Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

I have no doubt that panhandling could net you good money sometimes but it's kind of ridiculous to think they are going home to $300000 homes. How would you even buy a home? You're not making enough to buy one with cash and you technically have no income in order to get a mortgage.

It's tax free, so in the US, they're already making 30% more than someone with a job. Seriously, what would one make slogging away at minimum wage? $9/hr? Over an 8 hour day, $72 and then uncle sam takes $15 or $20, you walk with $55 or so?

I have seen a single homeless guy take donations from more than one car in a particular light cycle. Even if you figured a buck a donor, one donor a cycle, that light cycles every 3 minutes, so 20 cycles an hour... you're already doing triple to post-tax minimum wage. It is not hard for me to believe that you could exist better begging than you could working. Perhaps living in a mansion is a stretch, but living in a nicer apartment than the guy manning the drive through window of the fast-food joint you're standing in front of... doesn't seem far fetched at all.

UglyDucklett posted:

For most or many of them I would assume this is a life they did not want for themselves, but for a few of them it is a largely peaceful if primitive existence.

There is a parallel A/T thread right now "ask me about hitchhiking" which turns out to not be about hitchhiking at all but about how much better it is not to be one of society's sheep and to be a free spirit and how many drugs one person can choke down while being homeless.

photomikey fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Apr 7, 2016

# ¿ Apr 7, 2016 20:37

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# ¿ Mar 25, 2025 19:05

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

I know! If only I was paying a dollar a day in taxes. I guess we could just wish for that day, hmm?

# ¿ Apr 7, 2016 23:53

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

Right? And I could afford a dollar a day for roads, and a dollar a day for libraries, and a dollar a day for... well, gently caress it, I'll just vote for Sanders!

# ¿ Apr 8, 2016 00:06

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

I once saw a broken down car on a freeway in the middle of a large city, I worked for the local TV news, I had time to kill at that moment, the fella was in a place where it would be inadvisable to walk to the next exit... all this occurs to me in a flash and I pull over to see if he needs a lift to the exit. His girl is in the passenger seat and he is examining the engine. I forget what the story was, but the car died, he pulled to the shoulder... he lives in the hood (mile or two), wants to know if I'll push him bumper-to-bumper up the exit ramp. I'm in a company car and I decline. I offer to call him a tow truck and he only has twenty bucks. I happen to know a local place that will tow you a couple of miles for $40. I call the company and get them underway, and give the guy some cash, maybe $30 or so, and I split. Soon as I pull off I think of something else I want to tell him, so I make a loop through the streets to hit the freeway at the prior exit and stop to talk to him again. Maybe 5 minutes passes. Back on the freeway and there is no sign of him. Certainly not enough time for the tow truck to arrive, hook him up, and pull away... but what an odd scam. Pulling to the side of the freeway seems extreme, why would he tell me he had $20... Anyhow, I think that day I got taken for $30.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 04:59

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

Sergeant_Crunch posted:

I realized it was just a scam, it just really threw me off at the time though since it was so out of the blue. I'm a bit embarrassed that I overreacted to it now.

That's what makes it a good scam. Because it's *your* sister. If some stranger called me and told me Sergeant_Crunch's sister was in trouble and they needed 10,000 Rand to free her, I'd laugh and hang up on them. But if they were talking about my sister, it'd freak me out a little. Even if I still thought it was a scam.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2016 13:52

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

Josef K. Sourdust posted:

Posting fresh from Central Park, NYC and I am pleased to tell goons that the cool-black-kid-giving-away-free-CDs scam is still alive and operating in the year of Our Lord 2016.

This is a scam? I thought it was people trying to promote their own music. What do they do when you take the CD? I am not interested in lovely music, so I've never taken one, but I've seen people take them with no bad juju.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2016 02:10

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

House Louse posted:

Speaking of New York, there were a bunch of street vendors approaching me selling stuff on my one visit there. Are they mostly legit, or just way overpricing, or scammers?

I used to have a $20 gucci watch that I sat side-by-side with a $600 gucci watch that you just could not tell the difference between. It's knockoff merch.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2016 01:07

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

I believe they were stamped out in China. My dad (this should go in the scams thread perhaps) knew a guy who was ordering them by the case-full. This guy was paying maybe $5/ea for them, selling my dad a card of 20 watches for $10/ea, and my dad was peddling them out to the parents of other kids on my baseball team for $20/ea. They came 10 or 20 fastened to card stock, like any good Chinese merch. The watch, while visually indistinguishable between the real Gucci watch, was a crappy knockoff because if you got it even the tiniest bit wet, would stop working immediately. I do not believe it to be a genuine Gucci sold at a huge bargain, I believe it to be a $3 k-mart watch with "Gucci" printed on the face.

# ¿ May 1, 2016 04:02

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

Please BE WARNED! Over the last month I have become a victim of a clever 'Eastern European' scam whilst out shopping.

Here's how the scam works:

Two very good-looking 20-21 year-old girls of eastern European origin come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the boot. They both start cleaning your windscreen, their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T- shirts. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they'll say 'No' and instead they ask you for a lift to another supermarket. You agree and they both get in the back seat.
On the way there, they start undressing, until both are completely naked. Then, when you pull over to remonstrate, one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over your lap, kissing you, touching you intimately and thrusting herself against you, while the other one steals your wallet!
I had my wallet stolen on September 4th, 9th,10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th and 29th. Also on October 1st, 4th, 6th, 9th and 10th and twice yesterday.So please warn all the older men you know to be on the lookout for this scam.
The best times seem to be just before lunch and about 4:30 in the afternoon. Target has wallets 2 for $10 but I've since discovered you can buy them on Amazon 10 for $35.

# ¿ May 12, 2016 00:08

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

No she told me that one when she was putting her panties back on after I finished.

# ¿ May 12, 2016 00:22

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

Lutha Mahtin posted:

There was a doctor's office I went to once that had a question on their intake paperwork, about how I wanted them to identify themselves on the phone if they ever needed to call me. My guess is that this was a holdover from the landline era, when somebody might want privacy from their family or roommates. One of the options was just a blank space for whatever you wanted, so naturally I wrote "Batman". Duh.

Back when security questions were just becoming a thing, you could write your own question at my bank. I picked two (pet's name and elementary school or whatever), and was working on the third and couldn't think of a good one. Finally I wrote:
Q: Do I sound sexy over the phone?
A: Yes.

I forgot about this hilarity about 14 seconds after I clicked submit, and it stayed forgotten for some years until I had occasion to call my bank and they needed to verify my identity. The guy just about busted a gut laughing.

# ¿ May 30, 2016 21:37

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

many johnnys posted:

Fair enough, if it's six bucks it's not worth the trouble. But I figure, what are they gonna do if you grab a smoke and then just disappear? Yeah yeah, I'm suuure the cops are really interested in someone walking out of a scambar, and will care a whole lot about finding some tourist who may not even be in the city the next day.

That part is probably true, but the ante is also higher for you, who is not at home, is unfamiliar with the currency, the laws, even simple stuff like how to make a call from jail should you land there. That's why the con thing works so well. Because at home, you know how everyone will react.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2016 05:42

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# ¿ Mar 25, 2025 19:05

photomikey: Dec 30, 2012

Lutha Mahtin posted:

things i learned today:
- people eat raccoon meat
- hunters sell raccoon meat from the bed of their pickup
- dishonest pickup-bed meat sellers try to pass off skinned cats as raccoon meat

like, i grew up in the country, but this is a whole other level

I like the idea of demanding to see the paw, still attached to the carcass. Don't want to be sold some kind of 2nd rate meat!

# ¿ Jun 27, 2016 20:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."