Why am I even seeing this? The funnel that found you
Notice how this reached you. A targeted advert on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or a video pre-roll, then a free masterclass or a downloadable guide, then a comment-and-I-will-message-you hook, then the same face following you across every app for a week. None of that is fame. It is a few pounds of ad spend aimed at a profile you fit, and the shape of it tells you more than the pitch does.
The tell. The advert found you, you did not seek it out. The free training turns out to be a ninety-minute pitch with the offer at the end. "Comment the word MONEY and I will send you the link" is engagement bait that also slips past the platform's ad checks and fakes a personal touch. The sense that this person is everywhere is retargeting, bought and pointed at one viewer, which is you.
Why it works. The free thing is not generosity, it is a debt. When someone gives us something first, we feel a pull to give back, and the pull is real even when the gift was unsolicited and even when we do not much like the giver. The sociologist Alvin Gouldner described this as a near-universal moral rule, and a famous experiment by Dennis Regan showed people bought more from a stranger who had earlier handed them an unrequested drink, whether they liked him or not. The free masterclass is that drink.
The check. Ask yourself two things. Did I go looking for this, or did it arrive? And is the free training gated by a pitch? Then do the one thing the funnel does not want you to do, which is leave it. Search the seller's name somewhere they do not control the page, not inside their own ads and videos.
The limit. Legitimate businesses run adverts too, and being marketed to is not a red flag on its own. The tell is the funnel mechanics stacked together, and what waits at the end of them, which is usually a confident claim and no proof you can check. Regulators across at least seven countries now catalogue these exact funnel moves as deceptive design patterns.
What honest looks like. A free resource that is actually useful on its own, with no countdown, no fake-live webinar, and a price you can see without booking a call. Then run proof you did not make yourself.
Common questions
- Is a free masterclass or webinar a good sign?
Not on its own. A free training that is gated by a pitch is a funnel step, not generosity, and the pull to give something back is real even when the gift was unsolicited. Judge it by whether the free thing is genuinely useful by itself, and whether you can see a price without booking a call.
- Why do they say "comment a word and I will message you the link"?
It is engagement bait. It fakes a personal touch, gathers the people who respond, and slips past some of the platform's ad checks at the same time. It is funnel mechanics dressed as a friendly gesture, not the start of a relationship.
Sources
- Regulators in at least seven countries now catalogue these funnel moves as deceptive design patterns. · OECD, Dark commercial patterns (2022); FTC, Bringing Dark Patterns to Light (2022); CMA, Online Choice Architecture (2022)Checked 3 June 2026