Best scam you ever heard of?

Rasheed

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

In Ireland they would let them walk and apologise, you can't be held for shoplifting and defamation of character is a minefield... they would be counting the $$$ while you check the CCTV to see what happened.

My cousin is a security man in Tesco and said the scam going on there is a person comes in, puts an item in their bag, in view of security.

The 'thief' walks out without paying, security man follows, wants to check their bag, no item as they've drop it before leaving.

Cue the tears about being accused in the wrong, solicitors letters and a definite sacking for the security man.

And of course a gesture of goodwill from the shop to the person.

intellectual dosser

Rasheed wrote: »

My cousin is a security man in Tesco and said the scam going on there is a person comes in, puts an item in their bag, in view of security.

The 'thief' walks out without paying, security man follows, wants to check their bag, no item as they've drop it before leaving.

Cue the tears about being accused in the wrong, solicitors letters and a definite sacking for the security man.

And of course a gesture of goodwill from the shop to the person.

Would the scam artist get anything out of that? A security guard asks you if you stole something - I don't envisage them being awarded €20k?

On the other hand maybe they just enjoy getting security guards sacked?

Motivator

CorsetIsTight wrote: »

A man I worked with swore that this was true:

A group of friends go into a pub, order a round including one for their friend Michael who is outside paying the taxi. They ask the landlord to change the TV channel to the Lotto as they've all bought tickets.

The Lotto draw comes on and they all check their tickets. No winners...commiserations all round.

Then Michael comes in, gets his drink and they give him the Lotto numbers so they can check his ticket. WINNER...!

The lads go mental. Congratulations pour in from all corners of the pub. They order drinks for everyone. Michael is shaking and doesn't know what to do with the ticket as he's terrified he'll lose it. Everyone agrees that the best thing would be for him to sign the back and give it to the landlord to put in the pub safe overnight. The landlord agrees to run a tab for the night, happy that he has the ticket as security.

The night wears on with the new millionaire buying champagne for everyone. Drinks are on Michael for the rest of the night, and everyone goes home happy, with the lads making arrangements with the landlord to collect the ticket from him in the morning.

Of course, when morning rolls around the lads never turn up. The landlord opens the safe and checks the ticket. He checks the numbers and sure enough they're the winning numbers for last night's draw.

But the ticket is for the next draw.

Michael had actually been waiting in the shop next door and had bought the ticket with that night's winning numbers, which one of the lads had texted him once they'd seen the draw.

I heard of something similar happen in a pub in Derry, but the landlord knew what was coming & rang a car full of lads to come & wait outside. Just as the scammers were heading off out of the pub leaving a £1k tab behind the landlord gave the lads the signal outside & in they came. Apparently it was the fastest £1k that was ever handed over in a pub. They were left walk away but only after a firm warning.

BizzyC

Not sure if it's true,
but heard that a pub by killiney shopping centre (forgot the name) was getting renevated a few years back.

As part of the works they got in a bunch of new tv's for showing sport.
One afternoon while there was no owner/manager around a couple of guys show up with a false invoice, apparently the TV's that were put up were the wrong size and they're there to replace them.

Barman reviews the invoice and lets the guys get to work.
Of course the first thing they did was take down all of the new tv's and bring them out to the van....

mayotom

gjc wrote: »

http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=6974.0


jesus where do these guys learn this stuff...???? ffs a phantom dog..... my education was seriously lacking

€50,000 and they only get fined a couple of grand,

nothing back for the state, even though one offered to pay it back
Waste of court/police/welfare officers time, this all costs money

has their residency been revoked??

smileyj1987

The two best ones I have heard of

1: Selling somebody instructions on how to make a paper aeroplane . It involves a box and some stones to make it feel like there is parts inside to make a model plane but the only contents of the box that can be used to make a plane is a piece of A4 paper and instructions on how to fold it properly . They will tell you when you are buying it that you can make a bigger plane if you get a few more parts that are listed in the instructions

2: Selling nails as coat hangers . This involves buying cheap nails in a hardware . Then you get a box and put a few stones in it and then you provide a an instrution booklet on how to put the nails into the wall to make coat hangers .

Green Mile

I heard before that a guy put a small add in a national paper inthe UK that said “Send me £10 and your address and I will reply to you with instructionson how to make a fortune”

He was shocked that thousands of people actually sent the money tohim so he wrote on a bit of paper and replied to them all saying “put an similarad in the paper like I did”

Capt'n Midnight

Back in the day, you could sell CD burners, and the victim would receive a lighter.

Or ye olde selling an xbox box on ebay

or selling "tested" gear on ebay - small print *failed test*


all as described so no legal comeback.

Voodoomelon

Anyone remember IQon computers in Dundalk? They had the huge contract for Tesco's computers for schools project.

Worked there one summer putting machines together, and the lads were telling me that it was the "no quibbles" return policy that crippled them.

They'd often get machines returned from the UK, which people had left back to Tesco for a full refund as they were unhappy with it.
The computer would arrive back in Dundalk, they'd open up the case to find a stack of bricks inside it and all the components cleaned out, DVD drive, motherboard, daughter cards, hard drives, CPU, RAM, the lot.

Lads were sticking the parts up on eBay and cleaning up.

BizzyC

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Back in the day, you could sell CD burners, and the victim would receive a lighter.

Or ye olde selling an xbox box on ebay

or selling "tested" gear on ebay - small print *failed test*


all as described so no legal comeback.

Saw a similar thing on Judge Judy of a woman claiming a picture of a phone she sold on ebay was "as described".

She thought she was untouchable and was acting really smug until they pointed out that she had put down the technical specs, weight and dimensions on the ad without specifying they were the specs for the phone and not the item on sale.

Since the item received didn't match those specs she had to give all the money made back.
Shame Judy never sends people to prison...

B.A._Baracus

BizzyC wrote: »

Saw a similar thing on Judge Judy of a woman claiming a picture of a phone she sold on ebay was "as described".

She thought she was untouchable and was acting really smug until they pointed out that she had put down the technical specs, weight and dimensions on the ad without specifying they were the specs for the phone and not the item on sale.

Since the item received didn't match those specs she had to give all the money made back.
Shame Judy never sends people to prison...

She can't :pac:
Its not even a proper court :pac: The two parties agree to sign forms saying that her decision will be final in any court in the world. The people in the stands are extras.

Its appropiate that I mention that in a thread about scams, huh? lol.

68Murph68

Remember hearing of a story about a group of guys in suits who turned up in a city-centre pub on a Monday morning after a busy weekend. They knew that the cash from the weekend hadn't been lodged and that the owner was away on holidays. They told the bar staff that they were investigating the owner for tax fraud and were conducting an audit. As such they needed to seize all financial records, computers and cash on the premises. Boxed up everything, provided staff with receipts of everything seized and headed off. Owner comes back and gets in touch with the revenue commissioners who have no idea what he is talking about.

Not 100% sure if true but was supposedly a few years back in Dublin city centre, if anyone knows more?

Plazaman

I remember being at a talk from a security agency to do with the bar trade and how customers can rip you off or how bar staff can rip you off especially in night clubs (the old handing you back wet change which you'll put straight into pocket without checking or the two fivers folded in such a way as to look like three).

The speaker was talking about a big nightclub (he actually named it but as it's still operating I'll just say it was in the West of Ireland). The owner noticed the stock take didn't tally with the till receipts. After hiring in private detectives to watch staff for about a month, they reported back they couldn't find anything wrong that all money was placed in the tills and all transactions they took part in and seen had the correct change.

The owner was furious so the agency said they'd put hidden cameras on the tills for a closer look. After the first night they told the owner, they'd review the footage for all transactions on all six tills for that night and report back. "What do you mean six tills?" asks the owner, "I only have five tills in the place".

john_cappa

Plazaman wrote: »

I remember being at a talk from a security agency to do with the bar trade and how customers can rip you off or how bar staff can rip you off especially in night clubs (the old handing you back wet change which you'll put straight into pocket without checking or the two fivers folded in such a way as to look like three).

The speaker was talking about a big nightclub (he actually named it but as it's still operating I'll just say it was in the West of Ireland). The owner noticed the stock take didn't tally with the till receipts. After hiring in private detectives to watch staff for about a month, they reported back they couldn't find anything wrong that all money was placed in the tills and all transactions they took part in and seen had the correct change.

The owner was furious so the agency said they'd put hidden cameras on the tills for a closer look. After the first night they told the owner, they'd review the footage for all transactions on all six tills for that night and report back. "What do you mean six tills?" asks the owner, "I only have five tills in the place".

This may have happened but has become a myth over time!

Me Tilty

CorsetIsTight wrote: »

A man I worked with swore that this was true:

A group of friends go into a pub, order a round including one for their friend Michael who is outside paying the taxi. They ask the landlord to change the TV channel to the Lotto as they've all bought tickets.

The Lotto draw comes on and they all check their tickets. No winners...commiserations all round.

Then Michael comes in, gets his drink and they give him the Lotto numbers so they can check his ticket. WINNER...!

The lads go mental. Congratulations pour in from all corners of the pub. They order drinks for everyone. Michael is shaking and doesn't know what to do with the ticket as he's terrified he'll lose it. Everyone agrees that the best thing would be for him to sign the back and give it to the landlord to put in the pub safe overnight. The landlord agrees to run a tab for the night, happy that he has the ticket as security.

The night wears on with the new millionaire buying champagne for everyone. Drinks are on Michael for the rest of the night, and everyone goes home happy, with the lads making arrangements with the landlord to collect the ticket from him in the morning.

Of course, when morning rolls around the lads never turn up. The landlord opens the safe and checks the ticket. He checks the numbers and sure enough they're the winning numbers for last night's draw.

But the ticket is for the next draw.

Michael had actually been waiting in the shop next door and had bought the ticket with that night's winning numbers, which one of the lads had texted him once they'd seen the draw.

Bull. Lotto machines are switch off for a period after the draw

Deise Vu

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Yes, who walks out with a whole load of loose stuff unbagged in their trolley?
Security aren't fools.

At an employment appeals tribunal case some years ago Dunnes Stores said the biggest security issue facing them was people buying clothes, going outside and putting the clothes in a car or bringing them home. Then they would go back into the store with the legitimate receipt, pick up the same item off the shelf and 'return' it for credit saying it didn't fit or they simply changed their minds.

It would be a bit more difficult to do it with groceries alright.

Voodoomelon

There'll be a rake of scams carried out nationwide now because of this thread.

AnonoBoy

Voodoomelon wrote: »

There'll be a rake of scams carried out nationwide now because of this thread.

Some of the posts on this thread are fairly much Scam 101 aren't they? :pac:

Rasheed

intellectual dosser wrote: »

Would the scam artist get anything out of that? A security guard asks you if you stole something - I don't envisage them being awarded €20k?

On the other hand maybe they just enjoy getting security guards sacked?

Don't know about compensation to be honest. I do know when it happened firstly, a shop gave a goodwill gesture, voucher was given as an apology and for it to go no further.

Accusing someone in the wrong, especially a minority group, could be seen in a very bad light by a judge.

event

Motivator wrote: »

I heard of something similar happen in a pub in Derry, but the landlord knew what was coming & rang a car full of lads to come & wait outside. Just as the scammers were heading off out of the pub leaving a £1k tab behind the landlord gave the lads the signal outside & in they came. Apparently it was the fastest £1k that was ever handed over in a pub. They were left walk away but only after a firm warning.

why didnt he just refuse them a tab then ?

Totofan99

WileyCoyote wrote: »

Best one I ever heard of was a couple of guys in the early 90's who sold Irish Pound coins to the English at Cheltenham races for 20 quid a go, they claimed that they were commerative medals of Arkle struck by the Irish Government!:D:D:D

Is that actually true? The pound coin does have '£1' stamped clearly on it. Actually, now that I think of it, it would have to have been 20p coins, wouldn't it? The 20p had a horse on it. The pound had a deer on it.

Maximus Alexander

event wrote: »

why didnt he just refuse them a tab then ?

Because he wanted the £1,000?

event

very risky thing to do if so

fasttalkerchat

Plazaman wrote: »

I remember being at a talk from a security agency to do with the bar trade and how customers can rip you off or how bar staff can rip you off especially in night clubs (the old handing you back wet change which you'll put straight into pocket without checking or the two fivers folded in such a way as to look like three).

The speaker was talking about a big nightclub (he actually named it but as it's still operating I'll just say it was in the West of Ireland). The owner noticed the stock take didn't tally with the till receipts. After hiring in private detectives to watch staff for about a month, they reported back they couldn't find anything wrong that all money was placed in the tills and all transactions they took part in and seen had the correct change.

The owner was furious so the agency said they'd put hidden cameras on the tills for a closer look. After the first night they told the owner, they'd review the footage for all transactions on all six tills for that night and report back. "What do you mean six tills?" asks the owner, "I only have five tills in the place".

I know of something similar that happened in a supermarket. One till drawer was broken but had to be kept with a full float in the safe until a new drawer arrived. This is because till floats are counted separately to safe contents, anyway... It sat there for weeks with security tape on it.
The store was doing an inventory and I was training there and decided to be thorough and double check the safe instead of just taking figures from that morning.
Turned out the drawer was empty. It had been emptied sometime in the past 6 weeks and they had no way of knowing when or who by.

murraykil

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

:rolleyes:

I edited to say that I hope that this is pure bull rather than it is pure bull! I shudder to think that anyone could fall for this! I can only see this working on someone who is so drunk they need help taking money out of their wallet or they have a mental age of about 4.

nozzferrahhtoo

One great Scam I heard of was during a talk by James Randi about homeopathy.

Some guy decided he could send you out a wire which you connect to the Audio Out Jack of your PC. Then whenever you wanted to buy Homeopathy off him you connected the wire, wrapped it around a container of water and contacted him. He would do the same at his end but would wrap the wire around a container of the Homeopathy Water you wanted to purchase, before connecting it to the Audio IN Jack of his PC.

He would then send noise down the wire and tell you that the Homeopathic properties of his container had now infused into yours and the Bill is in the post.

Genius, sheer genius. The ingenuity of those who find new ways to profit from the credulity of the easily fooled never ceases to amaze me.

keithclancy

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

One great Scam I heard of was during a talk by James Randi about homeopathy.

Some guy decided he could send you out a wire which you connect to the Audio Out Jack of your PC. Then whenever you wanted to buy Homeopathy off him you connected the wire, wrapped it around a container of water and contacted him. He would do the same at his end but would wrap the wire around a container of the Homeopathy Water you wanted to purchase, before connecting it to the Audio IN Jack of his PC.

He would then send noise down the wire and tell you that the Homeopathic properties of his container had now infused into yours and the Bill is in the post.

Genius, sheer genius. The ingenuity of those who find new ways to profit from the credulity of the easily fooled never ceases to amaze me.

In the world of Homeopathy .... thats about as legit as homeopathy.

E.G.

https://www.helios.co.uk/cgi-bin/store.cgi?action=link&sku=LMBerl&uid=4

nozzferrahhtoo

It is indeed a sad aspect of our species that we can be fooled to the point of purchasing water under the guise of medicine and convince ourselves it works.

Plazaman

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

It is indeed a sad aspect of our species that we can be fooled to the point of purchasing water under the guise of medicine and convince ourselves it works.

Even worse when you've a life threateneing illness and some scammer offers you "Photodynamic Therapy". Yes indeed, lights will cure everything. Daftness for the majority of people but probably desperate times calls for desperate measures in those poor peoples minds.

nozzferrahhtoo

^ Yea I think a lot of people subscribe to such notions in desperate times due to a kind of "Well it cant hurt" mentality. If it will cause no harm then why not, as at worst it will do nothing and at best it will actually work.

But it DOES hurt. It hurts your wallet. It hurts the medical insurance industry who have to pay out for things like Homeopathy. And it hurts people who become convinced that things like homeopathy are working and so they give up their actual medication which is actually keeping them healthy and/or alive.

It is a constant source of amazement to me that things like homeopathy are even legal, let alone covered on things like UK Health Insurance and the like.

Capt'n Midnight

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

It is a constant source of amazement to me that things like homeopathy are even legal, let alone covered on things like UK Health Insurance and the like.

Homoeopathy itself is just a scam and at best could be said to "first do no harm"

But there is a huge overlap with the antivax crowd and they are killing people.

Wakefield was a scammer fraud , applied for a patent for single vaccines and then faked the MMR results to get people not to use the multiple vaccine http://briandeer.com/mmr/1998-vaccine-patent.pdf :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12867830

An outbreak of measles occurred in Ireland between December 1999 and July 2000. The majority of cases were in north Dublin
...
In the study period 355 attended TCUH with a serologic or clinical diagnosis of measles, and 111 were admitted (47% female, 53% male). The main indications for admission were dehydration in 79%, pneumonia or pneumonitis in 47% and tracheitis in 32%. Thirteen children (11.7% of those admitted) required treatment in the intensive care unit, and in 7 of these mechanical ventilation was necessary. There were 3 deaths as a result of measles.

How many would have died if the outbreak had been city-wide or national ?

In the US they eliminated measles in 2000. All new cases since then came from Asia or Europe

donegal_road

where Remax, Sherry Fitzgerald, Gunne etc. pay the Times property supplement to turn a blind eye, so they can print what they want about property value.

Pj!

Rasheed wrote: »

My cousin is a security man in Tesco and said the scam going on there is a person comes in, puts an item in their bag, in view of security.

The 'thief' walks out without paying, security man follows, wants to check their bag, no item as they've drop it before leaving.

Cue the tears about being accused in the wrong, solicitors letters and a definite sacking for the security man.

And of course a gesture of goodwill from the shop to the person.

intellectual dosser wrote: »

Would the scam artist get anything out of that?

That's true unfortunately. Most store security guards are advised to never ever approach anybody by the store management. They are used simply as a presence.

nozzferrahhtoo

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Homoeopathy itself is just a scam and at best could be said to "first do no harm"

Or "first do no anything" to be more precise given it is likely to cure nothing except thirst.

I think my biggest issue is with effects it has to people rather than the lack of medicinal effects. For example if you have a limited resource like the HSE do for paying for customers drugs for them then every GBP taken to pay for homeopathy is a GBP taken out of the hands of people who actually do need drugs. It is wasted money.

The drug itself does not harm of course (I always laugh how they advertise their stuff as "No side effects") but when it is stretching an already limited resource in order to provide it to people then it is causing harm. Or where it convinces people to stop taking actual medication, it does harm.

username123

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

The drug itself does not harm of course (I always laugh how they advertise their stuff as "No side effects") but when it is stretching an already limited resource in order to provide it to people then it is causing harm. Or where it convinces people to stop taking actual medication, it does harm.

Presenting silly mumbo jumbo as real science and having it backed by taxpayers money is harmful imo.

pitythefool

Got sent for the long stand when i was sixteen and working in a pub

Told the first bar man why i was there and could i have a pint while i was waiting

He laughed gave me one on the house and rang the next pub for me

Eight pints and pubs later i went back to work quite drunk, told the manager they all gave me a pint while i was waiting for the long stand, he knew i got him said fair play and the apprentice became the master

keithclancy

Those Pyramid Schemes that were going on around the country a few years back.

You'd want to be some moron to get sucked into one, mate of mine tried to sell it as an 'investment'

Think he lost about 5k

To top it off the people that ended up getting money had to go to frankfurt to collect it in some hotel in cash.

Sure most of the notes were fake, double scam, not only have you ripped off a load of people with you at the top of the pyramid, you've also managed to get rid of a load of fake notes.

lisaj

Mince Pie wrote: »

Is he in Navan??

He used to hang around the Molly Malone Statue on Grafton street. He had these funny dancing doll things and tourists would all get their picture with him (as he wears traditional garb...head to toe tweed). He's from Cavan as far as I'm aware so Navan is a bit closer.

gjc

Joe Duffy was talking today about Banners Broker, glorified pyramid scheme

pitythefool

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

^ Yea I think a lot of people subscribe to such notions in desperate times due to a kind of "Well it cant hurt" mentality. If it will cause no harm then why not, as at worst it will do nothing and at best it will actually work.

But it DOES hurt. It hurts your wallet. It hurts the medical insurance industry who have to pay out for things like Homeopathy. And it hurts people who become convinced that things like homeopathy are working and so they give up their actual medication which is actually keeping them healthy and/or alive.

It is a constant source of amazement to me that things like homeopathy are even legal, let alone covered on things like UK Health Insurance and the like.

Dont think homeopathy is covered under any insurance plan, might be wrong and like you amazed

carrollsno1

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

what happens if they say they dont want to buy the box of you

MrVestek

ColeTrain wrote: »

That's a true story. The guys name was Peter Gibbons. He was never found guilty as his office caught fire and destroyed all the evidence.

Isn't that the plot to office space?

dj jarvis

68Murph68 wrote: »

Remember hearing of a story about a group of guys in suits who turned up in a city-centre pub on a Monday morning after a busy weekend. They knew that the cash from the weekend hadn't been lodged and that the owner was away on holidays. They told the bar staff that they were investigating the owner for tax fraud and were conducting an audit. As such they needed to seize all financial records, computers and cash on the premises. Boxed up everything, provided staff with receipts of everything seized and headed off. Owner comes back and gets in touch with the revenue commissioners who have no idea what he is talking about.

Not 100% sure if true but was supposedly a few years back in Dublin city centre, if anyone knows more?

it was bruxelles off grafton st

mel1

Heres a guy who is probaly the best scam artist in the midlands. Ya should really check out his full profile, amazing what hes done and never got a day in jail or have to repay a single penny of what he stole! Its all about who you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZRgC3MUk5o

darced

This post has been deleted.

Run_to_da_hills

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I've heard the version with kids in the back of the van

We use to do that going to Mondello.

Jacks Smirking Revenge

Scientology.

MrVestek

Psychic Readings Live.

fasttalkerchat

Achilles wrote: »

Psychic Readings Live.

Is TV3 on saorview? I thought that channel was doing those readings because it was dying with terrestrial.

murraykil

darced wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It's damn good selling so! Maybe it's the thought of there being a group watching and the pressure of the moment gets to them!