It's nothing more than a money making scheme, but rather than simply make money off of people's gullibility, we make money off of their desire to be vindicated in it.
Some people truly believe in ghosts. And many scams are out there making money off of these people selling them products, ointments, incense and what-have-you that ostensibly address these phantom problems. We can do something similar, but I would feel better about it if we were (only slightly) more up front regarding our true intentions. And I think we will still make money.
Here's how it works:
We advertise in paranormal publications for people to participate in our research. We identify ourselves as skeptics hoping to disprove the existence of ghosts.
All you have to do is purchase one of our "ghost repellent crystals" that a "certified" spiritualist has "blessed" or whatever it is they do. Once they receive it, they must follow our spiritualist's instructions for its use and report back to us the results of our simply survey: Did they experience more, the same, or less paranormal haunting after using the device? In other words, did the crystal function?
We promise that at the end of the research period we will publish the results and identify whether the crystal showed any statistically significant difference. If so, we will concede that their belief is vindicated.
Of course, it goes without saying that our results will be positive, so we will simply publish on our web site a pre-defined set of results admitting our defeat. By then we have deposited their checks and run off, but the whole scheme will no doubt satisfy our customers, so no one will be looking for their money back.-- globaltourniquet, Dec 17 2007 Bullshit Repellent http://www.speeding...talog/info_871.html"Harmful if taken seriously." I'm thinking you can make your money without committing fraud. [DrCurry, Dec 20 2007] That's fine, but I just didn't want to have to _earn_ the money I would be making...-- globaltourniquet, Dec 17 2007 I bun on principle. But are there really a lot of ghost repellant scams?-- bungston, Dec 18 2007 I would characterize any so-called exorcism or demon-casting-out as a ghost repellent scam, and there is still a lot of that nonsense, of course...-- globaltourniquet, Dec 18 2007 Anyone who spends money on an item that they believe has been imbued with the power to ward off evil will, for as long as they continue to believe that it has the power to ward off evil, believe that it is warding off evil - and as such, will have fewer psychosomatic experiences than before...
Voodoo works, but only if you believe in it. Just the same as placebos work, until you tell someone it's just a placebo.-- zen_tom, Dec 20 2007 Coming next year, GT tropical bear repellent.-- egbert, Dec 20 2007 zt: actually, some placebos continue to work after you know they're a placebo. Which may be voodoo.-- DrCurry, Dec 20 2007 I want to buy stock in Ghostbusters Scam Incorporated! This would be a good gimick to operate in less developed countries.-- quantum_flux, Dec 21 2007 I don't think this is, as such, a scam; it's more "betting on a one-horse race". You're not deceiving anyone, in that effectively (almost) everyone would be in the "control" group - you do need to send out just one "genuine" crystal....-- 8th of 7, Dec 21 2007 Dr Curry, I have a large sum of money I need to transfer to your country...-- egbert, Dec 21 2007 There is no such things as ghost just demons, and fallen angels and things like that.-- travbm, Oct 29 2015 random, halfbakery