"Grab the deal before it's too late!"

The scare tactics marketing scheme of NordVPN ("Only Now 70% Off").

"Grab the deal before it's too late!" reads the headline. But when exactly is it too late?
Further a subheadline claims "Get a VPN that takes your privacy seriously". Hey, that's exactly what I'm looking for, amazing!
Let's shine some light on these two statements, that you encounter when you first open NordVPN's order page. Indeed those are strong arguments and if I was an absolute beginner in regards to internet best practices for privacy and security, I'd probably bite and immediately get the 3-year-plan. But let us take a second look before we rush things.


"Only Now 70% Off" and the tale of the phony countdown timer.

The very first thing, that strikes your attention when you open NordVPN's website is the countdown timer, that suggests "Hey, check this awesome deal before it expires!" At this point you have the interest of your site visitors, since "cheap, cheaper, cheapest!!!" is the average consumer's motto and simply everyone wants the best deal for their money. Admittedly technical features like multi-hop, L2TP/IPSEC, bridges and many more aren't exactly popular marketing points since most users are rather not well versed with technology and have their priorities in visual appearance and ease of use, so the countdown timer is an absolutely important statement and a selling point to quickly convert a clueless visitor into a loyal customer, preferably for several years at once. But wait a moment... there's something really unusual about this countdown timer, it seems to never really run out. Be it a day or a week, or almost 4 months later, that's how long it's been since I've conducted my research and originally published this article. Today is the 24th of October 2019, and the countdown timer is still happily counting down from ~9.5 hours. Almost as if it's just a simple script pre-configured for that time span. Well, it actually is, and I've recorded it. Watch this!

Video (click on the image to watch) recorded June 29th, 2019
nordvpn-fake-countdown

Today, October 24th, 2019. Still counting. Damn, I wish my life time would pass that slowly.
nordvpn-fake-countdown-update

EDIT: FEBRUARY 28th, 2021 - IT'S STILL COUNTING DOWN! WHAT A SCAM.

Did you notice how the countdown timer magically resets back to 9:39:23 after deleting the nord_countdown cookie? Go ahead and try it yourself!
Several months(!) later it's still doing the same. The question that remains, is NordVPN just measuring the duration of a time span differently from the rest of the world, or are they just blatantly lying to you in order to make you part with your money. If the latter statement is true, do you really want to trust somebody like that with anything else beyond that point? Trust that your privacy is in good hands and the service you pay for has your best interest in mind rather than just your money? I know I wouldn't. Legitimately good VPN services operate first and foremost on reputation. If a VPN service manages to ruin their rep from the get go, anything else about their offer becomes irrelevant. You wouldn't buy the cheapest protection gear for your hobby either, would you?

Side Note: I've encountered several other service providers (not only VPN) utilizing this very same or other similar scare tactics, coercing the site visitor into making a rushed, uninformed buying decision, and completely lost all trust before even looking any further into the product. Another noteworthy VPN example is PrivateInternetAccess. In fact they've somehow managed to get onto Fanboy's Enhanced Tracking List, a reputable privacy blocklist, that is by default included in uBlock Origin. Let that speak for itself. If you as a business are so unconfident in your own product, that you must scare people into buying it, then you deserve all the public shame and ridicule because you are clearly acting against the consumer's best interest.


"Get a VPN that takes your privacy seriously"

This is the image you see when you open up uBlock Origin's logger and observe the requests made by NordVPN's website. Several 1st and 3rd party privacy violations. I wanted to write up an equally large paragraph about this issue, making some cynical remarks about how Newrelic and Google-Analytics are the best for your online privacy, but I think I just let the screenshot do the story telling this time. I believe this really requires no further explanation. You can see it for yourself how little privacy matters at NordVPN and how it's truly just a giant marketing scheme with nothing of substance to truly deserve the widespread popularity they enjoy.

nord.png


Closing words.

The question that you, the reader, should ask yourself is;
Do you really want to trust a company, that values your privacy so little, that it has absolutely no problem to blatantly lie and deceive you at every chance they get? Is that the kind of business that deserves your trust?

Regardless how hard they try to maneuver their way with PR talk into everyone's wallet, how many scary buzzwords they use to coerce clueless people or which online tech magazine tabloid or "journalist" recommends them, they still are and remain a distrustful and suspicious marketing scheme absent of any ethics or integrity.

Edit
Pub: 29 Jun 2019 16:47 UTC
Edit: 28 Feb 2021 21:59 UTC
Views: 1092