wenxun

This one:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6455391

This is their previous checkout page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592827

A quick count from these three websites showed several hundreds customers have fallen victims:

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.justfab.com

http://www.scambook.com/company/view/146/JustFabcom

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/justfab.html

If you google "justfab review" or "justfab scam" or "justfab fraud", there are surely many more.

They have engineered their checkout page to be less deceptive. This is their previous page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592827

Check out their previous checkout page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592827

Check their previous checkout page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592827

Maybe they engineered their checkout page to be less deceptive since last year, but the number of victims are still increasing:

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.justfab.com

http://www.scambook.com/company/view/146/JustFabcom

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/justfab.html

If you look at the edit history of JustFab wiki page, you'll see most of the stuff related to their shady business practice was added after last year's discussion [3]

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592778

The credit card was issued by China Construction Bank. China's financial & banking system is not as advanced as the US, many Chinese people don't use online banking at all.

Her father was the main card holder, and she was using the second card, her father paid the bills every month as soon as he received the paper statement, he didn't notice anything suspicious.

Some people asked why it took her 8 months to find out [3]: she was studying for her Master degree in the US, didn't have a SSN, was using a credit card issued by a bank in her home country, her father paid the bill for her at home and didn't notice anything unusual until she finished her study and came home to look at the credit card bills.

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4592778

My girlfriend was studying in the US at the time, she didn't have a SSN, she was using a visa card issued by the china construction bank, her father paid the bill every month and didn't notice anything unusual. She finished her study and returned back to China last month, only then did she find out the $39.95 charge for the last eight months. Basically JustFab robbed her $320 for nothing.

p.p.s. Anyone could just simply google "justfab scam" to see how many others have been victimized. I'm surprised such large scale scam got unnoticed.

I just stumbled upon this piece on Business Insider "JustFab Raises $76 Million To Create The H&M Fashion Brand Of The Web". http://www.businessinsider.com/justfab-raises-76-million-to-...

It kept me wonder why a company with very questionable (I will try to avoid using the word "fraudulent") business model was able to raise big money. Didn't the VCs have to do the due diligence?

I didn't have any direct experience with JustFab. The victim was my girlfriend. Back in January or so, one of her friends emailed her a link to JustFab, then she bought a pair of shoes from www.justfab.com and never visit the website again. Only 8 months later, in early September she was appalled to find out that her credit card has been charged a $39.95 fee for the last eight months. Yes, $39.95 for 8 months, without geting anything from JustFab.

I then did a bit research on the internet. It turned out my girlfriend wasn't the only victim. Apparently JustFab works like this: once you buy something from their website, you become their "VIP member". Then you will have to log into their website between the 1st-5th of each month and click “Skip This Month”. If no action is taken (either skip this month, or cancel your account), they just charge you a $39.95 fee every month.

According to the Business insider article, JustFab "will generate about $100 million this year" in sales, I wonder how much of this $100 million are from people like my girlfriend who simply didn't read their entire 2,500 words Terms of Service and were unaware that they were charged $39.95 a month for nothing.

"In the study, which follows up on another report done last year by comScore called the Power of Like, the research firm found that being a fan of a brand on Facebook causes people to purchase that brand more frequently.

For example, comScore tracked people who were Starbucks fans on Facebook against a control group of people who weren't exposed to those messages. ComScore found that over a four-week period, fans and their friends bought 38% more frequently at Starbucks than people who weren't exposed to the Facebook marketing."

http://www.pubup.org/

social news, yes, but the larger part of the Pubup.org site is for research papers and scientific journal articles, I believe this is the first of its kind.

Thanks for the catch, we changed the up/down buttons, can you check it again and let us know. Thanks!

This is a valid point, we definitely need to improve that, right now we don't have much content, it looks like an empty shelf, lol

Yes, that's a good point. I think in addition to sharing research articles and reviews, the PubUp system can also be used to post or link to scientific news, blog posts, or anything related to the community, that's why we have a "News" category in addition to the "Bio, Chem, CS, Math, Physics, etc" categories.

We are trying to build a system where users can share papers (both published and preprint) they deem important, write a short review/commentary on the paper: why it is good or not good, what else can be done, whether the experiment can be reproduced, is the conclusion solid or not, etc, then people can comment on the paper, comment on the reviews, upvote/downvote, any everything.

This is our fun side project, and we just launched 3 days ago, so badly need feedback from the community. Thanks for your comment!

Thank you for your input, yes, it is hard to attract users in this field, reaching a critical mass is even harder, and feel free to share the papers your read with PubUp. We just launched 3 days ago, and welcome all kinds of ideas. Can you explain a bit "a researchblogging-like trackback system"? PubUp.org does have a trackback when users link to the URLs of other sources. I took a look at your site, seems a very nice blog!

Yes, we built the site using an open source CMS, did very little customization, will definitely have to re-design the whole front page and everything.

Hi mende, thanks for your comments, a few things I can think of right now:

1. we want to change the current peer review system, instead of letting 2 or 3 reviewers deciding your paper's fate, why not take advantage of ALL peers in your field? We're not quite there yet as it is a big goal, and we believe this is the right direction to head to.

2. academic journal publications are growing exponentially, how to select good papers from noise? PubUp provides peer curated selection of papers that are worth reading.

A bit "About us": PubUp is an open access online platform for researchers to discover & share journal articles that are worth reading, to discuss scientific ideas that are worth spreading, and to connect with people who share similar interests. We'd appreciate it if you provide any feedback, comments or suggestions.

True, but it seems to me that Mendeley and us are addressing different aspects of the same problem

My friends and I build a website for scientists to discover & share journal articles that are worth reading, to discuss scientific ideas that are worth spreading, and to connect with people who share similar interests: http://www.pubup.org/ . Please let me know what you think of the idea and the website. Thanks!

Bubble? what bubble?

Facebook "acquires the team" means the startup has failed and all the founders and engineers are going to work for Facebook?