Three men in Thailand ran clickfarm with over 300,000 SIM cards and 400 iPhones

theverge.com

33 pointslunaru3 comments

>>The Bangkok Post says the men were arrested on several charges including overstaying their visas, working without a permit, using unregistered SIM cards, and, according to a later report also from the Bangkok Post, smuggling.

So if they had arranged the correct visas, paid for a business license and bought the SIM cards legitimately, they could have continued to operate legally. Perhaps all of the above would have reduced their margins to nothing, but I still find it interesting that the actual operation of a clickbot network was never really in question.

I wouldn't even know what part of [inter]national law(s) that could/would be covered by.

Its very common to get criminals on peripheral charges - like tax evasion. Because they are criminals, they habitually circumvent the law. Its easier than making the big charges stick.

This, uh... It just doesn't appear to be anything criminal.

I mean, it's not even unsavory. It's not embezzlement. It's not fraud. It's not even spam.

Is it a waste of electricity?

Oh... I guess so...

Yeah, wasting electricity is "kind of" irksome. Maybe. (depending on context)

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