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When I first moved out I used Craigslist to search for rental listings, because that's the place I happened to find the best deals, outrageously cheap rent for spacious apartments/houses. I answered almost all of them, then I very quickly learned they were all scams once I received replies written in broken English, asking me to wire money. The ones that didn't ask for money up front wanted to run a FREE CREDIT CHECK on me. I just had to click this link!!!! The red flags are obvious in the replies, but to be safe just don't bother with any listings that sound too good to be true. Research what apartments or rental homes go for in your area, and if you see something that's unbelievably cheap, don't waste your time. Sometimes the fake listings will have pictures, but most of them don't. I guess broken English in the ad can be a warning sign, but it might be hard to tell, because it's usually just the standard Bed/Bath, Pets, Smoking, etc. stuff probably copy and pasted from somewhere else. I guess some people's advice would be to stay away from Craigslist, but I did end up finding a really nice place on there with one of the best landlords I ever had, so it isn't always a cesspit. You just have to be careful.
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Feb 26, 2016 13:11
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Korgan posted:That was after my sister received a call not four hours earlier where apparently our mother has a criminal record and they're bringing charges against her. Been a busy day for scammers today. What exactly were they trying to get out of your sister here? Money to expunge your mother's record/stop the charges? Is that even a thing most people think you can do?
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Feb 26, 2016 13:34
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Korgan posted:Not sure exactly, as soon as she heard "mother's criminal record" she laughed at them and told them they were full of poo poo. I assume it would have been similar to my call, send us money and we'll get it cleared up. Most people wouldn't fall for it, but they're not preying on most people. They're targeting those who are going to panic and agree to everything and send them the cash without stopping to think about why this situation is dodgy as hell. Makes sense, and it actually reminded me of another scam that was going on around here for a while. People impersonating electricity company employees were calling up residents insisting that unless they paid their "overdue bill"  right now their electricity was going to get cut off. I thought it was easy enough to figure out it was bullshit if you kept any sort of track of your utility bills at all, plus most companies send notices in the mail after missed payments. But apparently enough people fell for it to the point the scam got featured in the news. Unfortunately I think the reason for that was most of the targets were non-English speakers.  My mom speaks English, but she has a thick accent. She would get calls from these people almost every week.
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Feb 27, 2016 10:32
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lifg posted:If he knew better he could build a website that accepts monthly subscriptions, mail subscribers a box of the junk, and call it the Chinese version of the Kawaii Box. Am I crazy or was there a goon who was doing just this a few years back? He was selling "mystery boxes" full of plastic junk and silly putty for like $50 or something.
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Mar 20, 2016 18:57
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SilkyP posted:Not sure if this is the past place to ask but I've been getting a poo poo ton of telemarketing spam calls recently on my cell phone (may have accidentally answered one call like a month ago and now the flood gates have opened) What did you get if you tried calling any of them back? Usually the numbers are spoofed, so there's a good chance you could be bothering an innocent person whose phone number was stolen for this scam. It happened to my cell once, got a few random people "returning" calls I never made to them.
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Mar 31, 2016 04:35
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Every time someone mentions toxin removal, I always think of the Kinoki foot pad scam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSprnYACYJI
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Apr 6, 2016 20:58
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My coworker started talking to me about her side business the other day. I knew she owned some kind of retail store, but I never asked her about it in detail. Then she started talking about the "vacation" she recently took, which was actually a business conference, where other "business owners" around the US selling the same products she's selling from this one company gathered to receive awards, accolades, show off and buy new products, etc. I got strong MLM vibes, confirmed when she started talking about all the people she had recruited under her, and all of the people recruited under her recruits. While she was explaining this, she was drawing a triangle in the air with her finger. Then she pointed to the top to indicate her place in the triangle.  I tried to gently ask her if she gets any kind of a bonus for "recruiting" people. The only thing I got out of that was that she gets a percentage of their sales, and she gets a smaller percentage from her recruits' recruits. So everyone profits off each other...
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Aug 21, 2019 05:49
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BiggerBoat posted:I can't believe someone would still draw a triangle to demonstrate an MLM. That very well could be how they described the method to her, but she definitely went reverse-funnel system when she explained it to me. The company is Paparazzi Accessories if anyone is wondering. It looks like they sell costume jewelry for $5 a piece, and they claim you'll make 45% commission. I know they offer different packages, but their website is having issues right now, and I can't remember how much those packages cost. I tried to checking their social media, but they're just full of convention montages and vaguely inspirational quotes.
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Aug 21, 2019 15:11
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Tubgoat posted:LMAO WTF, just go to loving Goodwill and/or Salvation Army or something, Christ-amighty. I think it's the convenience of the company shipping the product directly to you that appeals to people. You don't have to spend hours at Goodwill looking for something you might be able to sell. Maybe I should introduce her to the magic of Aliexpress...
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Aug 21, 2019 21:19
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BiggerBoat posted:Dude, you better jump on that. Good god. I feel like I saw something like this back when web 2.0 was a thing. quote:I always wanted for someone to go undercover with one of these things and just expose the poo poo out of them and wreck their poo poo, non disclosures be damned, but these companies have a SHITLOAD of money and that Simpsons clip implies that cops actually investigate and prosecute these creeps. They don't. Quite the opposite really. They get away a lot and have armies of lawyers and lobbyists. Betsy DeVos is the secretary of education. There's a pretty good documentary where people talk about their time in LuLaRoe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6eujSJ0-RU
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Aug 22, 2019 02:39
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Sk8ers4Christ fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Jan 6, 2021 |
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Jan 6, 2021 03:54
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Zamujasa posted:That's not your phone number in that URL, is it? It's not my number, but I'll black it out anyway. I think sometimes active phone numbers can be spoofed.
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Jan 6, 2021 13:03
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I got scammed a couple weeks ago, but I'm wondering how the scammer benefitted in this case. I saw a listing on Facebook Marketplace for some furniture I wanted. I contacted the seller, and they told me to go to their website to make the purchase (already a red flag, but I did it anyway). The weird thing was the seller insisted on PayPal, because it was the "most secure" payment method, since they wouldn't be able to see the customer's credit card number (??????). Despite my reservations, I bought the item. Anyway, no surprise, I never received it. The seller ghosted me when I tried to contact them, and later deleted their website and profile (or blocked me). I filed a claim through PayPal, and I got my money back. I'm not really mad about it, since I knew I was deliberately ignoring my gut feelings, and it wasn't for an amount I couldn't afford to lose (plus I knew I could get it back, if not through PayPal, then through a chargeback with my credit card company). I'm just wondering now what the endgame was here. I'm thinking the scammer just withdrew whatever money they received from their PayPal account and ran, and the refund came from PayPal? If that's the case, I imagine PayPal would lose hundreds and thousands of dollars over this stunt, and it surprises me they would make it so easy for scammers to pull something like this. If the refund came from the scammer's account, then what was the whole point of this in the first place? I've heard of PayPal scams where the scammer will send a package to a random address near the buyer (usually something cheap like stickers, seeds, etc.), so they can generate a real tracking number, and it will show that the package was delivered when the buyer tries to file a claim. PayPal then closes the case and makes a judgment in the seller's favor. I was half expecting that, but I never received a tracking number or any kind of communication from the scammer after I made the purchase. Also, another weird thing I noticed while I was browsing their website: they were selling all their items for under $100, even brand new dining room sets, sofas, beds, etc. Does that let them avoid detection or something?
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Mar 29, 2022 18:50
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therobit posted:PayPal doesn’t always refund the customer and if they don’t your bank often won’t do a chargeback because you authorized PayPal to withdraw the money per the terms of the PayPal user agreement. PayPal will do a lot to not pay you if a lot of money is on the line. Cash apps generally are hit or miss with whether they will refund you in case of unauthorized transactions and typically your bank will not be any help of you authorized the app to withdraw funds from your account, which you did if yo signed up for the app. It’s lovely. Oh drat. That is lovely. Guess I got lucky that Paypal refunded me. Though maybe the trick was I spoke to a live person? I tried to dispute it on the Paypal website, but that wasn't getting anywhere, so I called instead. At first I got an automated system, but I just repeated "live agent" until I finally got an actual person on the line. She immediately agreed it sounded like a scam and just escalated the case for me. Basically it sounded like Paypal would contact the seller instead of the buyer, and since the scammer never responded in my case, it just automatically closed in my favor. Took a couple weeks but it was waaaay easier than trying to navigate a dumb menu that just told me "You already have an open dispute." Ugh. Actually now that I think about it those phone menus should be considered scams too. I feel like companies/organizations set them up in a way that always leads you to a dead end rather than connect you to a real person that would be able to understand and resolve your issue.
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Mar 31, 2022 01:36
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