This is a response to the "Scams that plague the frum world" blog, which has written a post titled "Venishmartem Cloud Filter Scam".
The logic of his post is so twisted and faulty, that it boggles the mind. The guy hasn't got one ounce of critical thinking, which is the most important skill needed to expose scams. Instead he suffers from selective thinking, and confirmation bias. Since he is an Anti-filter advocate, he lets his pen loose whenever it comes to filters. That's how a non-profit filter built by a small group of idealistic people, who in real life might have been his best friends, can be classified as a "scam". To see how ridiculous his post is, I'll paraphrase his blog post below, and just replace the words VCF with "esrogim".
"The Esrogim Mehudarim organization has recently recently distributed a flyer in my neighborhood of Brooklyn. In short I'll explain why this flyer is a scam.
"The flyer is promoting an event that is here to help yidden to buy esrogim, and will have rabbonim on site offering FREE advice as to which esrog is the best for them. It is well known today that lemon varieties, such as Bonnie Brae grown in San Diego County are available for free, and yet this event is promoting a "mehudar and better" esrogim. This scam falls into the category of Bait and Switch Scam. One is lured into attending this event and then is recommended by professionals to pay for a esrog they claim is best. This behavior is unethical anywhere but it being done in the name of the Gedolim and as a community service is the only reason I'm speaking out.
"This itself is a problem but furthermore there is no documentation that this new costly esrog, where you pay a extra fees for the look and shape of the esrog is any more effective than a free lemon. Bonnie Brae lemons are smooth, thin skinned and seedless too.
"The flyer claims "Much effort and expense was invested to make sure our esrogim are not murkav". Yet there is absolutely no proof or reasoning why it's any less murkav than the pure Bonnie Brae breed. As a farmer myself and speaking to those I know, there is no reason to believe this esrog is any less murkav than Bonnie Brae or other free lemons.
"There is no explanation as to why this is any better than a free lemon just the fact that they say so. The many other reason noted on the flyer are also available for free in any lemon farm, whether it is color, shape or texture. I have searched through every possible scenario and as a qualified farmer I don't see any advantages in fact I see many problems and issues with this type of fruit: It has too much skin and not enough flesh.
"This has all the indications of dishonest business. They are trying to sell you a product that is nothing better than one of many free lemons that are available anyway for anyone to harvest or buy at your local supermarket. Most famous being Bonnie Brae. This esrog has all the warning signs. I am sorry that they invested so much for growing these esrogim but that is no excuse to fool the public."
Enough of that. You get the idea. Here are the facts on why VCF is a different breed of filter:
As far as the filterthon event, had he bothered to arrive to the event, I'm sure he would retract his post. Everything written on the flyer was 100%, and the conspiracies in his blog post are baseless:
"The Esrogim Mehudarim organization has recently recently distributed a flyer in my neighborhood of Brooklyn. In short I'll explain why this flyer is a scam.
"The flyer is promoting an event that is here to help yidden to buy esrogim, and will have rabbonim on site offering FREE advice as to which esrog is the best for them. It is well known today that lemon varieties, such as Bonnie Brae grown in San Diego County are available for free, and yet this event is promoting a "mehudar and better" esrogim. This scam falls into the category of Bait and Switch Scam. One is lured into attending this event and then is recommended by professionals to pay for a esrog they claim is best. This behavior is unethical anywhere but it being done in the name of the Gedolim and as a community service is the only reason I'm speaking out.
"This itself is a problem but furthermore there is no documentation that this new costly esrog, where you pay a extra fees for the look and shape of the esrog is any more effective than a free lemon. Bonnie Brae lemons are smooth, thin skinned and seedless too.
"The flyer claims "Much effort and expense was invested to make sure our esrogim are not murkav". Yet there is absolutely no proof or reasoning why it's any less murkav than the pure Bonnie Brae breed. As a farmer myself and speaking to those I know, there is no reason to believe this esrog is any less murkav than Bonnie Brae or other free lemons.
"There is no explanation as to why this is any better than a free lemon just the fact that they say so. The many other reason noted on the flyer are also available for free in any lemon farm, whether it is color, shape or texture. I have searched through every possible scenario and as a qualified farmer I don't see any advantages in fact I see many problems and issues with this type of fruit: It has too much skin and not enough flesh.
"This has all the indications of dishonest business. They are trying to sell you a product that is nothing better than one of many free lemons that are available anyway for anyone to harvest or buy at your local supermarket. Most famous being Bonnie Brae. This esrog has all the warning signs. I am sorry that they invested so much for growing these esrogim but that is no excuse to fool the public."
Enough of that. You get the idea. Here are the facts on why VCF is a different breed of filter:
- As the websites states, VCF has "No nisayon (challenge) of holding the password". In plain English that means that as opposed to other free solutions where you can disable the filter at any time with a password, VCF is secure. Opening new sites is done by filling out a request form, and the sites are reviewed by real humans before they are opened. Does K9 or any other free filter do that?
- Note: You can sign up for K9 with a friend's email address, and have your friend set the password. See here for instruction in case you're interested in doing this. However, you'll need to ask your friend for assistance each time you need a site opened. With VCF you just click a button on the blocked page, and the page will be opened.
- VCF allows you to allow a website, but still automatically block the portions which have problematic content. Does K9 or any other free filter do that?
- VCF allows you to block sites that have a specific frequency, or a combination of keywords (e.g. block any page that has the words search + girls in the URL). Does K9 or any other free filter do that?
- VCF has an optional skin-block feature. Does K9 or any other free filter do that?
As far as the filterthon event, had he bothered to arrive to the event, I'm sure he would retract his post. Everything written on the flyer was 100%, and the conspiracies in his blog post are baseless:
- Volunteer technicians from all over NY gave free advice at the event. The goal of the event was so that people get filters, not to make money. In fact, last year they same organization (Venishmartem) organized a similar event and suggested K9 exclusively (there was nothing better at the time).
- Each person who came to the event was given an overview of all the available solutions in the market (yes, including K9 and other free software). The volunteers gave professional advice and were not trying to sell any specific service.
- Many people were interested in VCF but said that it is too expensive. These people were given VCF for FREE. (The people who got if for free outnumbered the ones who paid for it).
The bottom line is the this blog seems to be biased against filters, and does not hesitate to write the most outlandish posts whenever Internet filters are involved.
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