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Nigerian scammers continue to say that they are from Nigeria, even though that's an instant dealbreaker for most people, as a form of self-selection. I guess they send out so many emails, so they can filter out most people who won't fall for it anyway by saying they're from Nigeria and limit their responses to people who are dumb as poo poo. Well, that and the people from 419eater.
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Mar 7, 2016 14:31
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PT6A posted:I was polite the first two times. The first time I let him actually do his script, and then told him that I don't accept telephone solicitations or surveys as a policy. The second time I cut him off right away by telling him I didn't want him to waste any time since I don't accept telephone solicitations or surveys, and the third time I told him to gently caress off. I think you have to tell them not to call you anymore, and to request to be taken off their list or out of their database. Something that can't be interpreted in any way as "I'm not interested" and can only be interpreted as "I no longer wish to receive calls from you, ever". If you can prove that you've done this and they continue to harass you, there can be legal consequences so they typically stop, although there can be a delay between when you request this and when they actually do it. It also depends on who they're calling on behalf of - overseas scammers don't give a gently caress.
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Apr 13, 2016 18:18
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This thread is full of stories of people doing just that  If you have an iPhone and he's not literally entering the numbers in by hand, you can try getting robokiller. I haven't used it myself, but I will when it comes to android.
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Apr 13, 2016 18:50
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PT6A posted:At least with the rose/herb scam in Europe, you can always count on the local population to back you up against the gypsy no matter what Isn't it good if people help keep you from getting scammed or harassed/assaulted by a scammer?
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Apr 30, 2016 03:19
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PT6A posted:Indeed. The level of prejudice against Roma people is horrible, but on the other hand I'm not going to feel bad for the few individuals who have actively tried to scam me. Accosting a stranger and demanding they hand over their money is more akin to an assault than a scam. The presence of a weapon is like the only thing separating this from an old-fashioned mugging. As lovely as the general situation is, it's good if bystanders step in to stop it.
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Apr 30, 2016 16:57
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Powerlurker posted:If you talk to a Chinese person, many of them will say the exact same things about Uyghurs that Europeans say about Roma. The famous scam in China is the "cut cake" scam. A vendor (almost always Uyghur) will have a trike with a gigantic qiegao (literally, "cut cake" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_cake ) and will usually refuse to tell you the price, but after they cut you a larger slice than you requested, will weigh it and charge you an extortionate rate and if you refuse to pay, they and their nearby friends will threaten you with the big knives they use to cut the cake. This is also a mugging
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May 3, 2016 19:39
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nothing between mid-october and today. Shameful
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May 12, 2016 02:17
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Sanford posted:they pulled up outside Argos and found it was closed.  "I meant to do that."
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May 17, 2016 14:02
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I used to use those guys. Taxes are scary, until you actually do them. They've been built up as this huge complicated thing that you'd better not gently caress up or else you'll go to prison for tax evasion!! Then you find a website that walks you through it for free.
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May 26, 2016 18:16
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ToxicSlurpee posted:It's also idiotic because if you do gently caress up the first thing the IRS will do is contact you and say "hey you made a mistake" and then work with you to fix it. You basically have to try to get arrested by the IRS or deliberately commit tax fraud. If you just go "oh, yeah that was dumb" and work with them they'll pretty much never even fine you, far as I can tell. Haha pretty much.
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May 27, 2016 02:34
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If you go to a scam bar, is it possible to go out for a smoke and then just never come back in? I don't know how bars work across the pond.
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Jun 13, 2016 02:50
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PT6A posted:This was in Cuba, so I didn't want to gently caress around too much (and it cost me $6 extra or so, which is not an amount I'm prepared to get pissed off over, when you get right down to it, even though it was about four times what I should've paid). Arguably it wasn't a "scam" so much as a hustle. I got the drink I ordered (after being convinced to order that specific drink), and I paid the price that was on the menu. Fair enough, if it's six bucks it's not worth the trouble. But I figure, what are they gonna do if you grab a smoke and then just disappear? Yeah yeah, I'm suuure the cops are really interested in someone walking out of a scambar, and will care a whole lot about finding some tourist who may not even be in the city the next day.
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Jun 13, 2016 03:48
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feedmegin posted:Calling from a payphone sounds a smart idea if you're just some guy running a scam on your own and you don't want anyone tracking the phone number back to you. Eh? Considering how poor the rate of returns are on the "call someone randomly and demand payment", using a phone you have to pay to use sounds like the opposite of a good idea.
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Jun 27, 2016 16:00
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Blackchamber posted:Ransomware. Some just lock up your browser, others can make using your computer near impossible, and the worst kind can encrypt your hard-drive and if you don't pony up it'll delete it. Even if you did pay them off theres no guarantee they'll unlock your poo poo. I hear they generally will unlock it, since that's how they get paid. If they torched it after getting their money, big-ticket targets like hospitals and cities would stop giving in to their demands.
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Jul 19, 2016 19:40
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Old Binsby posted:I'm on mobile so can't find it right now, but wired did an excellent piece on the famous stuxnet worm that wrecked havoc on these kind of closed, extremely carefully guarded control systems (in this case nuclear reactors). Worth a read! Here's a link to it on ars technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet-the-most-menacing-malware-in-history/ It is really fascinating. It was developed by someone (presumably the states or israel) to interfere with Iran's uranium enrichment programs. The initial infection vector was by USB stick, and it would spread from there rapidly. It did things in a new way so as to make itself practically invisible, and the goal of the virus was to target centrifuges at one of their power plants. It's a really heavily technical article, but fascinating if you're into that kind of thing.
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Jul 22, 2016 14:47
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Fragrag posted:That conference actually accepted a paper that was written entirely with autocorrect quote:A bogus research paper reading only “Get me off Your loving Mailing List” repeated over and over again was accepted by the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology, an open-access academic journal, in November 2014.
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Oct 24, 2016 14:27
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I dunno if the UK is like Canada, but I have never received anything from any tax authority ever that wasn't through the actual mail. With a return address that is a real tax office.
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Nov 1, 2016 04:23
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Das Butterbrot posted:has anyone ever tried sending a cryptolocker back to one of those tax refund scammers? thatd be hilarious. I want to start doing this
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Dec 7, 2016 00:51
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Lutha Mahtin posted:I think we've discussed this scam before ITT, but this one has some elements I haven't seen before. I haven't ever seen one where the person claims to still live in America, nor have I seen one where they ask for the deposit via FedEx. The "good Christian renter" angle is unique too. All the scams I've seen like this involve bank transfers and people who supposedly live in a foreign country but own this house back home. Nah, the Christian angle is old as heck, I ran into it a bunch even ten years ago. Appealing to religion seems to be a good way to find suckers but the scammers always lay it on so thick. That might have come out wrong, it's like "oh you're a part of my in-group" which tried to make them look more trustworthy, and a pastor! Doing a religious mission! And offering this opportunity to fellow Christians too! If you find that stuff significant (as many so) is easier to get taken for a ride.
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Jan 28, 2017 18:30
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Captain Monkey posted:Why would you not lay it on thick though? Like, if I wanna find the densest, least aware person I can, being a little obviously scammy weeds out people who won't go on to be marks. I didn't even make that connection, it's the rental scam version of Nigerian scammers always saying they're from Nigeria
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Jan 29, 2017 02:02
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The wisdom of age is making GBS threads your diaper and giving all your money to a traveling salesman in exchange for magic beans
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Feb 2, 2017 03:29
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Here's a paper about it: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-nigerian-scammers-say-they-are-from-nigeria/ The abstract posted there answers the question well enough, but there's a whole paper about it if you want to give it a read. Choice quote: "the goal of the email is not so much to attract viable users as to repel non-viable ones, who greatly outnumber them." "Those who are fooled for a while, but then figure it out, or who balk at the last hurdle are precisely the expensive false positives that the scammer must deter." many johnnys fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Mar 30, 2017 15:04
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ToxicSlurpee posted:Yahoo! is actually not all that evil. They are, however, staggeringly and bafflingly incompetent. Ars recently wrote a bit of a retrospective on yahoo, it's funny and informative: https://arstechnica.com/business/2017/03/how-is-babby-formed-the-meme-that-will-define-yahoo-forever/ Special attention should be paid to the first paragraph after the lil YouTube gag, describing all the different properties yahoo acquired and then destroyed. Each link leads to a different and expensive mistake - I read the Flickr one and Yahoo is a loving mess.
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Apr 3, 2017 15:30
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The Yahoo stuff is still good and the company is a mess. Pretend I posted a wall of the links from that page about their failed properties instead of one link if that helps.
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Apr 3, 2017 22:58
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I downloaded Mr. Number just because of this poo poo.
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Aug 4, 2017 14:06
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MightyJoe36 posted:I find it ridiculous that people would actually believe that the "authorities" (IRS, FBI, Sheriff, etc.) would want you to pay your fine with an iTunes gift card. Lmao seriously. I'm afraid you're in debt to the IRS, and the only way to avoid jail is to give us five boxes of Pokemon cards. We also accept Garbage Pail Kids.
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Aug 11, 2017 18:57
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Cyrano4747 posted:Honestly I would pay a significant amount of money a month to have a phone where you had to white list numbers to be able to call you. I can't think of the last time I got a phone number out of the blue and it was a call I actually wanted. poo poo, even looking for jobs all my contacts were via email. I think Mr. Number supports this. It's free.
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Aug 30, 2017 18:53
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