Scams you have fallen for

I read an article at lunch about a woman who had tried to scam an elderly nun - when the nun called her bluff she robbed her.

The nun was more streetwise than I was.

I fell for a similar scam several years ago - a woman stopped me on the street, told me some tale about needing to get home in a hurry and asked me for a pound to get the bus home - I gave the money and didn't realise I had been scammed until I saw the same woman in the same place asking for the same thing a few weeks later.

Another time I bought a Big Issue from a homeless guy - for those who don't know it is a magazine sold by the homeless as a way to earn some cash. When I sat down to read it I copped on that the issue was old and grubby - the guy wasn't a legitimate seller and had just fished on old copy out of a bin and sold it to me.

Anyone else have stories of scams they fell for or which you saw was a scam from a mile away?

Are you as streetwise as that nun?

FTA69

Sounds terrible mate. For five pounds I can tell you how to avoid such scams in future.

electrobanana

Might go to mass Sunday.

Boom_Bap

IN before the OP gives out thier Back Account number and sort code.

Boom_Bap

Boom_Bap wrote: »

IN before the OP gives out thier Back Account number and sort code.

It's **-**-** ********
Edit - boards must edit it out automatically

kjl

I have a real **** one. This was when camera phones were just hitting the market. I was on ebay and saw a great deal on 100 nokia camera phones. I thought this is great I can make a nice profit on the phones and the seller has a reputation of over 100,000 which was very high for the time.

Long story short myself and friend send €2000 to some dude in romania called Ned and we never got the phones. Turns out he had hacked the ebay account.

Lesson learned though, as I am always wary of scams nowadays.

jimgoose

Deleted User wrote: »

...the guy wasn't a legitimate seller and had just fished on old copy out of a bin and sold it to me...

Did you happen to get his name? I want to buy that man a pint. Oh well-hit, Chief!! :D:D

FTA69

Look if someone's begging for money on the street then it's more than likely they're after booze or drugs. Some addicts look like perfectly normal people who can convincingly say they lost their bus ticket/student card etc. I've seen people in suits out begging like. I know a notorious heroin addict and thief in Cork City and while doing the door of one club I noticed him dipping in and out of pubs in Washington Village dressed in a sharp suit looking to swipe iPhones or handbags. If you didn't know him you wouldn't give him a second glance and you wouldn't for a second think he was a complete degenerate.

In short, no matter how genuine someone seems if they're pan-handling money on the street or at people's doors they are more often than not on the rob. Another one that scams loads of people is pub to pub or door to door "charity" collecting.

Gloomtastic!

Going to Fairyhouse on Easter Monday with the family when I was a teenager. Lost all my money on a three card trickster before I even got past the turnstiles. What a twat!! :rolleyes:

gobnaitolunacy

Almost got dragged into a rigged card game in malaysia, backed out straight away and made my excuses when the subject of money was broached.

In short, anyone offering a Westerner an unbelievably quick way to make a few bucks is a con artist.

wobzilla1

My mate once ordered a 32Gb memory stick off Ebay.
At the time this was a huge amount of memory and he couldn't believe it.

When it arrived he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work.
We cracked it open and it was just a USB male connection with absolutely nothing attached to it, just glued into the enclosure.

castletownman

I THOUGHT THE COP WAS A PROSTITUTE!

B.A._Baracus

Deleted User wrote: »

I fell for a similar scam several years ago - a woman stopped me on the street, told me some tale about needing to get home in a hurry and asked me for a pound to get the bus home - I gave the money and didn't realise I had been scammed until I saw the same woman in the same place asking for the same thing a few weeks later.

This is why I don't give anyone money.
You see the same people tapping day in and day out. Always with some sob story.

Seedy Arling

I read in the paper about some guy that called to an elderly mans home and said he was calling to inspect the serial numbers on twenty euro notes. I think the old man told him to feck off and the guy beat him up then.

Anyone

Tesco's Car park Scam


This is an old scam that has started up again....


This is a warning to men who may be regular Tesco customers. Over
the last months I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping.
Simply going out to get a few odd's and ends has turned out to be quite
traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your
friends.

Here's how the scam works:

Two very hot 25-26 year-old girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the boot. They both start wiping your windscreen with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy little T-shirts. It is impossible not to look.

When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride to another store. You agree and they get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.


I had my wallet stolen May 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th &
24th. Also June 1st, 4th, twice on the 6th, three times
last Saturday and it's very likely to happen again this coming weekend.

So tell your friends to be careful.

P.S. Dealz have wallets on offer for 1.49 each.

Sin City

Wallet inspecter

wobzilla1

Seedy Arling wrote: »

I read in the paper about some guy that called to an elderly mans home and said he was calling to inspect the serial numbers on twenty euro notes. I think the old man told him to feck off and the guy beat him up then.

http://deadon.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/wallet_inspector.jpg

stevedublin

Trying to put a roof over your head pre-2006.

Irish Guitarist

Years ago a Romanian with a child stopped me in the street. He had a sign saying he needed €10. I felt sorry for the child and handed the man about €3 in change. Suddenly he developed the ability to speak without the aid of a sign and said "that's not enough. I need €10". I shook my head and walked off but what I should really have done was grabbed the money back out of the ungrateful bastards hand.

stoeger

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Years ago a Romanian with a child stopped me in the street. He had a sign saying he needed €10. I felt sorry for the child and handed the man about €3 in change. Suddenly he developed the ability to speak without the aid of a sign and said "that's not enough. I need €10". I shook my head and walked off but what I should really have done was grabbed the money back out of the ungrateful bastards hand.

wouldn't even look at then filthy c%#ts can't stand then

looking_around

I absulotely HATE the sob stories. In this day and age most people have access to money somehow. Lose a bank card? ..most banks now give you emergency cash.
If it's a student, the bus driver will know them and will let them get away with it if they lost their ticket. (happen to me).

I had one yesterday..she looked bout late 20's I think. I'm walking into the bus station and she looks at me.."hey you, can I talk to you"..I pause for a second expecting her to ask if she's at the right bus(this happens frequently enough)
She starts "I have a daughter in hospital and I..." I walk on.. "hey wait, come back, please"..
She was there with some guy, and shortly after another woman joined..and the 3 walk away laughing.. .
o0

It's a big thing in limerick. There's a set of them, always the same people, begging for money to feed their poor kids.
No one in Ireland is THAT poor.. we have a generous welfare system. They can feck off.. ever see them, getting their kids to beg too!! ..how the fcuks is that allowed??.

And the things is, I'm not against giving money to street performes, play some music, dress up, ..whatevers.. at least it's something.. but don't sit there whining!

I thought of another one - a girl approached me in the street with a gold ring in her hand and asked me was it mine - she had just found it on the ground.

I had a bit more sense that time and told her to get lost.

Later I heard a tourist in a bar talking about this gold ring he had found and wondering how much it might be worth.

Presumably he had given some money to the girl for finding 'his' ring thinking he was making a quick buck.

hatrickpatrick

The Labour Party.
I voted for Eamonn Gilmore

Irish Guitarist

stoeger wrote: »

wouldn't even look at then filthy c%#ts can't stand then

This was a good few years ago and was my first encounter with one of them. I learned the hard way what scam artists they are.

stefan idiot jones

Not a scam as such, but in London a few years ago a team of scumbags were going into pubs looking lost. They opened their maps and were asking people sitting at tables for directions. While the unfolded map was held out in front of them, the sneaky cutns would swipe mobiles etc. that were on the table under the map.

I hope they all die roaring.

dgt

Those stores that open up and immediately have a liquidation sale..... Yeah

mick_ee

tinkers painting sheds who use mostly diesel with a small drop of paint

suicide_circus

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Years ago a Romanian with a child stopped me in the street. He had a sign saying he needed €10. I felt sorry for the child and handed the man about €3 in change. Suddenly he developed the ability to speak without the aid of a sign and said "that's not enough. I need €10". I shook my head and walked off but what I should really have done was grabbed the money back out of the ungrateful bastards hand.

Roma =/= Romanian.

USA, Brazil and Spain all have higher Roma populations than Romania.

I am pie

Nearly got stung with the money for a train ticket routine. Woman was balling and in tears in West Hampstead in London, I foolishly asker was she alright, she gave me a spiel about finding her husband hanging out of some young one in her house and that she had just discovered them in the act. She had to get to her sisters in Kent but had left her bag behind and couldn't face going back in.

Luckily I had no cash, I explained that I had nothing on me but I'd be glad to buy her a ticket with my card as I was on my way to the station.

The volley of abuse that came out of her after that! What a wretch.

Elmer Blooker

Love and romance.

I'm older and wiser now.

strobe

mick_ee wrote: »

tinkers painting sheds who use mostly diesel with a small drop of paint

Sounds awful make uppey .

Staff Infection

Got done twice that I can remember, hope I've copped on a bit since.

In my first job I worked at a petrol station that also sold gas canisters. It was my first or second week and this auld fella comes in and picks up a canister of gas and pops it in his boot. He then strolls in and takes out his wallet to pay. So far so ordinary, but instead of taking out money he takes out a wee green card that says "Gas allowance €50" written on it. He then tells me that as part of his pension he gets a gas allowance.
So I believed him and went to give him change as the gas was only about €30 or so. Then he points at the prices for gas on the wall behind me as there were two prices. I know now that one price is actually a surcharge which is levied if you don't supply an empty canister when buying a new one. He told me that the surcharge was the O.A.P. price which I foolishly believed. So he got his gas for about €15 and his €35 change. Then to make matters worse his "allowance card" was fake. Naturally the money was docked from my wages and I learned fast to be more skeptical of customers.

Other story was more of a close call. I applied to a marketing job and got a call back hours later. They told me my CV was in the top 10% of CV's and was great blah blah blah. Anyway they said they'd skip the interview and just "trial" me the next day. Thankfully I looked them up and found this "trial" was actually where the company dropped you in an estate and asked you to go door to door selling whatever stock they had. Then at the end irrespective of how many you sold they would say "sadly you don't meet our sales expectations yada yada yada so we won't be hiring you".
Was hilarious when I rang to cancel, the lady on the phone was doing her best to snare me "that's a pity as you could have earned x amount easily based on your CV, are you sure".
To good to be true.

Damokc

strobe wrote: »

Sounds awful make uppey .

I can confirm...the worst part about tinkers painting sheds though, is they just paint over skylights....not good for roofers down the line. A man died last summer in kerry cos he stepped on a painted skylight and fell through.

wobzilla1

Staff Infection wrote: »

They told me my CV was in the top 90% of CV's

Impressive :rolleyes:

Staff Infection

Just remembered another time when I almost got scammed.

During my days in college I had to get the bus from Bus Aras home on the weekends. There used to be a fair few skinny beggars around there. I had one person come ask me for money and hearing my accent tried to modify their sop story for me failing miserably in the process. Conversation went something like this.
"Story bud do ya have a euro for me bus?"
"Hello, eh no I'm on my way for a bus myself"
"Oh, (copping my culchie accent) you're from down the country, where abouts?"
"Mayo" (I lied in my reply as I don't like saying where I'm from to beggars)
"Oh where abouts in Mayo, man?"
"Dingle" (I know it's not in Mayo was just enjoying taking the mick)
"Oh I have a granny from Dingle in Mayo so I do"
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Course I'm bleeding sure, anyway would ya have a fiver from one Mayo man to another?"

Now obviously I didn't give him anything but I kind of admired his perseverance.

Staff Infection

wobzilla1 wrote: »

Impressive :rolleyes:

Yeah well when like me you have been ignored by so many other companies you've applied to it's things like this that both make you feel good and kind of lure you into a false sense of security I reckon.

Ah I see, crap I wrote that wrong should say top 10% I'll edit it now, damn it.

barneysplash

My family are a gullible trustworthy lot.

Years ago my dad came home all excited one day after meeting a suave Italian
leather jacket salesman, who was lost and needed directions to Dublin airport.

My Dad helped him find his way, and just before he was going to head off, the
Italian says, "I don't want to carry these samples back in my luggage, I have
to pay extra weight charges" and offers my Dad two dad beautiful hand-made
Italian leather jackets. My Dad was delighted and paid him £50.

When he got them home, we had a closer look at them. They were two of the
worst plastic leatherette yolks you'd ever seen.

My brother was on holiday with his girlfriend in Spain a few years ago and
saw these great dancing Disney characters that seemed to move to music
all by themselves. He bought a set, and was told to put them on the radiator
overnight, and they'd be ready to work. No batteries or anything!
When he gets back to the hotel room and unpacks them, he finds they are just
bits of paper and string. The magic dancing was achieved by a hidden invisible string:

starling

stefan idiot jones wrote: »

Not a scam as such, but in London a few years ago a team of scumbags were going into pubs looking lost. They opened their maps and were asking people sitting at tables for directions. While the unfolded map was held out in front of them, the sneaky cutns would swipe mobiles etc. that were on the table under the map.

I hope they all die roaring.

What a bunch of @rseholes. They make people less likely to help people who are genuine IMO.

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago on the way home from the hospital, getting the luas from stephens green. I had backpack on, but it was only for carrying gym gear and notes from the pain management course, nothing worth stealing. And of course the little zip pocket on the front was empty, I'm not that naive.
Anyway this lady came up to me while I was at the ticket machine and asked me to help her buy a ticket. She was quite well dressed and didn't look like a junkie or anything, so I assumed she couldn't read the screen. (happened all the time in the shop I worked in, people would ask me to read the tiny print on packages cause they didn't have their glasses).
So she gave me €5 and I said I'd buy te ticket and asked her where she wanted to go. She named a stop near the far end of the line; it was further than I'd normally go on the luas so I was looking at the screen for a few seconds trying to find it and she pointed it out to me in kind of an impatient tone. I thought "Well obviously she can see the screen fine, maybe she's never been on the luas before and doesn't know how to work the machine." You do sometimes encounter people especially non-dubs who haven't been on the luas before, and some people just have a mental block of "urgh I am bad at machines how do I luas?"
Anyway I bought her ticket, but I didn't get on the luas because it was packed and I need a seat. She got on just before the doors closed, shoving her way into the crowd. I went to sit down on the station bench and took my backpack off, that's when I copped that she'd opened the front pocket while we were at the machine. Which explained why she was so impatient to get onto that luas before I copped it. By that time the luas was gone, I bet she got plenty of wallets by the time she got off that tram:(

Years ago when I was a lounge girl sone aulfella came in and ordered a pint, then pulled the change scam on me and left me short £5 in my float. I had to make it up out of my wages for the day (£9). I was fuming, the old b@strd.

My SIL just got caught out by a phisher last week. She's not very computer savvy and last time my brother asked me to have a look at their laptop it was as full of viruses as Mr Burns in that one simpsons episode where the doctor does a demonstration by trying to shove a load of tennis balls through a little door. I assumed it was the kids but now I'm not so sure. :rolleyes: Anyway she gave some personal details (not bank details) and the scammer used it to get €200 out of her bank ac. He had rung the bank, or had some woman do it for him, and registered her for that "emergency cash without an ATM card" service. They gave him a special pin no. over the phone and all he had to do was go to an ATM and withdraw the cash:(

In my last job I didn't get scammed, partly because I'm older and wiser now, but also because we were quite well trained about common scam tactics. But some people got caught out sometimes. Like every now and then you might be asked to help out on the customer service desk and once when a mate of mine was filling in there, a woman came to her with an expensive double duvet, in its packaging but opened, and asked to return it. She had the receipt and everything and it was way too busy so my friend just gave her a refund back onto her visa card.
A few days later we happened to be having some more training and the subject of scams came up, and someone mentioned this incident - turned out the lady had bought the expensive duvet, then got a cheap one from penneys and switched the packaging, and "returned" it and got a refund!
My friend kept quiet and later said to me "Well, nobody told me we don't give refunds on bedding." Fair point, I thought:)

starling

Staff Infection wrote: »

Yeah well when like me you have been ignored by so many other companies you've applied to it's things like this that both make you feel good and kind of lure you into a false sense of security I reckon.

Ah I see, crap I wrote that wrong should say top 10% I'll edit it now, damn it.

Yeah I know how that goes, a neighbour of mine was talking about the ad she'd seen on the supermarket notice board looking for envelope stuffers, but we told her it was a scam.
(She also has a tendency to "like" those stupid stories in Facebook no matter how many times I explain like farming to her. Can't unfriend her though it would be rude;))

space_man

2nd night in Bangkok. Met this lovely girl.
back to the hotel .............
(you know where this is going).

I am pie

Staff Infection wrote: »

Yeah well when like me you have been ignored by so many other companies you've applied to it's things like this that both make you feel good and kind of lure you into a false sense of security I reckon.

Ah I see, crap I wrote that wrong should say top 10% I'll edit it now, damn it.

There is a worse one going around where you get offered a job on a cruis ship (in IT or finance or whatever) based on your CV and having contacted some former colleagues. They don't need to interview you and will pay you a fortune, you start as soon as you pay for some training course which is mandatory for all people who will be at sea for prolonged periods...

MadsL

Friend of mine fell for the fake leather jacket scam.

I was talked into playing "California" Blackjack not 21 in a casino in Austria. Dealer pushes, not busts on 23, 22 wins. Natural 22 is two aces. The whole game favours the house massively.

kowloon

space_man wrote: »

2nd night in Bangkok. Met this lovely girl.
back to the hotel .............
(you know where this is going).

So 'e flips 'er over...

MadsL

kowloon wrote: »

So 'e flips 'er over...

and she starts first time, and 'e drives away like.

(Just watched that today)

NuckingFacker

I can see a mass effort to produce OAP discount cards, dancing dolls, return expensive duvets, get emergency cash pins and flog schmatty jackets, being unleashed. Any chance the thread could be renamed "New ways you can scam people"?

barneysplash

For those who don't know what we're on about:

Doom

Deleted User wrote: »

I read an article at lunch about a woman who had tried to scam an elderly nun - when the nun called her bluff she robbed her.

The nun was more streetwise than I was.

I fell for a similar scam several years ago - a woman stopped me on the street, told me some tale about needing to get home in a hurry and asked me for a pound to get the bus home - I gave the money and didn't realise I had been scammed until I saw the same woman in the same place asking for the same thing a few weeks later.

Another time I bought a Big Issue from a homeless guy - for those who don't know it is a magazine sold by the homeless as a way to earn some cash. When I sat down to read it I copped on that the issue was old and grubby - the guy wasn't a legitimate seller and had just fished on old copy out of a bin and sold it to me.

Anyone else have stories of scams they fell for or which you saw was a scam from a mile away?

Are you as streetwise as that nun?

I thought I be helpful and buy a Big Issue, I gave the woman the money....she refused to give me the magazine

BQQ

Roma gypsy standing outside Tesco pleads with me to give him €5 for nappies for his baby.
He looks genuinely desperate, tears welling in his eyes.
Thoughts of poor baby screaming in his own faeces crosses my mind.
I hand over the cash.

To my surprise, he doesn't immediately go into Tesco to buy them.
He just thanks me and waits for me to walk on, his expression now a beaming smile.
All his teeth are Gold.

F**k :mad:

Allyall

Not me, but my Girlfriend is an awful eejit sometimes.
She has fallen for this one about 6 or 7 times now.
TWICE BY THE SAME GUY!!

On different nights, we have gone out together and seen these guys wearing these shirts (Obviously fake ones).
Nearly everytime she see's one of these guys, (whether it's paranoia about herself or not, i don't know.) She falls for it.

Thing is, it cuts into our night every time, and I'm left standing in the pub on my own, for ages (Nearly an hour) before she comes back.
But she's not entirely stupid, because she never pays them.
Now everytime we go out, i have to remind her that if we see one of these guys, ask for ID first, but that has doesn't work either, because sometimes they'll flash the ID really quickly, which makes her think they're legit.

She really is stupid. She has probably fallen for it loads of other times when she goes out with the girls, but wouldn't admit it to me, because she knows i'd slag her about it.

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

starling

NuckingFacker wrote: »

I can see a mass effort to produce OAP discount cards, dancing dolls, return expensive duvets, get emergency cash pins and flog schmatty jackets, being unleashed. Any chance the thread could be renamed "New ways you can scam people"?

Good point, always think the same thing about this kind of stuff but then, the more well-known a scam is, the less likely it is to work:)
In fairness as soon as i heard about this emergency cash thing I though it sounded like a scammer's wet dream. Don't even have to bother pinching the card. My ma's bank has rung up a few times and it would've been easy enough for me to answer their questions to "confirm" they were talking to her. In fact they rang a few months ago looking for my dad and he's been dead two years:mad:
I always thought "Yeah, you can ask me questions to confirm I'm me, but how do I know you're calling from the bank?" They're usually calling to try and sell you a loan or some other sh1te anyway, if it's important they can send me a letter.

And your one just got lucky with the duvet thing, the regular staff would've told her where she could stick it;)