Woman Buys Wooden iPad

[Acidwell]

A useless plank with an apple logo on it? Thats pretty much an offical apple product, You see the logo is worth 180 euro itself.

 

[razer17]

Why exactly is this news? This sort of con is pretty old school, and I should imagine it happens everyday.

 

[Calico93]

Well.. someone had to.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

I bet when the police find that guy they are going to be like
"THIS IS SPARTANBURG!" and kick him down a huge hole in the middle of the city...

owait, wrong sparta...

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I mean, who wants an overpriced novelty like the iPad anyway?

Would make a nice cutting board.

OT: Don't really know if "deserved" is the word i'd use, just not very bright.

Sure, i've bought a mystery box before. Boxes that don't cost more than a couple bucks since it's mostly just random, useless things in them, but it's been when they were sold for good causes, so...

Buying a mystery box in a parking lot for 180 dollars is basically what she did and that just symbols great stupidity.

 

[MarcusD357]

Spartanburg.. Sounds like an awesome place to live :L

OT: She's probably better off with the wooden version, at least it's a little more hardy. The iPad's only good for carrying drinks on anyway, it's really just a glorified tray.

 

[the_green_dragon]

Unfortunately people buy counterfeit goods all the time, or succumb to other scams that are too good to be true. If it didn't work, people wouldn't constantly try such outrageously obvious swindles like this, but it has worked and will continue to work.

Kind of like how there were thousands of counterfeit PAX Prime badges sold to folks this last weekend, by guys standing out in the street, right in front of the convention center, for a show that had been sold out for months.

Wouldn't everyone going to PAX already have their ticket?

 

[LogicNProportion]

I was surprised...until I saw the words 'South Carolina.'

And then EVERYTHING became clear.

...With that said...

*Headdesk*

 

[mattaui]

Unfortunately people buy counterfeit goods all the time, or succumb to other scams that are too good to be true. If it didn't work, people wouldn't constantly try such outrageously obvious swindles like this, but it has worked and will continue to work.

Kind of like how there were thousands of counterfeit PAX Prime badges sold to folks this last weekend, by guys standing out in the street, right in front of the convention center, for a show that had been sold out for months.

Wouldn't everyone going to PAX already have their ticket?

I wouldn't think many people would've flown in from out of town without having a ticket, no, but that still leaves plenty of people in Seattle and the surrounding cities that might have wanted to go but missed being able to buy their tickets before they sold out. Or people who only had one day badges and wanted to stick around.

 

[LadyMint]

Here's my curious question. Why didn't she ask to see it? The only answer I can come up with is that they may have had a real/realistic-looking iPad as a demo piece, then gave her the fake one in the envelope. Y'know, like Snow White's evil stepmother taking a bite of a healthy apple to convince her that the other side wasn't poisoned. It's not an uncommon thing to do and if I really wanted to scam someone from a parking lot, that's probably what I'd use.

I also wonder if this is the first time she bought something from someone in a "van in the parking lot" situation. Sometimes they do have real goods, they just happen to have fallen off the back of a truck.

Anyway. Feel bad for the woman. Still, I hope she learned a lesson from this.

 

[ascorbius]

So she buys a wooden iPad and the first time she realizes her mistake is when it wooden start..

She was also told that Angry Birds was pre-installed. She opened the box and they pecked at her face.



Sorry, I'll get my coat.

 

[Mullahgrrl]

iPads are great, its like an iPhone, only bigger and you don't have to talk to people.

 

[masticina]

Well she has a nice looking piece of wood now hasn't she. I say fitting

But yeah to be fair who is going to buy something in the parking lot? Or even on an event? I got a friend who did got a trucker event [and now that friend isn't me! I am not into trucks even!] and did buy a supposed "golden" arm band.

Lets just say I don't expect it is.

 

[Username Redacted]

Saying she deserved what she got is pretty well the same argument as saying so-and-so deserved to have their car stolen because they forgot to lock the door, or to have their house ripped off because they took off for the weekend. Seriously....is she stupid? Yeah. Did she deserve this? No one does, and those jackasses who are ripping off idiots are still the real problem here, no matter how amusing her plight is.

Not at all. This would be more like putting a sign above your car in bright neon lights advertising that the doors aren't locked and that the keys have been left in the ignition or putting a giant sign on the front lawn with the dates that the homeowners plan to be away for. That's what it would take for a car theft or home invasion victim to rival this woman's idiocy.

Caveat emptor.

 

[DTWolfwood]

wait who doesn't check the merchandise before paying?! especially those back alley deals?!

I bought a pretty expensive looking watch for $5 bucks with those deals! Watch still works and looks expensive! XD

 

[Dafttechno]

I was surprised...until I saw the words 'South Carolina.'

And then EVERYTHING became clear.

...With that said...

*Headdesk*

I feel very ashamed to live in South Carolina right now. Even though, A: I wouldn't have been stupid enough to fall for it, and B: I wouldn't buy the overpriced gimmick that is the ipad any way.

 

[DexterNorgam]

How is this news? People spend ridiculous money to have apple logos all the time.

 

[Callate]

Sometimes, getting conned is the only way you get smarter about these things.

It's hard to feel huge amounts of sympathy, though. On the very slight chance that they were actually offering her something resembling a very popular piece of electronics for less than half its retail price, the product offered would almost have to be either counterfeit or stolen. Yet she happily ponied up $180, presumably in cash. I just wonder if she happened to have $180 on her or actually went to a bank or ATM, in which she had extra time to think about what it was she was doing and an extra step to make her folly/morally questionable decision that much more deliberate.