Worst scam you've fallen for

Airyfairy12

When I was about 21 I was applying for Summer jobs with no luck and getting really desperate. I finally got contacted by a local Pixiphoto to come in for an interview, I was over the moon as out of all the jobs id applied for, most of them where retail, waitressing, this one job that I got called for an interview was related to photography which I was really interested in.
So I went in and a woman not much older than myself is giving the interview on her own. Its not so much an interview, she says she wants to give me a trial straight away but hands me loads of leaflets and tells me to stand outside, hand them out and try to get people to book in for portraits, she had a book with a pen on a table already set up in the spot she wanted me to stand and she'd come back out to me and if I had enough people signed up id get a job.
Desperate for work and a bit naive I went along with it. The photography shop was attached to a mothercare and as I was standing outside the mothercare shop I could hear the women working there talking about me and how I wasn't even trying and talking about how I look, just being b!tches in general.
After an hour and a half the woman didnt seem to be coming back out to me so I went into her, she told me I was to stand there till 1pm, another 2 hours. Needless to say I didnt get the job.
The next week I was walking past the shop and noticed a woman standing outside handing out leaflets. A few weeks later my friends brother got called for an interview and was told stand outside and hand out leaflets. It turned out they called people for 'job interviews' so they could get people to work for them for free for a couple of hours. No doubt they had someone new to hand out leaflets straight away after I had left.
The companies closed down now but since closing, loads of former staff and customers came forward about how badly they were treated by the company.

pgj2015

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

When I was about 21 I was applying for Summer jobs with no luck and getting really desperate. I finally got contacted by a local Pixiphoto to come in for an interview, I was over the moon as out of all the jobs id applied for, most of them where retail, waitressing, this one job that I got called for an interview was related to photography which I was really interested in.
So I went in and a woman not much older than myself is giving the interview on her own. Its not so much an interview, she says she wants to give me a trial straight away but hands me loads of leaflets and tells me to stand outside, hand them out and try to get people to book in for portraits, she had a book with a pen on a table already set up in the spot she wanted me to stand and she'd come back out to me and if I had enough people signed up id get a job.
Desperate for work and a bit naive I went along with it. The photography shop was attached to a mothercare and as I was standing outside the mothercare shop I could hear the women working there talking about me and how I wasn't even trying and talking about how I look, just being b!tches in general.
After an hour and a half the woman didnt seem to be coming back out to me so I went into her, she told me I was to stand there till 1pm, another 2 hours. Needless to say I didnt get the job.
The next week I was walking past the shop and noticed a woman standing outside handing out leaflets. A few weeks later my friends brother got called for an interview and was told stand outside and hand out leaflets. It turned out they called people for 'job interviews' so they could get people to work for them for free for a couple of hours. No doubt they had someone new to hand out leaflets straight away after I had left.
The companies closed down now but since closing, loads of former staff and customers came forward about how badly they were treated by the company.

Clever scam in a way. They probably used jobBridge when it was available. 9 months to learn the art of handing out leaflets.

Airyfairy12

pgj2015 wrote: »

Clever scam in a way. They probably used jobBridge when it was available. 9 months to learn the art of handing out leaflets.

No doubt they did, sure jobsbridge was the biggest scam ever.

pgj2015

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

No doubt they did, sure jobsbridge was the biggest scam ever.

It sure was. I remember subway trying to hire sandwich artists for 9 months through it. it was a disgrace how the employer didn't even have to throw you 50 euro a week for working for them, I think they were actually paid to employ you. And small businesses couldn't avail of the scam, I mean scheme.

akelly02

It's ok, you can blow inside me , I'm on the pill.

Airyfairy12

pgj2015 wrote: »

It sure was. I remember subway trying to hire sandwich artists for 9 months through it. it was a disgrace how the employer didn't even have to throw you 50 euro a week for working for them, I think they were actually paid to employ you. And small businesses couldn't avail of the scam, I mean scheme.

Yes, I remember centra doing the same and the Department of education and skills were advertising for qualified teachers through it.
How it was legal is mind boggling?!

pgj2015

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

Yes, I remember centra doing the same and the Department of education and skills were advertising for qualified teachers through it.
How it was legal is mind boggling?!

They just got away with it because the country wasnt doing well to say the least, half the country was unemployed, places like super value used it when it should have been made available to small businesses. Sure I remember a thread on here where someone was actually working for free(not even on jobBridge) for some people in her local town, all the staff including the boss started ringing in sick and the woman working for free was running the company lol,she had customers ringing up or calling in eating the head off her about different issues. That shows you how peoples desperation for a job was used against them.

Purple Mountain

pgj2015 wrote: »

They just got away with it because the country wasnt doing well to say the least, half the country was unemployed, places like super value used it when it should have been made available to small businesses. Sure I remember a thread on here where someone was actually working for free(not even on jobBridge) for some people in her local town, all the staff including the boss started ringing in sick and the woman working for free was running the company lol,she had customers ringing up or calling in eating the head off her about different issues. That shows you how peoples desperation for a job was used against them.

And unfortunately people who found themselves unemployed felt almost compelled to participate in these schemes and scams to keep up their skill set and avoid CV gaps.

skooterblue2

pgj2015 wrote: »

It sure was. I remember subway trying to hire sandwich artists for 9 months through it. it was a disgrace how the employer didn't even have to throw you 50 euro a week for working for them, I think they were actually paid to employ you. And small businesses couldn't avail of the scam, I mean scheme.

They were hiring teachers through JobsBridge until the Unions said a hard no.

kerryjack

Bought a colour tv out of the boot of a car on a building site in west Dublin 30 years ago fully wraped and in a box, this was a time when a tv could cost a 6 or 700 pounds, never worked probably paid 100 quid for it cant remember but I was fairly peed off.

darragh o meara

Not so much fell for it but was subject to it.

Recently was looking through my online banking account and noticed a transaction to Ebay USA that I hadnt made, when I looked further into it there was a number of transactions totaling about 1000 euro and that they had been taken through my Paypal Account.

Straight off the bat, I tried to log into Paypal to see what they were about and found that I couldn't get access, trying to reset the password gave me an error that the account didn't exist etc. So not getting anywhere there, I went into my email and eventually found emails for the purchases and also an Account termination email, surprisingly these were in the deleted folder and a rule setup that automatically deleted emails from Paypal which made me realise that I had been hacked and that I had in fact been using the same password for both. Here's when the fun started, Paypal didn't want to know about it as I no longer had an account with them and when I managed to get through to someone ( Extremely difficult to speak to anyone in Paypal at the moment) I had to repeat my story from start to finish every time I called. In the end after 15+ phone calls and countless hours spent explaining the situation, on hold, supplying this that and the other etc. I got fed up and rang Joe Duffy's team for the crack, they contacted me back and took all the details and obviously contacted Paypal because low and behold a Paypal manager contacted me later that day and sorted everything in 10 mins.

Long and the short of the scam,

Scammer gained access to my Paypal and email.
Changed the address on the account.
Spent what he could before the payments got stopped.
Closed my account so I couldn't dispute the payments or stop them for that matter.
Fixed my email account so I wouldn't find the emails easily.

BTW: I managed to get the scammers name and address as one of the items he purchased needed to be in his name and he added it to the order. I spent an idle day while isolating looking up and signing him up for every bit of religious literature/ home visits I could find, pretty much anything I could do to annoy the life out of him for a while.

Moral of the story, with anything you want to keep safe setup 2 factor authentication. In this case my password was pretty strong and as random as you can get, letters, upper/lower case, symbols the lot.

Purple Mountain

^ I totally feel your pain.
I fell foul to someone unscrupulous that I paid via PayPal. I automatically thought, great, PayPal, I have protection.
Everything you describe above I went through.. countless emails, repeating myself over and over, never getting same person, conflicting information etc etc. Went on for about two months.
In the end, I actually thought they were ripping the pee out of me because no company could be that pathetic.
In the end, I got my money back that I proved I was owed (onus on me of course) and it was like I was a huge burden to them.
I actually do have a number for the supposed unscrupulous seller and like you I was thinking of playing mischief but I'd no way of knowing if that was even his correct contact details.

darragh o meara

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I actually do have a number for the supposed unscrupulous seller and like you I was thinking of playing mischief but I'd no way of knowing if that was even his correct contact details.

Cant be certain if I had the right fella myself but his instagram profile showed him with one of the personalised items he purchased , coincidence or not it was too good an opportunity to pass up on

pgj2015

darragh o meara wrote: »

Not so much fell for it but was subject to it.

Recently was looking through my online banking account and noticed a transaction to Ebay USA that I hadnt made, when I looked further into it there was a number of transactions totaling about 1000 euro and that they had been taken through my Paypal Account.

Straight off the bat, I tried to log into Paypal to see what they were about and found that I couldn't get access, trying to reset the password gave me an error that the account didn't exist etc. So not getting anywhere there, I went into my email and eventually found emails for the purchases and also an Account termination email, surprisingly these were in the deleted folder and a rule setup that automatically deleted emails from Paypal which made me realise that I had been hacked and that I had in fact been using the same password for both. Here's when the fun started, Paypal didn't want to know about it as I no longer had an account with them and when I managed to get through to someone ( Extremely difficult to speak to anyone in Paypal at the moment) I had to repeat my story from start to finish every time I called. In the end after 15+ phone calls and countless hours spent explaining the situation, on hold, supplying this that and the other etc. I got fed up and rang Joe Duffy's team for the crack, they contacted me back and took all the details and obviously contacted Paypal because low and behold a Paypal manager contacted me later that day and sorted everything in 10 mins.

Long and the short of the scam,

Scammer gained access to my Paypal and email.
Changed the address on the account.
Spent what he could before the payments got stopped.
Closed my account so I couldn't dispute the payments or stop them for that matter.
Fixed my email account so I wouldn't find the emails easily.

BTW: I managed to get the scammers name and address as one of the items he purchased needed to be in his name and he added it to the order. I spent an idle day while isolating looking up and signing him up for every bit of religious literature/ home visits I could find, pretty much anything I could do to annoy the life out of him for a while.

Moral of the story, with anything you want to keep safe setup 2 factor authentication. In this case my password was pretty strong and as random as you can get, letters, upper/lower case, symbols the lot.

Could you not report the thief to the police?

darragh o meara

pgj2015 wrote: »

Could you not report the thief to the police?

I could but he is in the US and I'm in little ole Ireland. Hardly worth the hassle. I'm sure the deluge of all sorts of leaflets and visits to discuss this that and the other will annoy him enough to make him think about doing it again, in reality it probably wont..

Sgt Hartman

pgj2015 wrote: »

Is the bit in bold a joke?

Have you never seen cowboy builders? Most of the time the cowboys are recommended by some so called friends.

Yeah you're right, it's another little scam tactic. The so called gutter repair "company " had quite a few fake recommendations on their own Facebook page.

pgj2015

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

Yeah you're right, it's another little scam tactic. The so called gutter repair "company " had quite a few fake recommendations on their own Facebook page.

yes but even recommendations from real people you know can lead to you being shafted by a cowboy builder. I wouldnt pass any heed on any recommendation or anything really from facebook.

pgj2015

darragh o meara wrote: »

I could but he is in the US and I'm in little ole Ireland. Hardly worth the hassle. I'm sure the deluge of all sorts of leaflets and visits to discuss this that and the other will annoy him enough to make him think about doing it again, in reality it probably wont..

I would still report him, it might stop him doing it to the next victim.

dinneenp

darragh o meara wrote: »

I could but he is in the US and I'm in little ole Ireland. Hardly worth the hassle. I'm sure the deluge of all sorts of leaflets and visits to discuss this that and the other will annoy him enough to make him think about doing it again, in reality it probably wont..

Physical location is irrelevant! Paypal deal globally. Report him.

jbv

wally1990 wrote: »

Not an offical scam but I felt like an idiot and robbed due to my own stupidity

In new York, wrecked from.shopping all.day with herself and sick of shops plus walking!!

I was standing outside some.clothing store while herself was inside

Outside the store there was this beauty stall [hand wash, facial creams, etc]

Anyway this sales woman walks over to me and grabs my arm and basically says oh come try our hand wash ****e etc

So tired and unwilling to decline I went about 5 feet away

So 2 min later im washing my hands into a basin and sure doesn't the water look off colour [prob eating, touching money etc all day] and she is look oh great cleaning product bla bla

Then she rubs some creams on my hand while bigging up the product and its natural origins and ****e

Im a male and couldnt give a f to be honest


Anyway , im half alseep and she is like 'will you take a bit for you and the wife and I asked how much?

50 dollars she said

And why the **** I didn't walk away then i dunno

Handed 50 quid for bascially a bar of soap and cream

Wife comes out and big smile oh what did you buy

I just handed her the bag in my own disgust and said lets not talk about it

I hated myself for blowing 50 dollars but being so tired I just wanted that woman to **** off

5 years ago and still annoys me

They still do it.
Check 1st Floor, Jervis Shopping Center, Dublin.
They are all Jewish and selling some products based on the salt from the Dead Sea.

Murt10

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

I also stupidly called a gutter repair "company" I found online.!

A tradesman working on my house previously told me of a "scam" another tradesman he knows was using.

Scammer pays to takes out a big ad in the local papers/FB etc. When he gets called out, he always asks the customer where they got his name from. If its from an ad, he knows there's not going to be any repeat business. He immediately doubles his fee and rips them off and sticks it to them as much as he possibly can.

If, on the other hand, they tell him that they were recommended by John Murphy from wherever then he charges the normal price. He wants repeat business from customers, not ripped off people going back to previously satisfied customers, who were getting him new business for him.

Distasteful as it is, that there's a certain logic in his methods.

randd1

Lotto tickets.

partyguinness

Murt10 wrote: »

A tradesman working on my house previously told me of a "scam" another tradesman he knows was using.

Scammer pays to takes out a big ad in the local papers/FB etc. When he gets called out, he always asks the customer where they got his name from. If its from an ad, he knows there's not going to be any repeat business. He immediately doubles his fee and rips them off and sticks it to them as much as he possibly can.

If, on the other hand, they tell him that they were recommended by John Murphy from wherever then he charges the normal price. He wants repeat business from customers, not ripped off people going back to previously satisfied customers, who were getting him new business for him.

Distasteful as it is, that there's a certain logic in his methods.

I wouldnt go so far as to call that a scam. That is just sharp practice.

storker

MY wife and I were renting in a flat in Dublin when one Sunday morning, at about 11, I answered the buzzer to a guy claiming to be there to do some maintenance on the shared coin-pay washing machine and tumble dryer. So I went down to let him in and he gave the landlord's name saying he'd been told there was a problem. Then he said his assistant was bringing his tools and did I have a screwdriver he could borrow, so I brought him down a screwdriver and a cup of tea. A while later he was gone, and he'd left the empty mug for me. Grand.

Fast forward to Monday afternoon,. when Mme Storkeuse called me at work to say there was a problem with the washing machine. I rang the landlord's maintenance guy who told me he knew about it - someone had broken into the machine for the coins over the weekend and he would be round that evening to fix it. I responded with a Basil Fawlty-esque "Tch! Typical, eh?" and hung up quickly, then called Mme Storkeuse back; "Remember that guy on Sunday morning...?".

We applied the principle of least said, soonest mended, and we never heard any more about it. The machine was back in action the same evening.

I reckoned the guy had been very clever with his timing. 11am Sunday, chances are someone would let him in, but chances also were they'd be too tired/befuddled/hungover to ask awkward questions, and yes, we had been out the night before. That and being able to drop the correct name of the landlord had been enough to get him in. I was still raging, though - less about the theft itself than being taken for an ejit. For months afterwards I kept a weather-eye open for him in the local area, but I never saw him again.

pgj2015

storker wrote: »

MY wife and I were renting in a flat in Dublin when one Sunday morning, at about 11, I answered the buzzer to a guy claiming to be there to do some maintenance on the shared coin-pay washing machine and tumble dryer. So I went down to let him in and he gave the landlord's name saying he'd been told there was a problem. Then he said his assistant was bringing his tools and did I have a screwdriver he could borrow, so I brought him down a screwdriver and a cup of tea. A while later he was gone, and he'd left the empty mug for me. Grand.

Fast forward to Monday afternoon,. when Mme Storkeuse called me at work to say there was a problem with the washing machine. I rang the landlord's maintenance guy who told me he knew about it - someone had broken into the machine for the coins over the weekend and he would be round that evening to fix it. I responded with a Basil Fawlty-esque "Tch! Typical, eh?" and hung up quickly, then called Mme Storkeuse back; "Remember that guy on Sunday morning...?".

We applied the principle of least said, soonest mended, and we never heard any more about it. The machine was back in action the same evening.

I reckoned the guy had been very clever with his timing. 11am Sunday, chances are someone would let him in, but chances also were they'd be too tired/befuddled/hungover to ask awkward questions, and yes, we had been out the night before. That and being able to drop the correct name of the landlord had been enough to get him in. I was still raging, though - less about the theft itself than being taken for an ejit. For months afterwards I kept a weather-eye open for him in the local area, but I never saw him again.

what kind of maintenance man wouldn't have a screwdriver? pity he wasn't got on cctv.

partyguinness

razorblunt wrote: »

Came across that before.
We'd quote the actual price and then answer "yes" when asked if it was the best price.

Plus we had the added bonus of not being racist!

To be fair we are lot stricter now and so busy we tell them or least gently imply "Take it or leave it".

B.A._Baracus

partyguinness wrote: »

I wouldnt go so far as to call that a scam. That is just sharp practice.

I agree.
At the end of the day it's up to someone to agree to get the job done and someone should always shop around.

Feisar

Mister Vain wrote: »

The obligatory extortionate drinks for the girls in strip clubs is another one.

A lad I know left one €2K lighter than when he went in and he was a student.

partyguinness

Lads, there is a difference between unwittingly scammed by a deliberate con artist amd beng a bit stupid with your money. Being a bit stupid is not being scammed.

Gmak2442

I was young, in my 20's and I fell for for some drugs. Impressive scam.