Given that the algorhythm designed for procuring that content is literally the best at its job bar none. And having also had personal experience with this. One of two things or both is happening. #1 you like to partake in partying and you seek that out sometimes. And the software knows that. #2 you associate with drugs dealers who are in your social media circles.
Let’s be clear. This content isnt shown to you just because. Its being shown to you because you have displayed a pattern of seeking where these items come into play or you talk to people who regularly engage in this.
I’m a 28 year old man. I have never been shown a targeted advertisement for feminine hygiene products. Also I had never seen advertisements on social media for literal drugs and shit until I went thru a phase where I developed a pretty bad coke habit for a while and had a lot of dealers in my phone.
You assume that the algorithm works perfectly. It does not. Sometimes, the data points it connects on people is “male person living in Kansas” and just serve you ads with those keywords. Which means one day you see an ad for Cheerios, the next day you see an ad for your local crystal meth store.
It could just be that they work in a kitchen.
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I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that 100%. To an extent maybe, but there are ads that get presented to me sometimes that is just wild out of the blue and I’m like what the fuck. I didn’t do anything to suggest. I might like this at all. So I can understand what this person saying
You should read the article.
stop following rap/hip-hop artists
We thought they would use crime prediction for putting us to jail, but instead they just advertise
Where I live it’s largely the same though on facebook marketplace and not on instagram. Counterfeit money, weapons (which are almost completely illegal where I live, even basic non-lethal things like pepper spray and tasers) and more than anything prostitution. The thing is, these are “sponsored ads” which are all supposedly screened and approved manually. Also you can report them and Facebook won’t take them down.
Before someone suggests it cause I’ve seen this response a couple times in this thread already: No, I am not searching those things or related products on Facebook or elsewhere on the web.
Also Met’s estimate that only 1 out of every 2000 ads violates their policy is straight up laughable. There’s no way they themselves believe that. I would say at least 25% of the ads I see are of this nature. Literally dozens a day.