|
I skipped a couple of pages so apologies if this has been brought up previously. Friend of mine was looking for a rental apartment last year. We're in a housing shortage, and due to various regulation rental apartments are scarce and you normally have to be on a waiting list for 10+ years to get a first hand contract. Second hand contracts are very common though. He puts out an ad on our biggest classifieds site and a few days later he gets contacted by someone offering a nice apartment, decently central, fully furnished. Seller says he's going out of the country for a few years and my friend can rent the place second hand for the duration, but he wants six months rent plus a sizable deposit up front. Paying 1-3 months rent in advance isn't uncommon, but 6 months plus a deposit raised a big red flag. So my friend says he'll get back to the guy and goes to the pub to meet up with me and a few other friends and we dig into the information provided. Obviously, it turns out to be a scam. The apartment had been rented out as an AirBnB, and if my friend had accepted, the "seller" would have disappeared with his money and a few weeks later the actual owners would have returned from their vacation and wondered what the hell my friend was doing in their apartment.
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2016 13:57
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:52 |
|
|
Speaking of ransomware, this is relevant. https://www.cnet.com/news/computer-killing-usbs-are-popping-up-in-australian-mailboxes/ Don't put strange candy in your mouth, and don't put strange USB sticks in your computer.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2016 13:52
|
|
|
WebDog posted:Lots and lots of javascripts that lock off mouse clicks and so forth. If you have something like noscript on then they'll not do anything or get hung up on the initial redirect.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2016 11:51
|
|
|
There have also been multiple papers written by markov-chain text generators accepted into these kinds of scam conferences.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2016 21:37
|
|
|
Dream Attack posted:That or I just tossed away a free cruise, haha. The lowest cost cruise tickets (which are the ones you "win") are none-inclusive. You get to go aboard and have a spot where to sleep (in a cupboard with no windows just above the engine room), nothing more. Then you're a literally captive audience for a week while you build up a tab of food, drink, entertainment, services and gratuity. Everything costs extra. http://experience.usatoday.com/cruise/story/cruise-101/2013/05/06/cruise-costs/2139067/
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2016 14:30
|
|
|
It's pretty common in Stockholm where first hand rental apartments are like unicorns. Friend of mine was looking for an apartment and walked in on that scam, but he saw enough red flags that he never gave them any money.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2016 22:26
|
|
|
Oh hey, I got a fake invoice today for 1280 euro for "document services". Addressed from "365 Office Docs" which is apparently registered in Montenegro. Reading the extremely fine print on the back of the invoice stated "This is not an invoice. It is an offer of services. Payment implies acceptance of contract."
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2017 15:25
|
|
|
Cyrano4747 posted:Anyone who thinks fax machines are dead in the west has never worked in government or education.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2017 13:18
|
|
|
There's a guy panhandling in the subway station close to where I live. I see him a few times per month and he always uses the same "I lost my wallet and need money to get home". Funny how often he seems to lose that wallet. 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2017 11:11
|
|
|
I had a similar thing where my (ex) ISP called me up and offered me a package deal on Spotify and Netflix for a minor discount over paying for both services separately, and the salesperson was noticably perplexed when I refused his offer after I had admitted that I use and pay for both services already. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it's because I was waiting for my co-op to finish installing the local fibre network and as soon as that was done I was going to cancel their service so I had no interest in signing up for more services with them.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2017 12:26
|
|
|
fizzymercy posted:Office Space was a documentary, apparently.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2017 13:23
|
|
|
maskenfreiheit posted:blocking doesn't help it's a different # each time
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 08:45
|
|
|
My carrier doesn't support call blocking and just refers to the phone's blocking features, which auto-rejects calls from blocked numbers and makes them go direct to voice mail.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 12:42
|
|
|
We have a similar system in Sweden, where each household owning a TV has to pay a yearly fee to finance public service broadcast. They stopped using detector vans because unlike CRTs, LCDs don't leak RF noise that can be easily detected. It used to be you could get a guy come knocking and asking if you have a TV (and trying to peep into your house to see if they could see one) but nowadays they just send passive aggressive letters. I've never heard of anyone trying to turn it into a scam though. The public service corporation tried to bend the interpretation of the law a few years ago to include computers and smartphones as well, by arguing that since you can watch public service TV on the web, any device capable of accessing the web should be licensed. Unfortunately for them the law says "...any device intended to receive broadcast..." and they failed to argue that the intended function of a computer is to receive broadcast TV.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 5, 2017 15:03
|
|
|
OpenBSD spoofed that skit when they added network redundancy (CARP) in version 3.5. https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#35
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2017 16:10
|
|
|
If you're living in Somalia you could probably live like a king for the rest of your days off a $10k ransom, but people are greedy.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2017 16:38
|
|
|
iajanus posted:Not really a scam but I do enjoy having myname @Gmail.com and getting every legal document and official correspondence for every other person with my name who believes somehow that even though they've never used the address it is totally their email address so better put it on official forms. I have firstname.lastname at gmail.com Turns out he has firstname.lastname at company.com and also firstname.middleinitial.lastname at gmail.com and occasionally gets the two mixed up. I occasionally get his emails still, but I just delete them.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2017 00:57
|
|
|
And how many friendships did they ruin in the process?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2017 11:13
|
|
|
Never finance through the dealer. The entire car dealership business is built on scamming people who don't read the fine print and lock them into really lovely loans. That's why a lot of dealership chains are so upset with Tesla selling directly from the factory to the customer and have been trying to lobby for laws against it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2017 17:15
|
|
|
Proteus Jones posted:When I bought my first car I remember my dad telling me "You didn't get a good deal if you didn't storm out in anger at least once"
|
|
#
¿
Dec 29, 2017 03:05
|
|
|
I think Pilsner, living in the wet blanket of scandinavian social democracy, simply doesn't realize much the US fucks over the poor and many parts of its corporate and financial workings are (intentionally or not) designed to make sure that poor people can never clamber out of the debt trap. If you're working a minimum wage job in Denmark or Sweden you still have some leeway in how you spend your money. If you live somewhere affordable and can cheap out on food almost everyone can put away some money in savings. Also having a car isn't a 100% necessity unless you live out in the sticks or need it for your job. Especially in Denmark which excluding Greenland has the land area of a postage stamp and you can literally bicycle from one side of the country to the other in a day.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2018 18:28
|
|
|
Eric the Mauve posted:The only time I was ever served a warrant it turned out to be for a career criminal with the same first and last name but a different middle name/initial. Someone at the courthouse done hosed up. It's an unusual name (career criminal dude is my second cousin I think but I've never met him) so I guess they were surprised there turned out to be more than one of them in the same county but never bothered to check any of the other identifying information I guess?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2018 14:41
|
|
|
I guess it's not a scam, but has anyone else noticed a trend of huge playlists with 2k+ videos appearing in your recommended videos feed on youtube, with titles like "Garbage playlist do not click" or "Instant regret clicking this playlist". I'm guessing the first couple of videos are the creator's monetised videos an the rest are just a bunch of trending videos so they show up in lots of searches and recommendations, and the title is just reverse psychology?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2018 18:03
|
|
|
There's a fine line between scam calls and sales calls.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2018 11:57
|
|
|
I canceled my land line years ago.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2018 15:57
|
|
|
When I become undisputed ruler of the world, owning or playing "Absolute Christmas" or any of the songs on it will be a capital offense.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2018 23:21
|
|
|
HerStuddMuffin posted:Only thing I’d add is if you like an artist or band and want to support them, go see them perform live and buy their merchandise
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2018 09:41
|
|
|
Of course if it's a tiny bar show where the band themselves are selling the merch off the edge of the stage after the set, that's a different question. Those guys are probably not going to have a merch store anyway.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2018 10:38
|
|
|
WebDog posted:There's a fun one in Australia where a company called BNRenewals scrapes ABN (Aussie business numbers) renewal dates then sends out a letter claiming to be a service that renews your account. Most of them just try to make themselves the registrar, meaning you still own your domain and it will continue to work but now you're likely paying five times more than necessary for your renewals. With some of them you're actually signing over ownership of the domain to the scammer though. It's become less of a problem with most registrars no longer making complete contact information public through the WhoIs system, but still happens occasionally. Collateral Damage fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Apr 6, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2018 15:14
|
|
|
Someone used my email by accident to sign up for a paid subscription to ufc.tv. Too bad I don't care about fighting sports.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2018 11:15
|
|
|
The phone system we had at one of my earlier jobs allowed you to log into a web interface where you could keep a contact list and set your forwarding and so on. You could also place calls from the web interface which would case your phone to ring, and when you picked it up it would ring the recipient. When you logged in you had to enter an extension but the system didn't confirm that it was actually your extension, which made it really easy to make man in the middle prank calls. Log in with someone else's extension, place a call to a second victim and you'd end up with two confused coworkers.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2018 13:04
|
|
|
I got a call from my bank a few years ago where they said they had discovered skimming gear at some store, and they were preemptively locking the cards of everyone who had recently used their card there, and a new card would arrive in a few days. It was slightly annoying to be without a card for a few days, but I appreciate that I didn't have to deal with contesting charges.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2018 16:14
|
|
|
Call your bank, tell them you suspect your card's been skimmed.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2018 22:45
|
|
|
Keep an air horn next to the phone for when scammers call.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2018 18:59
|
|
|
I use a shavette (a straight razor except it uses razor blades, eliminating the stropping and sharpening) and a decent shaving foam. Shaving takes no more time than with a cartridge razor and is is still nicer than any cartridge razor ever could. It's basically straight razor shaving without all the hipster bullshit.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2018 21:44
|
|
|
People actually pick up on calls from numbers they don't recognize?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2018 17:43
|
|
|
If we could just convince banks and payment processors to drop the lovely magnetic strip skimming would go away.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2020 08:04
|
|
|
The Lone Badger posted:Skimming only works on the magstripe right? I don't think I've used that for... must be at least five years. Probably more. If you never use the magstripe and are confident that you'll never need it you can just run a magnet over the stripe a few times to scramble the data.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2020 10:19
|
|
|
They're still fairly obvious if you know what you're looking for, but could be easily missed if its an unfamiliar style of ATM.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2020 12:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:52 |
|
|
Speaking of Uber, the handful of times I ordered from Uber Eats it says "Bob is arriving on a bicycle", but then the guy shows up in a car or on a moped or whatever. Obviously as the consumer I don't really care as long as I get my food, but I'm curious if Uber has some greenwashing incentive going on and people are just gaming it?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2020 09:50
|
|