Rippln Scam?

Rippln posted a new FAQ that is supposed to address some of the very questions I've posted in other threads, but really does nothing but leave me scratching my head. They're more like sugary sweet non-answers to satisfy the kool-aid drinkers.

I'm not going to quote the specifics, but I'll paraphrase:

Q: When is the app being released and what will it do?

Rippln: We can't tell you anything at all about what it does or when it will be released because we are trying to protect our super-secrety secretness while we evolve as a company.

Q: People are posting bad things about Rippln! What can we do?

Rippln: We are so super awesome with our mystery vaporware product that people are trying to take advantage of our goodness and success. Tell us about it and our SEO team will try to bury those results by creating tons of Internet spam sites to bury those pages in the SERPS.

Q: I'm hearing the Rippln is all hype no substance. Is this a scam?

Rippln: Shhh. Hush now. Listen carefully to our circular reasoning and follow the rest of the sheeple. We're new, and first to market with a new app that doesn't exist yet but does something no one has done before, but once it does exist we are going to be totally transparent and reward everyone who helped us market the nonexistent product that we can't tell you when, where or how will come into existence. We're building as much buzz as we can before we release any products, but if you'd like to learn more about what the company is like, just join for free and you'll know exactly as much as you do already, but we'll have all your contact info and will be able to market to you. And your skeptical friends, tell them "While there are no guarantees in life, a lot of people believe in this concept".

I have to give the marketing team at Rippln credit. They are shamelessly promoting a non-existent product - very successfully - by using mystery and fear of loss.

If they roll out some completely lame app that does nothing but let you refer other members via your smart phone, it will go down as one of the greatest marketing scams ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting Internet audience.

YOUR A TOOL. HOW CAN SOMETHING FREE BE A SCAM!!!

Thanks for your feedback Joseph. I like to consider myself the sharp tool of reason, tempered with a touch of wit and sarcasm.

Regarding your question: Even a free business can be a scam.

This is the Internet age, and every valid email address has a distinct value for marketing. The more information, the more valuable. According to some experts, an email list of 10,000 plus members should be able to be monetized at a monthly value of at least 25 cents per address via email marketing.

Assume even 5 cents per name. If 200,000 people have enrolled in the Rippln prelaunch, the company has a list worth 10,000 a month. Forget about all the opt-in and can-spam rules, these lists end up in the hands of marketers all the time.

I would really like to see them roll out a legitimate app platform or app store that earns members some kind of residual commission. So far, the math just doesn't add up. But I will be the first to post a retraction and eat my words if I'm wrong.

So here we are a month later, and still no apps from Rippln?

Am I missing something?

The Rippln.com page says they are still in their super stealthy pseudo prelaunch phase, but they have over 600,000 members. That's 600,000 email addresses plus additional info - a pretty hefty and valuable marketing nugget for future use.

I'm going to seed the list with a completely new email address in use nowhere else, for no other registrations, and see how long it takes before I start getting unrelated spam email when they sell off or start monetizing the list.

watchdog you are smart, an insightful. 

Rippln's loosing steam... Check out the latest MLM Rankings... Down 6.35% http://www.mlmrankings.com/rippln/

Looks like this deal is completely dying. Someone wrote a review here saying they ditched it.

From MLMRankings.com Trend Report http://www.mlmrankings.com/rippln/trend.htm

Just spiraling down into nothing.