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How GOP-linked PR firms use Google’s ad platform to harvest email addresses
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. What's the seventh largest purchaser of US political ads on Google right now? After the Republican Senate and Congressional Leadership Funds and the Trump campaign, comes a group called DedicatedEmails.com –- a limited-liability company specializing in digital marketing for clients looking to attract new customers via "opt-in email lists".
Big tobacco keeps starting 'grassroots' Facebook campaigns
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. Facebook groups like 'Oregonians Against Tax Hikes' and 'No Blank Checks for Colorado' look like citizen groups concerned about taxes. But after a few months running extensive Facebook ad campaigns, they recede with members' petition signatures and personal data. They also happen to be owned and operated by tobacco companies. "[Tobacco companies] create these groups to oppose efforts to pass laws either through legislatures or especially through ballot measures," explains Vince Willmore, Vice President of Communications for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Every time there's a ballot measure to increase a tobacco tax or pass a smoke-free air law, they'll come up with a front group with a great sounding name when it's entirely funded and run by the tobacco companies."
The bitcoin Ponzi scam that won't go away
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. In an industry rife with scams, one cryptocurrency trading startup -- USI Tech -- was paying real dividends on its customers' investments. At least, it appeared to be. In reality, USI Tech was a classic Ponzi scheme. It offered outrageous rates of return and encouraged investors to boost their earnings by introducing more people to the USI Tech family, with the fees from new investors then used to pay off existing customers. It wasn't long before authorities in the United States, Canada and New Zealand caught up with the company and issued cease and desist orders. Just a few months later, an estimated tens of millions of dollars had vanished from investors' accounts. But that wasn't the end of USI Tech's story. The model soon reappeared with a new name: Eyeline Trading. The former USI Tech website was redirected to Eyeline, but when authorities caught on to the seemingly rehashed scam, Eyeline rebranded to its current form: WealthBoss.
Burned alive for using a smartphone
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. Mosul, Iraq -- Before the camera rolls, 34-year-old Fatima pulls her head scarf over her face and ushers her young daughter out of frame. It can be hard to get people on camera in this city. They're happy to talk off the record, but as soon as a recorder comes out, they become skittish -- and with good reason. They're terrified that ISIS will eventually return and that they'll be first on the chopping block for talking to journalists about the brutality of the occupation.
Russian spam accounts are still a big problem for Reddit
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. Last September, a Reddit user called DivestTrump uploaded a detailed report to Reddit about suspicious political posts that targeted the site's main pro-Trump discussion forum. The content chiefly originated from two websites, brutalist.press and usareally.com, which have both been linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency and individuals under investigation by Robert Mueller's FBI probe. But it turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg; tens of millions of reddit users could have been influenced. In a joint investigation, Point and Engadget have learned that at least three additional domains — alt-right.com, veteranstoday.com and southfront.org — are also targeting r/The_Donald and other conservative subreddits in similar ways.
Big tobacco's new marketing push: Smartphones, style and EDM
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. British American Tobacco (BAT) -- the third-largest publicly traded tobacco company in the world -- is engaged in an elaborate and ethically questionable online-marketing strategy across Europe and Asia. A joint Point and Engadget investigation has found that several BAT brands sponsored music events and created entirely new lifestyle brands that initially seem unrelated to cigarettes. But on closer inspection, they are used to raise awareness of cigarette brands in markets where overt tobacco advertisements are forbidden. Dunhill and Kent cigarettes are among the BAT labels benefitting from spinout brands in South Korea, Romania and Switzerland. However, BAT is not unique in using these tactics in the tobacco industry. When it comes to advertising its tobacco products, BAT's own international-marketing principles are clear about its ethical approach: "We do not engage in undercover marketing activities which seek to disguise the source of the advertising message, or the fact that it is intended to advertise a tobacco brand." In the same document, BAT also promises only to market its product to adult smokers. Separately, in an article on BAT's website, the tobacco company denies pursuing nonsmokers. "We never set out to encourage people to take up smoking cigarettes, or to smoke more."
Unpaid and abused: Moderators speak out against Reddit
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. It discusses topics that you may find upsetting and contains strong language and racial slurs. Somewhere out there, a man wants to rape Emily. She knows this because he was painfully clear in typing out his threat. In fact, he's just one of a group of people who wish her harm. For the past four years, Emily has volunteered to moderate the content on several sizable subreddits -- large online discussion forums -- including r/news, with 16.3 million subscribers, and r/london, with 114,000 subscribers. But Reddit users don't like to be moderated.
