Real life scams , whats the best you've seen ?

[CRJR45]

I've seen a few good ones .
1977 I'm working at Chevrolet down in the hole , Flint Mi. Two brothers in a white Coup Deville are setting outside the gate when the shift changes selling boxes of steaks . They had two boxes open and the steaks looked awesome , the rest where in white boxes tied up with string , ten bucks a box . They sold every box , turns out the next day everyone got suet in their boxes , no meat .
Next one was in 1979 , two brothers pull up at the carwash my girl friend was working at with a brand new Sony Trinitron TV , state of the art back then . The ex bought it for three hundred , took it home and it had a used black and white TV in the box .

People have been getting scammed for ever , since the beginning of time , nothing new here .
What are some you've seen ?

 

[Fireflyfishing]

Anything our politicians are telling us…everyday.

 

[Tryin]

Biggest one this year has been for $5M. Spoofed supplier site, totally complete. Got a highway department.

People walk into the lobby every single day to report electronic losses. Usually over 55yo or Hispanic. Typical loss is around $5k, with a weekly leader around $45k.

 

[Silveroddo]

My boss tried really hard to be on the receiving end of a publishers clearing house scam a few years ago, he was on the phone and running around the shop for an hour before taking the rest of the day off to go home and get his banking information for them. I don't know who clued him in or how he didn't end up scammed, but someone stopped him before it went all the way. I still laugh to myself about the image of him with the phone glued to his face like a 16 year old girl talking to a guy she likes. Dude was in his late 50's.

 

[jayhawk]

That there are hot singles in my area that want to meet me

 

[eamyrick]

Mother in laws bf. 2.4 mil crypto IPO scam. Sold his house in Aspen and dumped all his money after doing his “research.” Dude is an accountant who taught at two different well known colleges.

Wife has two friends (who both have Masters degrees) who have both lost over 10k with cop warrant scams.

 

[Jimmy]

Couple years ago my grandfather got fooled by the "I'm your granddaughter and I am in trouble and need cash or the police are taking me to jail, you CANT tell anyone, please help me!"

We caught him leaving the house with several thousand dollars in cash. He was 85.

 

[Idaboy]

YouTube clicks that we all do that pay the youtubers in the hunting industry

 

[longrangelead]

One time a guy tried to tell me if I went hunting of Friday, I wouldn't have a job on Monday.

 

[MuleyFever]

My wife used to manage one of those payday loan places. She tried to stop multiple people from sending money to their boyfriend/girlfriend/prince in Africa. She would actually deny to do it and they would say they were going somewhere else then.

 

[Laramie]

There is a common one we deal with on a weekly basis. Our manufacturing company will get order requests for heavy items that need to be shipped long distances. The scammer tries to pay with a stolen or fake credit card but asks us to pay the shipping company they lined up so they only have to run their card one time. Of course the shipping company is fake and they would get the money paid for shipping... We have never fallen for it but I know of others who have.

Another one that we were victims of was a computer ransom virus disguised as a PO from one of our regular customers. They hacked their computers and sent the virus out through their system. It completely locked up all of our servers when one of our inside salesmen opened it. They demand ransom to remove the virus. We didn't pay but it did cost us several thousand dollars to a local IT company to erase and rebuild the servers. We have since gone cloud based and do weekly backups to avoid the potential for future problems.

 

[riversidejeep]

Mother in laws bf. 2.4 mil crypto IPO scam. Sold his house in Aspen and dumped all his money after doing his “research.” Dude is an accountant who taught at two different well known colleges.

Wife has two friends (who both have Masters degrees) who have both lost over 10k with cop warrant scams.

Education does not = intelligent

 

[Beendare]

"Best" or "Worst" scam?

Scamming the US gov with their lax control has to be at the top of the list.

That SNAP program scamming Billions from taxpayers in Minnesota has to be up there. Part of that program; The Gov pays to assist Autistic kids....and the program enrollment was up something like 350% in one year- doesn't that sound a little bit suspicious?

 

[Steve300xcw]

covid

 

[IDVortex]

"Custom Home builders". Not sure what's worse, a jackass claiming to know how to build a home, or a politician. Both only care about their own pockets, and not about the safety of others, or how they act may influence someone else.

 

[go_deep]

Insurance Companies

 

[hoooogan]

Health insurance See above. That's a better answer

 

[sndmn11]

Adverse possession of multi million dollar homes.

 

[Shraggs]

US Aid

 

[CRJR45]

Couple years ago my grandfather got fooled by the "I'm your granddaughter and I am in trouble and need cash or the police are taking me to jail, you CANT tell anyone, please help me!"

We caught him leaving the house with several thousand dollars in cash. He was 85.

Same with my mom , a kid said Granny I’m in trouble, she was off to the bank . My niece caught it before she could get to the bank.