ZAPPIFY REVIEW Mosquito Killer SCAM Marketing
ZAPPIFY REVIEW Mosquito Killer SCAM Marketing
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By Reza Ganjavi
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I usually do not watch the pre-video advertisements on YouTube. But I was attracted to watch ZAPPIFY ad. It sucked me in because it was so well-done, but it smelled fishy from the first moments, naming some purportedly genius student only by his first name, and a marketing technique, which seemed too gimmicky.
The company's website says As Seen In: CNN, The Oprah Magazine, etc. but Google revealed no results.
A search for reviews revealed a whole bunch of (sponsored) articles that are very positive, and are actually marketing articles for the company, and the subject even includes the word "SCAM" or "SCAM EXPOSED" but they're just paid reviews (sponsored by the company), That is a huge warning sign. Normal, legitimate companies don't need to buy advertising all over the place, pretending to be critical, but marketing themselves in articles that include "SCAM" to show up as web search result for scam (e.g. "BEWARE OF SCAM!").
I was shocked to see how many articles they sponsored to market their device and even call themselves scam to supersede searches for scam !! That's very very bad.
In the paid reviews, they list as "Cons" (disadvantages), things like you can't buy it in a shop, or they may run out of supplies, blah blah.
After some seeking, I did come across some legitimate reviews on Trustpilot for an Australian company with a similar name, which people thought is ZAPPIFY, so they wrote their reviews. Every review was negative that this purportedly ingenious mosquito killer that they report does not work. Surprise! Surprise!
The YouTube ad is also fishy in that the click to buy is called sign up for waiting list, as though it's such a hot product blah blah. And get 50% off if you buy in the next 24 hours, which is very fishy because they have no way of knowing when you watched their video. And when you click, the 50% is moved up to 62%, and as I entered the page and waited a moment, the price even went lower to around $40 for one piece.
They are so apparently shameless in their marketing that they even say hurry up because production is running out which to me sounds just like blah blah. And they say the price could rise any time, blah blah. To me it just sounds like marketing gimmick. And the TrustPilot reviews strengthen that opinion.
Even if the product works it seems to only work at night. Their own FAQ says when it's not dark it doesn't work yet there are pictures in the light that presents the product as working, e.g. a woman and a baby in bright daylight.
The company's address is listed as Sapience Group LLC 78 John Miller Way, Kearny, New Jersey 07032
"Group?" Google reveals many company offices at that address, including a "1 person private office". So it seems this address is a very small office space and certainly not a manufacturing facility for this purported hot product which is probably produced in China for under a $1 and sold to gullible people for $40+.
LinkedIn says it's a startup with 2 to 10 employee category. I'm guessing it's 2 people who are doing the marketing and contracting some cheap Chinese manufacturer to make this purported mosquito killer. They have no jobs posted, no employees on LinkedIn and no posts.
The 30-day return policy has some catches, which you only see if you go to the terms page. It has to be in mint original condition and even then you get only 75% of your money back, and no refund of the shipping fee, and you have to pay for shipping it back to them. So for a $40 product.
On the shopping page it says full refund but I bet they will point you to the terms when you want to return and deduct 25%.
One reviewer said they marketed it in Australia as Australian but the page says "proudly American".
"Nevada Student Uses Genius Mosquito Killing Device To Zap 1000's Of Mosquitoes Overnight"
The purported inventor, "Sam, a 23-year-old molecular biology student from Nevada" has no presence on the internet. No Google search results. A Google Image search of him reveals a bunch of different bug zapper websites with all of their products looking the same, and marketed with different names. That smells very fishy.
I went to shopping area and selected one Zappify that's marked as "SELLING HOT". A popup says "Jennifer from NY just bought one -- then "James from Florida just bought one" -- then Mary D. blah blah... to manipulate you into buying. now comes Elizabeth from NY. Charles from Ontario. Jennifer from British Columbia. Nancy from Florida. I assume this is a random name / place generator with a fixed list of names such as Charles Jennifer Nancy etc and places like Florida etc..here comes Mary C from Ontario and James from NY again, and now Elizabeth from Florida!! and now Thomas from British Columbia :-) I don't believe so many people in Florida or NY where it's 3:30 in the morning, are buying 4 of these mosquito zappers at a time!
Oh Michael from Florida just bought 3. Now Jennifer from FL bought 4!
And the shopping cart doesn't tell you how much the shipping is and there is no next screen, so you have to put in the credit card and paypal and be surprised with the shipping fee. I have a screenprint to prove it.
This totally smells like scam to me.
Click on the little circle with an i in it: my ads. The advertiser in this case is "Blue Bench Media LLC". But there is no place to report an ad on YouTube because YouTube reportedly doesn't care about quality of ads:
https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/245415183/youtube-doesn-t-care-about-scam-ads?hl=en
FTC is next.
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Now I'm convinced this is a scam.
I refreshed the YouTube video and comes the next ad. The same product. Different name. Same concept. This time instead of Genius Sam from Nevada, it's suddenly another ingenious student from another blah blah - and this time it's AI that is killing mosquitos !!!
Now it's Oscar a 21 year old "biomedical and computer science student"
This ad is run by "ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS" from Poland!
And if you click on ORDER you get the same ZAPPIFY page. 62% off - the whole 9 yards. But it's now called "AI Zapper" blah blah.
Same narrative: doctors told him not to go outside at night in the summer. Same thing they told Sam who ended up inventing this product.
Now it's not Sam, it's Oscar who invented the product. So is it Sam or Oscar?
But Oscar "remembered his computer science course about AI blah blah...." investors lined up blah blah - professor said you'd go down in history. He secured 5 mil investment capital -- Sam did too -- and it was Sam who invented this not Oscar but now he's called Oscar. I SAY IT'S A SCAM.
ZAPIFY WAS awarded national invention award - most important invention of 2024
sold out within 48 hours blah blah.
60% deal might be taken down any time blah blah
this ad directs to a different domain that purports it to be an AI product ! That domain is: https://bettertechtoday.co
The non-AI marketing gimmick one is https://www.myzappify.com and zappify.com
SCAM MARKETING WRITTEN ALL OVER ZAPPIFY
All the above value judgments are my opinions. All factual assertions are backed by saved evidence.
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Here came another ad. This time it was the Sam ad - the purported genius from Nevada. It says he was awarded the NATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION !! And has a picture of him and President Obama. But there's no mention of Sam or Zappify on the U.S. National Science Foundation website of https://new.nsf.gov/news/national-medal-science-national-medal-technology https://new.nsf.gov/news I'm assuming the picture with Obama is probably manipulated video given the background of these seemingly scammers.
These are awards that Obama gave:
And no mention of Sam or Zappify !!
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"SAM" IS NOT SAM! IT'S TAYLOR WILSON
"Sam" is actually Taylor Wilson of Reno - a very bright young man who is a nuclear physicist but has NOTHING to do with Zappify. The Zappify fraudsters took his photos with President Obama for example, and said it was Sam who invented their (scam) product Zappify !!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson
I found Taylor's name via his former hairdresser who wrote to me. I got a message from her, off my website, saying:
"You are right about this being a scam. The man who they call Sam is not named Sam. I cut his hair when I lived in Reno NV. His Name is Taylor Wilson and he is famous but not for this. Google him. He is an amazing, smart, gifted, kind, human who doesn’t deserve this. "
Kristy and I corresponded. She's going to find Sam's mom. She's upset at their abuse of Sam. Me too because of such a fraud.
She wrote me back: "He is very real!!! I did his hair for 5 years. I need to see if I can get in touch with his mother. I’m so angry like it’s my own child. I was doing his hair when he won the international science fair at 16 yrs old I think. He figured out cold fusion and how to use it for homeland security. He’s so brilliant and doesn’t deserve this. I’m so proud of him and that I got to know him and his family for 5 years."
Meanwhile I found Taylor's website and wrote him (www.sciradioactive.com)
"Hi Taylor. I investigated the fraudsters who are selling Zappify using your image. They even had internet search engines misdirected so as to prevent people from finding any pages searching for "scam" and they would end up on their page ! I wrote a page that Google immediately indexed and several hundred people have visited it and been saved from that scam.
I got your real name from your former hairdresser Kristy Knollenberg. She's very concerned about this scam abusing your images / videos. Me too.
Write me back if you want or call me: US number 213-207-6535
Here's the page I wrote: https://www.rezamusic.com/writings/law-ethics/zappify-review-mosquito-killer-scam-marketing "
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If you found this article useful and saved money from not buying that scam ZAPPIFY product, feel free to make a donation to me on Paypal, etc. Contact me for details. -- I'm a freelance investigative journalist as well as other things (philosopher, musician, computer scientist...) and do these writings just to help people and I don't make any money from these writings -- I don't run ads. So if you can donate towards my work, I'd much appreciate it.
Feel free to join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/reza.ganjavi.mba