We believe Easynews.com Holdings Inc. stole money from our credit card account and we're pissed off.

Now it is a criminal investigation by the Winter Park, Florida, Police Depatment

This editorial review web page contains and includes our opinions, hunches, suspicions and best
guesses, and the opinions, complaints, hunches and unverified allegations of many, many others

This page is approved and monitored by our US First Amendment Attorney

PAGE FOUR

Last Edited January 4, 2022 (Asia date)

We strongly suggest starting from the beginning (Page One)

UPDATE:

This site has now been hacked (sometime in October).

It was a two-pronged attack.

One attack featured the re-writing of our robots.txt file to disallow all search engines.

We were notified of that via a service we employ, on Nov. 12, 2021. The fix took 20 seconds.

We believe the attacker came in through an old obsolete Wordpress portal that had never been deleted, but we're not sure (For God's sake, just say no to Wordpress. Really).

Gee, we wonder, who in the world might be motivated to do this?

Who, indeed.

Let the games begin.

Remember, we PREDICTED this would happen months ago.

We had dropped this matter and moved on to more important things. However, since this has happened, we want to know a very, very great deal more about these people. It appears to us that our instincts were correct all along.

The second phase of the attack involved a barrage of "complaints" to Google re the content of this page. Google is leaning more and more toward "The Facebook Way", because they've discovered they LIKE being the world's biased censors (think as Facebook does or don't think at all). You will see more and more of this kind of thing from Google as the years wear on.

We strongly suggest availing yourselves of what appears, at least so far, a much better search engine than Google: DuckDuckGo. We get far and vastly better and more accurate results there than from Google. It's reportedly "private", but who cares. We couldn't care less if the entire world knows what we search for and what pages we visit; we simply want a search engine that provides the data we search for; no more, no less.

In any case, Google apparently went through the domain and declared everything "acceptable", whatever that means, and the pages have been re-indexed as of November 15, 2021, and are propagating at this moment.

We'll say it again: We predicted this months ago. We've taken and are taking steps to disperse this content to servers around the world and in other languages, on numerous other domains, some of which are live now, and most of which are setup as fallbacks, meaning that if any content "mysteriously vanishes" from one server or domain, others will kick in. It will usually take at least a few weeks for the new pages to propagate.

But this content will never disappear from the earth, and every time "someone" pulls a dirty little stunt like this, it will be reported to us within days (or minutes, depending on the severity of the attack).

If the issue becomes too much to deal with, we will declare all copyrights to this material null and void (rescinded), and we will offer it to the Public Domain, to be copied and disseminated as the user wishes. Concerned parties can then spend every waking moment for the rest of their lives playing Whack-A-Mole and won't that be fun to watch.

We said a few months ago: "Let the Games Begin" if this shit starts happening. Okidokie. The games have begun.

This is page four of the "Easynews Steals" chronicles.

To understand this case, please start at page one.

Page four is the first "more" mobile friendly page in this series. The preceeding pages are only "somewhat" mobile friendly. We never expected this nonsense to go on this long nor to become this much of a public interest. The initial pages weren't really designed to be pretty or overly readable, they were posted mostly just to provide data for those who REALLY wanted it for various other projects (we aren't the only ones trying to FORCE compensation from Easynews.com and Chance F. Brannen). But now there's a general interest, so we must make a half-hearted effort at making the pages from here on, not so hard on the eyes. We really miss plain old HTML and we really hate "devices". In any case, this will be more viewable on a bumpy bus. Images are not yet scaling properly -- sorry. Someday.

For the record the entity in question is this one:

EASYNEWS.COM
807 W Morse Blvd, Ste 101,
Winter Park, Florida, 32789,
United States
(602) 715-1643
www.easynews.com / EasyNews Holdings Inc.
Chance Faris Brannen, "President".
DOB: 5/28/1975

Future updates will be appended on this page. The previous pages will also sometimes be reworked, edited, corrected, etc. The latest edit dates will always appear near the tops of those pages.

Let's recap and summarize to date:

Back in April of 2020 we needed to try to find very old newspaper data, microfilm/microfiche and images. We were told Easynews had access to data like that in the Newsgroups so we subscribed for a year.

We were unable to (a) find ANYTHING we were looking for and (b) were unable to download one single file of ANY KIND that wasn't corrupted and/or full of (teeming with) viruses. We had many people try to help us. None had any success whatsoever. None. It was a ridiculous exercise in utter futility.

We reached out to Easynews and it was immediately clear they intended to be assholes. We had no patience for it and demanded a full refund or a chargeback would be filed.

Easynews initially argued and were obtuse, but we persisted and the entire sum was refunded and Easynews wrote to us saying the account had been canceled and we would never be charged again (see page one for the actual copy-paste text).

Since the Easynews bad name and reputation had preceded it, we watched the credit card accounts for a couple of months. When no new charges appeared, we dropped the matter and turned thoughts to other things.

Fast forward to July of 2021, we found that Easynews had begun charging our account again way, way back in July of 2020 and had charged it every month since, for over a year.

We immediately appealed to Easynews. Easynews couldn't be bothered to reply.

We filed a dispute with Paypal. Paypal reversed ONE of the fraudulent charges, but even though the Paypal written policy says that disputes could be filed up to 180 days after the fact, Paypal said they declined to refund any of the other stolen sums. We appealed the Paypal decision; Paypal has steadfastly refused to reply in any way or form, since then. That is typical Paypal.

We then went to our VISA card, which was the funding source for the Paypal account. They refunded on one of the fraudulent charges (after ignoring the firtst dispute and forcing us to file a second chargeback).

That left 11 fraudulent charges outstanding.

We began filing complaints with a wide variety of agencies. A few replied with nonsense, because that's mostly what American agencies are now -- nonsense -- as expected, but a few began developing cases.

The most responsive agency so far has been the Winter Park, Florida Police Department (home of Easynews) in response to our criminal complaint of credit card fraud.

We are now awaiting the outcome of that investigation, and others.

Other Easynews victims have reportedly joined with that complaint.

UPDATE September 1, 2021:

(1) The Winter Park PD has, as of this date, begun issuing subpoenas in order to build the case.

(2) A curious thing has occurred:

When we check our Paypal account for ALL instances of Easynews transactions, EVER, we find only three instances. Or six. Or one. It depends. The searches can be done two minutes apart, with the exact same string and date range, yet yield wildly different results each time. Does that mean that Paypal is really that incompetent? Or does it mean, as we have alleged in previous pages (and for decades), that Paypal has some bizarre wink-wink deal with Easynews and will consciously work to thwart investigations into Easynews' less than honest transactions and debits? Having dealt with Paypal for far too long, we strongly suggest the latter. And the former.

In any case, our VISA card transactions show Paypal debits re Easynews, that Paypal does NOT show. Which one do YOU believe?

This is a slow process and will take months if not years. We've suggested to the Winter Park PD that they issue a formal subpoena to Paypal to EXTRACT the ACTUAL payment records for our account, because clearly Paypal's own interface isn't up to the task -- or it's being consciously and deliberately corrupted? THAT would be the Paypal we all know and love.

Incidentally, when we first complained to PayPal about this in July of 2021, and demanded a refund of 13 months of fraudulent charges the very first time, Paypal did refund for one month (not 13 months), and said, in writing, that they had "turned off" recurring billing that Easynews had set up without our knowledge. We stupidly took Paypal at their word. However, in August 2021, we happened to be poking around in the settings in Paypal and found that Paypal had absolutely NOT done this, and Easynews was still able to debit from our Paypal account. This is 100% typical of Paypal and is why Paypal logs something like 13,000 Better Business Bureau complaints per year. Paypal is a fucking coven of mentally handicapped Satanic worshippers and always has been. Get away from Paypal. Stay away from Paypal. Like, get away from Killer Clowns from Space and STAY away from Killer Clowns from Space. They're one and the same fucking thing.

At this point we will await the subpoena product from Winter Park PD. We suspect they will then seek a subpoena for Easynews' records. After that, a decision will be made as to the filing of criminal charges (a recommendation to go to the prosecutor) against Easynews. Then the prosecutor will decide. Since Easynews is a Florida corporation (see page one), the Winter Park PD and prosecutor will have to decide which corporate principal to actually charge with credit card fraud. Since Chance Faris Brannen is still listed as the President of Easynews, even though Highwinds bought it and then Omicron bought THEM and then apparently Stackpath bought THEM, it will be interesting to see which name ends up on the docket.

What a bucket of snakes.

What a pile of shit.

And they did this all for around a hundred bucks.

But a hundred bucks times X is.....a fortune, and there's no shortage of Easynews victims for this particular stunt. See page one and two and three, and then do your own research. The victims are legion, and many are more angry than us, even threatening physical violence.

UPDATE September 1, 2021:

We run about 55-60 domains around the world. As of this evening on this date, ALL are experiencing interruptions and glitches. It doesn't matter who the registrar is, or who the technical owner of the domain is. It doesn't matter what country they are accessed from nor does it matter what VPN is used or where it's connecting from. It doesn't matter what servers the domains are on. All domains on all servers controlled by US are being messed with.

Coincidence? Of course.

Who, oh whom (we love to drive the grammar police to apoplexy), might have the technical wherewithal to pull that off? Not Easynews. Not Highwinds. Not Omicron. Not Stackpath. SURELY none of those honorable entities could even be remotely involved. Their innate and unshakable sense of honor wouldn't allow it. Right? Right? Perish the thought. Surely not. Dismiss it out of hand from your thoughts and suspicions. It's patently absurd. Silly boys and girls.

Having said that, we had a war with Rackspace several lifetimes ago. It got bloody. And "things" began to happen, and they continued to happen until "whoever" was at it, got tired of being "at it", and went off to fight some other pesterers, of which there was a long, long list due to some heinous, heinous dealings. Those problems were exactly the same as these problems, and in that case, we KNEW where it all came from because it was bragged about in writing. This is the kind of thing Snowflakes and Millennials DO, after all. It's expected. It'd be weird if it DIDN'T happen. It's like, you catch the neighborhood thief in your basement sniffing your daughter's underwear cache. You slap him around, leave a few minor scars, and advise him not to come back, because if he does, he'll never leave again. He whimpers off into the night and is gone from your life forever. But you know he's not. He's just waiting, because he has no real life and nothing more important to do. Sooner or later, a year, three years, eight years, your tires will get slashed, your dog will get hung, your reputation will get smeared, and you know, you KNOW where it's coming from. And then you must go talk to the little pervert(s) in some manner more direct than you used the first time. This is how real life works. Humans are what they are. Ignore it at your peril..

We sort of figure if the Easynews powers that be sent the word upstairs to go harass "those people" (us), they would have waited until, say, six months after being criminally convicted or of being sued. Or five years. We have that kind of patience; others do too. But, who knows, we may have touched a nerve and they couldn't help themselves and had to have a go at us tonight. Fortunately, we have too many domains in too many names for them all to be taken down for any appreciable length of time, and it's a snap to move content from one to another. Oh, but that will mess up the search ranking? No. Because if that happens we'll forfeit the copyright on every page and put every page in the public domain, free to be used and distributed openly forever, and no limp-wristed tech company can stop THAT.

Moral: Don't steal money from credit cards. Only that. Such a simple thing.

There was a cheesy line in a gangster movie decades ago. Sean Connery, maybe: When they kill one of yours, you go kill twenty of theirs, and if they kill twenty of yours, you kill ALL of theirs. Something like that. The logic is sound. Too bad Hidin' Biden wasn't worldly enough to have used that strategy to circumvent the tragedy in Afghanistan. Then there wouldn't be a tragedy in Afghanistan. But of course there is.

UPDATE September 7, 2021:

Even as of now, Easynews is STILL trying to make MULTIPLE debits from this account using Paypal as a foil. We're having to manually reverse each one. Easynews is a real class act (meaning a real cauldron of steaming shit):

Honest question:

What will it take to stop Easynews.com from stealing money from our account that it is not entitled to nor has it earned in any way, shape or form?

We are truly beginning to believe it is going to require that we go to the home of Chance Faris Brannen and find the actual physical computer that he's using to make these debit attempts and disable it permanently. Seriously, even the most profoundly mentally handicapped would grasp by now that to continue stealing from this credit card is NOT in the company's best interest. But not Easynews. And not Chance Faris Brannen. This is really something.

UPDATE September 9, 2021:

The above double-charge attempt by Easynews on September 5, showed up on our normal VISA card that is the only remaining funding source for Paypal (we have to maintain one funding source there for when all these charges are refunded, because the refunds will go to and through Paypal). In any case, these two charges showed up on our Paypal statement about a week or ten days ago, and then mysteriously vanished without a trace. Now Paypal shows NO debits, but our VISA statement shows these two debits, FROM PAYPAL.

At this point we're just waiting to see the results of multiple subpoenas that the Winter Park police department are serving to various agencies in this mess. Once we see that data, we'll have a better idea of how to proceed. We'll say it again for the fiftieth time: Stay away from Easynews, and stay away from Paypal. Your life will be richer in every way.

UPDATE: September 22, 2021:

Latest: We are still waiting for the Winter Park Police department to finish their investigation. We "imagine" that will conclude before January, 2022. At this point, how we proceed depends entirely on that. We have lots (and lots) of avenues that can be pursued.

UPDATE:

On October 13, 2021, we received the following from Winter Park's detective

From: Detective Pam Woehr

I have looked at all the certified records and this is what I found out:

You signed up for an annual plan on April 13, 2020. 

On May 7, 2020, you changed your plan to renew (after your current plan expired the next year) on a monthly $9.98 plan. 

Then on May 13th, you requested a refund for the annual plan, which EasyNews provided.

Your account was never closed.

After your annual plan date ended, you were renewed on that $9.98 monthly plan. 

That is why you started getting charged each month. 

There are no tickets from you asking about this or requesting a refund. You filed a chargeback for one of those charges, but that left three more total charges of 9.98 (totaling $29.94).  I have talked to the company and they have told me that they will issue you a refund of $29,94 through your PayPal account. They just need to confirm that the email address for your Paypal account is correct and then once you receive the refund EasyNews would like a copy of the refund.

At this point there are no criminal charges that I can file with the State Attorney.

Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

Thank you, Detective Pamela Woehr
Criminal Investigations Division
Winter Park Police Department
500 N. Virgnia Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789

Stunning. Just breathtakingly stunning.

From Me to Detective Pam Woehr:

This was never, ever, ever changed to a monthly account BY ME. That is a lie and that is their number one means of pulling this stunt. The service was worthless. I hated it. This was all described to you. I would have never, ever used them again. There is no traffic on that account because it was never used and I never knew it existed. This is how they are perpetrating this crime. They simply "say" the customer initiated a new service or a monthly service when in fact no such thing ever occurred. It is a scam and I truly hope you are not falling for this. The complaints boards are teeming and overflowing with Easynews victims who have disputed fraudulent charges on their various payment portals, only to be told by Easynews that they had opened multiple accounts, when the customers KNOW they didn't. This is how Easynews slides out of being criminally prosecuted.

From Me to Detective Pam Woehr:

In order for this to have occurred, "someone" had to have logged into the system and manually made that change to a monthly sub. I certainly didn't do it. That means there was no access to their system from my IP or any IP I could have been remotely associated with. That leaves THEM. Find out the IP of whoever made that change and you will have your culprit. Getting to the documented IP of whoever is opening these multiple accounts for all these countless customers who are reporting this exact same phenomenon is exactly and explicitly what it's going to take to get a criminal conviction here; nothing less.

From: Detective Pam Woehr

As I stated, there are no criminal charges. The company is trying to refund your $29.94. There will be no further law enforcement action taken on this case. If you would like the refund please confirm a PayPal email address and I will relay that to the company for you.

From: Pam Woehr:

As I stated, there are no criminal charges. The company is trying to refund your $29.94. There will be no further law enforcement action taken on this.

From Me to Detective Pam Woehr:

As I stated to you in a previous email, clearly and correctly, in writing, the account for this was exactly as follows. I will state it for you yet again, below:

www.-----------.com

The "www" is a required part of the string.

We are stunned by how easily you were duped here. It really is jaw-dropping. We are appending a full review of this outcome at the end of the website here.

Stunning.
Just mind-boggling.

From Me to Detective Pam Woehr:

We believe they do this thousands and thousands of times per year, because they know that even if some percentage of victims come back to dispute the fraudulent charges, the majority won't, or they won't take it as far as we did, and SleazyNews will get to keep the loot. THAT is the bottom line. My God this is really at a level that is embarrassing at this point. I hope to sweet Jesus I am never a victim of a SERIOUS crime in your jurisdiction. We have no words left for this. We just have no words. We didn't expect much, but we didn't expect this.

Let's see the communication that requested a new monthly subscription and the IP address it came from. No one will show us that because it doesn't exist. 

To the Winter Park Florida Criminal element:

Here's the bottom line:

Do what you wish in Winter Park.

Do absolutely anything you desire.

There is no effective law enforcement at play in that locale.

It really doesn't exist to any great degree anywhere in the US anymore, but apparently Winter Park is a particularly dark Black Hole.

You will NOT be effectively investigated.

You will NOT be charged.

You will NOT be convicted.

You will NOT be even inconvenienced.

Rob a bank and by some bizarre comedy of errors you get caught?

Just offer to give the money back.

No harm, no foul. No further investigation. No charges.

By GOD I am delighted I left the US.

Assuming this little Easynews scam is being repeated thousands of times per year, and we believe it is, what might the annual total of funds stolen from suckers add up to? Thousands, easily. One man alone claims Easynews got into him for about $2000 (he says he appealed to Winter Park PD and probably got the exact same treatment and outcome as we did)(move along, move along, nothing to see here). But just for argument's sake, how much money are we talking about here? Could it be tens of thousands? Yes, easily. Could it be hundreds of thousands? Possibly, yes. Nice lifestyle provided by one's customers victims and you didn't even have to sell or provide a product or service! Wow!

We will now see which of the other agencies who expressed an interest in this, are still interested.

If we file a civil suit we can get "discovery" and will have access to all pertinent data from the EasyNews servers.

Or are they even now busily deleting as fast as their little fingers can go? BleachBit anyone?

Stay away from Easynews. My God, if you never do another intelligent thing in your life, do this: Stay away from Easynews.

UPDATE:

It has just now been suggested to us that EasyNews has created an innocuous looking button or check box within its labyrinth of web pages. Maybe the button purports to take you to a Help page, or maybe when you click a box to receive copies of messages you send to the Help desk, this activates an account renewal when that was never, ever your intent. It's a fascinating idea. It doesn't immediately pass the smell test for us, but what if? It would explain how the customers' IP might show up as the initiator of a renewal or recurring billing, if indeed it does. We have no idea if that's the case at all -- we were only presented with this 30 seconds ago. It would be a dastardly brilliant means of stealing funds while making it very difficult to truly get caught. One would have to go through every single line of code on every single page on the EasyNews website to see if some button or box is doing something it's not supposed to do (i.e. make a new account or renew an account). We wouldn't be at all surprised to find this. Not surprised at all. Given that SO MANY people are reporting this exact same type of problem, means that it needs to be rooted out once and for all. It can't be allowed to continue. The FTC is probably the only entity with the resources to do it.

Note that in about 22 years, our own online retail businesses have never, ever had this happen even one time. Never once. Never. Never happened. Not once in maybe 50-100 transactions per day. Yet with Easynews it happens with uncanny regularity, but the customer accidentally or purposely does it? Give us a break. Yes, people go flying in small airplanes and hacksaw off their own wings and they do this all the time. Jesus Fucking Christ get real.

Unfortunately, one thing that probably dissuades many victims from becoming really vocal about losing money in this way, is that fact that probably the vast majority of EasyNews customers are busy downloading pirated software, porn, maybe kiddie porn, or God knows what other buckets of feces they might think up, and they don't want authorities digging into what they've been doing. It would be like a drug dealer calling the cops on a drug dealer who stole their drugs.

At the end of all this is this one focal point, this one pivotal question that needs to be answered. Countless people are reporting that they have been overcharged by Easynews, and when confronted, Easynews glibly tells them, well, you know, you just opened a second account. Or four. Or eight. And our system was just charging for those. Hahahahaha. So sorry. We're so cute.

The question is, since it would be virtually impossible for THAT MANY people to have accidentally done that, how is it being accomplished? We're convinced the customers aren't doing it. WE sure as fuck didn't do it. We wanted AWAY from this gaggle of loons. No way on this earth or in this Universe we started up a renewal. We believe the others when they say that also. So how is it getting done?

THAT is the question. We're at the point where that is the ONLY question that needs to be answered before any agency or lawfirm can move forward. How, oh how, is Easynews enticing victims to unknowingly click on "something" that automatically establishes a whole 'nother account for which billing then commences. Answer that, and we've got them by the stinky hairies.

File your FTC complaint NOW (opens new window)

UPDATE October 14, 2021:

Easynews has told the Winter Park PD that they will refund this tiny amount.

Ok.

But we still want them in jail for credit card fraud.

Something that's curious, as if everything in this case isn't "curious", is that Easynews supplied every scrap of data about us to the Winter Park PD. They had our file right there, and communicated copiously with the PD about it. Yet Easynews says it is unable to refund unless it knows our Paypal account -- which is the exact same Paypal account they took the money from on many occasions. More evidence of scams, scammers, and lying liars? We think so, yes. It's just more obfuscation to make things difficult, to slow things down, and to annoy.

In any case, that Paypal account name has been passed to Winter Park PD YET AGAIN and Detective Pam Woehr has said she will pass it to Easynews. It was given to Easynews way back in the day, and again in June of 2021 (they never replied). Yet they don't know what it is now, for a refund? Bullshit. Lying Liars Lie.

We are going to make up a new generic complaint against Easynews, which will be the second or third complaint for many agencies such as the FTC, the Florida Corporation Commission, and half a dozen others. The complaint will more narrowly and explicitly describe what the mechanics of the Easynews scam appear to be -- pretty much HOW we think they keep doing this. If we were the only victims of this EXACT SAME THING, that would be one thing. But we're clearly not, if you have read all four pages of this website.

Yes, yes, Easynews might have hidden some check boxes or buttons in their code that, when clicked to perform some completely innocent task, actually set in motion a new account creation with duplicate and triplicate billings. Really, they might actually have that. Or they might have been more subtle about it, all to the same effect. Maybe they're doing that. But we think it's far more likely they are simply manually, intentionally setting customers up for multiple accounts when the mood strikes them to do so. In our case, that ghost account didn't go into effect until a full YEAR after they refunded our original account and told us in writing we would never be billed again. We think they have a variety of tricks up their greasy sleeves that they use for the purpose of stealing money and for no other purpose. We think that when we told them we hated their service and wanted to get away from it in every and all ways, this ticked them off, and they decided at that moment to set up an account or accounts, that wouldn't even appear until a year later. Nasty little Time Bombs? Spy vs. Spy? We believe they did this manually, and purposely, with the premeditated intent of theft. Now we're waiting to see what NEW Easynews accounts might pop up mysteriously, even years and years down the road from now. We're betting that will happen, and probably much, much more.

Unfortunately, the FTC doesn't investigate individual cases. They will "scan" complaints as they come in to see if, on the surface, they look even remotely credible. They have indicated that ours survived that screening. But the FTC will take no further action until they receive some number of similar complaints, and then they will pull the pile and go through it to see how many will stand up in court. If there are enough, they will file suit. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what that threshold is and no way to find out.

The Florida Corporation Commission works in a similar way.

Civil suit? If Easynews actually does refund, then we have no amount to sue for. We could only sue for punitive damages and the amount of time it took us to extract a refund. That's still an option, just to get them into court and get discovery on their records. One problem is that Chance F. Brannen et al is heavily involved in "EVERYTHING NETORKING", and if he so desires or desired, would be a formidable, highly knowledgeable force in falsifying records. Perhaps even the FTC couldn't penetrate the subterfuge and scammy data to get to the bottom of what really happened. A civil attorney sure as Hell wouldn't have a chance.

We had an inkling this case with the Winter Park PD was going to go south way back when Detective Pam Woehr emailed to say she was going to subpoena our bank records so she would have proof that Easynews actually took the funds and tried to take other funds which we blocked. We thought, ok, well, that Easynews took the funds is not in question but she can knock herself out if she so desires. Simple copies of the bank statements would suffice to demonstrate that perfectly well and we never believed Easynews would deny taking the funds. There were Paypal records and VISA card records for at least some of the debits, which was the source for Paypal on at least some of the charges (we can't find the source(s) for other charges which were recorded in Paypal, but then vanished when we complained). Easynews knew this of course and as crooked and slippery as we believe they are, they are NOT so stupid as to try to claim no debits were made when they know full-well that subpoenas could be served then, if they ever tried to say that, and if they said it in any legal document they might well be nailed for perjury. So they wouldn't try to say that. So why go through the laborious motions of getting multiple subpoenas for that? It's just spinning wheels. What was to be gained? Absolutely nothing.

To issue a bunch of subpoenas is a bit of a PITA because there are a lot of forms and the law department needs to be brought in and it's an inconvenience for the institutions being served and in this case it all accomplishes exactly what? It all accomplishes exactly nothing because no charges were in dispute nor were they likely to be disputed. It was clear to all that the debits had been made -- what was in question was WHY the debits were made and WHO MADE THEM. Pam was Johnny on the Spot to prove the debits had been made -- but there was no need to prove it. What WAS likely to be disputed was the issue of who in Easynews was making those debits and WHY, and, in the end, who in Easynews was renewing this account and/or changing it to a recurring monthly subscription AFTER we told them to go fuck themselves and they said essentially ok, they would do that. THOSE were the questions that needed answering, and still need answering, but Detective Pam Woehr made no mention whatsoever of going after THOSE records and in fact she did not. She wasted time and resources getting data that was not disputed and not needed, but refusing to get data that was pivotal to the case. Great work.

So we knew this was a waterlogged dynamite fuse from way back then.

We predicted way back on about page one of this website that local law enforcement often handles cases in this manner. They start out gangbusters. They misunderstand the case. The miss their shot. They get bored. They get tired. They get busy with other things. And at the very first opportunity, they will spin things around to make it seem as though the case can't progress. It's one of the reasons I left the Feds.

At this point, assuming we get a refund from Sleazynews, we will consider this matter dropped "without prejudice", meaning we'll be right back on it if there is no refund in a week (from October 14, 2021), or if we find other items or avenues to pursue, or we are contacted seriously by any of the agencies we reported to and will re-report to now, or if we hear of others being similarly scammed, or if we just fucking feel like it.

Right now, however, the international borders are beginning to open up and we need to get into some surrounding countries to see how many of our jungle kids are still alive. We're betting the losses will be significant. Beyond all doubt we will hike in to GPS coordinates where families were living under tarps in the jungle 18 months ago, and we will find only the bones of toddlers, and they won't be lost to Covid, they will be lost to draconian, counter-productive, power-mongering, illogical Covid policies which prevented relief workers from getting to them.

Thanks again, China, for all that you do for TO the world.

UPDATE October 24, 2021:

Easynews refunded on October 13, 14, and 15, 2021 (Asia dates).

We don't care all that much. We do believe that Easynews removed more funds than what was refunded because the Paypal account reported those debits -- then removed all record and traces of those debits. We have many, many cards, bank accounts and payment portals from all around the world, and we simply couldn't find the-then-registered Paypal source(s) involved for some of the questioned withdrawals. But Paypal would not have had any reason to report on debits that never occurred. And why delete all traces of them, and ONLY when we complained to Paypal?

We STILL believe Easynews schlepped these funds manually and on purpose. We STILL believe it could be proven in countless cases of other victims, given unlimited funds and appropriate technical expertise (FTC). We STILL believe Easynews will do this again and again and again forever, until they are forcibly stopped. We'll occasionally monitor the complaints channels from this date forward for new instances of this exact same problem. Maybe that will dissuade them; probably not.

Stay Tuned

UPDATE:

November 12, 2021: This site has now been hacked (just before October 31); the robots.txt file was changed to disallow all search engines. Fortunately, only Google follows that directive religiously. (We subscribe to a service that alerts us). The site has been returned to normal now (for now). Gee, we wonder, who in the world might be motivated to do this? Who, indeed. Let the games begin. Remember, we PREDICTED this would happen months ago!

We had dropped this matter and moved on to more important things. However, since this has happened, we want to know a very, very great deal more about these people. It appears to us that our instincts were correct all along.

UPDATE February 9, 2022:

As expected and as predicted the games continue. On this date we discovered that "someone" had fraudulently charged the sum of about $100 to one of our credit cards for -- wait for it -- A Microsoft Flight Simulator Scenery Pack for the region -- WAIT FOR IT -- The Netherlands. What are the odds, do you suppose, that this merely a coincidence, given our very, very vocal bashing of all things Netherlands but especially the USENET there, which seems to be as busy stealing from credit cards as Santa is giving gifts? What do you suppose are the odds this instance of credit card fraud and our case against the thieves in the Netherlands, are unrelated. Could we hazard a guess and say zero chance they're unrelated? A simple chargeback remedied the matter but we look forward to much more of this over the coming years. We're not really that far from the NL. Maybe a trip is in order. In fact, I think it's nearly guaranteed a trip will occur at some point. Virtually guaranteed.

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