Scams you have fallen for

Staff Infection

Got done twice that I can remember, hope I've copped on a bit since.

In my first job I worked at a petrol station that also sold gas canisters. It was my first or second week and this auld fella comes in and picks up a canister of gas and pops it in his boot. He then strolls in and takes out his wallet to pay. So far so ordinary, but instead of taking out money he takes out a wee green card that says "Gas allowance €50" written on it. He then tells me that as part of his pension he gets a gas allowance.
So I believed him and went to give him change as the gas was only about €30 or so. Then he points at the prices for gas on the wall behind me as there were two prices. I know now that one price is actually a surcharge which is levied if you don't supply an empty canister when buying a new one. He told me that the surcharge was the O.A.P. price which I foolishly believed. So he got his gas for about €15 and his €35 change. Then to make matters worse his "allowance card" was fake. Naturally the money was docked from my wages and I learned fast to be more skeptical of customers.

Other story was more of a close call. I applied to a marketing job and got a call back hours later. They told me my CV was in the top 10% of CV's and was great blah blah blah. Anyway they said they'd skip the interview and just "trial" me the next day. Thankfully I looked them up and found this "trial" was actually where the company dropped you in an estate and asked you to go door to door selling whatever stock they had. Then at the end irrespective of how many you sold they would say "sadly you don't meet our sales expectations yada yada yada so we won't be hiring you".
Was hilarious when I rang to cancel, the lady on the phone was doing her best to snare me "that's a pity as you could have earned x amount easily based on your CV, are you sure".
To good to be true.

Damokc

strobe wrote: »

Sounds awful make uppey .

I can confirm...the worst part about tinkers painting sheds though, is they just paint over skylights....not good for roofers down the line. A man died last summer in kerry cos he stepped on a painted skylight and fell through.

wobzilla1

Staff Infection wrote: »

They told me my CV was in the top 90% of CV's

Impressive :rolleyes:

Staff Infection

Just remembered another time when I almost got scammed.

During my days in college I had to get the bus from Bus Aras home on the weekends. There used to be a fair few skinny beggars around there. I had one person come ask me for money and hearing my accent tried to modify their sop story for me failing miserably in the process. Conversation went something like this.
"Story bud do ya have a euro for me bus?"
"Hello, eh no I'm on my way for a bus myself"
"Oh, (copping my culchie accent) you're from down the country, where abouts?"
"Mayo" (I lied in my reply as I don't like saying where I'm from to beggars)
"Oh where abouts in Mayo, man?"
"Dingle" (I know it's not in Mayo was just enjoying taking the mick)
"Oh I have a granny from Dingle in Mayo so I do"
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Course I'm bleeding sure, anyway would ya have a fiver from one Mayo man to another?"

Now obviously I didn't give him anything but I kind of admired his perseverance.

Staff Infection

wobzilla1 wrote: »

Impressive :rolleyes:

Yeah well when like me you have been ignored by so many other companies you've applied to it's things like this that both make you feel good and kind of lure you into a false sense of security I reckon.

Ah I see, crap I wrote that wrong should say top 10% I'll edit it now, damn it.

barneysplash

My family are a gullible trustworthy lot.

Years ago my dad came home all excited one day after meeting a suave Italian
leather jacket salesman, who was lost and needed directions to Dublin airport.

My Dad helped him find his way, and just before he was going to head off, the
Italian says, "I don't want to carry these samples back in my luggage, I have
to pay extra weight charges" and offers my Dad two dad beautiful hand-made
Italian leather jackets. My Dad was delighted and paid him £50.

When he got them home, we had a closer look at them. They were two of the
worst plastic leatherette yolks you'd ever seen.

My brother was on holiday with his girlfriend in Spain a few years ago and
saw these great dancing Disney characters that seemed to move to music
all by themselves. He bought a set, and was told to put them on the radiator
overnight, and they'd be ready to work. No batteries or anything!
When he gets back to the hotel room and unpacks them, he finds they are just
bits of paper and string. The magic dancing was achieved by a hidden invisible string:

starling

stefan idiot jones wrote: »

Not a scam as such, but in London a few years ago a team of scumbags were going into pubs looking lost. They opened their maps and were asking people sitting at tables for directions. While the unfolded map was held out in front of them, the sneaky cutns would swipe mobiles etc. that were on the table under the map.

I hope they all die roaring.

What a bunch of @rseholes. They make people less likely to help people who are genuine IMO.

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago on the way home from the hospital, getting the luas from stephens green. I had backpack on, but it was only for carrying gym gear and notes from the pain management course, nothing worth stealing. And of course the little zip pocket on the front was empty, I'm not that naive.
Anyway this lady came up to me while I was at the ticket machine and asked me to help her buy a ticket. She was quite well dressed and didn't look like a junkie or anything, so I assumed she couldn't read the screen. (happened all the time in the shop I worked in, people would ask me to read the tiny print on packages cause they didn't have their glasses).
So she gave me €5 and I said I'd buy te ticket and asked her where she wanted to go. She named a stop near the far end of the line; it was further than I'd normally go on the luas so I was looking at the screen for a few seconds trying to find it and she pointed it out to me in kind of an impatient tone. I thought "Well obviously she can see the screen fine, maybe she's never been on the luas before and doesn't know how to work the machine." You do sometimes encounter people especially non-dubs who haven't been on the luas before, and some people just have a mental block of "urgh I am bad at machines how do I luas?"
Anyway I bought her ticket, but I didn't get on the luas because it was packed and I need a seat. She got on just before the doors closed, shoving her way into the crowd. I went to sit down on the station bench and took my backpack off, that's when I copped that she'd opened the front pocket while we were at the machine. Which explained why she was so impatient to get onto that luas before I copped it. By that time the luas was gone, I bet she got plenty of wallets by the time she got off that tram:(

Years ago when I was a lounge girl sone aulfella came in and ordered a pint, then pulled the change scam on me and left me short £5 in my float. I had to make it up out of my wages for the day (£9). I was fuming, the old b@strd.

My SIL just got caught out by a phisher last week. She's not very computer savvy and last time my brother asked me to have a look at their laptop it was as full of viruses as Mr Burns in that one simpsons episode where the doctor does a demonstration by trying to shove a load of tennis balls through a little door. I assumed it was the kids but now I'm not so sure. :rolleyes: Anyway she gave some personal details (not bank details) and the scammer used it to get €200 out of her bank ac. He had rung the bank, or had some woman do it for him, and registered her for that "emergency cash without an ATM card" service. They gave him a special pin no. over the phone and all he had to do was go to an ATM and withdraw the cash:(

In my last job I didn't get scammed, partly because I'm older and wiser now, but also because we were quite well trained about common scam tactics. But some people got caught out sometimes. Like every now and then you might be asked to help out on the customer service desk and once when a mate of mine was filling in there, a woman came to her with an expensive double duvet, in its packaging but opened, and asked to return it. She had the receipt and everything and it was way too busy so my friend just gave her a refund back onto her visa card.
A few days later we happened to be having some more training and the subject of scams came up, and someone mentioned this incident - turned out the lady had bought the expensive duvet, then got a cheap one from penneys and switched the packaging, and "returned" it and got a refund!
My friend kept quiet and later said to me "Well, nobody told me we don't give refunds on bedding." Fair point, I thought:)

starling

Staff Infection wrote: »

Yeah well when like me you have been ignored by so many other companies you've applied to it's things like this that both make you feel good and kind of lure you into a false sense of security I reckon.

Ah I see, crap I wrote that wrong should say top 10% I'll edit it now, damn it.

Yeah I know how that goes, a neighbour of mine was talking about the ad she'd seen on the supermarket notice board looking for envelope stuffers, but we told her it was a scam.
(She also has a tendency to "like" those stupid stories in Facebook no matter how many times I explain like farming to her. Can't unfriend her though it would be rude;))

space_man

2nd night in Bangkok. Met this lovely girl.
back to the hotel .............
(you know where this is going).

I am pie

Staff Infection wrote: »

Yeah well when like me you have been ignored by so many other companies you've applied to it's things like this that both make you feel good and kind of lure you into a false sense of security I reckon.

Ah I see, crap I wrote that wrong should say top 10% I'll edit it now, damn it.

There is a worse one going around where you get offered a job on a cruis ship (in IT or finance or whatever) based on your CV and having contacted some former colleagues. They don't need to interview you and will pay you a fortune, you start as soon as you pay for some training course which is mandatory for all people who will be at sea for prolonged periods...

MadsL

Friend of mine fell for the fake leather jacket scam.

I was talked into playing "California" Blackjack not 21 in a casino in Austria. Dealer pushes, not busts on 23, 22 wins. Natural 22 is two aces. The whole game favours the house massively.

kowloon

space_man wrote: »

2nd night in Bangkok. Met this lovely girl.
back to the hotel .............
(you know where this is going).

So 'e flips 'er over...

MadsL

kowloon wrote: »

So 'e flips 'er over...

and she starts first time, and 'e drives away like.

(Just watched that today)

NuckingFacker

I can see a mass effort to produce OAP discount cards, dancing dolls, return expensive duvets, get emergency cash pins and flog schmatty jackets, being unleashed. Any chance the thread could be renamed "New ways you can scam people"?

barneysplash

For those who don't know what we're on about:

Doom

Deleted User wrote: »

I read an article at lunch about a woman who had tried to scam an elderly nun - when the nun called her bluff she robbed her.

The nun was more streetwise than I was.

I fell for a similar scam several years ago - a woman stopped me on the street, told me some tale about needing to get home in a hurry and asked me for a pound to get the bus home - I gave the money and didn't realise I had been scammed until I saw the same woman in the same place asking for the same thing a few weeks later.

Another time I bought a Big Issue from a homeless guy - for those who don't know it is a magazine sold by the homeless as a way to earn some cash. When I sat down to read it I copped on that the issue was old and grubby - the guy wasn't a legitimate seller and had just fished on old copy out of a bin and sold it to me.

Anyone else have stories of scams they fell for or which you saw was a scam from a mile away?

Are you as streetwise as that nun?

I thought I be helpful and buy a Big Issue, I gave the woman the money....she refused to give me the magazine

BQQ

Roma gypsy standing outside Tesco pleads with me to give him €5 for nappies for his baby.
He looks genuinely desperate, tears welling in his eyes.
Thoughts of poor baby screaming in his own faeces crosses my mind.
I hand over the cash.

To my surprise, he doesn't immediately go into Tesco to buy them.
He just thanks me and waits for me to walk on, his expression now a beaming smile.
All his teeth are Gold.

F**k :mad:

Allyall

Not me, but my Girlfriend is an awful eejit sometimes.
She has fallen for this one about 6 or 7 times now.
TWICE BY THE SAME GUY!!

On different nights, we have gone out together and seen these guys wearing these shirts (Obviously fake ones).
Nearly everytime she see's one of these guys, (whether it's paranoia about herself or not, i don't know.) She falls for it.

Thing is, it cuts into our night every time, and I'm left standing in the pub on my own, for ages (Nearly an hour) before she comes back.
But she's not entirely stupid, because she never pays them.
Now everytime we go out, i have to remind her that if we see one of these guys, ask for ID first, but that has doesn't work either, because sometimes they'll flash the ID really quickly, which makes her think they're legit.

She really is stupid. She has probably fallen for it loads of other times when she goes out with the girls, but wouldn't admit it to me, because she knows i'd slag her about it.

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

starling

NuckingFacker wrote: »

I can see a mass effort to produce OAP discount cards, dancing dolls, return expensive duvets, get emergency cash pins and flog schmatty jackets, being unleashed. Any chance the thread could be renamed "New ways you can scam people"?

Good point, always think the same thing about this kind of stuff but then, the more well-known a scam is, the less likely it is to work:)
In fairness as soon as i heard about this emergency cash thing I though it sounded like a scammer's wet dream. Don't even have to bother pinching the card. My ma's bank has rung up a few times and it would've been easy enough for me to answer their questions to "confirm" they were talking to her. In fact they rang a few months ago looking for my dad and he's been dead two years:mad:
I always thought "Yeah, you can ask me questions to confirm I'm me, but how do I know you're calling from the bank?" They're usually calling to try and sell you a loan or some other sh1te anyway, if it's important they can send me a letter.

And your one just got lucky with the duvet thing, the regular staff would've told her where she could stick it;)

monkeysnapper

I was scammed big time, I met this woman and she was all nicey nicey, ended up marrying her. 4 years later and I'm still getting scammed . The bint, have 2 kids now and they're scamming me as we'll. The 3 year old stoll a load of money that was in my jeans on floor in bedroom. Put it in her piggy bank. The 1 year old just keep dirtying nappies , put a new one on and ****s himself. I'm sure he does it out of spite

B.A._Baracus

The romanian gypsies are something else.

I remember going to Doran's one saturday night. Would of been 2008 or there abouts and I was outside with 3 girls I know smoking. Cue a romanian gypsy man come along selling roses. One of the girls wants one and pulls out a €20 euro note to pay him (rose was only like €2) - We all say he wont have bloody change for that, what are you doing, etc .... we were wrong :rolleyes: Digs into one of his pockets and gives back a few coins then pulls out a big wad of cash from his breast pocket to give back a €10 note. It was unreal. At least €500 euro in various notes. Maybe more. He wasn't exactly showing it off - but wasnt hiding it at the same time.

We all know the gypsies selling roses was all one big con, but still, the size of the wad was still a rude awakening.

Esoteric_

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

The romanian gypsies are something else.

I remember going to Doran's one saturday night. Would of been 2008 or there abouts and I was outside with 3 girls I know smoking. Cue a romanian gypsy man come along selling roses. One of the girls wants one and pulls out a €20 euro note to pay him (rose was only like €2) - We all say he wont have bloody change for that, what are you doing, etc .... we were wrong :rolleyes: Digs into one of his pockets and gives back a few coins then pulls out a big wad of cash from his breast pocket to give back a €10 note. It was unreal. At least €500 euro in various notes. Maybe more. He wasn't exactly showing it off - but wasnt hiding it at the same time.

We all know the gypsies selling roses was all one big con, but still, the size of the wad was still a rude awakening.

He was offering to sell something, what's the problem? It's not like he was begging, ffs. It's not a scam if he offers to sell something at a set price and the other person agrees to the price. If it were, every single shop in Ireland is full of scam artists.

Lucena

Anyone wrote: »

Tesco's Car park Scam


This is an old scam that has started up again....


This is a warning to men who may be regular Tesco customers. Over
the last months I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping.
Simply going out to get a few odd's and ends has turned out to be quite
traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your
friends.

Here's how the scam works:

Two very hot 25-26 year-old girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the boot. They both start wiping your windscreen with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy little T-shirts. It is impossible not to look.

When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride to another store. You agree and they get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.


I had my wallet stolen May 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th &
24th. Also June 1st, 4th, twice on the 6th, three times
last Saturday and it's very likely to happen again this coming weekend.

So tell your friends to be careful.

P.S. Dealz have wallets on offer for 1.49 each.

Taping them together is a cheap way to make a hot 50-year-old.:D

B.A._Baracus

Esoteric_ wrote: »

He was offering to sell something, what's the problem? It's not like he was begging, ffs. It's not a scam if he offers to sell something at a set price and the other person agrees to the price. If it were, every single shop in Ireland is full of scam artists.

You're not from Dublin are you :pac: or you don't go out to town much :pac:

These romanian gypsies come over to you with such talk as "buy, please buy, i am homeless" and other sob stories. If you aint immediately interested in buying, then the stories come out with that terrible puppy dog look.

Experience. Before you call me wrong.

Esoteric_

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

You're not from Dublin are you :pac: or you don't go out to town much :pac:

These romanian gypsies come over to you with such talk as "buy, please buy, i am homeless" and other sob stories. If you aint immediately interested in buying, then the stories come out with that terrible puppy dog look.

Experience. Before you call me wrong.

I live in Dublin, 10 mins from the City Centre, and I've worked in the city centre for the past 4 years, actually.

Simple solution - walk away. If you don't want to buy it, don't. If you want to buy it, buy it. Selling something isn't a scam.

FTR, I've bought roses from Roma people while drunk, and not once have they ever told me they were homeless. Only the ones begging have said that to me, or asked for money 'for baby.'

So yeah. I have the experience you seem to desire. I've lived in Dublin all of my life, and am in town a minimum of 5 days a week, for long periods of time.

B.A._Baracus

Esoteric_ wrote: »

I live in Dublin, 10 mins from the City Centre, and I've worked in the city centre for the past 4 years, actually.

Simple solution - walk away. If you don't want to buy it, don't. If you want to buy it, buy it. Selling something isn't a scam.

FTR, I've bought roses from Roma people while drunk, and not once have they ever told me they were homeless. Only the ones begging have said that to me, or asked for money 'for baby.'

So yeah. I have the experience you seem to desire. I've lived in Dublin all of my life, and am in town a minimum of 5 days a week, for long periods of time.

wtf? :pac:
You REALLY over did the "i'm from dublin because of X Y Z" bit there you know

Did I hit a nerve some how? Was it my original post against romanian gypsies? .... your response was just "POW!" like.

Esoteric_

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

wtf? :pac:
You REALLY over did the "i'm from dublin because of X Y Z" bit there you know

Did I hit a nerve some how? Was it my original post against romanian gypsies? .... your response was just "POW!" like.

You said I musn't be from Dublin, or go into town much. I responded telling you that I am from Dublin, and am in town frequently. But sure, evade valid points I make. I don't mind.

They're Roma gypsies, btw. They're not all Romanian.

B.A._Baracus

Esoteric_ wrote: »

You said I musn't be from Dublin, or go into town much. I responded telling you that I am from Dublin, and am in town frequently. But sure, evade valid points I make. I don't mind.

They're Roma gypsies, btw. They're not all Romanian.

... Well I only mentioned it because:

Esoteric_ wrote: »

I live in Dublin (1) 10 mins from the City Centre (2) and I've worked in the city centre for the past 4 years, actually. (3)

Simple solution - walk away. If you don't want to buy it, don't. If you want to buy it, buy it. Selling something isn't a scam.

FTR, I've bought roses from Roma people while drunk, and not once have they ever told me they were homeless. Only the ones begging have said that to me, or asked for money 'for baby.'

So yeah. I have the experience you seem to desire. I've lived in Dublin all of my life (4) and am in town a minimum of 5 days a week (5) for long periods of time (6)

6 points about how Dublin you are. 1 was enough!!!!!!! You swear I hit a sore spot questioning how Dublin you were :pac:

Esoteric_

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

... Well I only mentioned it because:



6 points about how Dublin you are. 1 was enough!!!!!!! You swear I hit a sore spot questioning how Dublin you were :pac:

You made an assumption, I clarified it, giving examples?

So again, how is it a scam if somebody is selling something?