CBC News story / no-fly ban

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pianokeys
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Re: CBC News story / no-fly ban

Post by pianokeys »

digits_ wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 4:37 am
So tell me again, which part of the transaction the lady did should have been a dead giveaway?
Every link you provided are known, trusted, legitimate, and researchable companies. Except number 8 in that WeChat link you sent, I wouldnt trust that, seems fishy.

I think youre grasping for straws here, suggesting someone should steer clear of Sell Of Vacations because it has a "employee pricing event" because of an argument I made is pretty dumb. I, and most of the public, know who they are and can easily research them to ensure validity. But some idiot claiming hot flash sales or whatever at 50% off who has zero credibility, zero researchability, and zero legitimacy is not a good idea. Thats the whole point of my argument, do your research, dont get hosed, look things up, check things out. Seems like you, yourself, could fall for a trap like she did with your logic.
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digits_
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Re: CBC News story / no-fly ban

Post by digits_ »

pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am
Every link you provided are known, trusted, legitimate, and researchable companies. Except number 8 in that WeChat link you sent, I wouldnt trust that, seems fishy.
First of all, thank you for actually looking at the links I posted (no sarcasm)!

It doesn't matter if you would trust it, the question is, is it reasonable for someone else to trust it?

We have an app that is actively being used by airlines to get bookings (wechat). We then have a user on that app that claims to be an air canada employee and give 50% discounts. Customer buys something and gets a ticket. How is she to know that this is a fraudlent transaction?
pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am I think youre grasping for straws here, suggesting someone should steer clear of Sell Of Vacations because it has a "employee pricing event" because of an argument I made is pretty dumb.
Air Canada is the one grasping at straws. I had never heard of Sell of Vacations, I just listed it as an example that even in the airline ticketing industry, companies are advertising employee pricing events, indicating that employees selling tickets for 50% off wouldn't necessarily raise any red flags.

pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am I, and most of the public, know who they are and can easily research them to ensure validity. But some idiot claiming hot flash sales or whatever at 50% off who has zero credibility, zero researchability, and zero legitimacy is not a good idea. Thats the whole point of my argument, do your research, dont get hosed, look things up, check things out.
Okay, let's say I was the lady, and I would be doing my research.

Start with the basics:
1) Is Air Canada a real airline? Yes
2) Is wechat something trustworthy? Hmm millions of users, probably. And I've been using it for years without problems (sounds a bit like facebook)
3) Can I buy airline tickets on there? I google (or chinese google) a bit and see that Air France and some chinese airlines are selling tickets there, cool.
4) Hmm, a guy is offering discounts, I can either use a guy on wechat or a website that claims to give 80% off. 80% off seems fishy. 50% off with an employee discount event doesn't seem too farfetched. After all I bought a cheap dining table here last month as well
5) Cool he sent me a ticket, glad he's not a scammer
6) Oh the ticket works, must be a good deal, I'll use them again for sure!
pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am Seems like you, yourself, could fall for a trap like she did with your logic.
That is a possiblity. My point is a big number of people could fall for stints like this. Maybe not with airline tickets, because we all work in aviation, but with other products I could see it happening. We might all be up to snuff on all the new technology, but there will most likely be a day that we won't be. Hell, people are using apps everyday I haven't even heard of. That is why I am giving this lady the benefit of the doubt.

Don't forget, it's the scammer that was stealing credit card information, not the lady.
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islandguy
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Re: CBC News story / no-fly ban

Post by islandguy »

digits_ wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:01 am
pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am
Every link you provided are known, trusted, legitimate, and researchable companies. Except number 8 in that WeChat link you sent, I wouldnt trust that, seems fishy.
First of all, thank you for actually looking at the links I posted (no sarcasm)!

It doesn't matter if you would trust it, the question is, is it reasonable for someone else to trust it?

We have an app that is actively being used by airlines to get bookings (wechat). We then have a user on that app that claims to be an air canada employee and give 50% discounts. Customer buys something and gets a ticket. How is she to know that this is a fraudlent transaction?
pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am I think youre grasping for straws here, suggesting someone should steer clear of Sell Of Vacations because it has a "employee pricing event" because of an argument I made is pretty dumb.
Air Canada is the one grasping at straws. I had never heard of Sell of Vacations, I just listed it as an example that even in the airline ticketing industry, companies are advertising employee pricing events, indicating that employees selling tickets for 50% off wouldn't necessarily raise any red flags.

pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am I, and most of the public, know who they are and can easily research them to ensure validity. But some idiot claiming hot flash sales or whatever at 50% off who has zero credibility, zero researchability, and zero legitimacy is not a good idea. Thats the whole point of my argument, do your research, dont get hosed, look things up, check things out.
Okay, let's say I was the lady, and I would be doing my research.

Start with the basics:
1) Is Air Canada a real airline? Yes
2) Is wechat something trustworthy? Hmm millions of users, probably. And I've been using it for years without problems (sounds a bit like facebook)
3) Can I buy airline tickets on there? I google (or chinese google) a bit and see that Air France and some chinese airlines are selling tickets there, cool.
4) Hmm, a guy is offering discounts, I can either use a guy on wechat or a website that claims to give 80% off. 80% off seems fishy. 50% off with an employee discount event doesn't seem too farfetched. After all I bought a cheap dining table here last month as well
5) Cool he sent me a ticket, glad he's not a scammer
6) Oh the ticket works, must be a good deal, I'll use them again for sure!
pianokeys wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:42 am Seems like you, yourself, could fall for a trap like she did with your logic.
That is a possiblity. My point is a big number of people could fall for stints like this. Maybe not with airline tickets, because we all work in aviation, but with other products I could see it happening. We might all be up to snuff on all the new technology, but there will most likely be a day that we won't be. Hell, people are using apps everyday I haven't even heard of. That is why I am giving this lady the benefit of the doubt.

Don't forget, it's the scammer that was stealing credit card information, not the lady.
I'm not going to weigh in one way or another on this one, but I keep seeing WeChat referred to as 'some chat app', which completely ignores the reality of WeChat in China. A few million users? Try over a billion. I get why YOU might not trust Facebook Messenger as a marketplace, but to then extend that logic to WeChat in China betrays an ignorance of how central WeChat is to the Chinese.

Start here, go down the rabbit hole. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/what-is ... g-app.html

Since I know some (many) (most?) (probably all) of you won't bother reading the link, here's a short take.

WeChat Key Statistics
1.08 billion monthly active WeChat users (Q3 2018)
Tencent claim one billion daily active users (Jan 2019)
WeChat the fifth most-used app in the world
45 billion WeChat messages sent on a daily basis over 2018
410 million audio and video calls per day on WeChat
46TB of data consumed on WeChat over one minute of the morning rush hour
WeChat accounts for 34% of total mobile data traffic in China
WeChat market penetration in China at 79%
Around 30% of mobile internet time in China is spent on WeChat
One million WeChat mini programs are used by 600 million people
170 million WeChat mini program users per day
Average user opens four mini programs daily
17 million active ‘official accounts’ as of late 2017
900 million users of WeChat Pay on a monthly basis
Tenpay market penetration at 84% (includes other Tencent payment apps)
820 million users sent or received a Chinese New Year red package over WeChat in 2019
2,000 mini games available on WeChat
300 million players of WeChat mini games
Mini games account for 33% of the top-100 mini programs, with 81% of mini programs users playing a game
Top games played by over 100 million users
WeChat Moments counts 750 million daily users
10 billion hits on WeChat Moments every 24 hours
30 million active users of WeChat at Work, 1.5 million enterprises
83% of WeChat users use the general app for work
Average user had 194 contacts (as of 2016)
250,000 users use WeChat to access bus/metro services every minute during the morning rush hour
Total Tencent revenue at $11.7 billion in Q3 2018; profit at $3.4 billion
Current Tencent market cap around $418 billion (Feb 2019)
47% increase in advertising revenues in Q3 2018, which account for 20% of total revenue
WeChat drove $50 billion into the Chinese economy in 2017
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