Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

I remember back when Pokémon cards were incredibly popular, the elementary schools in my town banned them since the older kids were scamming the younger kids. Stuff like trading 50 worthless commons for a $10 rare.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2018 14:32

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 17:31

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

I doubt the businesses themselves are scams, but you probably won't make money opening a franchise that advertises this way. If it was a profitable investment, someone more sophisticated would have already put money in without the franchiser needing to advertise to the general public.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 01:28

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Pay at the pump gas charges usually show as a $1 preauthorization at first, then they replace it with the real amount. Gas pumps are also a target for fraudulent transactions because they are specifically exempt from the chip card transition until 2020.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 15:54

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

There are also failed flips and renovations. I've heard of situations where a contractor ghosts when a job gets difficult, a second contractor quotes a price several times higher to fix everything previous contractors screwed up, and in any case the homeowner is without vital things like electricity or sewer service for months. At some point you just want to cut your losses and not deal with it anymore.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2018 22:55

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

No, a pawn is when you get a loan using valuable personal property as collateral. You leave whatever you are pawning there, and they sell it if you don't make the payments on the loan. The amount you get is usually quite low, the interest rates are very high, and most people either don't get their stuff back or end up pawning it again a few months later.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2018 06:31

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Plus I bet you have to pay for overpriced classes before you take the realtor exam, with your "mentor" getting a kickback.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2018 11:45

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

It's intentional. They only want the truly gullible to call back, the last thing they want is to spend half an hour on the phone with a victim that realizes the IRS doesn't usually accept payment in the form of iTunes gift cards.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2018 14:03

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Bitcoin mining hasn't been viable on general purpose PCs for years. People are building mining farms using purpose built hardware in places where power is cheap, spending millions of dollars to get everything set up.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2018 21:53

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

It's takes effort to infect PCs, and some quick math and googling shows an income of $0.0002 per 24 hours for mining using a PC with a high end gaming card and zero power costs. Granted, the numbers may be different with altcoins, but I doubt it would be worth the effort compared to stealing power and mining the coins yourself, or doing one of a bunch of other scams with your compromised PCs.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2018 00:06

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

I think that retail stores have a role to play. Cashiers can typically tell if someone is getting scammed, and giving them the authority to refuse the sale would help.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2018 06:05

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

occamsnailfile posted:

I mean I guess when you're facing the incurable grasping at any desperate bullshit can seem worthwhile. I feel sad for the people who go for it, but their choices are limited. My rage is for the ones preying on them.

The issue is that with aggressive surgery, the prognosis isn't that bad. If he spends a year or two allowing the cancer to develop while getting alternative medicine it can get much worse. Hopefully his doctor can refer him to an oncologist that can provide a quick, scientifically valid second opinion, while also explaining the consequences of delaying effective treatment and the fact that people with colostomies can live normal lives.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2018 18:08

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

On the other hand, smart car buyers don't want to tell a stranger that they will show up at a location carrying thousands of dollars in cash. The ideal solution is to ask the seller to drive the car to a bank parking lot, inspect the car there, then have the buyer withdraw the cash and complete the deal inside.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2019 21:19

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Plus, a lot of those online services have low limits. Venmo is $3,000, which isn't enough to buy a decent car.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2019 04:17

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

bamhand posted:

Not sure if it's limited to bikes or if that's just shows up for me due to my interests but every couple weeks Facebook will have ads for $5000 bikes being sold for $75. A bunch of different manufacturers with pictures and info ripped off the MFG website. Anyone else see these for other products? Like buy a new Tesla for $200! We will sell you this new house in Manhattan for $5000. The prices are laughably unbelievable. Also why not just sell things at a believable discount and just not deliver the product. It would at least be harder to tell that it's a scam in that case.

Chances are you'll get a bike, but it will be the cheapest possible Chinese crap with some stickers on it. They also use shady Chinese credit card processors, so you'll probably get a call from your credit card company asking if you authorized a charge from some company whose name is a bunch of random letters.

# ¿ May 14, 2019 17:16

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Plus, a lot of people actually want $20 fake Oakley sunglasses and know what they are buying.

# ¿ May 14, 2019 18:21

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Plus you have complex promotions designed to get you to gamble away hundreds of dollars chasing a "free" buffet. You also have status levels, put just a few thousand more through the machine and you get access to the ultra exclusive Diamond Lounge, with slightly nicer furniture and free food that totally isn't whatever the restaurant kitchens have too much of!

Edit: Sometimes players do take unfair advantage of poorly thought out promotions. I remember hearing about a casino that was doing a food drive, and for every pound of food brought in you got a ticket to a drawing with a $5000 grand prize. One player worked in the grocery industry, and he could get cheap canned food for $0.20 a pound if he bought enough. He literally brought in multiple pallets, with a total weight of over a ton, and the food bank couldn't use most of it as it was going to expire in a few months.

Konstantin fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Sep 9, 2019

# ¿ Sep 9, 2019 05:19

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

People are also being buried less. Quite a few nonreligious people don't put too much importance on a corpse, and people move around a lot more now. If you have lived in several different cities throughout your life, and your adult children live in places that you don't have a strong connection to, then there is little reason to spend money on a grave in a particular location that will be inconvenient for your loved ones to visit. Compare that to the days where it wasn't unusual to spend your whole life in the town you were born in, and burial made a lot more sense back then.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 21:10

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

You can change the incentive structure to make people gamble less. Limit the price of lottery tickets to $10, limit one per transaction. You either have to go to the back of the line after each purchase, or if there is no line you have to wait for the cashier to ring you up multiple times. The hardcore gamblers will do this, but the social awkwardness will dissuade most normal people from buying more than one. Spending $100 on lottery tickets shouldn't be normalized, just like ordering a single meal at McDonalds that's over 1000 calories shouldn't be considered normal or encouraged.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2019 03:48

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Blue Moonlight posted:

When I was on Nextdoor in Cupertino, CA, there was some old lady complaining about night construction on 280 being a violation of her rights, and threatening to contact the ACLU over it.

Other than that, it was filled with people fighting over whether developers should be allowed to tear down a dead mall, largely because it would provide more housing, meaning their property values would go down. One of these people went on to become the Mayor of Cupertino and promptly made a joke about building a wall to keep the undesirables out.

Wouldn't blighted property in the neighborhood depress property values more than the additional housing?

# ¿ Jan 20, 2020 22:51

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Investors lost $700 million on Theranos, while Microsoft estimated that the RRoD failures cost them $1.15 billion.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2020 01:03

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

The government isn't handling the coronavirus aid well at all, I'm sure there are already spoof websites out there saying that your aid money will be directly deposited into your account if you enter your bank information and SSN.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2020 05:53

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Nah, that's the number the scammer spoofed when sending the spam.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 10:52

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Also, water absorbs radiation. Nuclear power plants store their spent fuel rods at the bottom of pools, and the water at the surface is safe enough to swim in.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2021 07:00

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

They actually had a valuable product at one point, as they were the first to sell plastic resealable food containers. Of course, now that you can buy them anywhere there is no reason to stick with the direct selling model, other than to get money from the ~~marks~~ independent distributors.

# ¿ May 13, 2021 18:29

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Pure pyramid schemes are too easy for government regulators to shut down, so MLMs need to actually sell a physical product in addition to recruiting new marks. It's common for there to be a requirement for everyone involved to have a quota of product they have to personally sell in order to get paid, both to try and convince people they are a legitimate business and to avoid paying people. Of course, since the product is overpriced crap, they can't meet their quota and have to buy the product themselves, so it piles up in storage.

# ¿ May 11, 2023 09:25

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Or they send to anyone who is slightly interested. I signed up for a trade association about 10 years ago, paid a membership fee for a year, then stopped. I still get their print magazine a few times a year in the mail.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2023 19:55

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Also, companies sometimes forget the hard part of establishing and maintaining trusted communication channels, and making sure everyone, including external vendors, uses those channels. It doesn't matter how good your IT department is if HR lets some third party send out a bunch of emails saying "click this link or you're fired."

# ¿ Nov 16, 2023 21:06

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

When I worked for a credit card company we were explicitly instructed to not tell people they were falling for a scam. I used phrases like "This company isn't affiliated with Microsoft" "This is a foreign charge that has an additional fee." and "I personally recommend you take your computer to someone local."

# ¿ Dec 13, 2023 08:16

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 17:31

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Yeah, I work for US immigration as a contractor, and it's all sorts of hosed up. My go to example is the "H4 age out" problem. If an Indian comes here on the most common work visa, they can stay as long as their employer renews every 3 years or whenever they change jobs, but they can't get a green card due to a decades old law. This means that their kids can grow up in the US, but when they turn 21 they are no longer a dependent and can't stay on their parents' visa. They either have to find a way to get a visa on their own or go to India.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2024 18:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."