Scams you've fallen for

I did 1st and 2nd round interviews for the door to door bookselling thing, although I don't necessarily call it a scam, because you really are selling books, it's just not something I wanted to do. What I REALLY didn't like was that they didn't tell me **** about what I'd be doing until the very end of the second interview - that's clearly their method and a choice, and **** that.

Had a buddy that I thought VERY highly of get suckered into the internet version of Amway (forget the name now). He bought me dinner one night to recruit me, and I spent 2 hours trying to get him to tell me what the hell this new business of his actually did. That tactic (join the business, sell the business, we're all gonna be rich!) was the calling card of the various Amway scams, and it really pissed me off that this guy fell for it, and then tried to get me, too. This guy was an honors UT grad with his EE degree, and worked for accenture for 3 years right out of school - I still don't understand how he not only got suckered, but then didn't wake up and get out. Haven't talked to him once since that night.

My roommate freshman year bought speakers from white-van guy. We used them for a number of years - they worked ok, we didn't know any better.

I feel for the "got them shoes on Bourbon Street" .. and Iw as 27 when it happened. I got LOTS of **** for that one, as it was our entire group of guys at a bachelor party.

Always managed to see through the selling of magazines and d-t-d cleaning products stuff, but I'm a total sucker for girl scouts or neighborhood kids, whatever they may be selling. As long as I have cash, I'm buying something.
 
Ahh Herbalife, yeah they got me with a "no purchase necessary award." You get the "you have already won" notice, you respond, and they hit you up for a $500 purchase.

Didn't lose any money, but I literally had someone explain to me that yes, the add does say "no purchase necessary", but "obviously we can't just give these awards out for nothing." Still don't quite understand how that makes the "no purchase necessary" part NOT a lie.

Oh, and the part where I told them I didn't have enough money in my account and they said "do you have a credit card? Just get the card and give me the numbers!"
 
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A few years ago a guy(across the street from the police station, on 7th) asked me for bus fare to San Antonio, where his twelve year old daughter was in the hospital. I told him I was sorry, but couldn't help, assuming it to be a scam for booze money. Two years later, I was waiting on my daughter to come out of a concert at Emo's...parked in the lot across the street, sitting on my tailgate, drinking a bottle of water I plucked from the case beside me. Along comes this guy asking for bus fare to San Antonio, where his twelve year old daughter was in the hospital. I told him I couldn't help. He started to walk off, then turned to me and asked if I had a spare bottle of water, to which I responded no, as I glanced at the near full case. He looked at me in shock. I then asked him how his daughter could remain twelve and in the hospital in SA for two years. He ran off.









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Fell for the "dent removal" thing too. Freshman year in college. Had a girl bump me in a gas station parking lot. Rather than file a claim, I got $100 out of her. Next week, some guy comes up to me while at work and asks if that's my truck with a dent on the side. He says he can fix it for $80. Sweet, that's some good timing.

He jacks around with it for a while, appears to remove the dents and paints primer over it. Says he'll come back the next morning to paint and buff it. Guy never showed back up. Furthermore, he stole my CDs and my brand new floor mats.

I took it to the body shop, and $350 later, I had the dent fixed. Net $330 loss for some lady's stupid driving compounded with my ignorance.
 
I still cannot believe I fell for the worst "gas money" story ever and feel like an idiot.

About 4 years ago while living in Dallas, a guy came to my front door asking if he had any gas money to get back to Lufkin. Being that I was born in Lufkin, I was definitely going to help a fellow Panther. I told this guy to wait at the door while I got my wallet. I gave him five bucks and wished him luck.

I closed the door feeling really good about the charity work I just did. I sat down and started to think about how weird that was and after five minutes I ran out the door to only to find my Pathfinder with all the doors open. My entire CD collection and ice hockey equipment had been removed. I called the police and jumped in the car to start looking for these guys. I was actually still naive enough and started to head for Lufkin.

Of course the CD's can't be covered by insurance and the hockey equipment was valued at about $1000; the same as my premium. And the police told me they would get right on it. I still haven't heard back from them.
 
I had 2 acquaintances at different times try to recruit me into a pyramid scheme. Haven't spoken to them since. I don't like the feeling of being treated like a fool. It's your problem you got suckered into a pyramid scheme, don't try to screw me over, too.
 
I've been to 3 F'n Amway meetings in my life. All were invites to go over to some sort of party at a friend of a friends house. When I got there a mumbo jumbo meeting would start which would lead into an Amway presentation. I never bought into it so I guess it really wasnt a scam, but they are really shady in hiow they rope people into their schemes.
 
OK just got a good one. Typical paypal scam where they send you an e-mail telling you that someone has used your card on some obscure website and have charged a bunch of money, but that the site has marked it as "pending", so you need to click on the "cancel this payment" link to take care of it.

Well I already knew how to go in and look at the html source and see if it's a fake to begin with, but then i noticed that in the return e-mail, they had spelled paypal "PayPaI" with the l being a capital i. In the name of the sender and in the e-mail address itself.

Got to love sloppy hackers!
 
I had a girlfriend whose grandmother collected Kirby vacuum cleaners. When I and the GF broke up, the granny graciously sent me one of her Kirbys (a 1960s vintage, my best guess) as a sort of "going away" gift.

We have sat through sales pitches for DustQueen and Rainbow cannister vacuums (as a favor to church friends whose son/nephew/whatever was selling them). Didn't buy one, ever. I later told a colleague about these sales pitches and he nearly hyperventilated from laughing so hard. His dad runs a janitorial supply outfit, and he told me that if you should never, ever spend more than $300 on a vacuum cleaner.
 
change con as a temp cashier
architecture school and subsequent professional society membership
ebay motors vehicle purchase protection
lynk credit card processing

I’m tempted to also include anything governmental too.
 
I got scammed my freshman year in Jester signing up for a delivery service for the houston chronicle.

It was funny to me, and I thought they did a good job with it- I can always appreciate a good scam, even if it's pulled on me.
 
In the late 80s, not long after college graduation, I was living in Fort Smith, AR.

Used to be a fan of Bachman Turner Overdrive. One day the big local FM/rock station announced they had none other than Randy Bachman in the studios, there to raise money for charity. He stayed with them a couple of days, and in addition to being well treated he took some phone calls, mine included.

I got to ask one question: "Hey, whatever happened to your bandmate Blair Thornton?"

Randy's answer: "He's still rockin', man...he's still rockin'."

A couple of days later he skipped out of town with a local hotel and limousine service holding a bag of bills. When he was apprehended a couple days later, turns out he was really a man named Fred Bowman, a Michigan prison escapee. They had him on local TV news before he walked...he really DID look like Randy Bachman...or maybe Fred Turner.

(Thought it was pretty funny in some ways how folks like me fell for the guy's spiel, but the charity he was supposedly in town for was a children's charity and the director was understandably upset. Happy ending to the story, though...a few weeks later the REAL Randy Bachman, having learned of the scam, showed up in Fort Smith for a true appearance for a fundraiser for the charity.)
 
Years ago we were living in a not-so-great neighborhood. At 2:00 AM our doorbell rang and through the door (I wouldn't let my husband open the door) he told us he had run out of gas and needed $10. Said he'd be right back with the money as he had some at home. When I said I'd call the police for him, he said no- if we needed some collateral he had a shotgun with him. Right - that really made me want to open the door (thank God for idiot crooks.) When I again said we'd call the police to come help him he said never mind and left - miraculously his car started. VERY glad I didn't open the door!
 
I suppose I got scammed by accepting the job I'm at now. What they told me on my interview was total ********.
 
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