Marketing virtual RAM as real RAM - typical Samsung - 8 GB real RAM advertized as 16 GB - hiding behind an asterisk

Likely an illegal act, only if regulators had teeth. Blatant deception of the public in a public newspaper - in front of the eyes of everyone. As if they already know that no one will complain.

MG India attracts Indians to its showrooms by marketing the starting price of Hector, but that model isn't available in reality

Experienced this around a month back at MG's showroom in Ludhiana. When I asked the salesman about the lowest, base variant, he told me that it's written there on the price list, but "in practice" we don't offer it. So the fraudish idea is to lure / bait buyers via the low-looking sticker price of the base trim, but to then "upsell" to them by denying the product which got them inside the sales outlet in the first place.

This is fraud, done by many / most car companies in India {experienced the same at Skoda showroom in Ludhiana around 3-4 weeks back, with the lowest Rapid 1.0 TSI model not sold "in practice"}, and should be formally identified and recognized and severely punished.

Caixin baits online users with a catchy $0.99 price, but when you click on this bait, the real, sustainable price is approximately 21 times

Caixin isn't alone. Far from it. Almost every online subscription service uses this deception. Ought to be banned.

Dabur plays with public's lack of knowledge about v/v and w/w to inflate the perceived percentage of alcohol in its hand sanitizer [COMPACTIDEA]

Dabur knows that public doesn't know what v/v and w/w mean. So in Amazon's title, it cleverly says 70% v/v alcohol, making buyer feel like this product is more potent compared to those hand sanitizers which contain "only 60% alcohol", whereas on w/w basis, this Dabur product also contains only 60% alcohol. Clear deception.

Reliance Jio inflates the number of months of validity for its prepaid recharge packs by changing the definition of a month!

So when they boldly write "12 months", you assume a year or 365 days, and you're alright to assume this as a consumer, but in reality it's only 336 days [or a full 29 days less, almost a month less, implying ~11 months], because they've - in small-sized disclaimer print at the bottom - changed the definition of a month! Such nasty tricks go on in the open without bone-breaking fines!

For food products, what's inside the box is usually underwhelming compared to what's highlighted on the packaging [COMPACTIDEA]

Kellogg's Muesli pack shows many large-sized photos of fruits, cereals, and other tempting stuff, but what's shown isn't what's inside. The proportion of the displayed photo that corresponds to dried fruits isn't the same proportion that actually comes out from the box. More like half or maybe just one-quarter in reality. This is fraud going on to fool the public. These private American companies shouldn't be allowed to show something else and sell something that's significantly inferior to what you're advertising. Especially the quantity and proportion of fruits - because fruits are what you're highlighting the most on the box.

TV channels are overlaying various forms of ads, messages directly over the running movie or TV program, thus interrupting the viewing experience [COMPACTIDEA]

We pay for cable TV channels in the form of DTH subscription fee - and additionally we also bear adverts that are played during - sometimes long - commercial breaks. Why then, should we be made to bear with the various forms of additional ads, distractions and messages/notifications that are increasingly being overlayed directly above the ongoing film or TV serial by ever-greedy TV channels?

More nonsense. They're themselves killing their own businesses - this aggressive overlaying will push more and more folks towards streaming-only Web services.

Some airlines, such as Ryanair, have either already renamed or are contemplating renaming their Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to fool their customers [COMPACTIDEA]

You can always count on private companies to do everything possible to fool the general public so that these companies can keep selling more and more - safety and honesty be damned.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/15/boeing-737-max-ordered-by-ryanair-undergoes-name-change

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2019/07/15/ryanair-and-iag-may-be-renaming-the-737-max-but-boeing-says-it-isnt/

https://twitter.com/AeroimagesChris/status/1150602370104975360

Online retail services such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc., in many cases, fool their customers by manipulating list prices, to make discounts look bigger [COMPACTIDEA]

Whatever has been listed in these two articles appears not only deceptive and unethical, but also outright illegal. I have myself observed first-hand some tricks being played by Indian online retail services in order to fool the public. For example, if something was selling for INR 349 yesterday, and today you mark it down by just 1 INR [now INR 348] and label a flashy-looking "Deal of the day" tag on it, that's technically okay but practically useless and also unethical. Changing list prices, however, is altogether another level of fraud.

American companies keep repeating that health, privacy, safety, etc., are their first priorities even when it has been demonstrated that they're lying [COMPACTIDEA]

Typical of all/most large US giants. It's like business schools and MBAs have sort of force-fed them that you must always keep repeating sentences such as "Safety is at the heart of everything we do", or "Customer privacy is always our first priority", etc., even when faced with undeniable evidence that you're lying and that money and profits are your only/primary goals. Every press release, every public statement, etc., must always include such standard lines.

A good example is the currently ongoing Boeing 737 Max fiasco. Even when several of Boeing's deliberately money-driven design decisions have been exposed [decisions which reduced safety and Boeing knew that these decisions reduced safety], Boeing executives continue to parrot the aforementioned fake statements.

The MCAS system in Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft is not simply an anti-stall or stall prevention system - Boeing is not going beyond the call of duty for passenger safety

Most media outlets these days are referring to MCAS as an anti-stall or stall-protection system. Even Wikipedia. This is not a completely correct description of this "feature". Boeing was forced to add this system because of an inherent aerodynamic issue with the 737 MAX aircraft. As such, it's more of a "fix" or a "patch" to counteract what is fundamentally a design problem with the plane. Repeatedly describing it to the public as an "anti-stall" "feature" makes the public feel like maybe this system is an extra safety system that has been thankfully/thoughtfully added by the very safety-minded Boeing to prevent stalls [thus increasing the safety of an already-safe airliner], and that the system has some temporary software glitches currently, and that by correcting those glitches the system will be free of flaws and the airplane will become very safe. The crucial point that this sort of story omits, perhaps deliberately, is that this feature/system is not intended to add to the basic safety of a safe aircraft design. Rather, it tries to make an unsafe aircraft design safe.

Boeing is in no way going beyond the call of duty to ensure the safety of flying public. On the contrary, this only-profit-minded company sold a warning indicator [the "AOA Disagree" light] as an optional extra to be purchased by airlines, rather than installing it as standard equipment in the interest of safety. Much like leather seats or tinted glasses are sold by car manufacturers as an extra.

Lockheed has been unable to sell its F-16 fighter jet to India, so it put the same old wine in a new bottle - it starts calling it F-21

Ideally, this kind of trick should be outlawed. You shouldn't be allowed to take the decades-old / existing F-16, create a slightly different / superior variant of the same base plane, and start calling it F-21, covertly whispering to potential buyers that it's just one step short of America's flagship - the F-22 [when in fact it isn't]. Lockheed Martin's F-16 bid failed in India because of these reasons - cost, capability, technology-transfer, industrial cooperation [offsets], threat of future sanctions, and Pakistan [Pakistan already has F-16s]. Lockheed realized that the name "F-16" is more of a baggage than an asset here in India. So it changed the name of the offering to F-21. Losers!

AT&T will brand its 4G network as 5G E, and 5G as 5G+ - yet no one will sue and fine them for this illegal marketing ploy

America can't compete technologically with China and its juggernaut Huawei, so they just want to pretend that they're the first with 5G. What utter bullshit nonsense!

Sources: [link 1] [link 2] [link 3] [link 4]

ARM uses non-zero base in its comparison bar graphs in order to make performance gains in newer designs appear MUCH larger than the reality

Frankly, it's pretty cheap and shoddy for a company as large and engineering-driven as ARM Holdings. The MBAs who crafted these charts to fool foolish people should be fired and blacklisted. They're a disgrace to professionalism.

Trick used by cosmetics and food brands - 100% herbal or natural versus 100% herbal actives or 100% natural concentrates [COMPACTIDEA]

Due to growing consumer awareness, many buyers are looking for products that are 100% herbal or 100% natural, and do not include any artificial substances or chemicals. But that isn't the same thing as "100% herbal actives" or "100% natural concentrates". The latter two are carefully-crafted terms - like the stuff lawyers write - intended to give buyers the impression that the product is totally ayurvedic/herbal/natural, without it necessarily being so. The "actives" are 100% herbal, but what about the rest of the product? The "non-actives"? The "concentrates" are natural, sure, but what about the rest of the drink [presumably a juice pack]?

On its website, Postbox shows photos of only the Mac version of its email program, which looks much more beautiful than the Windows version [COMPACTIDEA]

You surf the website and you see this beautiful, colorful, lively email program. You are attracted and impressed and you end up buying it. But when you install and run it, it bears no resemblance to the photos you saw on the website. Because those were of the OS X / macOS version of the program. You feel deceived, especially because the Windows version looks so boring.

This happened to me. I felt disappointed with the looks and the feel of Postbox after having bought and installed it. I felt even more bad when I realized that, coincidentally [I didn't know this before], the Mozilla Thunderbird that I uninstalled in order to switch to Postbox is the same Thunderbird on which Postbox itself is based. Such a bad feeling - Postbox website never tells you about this.

Windows

Mac

Control, submission and vote-bank politics disguised as empowerment and progress

While online Indian news media, newspapers and folks on social networking websites all blindly and foolishly hail and celebrate the appointment of a woman as India's first female Defence Minister, it's important to observe that this move was likely a well planned and calculated one by our shrewd PM Narendra Modi. He knew well that there will be quick and collective jubilation from impatient feminists [and women in general], and he appointed Nirmala Sitharaman as India's next Defence Minister to make himself seem progressive, and to thus secure votes for himself from females.

Further, my theory is that Narendra Modi is so cunning that his second, less-visible goal behind appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman was to exert more control over Defence expenditures and allotments. She's probably submissive and will quietly do as told [by Modi], and Modi needed exactly this kind of a compliant puppet in the [lucrative and money-making] Defence Ministry. Let's not blindly and foolishly believe what's visible. Dig deeper and observe what isn't directly visible. We have to remember that our PM is a clever and self-centered man. He thinks of only himself. It's yet another political masterstroke by Modi that he was able to kill two birds with one arrow - win female votes and applause, and appoint a controllable pawn in the profitable Defence Ministry. This is Modi's own way of using feminism as a tool to further his "political profit".

Lightning Deal on Amazon (India) is more expensive than regular price - WTF! [COMPACTIDEA]

Update [25-Sep-17]: Same today.

ESET Multi-Device Security for only one device - an oxymoron by definition

Bought "ESET Multi-Device Security" from Amazon. Not really anything "multi" about it, as "1 device, 1 year" is clearly labeled on the box. What nonsense is this? You've reduced a "multi" product to the regular ESET Smart Security. Almost an oxymoron.

Online ticket-booking websites like Cleartrip, BookMyShow, MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com, etc., deceptively and covertly add some sort of "convenience fee" at the last step

They don't reveal these rather significant charges, and if they do, it's in such a small-sized print placed at such an awkward place that it's hardly visible amd hence doesn't qualify as "we fully informed all customers". These websites non-insignificantly increase your switching cost by first making you go through the entire booking process, including filling names, details, etc., and only after one has "invested" a significant amount of time/energy and is thus more "committed". They know that one is significantly less likely to abandon booking [upon seeing the onerous "convenience" charges in the end] once one has spent a great deal of time/energy on filling forms, etc. That's the psychology they exploit. Their revenues/profits aren't based on only delivering real value to their customers. Part of it also comes from pure deception and nefarious psychological tricks.

Update [11-Apr-17]: Seen today.