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Sanford
Jun 30, 2007

...and rarely post!


RUBBISH SCAM ALERT

I have an allotment. The fee is £25 a year paid in advance. There are fewer than ten allotment holders total, we all know each other, share tools, take tea breaks together, etc.

When a guy with a virtually unintelligible Russian accent starts walking from plot to plot telling people the rules have changed, it is now £100 a year and it needs to be paid in cash, now, or "I will have to take this garden" it tends not to go down very well. The end result was a group of angry men carrying gardening tools telling him to gently caress off or we'll call the police. He set off on foot and as he left picked up a spade and took it with him, so we called the police anyway. They picked him up half a mile down the road and brought the spade back. Weird as hell.

If I get there tonight and the allotment has been seized by the Russian government I'm going to look a right chump.

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Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



It worked for Crimea, may as well give it a shot.

HopperUK
Apr 29, 2007

Why would an ambulance be leaving the hospital?
He was just trying to start a communist plot :D

peanut
Sep 9, 2007


Sanford posted:

RUBBISH SCAM ALERT

I have an allotment. The fee is £25 a year paid in advance. There are fewer than ten allotment holders total, we all know each other, share tools, take tea breaks together, etc.

When a guy with a virtually unintelligible Russian accent starts walking from plot to plot telling people the rules have changed, it is now £100 a year and it needs to be paid in cash, now, or "I will have to take this garden" it tends not to go down very well. The end result was a group of angry men carrying gardening tools telling him to gently caress off or we'll call the police. He set off on foot and as he left picked up a spade and took it with him, so we called the police anyway. They picked him up half a mile down the road and brought the spade back. Weird as hell.

If I get there tonight and the allotment has been seized by the Russian government I'm going to look a right chump.

lol cool

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

Sanford posted:

RUBBISH SCAM ALERT

I have an allotment. The fee is £25 a year paid in advance. There are fewer than ten allotment holders total, we all know each other, share tools, take tea breaks together, etc.

When a guy with a virtually unintelligible Russian accent starts walking from plot to plot telling people the rules have changed, it is now £100 a year and it needs to be paid in cash, now, or "I will have to take this garden" it tends not to go down very well. The end result was a group of angry men carrying gardening tools telling him to gently caress off or we'll call the police. He set off on foot and as he left picked up a spade and took it with him, so we called the police anyway. They picked him up half a mile down the road and brought the spade back. Weird as hell.

If I get there tonight and the allotment has been seized by the Russian government I'm going to look a right chump.

You should have used the pitchforks.

SnafuAl
Oct 20, 2010

VR! VR! VR!
BLOODY VR!


MrNemo posted:

1) what do I do in response to this and 2) How the gently caress did these guys get this info?

Not sure there's a great deal you can do, other than making sure folks know you haven't lost your phone and not to tell someone claiming to be you anything.

I came across a couple of these sort of scams at my old job in a bank's fraud department, the usual goal is to build up info on a target to make the inevitable request for money seem trustworthy (in this case likely trying to establish their phone number or WhatsApp as being 'you' before asking for money to pay for a flight/medical expense/etc).

Most likely one of the people they called has had their social media accessed and your name picked from their contacts on there. With the amount of info on Facebook, it's pretty easy for a scammer to figure out enough to make initial contact seem like it could reasonably be from someone known to the victim but not too close, a future in-law being a good example.

AlbieQuirky
Oct 9, 2012

Just me and my 🌊dragon🐉 hanging out

Sanford posted:

RUBBISH SCAM ALERT

I have an allotment. The fee is £25 a year paid in advance. There are fewer than ten allotment holders total, we all know each other, share tools, take tea breaks together, etc.

When a guy with a virtually unintelligible Russian accent starts walking from plot to plot telling people the rules have changed, it is now £100 a year and it needs to be paid in cash, now, or "I will have to take this garden" it tends not to go down very well. The end result was a group of angry men carrying gardening tools telling him to gently caress off or we'll call the police. He set off on foot and as he left picked up a spade and took it with him, so we called the police anyway. They picked him up half a mile down the road and brought the spade back. Weird as hell.

If I get there tonight and the allotment has been seized by the Russian government I'm going to look a right chump.

I think that’s more of a protection racket than a scam, exactly. The tool theft was certainly an original touch!

JacquelineDempsey
Aug 6, 2008

Women's Circuit Bender Union Local 34



Shopping around for rental homes/apartments, and got this old gem from a Craigslist ad:

quote:

The rent is $600 monthly and security deposit of $500 for just rent, for rent to own the rent is $600 and down payment of $900, to view the house drive by and look through the window or go through the back door to view the inside because I have been transferred to New York for my new job contract and the bunch of keys is here with me in New York with the intention of sending it to any interested tenant through fed ex. The realtor has been increasing the price in other website like Zillow, trulia the house actually cost $127500, 15 years term to own, which is making it difficult to get applicant, every payment goes towards the purchase price of the house. tax and insurance already included.

My initial plan was to sell the house and I involved a local Realtor's, I don,t want to use the realtor anymore due to high charges and I don,t want him to get involve in the house again to avoid extra charges for tenant, as soon as I get a good tenant, the sale sign will be removed from the house. My last tenant took advantage of me, he did not send my payment after I shipped the keys, looking forward to get a good tenant, you can go over and view the house through the window and get back to me if you like it so we can discuss about the contract and sending the keys through fedex, the house is located [address redacted]

God bless

:allears: God bless :allears:

I went back to CL to flag it as scam/spam, but the ad's not there, I guess someone beat me to the punch.

Tubgoat
Jun 30, 2013

by sebmojo

Sanford posted:

They picked him up half a mile down the road and brought the spade back.
Lucky. American police would've kept the spade as evidence and sold it at auction, then charged you a fee.

Did I mention literally every aspect of American life, top to bottom, is a scam? 'Cause it really, truly, sincerely is. :d2a:

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

JacquelineDempsey posted:

Shopping around for rental homes/apartments, and got this old gem from a Craigslist ad:


:allears: God bless :allears:

I went back to CL to flag it as scam/spam, but the ad's not there, I guess someone beat me to the punch.

These people steal all this money and can't afford a simple, basic translator/proof reader.

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010

BiggerBoat posted:

These people steal all this money and can't afford a simple, basic translator/proof reader.

The idea is they want to find the people who are too dumb to realize it's a scam. Making the language seem off actually helps them.

JacquelineDempsey
Aug 6, 2008

Women's Circuit Bender Union Local 34



BiggerBoat posted:

These people steal all this money and can't afford a simple, basic translator/proof reader.


bamhand posted:

The idea is they want to find the people who are too dumb to realize it's a scam. Making the language seem off actually helps them.

That's the thing; the ad itself was well-written enough that I bothered to reply to it. The gibberish I posted above there was their email reply. I guess they just steal copy from some other (legit) ad, then use their crazy form letter to fish for marks.

There's another place that looked promising, and I did a drive-by yesterday to see if the property actually exists (it does, and is the house in the pics). There's supposed to be an open house today, but as of noon yesterday the lawn looked like it hadn't been mowed in months. Stay tuned for more exciting "Adventures in Craigslist Rental Scams"!

Claeaus
Mar 29, 2010
A good demonstration of the Razzle Dazzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=527F51qTcTg

I hadn't seen this before and when they showed the probability distribution and how they put all the no-point numbers in the middle of it I went "Oh gently caress that's sneaky". It's rather obvious when you think about it though. Basically evil statistics and probabilities with some hustling on top.

Absurd Alhazred
Mar 27, 2010

by Athanatos
Has anyone heard of this Jim Browning? Here's a video where he's showing the inside of an Indian scam call center, I think he might have hacked one of their computers or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb_rgQ4IDS8

occamsnailfile
Nov 4, 2007



zamtrios so lonely
Grimey Drawer

JacquelineDempsey posted:

That's the thing; the ad itself was well-written enough that I bothered to reply to it. The gibberish I posted above there was their email reply. I guess they just steal copy from some other (legit) ad, then use their crazy form letter to fish for marks.

There's another place that looked promising, and I did a drive-by yesterday to see if the property actually exists (it does, and is the house in the pics). There's supposed to be an open house today, but as of noon yesterday the lawn looked like it hadn't been mowed in months. Stay tuned for more exciting "Adventures in Craigslist Rental Scams"!

They also try to scam people making legit listings, sending fake check emails by the dozen, spamming you with text messages trying to get you to call a third-party number or visit a totally not virus-laden URL for 'renter information.' I have stable tenants right now but the next time I have to list stuff out I may skip Craigslist entirely, the actual legitimate responses I got came through hotpad and apartments.com. Of course, a lot of those fundamentally didn't read the listing but at least they were real people.

Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Has anyone heard of this Jim Browning? Here's a video where he's showing the inside of an Indian scam call center, I think he might have hacked one of their computers or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb_rgQ4IDS8

A hero.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



Yeah that was a great watch. Thanks.

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010
We just bought a house last 2 months ago. And now we got an official looking piece of paper saying they can provide us a copy of our deed for our records for just 85 dollars.

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

bamhand posted:

We just bought a house last 2 months ago. And now we got an official looking piece of paper saying they can provide us a copy of our deed for our records for just 85 dollars.

https://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/beware-of-this-deed-scam/

If you don't have a copy of your deed already, then you should be able to get one from the county/state/wherever for cheap.

Some countries have scammers that do similar things with visas and other government documents... the documents are incredibly easy and cheap to do via the local government, but people set up companies that do it "for you" and charge ridiculous fees.

Google just got in trouble for this in the UK I think... some company used Google ads, so Google had put that company's ads at the top of the search results for the service, when the government website was buried several links down. Can't remember exact numbers, but it was like a $20 document that the company was charging $140 for or something.

MightyJoe36
Dec 29, 2013

:minnie: Cat Army :minnie:

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Has anyone heard of this Jim Browning? Here's a video where he's showing the inside of an Indian scam call center, I think he might have hacked one of their computers or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb_rgQ4IDS8

So this is the place that keeps calling me with job offers.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



DaveSauce posted:

Google just got in trouble for this in the UK I think... some company used Google ads, so Google had put that company's ads at the top of the search results for the service, when the government website was buried several links down. Can't remember exact numbers, but it was like a $20 document that the company was charging $140 for or something.

Wonder if that was for a European Health Insurance Card. My friend got burn in exactly that manner about 10 years ago when applying for one.

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

EL BROMANCE posted:

Wonder if that was for a European Health Insurance Card. My friend got burn in exactly that manner about 10 years ago when applying for one.

I had to look it up because I couldn't remember the exact scenario:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45913581

I don't think this was exactly what I was thinking of, but it's the same concept. I'm sure this and the deed scam are just the tip of the iceberg.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



Ah yeah, ESTA is the service that lets you travel to the US as a tourist. Similar kind of signup thing, and wouldn't surprised me at all that the same people pulling EHIC cards had their thumbs in this pie too. If you don't know how much something should be costing, it's definitely easy to fall for these things.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
So I started going a "YouTube scammer calls" rabbit hole and one scammer dude was all "you are so stupid. I post these videos of me stealing money and monetize them on YT so I win both ways". For a second it sounded like bullshit but, the more i thought about it, it did indeed sound like the next upping of the ante in the scammer arms race and something that wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Anyone know if it's actually true?

Also, I noticed these dickheads wear ear pieces a lot. Whatever happened to the old police whistle/air horn trick? Worth try I'd think. Ordinarily I'd be against something so barbaric but these pricks are so shameless and get so offended when you "waste their time" that rendering them deaf in one ear might at least put them on even footing with the seniors they openly brag about preying on.

Seriously, one dude was openly bragging about how "most of our 'customers' are seniors" as if that made it more noble or something. And "stop wasting my time with these frivolous phone calls" is just..."Stop wasting my time that I could be spending stealing from people, you rear end in a top hat." They get so OFFENDED.

God drat. Motherfucker, you called ME to try and steal my money.

It's like a burglar getting mad at you because you had your AC set too low, you didn't crate your dog and he bit me, your lock took too long to pick and the windows they broke cut up my poor little arms and finger, you mother fucker.

Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry
Its not "like" a burglar getting mad at you, that's exactly what it is. Reminds me of a thief who broke into someone's house, got shot while in the act, and then sued the homeowner. Can't remember who won.



Either way, it always seems weird to me that people don't just set up an auto-caller to flood their phone lines. Air horn idea is great, but doesn't make good youtube viewing.

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Reminds me of a thief who broke into someone's house, got shot while in the act, and then sued the homeowner. Can't remember who won.

I had a whole shitpost full of sarcasm and THANKS OBAMA prepared because this is some FWD:FWD:RE:FWD: poo poo from your racist uncle, but I deleted it because:

You can't just up and shoot people.

Even in castle doctrine and/or "stand your ground" states, your right to self defense is pretty severely limited to situations where your life/safety is in immediate danger. If you shoot someone because they step foot on your property, or even if they're in the process of taking your TV out the front door, you're probably going to end up in jail.

DigitalRaven
Oct 9, 2012




DaveSauce posted:

I had a whole shitpost full of sarcasm and THANKS OBAMA prepared because this is some FWD:FWD:RE:FWD: poo poo from your racist uncle, but I deleted it because:

You can't just up and shoot people.

Even in castle doctrine and/or "stand your ground" states, your right to self defense is pretty severely limited to situations where your life/safety is in immediate danger. If you shoot someone because they step foot on your property, or even if they're in the process of taking your TV out the front door, you're probably going to end up in jail.

Tony Martin would beg to differ...

Fil5000
Jun 23, 2003

HOLD ON GUYS I'M POSTING ABOUT INTERNET ROBOTS

DigitalRaven posted:

Tony Martin would beg to differ...

I love that he claims he "found" a pump action shotgun. Yeah, sure Tony, we're just tripping over firearms here in the UK. After Hungerford and Dunblane all the guns in private ownership were gathered up and just scattered across Norfolk for farmers to find.

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

DigitalRaven posted:

Tony Martin would beg to differ...

OK, so first, you're proving my point in that there's a criminal case where the homeowner was thrown in prison for murdering a 16-year-old kid who, while trespassing with intent to commit burglary, posed no threat.

Second, the lawsuit portion was dropped because the idiot wasn't injured as bad as he claimed. But even so, anybody can sue anybody for anything, and you can always find a lawyer willing to take your case no matter how baseless it is. That doesn't mean the case has merit.

This "THIEF GOT SHOT AND SUED THE VICTIM!!!!" bullshit is no different from the "LADY POURS HOT COFFEE ON HER LAP AND SUES MACDONALDS!!!" It's overblown knee-jerk idiocy that either ignores the real merit of the case, or ignores the result of frivolous lawsuits (which is overwhelmingly that the case goes nowhere).

edit:

quote:

Martin shot three times towards the intruders (once when they were in the stairwell and twice more when they were trying to flee through the window of an adjacent ground floor room)

Nothing says "self defense" like shooting someone in the back.

DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 15:02 on May 14, 2019

Magissima
Apr 15, 2013

I'd like to introduce you to some of the most special of our rocks and minerals.
Soiled Meat
Huh, that dude is also a literal fascist, what an interesting coincidence

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010
Not sure if it's limited to bikes or if that's just shows up for me due to my interests but every couple weeks Facebook will have ads for $5000 bikes being sold for $75. A bunch of different manufacturers with pictures and info ripped off the MFG website. Anyone else see these for other products? Like buy a new Tesla for $200! We will sell you this new house in Manhattan for $5000. The prices are laughably unbelievable. Also why not just sell things at a believable discount and just not deliver the product. It would at least be harder to tell that it's a scam in that case.

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

bamhand posted:

Not sure if it's limited to bikes or if that's just shows up for me due to my interests but every couple weeks Facebook will have ads for $5000 bikes being sold for $75. A bunch of different manufacturers with pictures and info ripped off the MFG website. Anyone else see these for other products? Like buy a new Tesla for $200! We will sell you this new house in Manhattan for $5000. The prices are laughably unbelievable. Also why not just sell things at a believable discount and just not deliver the product. It would at least be harder to tell that it's a scam in that case.

Efficiency demands the scammer filter out anyone credulous enough to bite but smart enough to figure out it's a scam after the scammer has already begun investing time in their case. It's very much to their advantage for the scam to obvious to all but the most absolutely doe-eyed.

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010

shame on an IGA posted:

Efficiency demands the scammer filter out anyone credulous enough to bite but smart enough to figure out it's a scam after the scammer has already begun investing time in their case. It's very much to their advantage for the scam to obvious to all but the most absolutely doe-eyed.

How does the scam work then? I assumed it was just charge customer, then don't deliver product. In which case wouldn't it make sense to make it as believable as possible? I guess maybe their payment method could be "mail us cash in an envelope". I never bothered to actually try and buy anything from those ads.

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.

bamhand posted:

How does the scam work then? I assumed it was just charge customer, then don't deliver product. In which case wouldn't it make sense to make it as believable as possible? I guess maybe their payment method could be "mail us cash in an envelope". I never bothered to actually try and buy anything from those ads.

Imagine you're someone dumb enough to think the IRS would ever demand payment in gift cards. Now assume you REALLY want a cool motorcycle. And hey, you just found this ad for a cool motorcycle and it only costs $100! Add in a story about how the scammer had to leave the country or something else that you desperately want to believe because you want a bike and this is your only chance to afford one.

And yeah it will be something like mail us some cash or some gift cards or give me all your bank account information and we'll do a transfer and oops that's weird I accidentally transferred $5,000 to your account what a woopsie how about you send me back $3,000 and I let you keep the rest in apology.

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

bamhand posted:

How does the scam work then? I assumed it was just charge customer, then don't deliver product. In which case wouldn't it make sense to make it as believable as possible? I guess maybe their payment method could be "mail us cash in an envelope". I never bothered to actually try and buy anything from those ads.

I don't know how it ACTUALLY works, but I would imagine it's just cheap knock-offs at best, or just running away with your cash at worst.

Basically if you're dumb enough to believe you can get $200 Oakleys for $20 via Facebook, then you're dumb enough to not recognize a knock-off. Or you're dumb enough to send the money first, and then probably dumb enough to send it twice when they claim they never got it.

DizzyBum
Apr 16, 2007


bamhand posted:

Not sure if it's limited to bikes or if that's just shows up for me due to my interests but every couple weeks Facebook will have ads for $5000 bikes being sold for $75. A bunch of different manufacturers with pictures and info ripped off the MFG website. Anyone else see these for other products? Like buy a new Tesla for $200! We will sell you this new house in Manhattan for $5000. The prices are laughably unbelievable. Also why not just sell things at a believable discount and just not deliver the product. It would at least be harder to tell that it's a scam in that case.

First thing this makes me think of is penny auction sites.

Konstantin
Jun 20, 2005
And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

bamhand posted:

Not sure if it's limited to bikes or if that's just shows up for me due to my interests but every couple weeks Facebook will have ads for $5000 bikes being sold for $75. A bunch of different manufacturers with pictures and info ripped off the MFG website. Anyone else see these for other products? Like buy a new Tesla for $200! We will sell you this new house in Manhattan for $5000. The prices are laughably unbelievable. Also why not just sell things at a believable discount and just not deliver the product. It would at least be harder to tell that it's a scam in that case.

Chances are you'll get a bike, but it will be the cheapest possible Chinese crap with some stickers on it. They also use shady Chinese credit card processors, so you'll probably get a call from your credit card company asking if you authorized a charge from some company whose name is a bunch of random letters.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



DaveSauce posted:

"LADY POURS HOT COFFEE ON HER LAP AND SUES MACDONALDS!!!" It's overblown knee-jerk idiocy that either ignores the real merit of the case, or ignores the result of frivolous lawsuits (which is overwhelmingly that the case goes nowhere).

Anyone who uses this as part of a so-called reasoned argument is welcome to look up the photos of her injuries. Enjoy that experience.

bamhand
Apr 15, 2010

Wicked Them Beats posted:

Imagine you're someone dumb enough to think the IRS would ever demand payment in gift cards. Now assume you REALLY want a cool motorcycle. And hey, you just found this ad for a cool motorcycle and it only costs $100! Add in a story about how the scammer had to leave the country or something else that you desperately want to believe because you want a bike and this is your only chance to afford one.

And yeah it will be something like mail us some cash or some gift cards or give me all your bank account information and we'll do a transfer and oops that's weird I accidentally transferred $5,000 to your account what a woopsie how about you send me back $3,000 and I let you keep the rest in apology.

Yah that would make sense. Though the website itself looks like a real website with a regular store. Though maybe once you try to buy you'll get a guy emailing you with a regular Craigslist scam.

Konstantin posted:

Chances are you'll get a bike, but it will be the cheapest possible Chinese crap with some stickers on it. They also use shady Chinese credit card processors, so you'll probably get a call from your credit card company asking if you authorized a charge from some company whose name is a bunch of random letters.

Again, why not charge a reasonable amount if your plan is to not deliver the actual product anyways.

DizzyBum posted:

First thing this makes me think of is penny auction sites.

Was a regular looking sale as far as I could tell, not one of those auction things where you have to pay to bid.

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DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

bamhand posted:


Again, why not charge a reasonable amount if your plan is to not deliver the actual product anyways.


I think that's what everyone is trying to say.... your question has already been answered:

shame on an IGA posted:

Efficiency demands the scammer filter out anyone credulous enough to bite but smart enough to figure out it's a scam after the scammer has already begun investing time in their case. It's very much to their advantage for the scam to obvious to all but the most absolutely doe-eyed.

Basically, by using a price that's "too good to be true," you lure in only the people dumb enough to fall for "too good to be true." By doing this you've weeded out people who might flake out or might otherwise question you. These are also the people who are less likely to realize they've been scammed after the fact, or even if they do figure it out they'll probably blame it on themselves and keep quiet so that nobody knows how dumb they are to have fallen for such an obvious scam.

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