A friendly word of warning!

[Tampa2]

After reading several posts about seizures or worries about seizures which offer origins or dates, I just want to offer a friendly word of warning. When you answer someones post with approximate dates of orders & locations of where your product is going you should understand that the Federal Government is very thorough when it wants to retreive information. And if you do not think the FBI, FDA, or another agency is reading our posts, you are fooling only yourself. Consider the fact that each post you write is read by the FDA or another Government agency and write only what you want them to know. It may keep you from getting your products seized in the future.

 

[Slickstick]

Good. I will be the first to go to prison for the cause. And I will not go down without a physical fight and a news broadcast. I do not just sell these for the hell of it. I am tired of this crap and about to go loco.

 

[voltaire]

Although it couldn't hurt to heed your advice, I don't think they are anywhere near as thorough as you portray them to be. If they were, we'd already be in a world of hurt. It would take quite a lot of resources (that they have much better uses for) for them to be THAT thorough.

 

[JollyRogers]

I want that job!

"So what do you sir?" replies me, "Well I work for FDA and FBI and surf the internet all day reading each individual post on all the electronic cigarette forums to build a case and determine where and when we are going to seize incoming shipments!"

Wait a sec...

 

[dirt2suck]

The FBI are slackers getting high (from seized trees) in the green forest.
The FDA is a nobody that tried to get paid to ban (or take control of) the ecig, they failed!

end of story

 

[Slickstick]

haha omg 10 billion to a year to try to seize all the ganja in America alone and still loosing the battle. Terrible. Might as well legalize and tax it and save 10 billion a year

 

[jiff]

You are correct, in a sense. Anything we type is readily available for anyone to read. But as others have stated, the odds of ecf being used as a databank for the FDA is slim to none. I assure you, they have looked at this forum, and they have probably looked at in depth. However, I highly doubt they read every post made every day. That would require a team of people, not just one, because of the mass influx of posts made per day on this forum.

Too much for just one person, and the FDA would focus those resources on more than just personal data gathering.

 

[dirt2suck]

True for sure, but if you ever had a shipment seized, you would know that it
is only detained for a short period.

The FDA/US Customs have no legal rights to confiscate ecig products, and therefore
they release it and send it back.

It will hurt a supplier, becasue they are out the product, and money for the time- which could be 4 months+, like the last one of mine was held.

Of course with anything, that could change in time.

 

[Zenfrogs]

haha omg 10 billion to a year to try to seize all the ganja in America alone and still loosing the battle. Terrible. Might as well legalize and tax it and save 10 billion a year

seriously!

 

[dirt2suck]

I am sure the governmental agencies are reading this as we type, maybe even typing along with us, but like I said, laws are here for a reason.

Whether they hurt or help....we will survive!

 

[Captu4ik]

Good. I will be the first to go to prison for the cause.

Cool ! A willing Martyr ! I'm glad that someone has stepped up for that job ...

Personally, I have to side with the OP : I can see absolutely no good reason for anyone to post the details of their international shipments, seized or cleared.

Also, I think it is well within the realm of probablity that an involved government agency actually monitors this Forum, it is the largest e-cig Forum (by far). What better place to find out what is going on ?

To believe that the Govt. isn't that interested, or doesn't have the manpower to invest in investigating this way, is purely naive, IMO.

I'm just glad that I purchase all my inventory in the US ! (wink,wink,nudge,nudge) .

EDIT -- There is some precedent for this type of thing. The DEA monitored the largest grow-your-own ........ Forum -- "Overgrow.com" for a couple years before shutting them down and arresting the site owners. The US government is Internet literate ...

 

[noo]

The FDA still has not posted the April refusals on their web site. I think this certainly supports the hypothesis that they are reading our posts.

 

[Tampa2]

Although it couldn't hurt to heed your advice, I don't think they are anywhere near as thorough as you portray them to be. If they were, we'd already be in a world of hurt. It would take quite a lot of resources (that they have much better uses for) for them to be THAT thorough.

As a fellow vaper & supplier that hates to see anyone lose money needlessly, I thought that I would remind people that "might" be ordering something from out of the Country that it might not hurt to keep any particulars to themselves. But from some of the posts I can see that some people obviously live their lives with their head buried in the sand when it comes to the lengths our Federal agencies will go to obtain information. No, you wouldn't be in a world of hurt because, technically, our e-cigarettes are not illegal. But offering them information by stating dates and what anyone ordered is simply an invite for them to be waiting for that delivery before you get it. As for your not thinking that they neither have the resources or care about the costs, or that they would bother to have someone reading certain posts on here, good luck with your way of thinking.

 

[juicefreak]

I agree with the OP also. Just look what happened to the forum suppliers with Paypal. They were dropping like flies daily over a period of a week or so. This forum is a goldmine for them to skim info.

Every post about screwing the government, etc, is just more fodder for them.

best to keep the details to yourself on shipments. it's pretty much a rule of thumb to online posting anyway.

 

[the86d]

The FBI are slackers getting high (from seized trees) in the green forest.
The FDA is a nobody that tried to get paid to ban (or take control of) the ecig, they failed!

end of story

AND some look at Effin porn all day, in some cases ( Porn provision stalls House IT bill -- Federal Computer Week ) .

Now, they have the ability to find all vendors addresses via the means that ANY Subpoena would allow and we would already be in a world of hurt.

They could get the hosting provider of vendor websites to give up any and all info of domain names, business credit card numbers, and accounts and have them frozen. They could follow classifieds, and check against the big PP trannys.

I do not think it is an issue yet.

 

[the86d]

I think that Paypal did it in fear per the FDAs misleading, and false claims and wanted to Cover their 6 O'clock.

 

[skydragon]

Although it couldn't hurt to heed your advice, I don't think they are anywhere near as thorough as you portray them to be. If they were, we'd already be in a world of hurt. It would take quite a lot of resources (that they have much better uses for) for them to be THAT thorough.

Unfortunately, I don't think our government is known for using their resources wisely.

 

[the86d]

If it was a big deal, do you think they could SELL THEM OPENLY AT A KIOSK IN THE MALL? I think they would be shut down 1st.

(In my opinion WE should shut down any vendor that sells a starter kit with say 180mah batts, that isn't a big-batt-mod for over $90USD... just for overcharging)

 

[Tampa2]

@the86d
Wile I agree with you about venders that shaft the customers, like the "Free E-Cig" offers on the radio that actually ends up costing the customer hundreds of bucks, my point is not to give the FDA any free info that they can use to seize your shipment. While our e-cigs are still legal, they can & will confiscate the E-Cig & Liquid coming into the Country in a heartbeat. So why lead them right to your shipment by announcing to the forum that "oh, I'm worried because I order 100 bottles of liquid from Dekang 3 days ago and I live in "wherever" USA and I understand Chicago is really hard......". You just told them where to look, your name & IP, and what to look for. People don't really pay attention to what they are saying sometimes and it may well cost them the money they've invested in their product.

 

[the86d]

@the86d... "oh, I'm worried because I order 100 bottles of liquid from Dekang 3 days ago and I live in "wherever" USA and I understand Chicago is really hard......". You just told them where to look, your name & IP, and what to look for.

Gotcha! Mas vague, more vague. Word!

I never noticed those posts, yet... but the IP, only if they subpoena the 4um. Aren't most people smart enough to not post their name on a public 4um?