Business & Finance Being scammed

[Caesar]

http://www.419eater.com

Scambaiters in action. Some of the shit they have gotten scammers to do is great. I do feel sorry for they guys that got conned into entering a war zone though.

Those guys are brilliant. Some of their hijinks are awesome.

 

[Footypie32]

Read about a scam in a newspaper a few years back.

There was a long-term parking lot next to an airport in England (think it may have been Heathrow). It had been there for 30 years or so and there was just a tiny guard house and a boom gate. The same bloke had worked there for years. Everybody knew him and he was quite friendly. One day he stopped coming to work. People started complaining to the airport management that they couldn't get in. The staff made some calls, trying to find out who was in charge and what was going on. It was finally realised that this bloke had no connection to the airport, the council, nothing. He had simply rocked up one day and started charging people for parking.

Brilliant.

 

[Seppo]

That story was a fake/hoax. Never happened.

It went around as a story on email/social media but was beer proved to be true. You'll also find variations if that story if someone collecting parking money for years.

 

[Footypie32]

That story was a fake/hoax. Never happened.

It went around as a story on email/social media but was beer proved to be true. You'll also find variations if that story if someone collecting parking money for years.

It was you, wasn't it! We're onto you.

 

[Dagless]

Whilst in India and I was sick in the hostel, my mate may have been scammed whilst out by himself. It was a Sunday in Panaji, and being a strict Christian township due to Portuguese aggression towards instilling their beliefs, the city carries on the legacy despite no longer being under their control. So everything was closed.

He never told me the full story, but being a ridiculously nice guy, he was talked into giving a bloke a couple of hundred dollars who was apparently quite dishevelled and somewhat bloody who had apparently been mugged and just wanted to get back to Mumbai (Indian descent but from overseas). He gave him a Western Union transfer check thing, which my mate tried to cash a day later, but it was a 24 hour one.

The bloke gave him a his legit phone number, he messaged him and asked my mate why he didn't cash the check... Kept in contact, ended up getting to Mumbai, sent him a message telling him as much and never heard from him again.

We had a system where I was the cynical arseh*le to everyone, and he was the nice guy, so it balanced out when we were together.

 

[JuddsABlue]

lol I wouldnt consider that a scam, more so someone needing actual help and your mate providing it
The fact mumbai man called to ask why he didnt cash the cheque shows he was legit, but then probably couldnt be bothered dealing with an international for a transfer of a few hundred bucks

 

[Dagless]

lol I wouldnt consider that a scam, more so someone needing actual help and your mate providing it
The fact mumbai man called to ask why he didnt cash the cheque shows he was legit, but then probably couldnt be bothered dealing with an international for a transfer of a few hundred bucks

Three hundred AU is relatively considerable I would have though...

That being said, my mate maintains that ideal, whilst the cynic in me suggests otherwise.

 

[Kram]

Saw on TV cab drivers somewhere charge $100 (whatever their currancy was) despite signs saying everywhere the fixed rate for the city was $50. When the guy questioned it, they all said that was the old fare and now its been raised.

Saw on the same episode most taxis in prague have a 'boost' button which jacks the meter up massively. Guy took the same for, once was $178 the other was like $950. He got the cab driver to fess up once revealed it was for a tv show and he confirmed most cabs have this button they push when they feel like they've gotten someone who wont argue

Scam City? They would be genuine scams that really happen but a lot of that show has to be just set up.

 

[SwampRat]

There's a bar near me that has a competition where you buy a drink and guess a number between 1 and 10 and if you guess correctly, you win free sex. Everyone tells me it's a scam, but it's really not. My wife won 3 times last week!

 

[SwampRat]

2 scams.

1. I'm waiting for the next end of world prediction so I can think of some insurance to sell to people, perhaps lifetime supply of food which my company has stored in a secret bunker some place, of course to be paid out in the event of Armageddon.

Pet insurance. You do pet insurance. Obviously when the end of the world comes, believers get raptured into heaven to be with Superman or whatever, but their pets get left behind. So to save their beloved pets from starvation, you agree to look after them if the rapture occurs for a nominal fee.

Scam number 2. Real Estate Rapture sale. If the world is going to end in a month, there is no need for your house. Why not live it up? Purchase their house in cash for say $5,000 and get them to sign it over with the agreement they can live in the house rent free until the nominated rapture date, upon which time you turf them out. Carries a small risk of being out of pocket 5k if the rapture actually occurs.

 

[The Goon]

Ok, I'm going to confess. I was scammed in India once.

I'd saved up a bucketload of cash and been backpacking around the US and europe for 6-7 months. India was my last stop and I planned to spend 2-3 month there. I'd been there about a week and caught a train from New Dehli to Agra (location of the Taj Mahal). Back then (20 years ago) they tended to put the westerners in the same carriage on the train. Get to a stop and a couple of guys come through the carriage telling us this was Agra and to get off here. Turns out it was a couple of stops before Agra and they were rickshaw drivers generating extra fares by getting tourists off the train early and then charging outrageous fares to take them into town.

Luckily all the tourists quickly put our heads together and realised it was a scam, so we stayed on and got off at the right stop.

Actually, India was then a hotbed of tourist scams (could still be). Naturally you pay 5+ times the cab fare the locals do and of course the meter is always "broken". I was once walking with my backpack to the train station and hailed a rickshaw. I knew what the fare was but was determined to only pay 3-4 times the going rate but the driver refused to take me for less than 10 times, even after a local got into a heated argument with him about it (I was getting a bit broke by this stage so walked the 3k with my heavy back pack)!

Another time I was walking along the street and saw two kids, one supporting the other, looking at me from a distance. As I got closer they started limping in a path perpendicular to mine so that as I got near them they theatrically collapsed on the ground directly in front of me. I literally had to step over them. Look back 5m later and they're sitting there looking at me reproachfully for not falling for it.

 

[radiojake]

The following story is not a scam as such, but inline with some of the other stories, about being a tourist in another country and not knowing the ins & outs -

When I was in Mexico my español was poor to non-existant

I was suitably charged a gringo-tax for everything I paid for, which is probably fair enough if you can't speak the language properly...

I initially suspected the gringo-tax, but otherwise couldn't prove it, until in one town we met a Norwegian couple who we travelled with for a little while and he could speak fluent Spanish and English (and I imagine a whole host of other languages, as Europeans tend to be able to do) - It was while with him that I realised how much cheaper everything was costing him after he spoke fluent Spanish...

However, there was one time that was rather sweet where a young girl who was serving be at a shop was quite generous. I was completely baked/high as this particular town was awash with opium laced joints all along the beach.. it was great... however, it wasn't super conducive for keeping my wits about my while doing transactions. Anyway, after buying a few things, the girl told me the price, and even though I had a fair handle on spanish numbers by this stage, for the life of me I couldn't understand how much money she was wanting...

I had a 50 and a 20 peso note in my hands... I hand over the 50 peso note assuming the total cost of what I had purchased was more than 20.... The young girl (maybe 15?) instead grabbed the 20 peso note out of my other hand and proceeds to give me change....
"Gracias" I said.. she looked at me and said "Da nada" but with a look on her face that had "You f*cking gringo moron" as a qualifier....

The look was fair enough, but atleast she didn't completely rip me off when she had every right to!

 

[JuddsABlue]

Ok, I'm going to confess. I was scammed in India once.
.....

Luckily all the tourists quickly put our heads together and realised it was a scam, so we stayed on and got off at the right stop.

Unless keeping you on the train was the scam, I dont think you were scammed

 

[The Goon]

Unless keeping you on the train was the scam, I dont think you were scammed

No, I got embarrassed and didn't divulge how I was scammed.

 

[Cruyff14]

No, I got embarrassed and didn't divulge how I was scammed.

What was the point of telling the story then? Utterly pointless.

 

[The Goon]

What was the point of telling the story then? Utterly pointless.

I thought the diversions were entertaining enough.

If JuddsABlue improves the rez of his previously excellent avatar I will divulge the whole sordid escapade*.


* Story may not be that entertaining, but does involve me being scammed, plus a twist ending.

 

[JuddsABlue]

I thought the diversions were entertaining enough.

If JuddsABlue improves the rez of his previously excellent avatar I will divulge the whole sordid escapade*.


* Story may not be that entertaining, but does involve me being scammed, plus a twist ending.

Anything for a story

 

[The Goon]

Anything for a story

Much better.

I'll try to do your new avatar justice (working on it).

 

[Dan Moody]

I suppose when people are lonely they get vulnerable and desperate.

This
I run a bank and we get countless people come in wanting to report fraudulent transactions. Nigerian scams, Microsoft, Canadian scams, Dubai currency scams, you name it I've seen it.
Generally they are lonely people that are too trusting and get sucked in.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I just got this from a Westnet account:

We need to talk about Louis Sadi, please do contact me
Soooo0o0o0o ominous.

 

[Cruyff14]

What is Westnet?

 

[Silent Alarm]

What is Westnet?

Nothing suss. Just another internet provider.

 

[Cruyff14]

lol never heard of them. Assuming it's a WA provider?

 

[Milang_Panthers]

At the computer shop where i work, we've had people come in who have been done by these Microsoft scammers multiple times. Some people are just beyond help. Our all time high score is 3 so far.

First time: Standard story. They rang, said she had viruses, let them in, top work lady. We give her the lecture, never EVER let anyone who rings you into your shit, that sort of thing.
Second time: They rang, used the same story, she told them she'd already been scammed by them, at which point they said "Yes, but the software we want to install this time will stop it ever happening again." She thinks that's a good deal. Lets them in again. Proceeds to try and convince us that she's not an idiot for letting them again and justifies why she thought it was legit.
Third time: Scammers ring again. "We heard you've been scammed? We're from the federal police and we'd like to refund to your money. We just need your credit card details." She wouldn't fall for that surely? Yep. She did.

Wow!!!

 

[Illinois Nazi]

lol never heard of them. Assuming it's a WA provider?

Yep. Now owned by iiNet.