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."

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Tubgoat posted:

When they first touched down in media, there seemed to be a consistent narrative of paranoid oppression experienced by the user of bathsalts, across many cases. Of course, it might've just been the only ones they wrote about.

I think that's just life in 21st century America. :shrug:

# ¿ Nov 16, 2020 23:16

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 05:54

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

This article from a 1997 issue of The Baffler really gets in to how MLMs work, and I can't recommend it enough: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/dreams-incorporated

My favorite part is how comprehensive the scamming of the participants is. If you buy into an MLM but aren't making any money at it, they'll happily sell you expensive training seminars and individual coaching and weekend retreats to improve your selling skills.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2021 17:34

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

nishi koichi posted:

what really bothers me is how quickly the brainwashing seems to take hold. when i was in high school, a friend who graduated recently got sucked into one of the insurance scams, and he went from being a cool and funny guy to talking about nothing but the mlm, in the span of a week. we�d tell him to stop talking about it, but it would always come out anyway. every conversation we had, he managed to steer back into that drat pyramid scheme

It's a key part of the training - if you want to be a success, you need to be selling all the time. They explicitly train you to work your MLM into every single conversation and every personal interaction. So MLMs not only wreck your finances, they wreck all your friendships and social relationships! And if you lose all your friends over it, well, it's probably for the best - why, they were holding you back with their negativity and their unwillingness to see what a great opportunity you were offering them, so good riddance to 'em. And now you have even more spare time to work harder on building your MLM downline and making a success of yourself!

# ¿ Jan 5, 2021 19:29

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

BiggerBoat posted:

Let me guess. Did he stop cursing and start wearing a necktie everywhere he went too? Maybe a suit? Cut his hair? The next step after that is him talking a lot about Jesus.

And yeah, it is creepy. I think fundamentally this stuff works on people with a void or who are searching for something, which of course is most of us, but the ones who really buy in all the way seem to be missing something. Acceptance, security, love, affirmation...I don't know. It's not that dissimilar from the recruiting tactics of faith healing churches and even gangs.

MLMs seem to target people who are dissatisfied with their place in the economy. They know there are people out there making fortunes, and that they're grinding 9-5 (or longer!) just to barely keep their heads above water. Amway (et al) push hard on the notion that the standard job is just a trap that most people fall into that is designed to keep them Just Over Broke (J.O.B. - get it?), and that if you actually want to get ahead in life, to afford a nice retirement or regular vacations or your kids' college tuition, you need to get off that treadmill to nowhere and dedicate yourself to a new way of making a living. All it requires is a lot of a hard work and the toughness to follow through, and you can be living a life of comfort and ease like these Amway founders [cue profiles of the DeVos family, focusing on the number of country houses and yachts they own].

# ¿ Jan 5, 2021 22:18

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Fruits of the sea posted:

This has been around for a while, I remember people on SA posting about receiving packages with random poo poo a year or so ago.

IIRC people were getting packets of seeds in the mail from China that they never ordered last year and wondering what was up with that.

https://bgr.com/2020/09/13/seeds-from-china-mystery-explained-suspected-brushing-campaign/

# ¿ Jan 23, 2021 19:18

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

I learned long ago to have multiple browsers on my computer(s) - Firefox, Chrome, Safari/Edge/IE - and to keep one of them completely free of plugins or popup/ad blockers, and to use that unmodified web browser any time I'm dealing with government agencies or HR/benefit systems. Those systems are all incredibly fragile and will fail in all kinds of bizarre and impossible-to-fix ways if they're run in any environment other than the straight vanilla factory standard one.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2021 19:01

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Fruits of the sea posted:

Google �roofing stormchasers� and you�ll find a ton of horror stories.

Yeah, I thought fly-by-night roofing guys who knock on your door with an incredible deal were a common Traveler (Irish gypsy) scam. When it isn't storm season they knock on doors with a too-good-to-be-true offer to resurface your driveway.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2022 01:42

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

I got a Discover card about two years ago and I was shocked at how many places take it. I always thought of Disover as Visa/MCs poor hillbilly cousin, but apart from Costco (Visa only) pretty much everywhere else accepted it. It's much more likely to be accepted than, say, AmEx.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2022 20:46

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

shame on an IGA posted:

such a great story though

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-how-amex-lost-costco/

Yep.

quote:

As the negotiations dragged into January 2015, however, he became agitated and called his counterpart to remind him that Amex hadn�t only furnished Costco with its prestigious card; it had been Costco�s �trusted partner.� Jelinek interrupted, according to people who were briefed by Chenault about the call, and told him that as far as he was concerned, Amex was another vendor, just like the one that sold Costco ketchup. �If I can get cheaper ketchup somewhere else, I will,� he said. As rumors about the call spread, the rank and file who heard about it couldn�t believe someone from Costco had the nerve to insult Amex like that. Ketchup! Chenault called Jelinek a few weeks later to say Amex was pulling out.

Literally 10% of all AmEx cards were co-branded CostCo cards. Oops.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2022 04:06

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Achmed Jones posted:

so, like, how do you find a real locksmith?

My guess would be to pick one before you're in the middle of an emergency:

1) Look up ones in your neighborhood (ones with storefronts)
2) Call them, see if they do 24-hour service, ask for pricing
3) Make a note of the best offer somewhere on your smartphone

e: Alternate suggestion: watch some YouTube videos, learn how to pick your own locks.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2022 01:14

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Nolgthorn posted:

I'm sure after 182 pages someone has brought up the restaurant scam. They employ hot girls who pretend to be on vacation, in order to get you into their shop. This is a European thing more than anywhere. They target if you look single and travelling on your own. The idea being that you will buy them some drinks but the place nearby that they lead you to charges much much more than usual. The type of place where even a cappuccino costs the equivalent of 50 or 100 euros. If you don't ask to see the menu, it's totally legal and they pay bouncers essentially to escort you to an atm.

In this situation your only options are to pay, or get into a situation where you are roughed up and have to involve the police. Who will not be able to do anything because the prices on the menu reflect what you owe.

A lot of European countries have formed agencies who specialize in this exact scam. If you find yourself stuck in a booth with a bouncer type dood looming over you, you need to call your embassy, So keep that number on hand.

That's a classic Clip Joint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip_joint

e: There's a strip club variant, where an interested mark is invited to spend time in a private room with one of the strippers. He goes to meet the stripper, she orders drinks (usually champagne, which is why the scam is known as the "champagne room") at some ridiculous markup ($50 or $100 a glass), leads the mark on, orders more drinks, and when the mark reaches out to touch the stripper, suddenly giant bouncers appear and escort the mark out (because the club rule is "no touching the dancers").

FMguru fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Aug 27, 2022

# ¿ Aug 27, 2022 03:51

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

I assume most of these tourist-targeting scams have an "arrangement" with local law enforcement (i.e. they get cut in for a percentage).

# ¿ Aug 31, 2022 09:58

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

EdsTeioh posted:

I hear you're thinkin about goin down to the shore

Be sure to ask for Mojo Nixon

# ¿ Sep 19, 2022 20:59

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Eric the Mauve posted:

The towing/extortion companies are invariably well connected, which is why they feel free to extort whatever they want from you with the full power of the government backing them.

Yep.

Here's one case from a few years back in California: https://www.courthousenews.com/california-city-settles-towing-scam-for-1-2-million/

quote:

California City Settles Towing Scam for $1.2 Million

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) � King City, in California�s Salinas Valley, agreed to pay $1.2 million to victims of a car-towing scam carried out by corrupt police officers who victimized poor Latinos.

Hundreds of low-income Latinos had their cars illegally towed and impounded after being pulled over for minor traffic infractions in the sleepy agricultural town of 13,900, according to the civil lawsuit and investigation by the Monterey County District Attorney�s Office.

Latinos constitute 87.5 percent of the population of King City, 150 miles southwest of San Francisco, according to 2015 U.S. Census data.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler approved the $1.2 million settlement on Jan. 25. Roughly 229 victims will be paid about $3,902 apiece.

At least eight King City officers conspired with Bruce Miller, owner of Miller�s Towing, to haul away and impound vehicles of poor Latinos from 2009 to 2014, according to lead plaintiff Jesus Garcia�s lawsuit.

Miller and police made the victims pay excessive fees to retrieve their vehicles, took cars for their personal use, and sold some for profit and pocketed the proceeds.

Plaintiff David Gutierrez was forced to pay more than $2,700 to recover his automobile.

Plaintiff Sergio Munoz was told to bring a $200 money order to the police station and to leave the payee line blank � just to find out how to get his car back. Munoz had to pay another $300 to retrieve the car from Miller�s Towing, according to court documents.

The Monterey County District Attorney�s Office investigation led to charges of conspiracy, embezzlement and bribery against six officers, including the city�s acting and former police chiefs, in 2014.

The alleged mastermind of the plot, former police Sgt. Bobby Carrillo, was the last officer to be sentenced last year after pleading no-contest to bribery and perjury. He was sentenced to a year in the county jail. He was the only officer who was sentenced to jail.

The district attorney found Carillo had impounded more than 200 cars from March 2010 to November 2013, with 87 percent of them going to Miller�s Towing.

...

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 17:09

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

One of the things about a Reverse Mortgage is that you're betting that won't live past a certain age. If you're 70 years old and you buy an RM and you draw down 10% of the equity in your house every year (for living expenses or to go on cruises or w/e), you'd better hope you die before you're 80 or you'll literally have no place to live.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2023 16:53

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Agents are GO! posted:

I've heard of soaking but that's ridiculous.

I thought the whole point of Tony Robbins (etc.) seminars was to teach and inspire you to be confident and take charge of your life, i.e. the sort of person who doesn't need to attend seminars and pep rallies to feel motivated enough to accomplish their life goals?

After fifteen years of paying for stand-on-your-own-two-feet training, maybe it's time to admit that it isn't working and it's time to try something else?

# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 17:24

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

If there is one kind of person scammers love to encounter, it's someone who believes they are too smart to fall for scams.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2023 23:04

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Blue Footed Booby posted:

On Reddit, people used to post their hauls in r/shoplifting, then on the same amount post in r/legal advice about how they'd been falsely accused of theft. Just the dumbest loving people on earth.

R/Shoplifting eventually got shut down, and people tried to relaunch it as a "roleplaying" forum (where people would talk "in character" about their hauls and their techniques...that their characters would be doing in a LARP, hypothetically). Reddit admins didn't fall for that, either.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 00:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 05:54

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Me and all my homies hate Leah.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 00:18

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