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ExcessBLarg! posted:Honestly I'd rather not draw any more attention to myself by merely reporting someone else. If she were an imminent threat or there was obvious evidence that a crime was taking place, sure, that wasn't really the case. This is kind of stupid.
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Aug 28, 2016 23:40
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Thankfully, it was on the shuttle from JFK back to NYC I'm not a smoker, so I don't know how many cigarettes you're talking about, but you're allowed to import up to 200 https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/53/~/traveler-bringing-tobacco-products-(cigarettes,-cigars,-bidis)-to-the-u.s.-for The issue of declaring an item is that you are supposed to do it on your own. If somebody tells you that you should have done it it's usually too late for you.
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Aug 29, 2016 03:22
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I literally did a double-take when I realized how old it was
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200 is a carton, and he's talking about six cartons. Looks like a little over.
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Aug 29, 2016 05:50
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I was in NYC near Penn Station and had a guy dressed as a monk (saffron robe, shaved head) slip a Buddha card with a bit of gold on it into my hand. I looked puzzled as hell, and he whips out a book with people's names and money written next to them jabs at it a couple of times. I tried to ask him what it was, and he feigned having no English. He actually handed me the book and a pencil so I wrote my name and 25 cents and gave him a quarter. He jabbed the $20 dollars other people had written down, but since he was pretending not to understand English I pretended not to understand his (probably fake, in retrospect) Chinese. I mean, he still got a quarter out of me.
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Aug 29, 2016 20:57
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I'm not an expert but every Buddhist thing I've studied is against guilting people into giving of themselves. The concept I am familiar in Vipassana meditation is called dana, which my meditation teacher says is (paraphrasing here) the idea of generosity: the idea of giving freely and receiving freely too. There may not be an exact equivalent in all other schools of Buddhist thought, but the idea that you should not try and take advantage of others' generosity is very consistent with the Four Noble Truths, one of the core teachings of the Buddha.
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Aug 30, 2016 01:37
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Peztopiary posted:in NYC The sheer amount of "Go gently caress yourself"s that man must get on a daily basis is staggering. 
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Aug 30, 2016 01:44
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Peztopiary posted:I was in NYC near Penn Station and had a guy dressed as a monk (saffron robe, shaved head) slip a Buddha card with a bit of gold on it into my hand. I looked puzzled as hell, and he whips out a book with people's names and money written next to them jabs at it a couple of times. I tried to ask him what it was, and he feigned having no English. He actually handed me the book and a pencil so I wrote my name and 25 cents and gave him a quarter. He jabbed the $20 dollars other people had written down, but since he was pretending not to understand English I pretended not to understand his (probably fake, in retrospect) Chinese. I mean, he still got a quarter out of me. Those twenty dollar entries were written by him, I guarantee.
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Aug 30, 2016 04:09
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Thanatosian posted:Those twenty dollar entries were written by him, I guarantee. 
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Aug 30, 2016 04:13
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Lutha Mahtin posted:I'm not an expert but every Buddhist thing I've studied is against guilting people into giving of themselves. The concept I am familiar in Vipassana meditation is called dana, which my meditation teacher says is (paraphrasing here) the idea of generosity: the idea of giving freely and receiving freely too. There may not be an exact equivalent in all other schools of Buddhist thought, but the idea that you should not try and take advantage of others' generosity is very consistent with the Four Noble Truths, one of the core teachings of the Buddha. I have some knowledge of buddhism, but only the traditions of Tibet, and from what I can remember begging is cool, and good. It's a spiritual thing that monks and pilgrims do. The begging bowl is practically a sacred object. Hustling people for money and forcefully conning them into greater "donations" is definitely not okay.
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Aug 30, 2016 04:28
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cheerfullydrab posted:I have some knowledge of buddhism, but only the traditions of Tibet, and from what I can remember begging is cool, and good. It's a spiritual thing that monks and pilgrims do. The begging bowl is practically a sacred object. Hustling people for money and forcefully conning them into greater "donations" is definitely not okay. yeah there is a big distinction, at least to me, between a begging bowl and what that guy was doing. monks who stand outside a shopping area with their bowls aren't harassing people, they do it as an act of solidarity with the poor. flashing a $20 bill to try and guilt people is rather different. i mean who knows if he was even a monk
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Aug 30, 2016 04:37
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The buddhist society in the UK have recently come out against this scam claiming genuine monks are allowed to beg for food but aren't even supposed to handle money! http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/warnings-over-fake-buddhist-monks-hassling-london-tourists-for-money-a3324186.html Evening standard and the sun I know, but still. It's an international scam.
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Aug 30, 2016 07:53
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Thanatosian posted:Those twenty dollar entries were written by him, I guarantee. They were all the same handwriting, yeah. Like if he'd have gone for five he'd have had me.
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Aug 30, 2016 10:12
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Peztopiary posted:I was in NYC near Penn Station and had a guy dressed as a monk (saffron robe, shaved head) slip a Buddha card with a bit of gold on it into my hand. I looked puzzled as hell, and he whips out a book with people's names and money written next to them jabs at it a couple of times. I tried to ask him what it was, and he feigned having no English. He actually handed me the book and a pencil so I wrote my name and 25 cents and gave him a quarter. He jabbed the $20 dollars other people had written down, but since he was pretending not to understand English I pretended not to understand his (probably fake, in retrospect) Chinese. I mean, he still got a quarter out of me. I'm the retard who gave a "Buddhist" "monk" 20 bucks for a tiny book he shoved into my hands while regaling me and my friends with tales about being a genuine Buddhist monk. My two friends also gave him 20 bucks for their books after he told us that the initial 5 bucks was too low. My only defense is I was an idiot teen and following my friends' lead instead of telling him to gently caress off or just awkwardly walking away. For reference this was about 15 years ago in Melbourne and he was my very first scammer. I still cringe remembering this and if someone tries it on me again I'll throw their stupid book in the bin in front of them.
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Aug 30, 2016 15:40
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Korgan posted:I still cringe remembering this and if someone tries it on me again I'm going to make an rear end of myself in front of other people. Scamming is a strange game, the only winning move is not to play. Don't give them the satisfaction of getting pissy, just ignore them and move on with your life.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:28
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Me and some buddies were going on a trip to the mountains, all piled in my truck. We stop to get some stuff for the road and this old Roma woman motions me to roll down my window, wants to tell me my future or whatever the gently caress, but she needs a coin to hold in her hand for it to work. I don't really give a poo poo so I give her like a buck but she ''needs'' a higher denomination and I'm just saying no. My idiot buddy from the backseat goes ''I only have a fifty!'' Roma lady: ''That works! I just need to borrow it, you'll get it back.'' I panicked and basically rolled up my window in her face and drove off. Some people are too stupid.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:40
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ravenkult posted:Some people are too stupid. True story once, when I was young and on spring break I got cornered by a junkie who just needed "ten bucks man, all I need is ten bucks". I, like a loving rocket scientist, told him "sorry, all I have is a twenty." He took my twenty, bought ten dollars worth of pills, and brought me back my change. It was the most polite, and surreal, mugging I have ever experienced.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:15
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I bought a bum a pack of smokes last week, so I can't judge. Whenever I visit different cities I forget to put my game face on.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:42
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When I was super poor I got pretty good at being able to check if a pack of smokes on the ground was empty or not by poking it with my foot. Anytime I found cigarettes I didn't like (Newports or whatever) I held on to them to give to homeless people if they asked. No money out of my pocket, and holy poo poo some of those dudes would loving light up like I just handed them the deed to a mansion when I gave them 2 or 3 cigs at a time.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:54
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Somebody called me the other day saying I was being audited by the US Treasury. I could either press 1 to speak to their lawyers, or press 2 to face criminal charges. I wish I had been home at the time to press 2. I'm curious to know what sort of names I would've been called, or maybe he would've just sighed and hung up.
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Aug 30, 2016 20:41
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Hell, even if I knew it was legit I would probably press 2 just to see what would happen.
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Aug 30, 2016 21:42
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Captain Bravo posted:Hell, even if I knew it was legit I would probably press 2 just to see what would happen. I would be sorely disappointed if this didn't result in a cartoon hand emerging from the phone's speaker brandishing a court summons.
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Aug 30, 2016 21:47
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shs posted:Somebody called me the other day saying I was being audited by the US Treasury. I could either press 1 to speak to their lawyers, or press 2 to face criminal charges. The last time I got a call from the Microsoft scammers I answered the phone "Hi scammer! How are your scammy scams going today?" and they still spent 10 minutes trying to get me to give them control of my computer.
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Aug 31, 2016 00:08
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I got a call a few months ago from someplace trying to collect on some zombie debt from like literally a house I lived in 13 years ago. As my job at the time involved sitting at a desk answering calls and dealing with vendors all day I strung guys along for loving weeks. I finally told them I would gladly pay if they just faxed all their evidence over to my attorney who would handle it. Strangely enough they never sent anything to the perfectly legitimate fax number I provided them.
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Aug 31, 2016 01:13
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Where the hell did this idea that crime victims can "press charges" come from? I'm a complete idiot, and even i know charges are pursued by the DA's office, not the victim. Too much TV? :P
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Aug 31, 2016 01:41
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seacat posted:Where the hell did this idea that crime victims can "press charges" come from? Reality doesn't matter; it's a scare tactic meant to prey on idiots or old people with dementia. "Well see, you can either pay us or you can go to super ultra double mega jail. The police are already there and can have you arrested and convicted in five minutes. Better send $500 to [bank account] immediately or you'll never see freedom again!" This is why scammers try to catch you off guard or scare you; some emotions run faster than rationality. If they can push the right button some people will reflexively pay up before even thinking about it.
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Aug 31, 2016 02:47
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I just remembered something that happened in Paris when I was there as a teenager. My family and I were waiting at a pretty empty Metro station, with just one other dude sitting on the bench a few yards away. A third dude with a scraggly beard was talking to him for a bit and then dropped an absurd amount of change on the ground right in front of him. A few minutes later, the bearded guy came up to my dad and mumbled something in English that included "Please take my money" and did the same thing, dropping a bunch of coins in front of him. My mom took me and my sister to sit somewhere else while my dad talked with the bearded guy (presumably telling him to gently caress off), so I'm not sure what happened next before the train arrived. This was ten years ago, so my memory is obviously spotty, but has anyone else ever heard of this? Was this the beginning of an attempted scam, or was this just a legitimately crazy guy? ninjahedgehog fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 05:29
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shs posted:I wish I had been home at the time to press 2. I'm curious to know what sort of names I would've been called, or maybe he would've just sighed and hung up.
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Aug 31, 2016 06:34
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Thankfully, it was on the shuttle from JFK back to NYC Vancouver BC used to have the drinking age as 19 (still is, but apparently they won't serve USA citizens under 21 anymore), so we came back from Canada with a shitload of booze in the trunk. I declared it to the US border guard on re-entry, he gave zero fucks.
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Aug 31, 2016 19:43
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bitcoin bastard posted:Vancouver BC used to have the drinking age as 19 (still is, but apparently they won't serve USA citizens under 21 anymore), so we came back from Canada with a shitload of booze in the trunk. I declared it to the US border guard on re-entry, he gave zero fucks. When I drove to Montreal the border guard lady was super bitchy and suspicious towards me. Yes, lady, I am bringing weed from the USA into Canada, yessiree!
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Aug 31, 2016 20:16
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drunk asian neighbor posted:When I drove to Montreal the border guard lady was super bitchy and suspicious towards me. Yes, lady, I am bringing weed from the USA into Canada, yessiree! Hah, I was on a tour buss crossing the border and some dipshit left a switchblade out in a cupholder. So the entire bus gets searched and I am borough into a room and confronted with a pile of rolling papers. I smoked handrollies but the papers that come with tobacco suck, so I just tossed them in a box in my bunk and used zigzags. When asked "where is the pot son?" I started laughing and made some crack about smuggling pot into Canada being like smuggling shoddy leather goods into Mexico. They were not amused at all. And then we get to the venue and within 10m one of the local crew offers to sell us pot.
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Aug 31, 2016 20:23
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I like how the evidence they use for verifying the claims is "the posters actually live in Uber/Lyft-serviced areas and possibly drive for the companies"
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Aug 31, 2016 21:44
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I've fallen for the fake Buddhist amulet scam. It was obviously a scam, but I think it taps into some innate human desire for shiny things because I had no problem dropping $10 on a holographic gold card. Felt like playing Pokemon again. Stuck that on my phone case and everyone at work found it just as silly/fascinating.
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Aug 31, 2016 21:48
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Ytlaya posted:I like how the evidence they use for verifying the claims is "the posters actually live in Uber/Lyft-serviced areas and possibly drive for the companies" It's Gawker, that is more verification than they usually do.
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Aug 31, 2016 22:10
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Peztopiary posted:I was in NYC near Penn Station and had a guy dressed as a monk (saffron robe, shaved head) slip a Buddha card with a bit of gold on it into my hand. I looked puzzled as hell, and he whips out a book with people's names and money written next to them jabs at it a couple of times. I tried to ask him what it was, and he feigned having no English. He actually handed me the book and a pencil so I wrote my name and 25 cents and gave him a quarter. He jabbed the $20 dollars other people had written down, but since he was pretending not to understand English I pretended not to understand his (probably fake, in retrospect) Chinese. I mean, he still got a quarter out of me. I never realised that was a scam. There were dozens of them last time I was in NYC - all Chinese. You walk the High Line and you pass about 10. I thought they were out for converts. From what I know about Buddhism this definitely sounds like a scam and not genuine practice. ninjahedgehog posted:I just remembered something that happened in Paris when I was there as a teenager. My family and I were waiting at a pretty empty Metro station, with just one other dude sitting on the bench a few yards away. A third dude with a scraggly beard was talking to him for a bit and then dropped an absurd amount of change on the ground right in front of him. A few minutes later, the bearded guy came up to my dad and mumbled something in English that included "Please take my money" and did the same thing, dropping a bunch of coins in front of him. My mom took me and my sister to sit somewhere else while my dad talked with the bearded guy (presumably telling him to gently caress off), so I'm not sure what happened next before the train arrived. I've never heard of this before. I'd be curious to know if anyone else encountered it. One day I was walking through Newcastle (U.K.) and a couple were having a row about money. Just as I was passing the guy throws about £200 ($300) in small notes at me and says "Here you go mate, you might as well have it." I decided the guy wasn't really serious and decided to walk on. I don't think it was a scam, just a couple arguing. When I walked back 15min later the couple and the cash had gone. I did find about £120 in £20 notes on the pavement in London. No wallet. I guess it fell out of a cycling dealers pocket. (In the UK a lot of drug dealers are kids who cycle.) I gave £40 to the street sweeper nearby. He almost got the money but I just saw it ahead of him. I guess he needed the money more than i did but hey. I'm no saint, so I kept £80 for myself.
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Aug 31, 2016 22:13
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Lutha Mahtin posted:that's about as close as you can get to knowing it isn't a scam imo. didn't ask for cash, didn't ask for an easily-flippable item (like tide detergent), So that's why that random person outside of a gas station wanted me to buy them detergent several years ago! I went in with them and was like "what do you want" and they pointed to some really expensive detergent and I was like "gently caress no." I would have been okay with something <$5, but this particular detergent was like $20 IIRC.
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Aug 31, 2016 23:00
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Ytlaya posted:So that's why that random person outside of a gas station wanted me to buy them detergent several years ago! I went in with them and was like "what do you want" and they pointed to some really expensive detergent and I was like "gently caress no." I would have been okay with something <$5, but this particular detergent was like $20 IIRC. Tide is easily flippable? Why? Because it's expensive and you can sell it cheaper because it's stolen?
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Sep 1, 2016 02:17
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Cat Army
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MightyJoe36 posted:Tide is easily flippable? Why? Because it's expensive and you can sell it cheaper because it's stolen? http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/
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Sep 1, 2016 02:19
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Yesss, that's the article I couldn't find earlier. For all of you not in the know, prepare to have your minds blown.
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Sep 1, 2016 04:01
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Thanatosian posted:Those twenty dollar entries were written by him, I guarantee. The guy I encountered at Angkor Wat trying to pull the "letter from his school" scam had pretty clearly just added a 0 to all the numbers people had written. It sure was an amazing coincidence that every single donation was a multiple of ten. He got $2 from me out of pity because he'd given me a tour of the temple before bothering with the letter. I am pretty sure he was making all the stories up but he actually went to the trouble of pointing out features that I might have otherwise missed.
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Sep 1, 2016 06:40
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I took a cousin and his buddies through the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica and a guy walked up a leather binder with $20's under plastic, which were supposedly donations. He didn't show that first though, my cousin just stood and stared as he went about his pitch. When the guy realized he wasn't picking up on the "give me money" part of his sales pitch he opened the binder, pointed at the 20's, and said, "See these $20's? People GAVE them TO ME." My cousin and his buddies just continued to stare like idiots until I told the guy, "Hey, sorry for wasting your time. Let's go guys, c'mon." I think it might have been because they had spent most of their life in the suburbs and then in a college town. They had not spent a lot of time in the city before then. So I guess pretending you're slow and mute is a good way to dodge a scam.
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Sep 1, 2016 07:25
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