5 Tragedies That Douches Took Advantage Of

5

A Chinese Millionaire Used Kobe Bryant's Death to Shill Cryptocurrency

Earlier this year, basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other people were killed when a private helicopter they were riding in crashed. The nation was stunned and within hours, tributes were pouring in, fictional peanuts were temporarily spared, and dads all over the country honored the athlete by tearfully whispering "Kobe!" whenever they dunked something into the garbage.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency merchant Justin Sun found his own way of dealing with Kobe's passing: By using it to promote his cryptocurrency, TRON, an alt-coin that's been called both a scam and a ponzi scheme. Sun and TRON posted a series of tweets describing Kobe as a "member of the TRON family" and announced that at his next conference, they'll be having a moment of silence for Kobe -- whose only relationship with Sun and TRON was speaking at the 2019 conference about his entrepreneurial journey.

But it had nothing to do with cryptocurrency at all. Hell it was probably the same business philosophy lecture he gave a hundred times a year, a fact that TRON was well aware of seeing as how they were forced to clarify that Kobe speaking at TRON CON (or whatever the bloody thing is called) wasn't an endorsement of cryptocurrencies by Kobe. Gee, we wonder what changed?

Fortunately, commenters soon stepped in to "remind" Sun of how using the death of a major celebrity to hawk his shitty make-believe money was a bad look, the best of which was a simple "Have you no shame?" And judging from the fact that Sun has a weird habit of advertising himself as being in partnerships with people who it later turns out, have no fucking idea who he is -- including Steve Wozniak, Liverpool FC, Baidu, and Warren Buffett -- we're going to venture a guess at the answer.

No.

4

Coronavirus Has Retailers Around the World Price-Gouging Face Masks

At time of publication, Covid-19 has killed 35,000+ people, infected 740,000+ people, and set up shop in 199 countries. As the world grapples with a pandemic, people are figuring out what they can do to survive -- which unsurprisingly, has led to retailers jacking the prices up on face masks to proportions that'd be comical if quite so many people weren't dying.

In Hong Kong, pharmacies were caught selling face masks at a 30 percent markup over pre-virus pricing. On the popular Chinese e-commerce site Taobao, meanwhile, a box of twenty facemasks jumped in price from 178 yuan to 1,100 yuan ($158), while in Beijing, a pharmacy was fined 3 million yuan ($640,000) for upping the price of its face masks sixfold from 143 yuan to 850 yuan. In all, the Chinese consumer regulator has investigated over 30 instances of retailers price-gouging panicked citizens over face masks, but they're probably a little more overworked by the fact that as the pandemic wears on, they're now having to deal with retailers price-gouging consumers on vegetables like lettuce (which is now selling for 8x its usual price) and cabbage (5x).

3

The Store That Got Emmett Till Killed is Crumbling (And Its Owners Won't Sell for Anything Less Than $4 MILLION)

On August 21, 1955, 14 year-old Emmett Till visited Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market while on summer vacation with relatives in the town of Money, MS. During his visit, the store owner's wife, Carolyn Bryant, accused Till of grabbing her waist and making sexual advances at her. Till was later abducted, tortured, and murdered several days later by Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother. Then in September 1955, an all-white jury acquitted the pair of Till's murder -- and a year later, the two would confess in a magazine interview that they had killed Till.

Mamie Till BradleyOf course, being 1950's Mississippi, they could've foregone interview and shouted that confession in court and still been acquitted.

2

Over a Dozen People Faked Having Lived in Grenfell Tower in Order to Claim Compensation and Housing

On June 14, 2017, a tower housing block in London, Grenfell Tower, caught fire as a result of substandard building materials -- an inferno that killed 72 people and left hundreds of residents displaced. In the aftermath, the government started a scheme whereby people affected by the blaze could claim housing and compensation for the loss of all their worldly goods -- and in some cases, people.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

This offer attracted a lot of unwelcome attention from scammers and thieves who proceeded to file dozens, if not hundreds of false claims for losses they "suffered." Over a dozen people have been charged in connection with defrauding survivors' charities of millions of pounds for costs including hotel rooms, transport, meals, and housing, punishments of which included fines and significant jail sentences.

1

"Wearside Jack" Used the Yorkshire Ripper Murders to Avenge a Minor Felony Arrest

Britain in the 1970's was a scary place to be: Black Sabbath, the IRA, OPEC, Margaret Thatcher, etc. Oh, and Peter Sutcliffe, aka The Yorkshire Ripper -- a serial killer who, between 1975 and 1980, killed 13 women (and attempted to kill several more). From the very start of spree, the police hunt for the Ripper was intense ... and deeply flawed. Such was the clumsiness of the investigation that Sutcliffe himself was interviewed by police NINE TIMES.