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http://johnnyvagabond.com/featured/poker-scam-saigon/ Had this happen to me in Laos, except I wasn't stupid enough to actually agree to play the game unlike this chump. I had a good time though, bizarrely. Got a pretty nice lunch out of it. I had never heard of the scam and it was so strange. Like getting a little tour, then chatting with some old dude over lunch and beer, him showing me magic tricks, then suddenly he's scheming with me to play a rich westerner to scam a local casino. Really the only time I run into scams is as a tourist. Pretty much if you're near to a place tourists often go, and a local comes up to talk to you for any reason, it's to scam you in some way. Sounds horrible but that's basically my experience.
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Mar 5, 2016 17:19
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poolside toaster posted:I'll add as a corollary: any time a person you don't personally know attempts to contact you at home, whether via e-mail, mail, phone, or simply knocking on your door, it's a scam. That has been the hardest lesson to drill into them. I fear that it will really only sink in when they finally get scammed hard by some douchebag. Yeah, if you are a naturally trusting, or even just friendly person, scams are intentionally designed to gain your trust. When I took a moped ride with this old man, it wasn't like I wasn't suspicious. Honestly, I was naive to even go along with it as far as I did, but my guard was lowered by our conversation. Also it helps that had like half a foot and like 20kg on him, but that is a pretty stupid reason to feel self-assured, because he just have driven me to some place to rob me or whatnot with ten dudes. Context wise: I had been told, several times, that locals in Laos were super friendly and it wasn't unusual for somebody to invite you for a meal. I had already had friendly interactions already, and I wasn't in like a massive tourist hotspot at the time. I was approached while deciding where I was going to go next, asked where I was from (UK). Then he wanted to know where in UK (London), and he was like ohhhh amazing, my daughter is going to study in London for an advanced degree in nursing (can't remember exactly what) near Oxford Circus, which checks out because I happen to know that the Royal College of Nursing is around there. He then frets that his wife is super worried about the trip and how dangerous London is, and could I reassure his wife that London is fine and safe etc. So he phones his "wife" who I talk to on the phone, and after a little conversation invites me to lunch. It all flows pretty naturally. He then spent a lot of time asking pertinent questions about rent in London, travel, etc. Obviously in the cold light of day there are obvious warning signs that should make you concerned, and I did notice (some) of them, but then you second guess yourself and you don't want to be rude, and you are also curious and wanting to be helpful. - Had credible information on the spot about where I was from that made him seem legitimate. - Wife on phone makes it seem less suspicious, and her "fears" for her daughter take advantage of desire to be helpful.
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Mar 5, 2016 19:22
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Some clowns pay to go and work on farms in dirt poor countries to be culturally enriched. Worst case scenario you get press ganged into picking olives and suffer some lifelong trauma involving hairy men in a Turkish bathhouse. What's the problem? Seems pretty enriching to me. Seriously though, I've been to Turkey twice and it's a pretty cool and varied place. I assume in some Americans' heads, Turkey is just some dirty Arabic petrostate not safe for whitey or something. Hey fellas these guys are your massive geopolitical allies! Technically secular! You'll probably be awwwright. Think of it like a much, much angrier Greece with more call to prayer and backgammon.
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Apr 10, 2016 14:52
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Kopijeger posted:What could you possibly spend rubles on in East Berlin unless you had access to commissaries or equivalent on Soviet bases? Wouldn't GDR marks make more sense? Quite possibly he was just guessing that part. All's fair in love and (cold) war I guess, but that guy's dad seems like he was kind of a dick.
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Apr 19, 2016 12:33
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BiggerBoat posted:
Did you clock that thing earlier where somebody dug up those ancient posts about the goon's girlfriend who was described as practically a prodigy and genius intellect who flew to America to sell books door to door on the premise that she could make $200k+ in a single summer lmfao I mean...there's credulous and there's falling for something hook, line, sinker and whole fishing rod.
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Jan 31, 2021 18:04
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Apple has been found guilty on several occasions of intentional planned obsolescence. It's not a secret, everybody knew it. It doesn't have to be web browsing problems, updates would be conspicuously more resource hungry or actively throttled performance for older models. If there is a 'conspiracy of convenience', it's that Apple intentionally traps consumers within their own ecosystem. Their products don't play ball with 3rd party products and everything is proprietary from charging cables to audio codecs. You can't just pick and choose a product you like and have it function with everything else you have.
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Feb 11, 2021 01:49
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Permanently appear offline is praxis. I always have like 2-3 new adds every time I log into Steam and without fail its a bunch of Russian/Chinese/Whatever fakeaccounts trying to add me so they can steal my CS:GO skins which I probably should have sold off already.
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May 17, 2021 12:29
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Cage Kicker posted:Go gently caress yourself, if you fall for an OBVIOUS SCAM you are at least partly to blame for not exercising better judgement. 
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Jun 8, 2021 23:40
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Digital menus are totally hopeless in comparison, but obviously they represent a theoretical saving to the restaurant and probably ecologically. Too bad places that have them tend to universally be more expensive anyway. It's also so true that the UX is just dogshit and there's literally no way with current technology to make it not so. Pandemic ordering to me is defined by these godawful drop down menus on a shambolic, poorly maintained temp website that's hardly functional. Putting stuff in a basket like it's a independent Shopify retailer, only to have a sheepish waiter arrive 10 minutes later to say actually it's out of stock but nobody has permission or the knowledge to update the site. But your card was charged anyway and can you phone back another day and they'll refund you. Come and take an order with a pen and paper please. I've seen places where they have work tablets to take your order, and it's like 2x as slow as just scribbling in shorthand. Or even worse, typing on a phone keyboard on some kind of notes app. why
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Jul 4, 2022 16:34
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Nolgthorn posted:I'm sure after 182 pages someone has brought up the restaurant scam. They employ hot girls who pretend to be on vacation, in order to get you into their shop. This is a European thing more than anywhere. They target if you look single and travelling on your own. The idea being that you will buy them some drinks but the place nearby that they lead you to charges much much more than usual. The type of place where even a cappuccino costs the equivalent of 50 or 100 euros. If you don't ask to see the menu, it's totally legal and they pay bouncers essentially to escort you to an atm. I'm sure variations exist in many places, but I just wanted to highlight that sure, maybe in some places it's legal and there is actually potential for getting roughed up (although I'm sure that isn't legal). But the vast majority of scams (and this one) involve playing off of the shame of being duped or the implied threat of violence, without actually any follow through or actual extortion. Implied threat of violence isn't even necessary really, just being secluded/sequestered away in a private booth/room/area or whatever is enough to make you feel isolated and pressured. I fell for a variation of the Chinese tea room scam (how I've always heard it referred to) when I was in my early 20s and traveling in China. It involved going to a tea/coffee shop of my choice and chatting after being approached for English practice by a girl of similar age. Then she suggested a place nearby that was good, I had been lulled into a false sense of security after having talked for a while and went along with it. Had a drink, she wanted to do karaoke, vibe got weird and I was like 'nah, I'm good' and made to leave. Bill was something absurd, and obviously I got angry/embarrassed in the moment for being such a moron but I just paid like a nominal amount for the drink (i.e. a normal amount) and walked straight out. I mention this vaguely embarrassing story about myself because there was some dude leaning beside the door and a dude behind the counter but nobody made the slightest effort to stop me despite not paying what I 'owed'. I think the potential repercussions for actually loving with a tourist are simply not worth it. Going to create a scene, cause police reports and so on. They rely on people just paying of their own free will. Not saying this is true everywhere, maybe in some places this would be dangerous to attempt. But equally at some point if you're willing to actually physically harm people to get their money, might as well just rob them and skip the middle part. Cons/scams are distinct in that you are tricked into handing over your money by your volition. I think most people on here are older and wiser than I was then, but just a reminder that if you are ever caught up in any kind of scam, you are almost guaranteed to be able to just hit da bricks at any moment without consequence.
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Aug 29, 2022 12:18
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