Marketing virtual RAM as real RAM - typical Samsung - 8 GB real RAM advertized as 16 GB - hiding behind an asterisk

Likely an illegal act, only if regulators had teeth. Blatant deception of the public in a public newspaper - in front of the eyes of everyone. As if they already know that no one will complain.

MG India attracts Indians to its showrooms by marketing the starting price of Hector, but that model isn't available in reality

Experienced this around a month back at MG's showroom in Ludhiana. When I asked the salesman about the lowest, base variant, he told me that it's written there on the price list, but "in practice" we don't offer it. So the fraudish idea is to lure / bait buyers via the low-looking sticker price of the base trim, but to then "upsell" to them by denying the product which got them inside the sales outlet in the first place.

This is fraud, done by many / most car companies in India {experienced the same at Skoda showroom in Ludhiana around 3-4 weeks back, with the lowest Rapid 1.0 TSI model not sold "in practice"}, and should be formally identified and recognized and severely punished.

Caixin baits online users with a catchy $0.99 price, but when you click on this bait, the real, sustainable price is approximately 21 times

Caixin isn't alone. Far from it. Almost every online subscription service uses this deception. Ought to be banned.

Dabur plays with public's lack of knowledge about v/v and w/w to inflate the perceived percentage of alcohol in its hand sanitizer [COMPACTIDEA]

Dabur knows that public doesn't know what v/v and w/w mean. So in Amazon's title, it cleverly says 70% v/v alcohol, making buyer feel like this product is more potent compared to those hand sanitizers which contain "only 60% alcohol", whereas on w/w basis, this Dabur product also contains only 60% alcohol. Clear deception.

Reliance Jio inflates the number of months of validity for its prepaid recharge packs by changing the definition of a month!

So when they boldly write "12 months", you assume a year or 365 days, and you're alright to assume this as a consumer, but in reality it's only 336 days [or a full 29 days less, almost a month less, implying ~11 months], because they've - in small-sized disclaimer print at the bottom - changed the definition of a month! Such nasty tricks go on in the open without bone-breaking fines!

For food products, what's inside the box is usually underwhelming compared to what's highlighted on the packaging [COMPACTIDEA]

Kellogg's Muesli pack shows many large-sized photos of fruits, cereals, and other tempting stuff, but what's shown isn't what's inside. The proportion of the displayed photo that corresponds to dried fruits isn't the same proportion that actually comes out from the box. More like half or maybe just one-quarter in reality. This is fraud going on to fool the public. These private American companies shouldn't be allowed to show something else and sell something that's significantly inferior to what you're advertising. Especially the quantity and proportion of fruits - because fruits are what you're highlighting the most on the box.

TV channels are overlaying various forms of ads, messages directly over the running movie or TV program, thus interrupting the viewing experience [COMPACTIDEA]

We pay for cable TV channels in the form of DTH subscription fee - and additionally we also bear adverts that are played during - sometimes long - commercial breaks. Why then, should we be made to bear with the various forms of additional ads, distractions and messages/notifications that are increasingly being overlayed directly above the ongoing film or TV serial by ever-greedy TV channels?

More nonsense. They're themselves killing their own businesses - this aggressive overlaying will push more and more folks towards streaming-only Web services.