Eeek.

Damn, Nietzsche was right.

I'm an old fart compaired to the majority of internet yungins here that are up to speed with this sort of stuff. I read the linked info & understood most of what was going on (but am not hep to a lot of it). One thing has me especially curious: the references to his heritage ("Being a Jew, Goldstein charges hyperinflated prices for services...", etc.)? Am I missing something, this really seems out there to me? I'm generally an asshole & say what I think, but this is completely over the line to me. Can someone explain please.

I agree. This is humor? And while the guy was a dick, what they apparently did in retaliation was even more dickish.

The all black faxes are a great old fashioned way to wreak havoc, especially if you tape pages together in a loop and let it keep sending, ooh, vicious. If I wasn't at work I would read the posts, grrr. this looks good.

@wvFrugan: Crossing the line is Encyclopedia Dramatica's forte.

@icruise:

I found it pretty funny, just because of how he reacted. He went on the forum the story was posted and threatened everyone on there with lawsuits and said over and over how he wasn't going to refund the guy.

In reality, the guy certainly did not deserve all the happened to him but I admit fully that I'm a A-Hole and find stuff like this hilarious. As long as this stays non-violent that is, I don't want to see the guy get attacked or anything of that variety because he certainly does not deserve that.

Woah. I never thought I'd see a link to an ED article on Consumerist.

@koreanforrabbit:
No kidding, my thoughts too.

This is the one and only time I wish I had a paid SA account.

@wvFrugan: At best it's simple bigotry. It's not a question of simply being over the line. Taken to its natural extreme, you wind up with Hitler's final solution. It's no better than shouting the "n" word on street corners.

@Joseph Metcalf: What, when he said that God was dead?

@koreanforrabbit: For all the serious stuff Consumerist posts - product recalls, CC skimming - it's nice to get a good, juvenile break like this once in a while.

@icruise: Grow a pair and get a sense of humor. The guy is a douchebag and he got what he deserved.

Haha that was frakin awesome! Don't mess with teh internets.

I used to send those black fax pages to the guys who sent illegal fax advertising, I called it FAXTHRAX.

And the lesson of the day is, don't fark with /b/.

@wvFrugan: Your reaction is mild compared to some, and that in part is why it gets said - the reaction

No doubt this guy was a jerk, but the antisemitism in the linked article was a bit of a turn-off. That merits more than a simple NSFW warning in my book (even if it was supposed to be a joke).

@icruise: I think the retaliation was one thing, ordering fake pizzas, UPS boxes and costing other companies not involved in the scam is another. That can hurt local businesses, and while I'm by no means a fan of UPS...

Poking the hell out of Goldstein is one thing, the local companies is another.

I love when people are put in their place. Though the ED article is full of anti-Jew stuff. Can someone tell me, is this just such massive sarcasm/satire that I can't tell, or is there actual racism involved?

Me thinks it's just because it makes an easy target and they'd poke fun at whatever stereotype they could fit him into.

@nerdychaz:

Of course, unless the guy has a 30 year old fax machine it isn't using thermal paper and won't damage anything.

Also, most fax machines stop at about 25 pages, so it won't use a lot of paper, either. That and who actually has a fax machine that *prints* faxes anymore? They usually end up on a PC where they'd be quickly deleted and wouldn't take much more than 5 or 10 kb of disk space.

And it won't tie up the machine for long, since an all black page will take all of 10 seconds to transmit in maximum quality after compression.

All in all, it's a big waste of time for the sender.

@coren: Right. I don't think you're going to find many real anti-Semites on ED, SA, 4chan, et al. They'll say anything to get a reaction and racism is pretty much their go-to tool for that.

@MikeGrenade: Jews did 9/11, etc. Yep, that's the gist of it - they want the reaction and the attention, they could give a crap what sentiment gets it.

@Mackinstyle: The anti-Jew thing is about 2 percent actual people who feel that way and 98 percent because that gets/got a reaction, and why change what works? They're trolls, they troll. Jews did 9/11 etc. gets a reaction, so off they go

@mackinstyle
Internet attacks like these usually aren't specifically racist. The attack is broad and leaves no stone unturned and internet communities love to use stereotypes to make comical posters and such.

This + p-p-powerbook = anons best work (I <3 my guy fawkes mask)

As much as I am happy Goldstein is being target for his silly acts, i'm disappointed in Consumerist for posting this with a link to Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Words from 4chan leave a bad taste for a lot of people, many of which I believe read this website regularly. Plus, while this is originally a story about one eBay seller poorly communicating with a customer, that point has basically no weight in comparison to the rest of story.

ED is one of those websites that you leave alone in the shadows of the Internet and let those who wish to seek it enjoy it.

@Mackinstyle: ED doesent care about race/religion/whatever. They hate everyone equally. If they were racist, why raid Hal Turner ([www.encyclopediadramatica.org] ) for 5 months?

@ivanthemute: And don't sue the internet.

This guy dosn't know how to sell stuff on eBay. I listened to the audio a few days ago and I lol'd when he started talking about it. He buys monitors and sells them for a cheaper price and offers free shipping. He rants about how shipping cost soo much along with fee's that it is making him loose a lot of money.

A- if you are buying something for retail price, don't sell it for cheaper price
B- if you are going to loose a lot of money on shipping, stop offering free shipping and let the buyer pay for it
C- if you are loosing money when selling on eBay - STOP SELLING!

He later says that closing the account made him happier. Stupidest eBayer alive?

*Only* 3 lawyers in goldsteins family?

@Preyfar: Anon sending fake boxes is what destroyed this economy. Quoting from another raid:

"They placed fraudulent orders worth tens of thousands of dollars for supplies of shipping boxes, envelopes, labels and packing slips to be delivered to my house from DHL and Ebay. These companies shipped these supplies thinking I had applied to be a new agent of theirs, only to find out when the shipments arrived that the whole order - placed via internet - was faked."

@Adam Reimer:

Thanks guys. I'm glad to hear that my image of what is going on is correct. I'd hate to be laughing and rooting for racists. :P

He really didn't help his cause by saying he has 3 lawyers in his family...

@Adam Reimer: Or you'll get some serious butthurt.

@D0rk: My thoughts exactly.

It's bad enough I have to deal with 95% of everyone being the 'victim' here, an odd one or two actually GOOD articles throughout the month, but now, I'm reminded about how much of a jew I am.

Oh, and something about a fag.

Good find Ben, or Perez. Your pick.

Probably best not mentioned above, but beyond the black faxes and boxes Adam Goldstein is now receiving:

Constant phone calls to his home, cell, and place of business
Black Fax copies that have successfully murdered his home and business fax ink.
His personal website has been shut down.
The Provider of his website has been shut down.
Misc. Adult mags are now being delivered to his home.
Has had dead animals thrown at his house (evidence: testimony by Adam on phone)
over 9000 ****stars contacted to meet at his home.
Myspace account hacked/shut down.
Local pizza parlors delivering tomorrow morning and afternoon.
At least 25,000 UPS boxes shipped to his home and place of business for the next 4-12 weeks.
2000 sq ft of maple hardwood samples sent to his home.
Condoms & Lube for the next 4 - 6 weeks.
Bibles, Korans, and Jehovas Witnesses scheduled to come by his office.
Various free samples/products/literature/brochures addressed to his home.
Gay Newsletters.
Constant harassment and billing charges due to excessive cell phone messages.
Streams of Islamic bibles and DVDs with conversion tips have been constantly shipped.
Male prostitutes have been sent.
Posters of H1N1 virus posted around his house.
Posters calling him a child molester have been posted around his house. (Picture is [partyvan.info] there. NSFW NOT SAFE FOR ANYONE)

@The Donut Pirate: This must be said

We know who you are, we don't care what you want. If you think you can pay your way out through ransom, I can tell you we don't want money. But what we do have are a very particular set of skills; skills we have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make us a nightmare for people like you. If you close down business and turn off your internet, that'll be the end of it. We will not look for you, we will not pursue you. But if you don't, we will look for you, we will find you, and we will van you.

It's partially out of a sense of irony, but Mike's right. It's just a way to get a reaction. Preferably a pissed-off, foaming-at-the-mouth reaction.

@Adam Reimer:

Scary as hell just how massively vicious the internet can get when you incite it enough. It's the ultimate vigilante- near-total anonymity for the trolls and practically zero legal recourse for the victims because of that.

dammit, I just wasted an hour on encyclopedia dramatica

@enderx: I believe the proper /b/ term is "jewfag" (my apologies, just trying to help you with the 'proper' lingo).

I had to block 4chan via DNS a while ago to stop myself from looking at it...it's like a train wreck, you don't want to look but you can't help but look and stare and go WTF?! and keep looking.

SA, ED, 4chan all in the same post on Consumerist? All the tinfoil-hat-wearing people are right for once, these are the end of days!

Altho, you gotta wonder just how accurate this ED 'article' is. Last I checked ED was filled with so many un-truths that it could win an award for "Fantasy Novel of the Year"

I'll vote Perez

@wvFrugan: Actually, by asking this, I guarantee you that you've inspired a few more of 'em to continue with this sort of thing- if not go beyond.

That's part of what makes it funny.

i followed this, he got destroyed... heres some of the things they did to this guy

-Male strippers being ordered to his home.
-Bibles and Korans delivered to his house as well as Jehovah's Witnesses scheduled to come by his office.
-Year-long subscriptions to gay newsletters.
-Constant harassment and billing charges due to excessive cell phone messages.
etc,
they dude got what he deserved imo

We're all (relatively) civilized here on Consumerist, but there is a consumer-seller war going on out there. On one had, the consumers who get shafted take it a bit too far sometimes. On the other hand, you've got a lot of duchebag scammers out there with IQs smaller than their genetal sizes who think that the internets is a LOL!!!11one place to take people's money.

Put them together, and this is what you've got.

Hey, it's damn entertaining.

@Adam Reimer: Nice one. But that movie was slightly disturbing. Liam Neeson awesomeness aside.

@Inglix_the_Mad: I love this part of a voice conversation with him: [www.tindeck.com]

@wvFrugan: It's ED; it's satire. In fact, the best kind of satire.

That said, generally these things have some kind of meaning attached.

@Preyfar: Yeah, the guy had it coming, but I draw the line where other, uninvolved people start getting hit.