Yet another form of automotive weaselness

---Though it can be applied to nearly anything. Anyway...

Every once in a while, I search on "Midlana" to see what turns up. This was a new one: https://saleoffar.shop/product_details/3283166.html

So they copied the photo of Midlana from the BringATrailer site and are attempting to sell "it" for $52. "It" is in quotes because I don't know what you get for the money. Their strange ad says to "choose size", and comically, the available sizes are for shoes, clothing, and jeans. So, you pick a "size", and then what do you get? A picture, a painting, a poster? Heck, it could be a PDF - it doesn't say. Most likely, I suspect you get charged $52 and don't receive anything.

This is similar to my rant about YouTube in general, that it appears that most "creators" just steal content from others, posting it up as their own and taking the revenue. Often, they say something like "If any of these are yours, contact us and we'll make it right." They know full well that most creators won't ever realize that their work has been stolen.

Totally not a scam site.  Im gonna order 3 midlanas and one of those 52$ subaru justy's. 

I ordered the XXL, because I love the concept of the Midlana, but want to be able to tow my trailer. 

TJL (Forum Supporter) said:

Totally not a scam site.  Im gonna order 3 midlanas and one of those 52$ subaru justy's. 

I'm with you on the Midlanas but $52 seems like a lot of money for a Subaru Justy.

According to the banner at the top of the page if you buy 2 you get 1 free, plus there's free shipping for orders over $50.

Interestingly, the 'related products' include a bunch of different baby strollers.

It's not in the same league of weaselness, but some years ago I found a person selling refrigerator magnets with photos of my car (that I had taken personally) on them.  They had a bunch of auctions going, all with photos they had apparently just copied from online searches.  I reported the auction and then messaged the person to tell them to knock it off, but of course they didn't reply.

Introspective ramblings on a Saturday morning:

The worst aspect of it is that they then have your credit card number. There is/was an eBay and Amazon seller that sells "anti-radiation" outlet covers. To the non-technical people here, let me explain how they work: Say you've just discovered that electrical power to your home comes from a nuclear power plant. What to do - how can you protect yourself and your loved ones?! Their high quality plastic covers are guaranteed to block certain radiation from entering your home, and are easy to install!

The thing about the above is that it's both legal and absolutely correct - in a technical sense. Ordinary plastic does indeed block certain types of radiation. Of course they leave it to the reader to "realize" that radiation can travel through the wires from the power plant into their home, but never mind that.

The reason for both stories is, why am I not doing the same thing? It's not illegal, and comes down to: is it okay to take advantage of dumb people? For some reason that's hard to put a finger on, I just can't do that. I guess I believe in some sort of karma, where it will eventually catch up to the person, but I also realize that plenty of people are perfectly fine with this and apparently make enough money to continue. It's gone on forever ("snake oil salesmen"), and there was even a bit about the fear of the unseen in The Simpson's. Substitute "healing crystals" for a real-world example.

Regarding the site selling my photo, it was pointed out that there's a form to have it removed from their site. Ironically - or not - that form is on the same site. What's sadly funny is how they ask where the photo was taken from; they should know because they took it! Pretty sure that adding one's personal info to that page only results in being added to a spam list.

In reply to kb58 :

Just like the "solar powered clothes dryer" for $50. 

Once folks ordered it, they received a clothesline in the mail

I think a lot of what this is is AI scraping the internet for content that people think they can use to scam a few bucks out of people. Combined with Google's new total uselessness you end up with some wild nonsense. When searching for various info while working on my 968 recently, I've noticed a lot of ridiculous things ostensibly for sale that make no sense at all but are really quite hilarious.

Case in point $22.92 for...a complaint about delaminating hatch glass:

In reply to kb58 :

The place to apply leverage to these weasels would be their internet hosting provider. Since you took the photos you own the copyright on them. Send a dmca takedown or copyright violation notice to their ISP and it'll get passed along to them. They'll probably just take the listing down but if they ignore it they might get dropped by their isp. 
 

how to send dmca takedown notices:

https://www.websitepolicies.com/blog/dmca-takedown-notice

A fairly large and legit American parts retailer stole my photo for their website and when I complained they took it down. It was back up a month later and when I complained again and pointed out that it was actually a Canadian market car they don't even sell parts for they said, oh, you're Canadian? Go berkeley yourself.