Bad business
Three years in prison certainly didn’t change Vitaly Borker’s mind when it came to running a business.
He returned to selling faux eyewear online and bullying customers in the process.
Creepy Borker
When gaining praise by providing good service online, aka the decent thing to do, didn’t work for Borker the first time, he resorted to bullying his online customers in order for his website to receive some recognition. He was thinking along the lines of “all press is good press” without considering the consequences and went so far as to threaten a customer by sending her a photo of her front door.
Although this resulted in jail time for Borker, he apparently learned nothing because he has started all over again.
He is now being prosecuted for essentially running the same scam, harassment and all.
Harassment central
Borker started a new website, OpticsFast.com, where he claimed to sell “brand new and 100% authentic” glasses. “Claimed” is the appropriate word because when it came to quality, hiss customers did not agree. When visiting the OpticsFast site, potential customers would see the slogan, “the planet’s biggest online website for designer discount sunglasses and eyeglasses,” and be tricked by the fraudulent legitimacy. According to some who actually bought glasses through the site, the product was highly misrepresented although marketed as luxury eyewear.
As he started to receive complaints about counterfeit items and damages, or requests for refunds, Borker decided that harassing these customers was the best way to deal with them.
According to the prosecution, Borker would use an alias to send abusive emails and texts where he would insult customers, call them names and make threats. One witness said Borker called her over 35 times in one day, even pretending to be a police officer to threaten a civil harassment suit. How ironic.
Book’em, Danno!
Borker is currently charged with mail and wire fraud. The prosecution feels that they have an air-tight case after working closely with postal inspectors to catch Borker in the act. Many customers complained directly to the U.S Postal Inspection service when they were unable to return products and were being allegedly harassed by Borker.
#nobork
Natalie is a Staff Writer at The American Genius and co-founded an Austin creative magazine called Almost Real Things. When she is not writing, she spends her time making art, teaching painting classes and confusing people. In addition to pursuing a writing career, Natalie plans on getting her MFA to become a Professor of Fine Art.