Scams you've encountered

[The Floating Nose]

Only one that I distinctly remember (namely because I fell for it...)

In college, I received a call from this membership club thingy. They were doing test runs of their service by offering two free magazine subscriptions of the person's choice to try out the club...

Fuck me. This "money saving club" charges you $150 per month to be part of it (which you became part of with this "free" magazine subscription). I have no fucking clue how they got my account information since I never gave it to them but all of a sudden my account was losing money. Attempted to cancel....HA! I STILL might have a fucking membership since I never found a way to cancel it.

Now in full panic mode, I do something real drastic: I shut down my bank account. SUCK ON THAT MEMBERSHIP PEOPLE!!!!

So I lost $150 and had to shut down a bank account. Lesson learned: If it's free, assume there's a catch.

WOW ! That fucking sucks ! Did you lose ALL your money when you sutdown your bank account or you can have it back if you create another bank acoount ?

For me the biggest scam that i fell victim for was the "Get Xbox Live GOLD for a month for 2$ only !" When i saw this i was like "OH gee ! What a deal, it's probably to give a chance to those who don't have gold, a chance to play for a while for cheap !" WRONG !!!! Right when the konth ends, there's some kind of shit where they automatically renew your xbox live gold memebership. Which means that every month or 2 they take money from your credit card WITHOUT TELLING YOU ! So what i have to do was call "Microsoft Canada HQ" for it do be disabled. It's probably in the contract that you "agree" to when you pay your 2 dollars for the gold membership...but who seriously reads those contracts ?

A second time, was a guy who was offering me 2 scraps on TF2 for my Genuine AWPer Hand. Telling me that that's what it was worth, KISS. MY. ASS. Im not an idiot, i know that a G.AWPer hand is worth 1.5 to 2 keys.

 

[ParadiseOnceLost]

So far I have gotten two text messages in the past month from someone claiming to be the Best Buy reward zone, or some other grammatically iffy name, and they say I have either won some sort of contest or have been randomly chosen to get a $1000 gift certificate. The texts claim that I have to go on some suspicious website and give them my information. It is funny seeing how I have been a reward zone member since 2009 and have never gotten a single dime from them.

 

[laggyteabag]

When I was in Rome on holiday in 2010, myself and my parents were walking to the Colosseum when a man driving a 2-door hired Fiat pulled up next to us, he said that he was none other than Giorgio Armani and he wanted to sell us a "next-season" jacket for the tiny price of 1500? because he wanted to buy fuel. He even pulled out a few covers of a magazine with pictures of him on the front posing as Giorgio Armani. Now, even if it was him, why was he in a 2-door Fiat hire care, and why was he even DRIVING in the first place?

There is also the daily E-mail from "Blizzard" saying that "my" Diablo-3 account is "suspicious". Fun-fact: I don't own Diablo-3.

Once my friend got a call from "Windows" saying that they needed to scan his computer, he then confirmed that they were from "Windows" and not Microsoft and then they hung up.

 

[D-Soul]

well I can name a few I ran into and I dunno I might got ninja'd on some but here we go

1. Chicks on dating sites that seem they are really into but there are not and they want you to go to some sex cam website I think this youtube video sums it up perfectly


2. Back in middle school I clicked on the add you seem all the time that say "do "X" action to win a free "Y"!" for me it was a PlayStation 3 before it was even ready to hit the shelves and I got a bunch of crap sent to my house like Credit Cards, winning the Mexican lottery and since I my sister had a phone, I had telemarkers constantly calling her and asking for me. Looking back I regret waiting to buy a PS3 which I have now but I don't regret making my sister phone blow up every day looking for me....

3. Spam Folder. Viagra, Single But Lonely(Don't ask me about this, it's more of an conundrum if you ask me), eHarmony, you name it is most likely in my E-mail spam folder.

 

[tippy2k2]

WOW ! That fucking sucks ! Did you lose ALL your money when you sutdown your bank account or you can have it back if you create another bank acoount ?

The $150 was lost to the abyss but I did get to keep everything I had in the account (I just moved accounts).

Now in full panic mode, I do something real drastic: I shut down my bank account. SUCK ON THAT MEMBERSHIP PEOPLE!!!!

So I lost $150 and had to shut down a bank account. Lesson learned: If it's free, assume there's a catch.

you should have contacted the bank manager. they hate scammers like these and would verly likely gotten your money back, canceled the subscription and depending on mood maybe even provided you with enough evidence to sue them.

Funny enough I did that. Unfortunately, while incredibly sleazy and sneaky, what the company does is technically legal (or at least it was seven years ago when it happened). My own vigilance of checking my bank account each month is the only thing that saved me from paying more. Funny enough, my bank told me they would not shut down and transfer my money due to the scam reason (since it's not "technically" a scam and is a service I "agreed" to pay for)...

I just came back the next day and told them my debit card was stolen and I needed a new account

 

[Dethenger]

In December, I got a virus that completely fucked my computer. If I was connected to the internet, it would open up an unclosable window claiming to be a block set up by the FBI. According to the window, the FBI found out I had been secretly gambling, viewing and distributing child pornography, and I think consorting with terrorists.
Apparently, I was to believe that the Feds would investigate further unless I paid a fine of $200, and that I was supposed to pay this fine by way of a MoneyPak.

So yeah, I obviously wasn't in any real trouble, but it did fuck my computer. Never was able to get rid of the thing.

Had this one with a European spin, it was from the "Departament of Cibercrime", a misspelt organsiation where day-to-day "cibercime" law enforcement activities are mildly hampered by the place not existing. Same kiddie porn, gambling (not illegal in the UK) claims but with extra piracy claims. Nightmare to get rid of. Only virus I have got in roughly 20 years of PC gaming. Ended up using a restore point to sort it out, fairly tech savvy but the guides to removal on the internet kept referring to files I didn't have!

I know! God, I spent like an hour trying to do a Recovery Disk thing, after two days of devoting all my time to trying to fix the ************. After the Recovery Disk, which was supposed to be an end-all fucking nuclear option, didn't work, I just decided to switch full time to the laptop I used to look up guides. It's a lot more powerful, so I wasn't really losing anything, and I had luckily already transferred most of my important things over. Turns out, I can even go on to the computer and grab files if I really need to, like I said it's only blocked if I'm connected to the internet. So that at least was lucky.

 

[FoolKiller]

I love window viruses. Everytime I get that call, I ask them which window? Main one? Then I take the phone with me and get the paper towels and Lysol to clear the viruses off of the window.

If they ask me to login to windows I tell them that I don't want a log in any part of my home and don't want broken glass everywhere.

 

[LadyTiamat]

snip

This also happened to me. Twice. Although the second time it was just plain funny that they called me 30 minutes after sending off my CV to them, and saying they read it the day before and was really impressed. First time alarm bells rung from a)poor office space (a bare room with some posters up) b) over zealous staff - the team meeting was just like a group of fans cheering on their fav team, not something you expect from door to door sales and it was just seemed an act) and c) some serious misspelling on the material they game me

However there are loads of 'marketing' companies that try to drag in people to do door to door sales through misleading advertising, lying about the opportunities , pyramid scheme-like pay structure. Clear signs of a false company website would be a poor website with little content on what they do and over-emphasis and blogs that do not use original content but borrow from other news sites.

 

[Launcelot111]

I did an interview one time with some hilariously dubious insurance company just to get some interview experience. Their pitch was that you are given leads of people who want the insurance, you go to their house and show them a couple spreadsheets and they will immediately be swayed to buy the crap you sell, and with hard work, you will make $200,000 a year. In reality, you go to the house of poor steelworkers who were convinced to give out their information under false pretenses and who don't want your shitty product, and on top of that, you are paying for gas, your company cell phone, overnight stays, and all sorts of "mandatory" accreditation classes. Once you do that, you are then to give like 70% of what you have left to your boss for providing you with the "leads."

I didn't learn all this until after the interview, but I walked out of the video presentation after I was no longer able to count the violations of basic economic principles their business model violated on my fingers. But anyway, the moral is that the old adage is very true: If it sounds too good to be true...

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

The only proper one was the fake virus alerts, event log bullshit where they'd point out normal system errors as threats and remotely mine your computer for information whilst pretending to fix it - you know, Comantra. Thankfully I had the sense to look it up before they had me install anything on my computer.

Other than that, the regular spam emails (I replied to one of the Prince of Nigeria ones with "Well what a coincidence, I'm the King of Australia and I have a similar problem, maybe we can help each other out"), but one was actually creative in that the guy created the account with his name as "Yahoo!" "Alerts", so with the stupidity of displaying actual names instead of email addresses, it showed as coming from Yahoo! Alerts but when I scrolled over the bubble it was something else. The actual email was beyond stupid though, apparently they were RUNNING OUT OF NAMES FOR EMAILS so they asked for confirmation of account activity by requesting a reply with your password. But points for trying.

 

[Gormech]

99% of the people in a pickup truck pulling into my driveway and trying to sell some meat/sandwiches saying that it's on sale because it's the last of the batch and they can't just let it go to waste. Same story EVERY SINGLE TIME.

 

[2fish]

I had a guy from India call me telling me that the ?United States government? had ?okayed? my loan and I just had to confirm my info to get me money. I mean come on at least say what department of the "United States government". I promptly started to sell him scammers insurance. I just needed to confirm some of his bank details and pin numbers. Prick hung up on me.

 

[Black Reaper]

I have TWO final notifications that i was sued for 2500$ for trying to sell my runescape account
I feel like Captain Obvious for saying this,but who the fuck sends TWO final notifications!?

 

[TakeyB0y2]

99% of the people in a pickup truck pulling into my driveway and trying to sell some meat/sandwiches saying that it's on sale because it's the last of the batch and they can't just let it go to waste. Same story EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Wh... WHAT?! Who goes door-to-door selling meat sandwiches, of all things!?

OT: I keep getting calls from this one company who keeps telling me I've won a contest. I've never sat through an entire call so I don't know what it is they want from me or want me to do. Googling their number confirmed to me it was a scam though.

It's pretty obvious seeing as how most contests will move on to the runner up or do another draw if the winner proves difficult to get a hold of or doesn't accept their prize. But with me they've been constantly calling for the last few months, so either I'm the only person who ever entered in this contest (oh yeah, did I mention I never entered one?) or, it's a scam.

 

[Strazdas]

I just came back the next day and told them my debit card was stolen and I needed a new account

Your dwebit card is not your account. they can block the old card, issue new one and your account remains the same. the ONLY connection debit card has to bank account is that it cna acess its funs via ATMs or whne you pay in shop. thats it. you dont carry your bank account in your purse, you merely carry a key to the box.

but thats beside the point, sucks to hear the manager was such an ass.

snip

please dont bring this ignorance in here. we talk about scams here, not about gun lunacy.

I wonder how many people said religion on here and how many will...

i read the whole thread, and actually only one or two people mentioned it. people seem to consider scams as something different.

WOW ! That fucking sucks ! Did you lose ALL your money when you sutdown your bank account or you can have it back if you create another bank acoount ?

i do hope your joking. do you honestly believe you will somehow loose money if you decide to shut down your account just because?

I know! God, I spent like an hour trying to do a Recovery Disk thing, after two days of devoting all my time to trying to fix the ************. After the Recovery Disk, which was supposed to be an end-all fucking nuclear option, didn't work, I just decided to switch full time to the laptop I used to look up guides. It's a lot more powerful, so I wasn't really losing anything, and I had luckily already transferred most of my important things over. Turns out, I can even go on to the computer and grab files if I really need to, like I said it's only blocked if I'm connected to the internet. So that at least was lucky.

why not jsut move important files and formatting? that will get rid of anything. recovery disk is far from end-all option. its a first step mild-bandage option when fighting viruses.

I love window viruses. Everytime I get that call, I ask them which window? Main one? Then I take the phone with me and get the paper towels and Lysol to clear the viruses off of the window.

If they ask me to login to windows I tell them that I don't want a log in any part of my home and don't want broken glass everywhere.

thats actually awesome. id try to tell you you do need logs in your windows because they would tell you stories about twin peaks. and you wouln't even need a loglady to translate.

apparently they were RUNNING OUT OF NAMES FOR EMAILS so they asked for confirmation of account activity by requesting a reply with your password. But points for trying.

i for one completely get furiuos when my account name is "taken" by some guy that used it for 1 single post and left it 4 years ago. if i was a god first thing i would do is delete those inactive accounts and let people register with normal names isntead of "name456numberscausenameistakenorstupid". i got huge respect for companies that remove old inactive accounts, like Inbox.
ofc they do that automatically, but the point is there.

 

[Queen Michael]

snip

...that's not what this thread is about, and I'm pretty sure you know that. Please keep the gun control rants to the threads that are actually about gun control.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Recently a friend went to a job interview and she was told that she had to work on the phones for 4 hours or so as part of the job interview. For no money. This i think is a scam.

 

[Licourtrix]

I was selling a chair or something on Craigslist and got an interested party. He then claimed that he accidentally mailed me a $2000 dollar check and if I would cash it for him and send him 1000 dollars I could keep the rest. I guess they mail you fake checks and get you to cash them for. Apparently this is a pretty popular scam for morons.

how do you cash a fake check? wouldnt the bank just tell you to FO and even call the police on you if you tried?

My brother fell for a couple of these (Desperate for money for more drugs.) You get a real looking (honestly, as far as forgeries go they were pretty good) check that some banks will cash no problem. Until about 5-10 days later when the forged check is discovered and they ask for that money back, plus fees for cashing a forged check. Ideally a bank can tell in a few minutes if a check is forged but the 3 he found that cashed it didn't, after all they're getting the money one way or another. He left here (with me threatening to kill him for stealing everything not bolted down!) 6000 dollars in debt to 3 local banks (and after having conned the bank into believing his drivers license being my dad's was a "honest mistake" on the part of the DMV.

I've run into the common "windows PC" scam a dozen times. They've called my cell phone, the landline phone our whole family shares, my mom's cell phone, and my dad's cell phone. I had a problem when said brother was staying here (he believed it, how funny is that? Man runs confidence schemes to fuel his drug habit and still fell for a indian man going "your computer has virus, it is windows system32 virus!") when he gave them access to my dad's computer. Usually I give them the run-around saying I cannot connect to their site, I don't know what password to use since my accounts always seem to end up getting stolen, etc. Once I said "but which computer, we have 4!" the woman on the other end actually said..."maybe...all are infect?" The "bapa booey bapa booey" line works fantastically too, especially if you do it in a drunken "bro" impression.

The worst are the diploma mills. I gave my school permission to give out my name, address and phone number to interested colleges and of course the military six years ago. I got 4 pamphlets from the military, 2 pamphlets from local colleges, and to this day get a weekly flier from a unaccredited school that offers courses that will give me nothing but a fake diploma.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I keep getting an e-mail from the 'post office' that says my package can't be delivered and I should contact them back. It's amazing how the post office got my e-mail address despite that not being part of my posting information and thus inaccessible to them.

 

[Hexenwolf]

Having recently graduated High School and moved onto college, I've encountered a couple (convincing at first glance) scams. Both of them promise success with hard work, but ultimately you end up paying.

Shortly after graduating High School, I got a letter in the mail from "Vector International" or something like that. This will probably seem familiar to a lot of people. I was excited at first by the prospect that finding work could be that easy, but after reading I got the feeling of "too good to be true". I immediately looked them up on line and everything I found said that they were a scam.
For those not familiar with the proccess: Vector is a knife supply company. You have to buy a demo set (or at least you used to have to) which sets you back over a hundred bucks. From there you have to go door to door, or call people.
I actually knew a couple people who ended up doing it. One of them told me her boss was a total ass, and you only get paid if you can arrange presentations or make sales.

That's not a scam, that's called working for commission.