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Regarding for-profit schools: http://www.npr.org/2015/11/12/455749456/have-we-lost-a-constitutional-right-in-the-fine-print The story is about binding arbitration but includes this about a for-profit school: quote:Tuition was about $24,000 a year. And they said, that when they enrolled, they were promised that their education would result in jobs at the end of - when they graduated. But when they actually enrolled in the school after taking out these loans, which were a big burden for them, they first of all, were alarmed at the quality of the education. So they said the classrooms despite, you know, having paid that $24,000 a year, they said they often arrived in classrooms to find that the mannequins - so the anatomical mannequins that they used to practice the surgical procedures. The mannequins would often be missing crucial organs. So in place of where a kidney should be, or a liver, they found an empty hole. And some of the more enterprising instructors tried to improvise. And one of them knitted, at home out of felt, organs to put in place of those. And sometimes they had to use photocopied pieces of paper that had the tools on them instead of the actual instruments. So they, you know, they didn't have that tactile ability.
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Feb 29, 2016 06:50
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I was speaking with someone who's son had gone through some sort of poo poo college that guaranteed employment after 1 year or else you get your tuition back. He was unemployed after one year and he did not get his tuition back.
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Feb 29, 2016 10:36
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Professor Shark posted:I was speaking with someone who's son had gone through some sort of poo poo college that guaranteed employment after 1 year or else you get your tuition back. He was unemployed after one year and he did not get his tuition back. Yeah schools that do that usually have some clause somewhere to weasel out of it. Oh well did you apply to literally every job in existence? No? Welp, guess you didn't look hard enough, gently caress you.
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Feb 29, 2016 20:10
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A couple years back I was driving home from work and pulled off at a gas station to refill my tank. This couple, guy and girl, see me in my office clothes and probably assumed I had money for them. Just as I open the door the guy runs up and places himself on the other side, not allowing me to open it further than half a foot. Then they both start shouting contradictory statements at me nonstop. "We're not from here we're lost!" "We live right down the street!" "We're starving can you please help?" "We just ate at El Pollo Loco!" etc., etc. This goes on for several minutes, my brain is a bit fuzzy from working all day and having this nonsense sprung on me so I just continue looking at them without saying anything. The guy is asking for gas money at this point, and trying to shove his iPhone in my hand while saying that if I think he's lying I can hold on to his iPhone until he pays me back (which I'm sure he'd locate using the app and then extort me into paying him to not call the police, if I had taken it). So alarm bells are going off in my head and there's plenty of gas stations left on my way home. So I tell them to call 411 and ask for a free gallon of gas and drive off.
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Feb 29, 2016 21:54
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Junkie's aren't the best masterminds
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Feb 29, 2016 22:48
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Shingouryu posted:Working IT at a medical office I get a call at least once a year from someone claiming to be our printer service company asking for our printer model number and other information. From what I understand, if you give it to them they ship your office hugely upmarked ink/toner, and then try to justify you paying for it since you gave them the model number. I usually just reply "That's strange, we're leasing it from xxx and have a service plan with them" which causes them to immediately hang up. Our office has gotten the printer service company call a couple of times. I always wondered what exactly their endgame was, since they never got that far. Our company has all of 4 employees including the owner and our printer service process is "whoever has time after work to stop by Office Depot picks up some more ink", so those conversations always went off script very quickly. They usually get really, really flustered too, I've never had one smart enough to hang up when they get called out. My favorite was the time I got a version of that call asking specifically about our copier, at a time when we had no copier in the office (not even a multifunction printer.) He spent five minutes repeating himself in disbelief that our company could exist without a copy machine before declaring that our printer that can't make copies counted as a copy machine, then I told him we weren't interested and hung up.
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Feb 29, 2016 23:31
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Gabriel Pope posted:Our office has gotten the printer service company call a couple of times. I always wondered what exactly their endgame was, since they never got that far. Our company has all of 4 employees including the owner and our printer service process is "whoever has time after work to stop by Office Depot picks up some more ink", so those conversations always went off script very quickly. They usually get really, really flustered too, I've never had one smart enough to hang up when they get called out. Never was a phone scammer exactly but I was a telemarketer and that job basically tells you to keep badgering people until they hang up. We were expected to get at least five "no" answers before we were allowed to even consider ending the calls ourselves. The reason is that people are just so incredibly conditioned to say "no" repeatedly that you had to keep pitching to them over and over before they'd even consider what you were selling. And it was ultimately true. At the time I was selling long distance phone service and the deals I had ready were actually quite good, some of the cheapest out there. It even came with a free month! No catch, just sign up, switch your carrier, get a free month, and then cheaper rates. Even then people were so incredibly hostile about it. Then cell phones happened and...welp. Even so we were basically instructed to badger people until they hung up on us and never, ever end the call ourselves. I figure scammers were told to be even more aggressive. I think the end game is probably to convince you to sign up for some sort of delivery that's over-priced or regular or something.
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Mar 1, 2016 02:44
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Draxamus posted:I'm in Philly, so I've had some of these people come knocking. When you ask who it is, they'll say "power company" to make you think it's your legit power company. So before you even open the door, ask something unambigous like WHICH POWER COMPANY DO YOU REPRESENT My grandmother has been targeted by these electrical middle-man scam a few times, via the phone. The one that called when I happened to be there had the gall to claim they were a government program that gave discounts on power to senior citizens. I think they switched to door-to-door because the phone version required them to mail something to you to sign.
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Mar 1, 2016 15:21
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I don't know about the rest of you, but the prevalence of scammers/proselytizers in my area (semi-urban) has made ignorance my default response to a door knock. Almost 10/10 times I'll then hear the next door down getting knocked, and so forth down the block. It's sad in a way, though my perspective on how things were in "olden times" is probably rose-tinted- I'm sure there were door-to-door scammers in Leave it to Beaver times.
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Mar 1, 2016 19:26
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I had a recent scam attempt a few months ago that I had not heard of before. I had a car for sale on Craig's list and after the usual low ball offers and requests for trades I had a message from someone who said they loved the car and would pay the also my price (red flag). The stipulation was that I follow the link she sent to me an get a car fax from a not car fax. I checked the Isp and it was less than a month old and her number was half the country away from me. I offered her the vin number so she could buy her own car fax if she was that worried about it but the reply I got was that she was too scared because she didn't own the car. I told her that is my only offer and if she did it I would take it off the cost of the car. She said the only way was to go this shady website and email her back the info. A little googling and I found that they get a commission on every fake car fax sold. This was a new one to me.
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Mar 1, 2016 19:29
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Some years ago my phone number got onto a list sold around to credit card scammers. I get robocalls offering to lower my credit card rates. I figured they were just trying to steal my credit card information, but apparently some of them do actually sign you up for an awful debt consolidation plan. The FTC advises you to never press 1 like the recorded message says. Before I knew that, I would occasionally do it and mess with the operator or try to get some information. The most illuminating question was "What company do you work for?" -- four times out of five they would hang up instantly, and the last one said he worked for "Credit Services" or something and wouldn't give an address or main phone. I also get occasional calls from people impersonating police or the IRS, threatening me with vague legal action if I don't call back. I put the "disconnected" SIT tones in my voicemail message, I block the numbers on my phone, and report most of them to the FTC or FBI as appropriate. I don't know if that actually helps but the calls stop for a while sometimes. It's been over a month since the last time I was bothered.
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Mar 1, 2016 20:35
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Jared592 posted:I don't know about the rest of you, but the prevalence of scammers/proselytizers in my area (semi-urban) has made ignorance my default response to a door knock. Almost 10/10 times I'll then hear the next door down getting knocked, and so forth down the block. It's sad in a way, though my perspective on how things were in "olden times" is probably rose-tinted- I'm sure there were door-to-door scammers in Leave it to Beaver times. I got some people at the front door claiming to be from the tax office. I was like, the tax office doesn't send out guys to doorstep at random, so I told them I wasn't going to let them in. They seemed really aggressive at trying to push past me to get in. Now I have black marks on my credit report because they really were tax men.
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Mar 1, 2016 21:24
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Jared592 posted:I don't know about the rest of you, but the prevalence of scammers/proselytizers in my area (semi-urban) has made ignorance my default response to a door knock. Almost 10/10 times I'll then hear the next door down getting knocked, and so forth down the block. It's sad in a way, though my perspective on how things were in "olden times" is probably rose-tinted- I'm sure there were door-to-door scammers in Leave it to Beaver times. There have been scammers as long as people to be scammed have existed. A major difference is that a gently caress load of economic deregulation has happened in the past 60 years as well as sabotaging of every regulatory agency's ability to do anything at all. There are places that make money doing things that were literally illegal 20 years ago.
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Mar 1, 2016 22:47
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Jared592 posted:I don't know about the rest of you, but the prevalence of scammers/proselytizers in my area (semi-urban) has made ignorance my default response to a door knock. Almost 10/10 times I'll then hear the next door down getting knocked, and so forth down the block. It's sad in a way, though my perspective on how things were in "olden times" is probably rose-tinted- I'm sure there were door-to-door scammers in Leave it to Beaver times. ToxicSlurpee posted:There have been scammers as long as people to be scammed have existed. A major difference is that a gently caress load of economic deregulation has happened in the past 60 years as well as sabotaging of every regulatory agency's ability to do anything at all. There are places that make money doing things that were literally illegal 20 years ago. ToxicSlurpee is correct. A nice jumping off point would be to look at the amount of fake religious relics (most of them) that were floating around in medieval times. Hell, that would probably make for an interesting topic in the 'medieval history' thread. A jumping off point into that area would be the Shroud of Turin.
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Mar 2, 2016 06:39
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Buried alive posted:ToxicSlurpee is correct. A nice jumping off point would be to look at the amount of fake religious relics (most of them) that were floating around in medieval times. Hell, that would probably make for an interesting topic in the 'medieval history' thread. A jumping off point into that area would be the Shroud of Turin. Supposed fragments of the cross Jesus was crucified on were a big deal then, and even 500 years ago there were people remarking on the prevalence of fakes. quote:"There is no abbey so poor as not to have a specimen. In some places there are large fragments, as at the Holy Chapel in Paris, at Poitiers, and at Rome, where a good-sized crucifix is said to have been made of it. In brief, if all the pieces that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load. Yet the Gospel testifies that a single man was able to carry it."
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Mar 3, 2016 01:38
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My state has a HUGE amount of unclaimed property and everyone is freaking out. This thread has made me loving paranoid about the several hundos I'm due.
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Mar 3, 2016 03:56
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ToxicSlurpee posted:There have been scammers as long as people to be scammed have existed. A major difference is that a gently caress load of economic deregulation has happened in the past 60 years as well as sabotaging of every regulatory agency's ability to do anything at all. There are places that make money doing things that were literally illegal 20 years ago. Seems like it would have been worse if anything. Back then there were also actual legit door to door salesmen; maybe you didn't need what they were selling and they'd try to push it, but it wasn't an outright scam. (Encyclopedias come to mind, but I'm sure there was other stuff too.) Today, I can pretty much assume anyone who comes to my door trying to sell me something is trying to scam me, back in the 50s someone coming to your door unannounced wasn't an immediate tipoff.
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Mar 3, 2016 06:28
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Who could forget the biggest scam of all? Comcast. They sign you up for a "deal" then gradually escalate your payments until you one day realize that your loving bill is $165. When you call them, you're on hold for an hour, dealing with a guy named "Steve" who somehow has a very thick Indian accent, then routed through several different departments where you're offered another "deal". Wash, rinse, repeat. Half the time your call is dropped entirely between transfers and you have to call back and go through the whole process again. There's no record of the previous call or anything you changed, ordered or cancelled. Somehow, 2 months later, your bill always winds up exactly where it was when you tried to pare it down and weed out the services you don't want. If you tell them you ONLY want internet and basic cable, somehow that costs MORE than extended cable, land line and internet. This is the biggest communications company in the world and they willfully and intentionally flat out suck at communicating. It's genuinely incredible to witness. And you have no recourse because they hardly have any competition. What I'm saying is "gently caress Comcast"
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Mar 4, 2016 00:34
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BiggerBoat posted:Who could forget the biggest scam of all? When I switched from century link (had OK customer service) the prices from comcast were better for better speeds, the guy setting up the service said I had no data caps Months later I managed around $140 in overages because my parents watched Netflix nonstop
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Mar 4, 2016 02:00
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Speaking of telecom/TV/Internet scams, here in the frozen wastes of Canada our providers were told to create $25 "Skinny" packages The providers created lovely packages with tonnes of fees that make them expensive, everyone's sort of waiting to see if they'll be punished 
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Mar 4, 2016 02:14
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In the UK if you're called on a landline and hang up it doesn't actually terminate the call. The call is only terminated when the caller hangs up. This has lead to a scam where victims are called by the police/their bank, being told that illegal activity on their account has been detected, and they need to phone their banks fraud line now. The victim then hangs up and the scammer waits on the line. The victim makes a new call using the actual number they know is for their bank, the scammer hears a bunch of dial tones over the line, and then pretends to be a different person and gets the victim to give them account info. The scammer also frequently plays fake dial tones and ring tones to further fool the victim that their phone is working normally. Its effective, because quite often the natural response for people who are very suspicious of scams is to hang up, and call the number thats been provided previously by their actual bank. Fatty fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Mar 4, 2016 |
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Mar 4, 2016 02:58
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Do the UK scammers also pretend to be about 5 layers of a menu maze? Because I wouldn't believe it if I got through to an actual person at my bank straightaway.
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Mar 4, 2016 03:03
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Fatty posted:In the UK if you're called on a landline and hang up it doesn't actually terminate the call. The call is only terminated when the caller hangs up. This has lead to a scam where victims are called by the police/their bank, being told that illegal activity on their account has been detected, and they need to phone their banks fraud line now. The victim then hangs up and the scammer waits on the line. The victim makes a new call using the actual number they know is for their bank, the scammer hears a bunch of dial tones over the line, and then pretends to be a different person and gets the victim to give them account info. The scammer also frequently plays fake dial tones and ring tones to further fool the victim that their phone is working normally. The "courier" sent to pick up the old, compromised card takes this one to the next level I say. Guy on the phone has the mark push tones for their old PIN and then a new one. Now they have a physical card and PIN, sucker!
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Mar 4, 2016 07:10
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BiggerBoat posted:Who could forget the biggest scam of all? Find out who the DSL/FIOS company in your area is, name is enough. Once your first year deal expires (you signed up under a promo right?), call Comcast and tell them the bill is too high and you're cancelling for [DSL/FIOS company] and watch as you get another one year promo. Rinse and repeat. E: Also support things like Google Fiber and municipal broadband. Google Fiber got some permits to use right of way in Portland then within a month the speed tiers doubled across the board. goatsestretchgoals fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Mar 4, 2016 |
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Mar 4, 2016 07:58
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Fatty posted:In the UK if you're called on a landline and hang up it doesn't actually terminate the call. The call is only terminated when the caller hangs up. This has lead to a scam where victims are called by the police/their bank, being told that illegal activity on their account has been detected, and they need to phone their banks fraud line now. The victim then hangs up and the scammer waits on the line. The victim makes a new call using the actual number they know is for their bank, the scammer hears a bunch of dial tones over the line, and then pretends to be a different person and gets the victim to give them account info. The scammer also frequently plays fake dial tones and ring tones to further fool the victim that their phone is working normally. 
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Mar 4, 2016 10:51
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Hello this is detective 14 inch from the dea and, I need to inform you that you are the subject of a prescription drug investigation please call me back at number. You call Blah blah pay xxxx in fines now and make it all go away it won't even hit your record.. Blah blah blah. Also ransomware. You download some Antivirus or run an unknown installer now your pc has a "virus" so you call thr tech support listed and for 500 they'll fix it, which is usually just entering a code somewhere. Also people calling claiming to be from Microsoft they need to connect to your computer right now because they see yiu have a nasty virus.. then they gently caress up your pc
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Mar 4, 2016 14:06
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kaschei posted:Lawsuits by creditors of delinquents have skyrocketed and are public record. Don't need to dig through garbage to see who is in debt. You just call 100 people on a phone list if one of those 100 is In debt you win, also people may believe they owe becsuse "um your taxes from 2012 to 2014 had errors that we have discovered" No garbage digging reqired. The point of all scams is to try it on 100 people and win when 2-10 fall for it.
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Mar 4, 2016 14:13
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Gift cards. The biggest scam dollar-wise in the world. Studies show most aren't actually used, so basically giving free money to stores. And if they are used then the person usually has to go out of their way to get something they don't actually want. Just as careless as cash with the bonus of being idiotic. One slight rare exception is Amazon.com's model, where it's credited to your account automatically and you don't have to do anything special to use it.
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Mar 4, 2016 14:57
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cumshitter posted:A couple years back I was driving home from work and pulled off at a gas station to refill my tank. This couple, guy and girl, see me in my office clothes and probably assumed I had money for them. Just as I open the door the guy runs up and places himself on the other side, not allowing me to open it further than half a foot. Then they both start shouting contradictory statements at me nonstop. You should have asked them if they had any DVD's of recent big name movies. All the scam artists hanging around gas stations have them, or they at least know a guy. As for people knocking on my door, it's usually either people selling telecom packages, or Mormons. I just tell them I rent, I don't own the place and don't have the power to change service providers. Or I just tell the Mormons I'm a hardcore Atheist. Both groups move on real quick, although the Mormons are really polite about it. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Mar 5, 2016 |
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Mar 5, 2016 07:43
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This isn't a scam per say but something I've been noticing is Ill get a call from my area code and I'll pick up to hear a "There's good news for you!" Robot. I tried to call back once to yell and complain only to get a normal sounding dude. Apparently, they used his number to call me, and it happened that my wife started getting these return calls a bunch. So much that she had to change her number. My guess is that the scammers do this to not get caught, but also to run up minutes or data and make you pay out in the long run. Lastly, I had my info stolen when I was in Iraq, and got charged just under a grand in various stores in New York. Police do not get involved for petty crime, and only really investigate when the amount exceeds 1k.
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Mar 5, 2016 09:40
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wide stance posted:Gift cards. The biggest scam dollar-wise in the world. On this note online sttorefronts (usually for MMO's, browser games and mobile apps) that let you purchase bundles of in-game currency, but price everything at odd amounts. Users are forced to pay for more digital currency than they need or can use.
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Mar 5, 2016 10:32
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Soulex posted:This isn't a scam per say but something I've been noticing is Ill get a call from my area code and I'll pick up to hear a "There's good news for you!" Robot. I tried to call back once to yell and complain only to get a normal sounding dude. Apparently, they used his number to call me, and it happened that my wife started getting these return calls a bunch. So much that she had to change her number. My guess is that the scammers do this to not get caught, but also to run up minutes or data and make you pay out in the long run. I heard that when you answer a robo or talk to someone you get marked as a live number and I think lots will sell your number and it spreads a ton
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Mar 5, 2016 11:41
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http://johnnyvagabond.com/featured/poker-scam-saigon/ Had this happen to me in Laos, except I wasn't stupid enough to actually agree to play the game unlike this chump. I had a good time though, bizarrely. Got a pretty nice lunch out of it. I had never heard of the scam and it was so strange. Like getting a little tour, then chatting with some old dude over lunch and beer, him showing me magic tricks, then suddenly he's scheming with me to play a rich westerner to scam a local casino. Really the only time I run into scams is as a tourist. Pretty much if you're near to a place tourists often go, and a local comes up to talk to you for any reason, it's to scam you in some way. Sounds horrible but that's basically my experience.
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Mar 5, 2016 17:19
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We've had to deal with educating my in-laws about scams as they are getting to that special age (and I think my father-in-law may be starting to go 'round the bend). Basically we've drilled into their head that anything that pops up on their computers is a scam, and to simply close it. They've gotten better, but we still find toolbars and crap on their machines when we visit, so I know they are still downloading things to some extent.Jeza posted:Pretty much if you're near to a place tourists often go, and a local comes up to talk to you for any reason, it's to scam you in some way. Sounds horrible but that's basically my experience. I'll add as a corollary: any time a person you don't personally know attempts to contact you at home, whether via e-mail, mail, phone, or simply knocking on your door, it's a scam. That has been the hardest lesson to drill into them. I fear that it will really only sink in when they finally get scammed hard by some douchebag.
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Mar 5, 2016 18:29
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Soulex posted:This isn't a scam per say but something I've been noticing is Ill get a call from my area code and I'll pick up to hear a "There's good news for you!" Robot. I tried to call back once to yell and complain only to get a normal sounding dude. Apparently, they used his number to call me, and it happened that my wife started getting these return calls a bunch. So much that she had to change her number. My guess is that the scammers do this to not get caught, but also to run up minutes or data and make you pay out in the long run. The standard MO for autodialed scams that I've seen is to spoof caller ID and use the first six digits or so of your phone number, then fill in the remaining with some random set of digits. This is supposed to make you trust the number, because it appears local. The real calls, of course, are coming from a country with loose telemarketing regulations by way of a VOIP gateway that doesn't ask questions. They don't give a poo poo about you using your own minutes and data, or what might happen to whatever person owns their randomly chosen number.
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Mar 5, 2016 19:02
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poolside toaster posted:I'll add as a corollary: any time a person you don't personally know attempts to contact you at home, whether via e-mail, mail, phone, or simply knocking on your door, it's a scam. That has been the hardest lesson to drill into them. I fear that it will really only sink in when they finally get scammed hard by some douchebag. Yeah, if you are a naturally trusting, or even just friendly person, scams are intentionally designed to gain your trust. When I took a moped ride with this old man, it wasn't like I wasn't suspicious. Honestly, I was naive to even go along with it as far as I did, but my guard was lowered by our conversation. Also it helps that had like half a foot and like 20kg on him, but that is a pretty stupid reason to feel self-assured, because he just have driven me to some place to rob me or whatnot with ten dudes. Context wise: I had been told, several times, that locals in Laos were super friendly and it wasn't unusual for somebody to invite you for a meal. I had already had friendly interactions already, and I wasn't in like a massive tourist hotspot at the time. I was approached while deciding where I was going to go next, asked where I was from (UK). Then he wanted to know where in UK (London), and he was like ohhhh amazing, my daughter is going to study in London for an advanced degree in nursing (can't remember exactly what) near Oxford Circus, which checks out because I happen to know that the Royal College of Nursing is around there. He then frets that his wife is super worried about the trip and how dangerous London is, and could I reassure his wife that London is fine and safe etc. So he phones his "wife" who I talk to on the phone, and after a little conversation invites me to lunch. It all flows pretty naturally. He then spent a lot of time asking pertinent questions about rent in London, travel, etc. Obviously in the cold light of day there are obvious warning signs that should make you concerned, and I did notice (some) of them, but then you second guess yourself and you don't want to be rude, and you are also curious and wanting to be helpful. - Had credible information on the spot about where I was from that made him seem legitimate. - Wife on phone makes it seem less suspicious, and her "fears" for her daughter take advantage of desire to be helpful.
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Mar 5, 2016 19:22
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Fruits of the sea posted:On this note online sttorefronts (usually for MMO's, browser games and mobile apps) that let you purchase bundles of in-game currency, but price everything at odd amounts. Users are forced to pay for more digital currency than they need or can use. That goes back to standards in MMO currency trading in general that have existed forever. Generally speaking in-game money isn't all that valuable because there's so drat much of it. In UO, for example, the going rate last time I played the game (which was a rather long time ago) for gold was $20 for 1,000,000 coins. NPC vendors sold things that were like...180 gold at most and you could go to player-owned stores and kit yourself out fairly well for that multiple times. MMO game super funn buxx are generally easy to get utter poo poo loads of but they don't really mean all that much.
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Mar 5, 2016 22:11
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People seem to have a bigger fear of letting someone down then their own well-being, even if it's a complete stranger. It's how these scams thrive. In China I've heard that random Chinese girls will come up to westerners in tourist attractions and say how they're studying English in college and how they'd like to practice with you. Everything seems innocent enough, they might show you around the site, and then suggest a place to go for lunch, or a place to drink good Chinese tea or some poo poo. You go there and end up with an insane bill and are "pressured" into playing it. I think the scammer also pretends to be shocked but say they don't have much money on them and oh no what should they do? This scam is especially cruel because it's actually not uncommon for people to want to talk to westerners, especially schoolkids from the countryside who are visiting and never see foreigners in their town. During my travels in Asia I've also had random people come up to me and offer to show me around or just want to talk to me with no scam involved, so you have to be really careful. In Japan there are several bars or clubs where touts will invite you with promises of cheap drinks and girls (or you may just wander on your own), and you'll end up walking out with a sizable bill with lots of additional charges. One of my mates got taken for this, he should have known better but I guess his guard was down or something. He went to the police and they told him there was nothing they could do since the bar had an itemized list of the costs (albeit with completely unreasonable charges like a "$1000 table seating charge"). He ended up just negotiating a lower (still sizable) payout and got the hell out of there. Some places are worse and will have cell phone blockers and tough guys blocking the door so there's no real way to get help. Apparently the police keep saying they're going to crack down on this scam, especially with the Olympics looming, but there doesn't seem to be any progress and these scam bars are thriving.
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Mar 6, 2016 03:47
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My mother recently went off the deep end (oddly specific religiosity, conspiracy theories, wasting retirement money on dumb poo poo*) and has come close to being scammed a few times. She's pretty intelligent and can usually sniff them out but an Abnb scam nearly fooled her. Basically she click on a link to become an Abnb host and signed up. Everything looked pretty legit: email and website from abnbcompany.ca, logos, payment system, etc. The catch came when they were going to prepay her for a month worth of work and all she had to do was cash a cheque they sent her and wire some money back. I got involved before money could change hands when she asked me to read an email they sent detailing the plans (though not mentioning the obvious money laundering bit). The email and website were impressively almost legit. Problem was the spelling. Once it twice per paragraph there was just a simple grammar or syntax mistake that a native English speaker wouldn't make. In the end I told her it was definitely a scam and when she got the check in the mail she just dropped it off at the local pd and let them do whatever with it. *- she believes that the world will end any day now and got conned I to buying silver and a safe for it (hooray! My mother gets to come live with me when she realizes that her retirement money was all scammed away!). I tried to get though to her but she's convinced that society will collapse any day now and that for some reason silver will be the currency when that happens. When it became apparent that she wouldn't listen to reason I asked her if I could see the silver bars. When she showed me I immediately pocketed them and informed her that they were mine now. She got pretty ticked off and the sardony was completely lost on her. I also had a friend who bought truck speakers like an idiot. He was sold on them being heavy. Must be high quality, they weight like 20lbs a piece! Well we opened them up and they had literal sand bags glued to the bottom. I'm happy to report that that man is now an economist working for the federal government.
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Mar 7, 2016 09:40
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ToxicSlurpee posted:That goes back to standards in MMO currency trading in general that have existed forever. Generally speaking in-game money isn't all that valuable because there's so drat much of it. In UO, for example, the going rate last time I played the game (which was a rather long time ago) for gold was $20 for 1,000,000 coins. NPC vendors sold things that were like...180 gold at most and you could go to player-owned stores and kit yourself out fairly well for that multiple times. MMO game super funn buxx are generally easy to get utter poo poo loads of but they don't really mean all that much. Depends on the game. You can buy in-game currency with real cash in Eve Online but if you've been playing more than a few months it would take quite a bit of cash to be a life-changing amount.
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Mar 7, 2016 12:20
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