Fosh Automotive = Hoax (and an anti-Barack Obama one at that)
by Sebastian Blanco on Aug 26th 2008 at 10:12AM 
OK, so FOSH got our attention last week by kinda, sorta promising the sky when it comes to green car dreams. But, reading their words again, it's painfully obvious that all of the "mights" and "coulds" in that announcement were important for the smokescreen that these jokers were readying. Their first self-imposed deadline came and went without any real information and a second deadline announced for last night. What happened? Here's what ABG reader Dave wrote to us last night:
OK, So I thought I would check out the unveiling at FOSH Automotive that was to happen tonight at 9:00pm CST. At about 10 minutes past they put up a page on the website of an aborted fetus and ranted and raved about Obama. FOSH automotive is a total hoax, scam, you name it. Who ever is internet savvy should report them to their webhosts and have the site pulled down. I don't know how to go about this - otherwise I'd do it.
It's true, the new FOSH site (which I'm hesitant to link to so as to avoid giving them even more publicity) is an anti-Obama, anti-abortion rant. Here's what the site's writers have to say now:
Disclaimer - We are a real business, but we do not operate under "Fosh Automotive". We are not associated with any business, website, or person that promoted this site. All information found on our site is of our opinion. Also, there is an unintentional error in our domain registry information and the number listed is a digit off. In this article we will also explain what we will be doing with the email list we have for our "testers".
For those that believe we are pulling a hoax, you're dead wrong. The real hoax is barack hussein obama and we are trying to make the world a better place by showing you how easy some people fall for what they want to believe. The United States of America, without the socialist, entitlement supporting, flip-flopping, lying, checkered past barack hussein obama as our leader, is better off, as is the world.
It goes on from there. Read on after the jump to find out what FOSH will do with all of the names/emails of people who signed up with them. Hint: it's got nothing to do with cars.
[Source: FOSH website]
So, FOSH suckered a lot of people into giving them their email addresses under false pretenses. Here's what will happen next, apparently:
For every email we received, "tester list" included, we will donate $5 to SPCA and $2 to the John McCain campaign. Also, for every post on our forum and even those that will be posted in the future, we will donate 25 cents to Jonh's [sic] campaign. Here is a big "FU" to the media that is too scared to challenge BHO or any candidate for that matter.
This brings up a question for us here at AutoblogGreen. Our friend Bo sent in this note:
Hi Guys, I would suggest you remove that posts about FOSH. Their scam worked. Google is full of articles about them with their URL, and unsuspecting EV enthusiasts will be visiting their propaganda site for years to come. Just a suggestion. Keep up the great work!
We do not remove posts from our archive. Still, we'd like to hear from those of you who know something about how links and Google's cache work about ways to minimize the impact that this scam has on people who care about cleaner transportation. It seems to me that the best idea is to get the news of the hoax out by making posts like this one come to the top of the search results, right? In any case, remember to keep your skepticism radar on when someone promises the sky.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
RJ 10:35AM (8/26/2008)
From the moment I read about them I figured FOSH stood for Full Of SH**! I guess I was right! :)
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ale 5:48PM (8/28/2008)
anybody else see this comin'?...
Fabio 10:41AM (8/26/2008)
Well, well... regardless of their motives, you must admit they've been quite clever and found a way to virally spread their words to the whole world.
You may not care about the McCain vs Obama issue, you may not care about politics at all, or you perhaps care but disagree with the hoaxers... however, just think about it: if you had something to tell the whole world, something you in good faith felt was very important, something that you may believe that the world needs to know in order to make it a better place, what would you do?
I totally disagree with their reasons, by the way, but hey, I believe anyone's got the right to draw people's attention.
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srue 11:21AM (8/26/2008)
"you must admit they've been quite clever and found a way to virally spread their words to the whole world."
Clever? They lied to us and deceived us. They asked for our trust and then betrayed us. They took a subject we care about and twisted it around for their own unrelated uses. Clever? I think not.
They should be completely ashamed of themselves. I hope people see these tactics and that it undermines their message. This type of behavior does more harm than good, and it is up to the marketplace of ideas to reject them.
Fabio 11:32AM (8/26/2008)
srue,
would you be of the same opinion of what they had to tell the world was about some proved criminal acts made by some dictators in a foreign (to you) country?
Just to make an example.
Glenn 11:59AM (8/26/2008)
Reminds me of the time years ago when I asked a friend how he was doing, He told me, with a long face, that his father had died. After my compassionate response he let on that he was just joking.
I believed it not because it was what I wanted to hear, I believed because I had no reason to do otherwise.
And, yes, I told him what a jerk he was.
When someone tells me that they have a new product, that uses newly developed technology, that will have a far reaching impact on our world, I'm inclined to be interested, not because I'm gullible or easily swayed, but because I'm want to learn what they have to say.That is, until they've proven to be a lying jerk.
srue 12:05PM (8/26/2008)
Fabio,
Of course I would. This has nothing to do with the content of the message. Using outright lies and trickery is simply not an acceptable way of spreading a message, no matter how important one believes it is. I'm not talking about cutesy marketing strategies (i.e. switching their coffee in a restaurant, or showing them Vista but tell them it's "Mojave"). The level of deception matters.
We should not admire their boldness, we should condemn it. They certainly have the right to behave this way, but we have the right to shun such behavior.
Since you gave an example, I'll give some counter-examples. It is OK for PETA to throw red paint on people who bought fur? Is it OK for Greenpeace to sabotage (legal) whaling boats? Upping the ante, should we admire terrorists for killing civilians? All of these people strongly believe they are doing the right thing. But in a civil society we cannot tolerate such methods.
Obviously the website switch does not rise to the level of terrorism. But in the exchange of ideas in our society we still have limits on what is acceptable behavior. If an idea is strong enough, let it compete fairly. When you resort to deception to spread your message, you cheapen the argument. The entire marketplace suffers because it reduces the trust between its members. Every deception adds up and has a cumulative effect. The effect of this hoax is clear: yet another scam that makes us distrust the next announcement a little more. Skepticism is now a requirement. And those who let their guard down got burned. They'll be much less willing to do that next time.
Like I said before, they should be ashamed of themselves. And we should not tolerate them or show the slightest hint of admiration.
Goat Law 9:58AM (8/27/2008)
srue,
You want to talk about lies and mistrust. Barack Obama is protraying himself as a cenrist uniter who crosses party lines to acheive the common good, yet he is rated as the MOST liberal member of the Senate. He is so far away from crossing party lines, he can't even see the demarcation. Obama is a member of a church that espouses Black Liberation theology and a former member of the Weather Underground. He is as far left as any polititican to hold major office in the past century.
That being said, McCain is nearly as bad. The point I am trying to make is that there is no marketplace of ideas in politics any more, because the American public has been dumbed down to the point of incapacity by decades of public education. The only way to reach the average American is clever marketing, which is exactly what this is.
Lou Grinzo 10:58AM (8/26/2008)
"Who ever is internet savvy should report them to their webhosts and have the site pulled down. I don't know how to go about this - otherwise I'd do it."
Whoa... back that truck up, buckaroo.
Do we really want to contemplate going down that road?
I think what these FOSH morons did was despicable and deceptive; I'm the last person who would defend them or their tactics. But once we cross the line from criticizing cheap, disgusting stunts like this to censoring them outright, we've established a very dangerous precedent.
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Anth 11:28AM (8/26/2008)
Actually, by pulling that stunt they may be violating FEC rules. By funding an anti-candidate website, they're subject to the FEC rules regarding contribution limits, incorporation and disclosure.
Benny 11:10AM (8/26/2008)
Wow, Those guys are crazy! I admit that I fell for it and signed up to be "a tester". It never occurred to me that desiring an efficient EV makes me a socialist and pro-abortionist.
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Robert 11:24AM (8/26/2008)
Don't DELETE the old posts. Just change the links to the FOSH site to this page. Links are one of the way Google counts credibility. So, changing the link on your site removes your "vote" of credibility to FOSH (I think that is short for Full Of Shit). By linking to this page, any reader that lands on your old FOSH posts will end up on this page clearly stating that FOSH is a lie and the reader won't be duped.
So, by removing the links you 1) protect your readers from seeing some horrible images and 2) help reduce their rank. To boot, your old post becomes more valuable than it is now by providing better information.
In the print world, papers do retractions. There is a page where they say, "This is where we messed up in the previous issues." They do this because they CAN'T go back and fix problems, but they make an effort to undo their mistakes. Unlike print, the web isn't static after information has been published. You can go back and modify your old information and put a big note that says "Here is what we changed" for the sake of disclosure.
Frankly, keeping the links to their site live on yours is one step below joining in the lie / hoax because you are helping to perpetuate it. I'm not trying to be mean. I love ABG. This is the thought process I'd have towards myself if I were in the same position, and I would do as I suggested above.
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ooglek 11:28AM (8/27/2008)
Agreed. I'd prefer the whole name be removed, or at least modified to £∅ςĦ Åμ✝⊗₥❂✟¡υΞ or something equally hard to read.
Sebastian 12:16PM (8/26/2008)
We have taken links to the FOSH site off of ABG and put pointers in all our old posts to this new one. Thanks for your comments thus far.
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Serge 12:48PM (8/26/2008)
Dave B was spot on, when Full Of Sh%$ Automotive news were first reported. Watch them delay their "release" again because "overwhelming media inquires" turned into attacks from "the liberal media".
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Jimbo 1:39PM (8/26/2008)
Sebastian: The "Source" link on this page still sends people to FOSH
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/08/15/new-electric-car-coming-from-fosh-automotive-in-three-days/
Sebastian 5:42PM (8/26/2008)
Jimbo,
Thanks. Link has been removed.
TX CHL Instructor 1:44PM (8/26/2008)
If it had been a PRO-Obama diatribe, that would have been ok, wouldn't it, Blanco? My guess is that you certainly would not have been so concerned with "ways to minimize the impact that this scam has on people who care about cleaner transportation", based on your prior postings.
BTW, my MBE (male bovine excrement) detector works well enough that I was able to spot FOSH for the ruse it was to begin with, as evidenced by my comment on this site on that subject back when it first came up. I'm generally pretty good at detecting MBE from either the Left or the Right (and from crackpots of other persuasions, as well).
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Sebastian 5:44PM (8/26/2008)
Well, we'll have to wait and see if someone who supports Obama is willing to stoop to this sort of scam, won't we? :)
GenWaylaid 2:26PM (8/26/2008)
There's another way to wreck FOSH's devious plans. They seem to be using the "25 cents for every post" donation as a way to limit the negative blowback on their forums. Anyone who criticizes them there will be supporting the McCain campaign to a tiny extent, which FOSH presumably expects will be distasteful to their detractors.
Okay, so let's call their bluff. I doubt they actually have much money to give to McCain, so flooding their forums with a few million posts should be enough to teach them a lesson. The traffic would also greatly annoy their host, leading to a probable temporary shutdown of the site. This should be relatively easy as long as they don't use captchas.
Depending on who FOSH's webhost is, there may be a way to flag their site as pornography or illegal activity, leading to a much lengthier shutdown.
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