Perhaps its anecdotal, but overall, I am hearing a lot more about these types of ideas. Maybe there is a trend to feel a bit of urgency to make money, so people are trying silly things like this.<p>For me, having a history of never monetizing anything but my time, I can identify with a general sense of urgency. Still, I would probably never do something like this. But, if I did, I would certainly never tell anyone.<p>Edit: I changed my mind. I'll see you at the Kansas State Fair... look for the booth titled "Will your startup ever be profitable? Two questions will tell the answer. 'Free'"
For the baby gender business idea, why not offer a 100% money back guarantee for all wrong predictions, no questions asked. You would be right half the time, and that should be more than enough profit considering it costs nothing to run.
I really like the idea of refining the questions and their mapping to the answers. If the results increase in accuracy, we may find statistical predictors for how the meiosis and sperm-race play out. Macro-level predictors for micro-level behaviors help us come up with new hypotheses to refine our models.
My attempt at defining scams would be something like "when you're actively using an information/knowledge gap between you and your customer for your advantage".<p>By that definition, casinos aren't scams: they are quite honest with the "house always wins (but we'll make sure you're having fun)" business model. The gender prediction would be, because this guy knows he's as good as flipping a coin, while anyone paying him to do so will be believing that he can actually do something (otherwise they'll just flip the coin themselves and save the $50).<p>The "are you going to heaven" guy might actually, honest to god, believe in what he's saying = no scam. (Although if he was, he'd probably be more likely to be explaining how joining his religion will secure admittance to heaven)
I would consider a business a scam when you are knowingly misrepresenting your product. In the baby prediction business, part of the plan involves putting the user through a survey of irrelevant questions, to give the impression that you are somehow using this information to provide an informed prediction about the gender of the baby.<p>If, on the other hand, you simply said "Pay me $50 and I'll guess if your baby is a boy or a girl" It wouldn't be a scam, nor would anyone pay for it.<p>To put it more simply, if the customer handing over money depends on them believing something that isn't true, it's a scam.
I'm surprised the salvation seller is making any money. The most basic tenets of Christianity specify that regardless of the sin, acceptance of Jesus guarantees salvation. How can someone not know this, yet still care enough about the state of their soul to pay $50 for a readout from an explicitly Christian source?