2 things

1. about 80 red flags of why this is a scam, yet 92,000 affiliates. Just shows how peoples greed will let them ignore the little things.

2. its an amazing combination of crowd-sourcing and network marketing. I can see lots of interesting problems being solved like this in the future.

I'm curious as to what you think the scam is. Just based on the information given in the article, the only money apparently changing hands is the company giving participants money, not the other way around. And if the company is paying for the information, it would seem reasonable to assume that they think they have a way of monetising that information...

But maybe I'm missing something...

"Joining the service is "100 percent free," but members are urged to pay $130 for software that ..."

"But they stand to profit significantly if they convince friends and family to join -- a classic multi-level marketing ploy."

I think that they will try to sell the informaton, but if it is not possible, this can be transformed into an unwanted pyramid scheme.

I think you missed the part about how "joining the service is "100 percent free," but members are urged to pay $130 for software that makes it easier to enter the license plate numbers and for a package of travel discounts."

From the article, regarding their website: "We tell people it's where Walmart meets Google," he said.

Can't fathom what that means...

Given the context I assume he's saying that you are offered "great deals" on things, and you can find them easily. It's still the most ridiculous "x meets y" I've ever heard though. Maybe he tells his affiliates that because it sounds rich.

Is there an app for that yet? With just a little bit of OCR, you should be able to process quite a few license plates with a smartphone with a camera.

Los Angeles parking enforcement has it. There is a car with cameras mounted all around it, and it takes pictures of every license plate. They identify people with past-due tickets, expired registration, and stolen vehicles.

Not even necessarily a smartphone. Set up a camera at your window hooked up to a spare machine, take photos when motion is detected and look for license plates.

You can probably automate the whole process.

I'm partly excited and partly worried about the implications of how easy automated data collection like this has become. Imagine doing the same with face recognition software or RFID drivers' licenses.

Privacy issues aside, it would be a fun dataset to play with.

I don't really know how to feel about it. On the one hand, it's an invasion of privacy; on the other hand, you can't really outlaw data collection in a public space, can you?

Anyway, tales like A Scanner Darkly seem oddly prophetic and relevant: http://ahprojects.com/c/itp/thesis

Step one: Get people excited about making money with no time or effort. Step two: Convince them that all they need to get started is a tiny investment. Step three: Profit!

Works for Nigerian scammers, works for MLM marketing, works for everyone!

"Work from home! Earn peanuts! Hasten the apocolypse by destroying the privacy of everyone around you!"

But, for the love of god, think of the children!

Obviously a scam or MLM scheme. Anybody who wanted to do this for real would use the same (relatively inexpensive) device that Repo Men use when cruising for cars that are being repossesed. They read a couple license plates _a second_. So, this "enter 20 license plates a month for $2" would turn into a revenue flow of $720/Hour.

Unlikely.