111–120 of 471 posts
Back in the 90s there was a hilarious trend of winning the car in the mall by being the person to be in the car the longest. This was when SUVs were becoming a really big thing. People were sleeping in the car with 5 other strangers to see who could outlast the others, with only short bathroom breaks allowed. I'm not really sure what the advertisers/dealers won in that exchange.
> In the course of an hour on a Wednesday afternoon, 22 hopefuls fill out the digital form. Lets take this hour to be an average hour. Over 12 hours in a day that the mall is presumably open, that's 22*12 = 264 leads. > the mall isn’t behind these giveaways; they merely rent out the advertising space (for around $1.5k per day). This would imply that these leads need to be worth at least $1500/264 = $5.68 per lead. Do…
Don't forget to consider the revenue side of the equation. I imagine these promotions wouldn't exist if they didn't make money, for at least a few, business entities in the chain. If they have: 0.3% conversion; $25,000 average price; 20% margins Which aren't unrealistic numbers for timeshares. They break even at $15 cost per lead when ignoring call center costs and other overhead. It's pretty easy to find people to w…
That was my point.
The best selling product is unrealistic hope.
Why is it always timeshares? What makes them so ideal to sucker people with? I've seen these scams all over the world.
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It seems so obvious now you've pointed it out. I do like to over complicate things.
This is the advice given by banks and anti-fraud agencies. NB in some countries landlines can remain on a call for several minutes after the call receiver has hung up. A phisher will play a dial tone etc to make it seem realistic. The advice is to either wait 10 minutes (longer?) or preferably call back on another line if you receive a suspicious call.
pff, there was some movie long ago, some technician was installing a few 1-armed-bandits in some pub, and asked the owner - should they give 1 win per 100, or 1 per 1000 ? And the owner answered: What? 1 per 1000? We're not a charity here, there must be zero wins!
Having worked in casinos and actually owning a real, unrestricted gambling machine (for laughs, tbh): that's bullshit. Gambling works because there is always, always some machine that is paying out money. This one machine is sufficient to get all other patrons to throw more and more money at them. Sometimes all hell breaks loose and multiple or all machines pay out. The joke is that most gamblers won't cash out and g…
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I think it's one of these cultural differences between the USA and Europe. There might be more bureaucracy in Europe, but these officers actually do the work they're paid for. E.g. as for the superannuation issue, you could probably get a court order within 2-3 months here.
ehnto mentions the ombudsman. I don't think they have this position in the U.S
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> I'm from the UK[..] I think the region you're in has a strong impact on what the police's priorities are, due to different leadership. Totally agree! The few times I compare ads on television from Netherlands vs England the difference is huge. There's a huge amount of gambling advertisement in England. Advertising regarding something that's addicting is often quickly restricted in The Netherlands. Secondly the loan…
> If a lot of people get into money problems it'll affect everyone This is called "negative externality". Another example is junk food. It does affect everyone when people are unhealthy (health care costs for instance). > It is so strange that this is allowed. I think the US have ruled that advertisement is protected by freedom of speech. Actually some people get extremely defensive when talking about restricting adv…
It's a way to harvest personal information for mobile phone and email spamming.
Yet, so many fall for it. Even modern urban types.