Basically Brian Dunning plead guilty a few days ago to defrauding ebay for 5.2 mil through a clever “cookie-stuffing” scheme.
I’ve been a big fan of his skeptoid podcast, and I spent a day doing touristy stuff with him when he came to Berlin. I always had a positive opinion of him as a person, but this is disappointing to say the least. There’s also an inherent irony in the fact that skeptoid served in large part to protect consumers from frauds and scams by exposing and attacking pseudoscientific beliefs and encouraging critical thinking.
Surprised there’s not more interest here. I actually learned about Skeptoid on these boards a few years ago and subsequently became aware of skepticism as a movement from that.
Anyway, agreed Terr. Way too much money involved to expect it to stay under the radar. I wonder if he didn’t realize just how effective his scheme would actually be.
Good. I’ve played poker with the man several times and he’s an egotistical a-hole. Believe me, he’s exactly the type to think he’s smart enough to get away with stuff like this.
I started listening recently after he was on SGU. At the time that I heard it I didn’t know anything about this scandal, but I thought there was a weird desperation about his “Internet Paranoia” show regarding cookies and viruses and how they can be totally benign and the government shouldn’t disallow them and I’m not involved in a cookie stuffing scheme or anything!