Variants Are Making Phishing Attacks More Lethal Than Ever

Phishing attacks typically stoke greed or fear, just as many genuine business pursuits do. Not surprisingly, they enjoy a fairly high success rate. At 3%, it comes close to the conversion rate of leading ecommerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart. Surprised to learn that phishing emails have a success rate of ~3%. That's as high … Read more

Just Because You Can Show Digital Ads Doesn’t Mean You Should

In Digital Ads: Whose Preference Is It Anyway?, we saw how digital ads are targeted on the basis of advertisers’ specifications regarding consumer preferences (“Meta Preferences“) rather than the consumer’s own preferences. That speaks to the propriety of the advertiser to show its ads to a particular consumer. But you might be wondering, just because … Read more

All Deceptions Are Not Equal – Bait-And-Switch Versus Phishing

Bait and Switch and Phishing are both deceptive. But, beyond that basic characteristic, they’re not the same. In Bait and Switch, the deception is in the offer. In Phishing, the deception is in the offeror. Let’s get on with it. Bait and Switch Bait and Switch is a type of Dark Pattern in which “you … Read more

Digital Ads: Whose Preference Is It Anyway?

A few years ago, many disruptionistas predicted that ad blockers would kill digital ads. I pooh-poohed their predictions. TV survived DVR. Web will survive ad blockers. — Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) November 6, 2015 Sorry to say I told you so but I was right: Digital ads are alive and kicking During this period, digital surpassed … Read more

Economic Times Publishes My Puff Piece On Bitcoin

Dear Editor of Economic Times: This has reference to the twin op-ed entitled “IT GIVES THE CREEPS” by Ateesh Tankha and Mythili Bhusnurmath in today’s edition of The Economic Times. This article reminds me of similar opinions expressed on these very pages in the 1990s regarding equity. Despite all the doomsday prophecies made by pundits … Read more

How RBI Emandate Can Become Consumer Savior

Reserve Bank of India brought Emandate into force on 1 October 2021. As we saw in RBI Emandate: Revenue Killer Or Consumer Interest Savior?, this regulation impacts recurring payments and auto debits (“Standing Instructions”) set up with credit card and debit card. This was after a postponement of six 24* months at the behest of … Read more

FMCG v. Udaan – WTF is Happening Behind The Scenes?

Amul and Parle have stopped supplies to Udaan. According to ET Prime, Alleging that B2B ecommerce platform Udaan was monopolising distribution to retailers, some of India’s largest FMCG makers such as Amul and Parle have stopped supplying stocks to the startup. Amul and Parle are multibillion dollar FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies headquartered in … Read more

RBI Emandate: Consumer Savior Or Revenue Killer?

After being postponed by six months, RBI Emandate has finally come into effect from 1 October 2021. Applicable to recurring payments and auto debits, the new regulation has caused massive chaos for media companies, SaaS vendors and other businesses whose revenue model is anchored on automatically charging a credit card or debit card on file … Read more

RIP Google Plex – But Big Tech Can Still Disrupt Big Banks

Bank accounts are not heavily branded, barring IndusInd Bank and a few more exceptions. The fifth largest private sector bank in India tries to create a strong brand for its bank account on the back of differentiators like return of canceled cheque. (For the uninitiated, banks return canceled cheques to customers by default in USA … Read more