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Comment by system2 | Hacker News Reader

Why does this surprise anyone? These companies exist in LA everywhere. Checkout

https://coalitiontechnologies.com/who-we-are

None of the cartoon characters are real humans, no portfolio, no bio, just a name (not even a damn last name) and a "business title". They hire free people from craigslist and "interview" them on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=coalition+techn...

They hire people, promise the same things. They quit after a week or so. They make companies sign ridiculous contracts and never deliver either.

Ali is not guilty, marketing is purely scam these days, he is just following the trend.

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> Ali is not guilty, marketing is purely scam these days, he is just following the trend.

Following criminals is not a valid justification in front of a jury. Crime is a common occurrence, it does not make it not crime. Everybody is the same is just an excuse for criminals to not feel guilty about their acts.

"BUT EVERYBODY ELSE WAS DOING IT!" - 6 year old me.

There is legal precedent for this, at least in Australia.

If you are fired for doing something wrong that others are also doing (and they're not fired for it), you have a case for an unfair dismissal suit [1].

I'm sure it applies elsewhere too.

[1] IANAL

True, I am of course not supporting Ali, but singling him out as if he created a scheme on his own is wrong. I can easily bet my one month salary on 99% of marketing companies out there doing the same.

I know it from personal experience because I had to work with many from Los Angeles thru my clients. All deception and lies.

Ali said 6 months commission and no client signed. Does he owe money? No. Did he lie? Yes, because he created fake profiles and lied about his resume as well as his company portfolio. Every marketing company does the same without an exception.

I mean, that's a bet I'll take. Everyone exaggerates a bit, but there's no way you really believe 99 out of 100 marketing companies are making up fake coworkers and flat-out lying about their entire portfolio.

Probably a little exaggerated, make it 90%. Maybe top 1% is doing it right. Small / medium marketing companies are not telling the truth ever. Show me some marketing companies and I can spot their lies within minutes for you. I am very used to it.

You are getting downvoted to pieces, but working in the industry myself you are closer to the truth than others want to believe.

You are exaggerating.. but not too far off. Having experience with small marketing agencies (which are very often actually just one dude), the amount of "creativity" in their "strategies" is insane, and probably criminal. And yes, they all claim everybody else is doing it too.

He fooled a whole bunch of people, just because lots of other people are going around scamming anybody they can does not in any way make any of them any less guilty.

I think I should write sarcasm with big letters before posting anything on an online platform.

you can also use a "/sarcasm" closing tag

Actually, that Coalition Technologies company was interesting. Maybe the summation line was a bit over-the top.

Yeah, the Web has allowed shops that used to be no more than kiosks in the corridors of a dying mall, to front like they are megacorps.

Nothing new (as was pointed out), but it’s a lot easier to do, these days, than it used to be.

This guy probably could have pulled it off, if he had kept his scope small.

That’s what tends to kill a lot of cons; they get too big, where they allow themselves to be put into a “put up or shut up” situation.

Sort of reminds me of the movie The Producers.

I often read about successful companies that started off as spit-and-baling-wire façades.

> Ali is not guilty, marketing is purely scam these days, he is just following the trend.

Having generic stock art on your about page isn't great, but it's a fine line.

Making up coworkers, stealing work and saying it's your own, not paying people, etc. That's not "marketing", and I really hope you don't believe that.

the first business venture i worked for had a theatre for giving presentations. on the wall of the theater was a 20 story building, all mirrored glass, framed against the sky with the company logo. it looked a little different than the two story Mountain View industrial park build we were in.

was that fraud? not really. was that marketing? it certainly was. but it was clearly a lie. was that just a question of degree?

Employee numbers are routinely inflated and employee pages on websites etc are "forgotten to be updated" during downturns.

Stealing work is a routinely done by marketing agencies and their employees.. directly and indirectly (look up the real Allstate Mayhem story if you can find it- it was originally pitched to a different insurance company, not used, ripped off and the new agency that "created" it won't actually allow Allstate to do any Mayhem work with any other agency by contract - which is an unprecedented stipulation (typically agency work rights are reserved by the client).

As for not paying people, there is a reason "fuck you pay me" is a thing.

That reminds me of Mike Monteiro's famous Meetup talk: https://vimeo.com/22053820

One of our competitors claimed to have eight employees on thier books but thier turnover listed at companies house was £25k so that was obviously bullshit.

Why do they exist? In the hopes that eventually it could work?

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