The powerbook prank...

Creamy Goodness

heheh i had a good laugh reading this, it's long but it is so worth it.

it might be old but i've never seen it here before.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/index.html

Cabaal

You gota love the somethingawful goons for coming up with some class idea's

However these scam artists are criminals and while I've not checked it out on SA, its worrying to read the last paragraph regarding Jeff

jmck87

Fair play to him.... some funny stuff...

Last paragraph is worrying allright....

jtsuited

what a quality read. but that last section is really worrying

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Verry funny stuff, was posted ages ago though

K.O.Kiki

Don't remember hearing anything about the DDOS attack.
Also, has anyone just, y'know... checked SA for "Jeff"? Or maybe it was just a once-off username...

Cabaal

K.O.Kiki wrote:

Don't remember hearing anything about the DDOS attack.
Also, has anyone just, y'know... checked SA for "Jeff"? Or maybe it was just a once-off username...

His user name is: MyNameIsJeff
http://forums.somethingawful.com/member.php?action=getinfo&username=mynameisjeff

he showing as still being active, So he's still all alive and ok

carpainter

Great to see a scammer burned!

Cabaal

For anyone interested, here's the original thread on the somethingawful forums http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1016390&highlight=

Fun reading

hehe this sums the whole story up:

An American Ebay seller realises a European bidder is trying to scam him out of a Powerbook (fake escrow site, hijacked ebay account), so he sends him something far better, a P-P-P-Powerbook! Now, for you non-techies here, a factory model p-p-p-powerbook weights half what it's competitors weigh, comes with an A4 screen, the latest in internet adventure software, zero boot time, a fullsize keyboard (often with Key RedundancyTM) and a state-of-the-art laser bluetooth mouse.

This is technology. The seller posts to a forum and amongst the chatter people follow the package via the the Fedex tracking page and some even visit the delivery address (a barbershop/internet cafe) and take photos, video, and a seat for their hair cut. The duty tax on this particular p-p-p-powerbook is around £350 (paid for by the scammer) before he sees the package, and a few days later it's released by Customs as they watch in anticipation.

A forum member arrives at the internet cafe, takes a seat and soon the package arrives. The scammer opens the box and there are angry raised voices heard. The barber doesn't understand what's wrong and asks... "Is it broken?"

440Hz

Pics are classic!!

Creamy Goodness

440Hz wrote:

Pics are classic!!

hehe yeh,

CIRCLE!!

Cabaal

Cremo wrote:

hehe yeh,

CIRCLE!!

haha Safari Internet Adventure!!!!

LASER!!!

It really is classic

spidermonkey

thats absolutly brilliant, here a gif from the thread on something awful





and the video!!!


this is a brilliant excercise as a global community,
its the ethos of web 2.0,
the sharing of information and helping eachother out.


im smiling all day today!

Creamy Goodness

i actually can't believe how much effort people put into it not just scamming your man but people doing spy work on it getting delivered.

Cabaal

Cremo wrote:

i actually can't believe how much effort people put into it not just scamming your man but people doing spy work on it getting delivered.

Thats the somethingawful goons for you, dedicated people when they want to be

The site is full of weird and wonderful stories.

As for Web 2.0...pffft this is old school, its just e-mails...nothing fancy

I love the fact that the goons got together and saved enough money to ship the item and then donated it to Jeff via paypal so it doesn't cost anymore more then $1 to ship it

ZENER

Speaking as someone who nearly fell foul to this scam I say serves the fcuker right. I read this about 3 years ago after my experience - to this day I don't trust eBay at all for expensive items - I personally know of several people who got screwed with no comeback or wherewithall to get revenge. These scammers deserve everything that's coming to them - screw them.

ZEN

440Hz

ZENER wrote:

I don't trust eBay at all for expensive items -

In 99.9% of cases I would agree with you. sometimes though you come across a decent seller and are prepared to make a big purchase, knowing that it is safe to do so.

There is no way I would buy a machine on ebay, I know some people on here have, and its great that they were not scammed but I wouldnt take the risk. Having said that, I just forked out a grand for a lens on eBay last week, from a seller that I had no worries at all sending this kind of money to knowing that everything would go smoothly, and he is even based in Hong Kong, the one place they say never to buy from hehe! Photographers are lucky with this guy, but IMO he is most definetely the exception rather than the norm.

Cabaal

To be honest ebay is fine as long as you do your research before hand, if its something small then the chances of you being scammed are very low...for example if the item is worth 20e.

In saying that I've also forked out alot of money on ebay over the years for two camera's I bought, but in fairness a friend of mine had purchased his camera from the same crowd.....also it helps that it was a camera shop in New York with over 25k feedback at 99.9% positive

mobileplaza

lmao great read that