Best scam you ever heard of?

franktheplank

What's the cleverest or funniest scam you've ever heard of? Not necessarily Ocean's 11 stuff but just generally amusing or smart, pulling a fast one.

My favorites include a story I heard about a guy bringing an Irish wolfhound on a flight as a guide dog to avoid customs.

Or another one about guys nicking the licence plate from a speed-van and driving past every speed van they could find at full-throttle.

Any others? Also mod note, this isn't about advocating criminality just the cleverness or humour that can be behind it at times. We all know breaking the law is wrong.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

TV Licence / Household Charge / Plastic Bag Levy

I could go on......

senorwipesalot

Anglo Irish Bank.

frozenfrozen

religion

Jesus Wept

Oh, it's not a swindle. What you do is, see, you give 'em all your credit card numbers, and if one of them is lucky, they'll send you a prize.

Seaneh

I've a friend who's really good at proposition bets.

Gets chatting to a group of people in a bar, usually a few lads and a few girls, makes the challenge to the lads, kinda envokes their competitive streak and need to look good infront of the women, obviously, they lose the bet, he wins, and they have to buy him a drink. Do it 4 or 5 times in a night out and you can save yourself a fair bit of money!

You'd have to have a neck like a jockey's bollocks to do it though.

franktheplank

benwavner wrote: »

TV Licence / Household Charge / Plastic Bag Levy

I could go on......

I would say there not very clever or funny though. Just a robbin shower of fuppin baxtards.

Sunnyisland

Going into post office,getting your 188 euro,stepping out and jumping into your work van,its great gas ;-)

OneIdea

Can't remember the movie... but a story told within was about a guy walking through a border every day, with a wheel barrow full of straw ( I think ) each day they would search through the straw and find nothing...

Turns out the guy was smuggling wheel barrows...

I know its a bad example.., but I cant help but think it was very cleaver of the smuggler.

A2LUE42

Barman in a real tourist pub who used to hold up a half pint glass to the American tourists anf say 'Pint?'

Praetorian Saighdiuir

franktheplank wrote: »

I would say there not very clever or funny though. Just a robbin shower of fuppin baxtards.

I agree but I was more focussed on the scam part.

Lets seeeee funny scams, funny scams. Il get back to ya,

Chavways

Christianity

BrokenArrows

OneIdea wrote: »

Can't remember the movie... but the story told within was about a guy walking through a border every day, with a wheel barrow full of straw ( I think ) each day they would search through the straw and find nothing...

Turns out the guy was smuggling wheel barrows...

I know its a bad example.., but I cant help but think it was very cleaver of the smuggler.

Why would you need to smuggle a wheelbarrow?

franktheplank

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Why would you need to smuggle a wheelbarrow?

Feckin Black n'Tans outlawed them. Any man, woman or child found not paying wheelbarrow duty would be summarily executed and shot.

mattjack

franktheplank wrote: »

Feckin Black n'Tans outlawed them. Any man, woman or child found not paying wheelbarrow duty would be summarily executed and shot.

Executed and shot Frank ? that's a bit rough.

Pottler

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Why would you need to smuggle a wheelbarrow?

VRT is high in Albania.

mark_jmc

politicians unvouched expenses

franktheplank

mattjack wrote: »

Executed and shot Frank ? that's a bit rough.

That's the black n tans for ya. Did i forget to mention they'd piss down their foreign english piss on you're grave after. Pure evil.

Cargin

The FIFA series (from the standpoint of a casual observer/non-player of FIFA)

kincsem

From the USA years ago.
People outside a racetrack selling a tip for a "certain winner at big odds". It cost $2 for the tip in a sealed envelope. They sold a few hundred. The horse tipped dropped in price as word got around. The "tipsters" took the few hundred dollars collected and put it on the original favourite whose price had now drifted.
Result: a free bet on the favourite at enhanced odds. And the favourite won.

Sunnyisland

From The London Times:

Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses.

It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars 1 pound (about $1.40) and coaches 5 (about $7).

This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work.

"Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "we'd better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant..."

"Err ... no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility."

"Err ... no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he?"

"Err ... NO!" insisted the Council.

Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, is a bloke who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at 400 pounds (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the last 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 3.6 million pounds ($7 million).

And no one even knows his name.:D:):rolleyes::p

Remmy

That license plate one is pretty clever if true. A set of those rotating number plates ala the transporter would be dead handy actually.

Winty

realies wrote: »

From The London Times:

Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses.:p

Sorry Bristol Zoo story was funny but a hoax never happened

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Urban-myth-Bristol-Zoo-parking-attendant/story-11266383-detail/story.html

Winty

The scam I like was over in the UK.
The law was changed a few years ago to introduce a fee to dispose of used car tyres

So a few lads travelled the length of England charging half the normal price to get rid of tyres from garages and the like

After a year of collecting tyres they done a runner and left the poor landlord who took cash up front on a warehouse now filled to the gills with tyres

Simple

kowloon

No idea who I heard this from and can't remember the details, but it's a funny scam.

A company supposedly selling sex toys and the likes take orders from people but reply to the person ordering to apologise for not having whatever item in stock. A full refund is given but in the form of a cheque which has the name of the company on it. Something along the lines of 'The anal perversion company' or whatever. Person decides not to go through the embarrassment of cashing the cheque for what's a modest sum anyway.

Feathers

Winty wrote: »

The scam I like was over in the UK.
The law was changed a few years ago to introduce a fee to dispose of used car tyres

So a few lads travelled the length of England charging half the normal price to get rid of tyres from garages and the like

After a year of collecting tyres they done a runner and left the poor landlord who took cash up front on a warehouse now filled to the gills with tyres

Simple

They should've sold them for another fee at Hallowe'en

foxy06

Man walks into a pub with 2 kids and asks the Barman if he does off sales. He gets a few bottles of spirits and some crates of beer. He orders 2 bags of crisps and some lemonade for the kids and said he will leave them there and settle up the lot together. Asks Barman to give him a hand bringing the booze out to his car. Barman ran in to get the last of the items and two lads still sitting chatting away to each other when he brings out the last crate. when he gets back out car is gone. Barman goes back in and two lads still sitting there. He asks where their dad is gone and they reply " he's not our dad he just asked us outside if we wanted crisps and lemonade." Heard this years ago. Not sure if 100% true bit cute git if it was!

Reloc8

kowloon wrote: »

No idea who I heard this from and can't remember the details, but it's a funny scam.

A company supposedly selling sex toys and the likes take orders from people but reply to the person ordering to apologise for not having whatever item in stock. A full refund is given but in the form of a cheque which has the name of the company on it. Something along the lines of 'The anal perversion company' or whatever. Person decides not to go through the embarrassment of cashing the cheque for what's a modest sum anyway.

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Except the company offering for sale has a respectable name any vicar would be happy to cut a cheque for. The refund company is called something else. Otherwise anyone happy to purchase from Anal Perversion Co. Ltd. would be equally happy to cash the refund cheque.

CarrickMcJoe

Person is approached in a car park and is shown a laptop for sale at bargain price. Agrees price and guy says he will get a new boxed one from the car.
Cash changes hands and guy drives off.
Victim opens box to find 2 Agros catalogues.

OU812

Best one I ever hear of was on an american news channel last year, I can't find it online though.

This guy's dad passed away & he's sorting out all his stuff, going through papers etc. He comes across his most recent credit card statement & there among the charges for groceries, gas etc, is a 99¢ charge for i-tunes, (apple is "iTunes") going back through all the other statements he finds every second month for about a year, the same charge. Only thing it, this guy was in his 80s & didn't own a computer or iPhone/ipod etc. So he called the bank & got them to look into it.

It turned out a russian group had hacked a database somewhere & just went on a silent assault. They were charging in the region of five million credit cards the same 99¢ a month. Every month.

ArtyM

Have seen this particular scam a few times.
http://malwaretips.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/An-Garda-Siochana-virus.png

Its a piece of Malware that gets on to a pc and, depending on what country the infected pc is in, it generates a warning screen porporting to be from the police force of that country.
Basically, it says that they have detected that you have been viewing illegal sites and must pay a 100 euro fine - it even gives the option of paying in installments.:D

Death and Taxes

Best one I ever heard of was a couple of guys in the early 90's who sold Irish Pound coins to the English at Cheltenham races for 20 quid a go, they claimed that they were commerative medals of Arkle struck by the Irish Government!:D:D:D

ColeTrain

Found this funny, who needs planning when you can just drive in and out of the main gates.

An investigation has been launched following the theft of 450 kegs from the Guinness Brewery on Victoria Quay in Dublin.
180 kegs of Guinness, 180 kegs of Budweiser and 90 kegs of Carlsberg were taken in the robbery.
A man driving a truck drove into the brewery yard at around 4pm yesterday afternoon and stole a trailer containing the drink, which has an estimated value of €64,000.
It is understood there were a number of trailers stored ready for delivery in the yard at the time.
The driver attached one of the trailers containing the 450 kegs to his cab and drove out of the yard through the main gates.
The robbery was discovered a short time later and gardaí were called. The empty trailer was later discovered in Slane Hill in Co Meath.
In the run up to Christmas there are usually over 250 truck movements both in and out of the complex every day.
Detectives are now examining CCTV footage from the Guinness complex and surrounding area.
Anyone with information on the roughly 40,000 missing pints is asked to contact Kevin Street Garda Station on 01 6669400.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

There's a guy who sits outside my local shopping centre supposedly playing a bodhrán. But anyone looking closely at his feet would see the radio blasting out Irish trad music

Mince Pie

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

There's a guy who sits outside my local shopping centre supposedly playing a bodhrán. But anyone looking closely at his feet would see the radio blasting out Irish trad music

Is he in Navan??

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Mince Pie wrote: »

Is he in Navan??

He is!

bohsman

CarrickMcJoe wrote: »

Person is approached in a car park and is shown a laptop for sale at bargain price. Agrees price and guy says he will get a new boxed one from the car.
Cash changes hands and guy drives off.
Victim opens box to find 2 Agros catalogues.

Fairly sure someone tried that scam on me in the carpark in Northwood a while back, pulls up alongside me and the passenger is desperately trying to sell me a laptop saying he just bought it and it was the wrong colour or something. Had been wondering what the exact scam was.

PogMoThoin

The Irish Gubberment convinced lots of unknowing Irish suckers it would be a great idea to invest in the newly privatised Eircom, making them a killing, which they duly wasted.

Senna

One that was going on recently. A person goes around pubs buying cigarettes from machines, they note the sticker with the company name (Kelly Vending etc on every machine), its location and if its bolted or just free standing. The next day a fella in overalls and a hand truck walk in with an order book "we're from Kelly Vending to swap (looks at order sheet) cigarette machine under TV for a new model", 99% of the time barman/manager looks at order book and says OK, they unplug the old machine, onto the hand truck and away, never to be seen again. Each machine has €1500 - €2500 in either cash or cigarettes.

Every pub/hotel or premises with a cigarette machine has been warned about this ten times in the last few months, so nobody should be caught out now.

JJJJNR

Not sure if this is true or not but there was a hacker in the states in the 80's who hacked a couple of banks but he only took 0.0025 dollars but took it from all bank accounts for years, and bank accounts numbered millions.. never caught either.

darced

This post has been deleted.

bohsman

My favourite prop bet scam -

The folks at Amarillo Slim's country club were utterly baffled when Slim declared that he could drive a golf ball a distance of one mile or more and backed up his claim with a $40,000 wager. After establishing that Slim would attempt the feat hitting from a regulation tee with a PGA-approved golf club (and not hitting it off a mountain, dropping it from an airplane or actually "driving" the ball for one mile inside his car) he got a slew of takers, most of whom thought it would be easy money. Finally, the method to Slim's madness emerged. A crowd of onlookers followed Slim as he drove across town, parked next to a huge frozen lake, and teed up. Slim swung his club and the ball skipped across the ice, not stopping for over a mile and a half.

monkeypants

A2LUE42 wrote: »

Barman in a real tourist pub who used to hold up a half pint glass to the American tourists anf say 'Pint?'

How did that work? Americans are familiar with pints, it's litres that they wouldn't be familiar with.

prettygurrly

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

that took me far longer than it should have to get it...i blame my fuzzy hungover head...really enjoyed all the scams though can't think of any myself right now!

ColeTrain

JJJJNR wrote: »

Not sure if this is true or not but there was a hacker in the states in the 80's who hacked a couple of banks but he only took 0.0025 dollars but took it from all bank accounts for years, and bank accounts numbered millions.. never caught either.

That's a true story. The guys name was Peter Gibbons. He was never found guilty as his office caught fire and destroyed all the evidence.

Big Nasty

prettygurrly wrote: »

that took me far longer than it should have to get it...i blame my fuzzy hungover head...really enjoyed all the scams though can't think of any myself right now!

I still don't get it!

dj jarvis

income tax - best scam ever

bohsman

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I still don't get it!

We both put €20 into a matchbox, then you buy the matchbox off me for €30.

darced

This post has been deleted.

the purple tin

ColeTrain wrote: »

That's a true story. The guys name was Peter Gibbons. He was never found guilty as his office caught fire and destroyed all the evidence.

I won't "jump to conclusions" on this one.

DanWall

The Scotsman who purchased a Donkey off a farmer and it died, so he raffled it. When the winner came to collect, he told him it had died and gave him his money back. The farmer asked if he had any complaints, and he said only one, the winner. Turned out it was Gordon Brown