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Konstantin posted:I think that retail stores have a role to play. Cashiers can typically tell if someone is getting scammed, and giving them the authority to refuse the sale would help. Mentioned upthread but every six months at my company we’re required to review a 30 minute training slideshow about Western Union and gift card sales. If something seems obviously shady between the dollar amount and the buyer’s behavior we’re required to call a manager for assistance. They even specifically call out scams like a grandparent convinced their grandchild is kidnapped or in legal trouble. Absurd Alhazred posted:Money laundering has had an even crazier past than iTunes gift cards: Pro-fuckin-click, I’m not sure what’s wilder, how people got away with it for as long as they did or the reason why most people don’t remember what happened.
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Jul 29, 2018 16:59
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Money laundering has had an even crazier past than iTunes gift cards: This is a pro-read. Thanks!
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Jul 29, 2018 18:47
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Pro-fuckin-click, I’m not sure what’s wilder, how people got away with it for as long as they did or the reason why most people don’t remember what happened. Yeah, through the whole thing I was thinking "How have I never heard about this?" and was honest to god expecting something at the end like "When he was asked how much he stole, he replied 'about tree fiddy'."
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Jul 29, 2018 18:49
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Depressio111117 posted:My favorite thing is scammers getting mad that you won’t let them scam you. I remember one of the guys in those Lenny videos starts saying “gently caress you” after about twenty seconds. This always gets me too. I had a Micorsoft WIndows Security Expert scammer call me and I strung him along a little until I finally told him I had a Mac and he was all "gently caress you , buddy!" It's like some rear end in a top hat almost running you off the road that cuts you off and they have teh audacity to flip you the bird and poo poo.
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Jul 29, 2018 20:27
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A lot of the stores near me now have signage about the scams, train cashiers to warn people about scams when they buy more than $X amount of gift cards, and don't sell gift cards between 12:00 and 6:00. According to a friend who works retail, lots of people ignore all of these to buy iTunes gift cards for the IRS.
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Jul 30, 2018 20:57
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I got a scam email the other day, basically saying they have compromising videos from my webcam and to pay or they’ll be made public. While obviously a scam (i don’t have a webcam for one), what’s scary is that they knew to include an actuall password I recognise as mine, though one I haven’t used anywhere relevant in ages. Should probably scrub my pc or something...? I asume it’s some simple trick and if they really had access to my pc they’d clear out my bank account instead of this, but it still got me genuinelly spoked. 
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Jul 31, 2018 09:33
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Avalerion posted:I got a scam email the other day, basically saying they have compromising videos from my webcam and to pay or they’ll be made public. While obviously a scam (i don’t have a webcam for one), what’s scary is that they knew to include an actuall password I recognise as mine, though one I haven’t used anywhere relevant in ages. Maybe see if your email/password was leaked via a breach on haveibeenpwned.com?
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Jul 31, 2018 09:46
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tight aspirations posted:Maybe see if your email/password was leaked via a breach on haveibeenpwned.com? yeah that’s the current meta, spearfish using one of the million hacked email/password databases
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Jul 31, 2018 09:55
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tight aspirations posted:Maybe see if your email/password was leaked via a breach on haveibeenpwned.com? Yep that’s it then, thanks. Got a match for a bunch of old games and stuff so it checks out.
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Jul 31, 2018 10:16
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Saeku posted:A lot of the stores near me now have signage about the scams, train cashiers to warn people about scams when they buy more than $X amount of gift cards, and don't sell gift cards between 12:00 and 6:00. How stupid do you have to be to not know that you can't pay fines/government debts with iTunes cards? Or is it the same mentality that causes people to buy a mirror in a box in a gas station parking lot because they think they're getting a brand-new iPad for $50? (i.e., I know I did/am doing something illegal, so I'll ignore the sketchieness of this.)
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Jul 31, 2018 11:48
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Cat Army
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MightyJoe36 posted:How stupid do you have to be to not know that you can't pay fines/government debts with iTunes cards? Or is it the same mentality that causes people to buy a mirror in a box in a gas station parking lot because they think they're getting a brand-new iPad for $50? (i.e., I know I did/am doing something illegal, so I'll ignore the sketchieness of this.) People simply panic. They consume media where the government sends out black-suit-with-sunglasses-goons after you in unmarked black vans. They imagine that and all rationality goes out of the window. But yeah a guilty conscience probably doesn't help.
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Jul 31, 2018 12:51
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Namarrgon posted:People simply panic. They consume media where the government sends out black-suit-with-sunglasses-goons after you in unmarked black vans. They imagine that and all rationality goes out of the window. The main thing scammers rely on is lizard brain responses. It's why they try to fast talk you into starting the process before you have a chance to logically think it through. If they can get the adrenaline going and the lizard brain making decisions they can make you do stupid poo poo. Nobody is entirely immune to it which is why educating people on scams is so important. Even if you go into lizard brain mode you can see the pattern and go "wait this smells bad." This is why scammers try to confuse and catch you off guard then often will keep you on the phone or thinking about how you have to have this poo poo in that guy's hands in 15 minutes. The goal is to keep you operating at a low lizard brain level so the holes won't show to the higher functions that can tell your lizard that it's a stupid lizard.
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Jul 31, 2018 18:02
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When I have the time, I enjoy loving with them back and wasting their time by pretending to play along. Or at least to since nowadays I don't answer if I don't recognize the number. I took great satisfaction in pissing them off and wasting their time. For a bit there, when I got scams through the USPS that had SASE's, I'd take the contents from each and stuff them into the other unrelated envelopes.
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Jul 31, 2018 19:27
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BiggerBoat posted:When I have the time, I enjoy loving with them back and wasting their time by pretending to play along. Or at least to since nowadays I don't answer if I don't recognize the number. I took great satisfaction in pissing them off and wasting their time. I do that with political fliers and surveys. I know that Americans For the Best of America want stuff from American Families For America.
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Aug 1, 2018 18:37
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ToxicSlurpee posted:The main thing scammers rely on is lizard brain responses. It's why they try to fast talk you into starting the process before you have a chance to logically think it through. months ago my wife signed up for a 'free child safety kit!' and forgot about it. a few weeks ago some lady knocked on our door, and asked if we were still interested. i said sure, not knowing what was going on. she came inside and gave us our free kit - a brochure you could fill out with all your child's information, fingerprints, place to tape hair samples to, etc. the idea being that you could just give this to the cops in case your kid was abducted. she was sure to tell us that our city is a leading hub for child sex trafficking. thanks strange lady who is sitting at my table, i appreciate that anyway she then started pitching us on life insurance. that's when it hit me, this was a saleswoman and my wife had signed us up on a leads list. so i'm thinking, how do i get this woman out of my house without being rude and just telling her to leave. she asks if i have life insurance, i say through my job. she says, "you understand if you dont have your job, you don't have that insurance?" yeah. no poo poo. i hadn't ever considered that my work benefits go away if i change jobs. thanks so she starts in on the hard sell, "if you were to die who would take care of your family?" at this point i'm fed up with her so i just say "not my problem, i'm dead. we aren't interested in anything you want to sell us" and it was awkward for a minute as she collected her things to leave yeah scammers and shady salespeople will try to terrify you to move product. fuckers
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Aug 1, 2018 22:26
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I kinda feel like the answer to this is to just feel free to be “rude.” I mean, you realized pretty quickly what’s up, and odds are that you’d never rub shoulders with this saleswoman again, so why worry about snubbing her? But I’m pretty much an antisocial rear end in a top hat at this point. I don’t bother answering my front door unless I’m expecting my buddies or expecting a delivery. 9 times out of 10, it’s someone trying to get me to switch my electric provider.
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Aug 2, 2018 00:47
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Cute scam I came across, I need a new license and clicked the Google ad (the very first link, of course) fully knowing it would be a bit misleading, and after clicking any of the standard DMV services you're redirected to this great site After 2 paragraphs of how important it is you have a valid license and making it look like this is where you'd order such thing, it tells you it's just a site that provides info that's totally free from the state, but for $24 you get comphrensive guide for DMV services from us I can't imagine this exact thing is illegal, but it's lovely and I dunno if they could even take such sites down?
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Aug 2, 2018 07:46
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Not really a good story but close to home for me: I worked in my states Office of Fair Trading for a time. We dealt with people who had issues with traders, products or services under the Australian Consumer Law as an intermediary body and a step before the courts. I left a year ago but in my new job by complete luck I'm only a few meters away from the dividing border of my old colleges and my new job. So I see them a lot. Last week I overhead one of my former colleagues on the phone talking to a person I assumed to be a dodgy trader or scammer. I was half right, what I expected was us calling them. No the scammers themselves called my old office, got told who they had just called and then still tried their sales pitch (some bullshit about how the receiver of the call is owed a pile of money after an apparent car accident) not quite understanding what they'd just done. Edit: Wicked Them Beats posted:I remember a movie theater I worked at was really strict about the age limits for R-rated movies. People were shocked they couldn't just buy tickets for the two kids outside who I'd already told to take a hike. When I was just starting university I worked in a corner shop. We sold cigarettes as most do. Kids from the local expensive private boarding school would try to buy them all the time. poo poo was hilarious calling 16 and 17 year olds out on their poor attempts to seem 18. The youngest person I ever had who tried to buy some surely must be a record though. She was about 4 or 5. Walked in bold as brass with a 50 in hand and asked for a packet of 30 Horrizon Purples. "I'm not selling you that love." "Ok." And out she walks to a car parked right infront of the shop door. I see movement in the driver side window and back in she comes. "My auntie says that she had 3 babies in the car and can't come out do can you please sell me the smokes." "No tell your aunt it's illegal." "Ok." Back she goes. More animated movement some muffled swearing and back in she comes. "She said can YOU buy them for her and she will pay you back if you come outside." "No. Please stop trying I'm not selling her any unless she comes in here herself." So rather than play anymore back and forth I walked out to the door csude the shop was empty and saw the auntie was in fact a regular customer who disgusted me for various reasons but this was a new low. She gives me an earful about how she has babies in the car, she can't come out, she needs her smokes and how come I can't be a reasonable person. So I told her that I don't give a drat and next time she comes back into my shop she better behave like an adult or I'll refuse her service. She threatened to complain to my boss and I laughed about it. Walked back inside and went out the back to the attached house where my boss lived and told him the story over lunch. I saw her again like a week later and she was grumpy as poo poo at me brought her own drat smokes. Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 12:00 on Aug 2, 2018 |
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Aug 2, 2018 10:58
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stringball posted:Cute scam I came across, I need a new license and clicked the Google ad (the very first link, of course) fully knowing it would be a bit misleading, and after clicking any of the standard DMV services you're redirected to this great site I had something similar where i got some points on my license and wanted to attend traffic school. BE CAREFUL if you guys do an online one because a LOT of them are not accredited or licensed with the DMV so you're just wasting your money. Check the list on the DMV website for ones that are recognized by the State. A lot of the ones that aren't are among the first hits you'll get on a google search I didn't get scammed but I easily could have.
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Aug 2, 2018 12:30
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stringball posted:After 2 paragraphs of how important it is you have a valid license and making it look like this is where you'd order such thing, it tells you it's just a site that provides info that's totally free from the state, but for $24 you get comphrensive guide for DMV services from us Maybe copyright if they're reselling DMV pamphlets or something? If you were somehow able to reach a computer tech at the DMV (lol) they could probably talk to Google and get the ad pulled and the site shitlisted from search results but that's effort and a half.
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Aug 3, 2018 00:40
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stringball posted:Cute scam I came across, I need a new license and clicked the Google ad (the very first link, of course) fully knowing it would be a bit misleading, and after clicking any of the standard DMV services you're redirected to this great site Matthew Lesko has made his whole career about doing this. Though he at least gives you a physical copy and much more info in it for what you pay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utiIdR-XVJg
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Aug 4, 2018 15:31
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Money laundering has had an even crazier past than iTunes gift cards: The best part of this article is when they say an FBI agent blamed McDonalds Monopoly for 9/11. "Baker recalled that one of the FBI’s top agents, known as the “human lie-detector,” interrogated him, and added that if the FBI had focused on surveilling terrorists and not McDonald’s winners, 9/11 might never have happened."
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Aug 4, 2018 16:11
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When I read that I read it as the accused blaming the FBI for 9/11
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Aug 4, 2018 16:30
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Yeah the proper reading of that is "Baker... added that if the FBI had focused on surveilling terrorists and not McDonald’s winners, 9/11 might never have happened." He's mad that one of the FBI's top agents was after his millions in fraud instead of randomly searching Saudi nationals boarding planes.
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Aug 4, 2018 17:18
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Gridlocked posted:When I was just starting university I worked in a corner shop. We sold cigarettes as most do. Kids from the local expensive private boarding school would try to buy them all the time. poo poo was hilarious calling 16 and 17 year olds out on their poor attempts to seem 18. I used to work at a CVS near my parents' house when I was 19-20 and there was somewhat large college nearby. Most of the students there were commuters, but there was a decent amount of students that lived on campus. It was fairly common for them to try all kinds of poo poo to buy cigarettes and alcohol. One girl comes to the counter on her cell phone loudly complaining that every store in town is rejecting her ID because it doesn't resemble her. She hands it to me while still on her phone and sure enough, the picture looks like someone else. I call my manager for assistance and she looks at me and says "wait, not you too? Come the gently caress on!" As my manager is walking up, a customer in back of her mentions that she saw this girl get out her phone and just start talking into it before she approached the counter. My manager arrives and he tells her she can't buy her six pack of Coronas. She slams the phone shut (it was an old flip style at the time) snatches the ID from his hand and knocks over a display of magazines on the counter on her way out. Another time, some kid waited around near the register, pretending to be looking at the battery display case with a box of Miller Lite in his hand. He waits about 10 minutes, spending all that time perusing AA batteries until the line gets really long. He gets in at the end of the line, but unfortunately for him, the line doesn't fill back up behind him. He hesitantly looks behind himself the whole time while in line. When he finally arrives, he puts the beer on the counter and very quickly gets out his wallet to grab his cash. I ask him for ID, and he pretends he doesn't hear me and hands me the cash. I again ask him for ID, and he chuckles and says, "oh, right. Sorry!" He goes through his wallet and spends an unusually long amount of time going through all the different slots, probably hoping I'll just get tired waiting. He finally produces his ID and shows it to me with his thumb over the date of birth. I take it from his hand and he turns his face away and looks down at the candy below, his face turning red. He's 2 weeks shy of being 21. I tell him "look, buddy, you know I could call the police on you for this?" He starts sweating and begs me not to. I give him his ID and tell him to get lost. He slinks away and I pick up the phone and say loudly enough for him to hear "yes, this is the CVS on Adams road. Get the police, we have a fake ID situation." Of course I didn't actually make any call, but he thinks I did. He starts running out the door. Maybe that was a mean-spirited thing to do, but gently caress kids like that who put me in that situation. Getting caught selling alcohol to a minor would have been instant termination and a $500 fine for the store and for the individual making the sale. A co-worker got busted on a sting a few months prior, and after that we were all on edge.
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Aug 4, 2018 22:47
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Meanwhile Japan has beer vending machines and public day drinking is socially acceptable, if it's obvious you're not working/driving. Come to paradise ^___^
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Aug 5, 2018 00:23
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peanut posted:Meanwhile Japan has beer vending machines and public day drinking is socially acceptable, if it's obvious you're not working/driving. Come to paradise ^___^ I like how they made all the cigarette vending machines require ID, and yet anyone of any age can park themselves in front of a beer vending machine and get as hammered as they want.
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Aug 5, 2018 02:18
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peanut posted:Meanwhile Japan has beer vending machines and public day drinking is socially acceptable, if it's obvious you're not working/driving. Come to paradise ^___^ If you watch old TV shows from the 1950s/1960s it's kind of jarring how the characters are drinking pretty much all the time.
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Aug 5, 2018 03:19
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EKDS5k posted:I like how they made all the cigarette vending machines require ID, and yet anyone of any age can park themselves in front of a beer vending machine and get as hammered as they want. What's the alcohol age in Japan? I know a ton of countries aren't as restrictive as the US/Canada.
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Aug 5, 2018 03:42
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Eric the Mauve posted:If you watch old TV shows from the 1950s/1960s it's kind of jarring how the characters are drinking pretty much all the time. And they would have given smokes for their other hand. Their beverage was usually not alcoholic. Twelve takes twelve smokes no biggie.
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Aug 5, 2018 04:49
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Corsair Pool Boy posted:What's the alcohol age in Japan? I know a ton of countries aren't as restrictive as the US/Canada. 20 but lol
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Aug 5, 2018 05:17
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Corsair Pool Boy posted:What's the alcohol age in Japan? I know a ton of countries aren't as restrictive as the US/Canada. It's 20, but when I first lived there I was 21, and could have passed for 17, and I never once got carded. Same with any of the people in any of the groups I ever went out with. Nobody gives a poo poo. EKDS5k fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Aug 5, 2018 |
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Aug 5, 2018 14:30
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Going from a video about video game bars, they also have fairly lax liquor license laws.
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Aug 7, 2018 06:02
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zzuupp posted:Their beverage was usually not alcoholic. With the notable exception of the bar on The Match Game.
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Aug 7, 2018 12:37
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We had a good laugh at work a couple weeks ago when a bunch of underage girls came into the restaurant and ordered drinks. First girl to get IDed smugly hands over "her" license to the server. "This isn't you," server says, and calls for the manager. "Wha... what do you mean, of course that's me!" "No, it isn't. I graduated high school with her." In a city of tens of thousands of people, this girl just happened to get the one waitress who personally recognized the name and photo of the real person in the ID. 
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Aug 7, 2018 14:09
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Local one today - Colorado Springs had a horrific hail storm last week, with baseball-sized hail. I haven't lived in Colorado in about six years, but I still have a Colorado Springs number. I got a voicemail saying that houses in my neighborhood were severely damaged, with probable roof damage we couldn't even see! This company would be happy to come out and take a look and give me an estimate. The temptation to call them back and string them along by asking where, specifically, they think I live is strong.
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Aug 9, 2018 19:52
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My friend just had an attempted phishing attempt at his work. Someone registered a super similar name to his company and sent him an email from the "CEO" and asked if they could go pick up something at the store. My friend has to do this occasionally for things like lunches or bagels for meetings and stuff. So he said, okay what do you need? And they replied 1000 dollars in itunes gift cards and they needed the number scanned in and sent to them. my friend obviously didn't fall for that part.
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Aug 10, 2018 10:57
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A variation on a classic, from the spam folder: From: Publishers Clearing House <some email> Subject: PCH Lotto: Alert!!! Code..some code Congratulation on winning 850,000.00 USD in our 2018 Pch Lottery. Kindly send your contacts to some other email Given Names: Address: Telephone: Gender: *Age: Publishers Clearing House ---------------------------------------------- © Copyright 2018 Publishers Clearing House. All Rights Reserved
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Aug 11, 2018 16:51
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Depressio111117 posted:Local one today - Colorado Springs had a horrific hail storm last week, with baseball-sized hail. I haven't lived in Colorado in about six years, but I still have a Colorado Springs number. I got a voicemail saying that houses in my neighborhood were severely damaged, with probable roof damage we couldn't even see! This company would be happy to come out and take a look and give me an estimate. The temptation to call them back and string them along by asking where, specifically, they think I live is strong. I'm not sure this is necessarily a scam? I mean maybe at this point we can just presume any business that resorts to spam-dialing robocalls is shady in some way, but otherwise it's just a case of presuming someone who has a Colorado Springs phone number lives in Colorado Springs.
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Aug 12, 2018 10:43
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 Years old now so update 2005 to 2010, but still accurate.
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Aug 12, 2018 11:29
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