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EL BROMANCE posted:That's the only way to deal with it. They say something provocative in order to get you to respond, and then they're in control. Just walk away. The LaRouchites on my campus did the exact same thing. No matter how smart you think you are, the person insulting you does it full time and they've heard variations of every response you give them. Although LaRouchites are a bit easier to push around and really don't like it when you ask questions like, "How long has it been since you've seen your family?" or "Why did you drop out of college to do this? What was your major?" Speaking of which, a giant Abortion Wall used to pop up on my campus every fall. It was maybe two stories high, 40 yards long, and covered in pictures of genocide and dead babies. They'd surround it with bike racks and have attractive young girls point at passing men and ask if they could talk to them. I got lured into this myself. As soon as you walked up they'd have either some older dude or an elderly lady still feeling guilty about the abortion she had 40 years ago swoop in and start lecturing you on the evils of abortion.
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Apr 29, 2016 23:32
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cumshitter posted:I got lured into this myself. As soon as you walked up they'd have either some older dude or an elderly lady still feeling guilty about the abortion she had 40 years ago swoop in and start lecturing you on the evils of abortion. The variant they ran here included children. I kept coming by and yelling at them and calling them a bunch of miserable loving cunts. Security was there, but they seemed content to allow me my free speech in the face of the many pictures of stillborn babies and comparisons to Nazi Germany  The last time it happened, it was at a really bad time because I had literally learned a day earlier that a friend of mine had died in a plane crash, so I came unglued on them and told them if they thought a fetus was equivalent to an actual human life, I hoped they died a miserable and lingering death.
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Apr 30, 2016 00:30
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House Louse posted:Speaking of New York, there were a bunch of street vendors approaching me selling stuff on my one visit there. Are they mostly legit, or just way overpricing, or scammers?
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Apr 30, 2016 01:07
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PT6A posted:At least with the rose/herb scam in Europe, you can always count on the local population to back you up against the gypsy no matter what Isn't it good if people help keep you from getting scammed or harassed/assaulted by a scammer?
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Apr 30, 2016 03:19
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many johnnys posted:Isn't it good if people help keep you from getting scammed or harassed/assaulted by a scammer? I think he's referring to the fact that Europe treats gypsies like poo poo. At this point, gypsies running scams is sort of a chicken and egg thing; no one will hire them because they have a rep for being scammers, so they scam to get by, etc etc.
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Apr 30, 2016 03:48
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many johnnys posted:Isn't it good if people help keep you from getting scammed or harassed/assaulted by a scammer? not if it helps reinforce and continue the centuries of discrimination and prejudice against Roma people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiziganism
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Apr 30, 2016 03:53
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bitcoin bastard posted:I think he's referring to the fact that Europe treats gypsies like poo poo. At this point, gypsies running scams is sort of a chicken and egg thing; no one will hire them because they have a rep for being scammers, so they scam to get by, etc etc. Indeed. The level of prejudice against Roma people is horrible, but on the other hand I'm not going to feel bad for the few individuals who have actively tried to scam me.
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Apr 30, 2016 14:13
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The Roma are generally happy to be called Gypsies, and rarely cause trouble - in fact, they will go out of their way to help you, if you are not a fuckwit. "Travelling People", on the other hand, are filth, who leave behind filth, dirty needles etc. wherever they go. I am from Ireland, and they are scum. They will steal whatever they can, rip you off in any way possible, and generally be absolute cunts. Farmers here get together to put huge rocks in the way of anywhere the "Travellers" might see fit to place their caravans. The Roma, on the other hand, are given a wary welcome - they sell Poitin, and are happy to work for minimum wage - most farmers give them a lot more. And then they move on...
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Apr 30, 2016 16:49
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PT6A posted:Indeed. The level of prejudice against Roma people is horrible, but on the other hand I'm not going to feel bad for the few individuals who have actively tried to scam me. Accosting a stranger and demanding they hand over their money is more akin to an assault than a scam. The presence of a weapon is like the only thing separating this from an old-fashioned mugging. As lovely as the general situation is, it's good if bystanders step in to stop it.
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Apr 30, 2016 16:57
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As with the discussion of the moral standing and social status of homeless people, could we please not go down this road? Gypsy/Roma/Sinti/Traveller discussion is the fastest known route to a thread becoming a shitfest and getting gassed. If you have views on the subject (or want to ask questions) then perhaps start an A/T or D&D thread on the subject? 
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Apr 30, 2016 17:27
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I'll close the Roma discussion by saying this thread caused me to spend like 25 minutes reading about them on Wikipedia. I had no idea they originated in India, I always assumed they had some sort of Euro origin. Thanks, thread!  
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Apr 30, 2016 17:51
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drunk asian neighbor posted:I'll close the Roma discussion by saying this thread caused me to spend like 25 minutes reading about them on Wikipedia. I had no idea they originated in India, I always assumed they had some sort of Euro origin. Thanks, thread! Originally yes but they migrated to Europe 1000 years ago and the largest number live in Romania, which is where most people consider them from. But yes probably best to nip this conversation in the bud as I've never seen it not turn into a yelling match here.
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Apr 30, 2016 20:29
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photomikey posted:I used to have a $20 gucci watch that I sat side-by-side with a $600 gucci watch that you just could not tell the difference between. It's knockoff merch. Now I'm wondering what the production chain on this is like. Shady Russian and Chinese factories turning them out by the thousand? Perfectly legitimate (minus the intellectual property thing) Russian and Chinese factories turning them out by the thousand?
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May 1, 2016 01:07
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Now I'm wondering what the production chain on this is like. Shady Russian and Chinese factories turning them out by the thousand? Perfectly legitimate (minus the intellectual property thing) Russian and Chinese factories turning them out by the thousand? Yeah, if Gucci outsources manufacturing to Asia they probably ARE authentic Guccis in all but inventory listing.
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May 1, 2016 02:34
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I believe they were stamped out in China. My dad (this should go in the scams thread perhaps) knew a guy who was ordering them by the case-full. This guy was paying maybe $5/ea for them, selling my dad a card of 20 watches for $10/ea, and my dad was peddling them out to the parents of other kids on my baseball team for $20/ea. They came 10 or 20 fastened to card stock, like any good Chinese merch. The watch, while visually indistinguishable between the real Gucci watch, was a crappy knockoff because if you got it even the tiniest bit wet, would stop working immediately. I do not believe it to be a genuine Gucci sold at a huge bargain, I believe it to be a $3 k-mart watch with "Gucci" printed on the face.
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May 1, 2016 04:02
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bitcoin bastard posted:Yeah, if Gucci outsources manufacturing to Asia they probably ARE authentic Guccis in all but inventory listing. Hasn't that been the case for the longest time. Counterfeits are usually built in the same factories as the real deal just with the production ramped up and less quality control.
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May 1, 2016 04:10
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Marenghi posted:Hasn't that been the case for the longest time. Counterfeits are usually built in the same factories as the real deal just with the production ramped up and less quality control. You really can't generalize like that anymore. Sure, it happens sometimes, but there are a lot of factories cranking out counterfeits these days. Hell, I've seen the counterfeit version hit the market before the authentic when the knock-off factory saw pictures of the prototype product posted on the internet, cloned it and manufactured it.
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May 1, 2016 05:17
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Marenghi posted:Hasn't that been the case for the longest time. Counterfeits are usually built in the same factories as the real deal just with the production ramped up and less quality control. For cycling products (carbon fiber wheels and other bits) the factory makes them during the day, and a rep (or reps) from the company are looking at the output for quality control. Making sure nothing is shipped with obvious flaws etc. The company rep goes home at the end of the day and the factory keeps pumping out the products but with in-house labels on them. The quality control is worse as well, but if you are lucky you get a great deal on a virtually identical product.
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May 1, 2016 13:53
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I didn't buy too much stuff when I was in China, mostly watches for the bit. I knew they wouldn't last, but I didn't expect them to be as crappy as these were. None of them lasted more than a month, some had glaringly obvious defects (like buttons that clearly didn't do anything), etc. Good thing I didn't pay more than a few bucks each. The best part is how the vendors will just keep swearing up and down that what you're haggling from $45 down to $10 on is a 100% genuine $5,000 Omega watch. It's pretty fun. On the other hand, I was in this little mall in Shenzhen and I got an eye exam and 2 prescription pairs of glasses that were done in 20 minutes for a grand total of $90. That was in 2011, I'm wearing one of those pairs right now and the other is in my car as an emergency pair, they've held up every bit as well as real Ray-Ban frames/lenses.
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May 1, 2016 16:09
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PT6A posted:Indeed. The level of prejudice against Roma people is horrible, but on the other hand I'm not going to feel bad for the few individuals who have actively tried to scam me. If you talk to a Chinese person, many of them will say the exact same things about Uyghurs that Europeans say about Roma. The famous scam in China is the "cut cake" scam. A vendor (almost always Uyghur) will have a trike with a gigantic qiegao (literally, "cut cake" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_cake ) and will usually refuse to tell you the price, but after they cut you a larger slice than you requested, will weigh it and charge you an extortionate rate and if you refuse to pay, they and their nearby friends will threaten you with the big knives they use to cut the cake.
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May 3, 2016 19:11
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Powerlurker posted:If you talk to a Chinese person, many of them will say the exact same things about Uyghurs that Europeans say about Roma. The famous scam in China is the "cut cake" scam. A vendor (almost always Uyghur) will have a trike with a gigantic qiegao (literally, "cut cake" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_cake ) and will usually refuse to tell you the price, but after they cut you a larger slice than you requested, will weigh it and charge you an extortionate rate and if you refuse to pay, they and their nearby friends will threaten you with the big knives they use to cut the cake. This is also a mugging
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May 3, 2016 19:39
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Powerlurker posted:If you talk to a Chinese person, many of them will say the exact same things about Uyghurs that Europeans say about Roma. The famous scam in China is the "cut cake" scam. A vendor (almost always Uyghur) will have a trike with a gigantic qiegao (literally, "cut cake" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_cake ) and will usually refuse to tell you the price, but after they cut you a larger slice than you requested, will weigh it and charge you an extortionate rate and if you refuse to pay, they and their nearby friends will threaten you with the big knives they use to cut the cake. This reminds me of another one common around here: A couple guys knock at your door and offer to mow your garden and trim off the trees for X amount of money. Once that's done, they demand you to pay way more than the agreed amount (usually they argue that the first amount was just to "do the job" but that didn't include things like taking away the trash or something like that) and, hey, they're the ones brandishing hedge trimmers and machetes.
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May 3, 2016 21:14
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Pentaro posted:This reminds me of another one common around here: A couple guys knock at your door and offer to mow your garden and trim off the trees for X amount of money. Once that's done, they demand you to pay way more than the agreed amount (usually they argue that the first amount was just to "do the job" but that didn't include things like taking away the trash or something like that) and, hey, they're the ones brandishing hedge trimmers and machetes. I feel like stand-your-ground laws would make this sort of thing a really dangerous idea.
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May 3, 2016 21:19
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drunk asian neighbor posted:I feel like stand-your-ground laws would make this sort of thing a really dangerous idea.
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May 4, 2016 19:38
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twodot posted:In what sense is this even related to stand your ground laws? If some guys threaten a homeowner at their doorstep, the homeowner might pull out their firearm in self-defence.
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May 4, 2016 19:55
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Yeah, that. If you want to try an intimidation tactic involving a potentially deadly gardening implement, you should be aware that the person you're trying to intimidate may be within his legal rights to pull out a gun and shoot you in the stomach.
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May 4, 2016 20:14
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except, the OP's phrase "offer to mow your garden" means the scammers are offering to use a lawnmower to cut the grass, which is growing out of the earth, which earth is part of the parcel of property on which your house sits. i've only ever heard "garden" used this way by non-Americans so i'm not sure if stand-your-ground laws are relevant in other news, some australian con-man claimed he was the inventor of bitcoin and almost every news organization in the world reported this with zero fact-checking 
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May 4, 2016 21:05
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The best part is he did this exact same thing months ago, but nobody cared.
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May 4, 2016 22:18
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rt_hat posted:If some guys threaten a homeowner at their doorstep, the homeowner might pull out their firearm in self-defence.
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May 4, 2016 23:30
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Can anyone tell me what the angle is on this: There were some nice Turtle Beach headphones on eBay for about a tenth of the RRP. I figured I'd bite, because I use PayPal, so if anything's not right, I'll get my money back. So predictably, I get a message from eBay telling me the seller's account has been compromised, and to file a dispute. Like I say, I'll get all my money back; so what's in it for the scammer? A way to get free money, as PayPal will refund me in the end?
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May 5, 2016 13:33
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de la peche posted:Can anyone tell me what the angle is on this: They get your money and a ton of other people's money. They withdraw that money and have an empty account linked to PayPal. Even if PayPal refund you, the seller has profited.
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May 5, 2016 15:16
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Lutha Mahtin posted:except, the OP's phrase "offer to mow your garden" means the scammers are offering to use a lawnmower to cut the grass, which is growing out of the earth, which earth is part of the parcel of property on which your house sits. i've only ever heard "garden" used this way by non-Americans so i'm not sure if stand-your-ground laws are relevant He also said "trim your trees" which is usually done with long, sharp and pointy things. Trees are also things that grow out of the earth, which is part of the parcel of property on which your house sits. twodot posted:And not having a duty to retreat makes this different from literally any other situation where someone threatens someone? Like even ignoring the fact you're mixing castle doctrine and stand your ground, if your game plan is to effectively mug people, you should calculate out how to deal with someone responding with violence in kind regardless of whether they would be legally justified in doing so. Ok, I mixed up castle doctrine and stand your ground  but this is a dumb argument. The point I'm trying to make is that people will probably be less inclined to demand money from you with a tree pruner if they know from the get-go that there is no legal barrier stopping them from shooting you. In New Jersey the attempted thief could sue the homeowner in that situation, in Texas it wouldn't even go past the initial police inquiry. You really don't think an attempted scammer would take that into consideration?
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May 5, 2016 15:16
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drunk asian neighbor posted:He also said "trim your trees" which is usually done with long, sharp and pointy things. Trees are also things that grow out of the earth, which is part of the parcel of property on which your house sits. I guess I don't understand how me referencing a piece of landscaping equipment that is impractical to hold in one's arms such to appear vaguely threatening, means that somehow the goon who originally mentioned this scam has been magically transported from England to Florida. Lutha Mahtin fucked around with this message at 18:25 on May 5, 2016 |
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May 5, 2016 18:23
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Lutha Mahtin posted:I guess I don't understand how me referencing a piece of landscaping equipment that is impractical to hold in one's arms such to appear vaguely threatening, means that somehow the goon who originally mentioned this scam has been magically transported from England to Florida. What? What does location have to do with anything? You pointed out that the OP mentioned "mow your garden" to point out that they would have a lawnmower, and I pointed out that in the same sentence, the OP also mentioned "trim your trees", which would also imply they have the implements necessary to cut branches down, which tend to be implements that can easily be used to appear threatening. If you're still hung up about the fact that "garden" in America implies your own property and therefore stand-your-ground doesn't apply, I already admitted that I mixed that up with Castle Doctrine. Either way this entire argument is loving stupid and totally irrelevant to my initial point, which was simply "some scammers might think twice about running a scam that implies/threatens harm if the scammee has the blessing of their local government/law enforcement to blow the scammer's head off with a shotgun at the slightest provocation." I didn't think that was a super-controversial viewpoint, but I guess I was wrong 
Snow Cone Capone fucked around with this message at 19:31 on May 5, 2016 |
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May 5, 2016 19:26
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Everyone interested in this should watch the 1972 documentary Marjoe. It is a fascinating movie about a former child evangelist who drops out of the faith/scam. He then goes back with a camera crew to expose the grift. Has some insanely great gospel music along with superb under cover cinematography. It is also a great time capsule of 1972. Watch this clip on youtube. At 1:40 he starts explaining the speaking of tongues. At 3:00 they start literally counting hundreds and hundreds of dollars in small bills. At 4:25 he explains how his family groomed him for the grift and the amazing amounts of money he made before it all came crashing down. https://youtu.be/1-C3trU9ljw
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May 7, 2016 05:37
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MayakovskyMarmite posted:Everyone interested in this should watch the 1972 documentary Marjoe. It is a fascinating movie about a former child evangelist who drops out of the faith/scam. He then goes back with a camera crew to expose the grift. Has some insanely great gospel music along with superb under cover cinematography. It is also a great time capsule of 1972. Less than 6 minutes, pro click y'all.
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May 7, 2016 06:49
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MayakovskyMarmite posted:Everyone interested in this should watch the 1972 documentary Marjoe. It is a fascinating movie about a former child evangelist who drops out of the faith/scam. He then goes back with a camera crew to expose the grift. Has some insanely great gospel music along with superb under cover cinematography. It is also a great time capsule of 1972. Pro-click indeed!
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May 7, 2016 16:03
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one time me and my buddies were leaving a club and we get approached by two dudes. one of the guys says "hey you gotta buy my buddy's mix tape! only $1! trust me he sounds just like lil Wayne but even better!" and the other guy was just like "yeah for real. it's good" so we gave him a buck and he gave us a cd. we plugged it on the ride home and the dudes just burned an actual lil wayne album to a blank disc and were selling it. couldn't be too pissed because it did sound just like lil wayne.
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May 8, 2016 05:26
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All these CD scams just sound like a mugging with props.
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May 8, 2016 09:55
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As in, if I come up to you in a clown suit, and I do nothing other than wear the suit and pressure you in a vaguely threatening manner for money until you give in, that's not "the clown scam" that's a drat robbery.
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May 8, 2016 09:57
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