#burbank

[mostlysignssomeportents]

There’s never just one ant

So there's a great Thai restaurant in my neighborhood called Kiin. Yesterday, I searched for their website to order some takeout. Here's the Google result.

That top result (an ad)? It's fake. It goes to https://kiinthaila.com, which is NOT the website for Kiin.

The *third* result is real: https://kiinthaiburbank.com

Fake site:

Real site:

I got duped. I placed an order with the fake site. The fake site then placed the order - in my name! -  with the real site, having marked up the prices by 15%. Kiin clearly knows they're doing this (presumably by the billing data on the credit card the fakesters use to place the order). They called me within minutes to tell me they'd cancelled the fakesters' order.

I could still come pick it up, but I'd have to pay them, and cancel the payment to the fakesters with Amex. Actually, as it turns out, I have to cancel TWO payments, because the fakesters DOUBLE-charged me.

Here's what that charge looks like on my Amex bill. See that phone number? [phone] is the number for Wix, who provides the scammers' website.

How the actual FUCK did these obvious scammers get an Amex merchant account in the name of "KIINTHAILA" by after supplying the phone number for a website hosting company? What is Amex's KYC procedure? Do they even call the phone number?

And why the actual FUCK is Google Ads accepting these scam artists' ads for a business that they already have a knowledge box for?! Google KNOWS what the real KIIN restaurant is, and yet they are accepting payment to put a fake KIIN listing two slots ABOVE the real one.

To be fair to these scammer asshole ripoff creeps who are trying to steal from my local mom-and-pop, single location Thai eatery, they're just following in the shoes of Doordash and Uber Eats, who did the same thing to hundreds (thousands?) of restaurants during lockdown.

Doug Rushkoff says that the ethic of today's "entrepreneur" is to “Go Meta” - don't provide a product or a service, simply find a way to be a predatory squatter on a chokepoint between people who do useful things and people who use those things.

These parasites have turned themselves into landlords of someone else's home, collecting rent on a property they don't own and have no connection to.

There's NEVER just one ant. I guaran-fucking-tee you that these same creeps have 1,000 other fake Wix websites with 1,000 fake Amex merchant accounts for 1,000 REAL businesses, and that Google has sold them ads for every one of them. Amex and Google and Wix should be able to spot these creeps FROM ORBIT. Holy shit do we live in the worst of all possible timelines. We have these monopolist megacorps that spy on and control everything we do, wielding the most arbitrary and high-handed authority.

And yet they do NOT ONE FUCKING THING to prevent these petty scammers from using their infra as force-multipliers to let them steal from every hungry person patronizing every local restaurant.

I mean, what's the point of letting these robber-barons run the entire show if they're not even COMPETENT?

ETA: Dinner was delicious

#thai food #burbank #google ads #kyc #amex #wix #creeps #ripoffs #go meta

[americaisdead]

burbank, california. january 2024

© tag christof

#tag christof #america is dead #on the road #socal #burbank #new topographics #nikon zf

[sailorsally]

Kissa him 🤲💗

#misha Collins #Burbank

[coolthingsguyslike]

#Elvis Presley #1968 #Comeback Special #black leather #Burbank

[anjdraws]

steven universe burbank au. all the characters are regular animation industry-adjacent people who live in the valley....tired story intern lapis lazuli

from last year

playlist in 2nd pic

#steven universe #su #lapis lazuli #lapis #lapidot #lapis x peridot #peridot #burbank au #burbank #jeff rosenstock #car seat headrest #cartoon network #cn #pearl #stets uninu #calarts #artists on tumblr #zine #steven universe au #my bloody valentine #glass beach #mitski #sapphic art #su lapis #su au

[artdecodude]

HOLY SHIT, IT'S ART DECO FISH FOUNTAIN FRIDAY !!!

#art deco #california #Florida #miami beach #los angeles #burbank

[oldshowbiz]

Pepe's Mexican Food in Burbank, California.

#burbank #mexican food #vintage #NBC #burbank studios

[victoriaorolfoart]

Some BG paintings from the beginning of the Glitterwood Arc of We Baby Bears, episode "Unica's House". I'll be looking for work now that my time on the show has come to an end, so I'm gonna try to post as much as I can! 🐻‍❄️🐼🐻📦🌟

#digital art #digital painting #women in animation #art #photoshop #artists on instagram #artists on tumblr #concept art #visdev #illustration #we baby bears #we bare bears #burbank #animation #cartoon network #cartoon network studios #visual development #hbomax #max #unica #wbb #forest #nature #background art #background #backgrounds #background painting

[dawnanddorisqna]

Burbank? Have you per chance ever run into the Warner Siblings?

Who hasn't?

#doris and dawn #doris doodle #dawn doodle #animaniacs #dot warner #the warner siblings #wakko warner #yakko wakko and dot #burbank #toontown #animaniacs 2020 #cartoon #animation #drawings #california

[charleshiltonart]

Personal Project 2021

#background art #charles hilton #personal art #burbank #california #illinois #i

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Flowering cactus at dawn, with banana trees.

#burbank #xeriscape

[creationfathers]

Me: "So for this" (slides magazine over)

I started this thing on threads and I was wondering if you'd write something for the ones following it. We're on like day 190-something"

Misha: "like what?"

Me: "I don't know, like, stop following me or something... (Nervous) Stop following me, not you"

Misha: smiling "on threads?"

Me: "yes"

You're welcome everyone 😁

Bonus Jensen auto too

Thanks @mishacollins

#misha collins #misha #misha fucking collins #threads #supernatural #Burbank

[sailorsally]

Misha??? Talking about Ikea?????

#misha collins #burbank #also this is such a mood #re shopping in general

[deadmotelsusa]

The Plaza 76 Motel of Burbank, Ohio is abandoned. The original design and A frame lobby remain intact.

#someone save this beauty #plaza 76 motel #burbank #ohio #then and now #deadmotelsusa

[omgjordanworld]

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Week 6 of Burbank for Palestine’s weekly protest outside Congressman Adam Schiff’s Burbank offices

#free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #free gaza #save palestine #palestine #burbank #protest #free free palestine #gaza genocide #stand with gaza #gaza strip #gaza #california #photography

[artdecodude]

A compilation of photos of #ArtDeco #mailboxes that I have taken throughout the years + one of myself with the co-author of the book 📚: Art Deco Mailboxes: Karen Greene.

#art deco #new york city #new orleans #losangeles #burbank #miami beach #buffalo