Scams and tricks that shouldnt have worked but did

K-9

Some good ones here, the Yorkshire Ripper one is a bit spookey, 4 women died even after the hoaxer came clean:

5 Insane Scams That Should Have Failed (But Didn't) | Cracked.com

IvaBigWun

NuckingFacker wrote: »

Some people have done really well having bought when they were on the absolute floor..others, not so much..

They were 8 cent at the time and are 23 cents today so hmmmm yes I could have tripled an investment there.

Or then again I could have put it all on red in Vegas with similar odds

bumper234

IvaBigWun wrote: »

They were 8 cent at the time and are 23 cents today so hmmmm yes I could have tripled an investment there.

Or then again I could have put it all on red in Vegas with similar odds

Not really. Vegas odds on red would be even money

oldyouth

Lotto

seamus

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

There was a mad pyramid scheme in cork a few years ago.
Im not messing when I say a lot of people I worked with were stupid enough to pay into it.

I was working on sites at the time and there was people organising meetings in their homes giving people info on how to get into it. There was a lot of bad blood around when the whole thing fell through.

But it was just ridiculous the amount of people that got stung for €1000+ minimum

It wasn't just a Cork thing, it was nationwide. It was called "Women empowering women" or something like that. It was a pyramid scheme, but the reason it worked (like many pyramid schemes) was because lots of ordinary people who weren't in the scam did actually make good cash from it. So when your Auntie Betty tells you she's managed to take €10k out of this thing for her €1k investment, you're probably going to want in too.
I remember at the time there were hundreds of women on radio shows and online defending it; it wasn't a pyramid scheme, it was about feminism, and anyone who claimed otherwise was just trying to keep women down. They couldn't see the basic maths in it at all.

The only reason that was uncovered was because there was a burglary at one of the meetings. Two guys burst in with weapons and took €40k that was just sitting on the coffee table in front of all the women. When the Gardai asked what 20 women were doing sitting around a table with €40k on it, they told them, and so the Gardai put out a nationwide warning not to get involved in it.

Pyramid schemes shouldn't work any more. But they do. And they're not getting more niche, they're getting bigger. You set up a big professional front, put your friendly face out there to your "clients" and they assume that there's no way you can be scamming them right to their faces, and not when your transactions are worth millions of dollars. Bernie Madoff being the prime example. Paper losses there were something like $60bn - but that's including the fictional returns that the investors were told they'd get. The actual losses though were still in the tens of billions.
In the end it was still just a pyramid scheme, nothing else.

IvaBigWun

oldyouth wrote: »

Lotto

Apparently you've better odds of getting hit by lightning several times than winning even the Irish Lotto.

A scam? No. A stealth tax for the gullible? Yes.

token101

How has no one mentioned the bank guarantee yet?

token101

IvaBigWun wrote: »

His logic? "well they have to go up some time" :pac:

You'd actually be better off throwing the money on a horse or accumulator. At least that way it'd be over fast like pulling off a plaster. You wouldn't be sitting around forever wondering when the mortgage crisis is going to properly come home to roost.

wazky

Santa Claus, he gets all the credit while we fork out the cash.

He ain't real kids.

IvaBigWun

token101 wrote: »

You'd actually be better off throwing the money on a horse or accumulator. At least that way it'd be over fast like pulling off a plaster. You wouldn't be sitting around forever wondering when the mortgage crisis is going to properly come home to roost.

True.

Hedge funds, stocks, funds etc all = a Paddy Power for the middle/upper classes

Oryx

Banners broker

IvaBigWun

Oryx wrote: »

Banners broker

On quick glance of the below it looks like a modern day pyramid scheme and it looks like they've run for the hills

http://www.diarmaidcondon.com/is-banners-broker-gone/

fastrac

Property prices rising

The Irish " Motor Industry"

Denvironment

Recycling

TommiesTank

Benchmarking. Free money in exchange for nothing? Biggest scam ever.

IvaBigWun

Revenue issues warning against text messaging scam

The Revenue Commissioner has warned of a text messaging scam that asks tax payers to provide financial information to avail of a tax refund.

Anyone who handed over payment card information after receiving a fraudulent text from a number purporting to be the Revenue is asked to contact their bank or credit card holder immediately.

Revenue warned about the scam some days ago but reiterated their warning today.

Revenue said they became aware of the fraudulent text messages after several members of the public reported the issue.

However they say they do not know how many people had received the texts or if anyone’s personal information has been obtained through the scam.

The text included a link to a website where tax payers were asked to submit their personal and banking information to avail of the tax refund.

Full article here

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/revenue-issues-warning-against-text-messaging-scam-29755104.html

I really struggle to understand how anyone can decide that it's reasonable to text your bank details to an unverified number. Or to imagine that the Revenue sends requests by text.

Capt'n Midnight

bitcoins :pac:

[-0-]

Christianity.
Mormonism.

Kikin

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

bitcoins :pac:

*scam still in progress, post back after the next crash

Capt'n Midnight

Kikin wrote: »

*scam still in progress, post back after the next crash

The beauty of bitcoins is that every type of financial scam has been observed in the wild.

How many people realise that there is a finite supply of bitcoins not everyone knows they can be destroyed too.

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3228/why-destroy-bitcoins

thunderdog

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The beauty of bitcoins is that every type of financial scam has been observed in the wild.

How many people realise that there is a finite supply of bitcoins not everyone knows they can be destroyed too.

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3228/why-destroy-bitcoins

I bought bitcoins back in February at 27 dollars a bitcoin. I only put in as much as I could afford to lose. Sold most of my bitcoins last week but kept some of the profit rolling in it.

AtomicHorror

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The beauty of bitcoins is that every type of financial scam has been observed in the wild.

How many people realise that there is a finite supply of bitcoins not everyone knows they can be destroyed too.

They're also divisible down to 8 decimal places, and theoretically infinitely divisible. So limited supply doesn't mean much and neither does lost coins.

For a scam, these things seem to have a huge following in the tech press and what seems to be a warming reception in the financial press too. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs meeting this week said plenty about bit coins and criminality, but not one word about the concept itself being in any way suspect.

All that taken into consideration, plus the fact that nobody in particular seems to be in control of this "scam", I'm gonna say it's not a scam. Doesn't mean it definitely won't fail, doesn't mean nobody can get burnt. But really don't think it's a scam.