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Absurd Alhazred posted:That's weird, though; I mean, the money still gets put into their account, so it's easy to trace where it went. Yeah, you're implicated, but so are they. Plausible deniability. I have to assume that camsites have to deal with CC disputes as part of their business model. And BiRussianigirl17@gmail.com, never heard of her. And if I was the type to steal some CC info, the best thing to do would be to put that CC info out there. After I buy a buy a big screen TV and a new X-box then there's a chance the cops might want to track me down. If 20 other other people are using the same credit card info, then that's like a 95% chance that the cops won't bother chasing me down. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Feb 22, 2016 |
# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 08:41 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:02 |
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Der Luftwaffle posted:My favourite has always been the guys selling X out of the back of their truck, usually AV equipment. Offering ludicrous deals on garbage in expensive boxes with the veil of dubious legality that used to draw people in like flies. Heh, that takes me back, I actually worked as an Epson sales rep for a bit. I mostly focused on printer sales. But people kept stealing the fake projectors out of stores. The actual projectors were kept in a cage, since they were big ticket items. The floor model was just an empty case that cost maybe $3 of plastic. And people just kept stealing projectors. It was rather annoying going around replacing projectors. loving meth heads kept stealing garbage. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Feb 22, 2016 |
# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 09:19 |
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cumshitter posted:A couple years back I was driving home from work and pulled off at a gas station to refill my tank. This couple, guy and girl, see me in my office clothes and probably assumed I had money for them. Just as I open the door the guy runs up and places himself on the other side, not allowing me to open it further than half a foot. Then they both start shouting contradictory statements at me nonstop. You should have asked them if they had any DVD's of recent big name movies. All the scam artists hanging around gas stations have them, or they at least know a guy. As for people knocking on my door, it's usually either people selling telecom packages, or Mormons. I just tell them I rent, I don't own the place and don't have the power to change service providers. Or I just tell the Mormons I'm a hardcore Atheist. Both groups move on real quick, although the Mormons are really polite about it. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Mar 5, 2016 |
# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 07:43 |
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For what it's worth, I spent a few years as an Epson sales rep. About 25% of my job was driving around town replacing stolen projectors. The thing is that those display projectors were made up of about $3 worth of plastic. There were no actual electronics in those projectors. It didn't stop people from stealing them, and then trying to return them or pawn them.
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# ¿ Mar 16, 2016 10:11 |
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So here's my story about how I was both a con-man and a troll. I'm not proud of myself, but here's my story. (And if any feds are investigating, I never made a dime off of this, my sole intent was to make people more aware of keeping their personal info secret. ) Back in the 90's, the place where I worked had a phone in the break room that was like one digit off from the local Western Union office, so the phone was constantly ringing off the hook for people wanting to know about their money order transfers. So I would eat my lunch in the break room, and after lunch I would pick up the phone and say, "Thank you for calling Western Union, how can I help you?" And from there I had the Golden ticket to just ask people's most personal info. I would just tap on the walls to make it sound like I was typing. So I would ask them for things like did they pay by Credit card, check, or cash? Oh, it was by credit card, what's your credit card number? Well it's not showing up on our system, what's your CCV? OK, still not showing up, well what's your mother's maiden name? And people would just give out that info without a second thought. Followed by me getting bored and telling callers that that they dialed the wrong number, and they shouldn't give out their info like that. I told them that I didn't bother to write down any of that info, but they should be more cautious about who they gave that info to. Then I would hang up the phone. (I'll admit I'm an rear end in a top hat, but I'm not an identity stealing rear end in a top hat.) thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Mar 21, 2016 |
# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 11:14 |
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Xander77 posted:I've been told that certain scummy telemarketing job offers work the same way, but this is the first time I've encountered it: You know back in my college days, me and some buddies would walk into frat parties, claim we were a magic act, and then set up a 3 card Monte table. I was the shill, a basic nerdy guy, who won more often than I lost, playing 3 card monte. And occasionally drunken fratboys kicked my rear end out for not being one of them. We still cleared around $600 a weekend.
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# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 09:20 |
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Xander77 posted:As a very deep and not at all worn out metaphor, every aspect of Do you mean flipping over all the shells at once? Never seen that happen There was a reason why we set up shop at Frat parties. It was a 3 way split, 1/3 to the dealer who could pocket the red ladies, 1/3 for me I would, go in as a shill, look like I was winning a lot of money and make some blindingly obvious mistakes, then the fratboys kicked me out, because I was supernerdy and obviously wasn't one of them, then I became the getaway driver. We also had a fratboy looking guy who was our muscle, and kept the frats from chasing us down. He got 1/3 of the cut, even though we really only needed his services once. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 10:17 on Mar 25, 2016 |
# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 11:13 |
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A Wizard of Goatse posted:most people will do just about anything to avoid starting a physical confrontation, which is something a whole lot of grifts count on, although a frathouse seems like the very worst possible place to try it Frat parties were a pretty good target for cons, since by definition they're drunk, and not thinking 100% straight. And while fratboys might give someone the bum's rush, they're also not about to take someone out back and smash their hand with a hammer. It was a hell of a lot safer than something like trying to hustle pool. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Mar 30, 2016 |
# ¿ Mar 30, 2016 09:27 |
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Captain Cool posted:If you wait long enough you might get lucky. The US government, with other governments and universities and private companies, took down the original cryptolocker servers and recovered most of the keys: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-leads-multi-national-action-against-gameover-zeus-botnet-and-cryptolocker-ransomware Yeah, I've gotten a few of these calls lately. They show up as something like 512-011-XXXX, and I just let them go straight to voicemail, because that obviously is not a legit number. (For those who aren't familiar with how American Telephone systems work, dialing 0 takes you the operator, so no American telephone number starts with 0.) thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 10:12 on Apr 1, 2016 |
# ¿ Apr 1, 2016 10:05 |
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Avalanche posted:There's been quite a few scams being run at my university to the point where running into one is almost a daily ritual. I'm guessing it's a basic MLM scam, sign up a bunch of people and you get to go free, similar to spring break scams. Sell enough Cancun vacations to your friends and you get to go party in Cancun. And while Turkey is a bit of a hard sell, plenty of history nerds would love to check out historical monuments in countries like Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and Syria. Of course, for obvious reasons, there are some serious travel restrictions in place.
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# ¿ Apr 8, 2016 12:54 |
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For what it's worth, most case workers who actually deal with the homeless on a regular basis recommend against giving the homeless cash. Some beggars are scammers that's true. But even the legit homeless are usually addicts. That's how they became homeless. So if you give them a buck, then they're going to spend that dollar towards getting a fix. If you want to help the homeless, then give that money to a group like the Salvation Army that helps the homeless sober up and get back on their feet. I just tossed out the Salvation Army as a well known group. Odds are there are probably some smaller charities you've never heard of running soup kitchens in your community. Do a bit of googling, find a charity in your area, and toss them a couple of bucks when you can.
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# ¿ Apr 8, 2016 15:19 |
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Xander77 posted:I'm translating a contract (despite having no accounting experience) and had to find proper translations for some accounting terms. I'm guessing it's just a general "Didn't read the fine print" scam using the language barrier to screw someone over. Actually being able to translate medical and legal terms is a rather niche field. I also have a cousin who works an in-house lawyer for an oil company, and from what she's told me, for a big deal, there are usually more translators involved then there are lawyers. The lawyers can kind of boilerplate the basic deal, but they still have to make sure that nobody stuck in some phrase like arbitration can be handled in the people's court of Iraq. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Apr 13, 2016 |
# ¿ Apr 13, 2016 07:59 |
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For what it's worth, I do occasionally buy some Skin-So-Soft from Avon ladies. It is both a moisturizer, and a rather potent insect repellent. I don't go hiking without some Skin-So-Soft, it prevents both chigger and mosquito bites.
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# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 16:04 |
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Swingline posted:A common scam at least here in NYC is free teeth whitening cold calls to office worker phone lines. Sketchy dental practices figure out a company's phone # and has a call center dial every single extension. They say something along the lines of "Congratulations, we've partnered up with [your company] to offer a free teeth whitening session to employees!!!". Turns out that either 1) the teeth whitening isn't really free and is actually hundreds of dollars, or 2) its a "free teeth whitening" that is actually bundled with 4 very expensive additional sessions that you unwittingly agree to in the small print of something they have you sign. And of course in reality they have no affiliation with your company at all. This scam preys on naive 20-somethings who think that now that they have a real job that they're some big shot who will get free perks thrown at them. Sounds like the basic 'As seen as TV' ads. Sell a knife that cuts through a can and then cut through a tomato, and it only costs $9.95. (Plus S&H). Order one now and get a second one free. (Plus additional S&H charges.) What they tend not to advertise is that they usually charge about $20 to ship every item. So those $10 knifes will cost you $50.
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# ¿ Apr 17, 2016 07:27 |
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HAHA, who would ever suspect the Riddler was capable of such a crime? Except for anyone with a lick of common sense. He's dressed up like a freaking palate swapped Batman villain for crying out loud. And yet people still sent him money. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 11:40 on May 19, 2016 |
# ¿ May 19, 2016 10:23 |
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Sanford posted:One of our highly qualified and experienced technical support team, last week. He opened an attachment called details.odt.zip and totally shagged his system to the point that it was just quicker to re-image the disks. At least now I have an answer when they ask why our dev environment is totally separate and locked down. Is he still working there? I mean I could understand if someone from HR or accounting did that. But if you're working in Tech Support it seems like don't open suspicious attachments should be tech support 101. And are you hiring?
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# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 08:10 |
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Lutha Mahtin posted:I've seen this (in the US) a number of times. Every time I've seen it, it's looked like a scam. I once was drinking a beer at a restaurant's sidewalk patio, and a dude who approached me eventually pointed out that he was still wearing his work badge from his new job, then ask if I could buy him a beer. Pretty solid ask, right? Except that the badge was a real lovely hand-laminated thing, and he said it was for working at the Salvation Army, an organization which I think is almost totally run by volunteers. Yeah, I'm fairly certain the Salvation Army has a pretty strong prohibitionist stance. After a hard day's work for the Salvation Army, you're not allowed to grab a couple of brews, kick back, and watch the game to blow off some steam.
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# ¿ Oct 29, 2016 09:34 |
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So how many people fall for your cars warranty is about to expire? I find this the most exhausting, just because I have to pick up my phone, hoping for work, and nope, it's a scammer. I can always shut them down with a simple question, "What kind of car do I own?" And yet they never stop. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 19:42 on May 12, 2022 |
# ¿ May 12, 2022 19:34 |
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And in Our defense, back in the day, you couldn't check what the link lead to. You were happy for a Rickroll instead of goatse.
thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 20:00 on May 12, 2022 |
# ¿ May 12, 2022 19:57 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:I got one the other day and I told them I had a 1905 Ford Model T. It took her a second to ask, "Do you any cars we can cover?" I love that. Going to start wasting all the scammers time with that. "umm it's an '05 Ford." I have tried being blatantly racist, sexist, and homophobic to get people to stop calling me. The end result was I had a telemarketer who told me she was turned on by degradation, and kept calling me, requesting I keep calling her Sugartits. "That was some kind of alpha move." she said. And then she tried selling me an extended warranty. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 08:02 on May 13, 2022 |
# ¿ May 13, 2022 04:13 |
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Volmarias posted:You're missing out on hate loving a telemarketer here I passed. I figure someone who cold calls me trying to con me, then says she likes when I insult her is waving more red flags than a Chinese military parade.
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# ¿ May 14, 2022 14:40 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:02 |
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Weatherman posted:Racist, sexist, and homophobic ones. I'll admit, I'm a bit weak on the slurs. "Please stop calling me," doesn't work. On the other hand, screaming that I support nukes for Pakistan, let's just wipe Mumbai off the loving map already, it's full of loving wogs, only cuts down on the calls by like 10%. OK, I pulled that number out of my rear end. Past a certain point when you're hurling racist slurs against people you have nothing against aside from them calling you, the slurs are kind of weak. I just figure I asked nicely, but after that, Argle bargle racist BS comes into play. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Jul 2, 2022 |
# ¿ Jul 2, 2022 07:38 |