Swoopo failed, but only 2 years after they modified their rules not to be a scam: anything you paid in bids became credit towards the purchase if you bought it from them at the normal price. You could still lose if you ended up bidding more than its cost or you didn’t want to buy it at full price, but the rules they ended up with weren’t as rigged as it seems at first glance.
Anyway, this particular mechanism seems inefficient for charity—it amounts to, ‘whoever donates the most gets a reward’, and most people will figure they wouldn’t donate the most.
Swoopo failed, but only 2 years after they modified their rules not to be a scam: anything you paid in bids became credit towards the purchase if you bought it from them at the normal price. You could still lose if you ended up bidding more than its cost or you didn’t want to buy it at full price, but the rules they ended up with weren’t as rigged as it seems at first glance.
Anyway, this particular mechanism seems inefficient for charity—it amounts to, ‘whoever donates the most gets a reward’, and most people will figure they wouldn’t donate the most.