Self examination afterwards taught me that I was trying to get something for nothing -actually something without working for it- and that is a dishonest thing to be doing. Not to mention that I had very little money to be losing at the time which made it a big deal to me even if it wasn’t a big deal.
I always remind myself of the old saying “you can’t cheat an honest man” whenever I find myself tempted by anything today because I’ve already paid the price to understand what it means.
TC
January 8, 2016 11:00 am
Never fallen for a scam, though I did give a rather convincing crackhead $20 one time, mostly so he would leave me the fuck alone while I tried to grab some lunch.
Bostonbob
January 8, 2016 11:05 am
I’m with Jimski. Property taxes on my little cape on a third of an acre $8700. Yay for me and Mrs Bostonbob.
Bob.
Francis Marion
January 8, 2016 11:07 am
Does fractional reserve banking count?
Dutchman
January 8, 2016 11:09 am
As a programmer, I did some work for a CPA firm, that had a lot of customers who owned franchise businesses. Here’s what I learned:
Most ‘small time’ franchises border on scams, or at least very dishonest.
Handyman / Blinds / In Home Care / Tutoring / etc – these companies are in the business of selling franchises – once you buy it – you will find a lot less support than you thought.
How these franchises work is you are given a territory where you can operate. Why would anyone want to limited where they can get customers?
You will hear testimonials from those who are successful – but what you don’t know is that they may have been it from the beginning – and have quite a different set of rules.
Also, you will realize you paid and signed a contract for something you could have done yourself.
robert h siddell jr
January 8, 2016 11:13 am
Yes. Some dirty ass Cruise line salesman with a NYC accent sold me a cruse for $300 all expenses paid. When the paperwork came, I had to fly 200 miles to the port of call on their airline which cost more than an honest company charged for the whole damn cruise. Never never have anything to do with NYC, Chicago, WDC etc.
NickelthroweR
January 8, 2016 11:29 am
Greetings,
No. Good ideas and legitimate business doesn’t have to go out of its way to lure in customers or investors. I do not trust anything that is ever “pitched” to me.
Stucky
January 8, 2016 12:38 pm
I bought a set of Ginzu knives because the commercial showed it cutting through a tin can, yet was still sharp enough to slice a tomato paper thin.
I bought a Rainbow vacuum cleaner for $800 fucking dollars …. back in 1985 …. because the salesperson had me vacuum an area of the carpet, and then he vacuumed the same area, and there was all kinds of SHIT in the water, and I thought to myself, “I’m living in filth!!”.
My mom actually bought an encyclopedia from a door-to-door salesman when I was in 8th grade. The salesman use ME as his primary selling point “You don’t want your son to be stupid, do ya?”. She was amazed that this total stranger could tell I was stupid, so she spent several hundred dollars. Truthfully, that set is still in the house. I’ll have to check it out one of these days.
BUCKHED
January 8, 2016 12:44 pm
Yes…and the scammers have all been women. I kept try though !
BUCKHED
January 8, 2016 12:44 pm
I hate autocorrect .
Dutchman
January 8, 2016 12:49 pm
Stucky, I remember the encyclopedia Britannica, circa 1960. Christ, 24 volumes, must have been 4 ft long. I think I read 10 – 20 pages. After my parents died, I remember tossing it in the dumpster.
Dutchman
January 8, 2016 12:49 pm
Another big scam is Whole Life Insurance.
Anonymous
January 8, 2016 1:17 pm
Maybe I’m the only one that is absolutely thrilled to this day that my parents bought an encyclopedia from a door to door salesman back when I was about 7 or 8.
I loved it and read it constantly about everything I had any question at all about and credit it as one of the things that have contributed to my lifelong love of learning.
Didn’t anyone else appreciate encyclopedia’s?
Peaceout
January 8, 2016 2:38 pm
Yes, Amway.
TPC
January 8, 2016 2:39 pm
Kind of. I’m bad about performing updates on my lab computers as they rarely connect to the internet. Sometimes I will turn on the Wi-Fi so I can listen to music.
Fired up google chrome, and did a search. A pop-up appeared in the lower right corner stating “Your computer is in need of critical updates.” and it looked a lot like the microsoft warning.
Like an idiot, I clicked it without thinking.
Luckily I was able to salvage all my data from the computer, but whatever bugs it has are running deep, IT has pretty much given up on it.
And now those lab computers have extremely tight permissions on them, with no ability to download whatsoever barring an admin password.
I have the admin password, but we figured putting the extra 2-3 steps in before I do something stupid should stop things.
Westcoaster
January 8, 2016 3:36 pm
Yes a very big one involving merging my company into a “public shell”. South Florida crooks and con artists.
bb
January 8, 2016 4:07 pm
Truck stops is where I get ask for money .I don’t think most of these people are con artists. Most are really down and out for what ever the reason. I usually carry 10s and 20s just give to people asking. Give them a few dollars and they are happy to be on their way.
card802
January 8, 2016 4:12 pm
I’m a sucker when it comes to scams apparently.
I went to Home Depot last summer when two seriously good-looking 20ish year-old girls come over to my truck as I started to load supplies.
They both start wiping my windshield with a rag of soapy water, their breasts were almost falling out of their skimpy tops.
I stammered a thank you, and offered them a tip, they said ‘no’ and one came up to me, rubbing my arms and back, then she started rubbing her breasts up and down my sides, while the other one stole my wallet.
I had my wallet stolen July 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th & 29th.
Also August 1st & 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th, three times on Sept 1st, 3rd, 5th, 10th 23rd, four times on the 28th and very likely again this upcoming summer.
IndenturedServant
January 8, 2016 4:18 pm
Only the scam of fiat money as far as I know.
Back when I used to work in a service station (remember those) I had a really slick bastard come in one day and try to run a scam on me while I was ringing him up. He handed me his money for the purchase and then very quickly started throwing money my way asking for change in several different configurations. Being a relatively sharp tool I immediately closed the cash drawer and told him to pick up his money. I then completed his original transaction with the money that had never left my hand and told him to leave. He suggested that he’d call the owner to complain and I summoned summoned the owner from behind the door that was behind me. Turns out he had nothing to say to the owner.
fear & loathing
January 8, 2016 5:34 pm
the gypies made the rounds in bygone days, offered to paint barn roof for 80 bucks, i knew i was getting conned, did it anyway, roof looked great for two weeks till it rained, i still laugh
JIMSKI
January 8, 2016 8:18 pm
Stuck
On the vacuum cleaner thing gotta tell you this story.
My good hunting bud Steve had a no good uncle called Art. Yep good old uncle Art
Uncle art was about 70 and he was kind of placed at Steve house because it was that or homeless. Art was a nice guy but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Well anyway Steve tells me he has a vacuum cleaner salesperson on the way over and they would be here about 45 minutes. For the presentation he would get some bullshit gift chosen just for him. Well sales dork shows up and it is Steve, Art and me.
DORK guy had a real annoying habit. If we asked a question like ” will it take chocolate cake vomit off the couch ” his reply was always ” if it did would you buy it”. Totally made me want to stab him and steal his demo unit.
So anyways he gets to the big moment we are here on memory lane. He wanted to show how ecological friendly the unit was and took the filter out of the vacuum. He states ” it is so pure you could eat the filter ” and sets it on the table. Now to the price. $800 bucks!
The guy looks over and his eyes go just fucking huge. It seems Art heard ” can eat the filter “and he is just chewing away. Dog fur and god knows what else. I fell out of the chair I was laughing so hard. Uncle Art just chewing away on that vacuum filter.
The guy knew he was beat. Left the gift on the table and left like 2 minutes later.
Wow that mention of a vacuum brought back a 30 year old memory.
starfcker
January 8, 2016 9:02 pm
Card, you are really getting scammed, cause those aren’t actually women
IndenturedServant
January 8, 2016 10:43 pm
Actually, now that I thunk about it I did hosed one time but it wasn’t a scam. At RAF Woodbridge in the UK they had a custom T-shirt shop that was staffed by officers wives. On military bases the some officers and their wives consider themselves to be the “upper crust” and quite often exude a smug air of superiority to those who weren’t smart enough to marry “up”. (like that’s an accomplishment) They volunteer at various base locations and activities so they can laud it over those that don’t when they need to point out their superiority.
I wanted a black shirt with white lettering that said “Stupid people should not breed”. The woman helping me was instantly appalled. She even stepped back away from the counter a bit as if I’d just dropped a deuce or something. She then tells me she can’t print that on a shirt because it violated their policy and points at a sign which I had already read. It simply said that they would not print anything with profanity. I asked her to point out the profanity in my request but she stood her ground so I asked for a manager. The manager, also an officers wife, reads what I want printed, shoots me a few dirty looks and tells the woman to print it. I thanked her, paid for the shirt and waited for it to be done.
They got the last laugh though because I took it home and washed it, tossed it in the drier and later found all the letters had come off and stuck to other clothes and the dryer drum. Bitches!
Maggie
January 9, 2016 8:27 am
I did and wrote up a funny story. Submitted it last night and it isn’t here.
If you mean Welcome to My Country, you didn’t hit the submit button. It is still sitting in draft. If you want articles to appear, do what you’re supposed to do.
Stucky
January 9, 2016 8:39 am
Maggie
I submitted two stories last night, and they’re not here either.
Admin must have gotten shitfaced yesterday, and is still hungover this morning.
Stucky
January 9, 2016 8:40 am
oops … shit a brick!! They just appeared! Hi, Admin!!!
Maggie
January 9, 2016 9:51 am
No… I opted to put the three lady umbrellas in a comment. I’ll dump that.
No I put a comment here and submitted it, walked away and it is gone into cyberspace. It was a well written story about how the year after I had my son, I was all ready to lose the baby weight with zero effort. I told how I’d found an advertisement in Parents magazine for these little aroma scent pens that you were to sniff before meals to increase metabolism and dampen appetite. Three colors… breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So, I shared how for $29.99 I would get three of them, but if I ordered by phone, I would get the bonus sniffer that would guarantee I wouldn’t wake up hungry if I sniffed it at night.
Well, I explained in the comment that I knew it was probably bunk, but I was post preggers and desperate to take off the 30 lbs that had somehow stayed behind when the 7 lb kid left my womb, taking less than 3 lbs of body weight with him. I admitted that I ordered them and when they arrived, felt like a complete idiot because they looked like mini magic markers without a marker and when uncapped, I couldn’t smell a thing. (The instructions, I explained, told the user that the hormones used to suppress appetite couldn’t be detected by humans, but I expected to smell something.)
I said that after a couple of days I realized I’d been had and was so embarassed I just hid the things in a travel bag and forgot the ordeal. (I said that Nick wanted to know what I’d ordered on the credit card but I got all huffy and bitchy about a measly 35 dollar charge he was asking about, so he backed off and shut the hell up.)
But, a couple of years later, when I visited my cousins up here in the hills of Missouri, I explained that I had that travel bag with me. And when I opened it and started laughing, my cousin’s husband wanted to know why. I showed him the 4 little pens and explained what I’d done. He laughed and laughed, called me and idiot and showed them to his wife, my favorite cousin.
In the comment, I told how she just got up and walked into their bedroom and came back out with a little bag. She pulled out three pens just like my breakfast, lunch and dinner suppressant sniffers and said “I didn’t get the little bonus pen for night time snacking.”
I finished the comment with how we laughed and laughed. Now you see why I moved here… peas in a pod are we.
But, since I lost that comment in cyberworld, I’m not bothering to repeat it all again.
Here we are together at my wedding… arrived ten minutes late because I wanted to smoke a cigarette on the way to the church and had to stop and wash my hands. Sue was worried I was going to be late, but I said “What the hell? Are they gonna start the wedding without me?”
[img[/img]
But, I decided not to bother since January 8 was already gone.
IndenturedServant
January 9, 2016 5:17 pm
Maggie, get in the habit of composing posts and comments in word, wordpad or notepad then copy & paste. WP has a habit of snacking on things when you least expect it.
I still pay taxes so gunna hafta say YES!
Once, but it wasn’t a major one.
Self examination afterwards taught me that I was trying to get something for nothing -actually something without working for it- and that is a dishonest thing to be doing. Not to mention that I had very little money to be losing at the time which made it a big deal to me even if it wasn’t a big deal.
I always remind myself of the old saying “you can’t cheat an honest man” whenever I find myself tempted by anything today because I’ve already paid the price to understand what it means.
Never fallen for a scam, though I did give a rather convincing crackhead $20 one time, mostly so he would leave me the fuck alone while I tried to grab some lunch.
I’m with Jimski. Property taxes on my little cape on a third of an acre $8700. Yay for me and Mrs Bostonbob.
Bob.
Does fractional reserve banking count?
As a programmer, I did some work for a CPA firm, that had a lot of customers who owned franchise businesses. Here’s what I learned:
Most ‘small time’ franchises border on scams, or at least very dishonest.
Handyman / Blinds / In Home Care / Tutoring / etc – these companies are in the business of selling franchises – once you buy it – you will find a lot less support than you thought.
How these franchises work is you are given a territory where you can operate. Why would anyone want to limited where they can get customers?
You will hear testimonials from those who are successful – but what you don’t know is that they may have been it from the beginning – and have quite a different set of rules.
Also, you will realize you paid and signed a contract for something you could have done yourself.
Yes. Some dirty ass Cruise line salesman with a NYC accent sold me a cruse for $300 all expenses paid. When the paperwork came, I had to fly 200 miles to the port of call on their airline which cost more than an honest company charged for the whole damn cruise. Never never have anything to do with NYC, Chicago, WDC etc.
Greetings,
No. Good ideas and legitimate business doesn’t have to go out of its way to lure in customers or investors. I do not trust anything that is ever “pitched” to me.
I bought a set of Ginzu knives because the commercial showed it cutting through a tin can, yet was still sharp enough to slice a tomato paper thin.
I bought a Rainbow vacuum cleaner for $800 fucking dollars …. back in 1985 …. because the salesperson had me vacuum an area of the carpet, and then he vacuumed the same area, and there was all kinds of SHIT in the water, and I thought to myself, “I’m living in filth!!”.
My mom actually bought an encyclopedia from a door-to-door salesman when I was in 8th grade. The salesman use ME as his primary selling point “You don’t want your son to be stupid, do ya?”. She was amazed that this total stranger could tell I was stupid, so she spent several hundred dollars. Truthfully, that set is still in the house. I’ll have to check it out one of these days.
Yes…and the scammers have all been women. I kept try though !
I hate autocorrect .
Stucky, I remember the encyclopedia Britannica, circa 1960. Christ, 24 volumes, must have been 4 ft long. I think I read 10 – 20 pages. After my parents died, I remember tossing it in the dumpster.
Another big scam is Whole Life Insurance.
Maybe I’m the only one that is absolutely thrilled to this day that my parents bought an encyclopedia from a door to door salesman back when I was about 7 or 8.
I loved it and read it constantly about everything I had any question at all about and credit it as one of the things that have contributed to my lifelong love of learning.
Didn’t anyone else appreciate encyclopedia’s?
Yes, Amway.
Kind of. I’m bad about performing updates on my lab computers as they rarely connect to the internet. Sometimes I will turn on the Wi-Fi so I can listen to music.
Fired up google chrome, and did a search. A pop-up appeared in the lower right corner stating “Your computer is in need of critical updates.” and it looked a lot like the microsoft warning.
Like an idiot, I clicked it without thinking.
Luckily I was able to salvage all my data from the computer, but whatever bugs it has are running deep, IT has pretty much given up on it.
And now those lab computers have extremely tight permissions on them, with no ability to download whatsoever barring an admin password.
I have the admin password, but we figured putting the extra 2-3 steps in before I do something stupid should stop things.
Yes a very big one involving merging my company into a “public shell”. South Florida crooks and con artists.
Truck stops is where I get ask for money .I don’t think most of these people are con artists. Most are really down and out for what ever the reason. I usually carry 10s and 20s just give to people asking. Give them a few dollars and they are happy to be on their way.
I’m a sucker when it comes to scams apparently.
I went to Home Depot last summer when two seriously good-looking 20ish year-old girls come over to my truck as I started to load supplies.
They both start wiping my windshield with a rag of soapy water, their breasts were almost falling out of their skimpy tops.
I stammered a thank you, and offered them a tip, they said ‘no’ and one came up to me, rubbing my arms and back, then she started rubbing her breasts up and down my sides, while the other one stole my wallet.
I had my wallet stolen July 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th & 29th.
Also August 1st & 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th, three times on Sept 1st, 3rd, 5th, 10th 23rd, four times on the 28th and very likely again this upcoming summer.
Only the scam of fiat money as far as I know.
Back when I used to work in a service station (remember those) I had a really slick bastard come in one day and try to run a scam on me while I was ringing him up. He handed me his money for the purchase and then very quickly started throwing money my way asking for change in several different configurations. Being a relatively sharp tool I immediately closed the cash drawer and told him to pick up his money. I then completed his original transaction with the money that had never left my hand and told him to leave. He suggested that he’d call the owner to complain and I summoned summoned the owner from behind the door that was behind me. Turns out he had nothing to say to the owner.
the gypies made the rounds in bygone days, offered to paint barn roof for 80 bucks, i knew i was getting conned, did it anyway, roof looked great for two weeks till it rained, i still laugh
Stuck
On the vacuum cleaner thing gotta tell you this story.
My good hunting bud Steve had a no good uncle called Art. Yep good old uncle Art
Uncle art was about 70 and he was kind of placed at Steve house because it was that or homeless. Art was a nice guy but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Well anyway Steve tells me he has a vacuum cleaner salesperson on the way over and they would be here about 45 minutes. For the presentation he would get some bullshit gift chosen just for him. Well sales dork shows up and it is Steve, Art and me.
DORK guy had a real annoying habit. If we asked a question like ” will it take chocolate cake vomit off the couch ” his reply was always ” if it did would you buy it”. Totally made me want to stab him and steal his demo unit.
So anyways he gets to the big moment we are here on memory lane. He wanted to show how ecological friendly the unit was and took the filter out of the vacuum. He states ” it is so pure you could eat the filter ” and sets it on the table. Now to the price. $800 bucks!
The guy looks over and his eyes go just fucking huge. It seems Art heard ” can eat the filter “and he is just chewing away. Dog fur and god knows what else. I fell out of the chair I was laughing so hard. Uncle Art just chewing away on that vacuum filter.
The guy knew he was beat. Left the gift on the table and left like 2 minutes later.
Wow that mention of a vacuum brought back a 30 year old memory.
Card, you are really getting scammed, cause those aren’t actually women
Actually, now that I thunk about it I did hosed one time but it wasn’t a scam. At RAF Woodbridge in the UK they had a custom T-shirt shop that was staffed by officers wives. On military bases the some officers and their wives consider themselves to be the “upper crust” and quite often exude a smug air of superiority to those who weren’t smart enough to marry “up”. (like that’s an accomplishment) They volunteer at various base locations and activities so they can laud it over those that don’t when they need to point out their superiority.
I wanted a black shirt with white lettering that said “Stupid people should not breed”. The woman helping me was instantly appalled. She even stepped back away from the counter a bit as if I’d just dropped a deuce or something. She then tells me she can’t print that on a shirt because it violated their policy and points at a sign which I had already read. It simply said that they would not print anything with profanity. I asked her to point out the profanity in my request but she stood her ground so I asked for a manager. The manager, also an officers wife, reads what I want printed, shoots me a few dirty looks and tells the woman to print it. I thanked her, paid for the shirt and waited for it to be done.
They got the last laugh though because I took it home and washed it, tossed it in the drier and later found all the letters had come off and stuck to other clothes and the dryer drum. Bitches!
I did and wrote up a funny story. Submitted it last night and it isn’t here.
Maggie
If you mean Welcome to My Country, you didn’t hit the submit button. It is still sitting in draft. If you want articles to appear, do what you’re supposed to do.
Maggie
I submitted two stories last night, and they’re not here either.
Admin must have gotten shitfaced yesterday, and is still hungover this morning.
oops … shit a brick!! They just appeared! Hi, Admin!!!
No… I opted to put the three lady umbrellas in a comment. I’ll dump that.
No I put a comment here and submitted it, walked away and it is gone into cyberspace. It was a well written story about how the year after I had my son, I was all ready to lose the baby weight with zero effort. I told how I’d found an advertisement in Parents magazine for these little aroma scent pens that you were to sniff before meals to increase metabolism and dampen appetite. Three colors… breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So, I shared how for $29.99 I would get three of them, but if I ordered by phone, I would get the bonus sniffer that would guarantee I wouldn’t wake up hungry if I sniffed it at night.
Well, I explained in the comment that I knew it was probably bunk, but I was post preggers and desperate to take off the 30 lbs that had somehow stayed behind when the 7 lb kid left my womb, taking less than 3 lbs of body weight with him. I admitted that I ordered them and when they arrived, felt like a complete idiot because they looked like mini magic markers without a marker and when uncapped, I couldn’t smell a thing. (The instructions, I explained, told the user that the hormones used to suppress appetite couldn’t be detected by humans, but I expected to smell something.)
I said that after a couple of days I realized I’d been had and was so embarassed I just hid the things in a travel bag and forgot the ordeal. (I said that Nick wanted to know what I’d ordered on the credit card but I got all huffy and bitchy about a measly 35 dollar charge he was asking about, so he backed off and shut the hell up.)
But, a couple of years later, when I visited my cousins up here in the hills of Missouri, I explained that I had that travel bag with me. And when I opened it and started laughing, my cousin’s husband wanted to know why. I showed him the 4 little pens and explained what I’d done. He laughed and laughed, called me and idiot and showed them to his wife, my favorite cousin.
In the comment, I told how she just got up and walked into their bedroom and came back out with a little bag. She pulled out three pens just like my breakfast, lunch and dinner suppressant sniffers and said “I didn’t get the little bonus pen for night time snacking.”
I finished the comment with how we laughed and laughed. Now you see why I moved here… peas in a pod are we.
But, since I lost that comment in cyberworld, I’m not bothering to repeat it all again.
Here we are together at my wedding… arrived ten minutes late because I wanted to smoke a cigarette on the way to the church and had to stop and wash my hands. Sue was worried I was going to be late, but I said “What the hell? Are they gonna start the wedding without me?”
[img
[/img]
But, I decided not to bother since January 8 was already gone.
Maggie, get in the habit of composing posts and comments in word, wordpad or notepad then copy & paste. WP has a habit of snacking on things when you least expect it.