What is the next big marketing scam after bottled water?

Does scam marketing work?

• Does scam marketing work? There are clearly very many people doing it. It's so easy now to repackage common knowledge or somebody else's blogpost and sell it as your own. Content creation takes second place to content aggregation and content regurgitation. Reading about Kindle Publishing lately, I've read of many online marketing scams with aggressive emails, major hyping, and promises of easy money which drew many paying users in and left them with an empty community and no refunds. I myself am subscribed to three email newsletters which are thinly-veiled promotional flyers for ebooks or other expensive programmes. Does scam marketing work?

• Answer:

  I suppose objectively, the answer is yes. In much the same way pickpocketing works, scam marketing can also be successful.   If you're prepared to resort to scams to make your money then you'll see some success but you'll constantly be met with obstacles as your industry moves and grows wise of the latest scams.   Have you ever got an email from the widow of a Nigerian multi-millionaire?   Or... got a call from Microsoft claiming your Windows PC is riddled with viruses?   I'm sure you thought nobody could possibly fall for one of those scams, but even they must have some success otherwise they wouldn't be so prolific.   Over-charging, over use of hype and deception are not (i hope) how most people aspire to make their living. They may work in the short term but people have a nose for falsehood and those that don't acquire one after being burnt once or twice.   Long term success is found from being honest from the start.