Fake Sales Pressure: 3 Common Ways Popular Websites Trick Us Into Paying More & What We Can Do To Spot Shady Sales Tactics Before We Buy

If you read my writing regularly, then you know that I almost always start with a little joke, because it’s a great way to start any conversation.

Well, today the joke’s on me — and I don’t have one to tell, because I’m mad about it.

Let me tell you what happened. I tried to buy some plane tickets.

The same tickets that I looked at yesterday, but they’re $230 more expensive today than they were when I looked just 24 hours ago.

My flight doesn’t leave until August, so I’m pretty sure it’s not because it’s suddenly full.

The real reason the price went up isn’t a secret, though the companies using these shady tactics wish it was. It’s called surveillance pricing, and it’s shady as heck.

It’s not illegal, yet, but it’s gross, and it really should be against the law.

In case you’ve never heard of it, let me explain it really quickly. Feel free to skip ahead if you already know how this works.

Picture this: you’re looking for a flight to go somewhere. The reason doesn’t matter, so you look at your options and rates online, then go talk to your partner about the options.

When you come back tomorrow though, the prices have jumped. Sometimes they’ve doubled.

This isn’t because the company raised all their prices overnight — they only raised them for you.

Photo by John on Unsplash

They surveilled you through your internet activity, saw that you were interested in a flight and willing to pay for it, so they jacked up the prices as high as they think you’re willing to go.

That’s not just wrong, it’s practically evil.

So today I want to talk about how we can fight back, because until the laws catch up, the only way to beat these super shady “business strategies” is to know your enemy, and the tools that can take them down.

Let’s start with 3 of the most common ways companies crank up the price, then we’ll get into how we can stop them.

1. “Dynamic Pricing”

That’s what the companies call it when they crank the prices up, because they know you’re going to buy it anyway.

This happens all the time now, and many companies are even looking to try it inside their stores — though it’s mostly online at the moment.

While it may seem a little benign when we’re talking about plane tickets, what happens when they apply this strategy to diapers, baby formula, or toilet paper?

We need to get ahead of it now, and shut it down fast.

2. Fake Urgency

How often have you landed on a website where it says, “Sale ends in 18 minutes!” or something of the sort?

Let me tell you a secret… There’s no sale. That’s just the price — and all that urgency is 100% fake.

It’s just like when a used car dealer says, “Oh, well, I’ve got 3 other families looking at that car, so you better snap it up soon!”

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, and it’s still working today.

3. AI Content & Cheating

Lastly, something that’s a lot newer than the other techniques, but no less effective, is all the fakery using AI.

Whether it’s AI-created reviews, online articles, or images of the product, it’s almost always misleading.

We probably don’t need to go into a lot of depth here, how this strategy works is super simple. They just get AI to make up a bunch of lies.

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

The worst part is, the companies using these strategies know that they’re cheating us, they know it.

They do it anyways though, because it’s all about the profits — so now let’s talk about how to find out about their shady strategies before we buy, so we can shop somewhere else.

In the long-term, there are only two possible solutions.

One is to pressure our governments to put a stop to these shady practices… but the lobbyists and mega-corporations can pay more than we can, so that’s a bit unlikely.

The second option is to be aware of the scams, and to always shop somewhere else.

While it may be hard to get politicians to do anything useful, it’s totally possible to bankrupt these deceptive companies just by knowing that they’re no good, and spreading the word around.

So let me tell you about 3 simple steps that can make a big difference, if we all put in a little effort.

1. Finding The Bad Actors

The first thing we need to do, like any problem, is to find where it’s located.

Anywhere the prices change when you come back the next day, found one.

If the reviews are too good to be true and the images are clearly AI, found another one.

There are even online tools that can identify dynamic pricing, fake urgency, and AI content on websites that you visit, so it takes away the guesswork.

2. Name, Shame & Blame

Once you know a company is shady, don’t shop there — ever.

Go one step further, and tell your friends and family. Post it on social media.

Let everyone know, so no one gets scammed.

A little bit at a time, we can boycott all the cheaters and build up better brands instead.

3. Share Better Brands Instead

When you find a tool that helps people avoid getting scammed by these cheaters, share it.

When you find a brand that never uses deceptive practices, tell people.

It’s not all about avoiding the negatives, it’s also about building the positives — and if we all show the business owners that we’ll only buy from companies that treat us right, they’ll start to have a change of heart.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

The thing to know, the big takeaway here, is that we have more power than these companies want us to know about.

We can choose where to shop, and specifically not to shop at shady businesses.

That’s all it takes to make a difference, spot the problem, call it out, and buy from somewhere else.

Lather, rinse, repeat, until we’ve built a better world.