"uncanny ecommerce is a passion of mine, which is why my student mentioned the packages, and why I suspected that whoever was behind these retailers was doing something like “dropshipping,” just taken up a notch.
Dropshippers are online sellers who don’t keep any products in stock. Instead, they advertise a product and, if it is purchased, they buy the item from overseas and ship it directly to the customer...
While I waited for my lipstick, I returned to the list of LLCs, and noticed that there was something else that the companies had in common. According to LinkedIn and Facebook, at least a handful of the listed agents were alumni of Olivet University, a Bible college based in California.
If Olivet University sounds familiar, that’s because it has been in the news lately. Earlier this year its offices were raided as part of a fraud investigation being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office...
If you look for Jonathan Park on the current Olivet University website, as I did, you won’t find him. But in an extremely long article that he wrote in 2012 for the Christian Post, a website that was itself founded by David Jang, Mr. Park describes himself as the director of the school of journalism at Olivet.2...
It’s not hard to see the oddly overpriced Essy Beauty peel-off mask or Asavea hair straightener as a kind of product version of clickbait. After all, what is the experience of clickbait other than realizing we have vastly overpaid, even if only with our attention?...
This is the point at which the connections between these mysterious retailers and people affiliated with the Community became seriously disorienting"
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/27/style/what-is-inside-this-internet-rabbit-hole.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR234_xw38HuqOoV2MCbbhaCtMMsz64Dth6tno_98quM5lX-8j2QksW4an4
FB: this is an amazing journalistic rabbit hole " On the now-defunct kiartten.com, the key organizer had a name that even sounds like clickbait: “Portable Key Holder/Organizer From Kiartten Eliminates Bulging Pockets Holds Up To 14 Keys Compact Easy To Carry Durable Construction Fits Most Keys Great Gift Idea Find The Right Key Instantly.” Despite the lawsuit, the Kiartten keys were still being sold until recently, at $140 for a unit of 10, on Ibport.com.au."
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