You’ve probably seen them. They’ve seemed to be all over the place the past few months.
They usually say something like “Obama wants moms to go back to school” or “Homeowners fail to refinance.”
Those pitches aren’t anything out of the ordinary for banner ads. What makes them strange are the pictures they feature, usually what looks like a mugshot of the Geico caveman or a picture of some guy with big glasses and buck teeth. Here’s an example.
Are these supposed to be a joke? I don’t click on banner ads anyway, but if even if I were so inclined those pictures would make me very leery. Who the hell is putting these out?
I hope I can save a few unwary dopers some serious financial heartache here by explaining what these are all about.
There are lots of banner ads right now that you’ll see which while seemingly all about different subjects, have one unpleasent thread connecting them.
The ads are commonly found advertising the following products but this is by no means exhaustive:
[ul]
[li]Acai berries[/li][li]Green tea[/li][li]Penis enlargers[/li][li]Colon ‘cleaners’[/li][li]Grants from the federal government[/li][li]Make money on Google products[/li][li]Teeth whiteners[/li][/ul]
In each case you’ll generally find that the landing page leads to what is known as a ‘fake blog’ or ‘flog’ for short or it might also be what’s known as a ‘fake article’ or ‘farticle’ (I’m not making these names up!)
A flog is basically a blog that looks like it’s just been set up by someone who has had a great experience with the product, including before and after photos etc and comments from made up visitors also explaining their positive experiences. In reality the pictures are taken from a stock photography site or ripped from someone’s facebook profile. The products, invariably, are junk. Acai berries are particuarly amusing in this regard as if you believe what you see advertised then they can get you RIPPED IN TEN DAYS without working out (which not even steroids can do) or if you’re a woman then they’ll help you lose weight but not get big.
A farticle is similar but will pose as a news site running an article on the subject rather than a blog.
For the grants and Google products you’re usually buying information, which is again, pretty much useless when you actually get it and no where near the price which I’ll explain now.
The common theme behind all of these products and ads is the business model which works like this.
You are offered a ‘free trial’. So you simply pay a nominal charge for P&P and get to try the product out. Of course hidden in the small print is the clause saying that unless you cancel within X days you will be billed $XXX per month. In many cases the companies make it very hard to cancel or even just bill you for other junk you didn’t even order. A lot of the order processing is handled by off short credit card accounts because it’s so legally dubious.
The companies involved in running these scams have been involved in numerous run ins both with the government and companies who they pretend to be endorsed by (Oprah for instance).
The pictures used will vary but generally they keep changing things up to keep people clicking through, as such if they’re using funny/goofy looking images it’s probably because they’ve discovered that it works well at getting the click. You’ll also see that they use some pretty well established psychological techniques such as implying that you can get access to a secret that some kind of elite don’t want you to know about.
It is a big business, very well practiced at separating you from your money and you should run like hell from anything that fits the pattern described above.
They all seem to be using the same pictures though - the bearded guy who looks like a reject for the Geico caveman commercials and the bucktoothed guy with the big glasses.
At the heart of it, many of these scams are perpetuated by the same party, or by parties that are intimately familiar with how their cohorts in this particular sector of “business” operate
Why would they use those pictures though? As the OP mentioned, I can’t imagine they would get even someone who is inclined to click on banner ads to take them seriously.
Do you respond to 419 emails from Nigeria? I am guessing that you don’t. Yet there are enough people out there who do, that makes it worth their while. It’s all a numbers game, just like spam. 
They caught your eye enough that you remembered them. That’s better than 99% of the banner ads.
According to this line of reasoning, I should create a banner ad that floods the screen with bestiality porn and destroys parts of the hard drive. It would be pretty damn hard to ignore that one.
Don’t give them ideas.
I got scammed just like this by Acai Berry a few months ago. Luckily, my bank was very helpful in reversing the fraudulent charges, though it was a major pain in the ass.
So it really irks me to see banner ads saying, “ACAI BERRY SCAM EXPOSED!” which, of course, always lead to a fake testimonial about how their product! really! works! Heck, I don’t even buy health drinks with real acai berry anymore…fuck Peru! :mad:
The one that seems to be on every single damn website nowadays, even the Washington Post, is “Arlington* Mom Discovers Teeth Whitening Secret.”
- I assume if you’re in a city other than Washington, the ad server will plug in a town in your area. I wonder what it shows if you’re surfing from the South Pole base or the ISS.
“McMurdo mom discovers…”
“LEO mom discovers…”
This doesn’t seem like anything new, just a rehash. I recall when I was young, every magazine had tons of ads for record clubs. You know get 10 records for a penny or 99¢ or something. Then in small print were all the catches, very similar to what the OP describes.
Just a new way to look at an old marketing ploy
It’s certainly not a new method, companies like Netflix will also bill you monthly for a service. The difference is that Netflix does what it purports to do - rent you DVDs. Acai berries do not make you lose weight or gain muscle.
The record/book clubs also (generally) are pretty up front about it - these sites have the fine print so buried it should be considered illegal. For instance, its hidden under a link to the “agreement” or “terms of service” in small print on the final purchase page - which 99% of web shoppers never read.
A few years ago I started reading some stuff about intestinal problems and taking some sort of active cleansing bacteria, because a family member asked me what it was about.
I found that this particular series of “bacteria pills” whose name escapes me, was highly recommended. It’s something along the lines of that Activia Yogurt probiotic carpola on TV nowadays. I found all sorts of web sites telling how great the stuff worked, personal stories and all that. I got suspicious at about 5 or 10 websites with almost the same story on each. All recommended or said how great were certain treatments that required you to take these doses of “good” gut bacteria several times a day, for months, at $100 or more a week for generally the same source.
Too many farticles or flogs is also known as “astro-turfing”, trying to create a fake grassroots movement.
BTW my ads on this site here say “Single mom” and “mom” whitening teeth, so I guess I’m too geo-ambiguous for them. Or there are a lot of single moms in the area, something I’m inclined to believe.
Yes, but spam is virtually free to send out (or at least, if you can send a hundred you can send a billion for the same cost). These ads are everywhere, and they are on high traffic sites. There is real money being spent on them.
I guess there really is a sucker born every minute. 
Well the picture of the guy with the overbite and big glasses is apparently from iStock:
It’s funny. If you click on other pictures of the same model, he actually looks a bit like Adam Savage from Mythbusters.
snickerrrr…
These “good” gut bacteria- presumably, they come from someone else’s poo. They want you to pay $100 a week to ingest poo.