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Absurd Alhazred posted:I talk to strangers on the street all the time. You know the "don't talk to strangers" things only apply when you're a kid, right? *is literally afraid of strangers* "Why can't I meet anyone? I'm so lonely!"
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Jun 14, 2016 23:58
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I'd like to point out the bracelet scam is a good vehicle for pickpockets as they can immobilize your wrist and distract you at the same time. Living in Spain, I've gotten used to/exposed to a lot of European scams. The best advice I can give it carry your valuables in your front pockets, and keep your hands in your pockets in crowded areas, on the metro, wherever. If you're walking through a tourist area and a commotion starts (fight, street show, etc.), keep moving with your hands in your pockets.
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Jun 15, 2016 12:56
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feedmegin posted:Except you'll have a heavily muscled guy escort you to the ATM and the second time you 'forget' your PIN he applies some rubber hose cryptanalysis until you 'remember' it properly... True, but I'm generally under the impression that these places prefer to stay scammy but legal. Even if he threatens you that's extortion, beating you up (probably with witnesses cos if you're at an ATM, there's probably someone in line of sight) would be immediate cause for the cops to pay them a visit. Not that I'd try this myself, you understand. Just an idea.
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Jun 15, 2016 13:11
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I can contribute to this thread. My girlfriend's cousin was an early adopter/joiner of the sales team of Nerium which is some skin cream or lotion. Apparently it works fairly well (but costs like 80 bucks for a 250 ml bottle). Think Avon. Except unlike Avon it's CLEARLY a MLM scam. It's easier to make money by bringing in new salespeople than actually selling, they've got bullshit mega conferences all over the country you're encouraged to attend, you get discounts if you buy the lotion for yourself and it counts towards your sales. It's classic. What's sad is that since he was an early joiner he was fairly successful early on and was even given a company car to drive around (surely to show the salespeople he recruited that "this could be you!"). But now that they've reached "peak MLM" the success is drying up and they're stuck trying to sell overpriced skin lotion and have committed 3-4 years to make it their identity and are unable to disengage.
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Jun 15, 2016 15:06
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Pook Good Mook posted:I can contribute to this thread. The car was probably on lease in their name with no payments while they stayed in super platinum plus or whatever bullshit tier they were in. From what I understand that's how it usually works with a mlm "company car"
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Jun 16, 2016 09:28
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Captain Bravo posted:I just walk down the street with both hands up, middle fingers blazing, and turn towards every person I see to give them the full salute. Is that not what everyone does? That's an awful lot of words just to say "I'm from New York"
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Jun 20, 2016 18:26
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ninjahedgehog posted:That's an awful lot of words just to say "I'm from New York" You misspelled "Noo Yawk fuckin' City". Had someone halfass a phone scam on me a few years back. Phone rings, it's something like 11:30-12:30 at night, so I actually pick up. Someone claiming to be from a collection agency (didn't state a company name) immediately starts in on how I owe money and have to make payment arrangements right *now*. Hung up immediately when I asked if they know the federally-mandated hours for collection calls.  Kinda sounded like a bar in the background, not a call center, and oddly enough they never called back, so... Zamboni Apocalypse fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Jun 23, 2016 |
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Jun 23, 2016 19:43
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Zamboni Apocalypse posted:Kinda sounded like a bar in the background, not a call center, and oddly enough they never called back, so... i've had some scammy calls and voicemails that sound like this. my only guess is that they are using bad microphones that pick up tons of background noise, and that they aren't in any kind of real call center. maybe they are at home with the tv on in the background, or they're hosting their cousin's birthday party and snuck away to get some calls in, or they're crammed in a small room 20 other scammers and they all have to sit shoulder-to-shoulder along tiny tables 
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Jun 23, 2016 20:25
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Lutha Mahtin posted:i've had some scammy calls and voicemails that sound like this. my only guess is that they are using bad microphones that pick up tons of background noise, and that they aren't in any kind of real call center. maybe they are at home with the tv on in the background, or they're hosting their cousin's birthday party and snuck away to get some calls in, or they're crammed in a small room 20 other scammers and they all have to sit shoulder-to-shoulder along tiny tables That late at night (from whatever US time Zone he was in - no discernable accent), I'd expect it really was a bar - not sure if he was next door to a 24-hour Western Union office to receive my "urgent payment".
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Jun 23, 2016 21:23
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Lutha Mahtin posted:or they're crammed in a small room 20 other scammers and they all have to sit shoulder-to-shoulder along tiny tables 
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Jun 25, 2016 16:08
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What's the deal with those dudes who go around steaks door to door? Omaha I think they're called? Is it pretty common for people to buy meat like they do girl scout cookies? Are they any good? What's their angle?
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Jun 25, 2016 16:48
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BiggerBoat posted:What's the deal with those dudes who go around steaks door to door? Omaha I think they're called? Is it pretty common for people to buy meat like they do girl scout cookies? Are they any good? What's their angle? The steaks are good, they're just a bit overpriced for what you get. Not a scam, assuming the guy claiming to sell Omaha Steaks is actually selling Omaha Steaks.
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Jun 25, 2016 17:03
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BiggerBoat posted:What's the deal with those dudes who go around steaks door to door? Omaha I think they're called? Is it pretty common for people to buy meat like they do girl scout cookies? Are they any good? What's their angle? Omaha is legit, you can buy packages online even. Now, whether or not the guy claiming to SELL them is legit...
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Jun 25, 2016 17:49
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BiggerBoat posted:What's the deal with those dudes who go around steaks door to door? Omaha I think they're called? Is it pretty common for people to buy meat like they do girl scout cookies? Are they any good? What's their angle? Omaha steaks are actually pretty good. My brother-in-law works there as a QC manager for sanitation. He spends 12 hour days making sure everything on the packing line is clean. I had no idea that meat processing places were so careful. The "Steak scam" is a whole different thing. It involves hustlers and re-branded meat. Like, take an Omaha Steaks box and fill it full of whatever dog food you can find. I love those guys, they're hilarious. I always enjoy them when they try to sell me a box of steaks with a starting price of $400.00 that get's all the way down to $40.00 before they get that "Cheese it! It's the fuzz!" look on their face and high-tail it before they even shut the tailgate.
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Jun 27, 2016 04:31
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An ex of mine bought steaks off a truck a couple years back. She got food poisoning from it, which I told her was the cost of learning the lesson to not buy steaks out of the back of a truck.
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Jun 27, 2016 15:16
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UnkleBoB posted:An ex of mine bought steaks off a truck a couple years back. She got food poisoning from it, which I told her was the cost of learning the lesson to not buy steaks out of the back of a truck. Living in Mississippi and being a trash person, I buy poo poo out of the back of pickups all the time, but even I would draw the line at "steaks." Duck or rabbit or raccoon (paw intact), yeah sure, I can see, but not a slab of unidentifiable meat.
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Jun 27, 2016 15:46
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Zamboni Apocalypse posted:That late at night (from whatever US time Zone he was in - no discernable accent), I'd expect it really was a bar - not sure if he was next door to a 24-hour Western Union office to receive my "urgent payment". Calling from a payphone sounds a smart idea if you're just some guy running a scam on your own and you don't want anyone tracking the phone number back to you.
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Jun 27, 2016 15:50
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feedmegin posted:Calling from a payphone sounds a smart idea if you're just some guy running a scam on your own and you don't want anyone tracking the phone number back to you. Eh? Considering how poor the rate of returns are on the "call someone randomly and demand payment", using a phone you have to pay to use sounds like the opposite of a good idea.
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Jun 27, 2016 16:00
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not to mention the scarcity of payphones nowadays. Besides its easy to buy and use burner phones, and they have apps that do much the same.
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Jun 27, 2016 16:56
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Pharmaskittle posted:Living in Mississippi and being a trash person, I buy poo poo out of the back of pickups all the time, but even I would draw the line at "steaks." Duck or rabbit or raccoon (paw intact), yeah sure, I can see, but not a slab of unidentifiable meat. So did you want to elaborate on that at all, or...
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Jun 27, 2016 18:10
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What, the raccoon paw thing? I don't eat raccoon, but from what I've heard if you're going to sell them skinned, you want one paw intact so the customer knows you're not selling them a cat. I dunno if that's strictly true or just an often repeated myth, but like I said, I don't eat raccoon.
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Jun 27, 2016 18:52
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things i learned today: - people eat raccoon meat - hunters sell raccoon meat from the bed of their pickup - dishonest pickup-bed meat sellers try to pass off skinned cats as raccoon meat like, i grew up in the country, but this is a whole other level
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Jun 27, 2016 19:00
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Lutha Mahtin posted:things i learned today: It's called "roof rabbit" if you're honest.
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Jun 27, 2016 19:22
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Lutha Mahtin posted:things i learned today:
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Jun 27, 2016 20:25
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Lutha Mahtin posted:things i learned today: I was born in Alabama, currently live in semi rural Florida, and in between have lived in both Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. I thought I'd seen it all. This series of posts about raccoon meat and the dishonest sellers thereof has finally caused me to understand the oft-repeated phrase "I literally can't even". Because I can't. I can't even.
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Jun 27, 2016 21:59
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Maybe Mississippi really is the worst, because I've lived here all my life and roadkill sold out of the back of a truck and the swindles that may go along with that are not even close to the weirdest or wtf thing I see on any given day
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Jun 27, 2016 22:44
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Really though paw intact is demanded by any real buyer of pickup truck meat, and it's just common sense and why no one (at least here) is going to buy "steaks".
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Jun 27, 2016 22:49
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When I worked in a garage in NJ about 40 years ago, this was a common scam. Dudes showing up and selling all kinds of stuff out of the trunks of their cars - tires, steaks, stereo speakers, etc. The reason they could sell it to you for such a "good price" was that it "fell off a truck."
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Jun 27, 2016 23:04
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Cat Army
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"Fell off a truck" is not in-of-itself a scam. It's a codeword for "This merchandise is stolen". Now, the venn diagram of "scams customers" and "sells stolen goods" may have a lot of overlap, but it's not exactly a scam. More a chance for someone to use a scam and get away with it, since you can't exactly go to the police and say "This piece of poo poo the guy in a van sold me isn't the stolen merchandise I was attempting to buy!"
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Jun 27, 2016 23:22
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When I was a kid, my mom had me lean out the door of our moving car to pick up a pristine unopened bag of Whopper buns that we could only deduce had literally fallen off the back of a Burger King delivery truck. Did I mention I grew up in the country? 
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Jun 27, 2016 23:28
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I have seen the "leave the paw on for positive ID" thing with rabbits before. This was in a little country store though, not some guys truck. My mother, who is usually a pretty clever lady, has recently bought a bunch of frozen steaks and a loving tiny chest freezer from some guys in a truck. She claims she paid under hundred dollars for all of it and, having had her along when I have bought new cars, she may have actually worn these guys down to the point where they just wanted her to leave them loving alone so they keep going about their day. In any case, once they are done with the steaks I'm going to steal that little chest freezer to make a kegerator out of it.
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Jun 28, 2016 02:39
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man I've lived in some pretty lovely areas and the only thing people have driven by and offered to sell me are drugs I did buy a pound of weed that was delivered in a sealed box of Captain Crunch once like that, that was a fun summer
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Jun 28, 2016 04:31
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I've had an awful lot of people try to sell me appliances out of their trucks, and I went to a yard sale at an obvious trap house where I got a pretty good deal on the biggest microwave I've ever seen.
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Jun 28, 2016 04:39
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Pharmaskittle posted:I've had an awful lot of people try to sell me appliances out of their trucks, and I went to a yard sale at an obvious trap house where I got a pretty good deal on the biggest microwave I've ever seen. What do you mean by trap house? I always dream of hitting a garage sale jackpot and getting a box of NES games or a guitar amp from the 60's or something but around here if you're not waiting outside peoples' yards at 8:30 for a sale that starts at 9, you might as well resign yourself to garbage I find some good books and old tools and such, but the closest thing to a really sweet find I've ever gotten was probably the sealed copies of Space Jam and Robin Hood: Men in Tights on LaserDisc I got for $1 each My area is loving annoying, you can't even get good poo poo on bulk trash day anymore because there are people going street to street in vans and pickup trucks at like 4AM getting anything good. I remember when I was in high school I found 3 working PCs (one with a working monitor), a full-sized drill press that only needed a new belt, and a complete set of 1994 Encyclopedia Britannica in one night =(
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Jun 28, 2016 04:53
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drunk asian neighbor posted:What do you mean by trap house? A place to purchase and use drugs. It was fine, dude had cleared the place out and legitimately selling literally everything to move out for whatever reason. Guy even heated up a hot pocket and gave it to me to prove it worked. I regret leaving it at my last place, you could probably cook a loving turkey in the beast. I was on my way home from work and needed microwave and stopped on a whim, I usually don't go to garage sales. I should start, since I imagine you can get some cool poo poo for cheap, but I've never been good at just browsing without knowing exactly what I need.
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Jun 28, 2016 05:21
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Captain Bravo posted:"Fell off a truck" is not in-of-itself a scam. It's a codeword for "This merchandise is stolen". Now, the venn diagram of "scams customers" and "sells stolen goods" may have a lot of overlap, but it's not exactly a scam. More a chance for someone to use a scam and get away with it, since you can't exactly go to the police and say "This piece of poo poo the guy in a van sold me isn't the stolen merchandise I was attempting to buy!" "Fell from back of truck" said in a ridiculous fake Russian accent is pretty standard in the electronics industry. The term is "Graymarket." You didn't steal it, the guy you bought it from didn't steal it, but he bought it from the guy who did. Almost all CPU's used in full builds, like you'd get from any big box store, are graymarket. They come in large trays and are super sketchy. They're half the price and they "fell from back of truck" said by a man smoking an unfiltered cigarette and wearing a stained wife-beater tank top whose only other English vocabulary is "You buy". Their English is perfect, but it's easier to negotiate when they pretend that they can't speak the language. I've never seen a single system builder use a retail CPU or even whitebox CPUs. They're all tray in every facility and have no origin documented.
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Jun 28, 2016 05:21
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you can buy trays of cpus from the manufacturer. thats how they get there. intel makes the chips and then puts them in the trays
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Jun 28, 2016 05:28
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yeah dude you basically just described how all electronic components, everywhere, are sold
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Jun 28, 2016 05:35
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drunk asian neighbor posted:yeah dude you basically just described how all electronic components, everywhere, are sold No dude, big box stores are all selling stolen parts! Edit. For whatever it's worth, buying stolen merchandise is illegal, and there's a minimum diligence you're expected to show. Guy in a trenchcoat going "pssst, dude, do you want some speakers?" would not pass that diligence test. Redrum and Coke fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Jun 28, 2016 |
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Jun 28, 2016 05:44
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Non Serviam posted:No dude, big box stores are all selling stolen parts! No I mean I kind of get what he was saying; the no-name pre-build computers are sourced from sketchy parts, but a) no-name pre-built computers kind of don't exist anymore now that you can buy an HP or Dell or whatever at Target or Walmart or Costco for under $300 and b) even expensive components like CPUs or whatnot, are almost always shipped in cheap plastic antistatic trays in mostly-unmarked cardboard boxes.
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Jun 28, 2016 05:51
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