The subtle signs of a scam...
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Such as when they try to stampede you into making a decision by doing stupid things like this:
<span class="green_text"><a href="a.php" mce_href="a.php" target="_blank">Strong Acai Free Trial</a></span>, (expiring on
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
var now = new Date();
var days = new Array(
'Sunday','Monday','Tuesday',
'Wednesday','Thursday','Friday','Saturday');
var months = new Array(
'Jan','Feb','March','April','May',
'June','July','Aug','Sept','Oct',
'November','December');
var date = ((now.getDate()<10) ? "0" : "")+ now.getDate();
function fourdigits(number) {
return (number < 1000) ? number + 1900 : number;}
today =
months[now.getMonth()] + " " +
date + ", " +
(fourdigits(now.getYear()));
document.write(today);
//-->
</script>)(with the whole thing repeated a few lines later for stage 2). If they'd had the sense to set the date a few days later, it wouldn't have been nearly so obvious...
Also, the page that came from made me go through [b]two[/b] confirmation dialogs when I tried to close the browser. Even one would have been enough for me to never want to do business with them (even supposing I had wanted to in the first place), but two? Surely that can't be a successful strategy to make your potential customers think well of you.
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That fourdigits function really smells. It's just so semantically wrong.
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Really makes you wonder why any company still thinks annoying the shit out of your customers is a good marketing strategy.
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@Zecc said:
That fourdigits function really smells. It's just so semantically wrong.
Not to mention obsoleted via Date.getFullYear().
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@Master Chief said:
Really makes you wonder why any company still thinks annoying the shit out of your customers is a good marketing strategy.
All the technology and software in the universe is just as useless when the end user has the IQ of a sack of hammers.
- MeI think your sig says it all - a person with the IQ of a sack of hammers tends to believe anything, including "if the site won't let me leave, it must be important!"
sigh.
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@RobFreundlich said:
@Master Chief said:
Really makes you wonder why any company still thinks annoying the shit out of your customers is a good marketing strategy.
All the technology and software in the universe is just as useless when the end user has the IQ of a sack of hammers.
- MeI think your sig says it all - a person with the IQ of a sack of hammers tends to believe anything, including "if the site won't let me leave, it must be important!"
sigh.
Exactly. They wouldn't put the effort in if it wasn't worth it - scammers may be assholes, but they're not idiots. There's a reason they're making an ever-loving fuckton of money in greater percentages than honest people.
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@Master Chief said:
Really makes you wonder why any company still thinks annoying the shit out of your customers is a good marketing strategy.
If I'm not mistaken, the ubiquitous cookie-cutter acai/teeth whitening/colon cleansing/weight loss ads are from a Multi-Level Marketing scheme. The similar ones you see touting "make money from home" instead of the products are recruitment, I believe. The end result is, pages like this one are often not run by a company, but an individual who may be barely computer literate and almost certainly not a marketing professional.
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Açaí is only good while fresh. If they're going to mail it to you, no amount of chemicals will keep the original taste and stimulant qualities. So it fails as a marketing scheme even more.
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@PeriSoft said:
Exactly. They wouldn't put the effort in if it wasn't worth it - scammers may be assholes, but they're not idiots. There's a reason they're making an ever-loving fuckton of money in greater percentages than honest people.
Seriously? People respond to those? I mean I realize my mom may not be quite as attuned as me to the sure signs of scam, but I've got so many damn warning bells that go off, I figure she has to have at least ONE.
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@Minos said:
One simple trick, discovered by a MOM! It's discovered by a MOM man! That clearly makes it legit!If I'm not mistaken, the ubiquitous cookie-cutter acai/teeth whitening/colon cleansing/weight loss ads are from a Multi-Level Marketing scheme. The similar ones you see touting "make money from home" instead of the products are recruitment, I believe. The end result is, pages like this one are often not run by a company, but an individual who may be barely computer literate and almost certainly not a marketing professional.
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@PeriSoft said:
Exactly. They wouldn't put the effort in if it wasn't worth it - scammers may be assholes, but they're not idiots. There's a reason they're making an ever-loving fuckton of money in greater percentages than honest people.
Dude's got a point. People will believe anything, and others will steal from them. What's the biggest scam I've heard? "Change we can believe in," or "Change we need." We're really getting shafted on those scams.
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@PeriSoft said:
Exactly. They wouldn't put the effort in if it wasn't worth it - scammers may be assholes, but they're not idiots. There's a reason they're making an ever-loving fuckton of money in greater percentages than honest people.
The only people who are really making money off these products are the distributors at the top of the pyramid, selling endless quantities of their crap to marginally-honest but incredibly lazy people who think they can make "$5000 a week working from home!"
A few honest (but stupid) people may get duped into actually buying something from the middle-men, but I think that's a small price to pay for the pleasure of watching these pathetic direct-to-market slobs eventually have to fold up shop and learn how to do an honest day's work (or at least how to pull a much better scam).
