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Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.

mostlygray posted:

My very social media savvy friend experienced a similar thing. He should have known better. The scammer got lucky and found out that his cousin was a missionary in central Africa (I forget which country, it was years ago) and did the "send money via Western Union or he'll be murdered" deal. He was freaking out about it.

Fortunately, he had me look at it and I found the origin of the scam and the IP. I told him to email his cousin before panicking. All was well, of course. Sometimes we get blind sided and we freak out. It happens to the best of us. Heck, I bought a coupon book over the phone once when I was broke in college. I still regret that one.

This is why you demand they send a severed toe for verification.

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LifeSunDeath
Jan 4, 2007

still gay rights and smoke weed every day

mostlygray posted:

My very social media savvy friend experienced a similar thing. He should have known better. The scammer got lucky and found out that his cousin was a missionary in central Africa (I forget which country, it was years ago) and did the "send money via Western Union or he'll be murdered" deal. He was freaking out about it.

Fortunately, he had me look at it and I found the origin of the scam and the IP. I told him to email his cousin before panicking. All was well, of course. Sometimes we get blind sided and we freak out. It happens to the best of us. Heck, I bought a coupon book over the phone once when I was broke in college. I still regret that one.

Well I guess it's only fair since missionaries have been scamming people since the dark ages.

Corsair Pool Boy
Dec 17, 2004
College Slice

Platystemon posted:

This is why you demand they send a severed toe for verification.

You want a toe? I'll get you a toe by 5 o'clock.

tinytort
Jun 10, 2013

Super healthy, super cheap
Found out today that my parents have been getting PoAs set up for my grandparents, and rearranging the bank accounts to reflect that.

My grandfather is completely on board with this, since it was prompted by him getting scammed out of at least $700, possibly more, and nearly getting his identity stolen. Turns out mom and dad walked in right as the scammer was trying to pressure grandpa into scanning copies of his driver's license and passport; dad yanked the phone line and internet connection to keep that from happening, which was good thinking on his part since grandpa wasn't convinced he was being scammed until his credit card company's fraud department explained that the money he'd been trying to deposit was actually a cash advance from his own credit card.

Apparently it managed to get that far because the scammer was telling him that there was a problem with his bank account and money has been deposited wrong, and he had to withdraw it and go deposit it at a different bank. Which meant that grandpa was already primed to distrust the bank employees trying to warn him it was a scam. The only things stopping it from being worse is that one of the banks told him the account he was supposed to deposit to was closed, and his health meant that he got tired quickly and had to go home and rest - which meant that there was time for my parents to walk in during the middle of all this.

Grandpa is pretty embarrassed about it, since he's used to being the guy who's financially savvy - and my dad and uncles are shocked for the same reason. I think they all expected that if anyone got caught like that, it'd be my grandmother (whose memory is definitely going).

AllNewJonasSalk
Apr 22, 2017

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Guys, I recently got a job at a call center that seemed like a dream come true. As a felon, there aren't very many jobs in offices that I'm able to get so of course I jumped on the chance to randomly call people on the phone and lower the interest rates on their credit cards.

At first, everything seemed pretty okay and me and my cousin had a decent time bullshitting for 6 hours a day while perusing the internet. But that was several weeks ago. The job itself is shrouded in mystery and no one will tell me exactly what it is we do, other than "qualify customers to have their interest rates lowered." This is a thing my boss acknowledges can be done for free at the bank by the customers themselves.

So I turn to you intelligent people to tell me how legitimate it is to have a third party lower the interest rates on your credit cards. I don't wanna scam old people and if this is basically a scam I need to get the gently caress out of there.

Piell
Sep 3, 2006

Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer


Young Orc

AllNewJonasSalk posted:

Guys, I recently got a job at a call center that seemed like a dream come true. As a felon, there aren't very many jobs in offices that I'm able to get so of course I jumped on the chance to randomly call people on the phone and lower the interest rates on their credit cards.

At first, everything seemed pretty okay and me and my cousin had a decent time bullshitting for 6 hours a day while perusing the internet. But that was several weeks ago. The job itself is shrouded in mystery and no one will tell me exactly what it is we do, other than "qualify customers to have their interest rates lowered." This is a thing my boss acknowledges can be done for free at the bank by the customers themselves.

So I turn to you intelligent people to tell me how legitimate it is to have a third party lower the interest rates on your credit cards. I don't wanna scam old people and if this is basically a scam I need to get the gently caress out of there.

Pretty much every call center is a scam

AllNewJonasSalk
Apr 22, 2017

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Piell posted:

Pretty much every call center is a scam

Well in that case I'm lucky enough to be poo poo at selling people things they don't want so have not actually scammed anyone except myself.

AllNewJonasSalk fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 26, 2018

Red Oktober
May 24, 2006

wiggly eyes!



If I had to guess, you’re generating leads for credit card companies. You qualify the customers which are eligible for a lower rate, and feed that to companies who will then try to get them to switch.

AllNewJonasSalk
Apr 22, 2017

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Red Oktober posted:

If I had to guess, you’re generating leads for credit card companies. You qualify the customers which are eligible for a lower rate, and feed that to companies who will then try to get them to switch.

I don't want to sound naive or like an idiot, and I did a little research that got me thinking along the lines of what you're saying, but they told us specifically that we're not doing that. What I don't understand is what do they gain from keeping us in the dark as to the true nature of what we're doing?

The few complaints I read online at the BBB said something along the lines of what you're saying we're probably doing.

Red Oktober
May 24, 2006

wiggly eyes!



Absolutely no idea then. Can’t think off the top of my head of any other reason.

AllNewJonasSalk
Apr 22, 2017

THUNDERDOME LOSER
That wasn't to say that you're not right. I think that you're probably a lot closer to the truth of what I'm doing than I am. I just don't understand the need for subterfuge with your own employees.

I never had to navigate morality at McDonald's. I instinctively knew I was working for bad people at a bad company while I followed orders and flipped hamburgers all day.

Haifisch
Nov 13, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender

AllNewJonasSalk posted:

I just don't understand the need for subterfuge with your own employees.
Worst case scenario: They're doing something actively illegal and want to reduce the chances of a whistleblower.

Best case scenario: lovely call center boss doesn't really care what's going on as long as the paychecks clear, and can't be assed to explain the details of the business to a revolving door of employees. Or maybe boss doesn't fully understand themselves and just does whatever the people at the top tell them to do.

Absurd Alhazred
Mar 27, 2010

by Athanatos
They get their phone number lists from illegal database breaches and they don't want you to be able to divulge the name of the company because they're in big trouble with the FTC on account of ignoring the Federal Do Not Call List, among other things.

peanut
Sep 9, 2007


What if you like could just download the Do Not Call List and use that for business????!! So convenience!

There was a typhoon last week and I got some shady txts like "Click here for typhoon evacuation info http://huhuf445.fnfjnff/dndfg.php"

greazeball
Feb 4, 2003



Piell posted:

Pretty much every call center is a scam

with the important distinction that not all of them are scamming the people they're calling, many of them are scamming the businesses they are making the calls for

Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry
Hi hello I would like to ask/know what the thread opinion is on STAR CITIZEN

Thanks and namaste

Trastion
Jul 24, 2003
The one and only.
I'm sorry but you will need to Paypal me $1,000 for that info. Don't worry as a bonus I will throw in a sweet super awesome skin for your use in the game.

Wicked Them Beats
Apr 1, 2007

Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

Trastion posted:

I'm sorry but you will need to Paypal me $1,000 for that info. Don't worry as a bonus I will throw in a sweet super awesome skin for your use in the game.

Increase the price to $5,000 and throw in a picture of a spaceship and I'm on board.

Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry

Trastion posted:

I'm sorry but you will need to Paypal me $1,000 for that info. Don't worry as a bonus I will throw in a sweet super awesome skin for your use in the game.

Uh, I think you'll find that all skins are earnable in-game (for a large dollar-equivalent). Now, if this was a limited* edition** ship***, I'd be down to drop some pesos on this promise.




* "Limited" digital item
** "Edition" to become irrelevant 4 years from now when ship still isn't released
*** may or may not be an actual ship

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Hi hello I would like to ask/know what the thread opinion is on STAR CITIZEN

Thanks and namaste

It's a scam.

the holy poopacy
May 16, 2009

hey! check this out
Fun Shoe

hellotoothpaste posted:

:siren: MY GIRLFRIEND :siren: almost got popped by an "I'm in trouble" scam and I'm real glad I had been reading this thread/staying aware of scam tactics for a long while. Caller was pretending to be a friend of a relative in some sort of tight spot and needed money right now. Was trying to get her to send money via the Cash app (like Venmo/Zelle, I hadn't heard of it at all) and while she is empathetic and was starting to believe, fortunately she isn't gullible and feigned dependence on my decision until I got home and the phone rang again. I picked up and we had a different sort of conversation.

Pretty standard fast-talky, scammy person trying to talk past the ability to process information. Knew an incredible amount about the guy he was pretending to be, including a professional license number which he was far too over eager to share in order build confidence. Told him to slow down and we had a pretty ridiculous "you're a loving idiot scammer and it's obvious" call where he was constantly trying to break off from me to get back to her. I got tired of the call when he started turning it around on me in a poo poo lazy fashion and told her it's probably A Good Idea to block the number. A strange part was that he was pretty adamant about getting on Facetime to prove who he was. That seemed strange to offer that up when clearly this was someone that snagged an identity, and I wasn't going to waste the 10-15 mins where he "can't get video working" or whatever that was probably heading toward, but like.. I dunno, it was oddly confident but in the obvious way sociopaths/narcissists can get when challenged. Either that or it'd help him identify me via connections he'd already made.

One curiosity came to mind after, was what are the chances this is a single direct hit on something like email -> social media accounts -> building up a list of info and relatives to hit, versus that whole thing being sold as a package by a third-party and/or in bulk? It seemed like it would be an awful amount of work to dig up the really comprehensive, but outdated information about not only the mark, but shared acquaintances as well. I've only ever thought about bulk credentials being traded in the dark but it's even scarier if it's large profiles that have been mined from that information. :ohdear:

PS: This thread not needs derailed

I got one of these calls a some years back, it was pretty freaky. Never got a money pitch, just a bunch of rapid fire questions about close family members' personal details. A little too rapid fire, fortunately. They opened up with enough details to spin a vague but plausible story about having met my brother at a recent comic con and needing to get in touch with him, which I probably would have given up if he hadn't bounced around to so many other questions in the time it took me to go look up my brother's phone number. Questions about my other siblings, what cars various family members drove, what school they went to, what their pets were named... at which point the alarm bells started really going off, because 1. the guy's story couldn't account for knowing all these family members across the country that don't run in the same circles at all, and 2. gee this guy's questions all really sound like account security questions.

tinytort
Jun 10, 2013

Super healthy, super cheap

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Hi hello I would like to ask/know what the thread opinion is on STAR CITIZEN

Thanks and namaste

Just about the only thing I can think of that's scammier than bitcoin. At least with bitcoin, you have a thing that will theoretically be worth what you paid for it or more. Star Citizen doesn't even give you that much, it just gives you the promise of a thing and claims that it'll totally be worth the price when you get it.

Also, not sure whether or not it's a cult these days. It might be a cult, but the last time I heard anything about Star Citizen was at least a couple years ago.

As far as the "you don't need to know what we do" call center job goes, if whatever's going on there isn't actually illegal, then it's probably at least sketchy as hell and might be one of those things that's only not illegal because the law hasn't caught up yet. People are joking about how all call center jobs are sketchy, but I worked at a call center for a while and they were completely up front at every point that what I and my coworkers would be doing was inbound customer service for a cellphone company. I won't say it wasn't exhausting and soul-crushing to work there, but at no point did my bosses or managers try to be even a little bit vague about what kind of work we were doing.

axolotl farmer
May 17, 2007

Now I'm going to sing the Perry Mason theme

Wicked Them Beats posted:

Increase the price to $5,000 and throw in a picture of a spaceship and I'm on board.

Lowtax still not coming through on his promise :argh:

Blackchamber
Jan 25, 2005

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Hi hello I would like to ask/know what the thread opinion is on STAR CITIZEN

Thanks and namaste

I like to go into SC twitch streams and act like I'm interested in the game then ask if its worth getting into it now or if I 'should wait until the Game of the Year edition is released since those usually come with all the extra dlc or extras'. Even supporters of the game/streamers will agree the game has to actually come out some day before there can be an GotY edition can come out, and its not likely to happen.

Fruits of the sea
Dec 1, 2010

It's less a scam and more an overly ambitious project with Molyneux'esque marketing, a terminal case of feature creep, spineless/powerless project managers and a leadership that is resorting to increasingly creative and dubious ways of making money to keep the ship afloat. Had they intended to scam folks from the start, they wouldn't have pissed so much cash away on hiring third party developers and opening new studios.

I'm a little out of date though. There was just a free weekend and it sounds like they added a bunch of stuff but the engine can't handle multiplayer.

Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Aug 28, 2018

Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry

Fruits of the sea posted:

It's less a scam and more an overly ambitious project with Molyneux'esque marketing, a terminal case of feature creep, spineless/powerless project managers and a leadership that is resorting to increasingly creative and dubious ways of making money to keep the ship afloat. Had they intended to scam folks from the start, they wouldn't have pissed so much cash away on hiring third party developers and opening new studios.

I'm a little out of date though. There was just a free weekend and it sounds like they added a bunch of stuff but the engine can't handle multiplayer.

Maybe they knew they'd look like a scam so they opened the studios and paid the developers just to look like they weren't a scam! :tinfoil:

Absurd Alhazred
Mar 27, 2010

by Athanatos
Maybe the scam was to play pretend big idea video game developers for a few years without having any reason to believe they could deliver an actual product?

Wicked Them Beats
Apr 1, 2007

Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

The scam was Christ Roberts promising a video game when what he really wanted was to pretend to be a Hollywood bigshot.

"If I open a mocap studio then Gary Oldman will HAVE to talk to me!"

:yarg:

Holyshoot
May 6, 2010
Whats the scam behind people calling you telling you that you qualify for student loan forgiveness? Saying that because of some shady poo poo navient did I can get my loans forgiven. I have private loans with them so I highly doubt this is possible.

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

What happened to the star citizen thread? I was reading the gbs one but I don't see it anymore.

Wicked Them Beats
Apr 1, 2007

Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

Crowdfunded boondoggles have their own subforum now: https://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=212

Mr. Fall Down Terror
Jan 24, 2018

by Fluffdaddy

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Maybe the scam was to play pretend big idea video game developers for a few years without having any reason to believe they could deliver an actual product?

nah, the guy behind the game, chris roberts, made the beloved wing commander series. he's a legit game developer with name recognition, and he practically invented the space fighter sim genre. for people who nerd out about those kind of games he's a rock star

his problem is this:

Wicked Them Beats posted:

The scam was Christ Roberts promising a video game when what he really wanted was to pretend to be a Hollywood bigshot.

he really is is a game developer with dreams of being a hollywood bigshot. he directed a movie based on his game series that was released in 1999. it was bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR26_xbXIQ4

star citizen is an attempt to make the biggest, bestest space game ever. he promised everything under the sun would be in his omnigame and because of his reputation, people believed him. the project didn't start as a scam, but it arguably is one now because roberts let his fantasies dictate the scale of his project to the point that it is completely unbuildable as promised

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.
He promised a game where you could live in a sci-fi space world, and be a cool dude there. This appealed to sad people, who were duly separated from their money.

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

So, they can meet all project goals by opening a Star Wars Galaxies server and pocketing the difference

Don Gato
Apr 28, 2013

Actually a bipedal cat.
Grimey Drawer
People believed the guy who promised the moon during the development of Freelancer and thought this time he could make the game he promised without Microsoft interfering. Only it turns out there's a reason why Microsoft kicked him off of Freelancer and it wasn't just because they were greedy and wanted to recoup their investment.

Osama Dozen-Dongs
Nov 29, 2014
Freelancer endes up being a nice, enjoyable game tho, so lol at him/them

Corsair Pool Boy
Dec 17, 2004
College Slice

luxury handset posted:

nah, the guy behind the game, chris roberts, made the beloved wing commander series. he's a legit game developer with name recognition, and he practically invented the space fighter sim genre. for people who nerd out about those kind of games he's a rock star

his problem is this:


he really is is a game developer with dreams of being a hollywood bigshot. he directed a movie based on his game series that was released in 1999. it was bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR26_xbXIQ4

star citizen is an attempt to make the biggest, bestest space game ever. he promised everything under the sun would be in his omnigame and because of his reputation, people believed him. the project didn't start as a scam, but it arguably is one now because roberts let his fantasies dictate the scale of his project to the point that it is completely unbuildable as promised

It's not just bad, it's all-time bad movies levels of bad. Really, really bad. And aside from being in space with characters having the same names as the games and having cat-like antagonists called Kilrathi it has nothing in common with the video games. Like, it goes out of it's way to break canon in as many ways as possible.

And it's bad. One of those 'no redeeming qualities' bad movies.

tk
Dec 10, 2003

Nap Ghost

Holyshoot posted:

Whats the scam behind people calling you telling you that you qualify for student loan forgiveness? Saying that because of some shady poo poo navient did I can get my loans forgiven. I have private loans with them so I highly doubt this is possible.
Sometimes it’s just charging a fee to fill out paperwork and poo poo you can do yourself. Sometimes they’ll charge you a fee saying they can get you out of the loans on whatever technicality (they can’t).

The Moon Monster
Dec 30, 2005

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Hi hello I would like to ask/know what the thread opinion is on STAR CITIZEN

Thanks and namaste

I think it started as an earnest attempt to make a game, and probably still is on some level, but Chris Roberts isn't very good at schedule and budget, and when they realized they could make nine-figures by selling people pictures of spaceships the business plan evolved.

As always the smart move with crowd-funded games is to just buy it when it see a general release, if and when that happens and if the game turns out to be any good. They'll probably slap a "1.0" on whatever they've got once the fanbase has eroded enough and the money dries up but I wouldn't count on it being any good.

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Wicked Them Beats
Apr 1, 2007

Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

The Moon Monster posted:

I think it started as an earnest attempt to make a game, and probably still is on some level, but Chris Roberts isn't very good at schedule and budget, and when they realized they could make nine-figures by selling people pictures of spaceships the business plan evolved.

As always the smart move with crowd-funded games is to just buy it when it see a general release, if and when that happens and if the game turns out to be any good. They'll probably slap a "1.0" on whatever they've got once the fanbase has eroded enough and the money dries up but I wouldn't count on it being any good.

On top of schedule and budget Chris also don't know how version numbers work so they're on v2.3 or somewhere thereabouts.

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