Who profits if I click?

Chapter V

Economic manipulation

Scams, dark patterns and marketing tricks aimed at your wallet.

Deepfake celebrity investment scams An ad in which a cloned TV host or politician "reveals" a secret investment platform: a funnel that ends with a friendly broker on the phone and your savings gone.
Crypto pump-and-dump A coordinated hype wave (Telegram groups, influencers, countdowns) inflates a worthless coin so that insiders can sell it to the people who arrived last.
Fake reviews Bought five-star reviews, review-swap groups and "free product for a review" deals that turn a shop's rating page into an ad you mistake for other customers.
Greenwashing Vague eco-claims, leafy packaging and one tiny improvement waved like a flag, so you feel good about buying from a business that has not changed much.
Dark patterns Interface tricks (hidden cancel buttons, pre-ticked boxes, guilt-trip "No thanks, I hate saving money" links) built so that you do what the site wants, not what you came for.
Fake scarcity & FOMO "Only 2 left", "offer ends in 09:59", "47 people are viewing this": manufactured urgency that makes you decide now, before you have time to think.
Native ads posing as articles Paid content dressed as journalism ("partner content", "brought to you by", a recommendation widget), placed so that you read an ad with the trust you give the news.
Lobby-funded 'studies' Research commissioned to reach a conclusion (tobacco, sugar, oil, think-tanks with hidden donors) so that "a study says" can be bought like any other ad.