Spyware Inc.

from the dot-com-ethics-at-work dept

I almost hate to post the following story because it'll only confirm for some people that everyone who ran a dot com was a greedy, cheating, lying, son-of-a-bitch, but the story is still so interesting that I figured it's worth posting. It's the story of the three founders of WebResults who seem to have lied, cheated, intimidated, and swindled their way to millions of dollars and who may currently control part of your computer without you knowing about it. It details how they built a business based almost entirely on trickery and lies (and false charges), and then sold that business for lots of money. They then used that money and the time they were supposed to be running that part of the business to try to make a movie (written and starring one of the founders) using company employees to do the filming work. They were eventually fired for this, but took some of the sneaky technology they had created to start a spyware company. That company also seemed to put the spyware onto numerous computers through trickery. Basically, these guys are a new generation of con men, and (so far) they've been able to get away with most of their cons. The article, itself, ends rather abruptly, and doesn't seem to conclude (as it should) with where these guys are now, and what't they're doing.