Online Retail Hack

Selling miniature replicas to unsuspecting shoppers:

> Online marketplaces sell tiny pink cowboy hats. They also sell miniature pencil sharpeners, palm-size kitchen utensils, scaled-down books and camping chairs so small they evoke the Stonehenge scene in "This Is Spinal Tap." Many of the minuscule objects aren't clearly advertised.
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> But there is no doubt some online sellers deliberately trick customers into buying smaller and often cheaper-to-produce items, Witcher said. Common tactics include displaying products against a white background rather than in room sets or on models, or photographing items with a perspective that makes them appear bigger than they really are. Dimensions can be hidden deep in the product description, or not included at all.
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> In those instances, the duped consumer "may say, well, it’s only $1, $2, maybe $3­–what’s the harm?" Witcher said. When the item arrives the shopper may be confused, amused or frustrated, but unlikely to complain or demand a refund.
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> "When you aggregate that to these companies who are selling hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of these items over time, that adds up to a nice chunk of change," Witcher said. "It’s finding a loophole in how society works and making money off of it."

Defrauding a lot of people out of a small amount each can be a very successful way of making money.