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FANTUAN "free" 1-month premium

Downloaded it to get a free drink on sign-up (start of the sem,like Hungry Panda) student promo. Then just tried premium as it was free for a month and showed "amazing"(not so amazing offers) for food delivery and pick up. The app uses a lot of dark patterns. The unsubscribe button was basically hidden in the promotion sections. A lot of other ppl have had issues with this, found a Reddit post full of comments of ppl realizing they have been charged by the auto-renewal.

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Fantuan 9.99/month automatically charged : Flushing

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I just noticed they’ve been automatically charging me 9.99 month just to use the app (membership). Is anyone else seeing this? I didn’t see…

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This example is from Temu's spinning wheel promotion.The interface makes users feel like they have won a large reward, such as AU$100, which encourages them to continue shopping. However, important conditions such as minimum spending requirements or additional steps are not clearly shown at the beginning.This is a dark pattern because it uses excitement and incomplete information to influence users' decisions.

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When buying concert or sporting tickets through Ticketek, the advertised ticket price often doesn't include booking fees, service fees, or processing fees. These extra charges only appear right at the end of the checkout process after you've already selected seats and entered your details.

This design takes advantage of the time and effort you've already invested. By the time the extra fees appear, many people continue with the purchase because they don't want to start the process again.

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TikTok "asks" you to share your location, however, the only option is to accept, and you close off this request, so you must either accept or restart the app (yet it still functions without your location)

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This ad is the first thing that immediately appears when you open SHEIN. It takes up almost the entire screen and is hard to ignore, forcing a customer's attention to the discounts and rewards it's offering. This makes the customers feel like they've won something valuable, however, these offers have hidden conditions, like having to spend a certain amount of money before being able to redeem the rewards. This information is not clearly communicated on the pop-up, which can mislead customers. As a result, this design can pressure users into engaging with the site, causing them to make purchases they may not have intended to in the first place.

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Under Armor website hidden costs. Locks you into an email subscription service where they will bombard you with emails and promotions. (may even sell your email, name, personal details). makes you think you've won a free 15% off BUT there is a minimum spend of $100, not applicable with sale items AND there is a Terms of Use and Privacy Policiy that you automatically 'agree to' by providing your email. When clicking on these Policies and Terms, they are formatted in an extermely not user-friendly format, with lots of legal and business jargon to make it almost impossible for the every-day shopper to understand, comprehend and know what they are singing up for. this is on purpose so the user automatically signs up without reading them. also there is no box to tick that you have read or agreed, it is just implied when you provide your email.

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I mentioned in the last lecture about adobe but there are many dark patterns with their subscription model that they recently got into legal trouble over it, and had to pay a huge fine. They try to entice the customer with "discounts" and stop cancellations through fees that are extremely high. https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/adobe-pays-150m-settle-subscription-154253819.html

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I think Andy might have mentioned this in the last zoom tutorial, but many websites like Trip.com make it very difficult to unsubscribe from spam emails. They frame their wording in a way that makes users feel like they're 'missing out' and thus reconsider their intentions to unsubscribe.

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Site is Taobao, an online shopping app that is popular in China and HongKong.

Image 1: The darker orange button (emphasised more than the yellow button), actually allows you to "fight" for discounts, where as the yellow button is 'add to cart'.

Image 2: By screenshotting, the app immediately searches and presents the items available/similar to those in the screenshot, keeping users in a state of 'shopping'

Image 3: The highlighted text is "purchase again", it stands out and is in a location that is super easy to misclick at (especially when scrolling on a phone as that is where the thumb usually rests). This button will also lead you immediately to the checkout instead of just 'adding to cart'

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This site is called Shopee. Sometimes, it sends emails that offer "too good to be true" promotions like for example, in this screenshot, it's selling a ps5 for RM25 (8 AUD). When the user clicks on this "knockout deal", it redirects them to the product page which also shows this cheap price, but when the user adds it to cart, the price drastically changes to the original price. This is deceptive as the real price only shows up when the user is about to check out, which if they are not double checking their order, could result in them to spend a significantly higher cost.

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ChatGPT Trial

forced continuity: it does not email user about upcoming end of free trial, leading to automatic reduction in bank. The money outflow's reason is not documented by ChatGPT itself, only name of the company and amount of money gone

roach motel: tricky to unsubscribe, limited unsubscribe guidance; vague information (no specific examples, just time range) of the date user must cancel subscription to avoid being charged for the next period

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The moment you land on Shopee, a full screen pop-up blocks all content before you can do anything. The close button is a tiny, low contrast X deliberately dwarfed by the loud "Shop Now" button. The stacked offers (free delivery, $12 voucher, 500 coins) create false urgency to pressure an immediate purchase rather than letting you browse freely. Your eye is pulled to the call to action, not the exit. It is coercive by design.

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In high school, I would visit some pirated novel websites to read novels. On the "next page" buttons of these websites, there would be an almost transparent advertisement div superimposed. If you dragged the "next page" button to the bottom of the screen to click, what you actually clicked on was the advertisement layer, and it would directly redirect you to an unknown gambling website. Only by dragging the "next page" button to a position slightly above the middle of the screen and clicking it could you truly move to the next page without being redirected.

How did this design "cheat people"?

Taking advantage of users' reading habits (their eyes and clicks naturally fall towards the bottom of the screen when reading novels)

Covering the actual buttons with an almost invisible transparent layer to create the illusion that "it seems you are clicking on A, but in fact you are clicking on B"

The purpose is to deceive users into clicking on advertisements or redirecting traffic, rather than improving user experience

Users need to "learn" an unofficial workaround (dragging the buttons to the middle) to use the website normally, which itself indicates that the design is against the users' interests

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Musescore when buying for the first time gives a bright green discounted price and automatically flicks on a switch without any explicit label on what it is only a small text below which then states that it is starting a free trial and charging a 3 month subscription for $44.99 afterwards.

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I use CamScanner as it is an easy and 'free' way to scan documents and export them as PDF's, however when you open the application it immediately pops up with an option to sign up for a subscription (allowing access to 'special features'). The way this pops up on the screen takes up the whole page and the 'x' you click on to escpae it and carry on with the free version is almost invisible up the top, manipulating the user to believe they have to sign up for a subscription to carry on.

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Disguised Ads:

The fake blue buttons occupy the visual center. They are eye-catching and more than one. The real green download button is ignored. The only advertising logo is a small circle "i" in the lower right corner. These dark patterns lead to low efficiency, and it takes users extra time to identify the real download button. It is not only a waste of time but also makes users feel insecure.

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On Shein (which is a pretty bad website to use) they have their home screen already flooded with trends and eye catching prices in bold and in red. Then on the side as soon as you begin to scroll down a pop-up add comes in from the right side again in bright red and bold font that has thigns like "Free Shipping" and "Free Returns" and "30% off" but under/next to each of this bright lettering there is a smaller hidden font that says you must have a minimum spend, or within a certain time frame, etc. They are just trying to get you to sign up to the email so you feel like you're getting a deal when really you are just giving your information to a suspicious website.

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This is an example of a disguised ad, where the CAD block website is advertised as 'Free Download', though the actual download button is hidden from immediate site. Instead, an ad for a web companion is what comes up as a misleading legitimate 'Free Download' button that you are likely to click on as that is the only visible download button on the site. This will instead take you to an external and irrelevant link rather than downloading the CAD blocks.

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Maybe it was the $500k prize, the pretty colours or the timer but I somehow duped myself into thinking it would be a great idea to buy 'entries' into this cash draw by signing up to a 'first' membership and I bought $99 worth of credit for 'entries' not realising a $1500 minimum spend would apply to redeem the credit. So now my money sits in a void cause there's no way I'm spending that much money on the site. Great. Wonderful. I'm sure at the time (this was 6 months ago) the minimum spend was advertised somewhere (the website looked slightly different to this, my eyes just didn't see it. Anyway sometimes I have to listen to the advice I give my parents. If it's shiny, urgent and seems to good to be true it probably is.

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The "Manage Preferences" Trap

Many cookie banners offer only two options, "Accept All" or "Manage Preferences", but there is no "Reject All" button. Clicking Manage reveals a long list of toggles, and every single one is pre-enabled, so refusing tracking means manually switching off each category one by one. The design works by stacking friction: accepting takes one click, while rejecting takes five or more, and most users give up and accept. It also exploits default bias, then pre-checked options feel like the "normal" choice, even though GDPR requires consent to be opt-in, not opt-out.

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Tried to download a youtube video from this website, after the page finished rendering the download, there was another download button at the bottom too, which lead to a casino page telling me to spin the wheel and claim a prize (for which they asked for my credit card details and number), this is a form of malicious advertising

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False Urgency: The Ultimate Guitar website uses a false urgency dark pattern by displaying a countdown timer for its sale, pressuring users to buy quickly before the "offer ends." Ironically even if the user has bought one of the top products, they will still see the counter on the top of their screen. This can create unnecessary FOMO, even though the sale is regularly extended or repeated.

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The temu website has a bright tag of "free shipping" however reading through the conditions, it is available after a minimum order of $15 first, and then a continuous order of $40. This is intentionally trying to give all website viewers an impression that the free shipping is for all orders everywhere.

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Hidden costs at ticket platform (especially for second-hand ticket like viagogo. When selecting seats, it only displays face value of ticket, but when go to check out steps, huge amount of surcharge like handling fee, ticket re-issue fee just be added on, for about 20%-30% of the price we saw at the start.

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OpenAI has designed the service so that a new user is able to use the first prompt as usual, but once the second prompt is entered, the response is generated then blurred. The sign up is then overlayed making the result displayed but blurred and unlegible, forcing a new user to sign up if they want to continue using the current session.

It lures users by starting giving the impression they can use it without signing up, then forces the user to sign up to continue their session and preserve their progress/result.

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I bought a heater online and something similar to this popped up where they wanted to call me after the purchase, I clicked no and then proceeded to get 5 spam calls in the next day all leaving voicemails asking if I could review the product even though I hadn't even recived the item.

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Studocu's free access to premium features

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Studocu offers a way to access their contents by uploading our own files into their system, bust 9 times out of 10, they always reject our files, while still retaining the files they've rejected. This, to me, is a scheme to get as much input as possible, without jeopardizing their profitability.

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Jet star using Roach motel model for prompting you for 3 times to sign up for their membership model

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I hate how I have to add my details to everything. It is impossible to track and it means that you are observed by so many people. Why should nutrition and education come with a catch? I am aware people need to make a living but it is not reasonable. What if people don't have an email nor a mobile, then are they not allowed to access nutrition information? It is exclusionary

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This example uses a fake countdown timer and a message saying "3 users are looking at this right now" to pressure people into making a quick decision. These tactics create a false sense of urgency, making users feel like they might miss out if they don't act immediately. This is considered as a dark pattern because it manipulates emotions instead of helping users make an informed choice. A more ethical approach would be to only display genuine deadlines or real stock availability so users can decide without unnecessary pressure.

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I recently booked flights through a website called e-dreams, somehow I got subscribed to their subscription while paying for my flights and when I realised and went to cancel, the only way is to call their call centre. Spent an hour on hold and then got hung up on, impossible to cancel via your "profile".

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On Ultimate Guitar, every single time a tab is opened an unskippable 10 second ad for the premium version pops up, which becomes very frustrating. The exit button is also difficult to press and users can easily misclick leading them to the ad itself. It discourages people from wanting to use the site at all, it wastes time, is incredibly invasive to the overall experience and is actually incompatible with how users use the service in the first place especially to those who switch between tabs often.

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Temu suggested I log in with a Google account as "I will have a better experience"

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A subscription-based service doesn't allow users to unsubscribe from their services online or on your own at all. You are required to call into their customer service line and provide a 'lighthearted' reason for the cancellation you are trying to make. GenZ is known for some inability or dislike for certain social interactions over the phone and this makes the process somewhat unpleasant. The ability to unsubscribe from their service should be more friendly and less frustrating.

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It irks me beyond anything when you go to download something off a 'safe' website - for example this was from ReadAnyBook, it has a download button that is clear and 'safe' - but when you click it, yes it does download the thing you asked for, but it opens this page or something similar in a new tab that tries to trick you into downloading malware. So frustrating. Even worse, you might click download and it will take you to an ad website, usually NSFW, which has happened before when I have gone to download a childrens book! So much for keeping the internet safe for kids...