Real-life examples of fake sales notifications gone wrong

[testyedits]

This seems harmless because it's just a few fake notifications until you build a customer base, right?

Wrong, there are many problems that arise when you decide to go down this path. Let’s take a look at the real problem of fake social proof.

The Real Problem with Fake Sales Notifications
Shortcuts, life hacks, and overnight successes are things we look for, but the truth is that none of them exist in the business world.

It takes time and effort to build a business that is built to last.

The biggest harm of fake social proof is the overall loss of trust in online sales. It may be tempting to use fake sales notifications, but there are some serious aspects you should consider.


Before we get to the boring legal part, let’s take a look at some female database real-life examples of fake social proof gone wrong.

In 2019, Ophir Harpaz, a security researcher, was booking a flight using a website called OneTravel. She received an alert that said, “38 people are looking at this flight.” That’s a number that certainly puts pressure on the buyer to book the flight quickly before it sells out:

fake notification onetravel
She thought the number 38 was suspicious and started looking into how they got it. A simple right-click search and “Inspect Element” showed her that it was a random variable selected between the numbers 28 and 45.

Harpaz took to Twitter to share what he discovered, and his tweets received thousands of likes, retweets and comments:

ophir-harpaz-on-twitter

Although OneTravel claimed the code was a beta test and not meant to be seen by the public, trust had already been broken.

And what’s worse? We’re still mentioning this as a case study, which means that this kind of harm never goes away. In a similar case, a graduate student Arunesh Mathur discovered that a company called PureVPN was using random variables to display notifications about the last time someone purchased a package. The company sells virtual private network (VPN) software for secure web browsing, so it’s safe to say that trust is an important factor when it comes to buying such a product.

When contacted by BBC Worklife, a PureVPN spokesperson said the code was being removed immediately, even though random number generators were a fairly common practice.

These incidents can permanently change the way customers perceive your brand and product. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t realize how much they’re risking their brand image and success when they use these methods. But you might be wondering if these examples are exceptions to the rule. Let’s take a closer look.