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Have you ever been scammed?
- Thread starter West Texas CEO
- Start date
Grildon Tundy
Member
I've never been scammed, but I do get ~3 calls per day from numbers I don't recognize. With all this attention, I feel like the belle of the ball!
Dirk Benedict
Member
You're right to not expect me to understand.
When someone tells 10+ people that they have nine dollars to their name and need 11 more… yeah. It’s not hard to understand, but you do you.
calistan
Member
This might not count as me getting scammed, but I suspect somebody was losing out here. So...
I'd recently got an Xbox One, so I used a key reseller site (which is still active online btw) to stock up on cheap games. Rather than sell standard game codes to redeem in the store, what they sold was Microsoft accounts with a single game registered to them. Taking advantage of regional pricing, I assumed. You'd get an email and password, you'd log into this account on your Xbox, set it as the 'home' Xbox so that your normal account could share its games, and then you could safely delete the account.
I used it two or three times and forgot about it until RDR2 came out. Naturally they had it at a deep discount on launch day, so I bought another account from them. This time, though, a couple of months later I could no longer play the game - it gave an error message saying 'you will need to buy this'. I logged into the account and saw that the only activity on there was buying RDR2 - in some Asian currency at what amounted to full price - and the purchase was later refunded.
I emailed the website about it, and they said they would check with their supplier. After nagging a couple of times, they eventually sent me another account with RDR2, so I added it and completed the game. All was well.
Except... This account wasn't an empty one created specifically to sell RDR2. It had a gamerscore associated with it, so I logged in to have a look around. It hadn't been used for at least a year and had no other digital games registered, but the purchase history showed a lot of FIFA card transactions. The most recent purchase was "my" copy of RDR2, bought in US dollars at full price. There was stuff in the Onedrive folder too, including a resume for a college student and several unfinished application letters for internships.
I thought about contacting the student, but decided not to question it for fear of bringing myself to the attention of a bunch of hackers. A while later, and completely unconnected, I think I might have seen the other side of this possible scam when my wife noticed a mysterious charge on her bank account for 60 Euros spent in a German game store. Obviously it wasn't me, and the bank immediately refunded her and referred it to the police. Never heard anything else about that, and I haven't used that key site since.
I'd recently got an Xbox One, so I used a key reseller site (which is still active online btw) to stock up on cheap games. Rather than sell standard game codes to redeem in the store, what they sold was Microsoft accounts with a single game registered to them. Taking advantage of regional pricing, I assumed. You'd get an email and password, you'd log into this account on your Xbox, set it as the 'home' Xbox so that your normal account could share its games, and then you could safely delete the account.
I used it two or three times and forgot about it until RDR2 came out. Naturally they had it at a deep discount on launch day, so I bought another account from them. This time, though, a couple of months later I could no longer play the game - it gave an error message saying 'you will need to buy this'. I logged into the account and saw that the only activity on there was buying RDR2 - in some Asian currency at what amounted to full price - and the purchase was later refunded.
I emailed the website about it, and they said they would check with their supplier. After nagging a couple of times, they eventually sent me another account with RDR2, so I added it and completed the game. All was well.
Except... This account wasn't an empty one created specifically to sell RDR2. It had a gamerscore associated with it, so I logged in to have a look around. It hadn't been used for at least a year and had no other digital games registered, but the purchase history showed a lot of FIFA card transactions. The most recent purchase was "my" copy of RDR2, bought in US dollars at full price. There was stuff in the Onedrive folder too, including a resume for a college student and several unfinished application letters for internships.
I thought about contacting the student, but decided not to question it for fear of bringing myself to the attention of a bunch of hackers. A while later, and completely unconnected, I think I might have seen the other side of this possible scam when my wife noticed a mysterious charge on her bank account for 60 Euros spent in a German game store. Obviously it wasn't me, and the bank immediately refunded her and referred it to the police. Never heard anything else about that, and I haven't used that key site since.
West Texas CEO
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
Interesting.
Last edited:
Trogdor1123
Member
I’ve never ever understood how someone can scam people. I understand the motivation of course but I couldn’t ever see how someone can get up in the morning and say “I’m going to be the bad guy”. Just doesn’t compute to me
The Stig
Banned
ANY Xbox 360 made before 2008 is a liability unless if you live in a very cold climate.
Pegasus Actual
Member
Resenge
Member
When I was in my 20s, I was into getting high anyway I could.
One night my Cousin was bugging me to use the last of my cash to try score some acid. We walked down to the normal shady area where I would get my weed, interacted with a few people we knew with no luck.
My cousin caught hold of one guy who looked like he had just been in a fight, face was all messed up and said he had some LSD but had to go home and get It. We waited for him to come back and I wanted to check this shit out as I was not fucking convinced at all. The dude said you want this or not and my Cousin was telling me to chil and he would handle it.
So I gave my cousin the cash, even though I was suspicious as fuck of this guy because I wanted that fucking acid. My Cousin took him into a doorway and looked at the acid and was happy to give him my cash. When we got home and looked at it in the light I swear it was small torn pieces of paper with blood as if he had used them to cover his face after a shave.
It still annoys me 25+ years later.
I miss doing acid though.
One night my Cousin was bugging me to use the last of my cash to try score some acid. We walked down to the normal shady area where I would get my weed, interacted with a few people we knew with no luck.
My cousin caught hold of one guy who looked like he had just been in a fight, face was all messed up and said he had some LSD but had to go home and get It. We waited for him to come back and I wanted to check this shit out as I was not fucking convinced at all. The dude said you want this or not and my Cousin was telling me to chil and he would handle it.
So I gave my cousin the cash, even though I was suspicious as fuck of this guy because I wanted that fucking acid. My Cousin took him into a doorway and looked at the acid and was happy to give him my cash. When we got home and looked at it in the light I swear it was small torn pieces of paper with blood as if he had used them to cover his face after a shave.
It still annoys me 25+ years later.
I miss doing acid though.
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Paltheos
Member
When I was much younger, almost. Two occasions:
1) I accepted what I thought was an invitation to a job interview which turned out to be a presentation on sales of steak knives and the greatness of the company. I got the MLM speech when I got back home and shared the story.
2) I was looking to buy a used car privately and the seller was ridiculously shady. Literally 'wanting to write details of the purchase agreement on a napkin' shady. I don't know that it was a scam, for the record, but my dad wisely bailed us out of the situation.
"Life is hard and I deserve a chance." "They weren't smart enough." Pick your rationalization. And that's if you have a conscience.
Some people fall into a bad situation and then make increasingly bad choices that make them bad people. It's not all of a sudden; the transformation is gradual.
1) I accepted what I thought was an invitation to a job interview which turned out to be a presentation on sales of steak knives and the greatness of the company. I got the MLM speech when I got back home and shared the story.
2) I was looking to buy a used car privately and the seller was ridiculously shady. Literally 'wanting to write details of the purchase agreement on a napkin' shady. I don't know that it was a scam, for the record, but my dad wisely bailed us out of the situation.
"Life is hard and I deserve a chance." "They weren't smart enough." Pick your rationalization. And that's if you have a conscience.
Some people fall into a bad situation and then make increasingly bad choices that make them bad people. It's not all of a sudden; the transformation is gradual.
cash_longfellow
Member
No, but they got a hold of my credit card when the GameStop website was spoofed/hacked quite a few years ago. Some kid in California bought like $95 in ITunes music with it.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
When I was a kid I was in 5th grade there was this essay contest where you wrote something about being patriotic and like 5 kids from across the country or something won a trip to DC with their teacher to visit the capitol or whatever.
Some kid I hated won, and I was pissed and my ego was hurt so I told the teacher I got a phone call that said I was the runner up lol
The local news showed up to film our class and this shit was on the Seattle news “what are the chances the winner and a runner up in the same school!?”
They had a big assembly and I had to read my shitty essay in front of the school and they gave me a plaque.
I literally never told anyone that story and never got caught.
Who fucking believes a 5th grader just answered the phone and got told that?
Some kid I hated won, and I was pissed and my ego was hurt so I told the teacher I got a phone call that said I was the runner up lol
The local news showed up to film our class and this shit was on the Seattle news “what are the chances the winner and a runner up in the same school!?”
They had a big assembly and I had to read my shitty essay in front of the school and they gave me a plaque.
I literally never told anyone that story and never got caught.
Who fucking believes a 5th grader just answered the phone and got told that?
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mitch1971
Member
You got back an iPhoney.
Trogdor1123
Member
I guess but I just don’t get it. I couldn’t imagine being that way. Even if the transformation is gradual, they still make the choice each time to stray away from their conscience.
I can’t imagine that level of selfishness
poodaddy
Member
I was scammed out of 12 grand by some contractors I hired for a major home expansion. In fairness, they didn't intend to scam me, but the business went under and I never got my money back and the job isn't even half done. Now I have a very, very unfinished loft above my gym, and I'm out quite a lot of money. Lesson learned.
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