Patrick has a nice little niche business but that's all it is, a niche. Niches, by definition are really small, focused and low in demand.
In a niche, the stream of new customers eventually dries up and the temptation is to move further and further over to the marketing dark side to keep the ship afloat.
Deceptive marketing tactics work, but they shouldn't be necessary. If that's where this is headed, then just go full darkside into scamming and call it a day.
Grey and black hat techniques are a bad as crappy products, terrible service, bad systems and stolen ideas. If you wouldn't think of using any of those, then don't use scammy marketing.
If you find yourself pursuing deceptive tricks, it's a sign your niche is not big enough and your product is not high enough in demand.
This is the most common trap analytic/scientific minded business owners fall into.
Many people on HN have voiced concerns that the current crop of startups are increasingly using deceptive practices to boost their businesses.
A well planned business should not have to do this.
It's one thing to decide to be purposefully evil, but rationalizing it as necessary is amoral and possibly illegal.