Traps & Dark Patterns
Only two left tells you about a counter, not a shortage
Scarcity messages are generated from whatever the system has been told to display, and what they mean varies enormously between…
Traps & Dark Patterns
Countdown timers, fake anchors, drip pricing and how to read past them.
20 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
Traps & Dark Patterns
Paying in your own currency at a foreign checkout
Being offered a familiar currency at the point of payment looks like a convenience and is usually a separately priced service.
Traps & Dark Patterns
A free trial is a diary entry you did not write down
The trial is not the product being sold; the product is the gap between when you stop paying attention and when the charge starts.
Traps & Dark Patterns
The free gift is valued by the person giving it away
An included extra is described using a figure the seller chose, and that figure answers a different question from what it is worth…
Traps & Dark Patterns
When two shelf labels refuse to use the same unit
Unit pricing only compares like with like when both labels measure in the same thing, and a surprising number of them do not.
Traps & Dark Patterns
Sale prices with a list of things they do not apply to
An exclusion list is where a headline offer is quietly resized, and the items left out are rarely chosen at random.
Traps & Dark Patterns
This price is only good today, said the person selling it
A quote that expires at the end of a conversation is a device for preventing comparison, not a reflection of any underlying cost.
Traps & Dark Patterns
Once it is in your house you are negotiating from a worse position
Home trials, test drives and try-before-you-buy schemes work because possession changes what people think something is worth.