Scams you've fallen for

[CottonEyedHorn]

or almost fallen for (Nigerian posers included )....

1) A few years back I fell for a late night informercial real estate scam. Ordered all the material, then researched it on the internet.

Fortunately there was a 30 day return policy and I was only out $9.95

.

2) Was looking for a job and got a call from a place called SAS International. Couldn't find jack on them anywhere on the internet, good or bad. They supposedly had this super secret way of getting you into $100k + jobs and it only cost $6,000

. I never gave them any money, but shortly after that I found out they used to be called Bernard Haldane. Bingo, Google lit up.

I have since grown wise in my ways. Only if it sounds way too good to be true will I bite

 

[Not Shinola]

I have some speakers to sell you.

 

[CottonEyedHorn]

Already got some!

 

[bevo_daddy]

Stupid surveys at home scam

 

[Horns2005]

I got suckered into a business interview with Vector Marketing before I figured out it the jig was up and hightailed it out of there.

 

[Statalyzer]

A cat tried to sell me some internets it had manufactured.

 

[chuychanga]

I just saw the speaker guys in Dripping Springs yesterday.

I had a buddy that bought an ALPHINE stereo for his car at the flea martket back in high school.

 

[The Human Gumbi]

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[afat]

I don't remember the name of the company, but my freshman year of college I went to an interview, a second interview, and then got to the job presentation meeting of a 'sell books door to door' company with out knowing that it was a 'sell books door to door' company. I was so mad. First time in my life that I felt really taken advantage of.

 

[Victorious1]

When I finished school I fell for some of the job add scams advertised weekly in the paper (there was no internet in these days) by various job placement agencies. Certain job agencies would continuously advertise nice, entry level professional positions for nice $$$ and I would meet to interview, take tests, etc and then they would call me to schedule interviews for various $7-$8 an hour jobs that ranged from call center monkey to warehouse work. Granted they did help get job interviews and I never paid them a dime but I did not go to college to take a $16K/yr job. I quickly learned which job adds to avoid.

 

[DeadHeadHorn]

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[Uninformed]

The whole milk and a cow bit.

 

[CleverNickname]

that german car commercial thingy. scary.

 

[Ramathorn]

We've all fallen for that Vektor marketing crap. "looking for sports minded, competitive............" Mine was called competitive marketing though.

I almost fell for the "you just won a mustang, just buy these magazines" scam when I was 18.

 

[DigglerontheHoof]

That's funny, I went to an "interview" at Bernard Haldane as well.

After 30 minutes I still couldn't figure out what great service my (approximately) $5K would get me.

I told hime I'd think about it and never returned their calls.

 

[Texanne]

When I was a freshman at Texas back in the 70s, I fell for the "booze chain letter." It was the last time I fell for anything of that nature. I can't tell you how many Amway and similar proposals I've turned down because I still remember getting burned. I bought an expnsive bottle of tequila (by student standards) for the guy whose name was at the top of the list, but I never got any booze of my own.

To this day, I despise chain letters, although I've been known to send along the dancing leprechaun just becase I think it's funny.

 

[Homesickhorn]

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[hookem2102]

2 friends and I fell for the speaker bit in high school. We got them back to a buddy's house and they were ok but not great...so we sold them to his brother. We were able to get our money back and listen to the speakers.

 

[Hpslugga]

Why don't you have a seat right over there?

 

[El_Oso]

ANyone remember Herbalife and Rainbow vacuums back in the 80's. Yeah, I went to their interviews and presentations.

Never looked back.

 

[whickums]

I fell for the guys selling magazines who were trying to raise money for a trip to Europe or Vegas or somewhere

.... I never got those magazines...

it was during Christmas too.

 

[OrangeBlooded]

these are all scams?? oh my god.

 

[MaduroUTMB]

I nearly fell for a paypal phishing scam. I signed up for Paypal, filled out information, got a lot of confirmation emails, and finally got another email asking me to enter a ton of information. I put in my name address, etc. and the next page was asking for credit card, bank, SS# etc. At that point, I checked the URL and realized that an Italian computer supplies outlet probably wasn't running data collection for paypal.

I'm still bitter about that, and not only because I fell for it. I had never gotten a paypal scam email before that, and I have gotten several since. Somehow, they knew within hours that I had signed up for paypal and sent an appropriate phishing email to me the same day. All of these transactions were completed on an XP machine running up to date Adaware and McAfee.

That was one of the main reasons that I switched to Fedora. I only use Firefox with Scriptblocker enabled and I never have to log into root. I don't have a virus scanner, but my computer is more secure than it was with any number of protection schemes in windows.

 

[milk_monitor]

I knew a guy who made absolute bank selling cutco and encyclopedias. I wouldn't call those sort of jobs scams, precisely - just jobs that 99% or more of the population is unsuited for. Okay, maybe they're scams.

 

[Macanudo]

Marriage.

 

[hooklahoma]

I have to admit......I'm pretty proud of my "falling for scams" record. I'm a sceptics' sceptic. I ask the girl scouts for ID before I buy cookies from them.

I did however almost fall for the "selling magazines " scam from a young entepeneur until he told me I'd get a discount for paying w/ cash. I told him I didnt have any cash and he said he'd wait there if i would go to the ATM.......................Slam went the door!

 

[Ramathorn]

OK, that magazine scam, have they ever given you magazines? I mean even if they do, it's still a scam imo.

 

[Ramathorn]

How does the shoe one work?







OK, one time this one lady came into my work and asked for ten bucks. She said she was driving from Michigan to Banquete (small town outside of Corpus) to visit her sick dad. She had a nasty scar on her head and said she just had brain surgery. I gave her ten bucks. Of course, she comes back again a month later and has the same spiel.

She was hispanic, the "I'm from Michigan" part should've been a dead giveaway. What Hispanic person in their right mind would live there?

 

[axle hongsnort]

usaphotonation.com - just saw their site is down, thank god, they were a sleazy gray/black market outfit doing the ultimate bait and switch on electronics.

in like 93 / 94 a prymid scheme swept through the greek crowd in a bad way. over one weeks time friends in multiple houses were trying to "sell" each other on this "big chance"

 

[Not Shinola]

I don't think I have ever fallen for a scam (Although I was talked into going to an Army Recruitment office when I was 18)

However, there is one that I have seen people fall for that made me sad.

Its the poetry book one. Where you submit a poem, and Congratulations! your poem has been judged good enough to be published. Now how many $50 copies of the book would you like to buy.


Both people I saw fall for it were writing about a recently deceased loved one... and they were so proud of their achievement.