Oh humanity, seriously, fuck you.

I had a pretty great horror story about buying an XL1s off of eBay about ten years ago, was on the news and everything. The lady was involved in a big lawsuit thingy, we found out later.

Ow!  Pricey lesson in cynicism. Happens all the time around me, a van will pull up next to you at a stop-light and offer you whatever stolen/worthless goods they have to fence.  Legitimate businessmen don't operate out of their vehicles, however flashy.

I've only been caught once, and luckily it only cost me 20 bucks.

It's the same old story. Guy comes up to me in the street, says he's visiting up from california, he's been driving for 20 hours straight, and he needs the cash to pay to get his car out of the parking lot but all the cash he has is in american, so he can pay me back in american, but blah blah you get it. (Which, it's FUCKING AMAZING how much fridge logic these guys can get away with when they're charming and personable). So me being the nice guy I am, say sure. Run up to the ATM half a block up, he's just so grateful and can't stop thanking me. And we walk down to the parking garage, and he says just wait out here cause the gaurds don't let anyone in if they aren't parked in there (Fridge logic #2 take note, this guy was seriously good) and he says he'll back in 10 minutes with. So I just chill outside for bout 25 minutes, before I pretty decide that yep, I just got conned.

Hopefully the guy really enjoyed whatever that 20 bucks got him. Luckily I was already working at that point, so it wasn't a huge hit to my wallet, but yeah, still a huge hit to the pride and my faith in other people. But ah well, humans suck, we all know that.

Dependent on how this was phrased, I'd suggest he mentioned not selling it on eBay to plant the seed that a quick profit was possible.

Not only is it more subtle than telling you outright that selling it on eBay could be profitable, it's the kind of comment that's designed you make you feel like you're smarter than the other guy. Cons rely on you developing this feeling, because then you think you're in charge.

First of all redxavier I feel for you, loosing the money sucks and feeling duped adds insult to injury.

Dorkman's comment was harsh but I have to agree with him. These scams don't work if they don't have greed to play on.

The saying "you can't con an honest man" only tells us though that most people are not actually as honest as they would like to think they are. I think we all can be taken on a bad day.

These kind of scams are quick and based on fast talking, charme and the "greed" of the victim. But this is not a fair game, true scam artists are so experienced and they can "hypnotize" the mark. Before you know it they are gone and you slowly realize you've been taken. Although some say the best grifters can take you for a ride and you will never know you've been had.

On a side note, have you guy's seen the "Ten Commandments for con men"

10 Commandments for Con Men

Ok, seriously, why don't we have a film based on this yet?

I completely agree and I can't deny that the possibility of making extra money down the line, perhaps a few years from now, did occur to me at the time (though much more so afterwards).  Having something at a great deal I found hard to resist too. I knew I didn't want to buy it, but found myself doing it more as a 'favour' than anything else, such was how good he was at talking.

More than anything though, I am surprised at how elaborate and complicated a con someone would go through. At several times, I was aware at just how shady this was, but I was fully taken in by the story and the effort gone through. Clearly, 'why go through all this just to cheat' is faulty and not a good enough reason to override common sense.

I was in Paris a few years ago, and what happens there is a bloke walks up to you and pretends to pick up a piece of jewellery off the pavement near you and asks you "Is this yours"? When you say "Nope" he then says "take it anyway". So now you've got the jewellery in your hand thinking that's the end of the story. Then he says "give me a few euros for it". You then offer it back to him but he insists on the money instead. And so on, backwards and forwards, until he snatches the jewellery back and tries someone else.

In Italy, there are porters at train stations that wear uniforms that grab your ticket and your suitcase and offer to show you to your seat, then demand a tip. But the uniforms are fake. It's a begging ruse.

Last edited by avatar (2012-04-22 12:18:55)