Best Scams: Tales from the Dark Side

[Ivan Seeking]

Giving ten percent of your income to the Church to help you get into heaven. I've never personally fallen for this and, in many ways, it isn't always a scam. I'm sure that a lot of the money does go toward noble purposes that the donors would approve of, but historically speaking, this one has been pretty good. It produced rich, corrupt clergymen that did almost no work for over a thousand years.

Without mentioning any names, some churches take this way beyond tithing. There is one church that, of course, expects tithing, ie one tenth of your income, but also donations for mission services, The Bishop's warehouse, school funds, and any number of special projects that may be going on. By the time they're done they are shooting for more like 20-25% of your income. However, in their defense, they do take care of their own. It's really a bit like a private social security program.

 

[gravenewworld]

Without mentioning any names, some churches take this way beyond tithing. There is one church that, of course, expects tithing, ie one tenth of your income, but also donations for mission services, The Bishop's warehouse, school funds, and any number of special projects that may be going on. By the time they're done they are shooting for more like 20-25% of your income. However, in their defense, they do take care of their own. It's really a bit like a private social security program.

Let's see...Mormons? I dated a mormon once, they are a very very strange group.

 

[BobG]

Try to scam the US postal Service- Put the place's address where you want to send a letter in the upper left hand corner, and write some other address in the middle. If you send it in the mail without a stamp the postal service should mail it back to the place where you want to send it anyway for free right?

Provided you want to send the letter to an address within the same zip code as the post office that originally processed the letter, that will always work. Otherwise, it works everytime the postal workers don't check the post mark. It might work even if they do check the postmark, since a person on a business trip would still probably use his home address.

It's also probably not the best way to mail resumes out to as many potential employers as possible.

Kind of a fun poker scam on newbies is to brag about being so good you'd bet a dollar (or some other small sum - don't take someone to the cleaners on a trick) that you could win the pot in open face poker on a bluff. They probably won't know what you're talking about, so you'll have to explain the game to them. All the cards are laid face up in the middle of the table and each player gets to pick the five cards he wants in his hand. If they ask if the opponent can watch to see what cards a person picks up, the answer is sure - who's to stop them? Once you've lured a sucker into playing, make sure you shuffle the cards at least seven times and give your opponent the opportunity to cut before you spread the cards out on the table, face up.

Naturally once someone's suckered into the bet, willing to play, and about ready to draw his cards (the opponent gets to draw first), remember the ante (about a quarter is good). Of course there has to be an ante and betting, or how could you bluff? Try to gauge it so the pot's at least twice as big as your original bet about the bluff. Your opponent will probably draw himself a royal flush - unbeatable. So, you respond by drawing your own royal flush. Make sure you don't let anyone see your cards while you're holding them! Let your opponent open the betting. Raise a quarter whether your opponent bets or checks. (By now, he's probably pretty sure he's going to be had.)

After the betting on the opening deal is done, ask your opponent how many cards he wants (you have to hold at least one card). Naturally, he'll hold what he's got, but you have to set the table. You hold your royal flush, as well. After the draw, another round of betting takes place. The first hand almost always winds up tied with both players having royal flushes (unless you're a really good bluffer and your opponent is really weak kneed).

You can't leave the game tied with money in the pot, so another hand has to be dealt. Deal passes to your opponent. Don't let your opponent spread the cards back out on the table until he's shuffled and given you an opportunity to cut the deck. Oh, have to ante again, naturally.

Draw four tens and some worthless card - a deuce, perhaps. Once again, make sure no one can see your cards (remember which card is which if you lay them face down on the table). Drawing all the tens keeps your opponent from drawing a royal flush. He'll have to settle for something a little less - like say four aces. Open the betting even though you have the lower hand. If he raises, re-raise.

After the round of betting, say you want four cards. Discard four of your cards, keeping one. Draw the 9,8,7, and 6 all of the same suit. The cards are still face up on the table, so your opponent will see what you've done. Now, your opponent can draw whatever cards he wants - he'll probably hold what he has. Open the betting again and your opponent, realizing he's been had, will fold (with the tens dead, the best possible hand he could draw would be a 9-5 straight flush).

Oh, and this was a bet that you could bluff someone even in open face poker, so, while you're reaching for the pot, be sure to sigh with relief and mention "Whew, I'm sure glad you folded - all I had was a 9 high" and toss your 9-8-7-6-2 (with the 2 not being the same suit as the others) out on the table face up.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

got the king of scams for you:

One time, our family business received a fax from a law office saying that someone had died and that, since no immediate relatives were around to collect the inheritance (something like a quarter of a billion dollars), their research indicated that our family was due the money. All we had to do was fly out to Nigeria ( ) and do up the paperwork. The letter explained the business interests of said deceased person were in Nigeria.

There's a scam, though not really since it's actually legitimate, that's very similar to this. A "company" keeps an eye out for people who die with large estates and then tracks down the individuals who are heir to the estate that may not know they are getting an inheritance. They send these people letters telling them that they will process the inheritance transfer for them for say 10% of the total value of the inheritance or perhaps even less. The thing is that the legal process of claiming the inheritance, unless contested ofcourse, is very simple and only costs about $20. So these "companies" wind up taking hundreds of dollars from these people when all they are doing is filling out a form and paying $20.

The best though in my opinion are the people who e-mail you telling you about a large sum of money in an account in Nigeria that needs to be moved out of the country. I laughed my butt off when I got one.
Here's a site where they actually respond to the e-mails and try to scam the scammers.
http://www.reversescam.com/

 

[brewnog]

The best though in my opinion are the people who e-mail you telling you about a large sum of money in an account in Nigeria that needs to be moved out of the country. I laughed my butt off when I got one.
Here's a site where they actually respond to the e-mails and try to scam the scammers.
http://www.reversescam.com/

I've been scambaiting for a few months now. In fact, a Nigerian fellow is expecting to meet me in Amsterdam next Thursday, where he'll no doubt be waiting to kidnap me. I've already cost him a few empty trips to the Western Union money office. Oh how disappointed he's going to be...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The Best Conspiracies
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=56663

 

[dduardo]

Every morning there is a commericial on tv trying to sell miracle water in little vials. The televanglist says the water has cured people of cancer and other diseases. He even says that scientists can't explain how the water works. It just makes me smile knowing stupid people are actually buying the crap.

 

[Moonbear]

Every morning there is a commericial on tv trying to sell miracle water in little vials. The televanglist says the water has cured people of cancer and other diseases. He even says that scientists can't explain how the water works. It just makes me smile knowing stupid people are actually buying the crap.

That's what truly boggles my mind. Sure, there are con artists that run good scams, but most aren't that good, yet people are still stupid enough to fall for them. How can anyone fall for those Nigeria scam things? I get all sorts of phishing scam emails, at least a few a week. There's an ebay phishing scam going around too. I get at least two of those a week telling me my account is being used for fraudulent activity and I better go verify who I am to keep it open. Who thought up this scam? First, if ebay really thought an account was being used fraudulently, it would already be closed, they wouldn't be trying to keep it open. Second, if they hadn't closed it, I would want them to close it (the scam is written in a way that it says if you do nothing, your account will be permanently closed...so, um, okay, I'll do nothing then). The funniest part is I don't even have an ebay account.

 

[ShawnD]

Every morning there is a commericial on tv trying to sell miracle water in little vials. The televanglist says the water has cured people of cancer and other diseases. He even says that scientists can't explain how the water works. It just makes me smile knowing stupid people are actually buying the crap.

How is that one a scam? Popoff is giving those miracle spring water things away for free.

 

[BobG]

That's what truly boggles my mind. Sure, there are con artists that run good scams, but most aren't that good, yet people are still stupid enough to fall for them. How can anyone fall for those Nigeria scam things? I get all sorts of phishing scam emails, at least a few a week. There's an ebay phishing scam going around too. I get at least two of those a week telling me my account is being used for fraudulent activity and I better go verify who I am to keep it open. Who thought up this scam? First, if ebay really thought an account was being used fraudulently, it would already be closed, they wouldn't be trying to keep it open. Second, if they hadn't closed it, I would want them to close it (the scam is written in a way that it says if you do nothing, your account will be permanently closed...so, um, okay, I'll do nothing then). The funniest part is I don't even have an ebay account.

I've gotten those, too. If you click on the link in the E-Mail, you wind up at a site that looks like eBay... unless you look at address in your address bar (the typical address of the scam site starts with flowerkisses or something like that). If you enter in your account info, the folks running the scam site have your eBay login info and can buy things on your PayPal account.

Unfortunately for the person sending out the E-Mails, they don't know English grammer or how to spell. That kind of raises one's suspicion (unless, of course, the person receiving the E-Mail can't spell or write any better than the scammer).

Never use the links included in the E-Mails you might receive to access any of your accounts. You're better off going to the home page and winding your way through to find what you need. If you do use the links in an E-Mail, make sure you check the address to be sure you wound up where you expected.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

If you do use the links in an E-Mail, make sure you check the address to be sure you wound up where you expected.

That might not even be safe depending. There was a joke news article making the rounds not that long ago about the Canadian government arresting GWB jr. for war crimes when he got off a plane in Canada on a visit. It was mocked up to look like the CNN site and the URL was even for a cnn-world.com, so unless you knew that the real URL doesn't include the word world you may not have even caught it based off of that.

 

[Moonbear]

That might not even be safe depending. There was a joke news article making the rounds not that long ago about the Canadian government arresting GWB jr. for war crimes when he got off a plane in Canada on a visit. It was mocked up to look like the CNN site and the URL was even for a cnn-world.com, so unless you knew that the real URL doesn't include the word world you may not have even caught it based off of that.

Is it also true that newer versions of IE (or maye it's some other browser) allow character substitutions in the address that you wouldn't see? For example, using a different code for the letter b in an address that still looks like a b in the address bar, but it really a different web site. I thought I read something about that being a concern that unless you type the address by hand, you still might not be at the site you think you're at if you just click a link.

 

[Chronos]

I got the king of scams for you:

One time, our family business received a fax from a law office saying that someone had died and that, since no immediate relatives were around to collect the inheritance (something like a quarter of a billion dollars), their research indicated that our family was due the money. All we had to do was fly out to Nigeria ( ) and do up the paperwork. The letter explained the business interests of said deceased person were in Nigeria.

Anyway, I tossed it, figuring it was bogus (which it turned out to be).

We found out later that one person who'd received this fax actually flew over there to collect his money...and was promptly kidnapped and held for ransom! Apparently, these people were targetting US business owning families in the hope of luring in someone rich enough to pay a good ransom.

\infty

The Rev

Talk about stupid. It had to be inherited money cause nobody could possibly be that dumb without genetic assistance.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Is it also true that newer versions of IE (or maye it's some other browser) allow character substitutions in the address that you wouldn't see? For example, using a different code for the letter b in an address that still looks like a b in the address bar, but it really a different web site. I thought I read something about that being a concern that unless you type the address by hand, you still might not be at the site you think you're at if you just click a link.

I haven't heard of that myself. I don't think there would be a way to misrepresent a link in that fashion. At the same time with the way everyone seems to want to make all of their programs look pretty I could see where they might have made an adress bar where that could be possible.
I tried looking it up on google but haven't been able to figure out what to type in that will even get me to the subject of bad links.

 

[Moonbear]

I haven't heard of that myself. I don't think there would be a way to misrepresent a link in that fashion. At the same time with the way everyone seems to want to make all of their programs look pretty I could see where they might have made an adress bar where that could be possible.
I tried looking it up on google but haven't been able to figure out what to type in that will even get me to the subject of bad links.

Yeah, I don't really know if it's true; that's why I phrased it as a question. I thought I read it somewhere, but it could have just been someone talking who doesn't know what they're talking about. I have no idea how to verify it unless one of the more techie types around here knows more about this.

 

[JamesU]

Y am I the only one who's never been scammed?

The biggest "scam" that ever happened to me was at wal-mart. This cashier said that the price was $80. What she was too stupid to know was that there was the little screen that told you the price, it said $65! When we told her, she replied with a simple "oh". We left, and she went off to scam the next customer.