[brent_mr2]

I'll start.

I was walking in a supermarket parking lot, these two guys drive up to me in a van and ask me if I'd be interested in their speakers, they say that they went to drop these off at the customer's house, but the customer said he changed his mind. So they said they'll get in trouble if they come back to their boss with them so they'll give me a great deal ($200 I think it was and claimed they were worth $1000). So they show me a laminated sheet giving information on the speakers, I don't think there were any specs (not that it would mean anything) and they quickly took it away from me. And get this, they told me the speakers were LIQUID COOLED! They were in a hurry and were asking me if I had enough money for these and were pressuring me into walking to the bank to get the money. I said "Look, I NEVER buy speakers without listening to them first. And besides that, I've never even heard of this brand." [side note] For all I know the boxes could have been filled with rocks.

So I went into the supermarket and told the manager that these con artists were trying to con people in his parking lot and I called the cops. I saw this same con on TV, I told the cops that.

EDIT: I really feel sorry for people who are gullible enough to fall for a load of BS like that. But you know what they say, a sucker is born every minute.

BTW, if you have or feel you have been conned by someone on this board, please don't post it here, that's for the buyer's/seller's feedback forum.

 

[gloco]

I remember reading about this con on audioreview like 2-3 yrs ago, guess some ******** are still doing it. Hopefully i can run into them so i can take a speaker and smash it over their heads.

 

[andrzejpw]

Quote:

EDIT: I really feel sorry for people who are gullible enough to fall for a load of BS like that. But you know what they say, a sucker is born every minute.

My dad bought those speakers for 150 for both.

They're sitting in our family room, and I'm about to go watch "The Ring" on them.

 

[Johno]

That brings up some old memories.. About 14 years ago, WestPalm, FL on pay day I was approached with 2 enthustiac guys pitching the same scam in Savings Bank parking lot. I just blew them off like every other street bumb on the corner looking for a few bucks to get a drink at a titty bar..

Eventually it made the news but I'm sure this scam never gets too old. Looking back, I should have taken a baseball bat and smashed his speakers into smithereens..

 

[gerG]

Oh man, what a memory trigger. It was the Home Depot parking lot in Phoenix. It must have been 10 or 15 years ago. I was loading the stuff from the store into my blazer when the 2 guys came wheeling up in their van. They gave me the song and dance about overstock and needing to get rid of inventory at below cost and nobody would be the wiser, etc. Was I interested? Hell yes! Unfortunately for them I know a 50 cent tweeter when I see one, and the midrange was a joke, and the thin paper woofer with the thin foam (don't ever buy foam ) surround, and the 1/2" low density particle board cabinets... I wanted to yank a piece out of the woofer surround, but decided that they could probably get money from me for that stunt. I decided to ask " mind if I grab a screwdriver and pull one of those cheapass woofers to take a look at the crossover components?" They did not like my suggestion that their components were crap, and put up a fuss. I told them that the stuff they had in the van looked like **** and that they had gotten screwed, and walked away while they continued to argue that these were state of the art speakers. ********! I did not realize until years later that this was an organized con, and I should have set fire to the van and it's operators. Is this con still going on?


gerG

 

[brent_mr2]

n/m

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw My dad bought those speakers for 150 for both. They're sitting in our family room, and I'm about to go watch "The Ring" on them.

My brother got taken for about $400 in Washington DC using the same scam. He came home bragging about his great find. They blew within a couple of weeks. He wasn't bragging after that.

I got him a pair of really decent Yamahas for Christmas after that. Super efficient, and have lasted for over a decade of his abuse. Dirt cheap since I got them thru the Navy Exchange.

 

[JMT]

The last bank that I managed I had to chase those crooks out almost monthly, and that was 7 years ago. It is a well known scam (at least in the banking industry).

 

[LobsterSan]

I haven't had any con jobs for more than a few bucks tried on me, but they come pretty frequently. I guess I look like a sucker (or a nice guy... maybe those are one in the same?)

Let's see...

There's this one, which i've had two people try on me (might have been the same person): stranger comes up, flashes a smile at me on the sidewalk, says a random name at me, and says he mistakes me for someone else. he shoots the **** for a while, apologizes and says he thought i was someone else. then he goes into this shpiel about how his car ran out of gas, it's just a few blocks away, wonders if i can give him hand with pushing it. i say i'm busy, need to get to class (which was true). he then says he understands, and then proceeds to ask if i have a couple bucks on me to help him out with gas money, since he left his wallet at home. PSHAW!

Here's one that happened outside a home depot: a guy approaches me with a bagful of stuff, some screws, a hammer, etc. he asks me to go return the merchandise for him, because he doesn't have his ID on him, and the home depot won't take it without an ID. he offers me the bag of "returnable" merchandise, worth up to $25, for the low low price of $10! wow, i must have been crazy to turn him down and ask him for a receipt!

then there's all the idiots on ebay trying to make a quick buck selling "information" on wholesale sites and ways to get PS2's for $25 and such (BTW, the ps2 one is a type of pyramid scam). the thing that annoys me about these is that a lot of people get duped, as seen in the feedback profiles, and they are so stupid as to leave POSITIVE feedback on the auction. *SIGH*

i've had a lot of other petty cons attempted on me. i fell for one of them once, and since then i am always very wary of people asking for a hand. it's too bad that a few ******** in the world have made me so skeptical of strangers.

as bad as cons are, they usually at least present the "victim" with some sort of choice. muggings and taking by brute force are much more senseless and incomprehensible to me.

 

[lini]

A friend of mine also fell for that great speaker deal - over here in Munich. I think, he paid 400 DM for what turned out to be a pair of bad sounding el cheapo speakers - and the tweeter of one speaker never worked. I was surprised that he had bought their story, though. They had less luck with me at my encounter with the white van, before...

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[brent_mr2]

I'm apologize, I now realize that statement I made was pretty cold.

I'll make myself vulnerable here (I know...how big of me) and tell you all of a few times I was suckered (I too was one of the ones that was born every minute).

Las Vegas: A guy with very poor dental hygeine approaches me downtown (the original LV strip) outside of a casino and tells me he has some tickets to Seigfried and Roy, he got them as comps and he doesn't need them, would I like them? [I wasn't really interested in the show, but I figure, hey it's free]. So we get on the phone to the Mirage and he called the casino boss (supposedly) and had the tickets x'ferd to my name. So now that he conned me thus far, he decides to get me to buy him some food (since he "gave" me the tickets), it was just a $1 shrimp cocktail though. Then he continues on and gets me interested in some "other stuff" which I will not disclose here. And he gets me to give him some money for this stuff. Like an idiot, I let him and his accomplice go into an apartment to get this "stuff" and wouldn't you know it, he never returned. But his day of reckoning will come some day, maybe it won't be until after he dies

The fact that I know that makes the situation not so bad. I was trying to do something wrong anyway so it serves me right.

Playstation brand new, $75 on yahoo auctions. This was a time when the PS1 was $125 to $150. Sent the money, didn't get anything in return. Fortunately he used a post office box in his name (he was just a punk kid) and there were a big group of us that got screwed by this kid (15-20). I started a mailing list for all the people screwed. Someone called the postal inspector for this kid's town. The PA forced this kid to issue us all $75 checks. Since then, I've been much more careful about using Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo doesn't give a crap about what happens there and it's easy to remain annonymous, no CC needed or any of that stuff. I only use yahoo auctions for the stuff I can't get on eBay

IBM T23 notebook PC on eBay for a good price (it's too embarrasing to post here), he claimed to have more in stock if you just email him he can work it out. He did have a few feedback, but I later found out that he got his friends to bid on bogus auctions of his to get those. He was also in Canada. Since I didn't get it directly from eBay, I couldn't turn to eBay for any assistance. I called Western Union and told them this guy used their services to commit fraud. Apparently, WU submitted a complaint about him to my state's DA office. A letter was sent to him as well but of course he didn't respond and I guess there was nothing they could do since it crossed international borders. Luckily it wasn't devestating to me since I had recently sold my car for $7K, but it sure did suck. But again, what goes around comes around and he'll get what's coming to him. I think he screwed a few other people, eBay cancelled his account.

Well, I learned some very valuable lessons.

-------------------preach mode on------------------------

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. (notice I don't use "probably")

If some stranger comes up to you acting like your friend, chances are they want something from you (not necessarily just a conversation). But there are still nice people out there, a guy at a bus stop offered me half of his apple the other day.

For higher ticketed items on eBay (over $50), only go with a seller that has a well established reputation (or someone you know such as someone trusted on this board), even if it means paying more.

If I see someone I don't know that tries to convince me of something, I just say "I don't know you, why should I believe you?" and walk away. But if someone is truly in distress and can somehow prove it, then I'll definitely help them (with obvious personal safety restrictions).

Never buy anything from telemarketers or email spam. ALWAYS get the deal in hard copy and check with the BBB.

It's sad that you have to be so skeptical about everything these days. One of the biggest problems is that law enforcement doesn't have enough resources necessary to go after all the scams out there.

Never buy something from someone's van or trunk, chances are it's either junk or hot.

Having an attitude like it will never happen to me will get you screwed often. Believe me, I speak from experience.

---------------------------preach mode off------------------------

Lobster: I like that asking for the receipt part, that was good. And yea, you know that the people that leave + feedback haven't tried the program yet (on those info auctions). There are usually a few negatives though and the seller is always quick to counter and make it look like the buyer was in the wrong.

I caught this lady selling a car I had personal knowledge of since I almost bought it myself last year (but backed out after seeing carfax). I emailed her and told her she was not representing the miles accurately (carfax shows it should have 277K miles or something). She didn't give a crap and wouldn't update the auction description. So I took it upon myself to email the high bidder and notify him of this discrepancy (this is not allowed on eBay BTW, because "this type of email
has a negative effect on the eBay community."(eBay quote) They called my email spam. I got a warning from eBay b/c the b**ch reported me. But at least she updated the auction and lost even more bids as a result

Oh and she still wasn't completely honest, she quoted one of the lower mileage figures. Then she started sending me emails cussing at me so I blocked her address. Try to do something good and look what happens. That car had bad news written all over it. Oh well.

I went to the Raiders AFC championship game recently, I didn't get in though because the scalpers were charging too much. Some lady there bought a fake ticket from one of them and was out $250. The guy was long gone by the time she searched with the police.

 

[Sol_Zhen]

[size=small]The "white van scam"? [/size]

LOL. It's a nationwide phenomena. A shady marketing company hires these kids and equips them with a van and speakers. They learn the script (it’s the same rap everywhere) and cruise parking lots.

I feel sorry for the fools who fall for their tripe.

 

[brent_mr2]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sol_Zhen [size=small]The "white van scam"? [/size] LOL. It's a nationwide phenomena. A shady marketing company hires these kids and equips them with a van and speakers. They learn the script (it’s the same rap everywhere) and cruise parking lots. I feel sorry for the fools who fall for their tripe.

I didn't know it was still going on until now. I had the white van encounter in late '97. It definitely helped that I saw this scam on TV before the encounter, but as I said earlier, I NEVER buy speakers without first auditioning them. And there needs to be a way to return them in case the speakers don't match the accoustics of the room they're going in or something.

 

[stuartr]

I cannot imagine anyone being as naive to buy something out of a van on a street. It's like buying a "rolex" for 50 bucks from some guy in Times Square...People ask me stuff all the time...I am a generally nice guy, but I have been soured to all this ****. All people want is your money, and they will do anything they can to screw you out of it. I had some sketchy guy ask me if I liked poetry the other day...I didn't even stop, I just said "Not particularly" as I cruised on by.

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by brent_mr2 Playstation brand new, $75 on yahoo auctions. This was a time when the PS1 was $125 to $150. Sent the money, didn't get anything in return. Fortunately he used a post office box in his name (he was just a punk kid) and there were a big group of us that got screwed by this kid (15-20). I started a mailing list for all the people screwed. Someone called the postal inspector for this kid's town. The PA forced this kid to issue us all $75 checks. Since then, I've been much more careful about using Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo doesn't give a crap about what happens there and it's easy to remain annonymous, no CC needed or any of that stuff. I only use yahoo auctions for the stuff I can't get on eBay

Blind rage...taking over...memories flashing back of being ripped being off for $100 in '98 by a punk kid on ebay buying a PSX...ARGH!!!!

I never got ahold of this *******. Left him phone calls, e-mailed him, he never answered. I sent the money and everything, left negative feedback, and all he had to offer was "I don't know, I guess it got lost, do you live in a safe area?" @#$! The PSX was for my brother's birthday and this is definitely my worst ebay experience.