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Have you ever been scammed?

MaggieD

MaggieD

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I was once. For only $500 or so, if I recall. A Ponzi Scheme. Our company did work for him, and we watched him turn straw into gold for six months or so as he built his little scheme. We finally decided we needed to get in the action and gave him $500, for which he promised us $750 in thirty days. Well, we'd waited too long . . . we were caught in the end game. Lost our money and could have KICKED ourselves because, basically? We knew better.

You?
 
Some biz called me. In an unprecedented fit of generosity, I listened a while. They wanted to send me an information packet. I said okay.

Next month, there's a line on my phone bill with their name on it, and a thirty dollar charge. They'd signed me up without my permission, using my "okay" (you can send me info) as an "okay" (you can bill me monthly).


I called them back. Told them they were taking that off my phone bill and reimbursing me the existing charges. Tried to give me the runaround, I wasn't having any. Handed me off to different people trying to wear me out; finally got the manger.

Same spiel with him. Finally I'd had enough, and asked for their address. He gave me email... I said "No, I want your PHYSICAL ADDRESS, by which I mean the street address where I can find your front door."

Dead silence.

I said, "Is there some reason you don't want me to know where your front door is?" I said it very sweetly.

Dead silence.

I said, "That's okay... I've got your phone number. I have a buddy who can take that and give me your physical address in about half an hour, no problem."

All the sudden Mr Manager developed a severe stutter, and suddenly it was indeed entirely possible for their charges to be removed from my bill and reimbursement to be made.

When I said okay and went to hang up, I'm pretty sure I heard a deep sigh of relief before the line went dead.


I never cursed or raised my voice or made any overt threat... but I had my "being very serious, not playing with you" voice set to 10.
 
No, but I'm a serious tight-ass with my money. If you can pull one over on me, you deserve every cent.
 
I wouldn't necessarily call it a scam but at one point I signed up for a 10% discount when purchasing something through Expedia (or some similar site) and ended up with a $12 charge on my credit card every month until I noticed it.
 
Nope, I don't fall for anything. I'm just too skeptical. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
 
Gipper said:
No, but I'm a serious tight-ass with my money. If you can pull one over on me, you deserve every cent.
Click to expand...

Gipper!!!! I really like the new side of you I've seen lately. ;) ;)
 
Gipper said:
It's because I don't keep the front of my bathrobe completely closed, ain't it?
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:rofl -- There's the Gipper I know and roll my eyes for!

Don't pick the long-hanging fruit, Gipper. Contain yourself.
 
MaggieD said:
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! That was supposed to read "low-hanging" -- Oh, God. Never mind.
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You wouldn't be the first woman who got distracted while thinking about my package. Your Freudian slip is forgiven.
 
Many years ago (1969) I worked downtown in NYC near Wall Street.... 80 Maiden Lane to be exact. At lunch one day, I bought a Seiko Watch for $5 from a street vendor. Need I say more? :3oops:
 
pbrauer said:
Many years ago (1969) I worked downtown in NYC near Wall Street.... 80 Maiden Lane to be exact. At lunch one day, I bought a Seiko Watch for $5 from a street vendor. Need I say more? :3oops:
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:rofl !!!!
 
I paid 80,000 for a bachelors degree.






Do I win?
 
Yep, a jewelry distribution scheme that had they honored what they promoted would've been fine, but upon signing the agreement, all of a sudden they would claim things changed. Fortunately for me, I was mucho suspicious to start with so I'd screen saved every page of their site, saved every email, and recorded every phone call. Lastly I used my credit card to buy, $25K system. I guess most people can't pay that much with a credit card, or at least not people considering a small time jewelry distribution business. So when they started changing the rules I copied everything sent it to Mastercard and got a full refund.

Oh I forgot to add, I also turned them into the FTC who took them to court in Houston last year, 11 years after I turned them in.
 
I got married
 
Gipper said:
You wouldn't be the first woman who got distracted while thinking about my package. Your Freudian slip is forgiven.
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Oh brother....
 
MaggieD said:
No. I won't let you get away with that. ;) You've got some beautiful kids from that marriage, right or wrong. At the time, it was right. Yes?
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That part wasn't a scam, you are correct.
 
Not really. Once, I had somebody that wanted to buy a puppy from me. He said he lived in Michigan. I asked him did they not have any Bichon Frise puppies in Michigan and he said that he couldn't find any. :shrug: He next-day aired me 2 checks, and said that if I would deposit the check(s), I could take out what I wanted, doubled, and then ship the puppy to his handler in Vegas. Yeah. :lol:

So he sent me two checks. One for $3,000 and one for $4,000. One was drawn from Delta Airlines, and the other was drawn from Delta Airline (no "s"). I didn't deposit them. I took them to the bank and let the bank manager go over them. They called Delta Airlines and they'd not written the checks. Before we'd ever left for the bank, we were pretty sure it was a scam. Who would give you that kind of money for a $500 puppy? But we wanted to know who to talk to, etc. So we made the official reports with the FTC and also with Delta (although they didn't seem too concerned) and didn't lose a dime out of the deal.
 
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