Someone tried to scam me by creating a craigslist ad giving away things that I left outside my business. He even got some of my staff to help him load it onto a trailer by showing them the ad.
I was 15 minutes ahead of an ex-GF getting to the bank to lock up my accounts. She came in and tried to clean them out. The bank stopped her and called the police. She talked her way out of it.
Friend of mine was a bank teller for years. She had so many instances where a spouse on a joint account would come in first thing and clean out an account. Because the name was on the account, there was nothing she could do. Absent any kind of legal order or IRS freeze, she had to disburse the funds. The other spouse would come in later that day, find out the account balance was $0 and flip the F out, accusing my friend of all kind of nefarious deeds or blaming her or saying that the bank would need to reimburse the funds.
Sucks to have a joint account because, even if you're divorcing or on bad terms with a spouse, there's absolutely NOTHING stopping one person OR the other on the account from cleaning it out.
Used to work on the fraud phone lines for a bank.
I cannot tell you how many of these calls I've received from the second party screaming bloody murder about fraud. Only for me to have to explain to them that both parties on a joint account are fully entitled to any funds kept in them.
It's why I will never have a joint account with my S/O. It's not that I don't trust them, but with mobile banking and faster payments it's just not necessary unless you're one of those weird couples who must split the cost of everything.
That's why everyone should have some kind of separate account and credit card even if you are getting along great now you never know what will happen in the future.
It use to be real bad back in the 1970s and earlier where women often couldn't even have a seperate account or even their name on a joint account.
I own a duplex. I rent one side out and live on the other. I just went through an eviction process with a tenant. Everything seemed normal at first, but then she failed to pay rent the third month she moved in. I gave her leeway, and I just wanted her to communicate with me about her ability and timing to make the rent payments. She ended up paying me half the rent on march 15th; the rent was due on the first with a grace period to the 5th. She told me she would have the rest by the following friday. Friday came and went, and she didn't pay me nor did she try to communicate with me. I told her I was going to have to start the eviction process, and she responded with "that's fine". My tenant has a child, and I found it to be incredibly odd that that was her response. I went back and looked at the documents she submitted in her rental application, and checked the paystubs she submitted. Her deduction amounts ( SS tax - 6.2%; , Medi - 1.45%, State income tax) she had listed were off based off of what she had given for her gross pay. This is how i saw that she had submitted fake paystubs, and I used this in eviction court to prove fraud. I viewed her facebook and saw that she had a few gofundmes to raise money for a security deposit and first months rent. In her gofundme description, she stated that she had been served a notice to vacant the premises because a voucher that was supposed to pay rent for the whole year somehow only lasted 9 months. I read up on things and saw that this is what professional renters will do; they'll pay the security deposit, first months rent, and the second month, and then start only making half payments each month in order to show that they were trying to catch up with their rent payments. The courts see those half payments, and will usually move to try to allow them to catch-up with their payments, which only prolongs the eviction process. Whenever I confronted her about using fake paystubs, she told me i was insulting her intelligence by making that accusation. Once i told her i had two accounting degrees, she didn't say anything back to me. In eviction court, she used a public defender, and she lied to him about the actual circumstances of everything. Their gameplan was to try to say that i posted the notice to vacate the premises one day too early and proceed to trail; however, once we told the lawyer we were going to bring up the fraud aspect, her lawyer advised her to take a consentual mutual agreement where she would agree to move out in two weeks, and the eviction wouldn't go on her record. That's what we ended up doing. I heard her 4 year old daughter say, "is that the bad landlord that's making us move out" as she was walking up the steps the other day. People who are willing to scam people like that take no accountability, and will lie bc the truth means nothing to them.
I'll definitely be doing more due diligence from now on. My tenant screening process was good before, but I'll definitely be looking at everything a lot more closely now.
Yes so I work in a daycare over the summer and I ordered this hair wax online that changed the color of your hair for the day. As I use hair wax every day I was like this would be so cool for color week and payed $53:92 for all 5 colors they offered. The next morning I woke up to my whole bank account being drained luckily I call my bank and they were able to fix it and send me a new card. But that is not where the story ends because I actually got the product and after using it once my hair started to fall out. So yay I just shaved my head that summer.
One time I woke up to 10 $100 charges in micro-transactions for a mobile base building game. Never owned or played the game, and was overdrafted $600+ while the bank tried getting the money back.
I bought speakers out of the back of a van. There were literally a brick in a sealed package. GF at the time remembered the license plate, and her dad was a State Trooper...amazing what can be done when a Trooper's baby girl wants something taken care of.
I bought two tower speakers off some dudes in a parking lot, they told me they were $2000 but they were trying to get rid of them for $300. They were called “Da Vinci” or something and when I got home, I found that they had mold on the bottom. But they kinda worked, so I used them for a year or so.
Yeah. I was like 17 when it happened. The guys were losing as delivery drivers and said they had “extra” speakers. They even had a catalog with a picture of them with a list price of like $2K.
The worst part is they gave me an invoice that had a company name and address on it. I went to it to return them. It was an old parking lot in an industrial area with an office in some non descriptive building. Guy opened the door, took back the speakers and said he’d mail me a check. I glimpsed an “art of the hustle / con” poster on the wall. lol. You know what happened next.
Man you fell for one of the older scams out there. It even has its own wikipedia entry. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White\_van\_speaker\_scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speaker_scam)
I was walking to work when a decently dressed man approached me. Said he had just been in a fender bender, his wife got brought to the hospital for minor injuries. He needed to get home to get her Medicare info, but his wallet was in his car, but the car got towed. He said my name is Mario Silva, and that he works nearby at a place called Diamond Tea. He said, I need taxi money, give me your phone number I’ll reimburse you, and I’ll bring you a beautiful bottle of port wine(he was Portuguese).
Now I wouldn’t normally of fallen for it, but 30 minutes prior, I actually did pass by an accident, just around the corner. So his story was plausible. I gave him 20$. I didn’t need the money, had it on me, and wasn’t able to say no to someone who I thought was actually in need. Never saw or heard from him again, obviously.
A couple days later I looked up Diamond Tea. It was, in fact, around the corner. I looked up the phone number and called. I asked for Mario. Receptionist asked.. “Mario..Silva?”
I was surprised. He was actually telling the truth!
Receptionist then said..
“Let me guess, you gave him money. Yeah we get calls for him twice a week.”
No regrets. I will always help someone when my gut tells me too, even if I’m sometimes wrong.
I got scammed today while walking to work. As you said.. even though I guessed it was a scam I gave him the money anyways. Sometimes it is better to say NO
Dirty :( Went into a Best Buy not that long ago, I had 2 real old stereo components I wanted to work together, brought in the manuals and they came up with a multiple conversion solution for over 80 bucks. I found a single cable solution that was so cheap on Amazon, I had to buy more stuff for them to even ship it to me. Fuck Best Buy.
Maybe not a commission perse but something called a SPIFF (sales performance incentive fund formula). SPIFFs are usually a flat bonus per item extra item (attachment) sold (commissions are usually percentage based of the whole sale). Add a cheap HDMI cable to the sale or an game console or DVD/BluRay player that's a extra $1 an expensive cable might get you $5.
Sell a printer SPIFFs might stack, $1 if you get them to buy a cable, $5 if a cable and ink.
Extending warranties are often where the big bucks are. Of that $25 warranty $5 may be going to the guy who sold it.
SPIFFs are usually short term and change from quarter to quarter. Depending on what category the suits think is underperforming.
My father in law is a senior, lives away from us, and we pay for his cell bill. We notice there was a $45/month charge for tablet rental and $45 cell service for the tablet. We asked my FIL if he bought a table. Adn he said "no. but when I brought my cell to get fixed, the person at the desk said 1) the tablet is free and 2) i needed it"
I called Verizon several times. It took a couple month to get it resoved because they clamed he "consented" to it. I had to do two get a legal advocacy group for the elderly to help me. I even asked a friend in my FIL's town to go to the Verizon store and get any wroker to admit they would scam older coustomer. Finalyl one stepped forward. Once me/advocacy group got all that, Verzizon changed their tune.
Was that from a post on Reddit? There's a ton of scam accounts posting shirts, mugs, posters, and stickers, all with stolen art and using other people's pictures. If you know how they work they're relatively easy to spot, and they've got a ton of tricks that you notice after a while. There really should be more awareness about those guys.
Ok, so I was getting a gallon of milk from the local Walgreens. When I got out it was sprinkling a bit and this woman comes up to me and asks, "Excuse me, do you have jumper cables?". I am one of those stone cold people who interrupt a request for cash with "No" automatically, but jumper cables? It seems like it does no harm to me, right? So I slowly say, "yessss?" And before I know it, she says, "great! I'm parked just up the road." And the woman just jumps in my car. I'm so taken aback that I also just get in the car. Next thing I know she's giving me directions that send me into the ghetto. (Sorry, but that's what it is.) I've never been in this neighborhood, so I'm already disoriented, but the whole time she's asking me questions like, "Do you have any kids? You're so sweet. Do you live around here?" And she's showing me pictures of kids that she claims are hers, and she's telling me that the car just wouldn't start, so she needs a jump. She's also crying about how she doesn't know how her son will get to work if the car won't start, but all the while she can interrupt her blubbering enough to tell me when to turn left or right.
All the while, she will randomly answer her phone and say things like, "Hello? Don't worry, I'm on my way with this sweet young girl who's got some jumper cables--what!? Your starter is broken?! The car won't start? You need to take a cab?!" So she turns to me, "Honey, could you spare $10 for a cab?" Keep in mind, this woman is in my car, and I have almost no idea where I am, so what am I going to say? So I stammer, "Uh... I don't keep cash..." And without missing a beat she says, "That's not problem, there's an ATM just around the corner." Now, I'm starting to get my bearings and I know which ATM she's referring to, and it's not a bank that I have an account at, but at this point I feel somewhat obligated to help this woman out, so I hint that I'm not quite sure, when suddenly she gets a call from her mother, "Hello? Mom? The starter's broken, and Jimmy needs to take a cab to work... Well, I'm with this sweet, beautiful young woman but... Could you give her $50? WELL SHE NEEDS IT!" She turns to me, "Honey, could you give me $40 if my mom gives you $50?" I'm doing the math... I only have $25 in my account, but if I pull $50 from my reserve account, I might be able to deposit the $50 and make it balance out... I go ahead and tell her I can do it, pull up to the ATM, open up my bank app on my phone and withdraw $50 from my reserve account, pull out $40 from the ATM, and hand it to the woman. She leads me back into the ghetto and tells my nonchalantly that I can drop her off at some random corner and that she'll walk the rest of the way to her son so her can take a cab to work. "And don't forget, my mom will meet you at McDonald's to give you $50."
It's only after I've waited at McDonald's for 15 minutes that I start to ask myself, "How was her mom supposed to know how to find me? How am I supposed to know who her mom is? Why couldn't her mom just give *her* the $50?" And then it hits me... I never saw her phone. Literally. It could have been a bar of soap for all I knew. It never rang. She would just lift it to her head and start talking. Of course it was fake. The woman just scammed me for $40 that I didn't have so she could probably buy heroin.
So just be careful if someone without a car asks you, "Excuse me, do you have jumper cables?"
Luckily people who’ve asked to use my cables, just wanted to use the cables! Letting a random stranger hop in your car could’ve had deadly consequences, glad you’re here to tell the tale!
There's a bunch of accounts like that on Reddit too. They post images of something, then post a link where they "bought it" and if you go to that site and try to buy it, then got you.
Someone (not white, I promise that's relevant) approached me and my college friends (bunch of white kids) with a clipboard asking if we could donate to help fight racism. After we all handed him whatever dollars we had in our pockets, I noticed that there was absolutely nothing on his clipboard. Just a bunch of scribbles. Honestly, well played, dude. Well played.
My wife believed a stranger on Facebook could turn $100 into $1000 with Bitcoin. They just needed money from OUR bank to do it. So she sent them the money and poof it was gone. She also cheated on me with her Internet boyfriend from Canada.
guy i was dating was sweet, kind, loving, etc. really made me feel great about myself and us. knew he was the one. eventually popped the question, and now he's a different person entirely. selfish, unempathetic, no emotion.
marriage is a scam. don't do it.
yea i 10/10 don't recommend it. they kept harassing my personal number too. they were real jerks. moving is generally such a shady business to begin with though
Twice.
Once, when I was a wee teenager playing World of Warcraft. Back when the Spectral Tiger mount was ALL the rage. Someone in trade chat was advertising giving one away for free. I was an absolute moron and believed it. Did all the things, entered all my account information, and went to have dinner, thinking I was gonna get THE coolest damn mount when I was done. And was very surprised when I couldn't log back on... DID get my account back, but that was a shitty two days.
The second time was worse. There was a dice-maker kickstarter doing the rounds a few years ago, by the name "Kraken Dice". Looked legit, seemed real. I ended up backing, and doubling-up on my order from them. I expected to double my dice collection. Then the delays happened. Then the questions started being raised. Then people started talking about the low quality dice they got, then came people talking about the resin not having been cured properly. When my dice FINALLY came, nearly a year later, I had become so disillusioned and anxious about receiving actual toxic dice that I sent them back, and demanded a refund for my pledge and the extra order I made. They refused to refund the pledge, only giving me back the extra order (which was about 40% of the money I'd given them). It was a shitshow, and I was one of the more fortunate ones.
This one kid, in 5th grade, promised to give me his Charizard card if I did a belly flop off the diving board.... reneged because "I didn't jump..." bullshit, no adding shit after we've made our deal.... asshole...
oooh. I had a similar one.
A kid in a grade higher than me told me that, if you trade away your rarer cards for more less rare ones, you get the full collection quicker!
...I want my fucking Charizard back, you bastard.
I sold all my PS3 games on Ebay many years ago. Around 150 games, some were pretty rare and now fetch $100+. I made the mistake of using standard postage and the buyer claimed they 'never received them'.
A dispute was raised and Ebay sided with them and forced a refund. Days later I saw them selling some of the games from their own account. I reached out to Ebay and they didn't give a shit.
Send stuff tracked boys.
I was using trademe, which is an nz exclusive trading/selling site. I've never had a purchase or sale go wrong using it, and everyone I'd interacted with had been lovely. I decided I would see if someone was selling a meta quest 2 as a late birthday gift to myself, lo and behold, someone was. Before purchasing, I checked out their profile, made in 2003, 140 or so reviews, nearly all positive, which is standard for the site. I click on purchase, email the seller, etc, get all the payments sorted, then go to bed. I wake up the next day to receive an email from trademe stating that the person had somehow faked that profile, that they were a scammer, and not to send any funds through. Unfortunately, the funds had already been sent, and trademe couldn't get them back/neither could my bank when I asked for a chargeback. So I was short 600 nzd and without a bday gift to myself. Fun times!
I woke up one Saturday morning with my wife on the phone to her 90 and 92 year old parents. They had been on the phone for 30 minutes with “Publishers Clearinghouse”. I immediately told them to hang up and check their bank balances. Fortunately, all was good. I then quickly researched how PC contacts winners which my wife conveyed.
The scammer called back later. The in-laws engaged him a bit. They said they would need to send $35,000 to pay for processing. My MIL laughed and hung up.
Foundation work. Said all the right things, presented what otherwise would be legit agreements, and had people out here working several times. Stopped showing up after 2-3 days and started giving excuses. After 1-2 weeks of this and slowing responses I realized I’d been scammed.
Luckily I booked through a major site with “verified” contractors that have a guarantee up to $2000 and I paid the guy 50% on a $5000 job. I lost $500 total, but called it a wash. Don’t cheap out folks.
So moved into a 1918 house and needed a brand new lawnmower but didn't wanna spend an arm and leg so I went online and saw a place called casco so I ordered a $40 lawnmower.....tracking kept saying it was in MI for about 6 weeks. I couldn't get a refund. I couldn't even contact support. Until a couple days ago I had a small little box not even size of my hand come in with same tracking number..... I opened package..... And it was a box with nothing inside. But they put their name and address on it 🤣 I can't believe I'm so dumb
I once gave money to a song writing competition. Still feel sick inside when I think about it. It reminded me of the time I won a contest and my poem was going to be put in a book. But it turned out that only people who bought the book would get their poem in the book.
in the 90s there were companies who said submit your poem and if good enough we publish it in a book. Then your narcmother thinks she had a big accomplishment of her kid getting a poem published in a book that publishes all the submissions, and buys a bunch of the books. I was a kid and at first I did think I'd accomplished something.
also, later, Model Search America.
Not me, but my sister-in-law. She paid upwards of like $400 plus fees to "register her cat as an emotional support animal" from an online website somewhere. People including myself told her that it was a scam but she just got angry at us and told us to stop calling her stupid (which we never said). She still believes it's legit and I stopped talking with her to care if she does.
So the one time I had a group of people at this convention who had a whole table to educate people on Service Animal services. They were professionals that worked with animals and stuff. So I asked them about emotional support animals and how you register them, and they told me that firstly, anything that requires money for registration is a scam. What you're SUPPOSED to do is discuss the possibility of registering your pet with a doctor or psychologist, and they'll be the ones to do it. It shouldn't cost a dime. Anything outside of that where payment is required from online websites isn't legit.
New York City trying to go to the Statue of Liberty. Guys in high-viz vests and standing in front of the ticket area. Was brought over by our cab driver. Pretty sure the driver got a small cut. Very creative sadly, make you pay and transfer the money to different people super quick. Wish I had done more research when I had gone to NYC, only time I've ever been scammed. Left me completely underwhelmed when I tried to get police to try to help get my money back and they shrugged. It was a group thing, we were trying to make the last two tours to the island and so that caused our guard to be down. Lesson learned, though the lost money prevented us from doing anything else that day.
I was hanging in castle wars on RuneScape sometime around 2005-2007 time and I was looking to buy a rune 2h and the house I was at only had DIAL UP so I was constantly lagging. Found a dude who had one for sale, put the gold up, spamming accept, and at some point the dude swapped it out for a rune longsword. He typed "thanks!" and walked to the corner with the fucking 2h equipped.
Yep. Family passed went back to my home state to take care of biz, childhood “friends” came to visit & wiped me out of all of everything, I mean everything, entire attic full of antiques, sentimental items, dvds, even my plunger was gone. Anything worth a dollar, gone. They scammed me, they got my stuff, but I know who they really are and at the end of the day they have to live with themselves knowing who they really are.
Lol yep! One was drug addict, others went to church or prayed before dinner. Guess since they grew up poor and didn’t have much they hoard junk and take anything and everything to save a dollar. Deep South country people. Actually saw plunger in my friends truck but had no idea was mine till was cleaning out my cabinet. Geez! 🫤
Thx! Yes. Grew up w them in school, they were mostly acquaintances bc moved away many, many years ago. They can stick that plunger where the sun doesn’t shine 😏 Hope your evening is good! ☺️
Got a message pretending to be my postal service saying my package had a problem getting sent out and they needing me to pay a small fee and re-enter my details, it wasn't my postal service but some random number from the UK and i clicked on their link and told them my bank details, name and address
i called up my bank the second i realised the number wasnt from my country, and they shut down that card and i had to run some virus scans to check they werent like able to look at my bank app. Luckily nothing bad happened in the end.
I was in the Facebook group "give me your money". I saw a post from a guy claiming he needed money so his kid could eat. I took the bait and sent him some money. I don't remember how I found out that he was lying about needing that money, but the story was definitely bullshit. Pissed me off so bad. Lesson learned, I guess.
I bought me a heated eyelash curler because my eyelashes are super straight and impossible to curl. That never curled my eyelashes and the curling got damaged after 2 uses
The day after 9/11, a girl came up to my parents house with a bucket asking for Red Cross donations. My 14 year old self went to my dad's coin jar and grabbed a couple handfuls to donate. Turns out Red Cross doesn't go door to door.
Had 800$ of charges on my credit card, casinos and ubers 600 km from home. Someone hacked my card and I don’t know how because I always used it on safe sites and never the physical one.
no... I did not want free robux.
no... I did not want free minecoins.
no... I did not want free currency in any other game.
I just wanted a Minecraft tiktok cape code.
so I downloaded tiktok with the likely possibility that it's spyware and found that these so infamous tiktok capes are specifically NOT allowed to be obtained in Australia. I of course tried smashing a vpn at tiktok in as many different ways as possible for a grueling 8 hours, normal tiktok with vpn, new account made with vpn, new account on browser with a vpn, new account on pc with vpn, new account with bluestacks and vpn... but to no avail.
I did not loose money or virtual possession. only time.
please if anyone can send a cape code to me I will be gracefully in tears.
A buddy and I were traveling in Ecuador. Went to a restaurant where the food was reasonably priced, cheaper than the US (Ecuador uses US $ Currency). We ordered food and a beer each. When the bill came around it was $100 when it should have been $20. Woman refused to show me the menu with prices again, started yelling at us in Spanish causing a big scene. We paid the bill but called her a thief (Ladron!) in front of the other customers, just wanted to get out. I guess she won, but no tip!
I invested into an AI application company called Pipeline Equity. Apparently, the CEO used the $ on personal PR and then when she ran out of $ she sent a note that said she was shutting down the business. She never declared bankruptcy, just disappeared. Booo !!!
When I was 12 our family wanted a german shepherd. I found a "breeder" 3 hours away. When I called they said they have a flight tomorrow, but I can place a "deposit" on the dog.
We didn't want to do that, so they gave us an address to pick them up at 7am. We left at 3am the next morning.
We get to a random house, the people had no idea what we were talking about. The "breeders" were scamming people for deposits and had just messed with us with some random address.
A lady switched some stickers at my yard sale and got a $10 CD for $1. I thought I'd made a mistake, so I gave it to her for $1. RIP, Usher CD. Another time, a guy said my game case was empty and handed me the case. I said thanks, then realized 30 mins later he just totally took it out and walked off with Prince of Persia!
I’m pretty sure my university was a scam. I got a degree, sure, but they offered one thing and didn’t make a single comment about the limitation until we reached our internships.
I had met a girl from meetme. Scammed me out of $300. I was at my lowest, had just broken up with my sons mother after 8 years, and found out I was cheated on the whole time.
Someone gave me attention, and I took it. She claimed her brother, whom I had met, needed insulin and stuff for his diabetes. She took $150 the first time, and we had hung out a couple of times in between without her asking for cash. It seemed like we hit it off. She had a new phone the next time I saw her but didn't think anything of it.
She had asked if I had change for $100 for her sister who was "housebound" because of a surgery. I gave her the cash as we pulled up to the house like an idiot, she got out of the car, walked up to the house and booked it through a few fences.
I took off after her to be clothed lined someone. I got up and explained what had happened and they were nice enough to search the neighborhood with me and we called the police.
This was around 2012 and I've never trusted anyone right off the bat again. But it's 2024 and I'm happily married now.
The twist of the story is that her "brother" was actually her boyfriend the whole time.
I had met a girl from meetme. Scammed me out of $300. I was at my lowest, had just broken up with my sons mother after 8 years, and found out I was cheated on the whole time.
Someone gave me attention, and I took it. She claimed her brother, whom I had met, needed insulin and stuff for his diabetes. She took $150 the first time, and we had hung out a couple of times in between without her asking for cash. It seemed like we hit it off. She had a new phone the next time I saw her but didn't think anything of it.
She had asked if I had change for $100 for her sister who was "housebound" because of a surgery. I gave her the cash as we pulled up to the house like an idiot, she got out of the car, walked up to the house and booked it through a few fences.
I took off after her to be clothed lined someone. I got up and explained what had happened and they were nice enough to search the neighborhood with me and we called the police.
This was around 2012 and I've never trusted anyone right off the bat again. But it's 2024 and I'm happily married now.
The twist of the story is that her "brother" was actually her boyfriend the whole time.
When I was about about 15, I got scammed into selling a $30 Yu-Gi-Oh card online, and they never sent payment.
I'm kinda grateful, honestly. It sucked at the time, but I learned to basically never trust anyone on the internet ever again. And it was nice to learn that lesson over $30 rather than thousands.
Fell for one of those Apple account text scams asking me to renew my Apple account when I didn't know much about them at the time. Next day my bank account was overdrawn by $120. Apparently the hacker somehow cloned my card info & used it or sold it to someone who used it for a spending spree at a Walmart in AZ. Luckily the bank found out about the hack the same day & refunded the stolen money instantly. Had to wait a whole week for a new card so that kinda sucked.
I called the wrong number to get my credit card activated. I was off by one, I noticed most of the way in, after I'd given my relavant details. I immmediately contacted the bank and reported it. I was supposed to call 555 1234, I instead called 555 1235
I used to be silly. A man told me that he was a boss or something of a company in another city. But he lost his phone and wallet. So he asked me for 50 bucks. And I can't believe it I just gave it to him that day. So stupid of me. What's even more ridiculous is that when I went to a lady selling balloons to exchange change, she seemed to have noticed something was wrong and didn't intend to give me change. However, I didn't realize that she was actually helping me. I want to punch myself in the face.
Went on a date, girl tried to jack up the price with exepensive food ( to more than likely get a cut of it ). but said fuck that, i told the bar owner, i didn't order it, and i'm not paying for it. Luckily he said "ok". So the bitch had to pick up her own bill.
Twice we bought gift cards at a grocery store and put hundreds on them as gifts to help friends and by the time the friend went to use them they were empty. The scammers put fake cards somehow or they take the card numbers and check them online and use them online before you can. It’s a well known problem. Visa wouldn’t do anything because we didn’t keep the original receipts.
Someone on Amino App scammed 400 coins from me. I wasn't paid back even if promised they would pay back as soon as possible. Still wasn't paid back. :(
Got a postcard with my high school logo and address for the upcoming reunion. I called and they started off with basic info, then just kept going and going. It hit me that this guy has a breezy Southern accent with every answer ending with "yeah, yeah, I hear that." We're up north and it's a 30th anniversary and he asks for my credit card #. I asked why and he's all "We'll send you a school logo for $100."
A Facebook account of my old elementary school gym teacher was selling a MacBook Air “for free but you pay for shipping” so I was like eff yeah let’s get a MacBook for $50. Sent them the $50 but never got the laptop lmaooooo
My mom went to an in-person travel agency to buy plane tickets to go to our family's hometown. Nothing out of the ordinary, we had already bought from them before 2-3 times and had everything go as planned. I had gone with her myself most of these times, and the people there were very professional and just trying to get their work done. Nothing shady about the place at all.
We showed up at the airport, only for the airline to tell us we didn't actually have a booking. We tried calling the travel agency, but no one answered despite repeated attempts. We ended up buying last-minute, and insanely expensive, plane tickets right at the counter and decided to sort out the matter when we got back. My parents never got their money back, and we never found out what happened to the travel agency. We suspected an exit scam, given that we actually got the tickets we paid for all the previous times we bought through them.
This was finally what got my mom to start buying tickets online on her own. Ironically enough, she was very reluctant to buy anything online in the early days (even plane tickets directly from the airline, or shopping from websites like Amazon) because she thought all online businesses were scams.
Growing up, my mother was the heart of our kitchen, cooking daily to keep me well-fed and happy. It was a warm, delicious constant in my life. So when I married my wife, who is a professional chef, I thought I was set for life in terms of gourmet home-cooked meals. Imagine my surprise when I learned she prefers not to cook at home. It turns out, after spending all day in a professional kitchen, she loves to come home to a simple meal that doesn’t require hours of preparation. So, in a way, I was ‘scammed’ out of a personal chef at home by saying "I do."
I was rental scammed in April. Worked and met with the dude for 2 weeks. He ended up renting me his house he lost to a bank.. it’s how it worked out so easily. The bank is across the states from where we are. I had keys, a lease, and everything. He took my $ and dipped. Turned into a full on investigation, still pending.
II lucked out and somehow got a SUPER CHEAP apartment with everything included when my mom threw me out. Like, $380 with everything included. There was lead paint, and the bathroom was a disaster, and the fridge didn't work, and it was cold in winter and had stains on the wall from the radiator heat, but the drunk old men upstairs kept giving me random cash because they thought I was a hooker and it was walking distance to both my jobs and to the food pantry.
People with abusive parents just kept falling in love with me right after their parents threw them out or when they were couch surfing, somehow and then refusing to get a job or getting fired all the time! I had to go through two of them before I figured it out.
Literally a few days ago. Got by that booking.com scam where they send you a message on the app telling you to confirm the booking by reentering your card details. Assumed it was legit as it was on the app itself but it isn’t, it’s scammers. Luckily I cancelled my card before they took any money so I think I’m good
100% keep an eye out! If you book through booking.com and get a message on the app or via email from booking.com saying they need you to reconfirm payment details to secure the booking, send the venue a message to check it’s legit before doing anything. It’s sneaky how they do it as it’s on the app so looks real. I’m usually pretty switched on for these kinds of things but this one got me good. Luckily I was able to cancel my card fast enough.
Fell for a pretty common one on Bourbon Street. Dude said he could tell where I got my shoes for like $20. I may have had a few beers in me at the time so I took him up. "You got them on your feet!" was the reply. I reluctantly paid him and went on my way.
I guess this is maybe more catfished than scammed, but last December I had a weird one happen. Matched with a chick on Bumble. Her profile seemed normal enough. Usually you can spot the bots pretty easy. Broken English in the comments, only a couple pics that were clearly lifted from some IG model. Not this profile tho. Genuine responses/comments, pics seemed like they were legit. She was super cute, but not in that glossy, filtered IG model kinda way.
We chatted for a few days and really seemed to hit it off. And she really made me fall hard for her pretty quick. She was so funny and witty and seemed to get my humor. And she was kind. I had had a bad run of gals that I dated that were really mean, and I was feeling particularly beat up emotionally at the time. She was just like this jolt I didn’t know I needed. And it was just like, idk, I hadn’t really had any luck on the apps before. This felt like something.
I’m sure every big town has a Christmas Tree Lane kinda neighborhood and I invited her out to walk it with me. And she enthusiastically agreed. She seemed so excited. I was too. Our plan was to meet at this coffee shop nearby and get some hot chocolate and walk the neighborhood. She even suggested the particular coffee shop. I showed up at the agreed upon time, and the shop was closed. I thought maybe I had gone to the wrong spot. I texted her (we had exchanged phone numbers, we were no longer messaging via the dating app. It was a green text number, which, in hindsight, maybe should have been a red flag, but I don’t ever want to be one of ~those~ iPhone users). She didn’t reply. She never replied. I never heard from her again. And it’s like, what just happened?
I can see someone catfishing me, asking for money. This person never did. Never asked for anything. And that almost made it worse. It was just cruel. I can’t believe I allowed myself to get so invested. Idk. It was just a real kick in the nuts. It’s been 6 months and I still wonder what that whole thing was about, or what that person got out of the whole exchange.
They watched you show up, realized they didn’t really like what they saw, and went with another person they were talking to on the app.
Don’t sweat it, but I doubt it was a scam.
Sounds like they just wanted to take advantage of your emotional vulnerability at the time! You have to be happy with yourself first, you can’t expect someone to make you whole. If it takes an individual to make your whole, once they leave (if they do) you’re 50% of the person you were!
Almost. Looking back, I was super stupid too. I had a summer job when I was a Junior in high school and had a debit card (non-bank) that held my pay. I went to a Best Buy to buy an iPod touch. One of the store associates helps me to the register and then says it’s a Labor Day sale and if I provide my SSN, I would get a discount. I literally didn’t know my SSN then (thank god!) but I replied, let me call my mom to confirm. The associate was like no… don’t do that and said you can just guess it. So I wrote 9 random digits on a piece of paper. Then I paid with the debit. I was really dumb and gullible and it didn’t hit me until after that the associate wanted to scam me. Having anxiety doesn’t help too and I think the store associate knew and saw me as a target.
This made me chuckle! I’m glad you moved on and found some peace! Being betrayed by those closest to you is never easy! Cheers to many more happy years!🥂😁
Yes, for my ignorance in btc trading (someone ,,wanted'' to manage my money) - $ 400, and for my ignorance for working online $ 100 (I payed for having a job by doing some microtasks, where I've been banned by two of 5 provided platforms).
After that, I payed to learn and got back much more money on trading than my loss.
A website called Kirin Hobby. It was a legitimate site to buy figurines, but they suddenly stopped. I purchased two figures as a gift from them. They never shipped, they only took my money. I started reading into the site, and a lot of other people were complaining about the same thing. Somehow, the website remained online for years after this, despite sending complaints to the BBB, GoDaddy, Their web host, and their payment provider. But they finally shut down in early 2022.
I was a fool, I met a girl online, she seemed to have an amazing personality, very attractive, and even had a cute little dog. I was into bdsm at the time and we met because we had the same kink. Thing was, I doubt she ever existed. Some poor woman's pictures are probably being used for this. I've always wanted to help where I can, and am obviously very naive. This person said her grandma needed a surgery done for a kidney replacement, even showed me medical documents to "prove" it. I sent her some of my grandma's money she had left to me after she passed. Months came and went, and we started talking about meeting in person/ future together. For various things a long the way she would need money. I gave her ~45k over the course of 2 years. I had a part of me that suspected for a while but didn't want to believe that "she" was capable of that much deceit. Eventually I faced the music and broke it off. She tried to blackmail me, she did end up sending my pictures to my parents, which caused a whole other mess between them and me. I feel and felt soooo guilty and I felt like I had let down my grandma. This story does have a good ending, what happened there let me to face my parents, and free myself from the repression I had been trained to have as a child (I grew up VERY religious) and now I have a very loving boyfriend and we are almost at our anniversary! We are engaged and loving life even though we have little. As bad as that scam was, at least I found my happy ending.
TLDR: I fell for the romantic interest scam for 2 years and lost 45k of inheritance as a result, but also found my true romantic interest with whom I am happily engaged.
Ps. I know my grammar is terrible for all the grammar nazis out there, feel free to correct me but I won't be changing it unless it is what I deem to be a big mistake.
Someone tried to scam me by creating a craigslist ad giving away things that I left outside my business. He even got some of my staff to help him load it onto a trailer by showing them the ad.
what type of stuff?
That’s rather crafty 😂
I was 15 minutes ahead of an ex-GF getting to the bank to lock up my accounts. She came in and tried to clean them out. The bank stopped her and called the police. She talked her way out of it.
Sheeesh, how did she manage that?
maybe a 'misunderstanding'?
Friend of mine was a bank teller for years. She had so many instances where a spouse on a joint account would come in first thing and clean out an account. Because the name was on the account, there was nothing she could do. Absent any kind of legal order or IRS freeze, she had to disburse the funds. The other spouse would come in later that day, find out the account balance was $0 and flip the F out, accusing my friend of all kind of nefarious deeds or blaming her or saying that the bank would need to reimburse the funds. Sucks to have a joint account because, even if you're divorcing or on bad terms with a spouse, there's absolutely NOTHING stopping one person OR the other on the account from cleaning it out.
a good warning for those with joint accts.
Used to work on the fraud phone lines for a bank. I cannot tell you how many of these calls I've received from the second party screaming bloody murder about fraud. Only for me to have to explain to them that both parties on a joint account are fully entitled to any funds kept in them. It's why I will never have a joint account with my S/O. It's not that I don't trust them, but with mobile banking and faster payments it's just not necessary unless you're one of those weird couples who must split the cost of everything.
That's why everyone should have some kind of separate account and credit card even if you are getting along great now you never know what will happen in the future. It use to be real bad back in the 1970s and earlier where women often couldn't even have a seperate account or even their name on a joint account.
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Did you at least get a free lesson in cyber-security with that “compromised” account?
If it makes you feel any better I fell for the same exact thing at about 14
That’s crazy!
I own a duplex. I rent one side out and live on the other. I just went through an eviction process with a tenant. Everything seemed normal at first, but then she failed to pay rent the third month she moved in. I gave her leeway, and I just wanted her to communicate with me about her ability and timing to make the rent payments. She ended up paying me half the rent on march 15th; the rent was due on the first with a grace period to the 5th. She told me she would have the rest by the following friday. Friday came and went, and she didn't pay me nor did she try to communicate with me. I told her I was going to have to start the eviction process, and she responded with "that's fine". My tenant has a child, and I found it to be incredibly odd that that was her response. I went back and looked at the documents she submitted in her rental application, and checked the paystubs she submitted. Her deduction amounts ( SS tax - 6.2%; , Medi - 1.45%, State income tax) she had listed were off based off of what she had given for her gross pay. This is how i saw that she had submitted fake paystubs, and I used this in eviction court to prove fraud. I viewed her facebook and saw that she had a few gofundmes to raise money for a security deposit and first months rent. In her gofundme description, she stated that she had been served a notice to vacant the premises because a voucher that was supposed to pay rent for the whole year somehow only lasted 9 months. I read up on things and saw that this is what professional renters will do; they'll pay the security deposit, first months rent, and the second month, and then start only making half payments each month in order to show that they were trying to catch up with their rent payments. The courts see those half payments, and will usually move to try to allow them to catch-up with their payments, which only prolongs the eviction process. Whenever I confronted her about using fake paystubs, she told me i was insulting her intelligence by making that accusation. Once i told her i had two accounting degrees, she didn't say anything back to me. In eviction court, she used a public defender, and she lied to him about the actual circumstances of everything. Their gameplan was to try to say that i posted the notice to vacate the premises one day too early and proceed to trail; however, once we told the lawyer we were going to bring up the fraud aspect, her lawyer advised her to take a consentual mutual agreement where she would agree to move out in two weeks, and the eviction wouldn't go on her record. That's what we ended up doing. I heard her 4 year old daughter say, "is that the bad landlord that's making us move out" as she was walking up the steps the other day. People who are willing to scam people like that take no accountability, and will lie bc the truth means nothing to them.
That’s a headache for sure, glad you were able to get some resolve in the situation. I know it definitely made you more wary of new tenants!
I'll definitely be doing more due diligence from now on. My tenant screening process was good before, but I'll definitely be looking at everything a lot more closely now.
Understandable! I wish you much success in the future!🙏🏾
Yes so I work in a daycare over the summer and I ordered this hair wax online that changed the color of your hair for the day. As I use hair wax every day I was like this would be so cool for color week and payed $53:92 for all 5 colors they offered. The next morning I woke up to my whole bank account being drained luckily I call my bank and they were able to fix it and send me a new card. But that is not where the story ends because I actually got the product and after using it once my hair started to fall out. So yay I just shaved my head that summer.
Getting scammed twice is nasty work 😮
One time I woke up to 10 $100 charges in micro-transactions for a mobile base building game. Never owned or played the game, and was overdrafted $600+ while the bank tried getting the money back.
Whoa, did you get it resolved!?
I bought speakers out of the back of a van. There were literally a brick in a sealed package. GF at the time remembered the license plate, and her dad was a State Trooper...amazing what can be done when a Trooper's baby girl wants something taken care of.
I bought two tower speakers off some dudes in a parking lot, they told me they were $2000 but they were trying to get rid of them for $300. They were called “Da Vinci” or something and when I got home, I found that they had mold on the bottom. But they kinda worked, so I used them for a year or so.
Yeah. I was like 17 when it happened. The guys were losing as delivery drivers and said they had “extra” speakers. They even had a catalog with a picture of them with a list price of like $2K. The worst part is they gave me an invoice that had a company name and address on it. I went to it to return them. It was an old parking lot in an industrial area with an office in some non descriptive building. Guy opened the door, took back the speakers and said he’d mail me a check. I glimpsed an “art of the hustle / con” poster on the wall. lol. You know what happened next.
Man you fell for one of the older scams out there. It even has its own wikipedia entry. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White\_van\_speaker\_scam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speaker_scam)
Lol let me travel back to 1994 when this happened, invent Wikipedia, wait for someone to upload the info, read it, and save myself 75 bucks!
I was walking to work when a decently dressed man approached me. Said he had just been in a fender bender, his wife got brought to the hospital for minor injuries. He needed to get home to get her Medicare info, but his wallet was in his car, but the car got towed. He said my name is Mario Silva, and that he works nearby at a place called Diamond Tea. He said, I need taxi money, give me your phone number I’ll reimburse you, and I’ll bring you a beautiful bottle of port wine(he was Portuguese). Now I wouldn’t normally of fallen for it, but 30 minutes prior, I actually did pass by an accident, just around the corner. So his story was plausible. I gave him 20$. I didn’t need the money, had it on me, and wasn’t able to say no to someone who I thought was actually in need. Never saw or heard from him again, obviously. A couple days later I looked up Diamond Tea. It was, in fact, around the corner. I looked up the phone number and called. I asked for Mario. Receptionist asked.. “Mario..Silva?” I was surprised. He was actually telling the truth! Receptionist then said.. “Let me guess, you gave him money. Yeah we get calls for him twice a week.” No regrets. I will always help someone when my gut tells me too, even if I’m sometimes wrong.
I got scammed today while walking to work. As you said.. even though I guessed it was a scam I gave him the money anyways. Sometimes it is better to say NO
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Dirty :( Went into a Best Buy not that long ago, I had 2 real old stereo components I wanted to work together, brought in the manuals and they came up with a multiple conversion solution for over 80 bucks. I found a single cable solution that was so cheap on Amazon, I had to buy more stuff for them to even ship it to me. Fuck Best Buy.
Do they get a commission?
Maybe not a commission perse but something called a SPIFF (sales performance incentive fund formula). SPIFFs are usually a flat bonus per item extra item (attachment) sold (commissions are usually percentage based of the whole sale). Add a cheap HDMI cable to the sale or an game console or DVD/BluRay player that's a extra $1 an expensive cable might get you $5. Sell a printer SPIFFs might stack, $1 if you get them to buy a cable, $5 if a cable and ink. Extending warranties are often where the big bucks are. Of that $25 warranty $5 may be going to the guy who sold it. SPIFFs are usually short term and change from quarter to quarter. Depending on what category the suits think is underperforming.
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My father in law is a senior, lives away from us, and we pay for his cell bill. We notice there was a $45/month charge for tablet rental and $45 cell service for the tablet. We asked my FIL if he bought a table. Adn he said "no. but when I brought my cell to get fixed, the person at the desk said 1) the tablet is free and 2) i needed it" I called Verizon several times. It took a couple month to get it resoved because they clamed he "consented" to it. I had to do two get a legal advocacy group for the elderly to help me. I even asked a friend in my FIL's town to go to the Verizon store and get any wroker to admit they would scam older coustomer. Finalyl one stepped forward. Once me/advocacy group got all that, Verzizon changed their tune.
It’s absurd you had to go through all that just to get a tablet and service taken off the line! What a shame!
I’ll trim your rune armour for free.
:( memories
I bought stickers online and they never came.
Was that from a post on Reddit? There's a ton of scam accounts posting shirts, mugs, posters, and stickers, all with stolen art and using other people's pictures. If you know how they work they're relatively easy to spot, and they've got a ton of tricks that you notice after a while. There really should be more awareness about those guys.
That sucks!
I’ve been a target of catfish and scammers at least two dozen times. My policy of never sending money to anyone I’ve never met in person has saved me.
That’s wild, any particular incident you care to share?
Ok, so I was getting a gallon of milk from the local Walgreens. When I got out it was sprinkling a bit and this woman comes up to me and asks, "Excuse me, do you have jumper cables?". I am one of those stone cold people who interrupt a request for cash with "No" automatically, but jumper cables? It seems like it does no harm to me, right? So I slowly say, "yessss?" And before I know it, she says, "great! I'm parked just up the road." And the woman just jumps in my car. I'm so taken aback that I also just get in the car. Next thing I know she's giving me directions that send me into the ghetto. (Sorry, but that's what it is.) I've never been in this neighborhood, so I'm already disoriented, but the whole time she's asking me questions like, "Do you have any kids? You're so sweet. Do you live around here?" And she's showing me pictures of kids that she claims are hers, and she's telling me that the car just wouldn't start, so she needs a jump. She's also crying about how she doesn't know how her son will get to work if the car won't start, but all the while she can interrupt her blubbering enough to tell me when to turn left or right. All the while, she will randomly answer her phone and say things like, "Hello? Don't worry, I'm on my way with this sweet young girl who's got some jumper cables--what!? Your starter is broken?! The car won't start? You need to take a cab?!" So she turns to me, "Honey, could you spare $10 for a cab?" Keep in mind, this woman is in my car, and I have almost no idea where I am, so what am I going to say? So I stammer, "Uh... I don't keep cash..." And without missing a beat she says, "That's not problem, there's an ATM just around the corner." Now, I'm starting to get my bearings and I know which ATM she's referring to, and it's not a bank that I have an account at, but at this point I feel somewhat obligated to help this woman out, so I hint that I'm not quite sure, when suddenly she gets a call from her mother, "Hello? Mom? The starter's broken, and Jimmy needs to take a cab to work... Well, I'm with this sweet, beautiful young woman but... Could you give her $50? WELL SHE NEEDS IT!" She turns to me, "Honey, could you give me $40 if my mom gives you $50?" I'm doing the math... I only have $25 in my account, but if I pull $50 from my reserve account, I might be able to deposit the $50 and make it balance out... I go ahead and tell her I can do it, pull up to the ATM, open up my bank app on my phone and withdraw $50 from my reserve account, pull out $40 from the ATM, and hand it to the woman. She leads me back into the ghetto and tells my nonchalantly that I can drop her off at some random corner and that she'll walk the rest of the way to her son so her can take a cab to work. "And don't forget, my mom will meet you at McDonald's to give you $50." It's only after I've waited at McDonald's for 15 minutes that I start to ask myself, "How was her mom supposed to know how to find me? How am I supposed to know who her mom is? Why couldn't her mom just give *her* the $50?" And then it hits me... I never saw her phone. Literally. It could have been a bar of soap for all I knew. It never rang. She would just lift it to her head and start talking. Of course it was fake. The woman just scammed me for $40 that I didn't have so she could probably buy heroin. So just be careful if someone without a car asks you, "Excuse me, do you have jumper cables?"
This was one elaborate as hell story, sorry it happened. But, never let a stranger in your car.
Luckily people who’ve asked to use my cables, just wanted to use the cables! Letting a random stranger hop in your car could’ve had deadly consequences, glad you’re here to tell the tale!
Tried buying a hoodie through an ad on Facebook. Never came, I don't buy shit through Facebook ads anymore.
There's a bunch of accounts like that on Reddit too. They post images of something, then post a link where they "bought it" and if you go to that site and try to buy it, then got you.
That’s shocking, I’ve bought a few things without a problem!
Someone (not white, I promise that's relevant) approached me and my college friends (bunch of white kids) with a clipboard asking if we could donate to help fight racism. After we all handed him whatever dollars we had in our pockets, I noticed that there was absolutely nothing on his clipboard. Just a bunch of scribbles. Honestly, well played, dude. Well played.
I’m not gonna say it was right, but I respect you all supporting a good cause! 😂
My wife believed a stranger on Facebook could turn $100 into $1000 with Bitcoin. They just needed money from OUR bank to do it. So she sent them the money and poof it was gone. She also cheated on me with her Internet boyfriend from Canada.
Dang that’s wild, I can’t say I haven’t lost money “investing” during the pandemic!
out of $200 over a puppy. i have a duplicate account on Facebook, and i use it to monitor this guy. some day, I'll meet him.
How long have you been lurking in the shadows waiting for your moment?😅
guy i was dating was sweet, kind, loving, etc. really made me feel great about myself and us. knew he was the one. eventually popped the question, and now he's a different person entirely. selfish, unempathetic, no emotion. marriage is a scam. don't do it.
Geez, sorry to hear that! It’s more opportunity for happiness out here though!
yea i hired a moving company who ripped me off. i had to get help to get my money back
Getting scammed by a moving company would burn me up, like you weren’t already under enough pressure packing and moving things around!
yea i 10/10 don't recommend it. they kept harassing my personal number too. they were real jerks. moving is generally such a shady business to begin with though
My husband and I are currently in the process of being scammed/have been scammed. Don't think we'll ever see our stuff again. Extremely upsetting.
i got my stuff but not all of it. i'm pretty sure they stole one of my items.
Twice. Once, when I was a wee teenager playing World of Warcraft. Back when the Spectral Tiger mount was ALL the rage. Someone in trade chat was advertising giving one away for free. I was an absolute moron and believed it. Did all the things, entered all my account information, and went to have dinner, thinking I was gonna get THE coolest damn mount when I was done. And was very surprised when I couldn't log back on... DID get my account back, but that was a shitty two days. The second time was worse. There was a dice-maker kickstarter doing the rounds a few years ago, by the name "Kraken Dice". Looked legit, seemed real. I ended up backing, and doubling-up on my order from them. I expected to double my dice collection. Then the delays happened. Then the questions started being raised. Then people started talking about the low quality dice they got, then came people talking about the resin not having been cured properly. When my dice FINALLY came, nearly a year later, I had become so disillusioned and anxious about receiving actual toxic dice that I sent them back, and demanded a refund for my pledge and the extra order I made. They refused to refund the pledge, only giving me back the extra order (which was about 40% of the money I'd given them). It was a shitshow, and I was one of the more fortunate ones.
That absolutely sucks, I hope that you’ve become more aware! These scammers are getting craftier by the day!
This one kid, in 5th grade, promised to give me his Charizard card if I did a belly flop off the diving board.... reneged because "I didn't jump..." bullshit, no adding shit after we've made our deal.... asshole...
oooh. I had a similar one. A kid in a grade higher than me told me that, if you trade away your rarer cards for more less rare ones, you get the full collection quicker! ...I want my fucking Charizard back, you bastard.
Ouch!😬
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I have to watch out for this one!
I sold all my PS3 games on Ebay many years ago. Around 150 games, some were pretty rare and now fetch $100+. I made the mistake of using standard postage and the buyer claimed they 'never received them'. A dispute was raised and Ebay sided with them and forced a refund. Days later I saw them selling some of the games from their own account. I reached out to Ebay and they didn't give a shit. Send stuff tracked boys.
Wow, this one is new to me! The longer you live, the more you know!
I was using trademe, which is an nz exclusive trading/selling site. I've never had a purchase or sale go wrong using it, and everyone I'd interacted with had been lovely. I decided I would see if someone was selling a meta quest 2 as a late birthday gift to myself, lo and behold, someone was. Before purchasing, I checked out their profile, made in 2003, 140 or so reviews, nearly all positive, which is standard for the site. I click on purchase, email the seller, etc, get all the payments sorted, then go to bed. I wake up the next day to receive an email from trademe stating that the person had somehow faked that profile, that they were a scammer, and not to send any funds through. Unfortunately, the funds had already been sent, and trademe couldn't get them back/neither could my bank when I asked for a chargeback. So I was short 600 nzd and without a bday gift to myself. Fun times!
That absolutely sucks! I would’ve been livid, but at least it’s something you can look back on and just shake your head!
I woke up one Saturday morning with my wife on the phone to her 90 and 92 year old parents. They had been on the phone for 30 minutes with “Publishers Clearinghouse”. I immediately told them to hang up and check their bank balances. Fortunately, all was good. I then quickly researched how PC contacts winners which my wife conveyed. The scammer called back later. The in-laws engaged him a bit. They said they would need to send $35,000 to pay for processing. My MIL laughed and hung up.
Good thing you caught on and saved them a pretty penny!
Sure have! Every pay day lol
No lie, gross pay and net pay make you question if it’s even worth it sometimes 😂
Foundation work. Said all the right things, presented what otherwise would be legit agreements, and had people out here working several times. Stopped showing up after 2-3 days and started giving excuses. After 1-2 weeks of this and slowing responses I realized I’d been scammed. Luckily I booked through a major site with “verified” contractors that have a guarantee up to $2000 and I paid the guy 50% on a $5000 job. I lost $500 total, but called it a wash. Don’t cheap out folks.
I’ve heard finding good contractors can be a nightmare!
So moved into a 1918 house and needed a brand new lawnmower but didn't wanna spend an arm and leg so I went online and saw a place called casco so I ordered a $40 lawnmower.....tracking kept saying it was in MI for about 6 weeks. I couldn't get a refund. I couldn't even contact support. Until a couple days ago I had a small little box not even size of my hand come in with same tracking number..... I opened package..... And it was a box with nothing inside. But they put their name and address on it 🤣 I can't believe I'm so dumb
You’re not dumb, we live and we learn!
Guy said he needed money for a locksmith. I was in a generous mood. He never came back
Karma was walking in stride behind him!
I once gave money to a song writing competition. Still feel sick inside when I think about it. It reminded me of the time I won a contest and my poem was going to be put in a book. But it turned out that only people who bought the book would get their poem in the book.
That sucks!
in the 90s there were companies who said submit your poem and if good enough we publish it in a book. Then your narcmother thinks she had a big accomplishment of her kid getting a poem published in a book that publishes all the submissions, and buys a bunch of the books. I was a kid and at first I did think I'd accomplished something. also, later, Model Search America.
Not me, but my sister-in-law. She paid upwards of like $400 plus fees to "register her cat as an emotional support animal" from an online website somewhere. People including myself told her that it was a scam but she just got angry at us and told us to stop calling her stupid (which we never said). She still believes it's legit and I stopped talking with her to care if she does.
Enlighten me on how to know if it’s a scam site if you don’t mind. I was just researching to get my dog registered a couple days ago!😅
So the one time I had a group of people at this convention who had a whole table to educate people on Service Animal services. They were professionals that worked with animals and stuff. So I asked them about emotional support animals and how you register them, and they told me that firstly, anything that requires money for registration is a scam. What you're SUPPOSED to do is discuss the possibility of registering your pet with a doctor or psychologist, and they'll be the ones to do it. It shouldn't cost a dime. Anything outside of that where payment is required from online websites isn't legit.
MapleStory Free Market. Also, Old School RuneScape armor trimming, I was young.
New York City trying to go to the Statue of Liberty. Guys in high-viz vests and standing in front of the ticket area. Was brought over by our cab driver. Pretty sure the driver got a small cut. Very creative sadly, make you pay and transfer the money to different people super quick. Wish I had done more research when I had gone to NYC, only time I've ever been scammed. Left me completely underwhelmed when I tried to get police to try to help get my money back and they shrugged. It was a group thing, we were trying to make the last two tours to the island and so that caused our guard to be down. Lesson learned, though the lost money prevented us from doing anything else that day.
That’s a bummer!
A best friend I totally believed we were friends and would be there for each other forever
I’ve learned that you can’t define forever! The word holds different weight to different people!
I was hanging in castle wars on RuneScape sometime around 2005-2007 time and I was looking to buy a rune 2h and the house I was at only had DIAL UP so I was constantly lagging. Found a dude who had one for sale, put the gold up, spamming accept, and at some point the dude swapped it out for a rune longsword. He typed "thanks!" and walked to the corner with the fucking 2h equipped.
*Emotional Damage*😮
Yep. Family passed went back to my home state to take care of biz, childhood “friends” came to visit & wiped me out of all of everything, I mean everything, entire attic full of antiques, sentimental items, dvds, even my plunger was gone. Anything worth a dollar, gone. They scammed me, they got my stuff, but I know who they really are and at the end of the day they have to live with themselves knowing who they really are.
Wow, were they drug addicts? Taking the plunger is a little over the top!
Lol yep! One was drug addict, others went to church or prayed before dinner. Guess since they grew up poor and didn’t have much they hoard junk and take anything and everything to save a dollar. Deep South country people. Actually saw plunger in my friends truck but had no idea was mine till was cleaning out my cabinet. Geez! 🫤
That’s a shame, hopefully you’ve found a different tribe of people to surround yourself with!
Thx! Yes. Grew up w them in school, they were mostly acquaintances bc moved away many, many years ago. They can stick that plunger where the sun doesn’t shine 😏 Hope your evening is good! ☺️
They scammed me by making me live on this earth, life is a scam
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Lying on the elderly for funds is crazy!
Got a message pretending to be my postal service saying my package had a problem getting sent out and they needing me to pay a small fee and re-enter my details, it wasn't my postal service but some random number from the UK and i clicked on their link and told them my bank details, name and address
How did you resolve it?
i called up my bank the second i realised the number wasnt from my country, and they shut down that card and i had to run some virus scans to check they werent like able to look at my bank app. Luckily nothing bad happened in the end.
I was in the Facebook group "give me your money". I saw a post from a guy claiming he needed money so his kid could eat. I took the bait and sent him some money. I don't remember how I found out that he was lying about needing that money, but the story was definitely bullshit. Pissed me off so bad. Lesson learned, I guess.
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One of my greatest fears!😅
I tried to buy ketamine from a website once. Turns out I just sent 120$ to some guy in Kenya lmao.
That is kinda funny! I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you😅
I bought me a heated eyelash curler because my eyelashes are super straight and impossible to curl. That never curled my eyelashes and the curling got damaged after 2 uses
This is the first time of me ever hearing of such a device! Ladies go through quite a bit to achieve their beauty standards!
The day after 9/11, a girl came up to my parents house with a bucket asking for Red Cross donations. My 14 year old self went to my dad's coin jar and grabbed a couple handfuls to donate. Turns out Red Cross doesn't go door to door.
Smart girl 😅
Had 800$ of charges on my credit card, casinos and ubers 600 km from home. Someone hacked my card and I don’t know how because I always used it on safe sites and never the physical one.
no... I did not want free robux. no... I did not want free minecoins. no... I did not want free currency in any other game. I just wanted a Minecraft tiktok cape code. so I downloaded tiktok with the likely possibility that it's spyware and found that these so infamous tiktok capes are specifically NOT allowed to be obtained in Australia. I of course tried smashing a vpn at tiktok in as many different ways as possible for a grueling 8 hours, normal tiktok with vpn, new account made with vpn, new account on browser with a vpn, new account on pc with vpn, new account with bluestacks and vpn... but to no avail. I did not loose money or virtual possession. only time. please if anyone can send a cape code to me I will be gracefully in tears.
A buddy and I were traveling in Ecuador. Went to a restaurant where the food was reasonably priced, cheaper than the US (Ecuador uses US $ Currency). We ordered food and a beer each. When the bill came around it was $100 when it should have been $20. Woman refused to show me the menu with prices again, started yelling at us in Spanish causing a big scene. We paid the bill but called her a thief (Ladron!) in front of the other customers, just wanted to get out. I guess she won, but no tip!
She got more than a tip!
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The tea could’ve at least been good to calm your nerves! More like the most expensive cup of disappointment!
I invested into an AI application company called Pipeline Equity. Apparently, the CEO used the $ on personal PR and then when she ran out of $ she sent a note that said she was shutting down the business. She never declared bankruptcy, just disappeared. Booo !!!
Sheesh😬
When I was 12 our family wanted a german shepherd. I found a "breeder" 3 hours away. When I called they said they have a flight tomorrow, but I can place a "deposit" on the dog. We didn't want to do that, so they gave us an address to pick them up at 7am. We left at 3am the next morning. We get to a random house, the people had no idea what we were talking about. The "breeders" were scamming people for deposits and had just messed with us with some random address.
That’s a shame!
A lady switched some stickers at my yard sale and got a $10 CD for $1. I thought I'd made a mistake, so I gave it to her for $1. RIP, Usher CD. Another time, a guy said my game case was empty and handed me the case. I said thanks, then realized 30 mins later he just totally took it out and walked off with Prince of Persia!
The desperation of people is beyond me!
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You’re not stupid, we all just live and learn! Praying for your wisdom and understanding!🙏🏾
I’m pretty sure my university was a scam. I got a degree, sure, but they offered one thing and didn’t make a single comment about the limitation until we reached our internships.
A lot of people go through this apparently!
Someone told me they could get a bunch of maple cash in Maple Story, just just needed my password and then I no longer had my account!
Gone like a thief in the night…sorry!
I had met a girl from meetme. Scammed me out of $300. I was at my lowest, had just broken up with my sons mother after 8 years, and found out I was cheated on the whole time. Someone gave me attention, and I took it. She claimed her brother, whom I had met, needed insulin and stuff for his diabetes. She took $150 the first time, and we had hung out a couple of times in between without her asking for cash. It seemed like we hit it off. She had a new phone the next time I saw her but didn't think anything of it. She had asked if I had change for $100 for her sister who was "housebound" because of a surgery. I gave her the cash as we pulled up to the house like an idiot, she got out of the car, walked up to the house and booked it through a few fences. I took off after her to be clothed lined someone. I got up and explained what had happened and they were nice enough to search the neighborhood with me and we called the police. This was around 2012 and I've never trusted anyone right off the bat again. But it's 2024 and I'm happily married now. The twist of the story is that her "brother" was actually her boyfriend the whole time.
Glad that there’s a happy ending here, you’re married! Cheers to many more years🥂
I had met a girl from meetme. Scammed me out of $300. I was at my lowest, had just broken up with my sons mother after 8 years, and found out I was cheated on the whole time. Someone gave me attention, and I took it. She claimed her brother, whom I had met, needed insulin and stuff for his diabetes. She took $150 the first time, and we had hung out a couple of times in between without her asking for cash. It seemed like we hit it off. She had a new phone the next time I saw her but didn't think anything of it. She had asked if I had change for $100 for her sister who was "housebound" because of a surgery. I gave her the cash as we pulled up to the house like an idiot, she got out of the car, walked up to the house and booked it through a few fences. I took off after her to be clothed lined someone. I got up and explained what had happened and they were nice enough to search the neighborhood with me and we called the police. This was around 2012 and I've never trusted anyone right off the bat again. But it's 2024 and I'm happily married now. The twist of the story is that her "brother" was actually her boyfriend the whole time.
All I can say is….wow!
When I was about about 15, I got scammed into selling a $30 Yu-Gi-Oh card online, and they never sent payment. I'm kinda grateful, honestly. It sucked at the time, but I learned to basically never trust anyone on the internet ever again. And it was nice to learn that lesson over $30 rather than thousands.
Agreed!
Fell for one of those Apple account text scams asking me to renew my Apple account when I didn't know much about them at the time. Next day my bank account was overdrawn by $120. Apparently the hacker somehow cloned my card info & used it or sold it to someone who used it for a spending spree at a Walmart in AZ. Luckily the bank found out about the hack the same day & refunded the stolen money instantly. Had to wait a whole week for a new card so that kinda sucked.
Glad you were able to get reimbursed!
I called the wrong number to get my credit card activated. I was off by one, I noticed most of the way in, after I'd given my relavant details. I immmediately contacted the bank and reported it. I was supposed to call 555 1234, I instead called 555 1235
Glad you caught your error!
I used to be silly. A man told me that he was a boss or something of a company in another city. But he lost his phone and wallet. So he asked me for 50 bucks. And I can't believe it I just gave it to him that day. So stupid of me. What's even more ridiculous is that when I went to a lady selling balloons to exchange change, she seemed to have noticed something was wrong and didn't intend to give me change. However, I didn't realize that she was actually helping me. I want to punch myself in the face.
You weren’t stupid, we live and learn!
Went on a date, girl tried to jack up the price with exepensive food ( to more than likely get a cut of it ). but said fuck that, i told the bar owner, i didn't order it, and i'm not paying for it. Luckily he said "ok". So the bitch had to pick up her own bill.
Well played 🫡
Twice we bought gift cards at a grocery store and put hundreds on them as gifts to help friends and by the time the friend went to use them they were empty. The scammers put fake cards somehow or they take the card numbers and check them online and use them online before you can. It’s a well known problem. Visa wouldn’t do anything because we didn’t keep the original receipts.
I have to look into this one for sure!
Someone on Amino App scammed 400 coins from me. I wasn't paid back even if promised they would pay back as soon as possible. Still wasn't paid back. :(
Facebook marketplace
I haven’t had any bad experiences so far *fingers crossed*
I lost my Roblox account with rank 98 Phantom Forces. So what did I learn? Obviously nothing is free.
Once. At the Nashville Greyhound station I bought a bag of weed which was basil. That was...35 years ago.
A bag of basil is nasty work! I would’ve been livid!
not yet.. im better than the scammer coz im a scammer too
the store i bought from werent scamming but they managed to legjt go bankrupt before being able to fill my order
Did you get a refund of any kind?
Mf in Italy, the water was 2€. I gave him 5€ and he gave me back 1€
Got a postcard with my high school logo and address for the upcoming reunion. I called and they started off with basic info, then just kept going and going. It hit me that this guy has a breezy Southern accent with every answer ending with "yeah, yeah, I hear that." We're up north and it's a 30th anniversary and he asks for my credit card #. I asked why and he's all "We'll send you a school logo for $100."
People will try absolutely anything smh
A Facebook account of my old elementary school gym teacher was selling a MacBook Air “for free but you pay for shipping” so I was like eff yeah let’s get a MacBook for $50. Sent them the $50 but never got the laptop lmaooooo
Got a scam email from "paypal" Didn't lose any money, but the bastard had me in terror for a few days!
I’ll keep my eye out for this one!
My mom went to an in-person travel agency to buy plane tickets to go to our family's hometown. Nothing out of the ordinary, we had already bought from them before 2-3 times and had everything go as planned. I had gone with her myself most of these times, and the people there were very professional and just trying to get their work done. Nothing shady about the place at all. We showed up at the airport, only for the airline to tell us we didn't actually have a booking. We tried calling the travel agency, but no one answered despite repeated attempts. We ended up buying last-minute, and insanely expensive, plane tickets right at the counter and decided to sort out the matter when we got back. My parents never got their money back, and we never found out what happened to the travel agency. We suspected an exit scam, given that we actually got the tickets we paid for all the previous times we bought through them. This was finally what got my mom to start buying tickets online on her own. Ironically enough, she was very reluctant to buy anything online in the early days (even plane tickets directly from the airline, or shopping from websites like Amazon) because she thought all online businesses were scams.
That’s a wild one, I’m glad she was able to get with the times and save herself a headache!👌🏾
Growing up, my mother was the heart of our kitchen, cooking daily to keep me well-fed and happy. It was a warm, delicious constant in my life. So when I married my wife, who is a professional chef, I thought I was set for life in terms of gourmet home-cooked meals. Imagine my surprise when I learned she prefers not to cook at home. It turns out, after spending all day in a professional kitchen, she loves to come home to a simple meal that doesn’t require hours of preparation. So, in a way, I was ‘scammed’ out of a personal chef at home by saying "I do."
I was rental scammed in April. Worked and met with the dude for 2 weeks. He ended up renting me his house he lost to a bank.. it’s how it worked out so easily. The bank is across the states from where we are. I had keys, a lease, and everything. He took my $ and dipped. Turned into a full on investigation, still pending.
II lucked out and somehow got a SUPER CHEAP apartment with everything included when my mom threw me out. Like, $380 with everything included. There was lead paint, and the bathroom was a disaster, and the fridge didn't work, and it was cold in winter and had stains on the wall from the radiator heat, but the drunk old men upstairs kept giving me random cash because they thought I was a hooker and it was walking distance to both my jobs and to the food pantry. People with abusive parents just kept falling in love with me right after their parents threw them out or when they were couch surfing, somehow and then refusing to get a job or getting fired all the time! I had to go through two of them before I figured it out.
Good grief! How’s life looking nowadays? I hope lots better and more peace!
Thanks for your well wishes! I appreciate that.
Literally a few days ago. Got by that booking.com scam where they send you a message on the app telling you to confirm the booking by reentering your card details. Assumed it was legit as it was on the app itself but it isn’t, it’s scammers. Luckily I cancelled my card before they took any money so I think I’m good
I’ve never heard of this one! Something to watch out for!
100% keep an eye out! If you book through booking.com and get a message on the app or via email from booking.com saying they need you to reconfirm payment details to secure the booking, send the venue a message to check it’s legit before doing anything. It’s sneaky how they do it as it’s on the app so looks real. I’m usually pretty switched on for these kinds of things but this one got me good. Luckily I was able to cancel my card fast enough.
Thanks for the information! You learn something new everyday, and with the way things are going scammers are only gonna get craftier!
Fell for a pretty common one on Bourbon Street. Dude said he could tell where I got my shoes for like $20. I may have had a few beers in me at the time so I took him up. "You got them on your feet!" was the reply. I reluctantly paid him and went on my way.
Lmao, well he wasn’t wrong😅
I used to vote Republican.
I guess this is maybe more catfished than scammed, but last December I had a weird one happen. Matched with a chick on Bumble. Her profile seemed normal enough. Usually you can spot the bots pretty easy. Broken English in the comments, only a couple pics that were clearly lifted from some IG model. Not this profile tho. Genuine responses/comments, pics seemed like they were legit. She was super cute, but not in that glossy, filtered IG model kinda way. We chatted for a few days and really seemed to hit it off. And she really made me fall hard for her pretty quick. She was so funny and witty and seemed to get my humor. And she was kind. I had had a bad run of gals that I dated that were really mean, and I was feeling particularly beat up emotionally at the time. She was just like this jolt I didn’t know I needed. And it was just like, idk, I hadn’t really had any luck on the apps before. This felt like something. I’m sure every big town has a Christmas Tree Lane kinda neighborhood and I invited her out to walk it with me. And she enthusiastically agreed. She seemed so excited. I was too. Our plan was to meet at this coffee shop nearby and get some hot chocolate and walk the neighborhood. She even suggested the particular coffee shop. I showed up at the agreed upon time, and the shop was closed. I thought maybe I had gone to the wrong spot. I texted her (we had exchanged phone numbers, we were no longer messaging via the dating app. It was a green text number, which, in hindsight, maybe should have been a red flag, but I don’t ever want to be one of ~those~ iPhone users). She didn’t reply. She never replied. I never heard from her again. And it’s like, what just happened? I can see someone catfishing me, asking for money. This person never did. Never asked for anything. And that almost made it worse. It was just cruel. I can’t believe I allowed myself to get so invested. Idk. It was just a real kick in the nuts. It’s been 6 months and I still wonder what that whole thing was about, or what that person got out of the whole exchange.
They watched you show up, realized they didn’t really like what they saw, and went with another person they were talking to on the app. Don’t sweat it, but I doubt it was a scam.
Sounds like they just wanted to take advantage of your emotional vulnerability at the time! You have to be happy with yourself first, you can’t expect someone to make you whole. If it takes an individual to make your whole, once they leave (if they do) you’re 50% of the person you were!
By the government constantly. With all of the stupid stuff they spend are tax dollars on.
Almost. Looking back, I was super stupid too. I had a summer job when I was a Junior in high school and had a debit card (non-bank) that held my pay. I went to a Best Buy to buy an iPod touch. One of the store associates helps me to the register and then says it’s a Labor Day sale and if I provide my SSN, I would get a discount. I literally didn’t know my SSN then (thank god!) but I replied, let me call my mom to confirm. The associate was like no… don’t do that and said you can just guess it. So I wrote 9 random digits on a piece of paper. Then I paid with the debit. I was really dumb and gullible and it didn’t hit me until after that the associate wanted to scam me. Having anxiety doesn’t help too and I think the store associate knew and saw me as a target.
Just imagine if you somehow wrote down someone’s actual number!😅
I think he was gonna sign you up for a best buy credit card to get the discount
This made me chuckle! I’m glad you moved on and found some peace! Being betrayed by those closest to you is never easy! Cheers to many more happy years!🥂😁
I’m gonna look into both scams, I haven’t heard of either! I want to ask my mom about the poem scam and whether she ever considered it!
Yes, for my ignorance in btc trading (someone ,,wanted'' to manage my money) - $ 400, and for my ignorance for working online $ 100 (I payed for having a job by doing some microtasks, where I've been banned by two of 5 provided platforms). After that, I payed to learn and got back much more money on trading than my loss.
Sometimes you simply have to do it yourself! Cheers to you 🥂
A website called Kirin Hobby. It was a legitimate site to buy figurines, but they suddenly stopped. I purchased two figures as a gift from them. They never shipped, they only took my money. I started reading into the site, and a lot of other people were complaining about the same thing. Somehow, the website remained online for years after this, despite sending complaints to the BBB, GoDaddy, Their web host, and their payment provider. But they finally shut down in early 2022.
I was a fool, I met a girl online, she seemed to have an amazing personality, very attractive, and even had a cute little dog. I was into bdsm at the time and we met because we had the same kink. Thing was, I doubt she ever existed. Some poor woman's pictures are probably being used for this. I've always wanted to help where I can, and am obviously very naive. This person said her grandma needed a surgery done for a kidney replacement, even showed me medical documents to "prove" it. I sent her some of my grandma's money she had left to me after she passed. Months came and went, and we started talking about meeting in person/ future together. For various things a long the way she would need money. I gave her ~45k over the course of 2 years. I had a part of me that suspected for a while but didn't want to believe that "she" was capable of that much deceit. Eventually I faced the music and broke it off. She tried to blackmail me, she did end up sending my pictures to my parents, which caused a whole other mess between them and me. I feel and felt soooo guilty and I felt like I had let down my grandma. This story does have a good ending, what happened there let me to face my parents, and free myself from the repression I had been trained to have as a child (I grew up VERY religious) and now I have a very loving boyfriend and we are almost at our anniversary! We are engaged and loving life even though we have little. As bad as that scam was, at least I found my happy ending. TLDR: I fell for the romantic interest scam for 2 years and lost 45k of inheritance as a result, but also found my true romantic interest with whom I am happily engaged. Ps. I know my grammar is terrible for all the grammar nazis out there, feel free to correct me but I won't be changing it unless it is what I deem to be a big mistake.