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green chicken feet
Nov 5, 2015

spray-paint the vegetables
dog food stalls
with the beefcake pantyhose
Grimey Drawer
Years ago I knew someone who fell for this: a company orders to send $1,000 in coupons if you pay $50. Then when you receive the coupons, one of them is something you would never use, like $900 off a cruise that probably isn't even worth what they're asking for it anyway. Pretty crooked scam because technically it's not untrue. I wonder if it's even illegal. But it's misleading and preys on the poor.

Thin Privilege posted:

Back in the late 90s- early 2000s they had those "buy CDs by mail, only 1cent each!" magazines. The catch was that shipping was like $20 per cd. I was a kid so I ordered like 6 CDs which ended up being $120. Once the CDs and bill came, and realizing what I had done, me and my mom told the company that some kids had stolen our mail and ordered them, so we didn't have to pay. Scam the scammers.

Something similar happens with ordering flowers online. I have yet to see a company that wasn't guilty of this. "Don't miss this sale! Only $19.99!" Then you click through a bunch of pages, enter delivery address, etc., to find out that including a vase is $11.99, handling charge is $3.99, shipping is $7.99, and add $2.99 more if you want it on a certain date - which is the holiday. After this happens once you'll no longer be surprised, but it's an underhanded way to promote a product's price.

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green chicken feet
Nov 5, 2015

spray-paint the vegetables
dog food stalls
with the beefcake pantyhose
Grimey Drawer

BiggerBoat posted:

Amway and MLM scams get my goat. They're like a cult the way they operate and brainwash people.

When I'm bored, I do a new thing with telephone scammers telling me I owe money or that my computer is infected with a virus or something and pretend to act really concerned and promise to send the money, etc. Then I pretend to get confused and not hear what they're saying or start telling them long drawn out stories just to waste their time and see how long they'll stay with it.

You might enjoy this, then. A guy made his own computer program designed to mimic a real person and mess with telemarketers. There's a Kickstarter linked within the article, too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/02/16/if-you-hate-telemarketers-youll-love-this-robot-designed-to-waste-their-time/

green chicken feet
Nov 5, 2015

spray-paint the vegetables
dog food stalls
with the beefcake pantyhose
Grimey Drawer

Absurd Alhazred posted:

To contribute, I'm curious about this really weird kind of spam I've been getting in the past few months. Basically it's some cam girl asking me to sign up, and saying that while you have to give CC info, it's just to authenticate your age, they won't charge anything. Pretty straightforward scam so far, right?

The twist is that they will also provide credit card information for you to put in. So... why do they need you? :confused:

This is a wild guess, but maybe it is a stolen credit card and they use you to enter the transaction to avoid culpability.

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