Thursday, December 20, 2012

Bad Argument: Neglect to Mention

There are PLENTY of ways marketers can disguise themselves in order to get "foot in door".

I've personally been tricked once. I was looking for an IT job, when I got wrangled by this guy who said he needs a person familiar with the Internet. Turns out he was recruiting for Quixtar, the Internet arm of Amway., and not as an IT guy, but a regular MLM grunt. I hung up.

He neglected to mention he's recruiting for MLM, not IT.

However, the marketers are getting smarter. In 2012, before the US Elections, some shady marketers started to disguise their timeshare selling pitch as a political survey.

(A "time share" is where you buy only a piece of vacation home in some nice place but only use it maybe a month or two out of the year, so you only pay a fraction of the cost.)

In one such case, they claim to be conducting a survey, then at the end, it's "you've been selected to win a X day Caribbean cruise! You are now being connected!"  and they are asking for all sorts of booking dates.

Wait, they are giving away a cruise just for giving your opinion? How can they afford to do it?

Ah, we just want to fill up our cabins with you as free ads!

Can I have some time to think about it?

No, when you hang up this offer expires.

RED ALERT! RED ALERT!

There's something this offer neglected to mention, but what?




As it turns out, some people are dumb enough to sign up, so when they showed up at the port or whatever all ready to go, they are locked in this room where they had to sit through a multi-hour presentation trying to sell them this timeshare program before they can board.

Some where asked for credit card number to cover "incidentals", then was charged even BEFORE they left of the trip. Some then tried to cancel, but was charged excessive fees.

That's quite a few "neglected to mention"s.

It's so bad, Florida's Attorney General initiated an investigation into this scammer.  There are also thousands of complaints on file at the BBB regarding this company.

You know the marketers are out there to present you a picture, that is obviously NOT the whole truth. What did they "neglected to mention"? If it's not important, then it's not important. But what if it really is important and would affect your decision? Is it then fraud to have "neglected to mention" such information?

Scammers would LOVE to tell you just enough so you'd hand over money. In fact, they'd prefer telling you nothing, but obviously mind control is not real, so they have to trick you into handing over your money, by telling you lies, and some truth, just enough to get you to fall for the scam.

Watch out for "neglect to mention". That's why you need to do your own "due diligence".


Inspired by http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2012/10/10/scam-alert-political-surveys-that-are-actually-sales-pitches/
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