I am buying hardly any Internet marketing information on line anymore. The more exciting the offer, the more cynical I have become—and this is a sudden change.
Why? Lately I have been burned by too many bait-and-switch one-time offers.
The scam goes like this. Marketer X (or Y, or Z, or whoever) creates a great sales page offering the secrets of some “highly profitable” marketing ploy for what is (in Internet Marketing terms) a reasonable price. Not suspiciously cheap, not too expensive. It sounds like a pretty fair deal.
Mind you, Marketer X assures us that we will receive a complete step-by-step plan, including all the secrets of this particular type of marketing strategy (not just the first few steps or a vague, general outline).
So you pay, and then PayPal transfers you to a page where (instead of what you purchased) you are offered the real steps, the rest of the steps, the absolutely essential rest of the plan. It’s a one-time offer at this (ridiculously inflated) price, so you better grab it right now if you want to really know how to use the system that you already paid for.
Oh, and, of course, the rest of the system, the crucial stops needed for success, costs a whole lot more than the original “everything” you have already paid for.
Plus, if you fall for that, and pay the extra money, often what you get is just a little bit of vague nothing. Not only were you scammed into paying twice for what you were offered in the first sale, but what you get is not worth anything like what you paid for it.
Either way, though, it’s wrong. Whether they hold back most of the information, or just scam you into thinking that they have, this is an extremely unethical process.
And I don’t care who does it. Don’t tell me that some of the big, respected names are doing it. Yes, it’s a fad. That still does not make it right.
To my mind, it’s fraud. Either you are selling me everything, as promised, or you are not. Clearly these people are lying on their sales page. Oh, sure, you can get a refund. Usually. But that still does not make it right.
What’s worse, I think these guys are poisoning the well for all of us. When newbies get burned, they tend not to trust the next few offers they see. Some of them may never buy Internet information products again. That is a shame, and it costs all marketers business, not just the scammers.
So what about you? Have you been taken by this scam? What did you do about it? Did you confront the scammer?
Or do you think this is an OK business practice? Come on. Tell us. Inquiring snarks want to know.
