{"id":32239,"date":"2023-06-16T11:52:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T16:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=32239"},"modified":"2023-06-20T08:10:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T13:10:45","slug":"yet-another-scam-out-of-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=32239","title":{"rendered":"Yet Another Scam Out of China?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’ve been down this road before<\/a>. An over-hyped, overpriced product out of China making claims that are too good to be true. This all sounds too familiar. For the record, there is no way an app can turn a phone into the quality equivalent of a “professional camera” with a quality telephoto lens. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pitch in these ads: You don\u2019t need a fancy camera and a big and expensive telephoto lens to get quality photographs of far away birds. With this app on your phone you can photograph birds you can barely see and zoom in without any loss of quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too good to be true? I think so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Facebook’s statement about the primary manager of this Facebook page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The app costs $40 per year to use, and you just turned your credit card number over to a company in China. U.S. consumer protection laws do not cover overseas purchases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent scams involving shady companies in other countries, people had large, unexpected charges show up on their credit cards. Because the companies were outside the United States they had no legal recourse. Whether or not they got the charges removed from their credit card account was entirely up to the credit card company. Most credit card companies did right by their customers but some did not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the app has over a thousand positive reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it does!! China! They can churn out all the fake reviews they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top birding sights review the best bird apps but none of them recommend this app (links below).

Despite the claim in the Picture Bird ad that the app can identify birds at a distance, Badgerland Birds (link below) tested the app and it could not correctly identify birds at a bird feeder about 20 feet away. In fact, to get the app to wok they had to take a picture of a bird with a camera and telephoto lens and then show the camera photo to the app to get it to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Birdwatchers who have had success with other apps have had problems with Picture Bird.

When the Chinese telephoto lens scam came out (see the related link below) and they were selling plastic lenses for $60 – $200 on their web sites, I wanted to check it out for myself. I found the same exact lens for about $10 from a reliable U.S. supplier, bought it, and tested it<\/a>. It was a lousy lens. But I have not personally tested this app. I am not going to spend $40 on a questionable app that responsible birding sites do not recommend, and I am not going risk my credit card to a company in China that appears to be engaged in yet another rip-off.

FYI: There are reputable companies in China and I have dealt with them. The problem is using your credit card with a shady company in China.

Buyer beware.

Links<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best Birding Apps and Field Guides<\/a> – The Audubon Society<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best Birding Apps<\/a> – The Nature Conservancy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Birding Apps for Birding with Kids<\/a> – All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Five Best Birding Apps of 2023<\/a> – Daily Birder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Birding Apps for Apple and Android<\/a> – Birdwatching Bliss<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 11 Best Birding Apps in 2023<\/a> – Bird Watching HQ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Badgerland Birds<\/a> at YouTube<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Link<\/strong>

The Chinese Lens Rip Off Series \u2013 Overpriced Camera Phone Lenses<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been down this road before. An over-hyped, overpriced product out of China making claims that are too good to be true. This all sounds too familiar. For the record, there is no way an app can turn a phone … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-iphone-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32239"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32282,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32239\/revisions\/32282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}