Mike, a friend of mine so good that he employed both myself and Eric at the same time, sent me this link to Cracked.com's "If Banner Ads Were Forced To Tell The Truth" competition.
And, is is the way of useless shite on the worldwide interweb, it got me thinking.
How do these sites stay afloat? Surely there can't be that many idiots walking this little blue planet?
But, after a moment's thought, the question kinda got flipped around - "Why aren't there more sites fleecing gullible mugs?"
As I was replying to Mike's email, an advert at the top of my Hotmail window flashed up urging me to claim my free £10 whilst playing Deal or No Deal for £405,000 - a jackpot which rose by a penny every second.
Surely anyone with half a brain can realise that:
1) Companies do not achieve success through giving everyone on the internet free tenners.
2) Companies do not achieve success through giving away £405,000 to idiots on the internet.
3) A jackpot that rose by a penny EVERY SECOND would rise by £1 every 100 seconds, or 60p a minute. 60p a minute = £3.60 an hour = £86.40 a day = £604.80 a week. A jackpot rising by more than £600 a week, in a game people pay for free. Does anyone see any potential problems with that? Such as the source of this wonderful bounty?
And yet, I have absolutely no doubt that there are idiots out there clicking the advert every single second in the hope of brightening their weekend to the tune of four hundred grand.
Presumably, to feature within an advert within Hotmail, the company behind the advert can't be short of a bob or two, and must be (comparitively) legitimate.
But if you're stupid enough to click on a link that says "Free Britney Sex Tape" - well, you deserve the spyware, don't you?
I think I should go and take some painkillers for my toes now.
1 comment:
It is much the same with the junk mail which tells you you've won £30,000. My missus got one of these and although fairly intelligent and not normally gullible she kept saying that she'd read the thing over many times and couldn't see the catch. I said "Did you enter a competition?" eh no, "Have you heard of this company before?" eh no. I pointed out that the "catch" was that she had a letter telling her she'd won a competition she hadn't entered. Despite me being right, I swear she went in the huff!
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