Best scam you ever heard of?

franktheplank · 25-11-2012 07:20PM #1

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 · 25-11-2012 07:22PM

TV Licence / Household Charge / Plastic Bag Levy

I could go on......

senorwipesalot · 25-11-2012 07:22PM

Anglo Irish Bank.

frozenfrozen · 25-11-2012 07:23PM

religion

Jesus Wept · 25-11-2012 07:23PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:23PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:26PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:29PM

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

OneIdea · 25-11-2012 07:29PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:30PM

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

Praetorian Saighdiuir · 25-11-2012 07:31PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:32PM

Christianity

BrokenArrows · 25-11-2012 07:32PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:35PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:36PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:36PM

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Why would you need to smuggle a wheelbarrow?

VRT is high in Albania.

mark_jmc · 25-11-2012 07:37PM

politicians unvouched expenses

franktheplank · 25-11-2012 07:38PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:39PM

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

kincsem · 25-11-2012 07:46PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:49PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:50PM

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 · 25-11-2012 07:55PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:04PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:08PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:09PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:09PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:11PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:19PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:22PM

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 · 25-11-2012 08:24PM

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

Best scam you ever heard of?

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