Dark Patterns

Dark patterns are user interfaces that benefit an online service by leading users into making decisions they might not otherwise make. Some dark patterns deceive users while others covertly manipulate or coerce them into choices that are not in their best interests.

Many dark patterns have been adopted on a large scale across the Web. For example:

A website shows a deceptive countdown timer dark pattern. The advertised offer remains valid even after the timer expires. This pattern is a common tactic.

The best-known and arguably the earliest growth hack was implemented by Hotmail. When it launched in 1996, the founders first considered traditional marketing methods such as billboard advertising. Instead, they hit upon a viral marketing strategy: The service automatically added the signature, "Get your free email with Hotmail," to every outgoing email, essentially getting users to advertise on its behalf, resulting in viral growth.

Another example : The process start with data acquisition, by any means necessary. You basically identify who your potential users might be, say “creative agency owners,” and then you scout the web to find their emails. If you can’t find their actual emails, you buy them from shady sources, or you make them up and use various tools to validate whether the ones you’ve made up are potentially truthful emails.Then you take all these emails, write a compelling message and put them into a tool that starts to spam users one-by-one.

A piece of software can automate your entire social life! It can sign into your accounts, such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and execute actions on your behalf. It will follow, unfollow, star, and retweet. It will even add posts to your timeline and send pre-defined messages whenever other users interract with you.