So I nearly made a US$39.95 mistake recently.

You’d think that as a psychology major, I’d know better than to fall for glowing testimonials and promises of easy money. But I’m also a student with no job prospects, and the rental market is great for landlords and lousy for tenants. Anything that will bring in extra money is obviously welcomed.

In the course of my daily surfing, I was interrupted by a gaudy ad, written by one April Seah, telling her fellow Singaporeans how she makes money all the time with minimal effort. I smelled a rat immediately, but I figured I should at least follow up on this. Clicking on the link led me to Mark Warren’s Ultimate Wealth Package website. I refuse to link to the site, but Google is more objective about such things.

I could practically see the waves of manipulation coming off the screen, but not strongly enough to instil reasonable doubt. Their illusion of scarcity, where they promised 50% off the price of their product (e-books which cost very little to produce) just for today, was glaringly obvious to someone who’s taken a course in Social Psychology, but just because they’re a little too eager to sell doesn’t mean the product isn’t worth buying. Except that I still had no idea what the product was, save one little line that stated they were “digitally delivered”, i.e. online content.

And in order to save myself from litigation, let me first state that I don’t have a problem with the literal meaning of whatever the Ultimate Wealth Package promises. They send you the products as advertised. So far so good. But their sales tactics seem to border on strong-arming, and you profit by preying on the naive. Basically, it IS like multi-level marketing, except you don’t pester your contacts. You just sell the product to others, the same product you’ve just bought.

Further research soon yielded the truth. This site exposes the money-making mechanism in a series of articles (first one here), and contains comments from those who have been dissatisfied with their experience. If that’s not objective enough, there’s still the Ripoff Report. While such information is subjective and not rated by a neutral third-party, the fact that such negative experiences exist is enough warning for me.

To summarise, what I do have a problem with is their upselling tactics that try to squeeze more money out of you, as well as the suspect moral grounds of the entire enterprise. I don’t doubt that their model works, and certainly on theoretical grounds alone there’s no reason I shouldn’t make enough to cover my rent every month. But I don’t want to take advantage of others this way – and they may not be as stupid as me, so how would I make any money? I’m sure there are people in Singapore who have actually made significant amounts of money from this scheme, and their money’s as good as mine, I admit. They have what I lack, the essential quality of successful businesspeople – a heart (fuelled by the pursuit) of gold.

I got on a 151 this morning and experienced a double take.

I had boarded one of those Nokia music buses. I know I’m like several months behind the curve, but seriously, there was barely any hype about these buses. Google only turned up a couple of relevant links in the first 3 pages, one of which had really lousy pictures anyway. I take the bus from the terminal, so I captured it in its empty bar-like glory.

While it was really very nicely outfitted, and the seats were cushy, the comfort came at a price. After the initial shock wore off, the music started getting irritating. I was only on it for 10 minutes so I didn’t suffer too badly, but not everyone wants a sampler of club music played on loop while they endure an hour’s ride to Hougang.

And for some reason, the bells on the poles and window frames were removed, leaving only the ones near the door. I wonder if this has any negative repercussions during peak hour, when the bus is packed. As for the shiny poles… will the bus captain scold you if you decide to put them to a more entertaining use? Hee.

Overall, a clever marketing strategy, although I don’t think it really linked all that well to the products, which are phones. It just made me want to go clubbing.