Did your heart skip a beat when you saw “70% OFF!”?We’ve all been there. It’s midnight, and a notification pops up: “Mega Sale, only 2 hours left!” Your fingers move to the cart on their own. Five minutes later the order is confirmed, and it feels like you’ve won a battle.
Then, a few days later, you notice the same product at another shop for almost the same price. A different feeling creeps in. It isn’t excitement anymore, it’s doubt. “Did I actually save money, or did I get fooled?”
Today, let’s answer that question.
What Discounts Do to Our Minds
Sellers know that people don’t judge prices, they judge comparisons. Behavioral economics calls this the Anchoring Effect, an idea made famous by the work of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Put simply, our brain treats the first number it sees as the “real price.”
Imagine a kurta tagged ৳3,500, crossed out in red ink, with ৳1,499 written below. Your brain stops asking whether the kurta is worth 1,499 taka. It thinks, “I’m saving 2,001 taka!” Yet its fair market price might have been 1,200 taka all along.
Two more mental traps join in:
– Fear of missing out (FOMO): When you see “Only 3 left!”, you don’t take time to think.
– Time pressure: A countdown timer quiets the rational part of your brain and lets emotion take the wheel.
Sellers understand this well. That’s why a fake discount is less a game of prices than a game of minds.
7 Common Fake Discount Tricks
1. Raise the price first, then “cut” it
This is the oldest trick in the book. Two weeks before a sale, the price is quietly raised. Then a “huge discount” brings it back to where it started. Consumer protection bodies in Europe and America have repeatedly acted against this kind of “reference price” manipulation. In the UK, the consumer group Which? has investigated Black Friday pricing more than once and found that many “deals” were available at the same price, or lower, at other times of the year.
2. A “previous price” that never existed
The crossed-out price (MRP) often exists only on paper. Nobody ever bought at that price. It isn’t a discount, it’s a staged story.
3. Fake urgency
A timer says “Last 2 hours!”, yet the same offer returns the next day. In many cases the timer is just a script that restarts with every page refresh.
4. Lower quality hiding behind the discount
The price really did drop, but the fabric quality, battery capacity, or product weight quietly dropped too. Some products are made as cheaper versions just for sales. It’s a close cousin of “shrinkflation.”
5. The bundle trap
“Buy one, get one free” sounds great. But if both items were priced at double beforehand, the “free” one came straight out of your pocket.
6. Trust built on fake reviews
Discounts often come with a 4.9 rating and hundreds of “Amazing product!” comments. Look closer: the reviews all arrived on the same day, in nearly identical language. Fake reviews are a major problem on online marketplaces worldwide.
7. “Unbelievable offers” on Facebook pages
This deserves special attention in Bangladesh. A 10,000-taka watch for 999 taka? With “pay first, get the product later”? These are often not discounts but outright fraud. We’ve all heard stories of pages vanishing after the money was sent.
6 Questions Before You Buy, Answered in 2 Minutes on Your Phone
Next time you see a “Mega Sale,” ask yourself these before you click the cart:
1. What is this product’s real market price? Compare prices on at least two different shops or platforms.
2. What was the price over the last month or two?Use a price-history tracking tool, or add the item to your wishlist in advance and watch the price.
3. Is the discount truly on this product, or is it a “Flat 50% off” banner covering a whole category? Read the terms and conditions, even the fine print.
4. How are the reviews? 3- and 4-star reviews tend to be more honest than 5-star ones. Look for reviews with photos and comments from different dates.
5. What is the return and refund policy? Sale items sometimes hide a “no returns” clause.
6. Did I actually need this? It’s the hardest question, and the most effective. If you wouldn’t have bought it otherwise, spending on it at 50% off is still 100% spending.
Here’s a simple rule to remember: the 24-hour rule. Leave the item in your cart and wait a day. A genuinely good offer doesn’t vanish overnight. And an offer that pressures you with “buy now or it’s gone” is the most suspicious one of all.
What to Do If You’ve Been Cheated
If you realize you’ve been scammed, don’t feel ashamed. These tricks are built to exploit ordinary human psychology. You’re not foolish, you’re human.
– Save screenshots of the order, chats, and payment proof.
– Report it through the platform’s refund or complaint system.
– For serious fraud, file a complaint with the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, and seek help from the cyber crime unit if needed.
Your one complaint might save someone else from being cheated. Discounts aren’t bad. A genuine price cut brings real relief to a family budget. The trouble begins when the word “discount” takes away our ability to think.
Next time “70% OFF!” glows in red across your screen, pause. Take a long breath. Ask yourself: “Has this price really dropped, or has my guard dropped?”Because the biggest saving is the one you make by not buying. And the best deal is the decision you made without rushing, using your own judgment.
