So That's the Catch

So I wanted to stall before I got started on some of my work (I'd already been doing some, so it qualifies as a break). I saw on the side of a website an internet ad, advertising a free Nintendo Wii, DS Lite, and game for participating in product research. Uh-huh. Sure. But I decided I'd experience the scam anyway.

First, the website was pretty well-designed. I mean, it was sleek. It constantly kept the images of those game systems tantalizingly on top of the screen.

A fake name, address, phone number, and age later, I was in.

First, it explained that I would have to completely fill out six online offers. Before that would be a product survey, which said it would be 12 questions.

Wrong. There were at least twice as many, because on many of the questions, they would double up, triple up, ask six questions in one. And all the questions were clearly not of a survey basis. "Are you looking for car insurance?" was the most innocuous, embedded amongst questions like, "Do you want to try this free trial of ______?"

Okay, I say. It isn't making me agree to any of these, so where's the cost?

Then it starts out with the offers. It looks like you have to pay a dollar here, some postage there, no big deal. Then the second one comes up. Again, there are a few offers that look a little costly, like about $10 or so, but you're getting a package that is probably valued at around $450. You're still making off good.

Then you have to accept two out of three of the third offer. Two of them are mattresses or furniture that cost at least $1000. Oh. I see now.

Now, let's assume for a moment that they fully intend to keep their promise (something I inherently doubt, but nonetheless...). They would have me pay that much for some expensive furnishings that I cannot even properly look over before I buy them? And then, even if the furnishings were were that much, and I were planning to buy them anyway, they don't make the exchange clear up front, and instead require you to sell out your address, phone number, and some consumer data, not to mention what their cookie gets off of this computer (which is fortunately a lab computer).

I would have to wonder about the profitability of such a venture briefly, but I guess it isn't that strange, because they are probably making money just from royalties getting people to fill out offers in the first two steps, who when they see the outrageous priced items turn away. That way, the website owner seldom has to furnish a Wii, which may indeed be an unattractive option for them, because they're probably not getting that much for the $2000 total cheap furniture.

It is a crafty scheme, and the only good way to avoid it is to not fall for the lure in the first place. Do we really think our statistical data is worth that much? If it is, do we really think people will offer that much to get it?

In another way, what are we paying in order to get something? Until someone comes and puts the system into my hands, leaves, and never asks for anything ever again, it's not free. Benevolence, when it does happen, happens on better bases than giving me something for free. And when they demand that you pay even a pittance for it after calling it free, we should be more wary.

I wonder about this entire setup now. They frame it so that the only logical response to such a high cost suddenly introduced - to break the contract by not filling out the last offer, results in them having to give nothing, when the other side has already given quite a bit and comes away with a loss. It isn't ethical.

I suspect that these sites are run by either opportunistic individuals that see no reason why they shouldn't take advantage of the unwary, or small firms that revel in the shady side anyway.