The One About Manipulative FOMO

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:00:33]:
FOMO, fear of missing out. That can be a really strong driver. I’m willing to bet that that you and everybody who catches this episode has experienced FOMO, perhaps many times in life. And just the thought of experiencing FOMO can be enough to drive us to to do things that we might not otherwise do. What I’m looking at at in this particular episode is I wanna explore how the unscrupulous use FOMO to manipulate us into buying their stuff. Yes. It’s another anti manipulation episode, where we expose the tools, tricks, and techniques, which the unscrupulous use to make us buy their stuff whether we want it, whether we need it, whether we can even afford it. So how do they use FOMO against us? That’s what we’re gonna look at, over the next 20, 30 minutes.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:01:28]:
Remember, if you find this useful, if you find it interesting, please do give us give us, give us a review. Subscribe to us on your favourite platform. Share the episode far and wide. Give us a like, a comment. It all helps to get it in front of more people, and the more people who get to see this or hear this, the more we can help people to better protect themselves against the unscrupulous and their tools, their tricks, their techniques that they use against us to We can’t stop the manipulative from manipulating us or attempting to manipulate us. That’s easy to say, isn’t it? But what we can do is share with you how they do it so you can be better protected against it so that you can take back control of what you choose to buy. So FOMO, how would they use FOMO against us? We’re gonna look at, a couple of different ways in which it’s used, and it’s all, based around scarcity. In particular, fake scarcity, which is, one of the many ways in which they try to manipulate us.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:02:44]:
It’s an unpleasant way. It’s a nasty way. It’s a scummy way of doing it, and it is used a lot. What so, I suppose the first thing we should do is define what do we mean by fake scarcity, and what do we mean by non fake scarcity or genuine scarcity. Well, scarcity, is simply that there’s there’s only a limited amount of whatever. So, there’s the implication being that there’s not gonna be enough of whatever to to go around everyone. Scarcity. And very often that can be, can be true.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:03:17]:
It can be absolutely genuine. If, somebody somebody, makes paintings for a living, they paint and they sell those paintings, sell the originals. Obviously, there is an element of scarcity involved there because there’s only one of each painting that they have. Right? So it’s not fake scarcity. You say this is the only one because it is the only one. It’s not fake scarcity. I mean, yes, they can paint, do several paintings, but, again, there’s scarcity. There’s a limited number of those paintings.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:03:48]:
So that’s not fake scarcity. That’s a genuine scarcity. But fake scarcity is where you pretend there’s a limit. You pretend there’s a limit to how many that you’ve got, and and it’s not a real limit. It’s done simply to push people into FOMO and to get them to get their cards out and buy that thing before they get a chance to think. So why why why does FOMO work? As you’ve seen in some other episodes, when we make buying decisions, if we buy when we’re in, in an emotional state, you know, where where our emotions are are high, our intelligence is low. When emotions high, logic is low. You become irrational.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:04:32]:
You make decisions like that without fully considering the implication because, hey. If I don’t do it now, I’m gonna miss out. Oh, right. Let’s buy it now. So you don’t don’t get the time to go, now wait a minute. Let me just consider the pros and cons and and carefully analyse it and come to a come to a balanced decision. You’re kind of pushed, rushed, forced into it. The emotion is high, and now you’ve only got certain a limited amount of time or a limited number of, copies available, you better buy now.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:05:00]:
Otherwise, you are gonna miss out. You are gonna miss out. You don’t want FOMO, do you? You don’t want me missing out on this brilliant opportunity because you didn’t take action quickly enough. Everybody else got there before you. So that’s that’s kinda how firmware works or the basis behind firmware. So how how might they how might they do it? Well, it’s used in live events. It’s used on web pages a lot. It’s also using conventional, printed media advertising as well.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:05:27]:
Don’t get me wrong. This this can work in any any of them. 2 things that you can limit. One is, often they’ll they’ll limit the price, or they’ll limit the number that are available. So let’s take a look at limiting the number that are available. Limiting the availability, and then we’ll look at the price. So limiting the availability, this will often be something like, ah, I mean, it’s it’s used a lot in in with selling at live events, you know, where they get you to rush in the back of the room and to buy stuff. Again, we’ve looked at that in, in other episodes.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:06:08]:
Excuse me. Please do excuse my voice. So they might say, okay. We’ve only got 10 spaces left on this course. Go run to the back of the room. Buy it. If you don’t buy it now, when but when, all ten are sold out, that’s it. They’re gone.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:06:31]:
Or you might see, on a website. How often have you seen this on a website? You go on, and there’s this little counter and it says 7 left. And a few minutes later, 6 copies left. And then a minute later, only 5 left. You’re thinking, oh, my word. Right. Quick. Buy.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:06:48]:
Before it before it sells out. That counter is counting down counting down counting down. Most of the time, it is fake scarcity. Most of them, not always, but most of the time, it’s fake scarcity. They say we’ve only got 10 places left. If they’d sold all 10, and you went up there and said, yep. I wanna buy it. Here’s the cash.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:07:18]:
I wanna I want in on that course. They’re not gonna turn you away, of course they’re not. They will find a way to make space to to fit you in, because you know what, chances are they’re repeating this offer every where that they, they run run this particular event anyway. So there’s so there’s more places than they’re claiming are available. They’re just doing it to to, get you to rush and buy before before you’re ready. The website 1, that little countdown countdown, they’ll do it with numb a number of number of spots available or whatever. Isn’t it funny how no matter when the marketing campaign went out, when you click on that link to go there, ain’t it funny how you go there when there are just the last 9 available? What are the chances? Especially if it counts down fairly quickly whilst you’re reading that page.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:08:18]:
Oh my word, in the time it’s taken me to read this page about the the the thing, another 3 have been sold. Oh, there’s only 6 left. Funny how you just happen to be to get there when those last few were there. Could it be that they’re making it up? And you know what? Usually, they are. They’re making it up. If there’s a countdown saying how many are left, you can pretty much guarantee they’re making it up. Because having a counter there that says 400 left, 399 left. Few minutes later, 398 left.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:02]:
That doesn’t create a sense of urgency. That creates a oh, look. There’s there’s there’s hundreds left. I can take my time to think about it. So they wouldn’t put a counter there. The only reason that counter is there is to increase the pressure on you. Come on. Hurry up.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:16]:
Look. It’s ticking away ticking away. Oh, there are few left. Few left. Oh god. You don’t wanna miss out, do you? That’s why it’s there. If they genuinely only had a few left and they were selling that quickly, again, they wouldn’t need to put the the counter on there because they would know it’s gonna go pretty quickly. The counter is on there to hurry you up, to push you, to manipulate you, to force you into going and buying that thing without giving you time to think about it.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:45]:
Oh, if I take some time to think about it, those other oh, it’s only 5 now. Those other 5 might might sell. Oh, right. I’ll buy now. Here’s the thing. If you reloaded that page, in many cases, it would go back to saying there are 10 available. Because when you load the page up that sets the counter and then uses a little bit of code that that counts it down over time. Now sometimes some of them get a little bit smart about this, and they’ll use a cookie, a thing called cookies, or you they’ll use other ways of tracking, to track that it’s you.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:10:23]:
So when you load it up again, it knows it’s you and it carries the countdown. So in that case, try it from a different, different, place. So for example, you might be looking at it on your computer, try it from your phone or your tablet or whatever, and you notice, hey, it’s gone back up to the full 10 again. Or they might get really, really sneaky and actually tie all that in with the IP address that you don’t connect it from. That’s basically the the address that your Internet is connected through. In which case, just try it on your phone, switch off Wi Fi if you’re on Wi Fi, switch off Wi Fi. You go back to your your 5 g or your 4 g. They can’t put 2 and 2 together, they can’t track that it’s you, the counter resets to the to the 10 again.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:11:10]:
Do that, and 99 times out of a 100, you’ll find that counter, that timer resets because that scarcity was absolutely fake. They haven’t suddenly you you haven’t miraculously got there just in time to see the last 10 available, and they sell 2 or 3 of them whilst you’re reading the thing. It is all fake. By all means, if you’re interested in the product or the service or the course or whatever it is, by all means, read up read about it. Take your time to think about it, and then go back to that site. You’ll find they’re suddenly available again in the vast majority of cases. Now, again, there will sometimes be times where it is genuine scarcity, but you’ll get a you’ll get a good feel for that. And if it is genuine, they’re not gonna have these timers and these countdown.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:12:02]:
They they sorry. They’re not gonna have this this countdown, of how many are left in stock ticking down prominently because that’s used to push you into buying. Now that said, there will sometimes you’ll go to a site and it’ll say how many of each product they’ve got left in stock, but that’ll be by the product, it won’t be a nice counter that’s counting down, in your face the whole time. You can get a feel for whether it is genuine or whether it is fake scarcity. Also, you’ll often, often sometimes see the pop up in, like, a bottom corner on the on the site. Fred Blogs from from this town has bought a copy. A few minutes later, somebody else has bought a copy. These again, it’s creating that push that, oh my god.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:12:55]:
People are buying. It’s gonna sell out. Oh, I don’t wanna miss out. Oh, let’s buy. Again, they’re they’re usually fake. Usually fake scarcity. They will do it in live events as I’ve said. We’ve only got 10 spaces left.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:13:08]:
Yeah. Right. Of course, you have. Oh, we’ve only got 10 copies of this book left. Yeah. Of course, you have. Ten copies on the table, another couple of dozen copies in a box underneath the Noble, which will miraculously appear later on. So that’s how fake scarcity FOMO works.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:13:30]:
They might also try it with price, pricing. And the way that will work, they’ll offer you a nice big juicy discount, but but, and there’s always a but, it’s always a catch, isn’t there? There’s always a catch with these things. It’s almost as if they’re too good to be true. They’ll offer you this nice big juicy discount, but it’s only available whilst, whilst this seminar is on. Once we finish the seminar, it goes back up to full price. So instead of you paying £500, it will go back up to £5,000. Of course, we all know nobody has ever paid £5,000 for it. They always sell it at 500, But they make it look like there’s this big huge discount, which is only available during the seminar, run down to the back of the room and buy it at this this at this special price.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:14:26]:
They might even say again that they’re magical, oh, we’ve only got 10 faces, blah blah blah blah. But if you if you, if you don’t buy it now, you’ll have to pay the full price. I was like, really? I know that is bogus because I’ve been in the back end of events where they’ve done exactly that. And, yeah, if somebody comes to them later, they will sell it at the discounted price. I even I I went to a a weekend seminar one time, and sorry, a a one day seminar one time. Sorry. A one day seminar, and on the back of that, they were selling a weekend event. I think it was a weekend of training or And they said, oh, this is this is the normal price.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:11]:
This is the special discounted price, but it’s only available during this seminar. Blah blah blah blah blah. And I never buy like that. I always take my time to think think these things through. And I took the details away with me, didn’t buy at the seminar, but took the details away with me, thought about it, thought carefully about it, weighed everything up, and realised, you know what? There is actually value to me in this this this thing that they’re offering. And the price this special price that’s only available at the webinar, only available at the seminar that they offered was a valid valid valid pride, represented good value for me. So the next day, I phoned them up. And said, hey.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:58]:
I was at the seminar. You offer this thing. You offer at this price. I wasn’t able to buy it, and I’m I made a little story up to to make it easier for them to say yes. I wasn’t able to buy the the seminar because I didn’t have the funds, but I’ve managed to sort the fund that now. Is there any way you’ll sell it to me at that webinar at that seminar price? Their answer, yes. Of course. No bother.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:16:19]:
Let’s take your details. We’ll sell it to you right now. Really? And they’re this thing that’s only a price. It’s only available if you buy right now. They were happy to sell it to me at that price a couple of days later because, of course, that was the price they were always gonna sell it to anyone anyway. Fake scarcity. FOMO. It is fear of missing out because there’s only a few places or fear of missing out because the price is gonna skyrocket at the end of the web the seminar.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:16:47]:
Course, the price doesn’t skyrocket at the end of the seminar. Especially when it’s a a massive discount, like £5,000 normally, but this month this seminar only, it’s £500. Yeah. Yeah. Really? We all know that. Complete bogus. They’ll do the same on web pages similar to what we saw a few moments ago with the fake scarcity. Do the same with price.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:17:14]:
Like, oh, only available for the next 10 people who sign up or only available for the next 12 hours. And fun isn’t it strange how when you go to the site, just hap you just happen to be in that last 12 hours or just happen to be in that last 10 10 available at that price, no matter when the email went out. And again, the counters, the counting down, and all that sort of thing. Yeah. Take a good look. Again, reload it or load it from a different device or on a different network. Often you’ll find it resets again. Don’t allow these things to, to push you into making this a decision to buy there and then, because I can guarantee you a couple of things.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:18:00]:
1, the vast majority of the time, it will still be available. You might have to phone them up. You might have to give them a nice little story to give them, a face saving way of saying, yes. Go and get the discount. It will be there. I mean, I have known of people who have done like I did, but they didn’t even make up store it. They just phoned phoned the whatever place they’d been at been to, phoned the office a couple of days later. Hey.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:18:25]:
I was at your thing at the weekend. I didn’t buy, but I quite like it now. Can I get that price? Yes. Of course. Bam. Done. Or if they genuinely do sell out or genuinely, do have a limit on numbers, they run these events multiple times during the year. There will be another chance.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:18:46]:
Catch it the next time around. Give yourself the chart the time to think about it. Don’t dive and rush into the decision. The more they’re trying to push you into making a decision, the more you should take that as a as a sign that you need to take a step back, pause, think about it, and really consider it. Because if it was that good a thing, would they really be have to be rushing you into making that decision? If it was that good a thing, they would be selling plenty of them anyway. Now that said, with the, timer thing, there are some times where that is valid. The pricing, if a company is doing a launch of a new product, new service, they might offer an early bird special discount for if you buy it before the actual launch. In those sorts of cases, yes, it probably is a genuine discount, and it probably is genuine scarcity.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:19:43]:
Yes. They’re doing it to try and encourage you to buy sooner rather than later. But, again, it’s not gonna be, like, a 95% discount. And, again, you’ll you’ll see the genuine reason why the why this the the the countdown time, and you’re not gonna stumble on the page and suddenly be in the last 5 minutes of this discount being available. See what I see see what I mean with that. Or it might be they’re running a course. And, yes, you know what? You have to register by this date because otherwise, you won’t be able to be on the course because the course will have started. So yes again in those cases it seeing a countdown there, it is genuine.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:20:29]:
And in the vast majority of cases, they’re gonna run it again later anyway. So take your time to think about it. And, again, you’re not gonna suddenly stumble upon it with the last 5 minutes before registration closes, unless you’re incredibly unlucky. Especially if they send you if they’re sending you emails or you see an an advert or whatever on on socials for it, there’ll be plenty of time. Because they’ll advertise it in plenty of time. So if it’s a longer time, like 28 days until registration closes, like, okay. Yep. I get it.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:21:04]:
That is that is genuine because, look, the course starts in 29 days. So, of course, it makes sense that there were that you you’ve only got 28 days in which to register. But take your time about it because you have got 28 days in which to register. As with all of these things that we cover with anti manipulation, using one of them doesn’t necessarily mean they’re being manipulative, but treat it as a flag to just have that little bit more caution, that little bit more, oh, now let me just just look at this carefully. And the more of these you see, the more likely is that there is some form of manipulation going on there. How can you how can you, protect yourself against it? Well, if you feel you are being pushed, if you feel you’re being pressured, if you feel you are being rushed into making a decision, that is a very strong sign that you should simply go, no. I need more time to think about this. Let me think about it in a calm, calm environment.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:22:05]:
Let me have the time to think about it. And if they say, oh, no. No time. No. Buy now. Buy now. Buy now. Or you’ll lose out.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:22:10]:
Okay. I guess I lose out. Bye. Very often very often when you do that, you’ll see them oh, no. Wait. Because then you know it is genuinely or you then you know it is a fake scarcity, and they’re just trying to manipulate you into buying. If they’re serious, if they’re genuine, then they will respect the fact that, okay. You need a bit more time.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:22:33]:
Yeah. You know what? The course does registration for the course does close next week because we are starting it the following day. We can’t hold it. You won’t be able to join partway through for obvious reasons, but you know what? Take the time you need. Get get back to us when you’re ready to to decide that you wanna sign up. They’ll they will understand. But if they’re pushing you, if they’re going, oh, no, but you have to sign up now, you don’t wanna miss out, That’s a good sign that, the scarcity is fake, and they’re simply trying to manipulate you into into buying that because if they don’t try and manipulate you into buying it, they don’t sell enough of them. See, stuff that’s that’s genuinely good value, stuff that’s genuinely popular, stuff that genuinely has appeal, they don’t need to try and rush you into making a decision.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:23:20]:
The reason they rush you into making a decision is get you while your motion is high. Intelligence is low. Logic is out the window. It’s much easier to push you and bump you into making a decision buying the thing. If they if they give you the time to think about it, they know there’s a greater risk that you’ll go, actually, you know what? This isn’t for me. So if they’re rushing you with if they’re trying to invoke FOMO, take a good hard look and consider, Do I really want this? Is this is this, scarcity actually genuine? Or are they just making this up to try and manipulate me into buying something that I do not want? Hopefully, that’s given you a little bit of an overview of of some of the, FOMO inducing techniques that that are used out there. Hopefully, it’ll give you a better, better ability to to spot these and to to protect yourself and go, you know what? Not for me. Or you know what? I need a little bit more time to think about it.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:24]:
If they try and rush you into making a decision, well, that does tend to suggest the decision you ought to make. That’s it for now. Let me know what you think. What do you think about this? Have you experienced this? What experiences have you had of this this sort of thing? Have you come across it? Let me know. Drop me an email. Drop me a comment. I love reading these things. You never know if you have a good example or a good story.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:49]:
It might end up in, the next edition of the book. And either way, if you enjoyed this, please subscribe on your favourite platform. Give us a review on your favourite platform. That really helps to boost things in the the good old algorithms. It’s all about algorithms these days, isn’t it? Share this far and wide. Tag your friends in it. Add add a meaningful comment, give us a like. All of this helps to spread word far and wide.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:14]:
And, I look forward to catching up with you in another episode very soon. Until then, take care, and look after yourself. Bye for now.