Do You Know How Long You Have Left to Live? We Do...

So claim the creators of the website http://data-smerti.ru/. They offer a 49-question test covering various aspects of the site visitor's lifestyle - eating habits, physical activities, stress, parents, and so on.

The result is a code which must be sent by SMS to 1874. The reply: "Spasibo. Zakaz vo 2-vom SMS." ["Thank you. Order in the 2nd SMS."], followed by - "Dlya polucheniya rezul'tata testa neobhodimo otpravit'e otvetnoe sms soobschenie (code)." ["To receive the test result, please send a reply SMS (code)."]. I send it - reply: "Spasibo. Zakaz vo 2-vom SMS.", followed by "Rezul'tat testa (number) let. Dlya togo chtoby uznat' prichiny Vashej smerti, otprav'te otvetnoe sms soobschenie (code)." ["Test result: (number) years. To find out the causes of your death, send a reply SMS (code)."]. By now you begin to understand what a successful money-making scheme you've got involved in on the creators' part - but the intrigue is great: "Spasibo. Zakaz vo 2-vom SMS." - "Veroyatnaya prichina smerti: (cause). Podtverdite poluchenie rezul'tatov, otpravit'e otvetnoe sms soobschenie (code)." ["Probable cause of death: (cause). Confirm receipt of results by sending a reply SMS (code)."]. Pure cheek by now, but off it goes! - "Spasibo. Zakaz vo 2-vom SMS." - "Podtverzdenie prinyato, spasibo. Dolgih let zhizni!" ["Confirmation received, thank you. Long life to you!"]

Apparently they didn't dare test the client's patience and superstition any further - though they could have developed the theme: to find out where you will die, send an SMS with the code; to find out when you will die, send an SMS with the code; and so on. But the profit is considerable nonetheless - 5 SMS messages out of one gullible person.

One minor downside for the business can be mentioned (as the creators themselves acknowledge) - that this service can only be used by Russian speakers, and for now in only 24 countries. Though the user is to "blame" themselves - they choose: "Reshenie prokhodit' test, ili net prinimaete Vy sami, a sledstvenno avtory proekta ne nesut otvetstvennosti za Vashe reshenie." ["The decision whether to take the test or not is yours, and therefore the project authors bear no responsibility for your decision."] :)

What can one say - a successful business!