Hype Check Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the evidence, risk, and marketing terms that come up again and again across the videos we review — so you can follow a video summary without Googling every other word.
Advance-Fee Scam
A scam that asks for an upfront payment to unlock a much larger promised reward that never arrives.
Affiliate Disclosure
A required statement that a reviewer earns commission if you buy through their link.
Astroturfing
Fake grassroots enthusiasm — paid or coordinated promotion designed to look like organic buzz.
Chargeback
A forced reversal of a card payment, initiated through the buyer's bank rather than the seller.
Dropshipping
An e-commerce model where the seller never holds inventory — a third party ships directly to the customer.
Escrow
A neutral third party that holds payment until both sides of a transaction fulfill their obligations.
FOMO / Urgency Marketing
Sales tactics that manufacture time pressure to push a decision before the buyer can think it through.
Guaranteed-Return Claim
Any promise of a fixed or guaranteed investment profit — a near-universal marker of investment fraud.
MLM (Multi-Level Marketing)
A sales structure where participants earn from both their own sales and the sales of people they recruit.
Ponzi Scheme
An investment fraud that pays early investors with money from new investors, not real profits.
Pyramid Scheme
An illegal scheme where returns come from recruiting new participants rather than selling a real product.
Refund Policy Red Flags
Warning signs in how a seller structures returns and refunds that make getting your money back unusually hard.
Social Proof Manipulation
Artificially inflating the appearance of popularity or trust — fake reviews, bought followers, staged testimonials.
Sponsored Content
Content a brand paid a creator to make, distinct from the creator's independent editorial opinion.
Survivorship Bias
Judging an opportunity only by the visible winners, ignoring the much larger number of people who failed quietly.