Worst scam you've fallen for

mr_fegelien · 08-08-2019 1:32pm #1

or almost fell for. A couple years back, I got the "gardai virus" (type of scareware) on my laptop which said I'd need to pay €150 to unlock my laptop. I stupidly entered my debit card details and on the weekend, found that not just €150 but 300 was taken from account leaving me with just €20. Canceled the card and reported it to the bank who unfortunately couldn't refund it.

Friends werea a bit shocked as they said I'm a computer nerd but they themselves have also fallen victim to ponzi schemes etc and one even lent his camera to a stranger who ran off in Tanzania...

Bigbagofcans · 08-08-2019 1:36pm

Prince in Nigeria

FFred · 08-08-2019 1:38pm

‘Lending’ all my confirmation money to my mother in 1985

Turns out it wasn’t a ‘loan’ as I never got it back.... #bitter

B.A._Baracus · 08-08-2019 1:41pm

fortunately, *touch wood*, I have never fallen to any of these.
I remember that Garda one. Got it myself. They used the Garda insignia too. Douchebags.
I was a little freaked ou for a minute or so but quickly realised why on earth would the police be looking for money to unlock.

G Shock · 08-08-2019 1:41pm

Bought a bit of hash off a fella in a pub down past Connolly station on the quays years ago (What could go wrong).
He dissapeared with my 50 euro, and I was left with a square of Cadburys chocolate wrapped in tin foil...
Bastard!

BrokenArrows · 08-08-2019 1:42pm

When I was 12 I was selling strawberrys on the side of the road. Some older kid conviced me that we was collecting the cash for the manager. Almost immediately after he left I realised how stupid I was.

GBX · 08-08-2019 1:42pm

Lad I worked with got caught with the top of the range laptop from a car sale. Expensive argos book purchase!

BrokenArrows · 08-08-2019 1:42pm

G Shock wrote: »

Bought a bit of hash off a fella in a pub down past Connolly station on the quays years ago (What could go wrong).
He dissapeared and I was left with a square of Cadburys chocolate wrapped in tin foil...
Bastard!

At least you got some name brand chocolate.

magic_murph · 08-08-2019 1:45pm

Ex-Wife - said she would love me and the 5 kids forever.She took half my money and is now shacked up with a Nigerian prince.

Boom_Bap · 08-08-2019 1:45pm

G Shock wrote: »

Bought a bit of hash off a fella in a pub down past Connolly station on the quays years ago (What could go wrong).
He dissapeared with my 50 euro, and I was left with a square of Cadburys chocolate wrapped in tin foil...
Bastard!

Did you at least eat it?

wally1990 · 08-08-2019 1:46pm

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

mr_fegelien · 08-08-2019 1:46pm

G Shock wrote: »

Bought a bit of hash off a fella in a pub down past Connolly station on the quays years ago (What could go wrong).
He dissapeared with my 50 euro, and I was left with a square of Cadburys chocolate wrapped in tin foil...
Bastard!

Is it not €30 for a bar now? €50 for an eighth ounce of weed....but what do I know:D

G Shock · 08-08-2019 1:51pm

mr_fegelien wrote: »

Is it not €30 for a bar now? €50 for an eighth ounce of weed....but what do I know:D

I wouldn't have a clue these days tbh..

G Shock · 08-08-2019 1:53pm

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Did you at least eat it?

Na, it got hurled into the Liffey

jiltloop · 08-08-2019 1:55pm

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

I was sure you were going to say that the shopping bags were nicked.

I'm a bit disappointed now to be honest.

Mister Vain · 08-08-2019 1:56pm

The attractive woman who approached me in a bar that turned out to be a hooker.

Sharp MZ700 · 08-08-2019 1:59pm

About 13 at the time got caught with the leather belt trick by the usual suspects at the annual point to point. £10 lost which was a fortune to me!

Sharp MZ700 · 08-08-2019 2:00pm

Mister Vain wrote: »

The attractive woman who approached me in a bar that turned out to be a hooker.

Cheaper than a girlfriend.

Lil Sally Anne Jnr. · 08-08-2019 2:01pm

One and only time something like this has ever happened, I'm usually very careful, but I got caught by a fake website geared towards providing info to people on how to use bitcoins safely. Link on the website led to cloned coin washer that was fake. Lost 200 Euro I think. Was annoyed for 24 hours, but then just had to admire what a good job they'd done.

Purple Mountain · 08-08-2019 2:05pm

This wasn't a scam by any means but I'll post it anyhow because it'll give some a laugh.
A few years ago, I was on a boozy weekend city break with some girlfriends in a European city.
We were well on this one evening, and walking around an area deciding on pubs and clubs to go into.
This really friendly local girl suddenly appears at our side and there's the usual drunken bants, although I realised after she was sober!
So my friends start following her to a pub door so I figure, cool we've made a new friend and she's taking us to her local.
So in we go and a few seconds later, I turn to my friends and say 'Where's your woman gone?'.
They had a great laugh explaining that she wasn't actually a new friend but a promoter for the pub trying to bring in business.
It wasn't a sun resort and wasn't a busy area at all so I really thought she just wanted to tag along for a night of girl's fun!

ButtersSuki · 08-08-2019 2:05pm

TV licence. Every year they get me.

Signore Fancy Pants · 08-08-2019 2:11pm

That time I bought a '7 Minute Abs' dvd.

Turned out it was only '6 Minute Abs', fcuker stiffed me out of a whole minute.

Smashmouth · 08-08-2019 2:12pm

Bought a ringtone sometime in the early-mid 2000s. ****ers took money out of my credit for weeks. And the ringtone was ****e.

Bogwoppit · 08-08-2019 2:17pm

Paid a street hawker €20 to get into the coliseum, facepalm ðŸ€¦*♂️

Wife got stung by a phone scam and let a guy onto her laptop by vpn, got her banking details and got stung for 10 grand , lucky it wasn’t more as we were building a house.
The bank got it back a week later.

Mam of 4 · 08-08-2019 2:21pm

With this ring ....

con___manx1 · 08-08-2019 2:26pm

G Shock wrote: »

Bought a bit of hash off a fella in a pub down past Connolly station on the quays years ago (What could go wrong).
He dissapeared with my 50 euro, and I was left with a square of Cadburys chocolate wrapped in tin foil...
Bastard!

A similar thing happend to me in paris. Bought weed for 50 quid turned out to be just leaves wrapped up. Couldnt see in a dark alley thats my excuse.
Felt like some idiot : )

Bigbagofcans · 08-08-2019 2:32pm

ButtersSuki wrote: »

TV licence. Every year they get me.

Pay €160 to go towards Tubridy's €495,000 a year salary? No thanks.

xzanti · 08-08-2019 2:34pm

FFred wrote: »

‘Lending’ all my confirmation money to my mother in 1985

Turns out it wasn’t a ‘loan’ as I never got it back.... #bitter

Please tell me you're joking.

fergus1001 · 08-08-2019 2:38pm

tried to order a stripper off some site, turned out to be a honeypot and demanded significant money not to call my place of work

Necro · 08-08-2019 2:39pm

Anyone who's been in Southeast Asia is usually scammed within the first few days lol.

The travel agents with the cheap as chips fees with massive commission on top is one that got me.

CrankyHaus · 08-08-2019 2:42pm

Those pull-up competitions in public places. The bar rotates to force you to lose your grip once you get a few in. Think I did one drunk. €5 I'll never see again.

Deebles McBeebles · 08-08-2019 2:44pm

The African guys who hang around the piazzas in all major Italian cities.

Oh a free wristband, why thank you my friend!
Ya want what now?

Necro · 08-08-2019 2:46pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

The African guys who hang around the piazzas in all major Italian cities.

Oh a free wristband, why thank you my friend!
Ya want what now?

Not just in Italian cities....

Any place in Europe along the coastline. Handbags, hats, all sorts of stupid fake stuff you don't really want until it's right in front of you

victor8600 · 08-08-2019 2:54pm

I've downloaded a game app once onto my PC which also changed my browser settings to open some dodgy sites by default and probably was doing other stuff like trying to get my passwords and was just impossible to clean out of the system. Since I consider myself to be a bit of a computer nerd, this annoyed me greatly that I fell for such a scam. Had to reformat all drives and to restore data from backups.

Spook_ie · 08-08-2019 2:55pm

Sharp MZ700 wrote: »

About 13 at the time got caught with the leather belt trick by the usual suspects at the annual point to point. £10 lost which was a fortune to me!

??? How's that scam then.

JohnnyFlash · 08-08-2019 2:58pm

Lil Sally Anne Jnr. wrote: »

One and only time something like this has ever happened, I'm usually very careful, but I got caught by a fake website geared towards providing info to people on how to use bitcoins safely. Link on the website led to cloned coin washer that was fake. Lost 200 Euro I think. Was annoyed for 24 hours, but then just had to admire what a good job they'd done.

Is there anyone who doesn’t get scammed in the whole cryptocurrency scam - apart from the scammers at the top of the ponzi of course?

c.p.w.g.w · 08-08-2019 3:02pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

The African guys who hang around the piazzas in all major Italian cities.

Oh a free wristband, why thank you my friend!
Ya want what now?

Also in Paris too, they are big fcukers too

smurfjed · 08-08-2019 3:05pm

Friend's maid got enchanted by an online "American Serviceman", they chatted online and he convinced her to send him money, this went on a number of times, she was basically borrowing that money from my old drunken and horny friend, it all ended when the friend got called by the police to bring his maid to explain her money laundering. She had sent something like €80,000

And yes it was a friend.

py2006 · 08-08-2019 3:06pm

Religion

(for the first few years of my life)

skallywag · 08-08-2019 3:07pm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Is there anyone who doesn’t get scammed in the whole cryptocurrency scam...

Well if you use markets which trade uniquely with cryptocurrency then you are eventually definitely going to get scammed at some point. Nearly all markets Exit Scam eventually, quite a popular one pulled such a move a couple of weeks ago.

py2006 · 08-08-2019 3:08pm

sugarman wrote: »

None, because I'm not a gullible moron!

Unnecessary comment.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 08-08-2019 3:28pm

I was at Feile 90 and was caught by one of those knackers and the 3 cups and coin scam...handed over £20 in the safe knowledge I knew where the coin was and obviously lost my money in an instant. Felt sick to my stomach that I was so stupid so went and bought some beer to help me forget. In my defence I was only 19 at the time, stupid, na and slightly drunk.

fmpisces · 08-08-2019 3:31pm

12 years of marriage

:D

Lux23 · 08-08-2019 3:36pm

I bought crystal MDMA from a couple of junkies once and it turned out to be crushed-up meanies.

Odyssey 2005 · 08-08-2019 3:45pm

Mister Vain wrote: »

The attractive woman who approached me in a bar that turned out to be a hooker.

Probably lucky it wasnt a bloke

Signore Fancy Pants · 08-08-2019 3:55pm

sugarman wrote: »

None, because I'm not a gullible moron!

Nothing more gullable than a gambler.

Rubberchikken · 08-08-2019 3:56pm

never. am way to cynical to trust anyone.

josip · 08-08-2019 3:57pm

Fell for the card over part of the meter trick coming from airport that turned a £40 fare into a £80 fare.
Luigi D'Cunto then doubled down on it with the old lira switcheroo near the hotel, turning a £40 fare into a £160 fare.
Stupid, but work paid for it once I filled in the police report.

In my defence, I'd been living in Sweden for 6 months beforehand, where you could get into a taxi blotto at the end of a night, slur an address, hand the driver your wallet and pass out.
You'd wake up the next morning, safely at home, with the correct amount of money in your wallet, to the exact kronor.

GRACKEA · 08-08-2019 3:58pm

Gave some randomer money to go into the offo (which was attached to a pub and bookies) for me when I was a young teenager. He told me to wait around the corner so nobody would see he was buying drink for someone underage.

I realised what happened after about 40 minutes.

FFred · 08-08-2019 4:09pm

xzanti wrote: »

Please tell me you're joking.

True story, I’m afraid.

FanadMan · 08-08-2019 4:11pm

FFred wrote:

â€˜Lendingâ€™ all my confirmation money to my mother in 1985

FFred wrote:

Turns out it wasnâ€™t a â€˜loanâ€™ as I never got it back.... #bitter

My brother in my case.

Worst scam you've fallen for

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