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I legit just don't carry cash, so I'm largely immune to most street scams even if they're good enough to trick me. I did recently have a guy at a gas station give me the whole sob story about being stranded here from out of town after visiting to go to his sister's funeral or whatever and now he couldn't afford gas and the car needed an oil change, whatever. I ended up filling his car up and giving him a quart of oil I happened to have in my trunk anyway, since his car was a piece of poo poo and had his wife and kids in it, so I figured worst case scenario I just gave a guy who wasn't grieving or stranded but probably legit poor $20 worth of gas. Not really scam related: I also visit New Orleans occasionally and have made a habit of giving my to go box leftovers from whatever restaurant to the first homeless person to hit me up for money. One dude complained that the half burger I gave him had mayo on it and seemed actually offended about it, which was too funny to upset me.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:55
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UnkleBoB posted:An ex of mine bought steaks off a truck a couple years back. She got food poisoning from it, which I told her was the cost of learning the lesson to not buy steaks out of the back of a truck. Living in Mississippi and being a trash person, I buy poo poo out of the back of pickups all the time, but even I would draw the line at "steaks." Duck or rabbit or raccoon (paw intact), yeah sure, I can see, but not a slab of unidentifiable meat.
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Jun 27, 2016 15:46
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What, the raccoon paw thing? I don't eat raccoon, but from what I've heard if you're going to sell them skinned, you want one paw intact so the customer knows you're not selling them a cat. I dunno if that's strictly true or just an often repeated myth, but like I said, I don't eat raccoon.
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Jun 27, 2016 18:52
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I've had an awful lot of people try to sell me appliances out of their trucks, and I went to a yard sale at an obvious trap house where I got a pretty good deal on the biggest microwave I've ever seen.
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Jun 28, 2016 04:39
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drunk asian neighbor posted:What do you mean by trap house? A place to purchase and use drugs. It was fine, dude had cleared the place out and legitimately selling literally everything to move out for whatever reason. Guy even heated up a hot pocket and gave it to me to prove it worked. I regret leaving it at my last place, you could probably cook a loving turkey in the beast. I was on my way home from work and needed microwave and stopped on a whim, I usually don't go to garage sales. I should start, since I imagine you can get some cool poo poo for cheap, but I've never been good at just browsing without knowing exactly what I need.
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Jun 28, 2016 05:21
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That reminds me. I work for a cell phone carrier and had someone come in to activate a 5c on prepay. I'm handling the phone and the weight feels goofy, but people do all kinds of dumb poo poo repairing iPhones so whatever. I look at the serial on the back and it seems to not fit the right format but again, whatever, new stuff every day. I try to turn the phone on and nothing. I try to pop the SIM card tray and nothing. I had to explain to this dude as carefully as possible to not make him feel dumb that he'd bought a totally fake phone. I've been doing the job for a little bit and that was the only time, so I have to think it's relatively rare.
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Jul 8, 2016 03:39
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Asimov posted:What's even weirder are the states that don't allow you as a driver to pump your own gas. That's right, you have to wait for an attendant to pump it for you, and then feel obligated to give them an extra dollar or something as a tip. I'm from a state that doesn't do this, and when I visited one that does, my reaction to a guy walking quickly and purposefully towards me while I was trying to figure out the pump was to square up at him and assume I was about to have to fight a mugger or something. Luckily, my then-girlfriend was in the car, saw me get weird, and was like "Hey doofus he's wearing a uniform" before I made too much of a scene.
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Jul 17, 2016 19:51
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Do workers at buffets get paid regular wages? I always tip because I just don't know.
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Jul 18, 2016 01:17
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Yeah I'll generally give homeless people a couple dollars if I have cash on me, but anything involving a card I won't deal with.
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Aug 24, 2016 01:18
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Yeah any situation that involves me buying something on someone's behalf can easily turn into some goofy quickchange-like situation where, even in the best case situation, I'm aware of exactly what's happening but still make life harder for the cashier. Like I said though, I'll happily give anyone a couple dollars because even if they turn around and immediately buy drugs with it five feet away from me, they currently need those drugs more than I need my coffee or whatever I was going to spend it on.
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Aug 24, 2016 02:56
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I sell phones for a living and the number of people who come in terrified at a browser pop-up telling them they're going to prison for looking at child pornography unless they pay up is both hilarious and sad. Like yeah, they probably were looking at (legal) porn, but they come in freaked out about it, and I have to imagine most people who get that don't even try to get help but end up nuking their phones trying to factory reset them.
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Oct 7, 2016 04:24
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Yeah, I don't like phone games so I've never spent real money on the few apps and movies I've purchased with survey money.
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Nov 4, 2016 03:48
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Gobbeldygook posted:You see the funnels go into boats. You are a Captain and need crew to push your boat. Once you fill enough boats, you become an Admiral and your cut of the Booty goes up! I've seen too many pyramid schemes to buy into one, but tbh explaining it in a way that makes me feel like a privateer would probably come closest to selling me on it.
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Mar 1, 2017 07:37
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I'd be more worried about buying a memory card off the street and blithely jamming it into my computer than its capacity.
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Apr 8, 2017 23:51
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Lutha Mahtin posted:i would almost sympathize with having to deal with trashy aggresive people but i can't get over the part where the reason you decide to step in is based on some kind of Australians are genetically predisposed to being racist alcoholic criminals so it's better to be safe than just assume the half-breed's civilized Japanese side makes him trustworthy.
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Apr 10, 2017 23:23
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"hm well clearly i can determine the genetic heritage of this rando talking to MY GIRLFRIEND"
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I'm pretty likely to give panhandlers a couple bucks regardless of how dumb their story is because no matter what the truth is they need it more than I do, but if your story starts with how you stabbed a guy, I'm not gonna be inclined to keep talking to you.
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Apr 23, 2017 06:05
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chemosh6969 posted:If you really want to help out the poor/needy/homeless, try a charity that helps to get them back on their feet (when possible), or at least uses the money to help them and not blow it on things like paying for a taxi to a gas station convenience store to do their grocery shopping (dumb poo poo like this happens). You can do both. And even if the guy in front of me I give a few dollars to goes and spends it on cheap liquor and cigarettes, I know I'm going to spend some of my own money on slightly less cheap liquor and cigarettes. They deserve the same little escapes I buy for myself right along with some patronizing "hey you gotta use this for food" poo poo you'd want to give them.
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Apr 25, 2017 04:17
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flosofl posted:Lol at the way the YES/NO choices are worded for "Do you want a refund?" It's awesome, it's like when old Doom games would call you a pussy for quitting.
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May 18, 2017 17:15
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Comstar posted:From my understanding, the Better Business Bureau is a scam itself? As in you pay money to them for a good grade. This is correct. I worked for a lovely company that really earned a bunch of bad reviews on BBB. Paid them a "registration fee" and the overall grade magically went up.
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May 20, 2017 15:50
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He's just joking that "life hacks" are usually dumb. That's it, that's all there is to it
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Aug 12, 2017 18:32
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At a Christmas thing last night I overheard that one of my aunts is selling Avon stuff, is that a mlm thing?
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Dec 25, 2017 19:01
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Proteus Jones posted:Nope. Avon is structured differently. They do direct sales (so no store presence). Well that's good. She's old and relatively comfortable, so I wasn't going to say anything unless it's actively harmful to the people selling it. Thanks!
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Dec 25, 2017 20:23
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I would 100% buy van meat
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Feb 2, 2018 00:21
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Two Feet From Bread posted:Oh, do tell. I'll be there for Mardi Gras. I bet you $10 I can tell you where you got your shoes. That one actually got me the first time I ever heard it, and the guy was funny so I just paid him.
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Feb 9, 2018 20:57
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If you're in the market to sell your shoes to a stranger in a parking lot for twenty dollars, you're probably stupid or desperate enough to go along with WHATEVER phase two is.
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Mar 10, 2018 21:09
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I had a girl come knock on my door, hand me a single bottle of febreeze as my "gift," and give me a really generic company name. She didn't have any cards, a bag, or a car that I could see, and she wasn't sure whether they had a website. She also looked a little unhealthy and had lovely quality tattoos. She wanted to come into my house to look at my floor to give me a free estimate to do any repairs/cleaning. I handed her air freshener back and said no thank you. I almost had trouble keeping a straight face as it went on and became more and more obvious that she just wanted into my house. She was pretty small and didn't appear to have a weapon, so I assume the idea was to look at my place and have her boyfriend come back and rob me later. All she learned was that I'm a big younger guy with a barking dog and at least one roommate, so that should hopefully put me low on any theoretical list of robbery targets. I guess she could've just been an incredibly lovely door to door salesperson.
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May 23, 2018 15:16
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Yeah they are the worst and their persistence in the American public consciousness is incomprehensible. Being a tattletale is extremely American
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Jun 30, 2018 17:20
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Eric the Mauve posted:
I work for a cell carrier, and this isn't something I have a great handle on because it's not relevant to my job, just a pattern I've noticed. The three digits after your area code can be used to narrow it down further, but it's not something you can easily Google specific ranges on afaik. It's muddied up further because it's also affected by what carrier originally assigned you the number. Also, while we default to giving new numbers in the city where we're located, there's nothing stopping a new customer from asking for one in a completely different area code. All that to say: if you gave me a phone number in one of the nearby area codes, I could probably tell you what city or town it's from, but there are a lot of factors that could make that information irrelevant to where the person using it lives/is from.
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Aug 12, 2018 16:59
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Guy: Hey that lightbulb needs replaced. You: I'm sorry? Guy: That lightbulb *points at burnt out lightbulb* needs replaced You: I'm sorry sir, I just can't understand what you're saying. Guy: THAT-LIGHT-BULB-NEEDS-TO-BE-RE-PLACED Which one looks stupid in that?
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Aug 19, 2018 14:59
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Lol isn't that literally the same magic fruit bullshit that killed Steve Jobs?
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Sep 5, 2018 16:13
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Your mom got in one last own
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Sep 7, 2018 01:00
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Midjack posted:Posted in the BWM thread but belongs here too. Lol owned
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Oct 29, 2018 04:53
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Yeah we have to be nice to the racists or they'll get worse
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Nov 6, 2018 00:39
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Yeah, between individuals just do whatever it takes to make it safe to use cash. PayPal is great for buying poo poo online or getting your roommates' rent, but it's not reliable enough for anything else.
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Feb 16, 2019 02:44
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BiggerBoat posted:2 young looking kids (maybe 18-20 years old) showed up at my door the other day claiming to be from ATT and apologized for "not looking like it" and told me they were informing people of some "services they were upgrading" or some such poo poo. I could have pressed it and asked "why don't I believe you? What department of ATT?". I assume anybody shady who physically comes to my house without an obvious product or scam is just checking out places to potentially burglarize. Or I guess just rob you then and there if you let them in 
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Mar 29, 2019 19:38
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I've only been two or three times, but taking $20 to halfheartedly play video poker at the bar while bullshitting with people and getting about $20 worth of drinks for "free" made for an ok night.
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Sep 12, 2019 22:04
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Yeah, I'm by no means on the side of businesses, but a $100 item accidentally getting piled in with cheap stuff or having an obviously wrong sticker on it doesn't make it that price. Back when I worked in retail, customers would look at me like I called them a slur when I wouldn't immediately bend over for dumb poo poo like that.
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Oct 18, 2019 00:50
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Midjack posted:Where’s the scam here again? It's a scam in the same way like, private health insurance is, where the information about how you're getting dicked down is freely available but rarely explained simply
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Nov 13, 2019 03:08
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I have a nextdoor account basically for missing pets, but most of the notification emails I get are about stuff like that or people looking for one-time handyman services. One was about a homeless guy who'd been in a specific area for awhile, so I went and found him and was like "hey some psycho may call the cops on you thanks to this online thing, just fyi." There's one guy on there I'd put even odds on shooting one of his neighbors eventually from his complaints, but what can ya do
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Jan 18, 2020 17:38
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mllaneza posted:I didn't fall for the one that tried me. Also an attractive young girl; we were on a community college campus. She basically snuck up behind me on the stairs to whisper "I've been following you" in a really husky, sexy voice. I jumped and was kinda freaked out at someone sneaking up on me like that. I was too put out to be stupid enough to sign up. Good thing she didn't try me in my incredibly stupid about women phase maybe six or eight years later. I had a girl come to my apartment to sell magazines once years ago. I was absolutely out of my mind with a fever, which is the only reason I let her in, and she left partway into her pitch when she realized how ill I was.
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Apr 6, 2020 00:38
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