Mega-Thread - Share Stories Of How You've Been Scammed, Cheated, Swindled

[Happy Lizard]

Leo, you will love this: 

signed up for two of there course.both were deleted without me being able to access the content even thought they said it’ll be available for life. 

they advertise in a highly rushed style and “you wouldn’t get a better chance” “your life sucks and you would regret not signing up”

also they put a timer on their website  so that it will expire if you didn’t sign up quickly as “people can’t wait to join this, and we can only let a certain number of people so that we are not sharing with everyone and reveling our secrets”

scammed me 900$ And wouldn’t refund even a day after.

learned to just say no to anyone rushing me into something as a rule of life.

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Wait, is this related to buying psychedelics?

Not at all

[mavelezm]

Tricks super friendly lawyers/attorneys may use to over-charge or hook you into agreeing to their services.

A few years ago I was in need of a lawyer to make a complex business paperwork. Someone close to me recommended someone. He told me he could do the job, but it would take long hours. A few days later, as we didn't agree on the service right away, he called back and basically said "you know what, I know you all need this work fast, so I'm going to start the job and then when we're finished, you can pay me ANYTHING you consider right". Well, a few months later he finished the legal work and sent the receipt with double the price he initially quoted.

This kind of happened to me again a few months ago as I also needed a simple legal paper work. I contacted my neighbor who is a lawyer in this field and asked him for a quote. He said, "oh, don't worry, you can pay me anything you want at the end". I declined the offer.

Lesson: Don't trust over-friendly lawyers. Don't agree to services that you don't know exactly what you'll receive and what you paid for.

[RendHeaven]

Common theme seems to be charismatic/nice people "in disguise."

Why might we struggle to tell the difference between genuine and disguised niceness?

[Leo Gura]

2 minutes ago, Fearey said:

a large scale exit-scam

Ah yes, classic

[ValiantSalvatore]

• Fell prey to working with a guy during a group assignment to his Spiel. He explained me his dating scam and in the end I sort of trusted him, because at least he was honest about scamming people. We worked together and he received good intel from others, because many just keep information hoarding. He kicked me out of our group, because my phone was unable to make proper pictures because the stabilizor of the camera did not work. Never spoke with the dude again, ignored him. Even though he helped me a lot, he already scammed needy males presenting himself as a women online to make 10k+ in value allegedly seeling undies. He even talked to a friend who studies law and thought this was fine. 
  
  Definitely learned stay clear of corrupt people with corrupt intentions and make a real effort to befriend uncorupt people with good/honest intentions.
   
• Bargaining classic, was out with a friend bargaining we sort of "swindeled" convinced the guy in China because he believe we are a couple for a cheaper price, I went in alone and bargained, was not able to make a deal.
  
  Learned that bias is important to others, as well as gaining skill in bargaining takes alot of effort.
   
• Online education and certificates just found out that I could have taken the same certificate for a cheaper price, via cousera.org the list of courses just changed this offer. 
  
  Check if a multiple sites offer the same course, instead of trusting first page google reviews that are updated regularly. There are even coupons.
   
• Friendships trusting others with their levels of acceptance only to see that their worldview is completely different and toxic, and considerably disgusting. Not open-minded not able to speak about possibillites and strong investment into self-survial.
  
  See who is truely open-minded regardless where people are from and you will find valid support and honest support as well as win-win relationships, instead of hedonic pleasure seeking swindlers. To benefit mutal self-survival.
   
• Swindeling myself by believing that I am more developed more integrated than others cherry picking evidence for my own ego gain, distrupting my own friendships calling names/cursing, unable to handle own personal power / "advantage". 
  
  Build a healthy ego with compassionate and social people who have similar values and or open to give and take feedback.
   
• Amazon selling products in a products operation internship had to take care of other sellers not actively overwritting shippind adresss and company name of our products in the company I worked in, otherwise customers can buy the product and will receive smth. completely different. We are not making profit and they got scammed by some d*cks who were not interested about caring for the customer. We could also loose reputation if we re-list the product under the same "listing".
  
  Keep track of what you value and nuture that.
  
  There are other examples these are fine for now.

Edited August 12, 2021 by ValiantSalvatore

[Human Mint]

A friend and I were in another city in a mountain range, a dream city. And we wanted to buy weed.  So we went to meet an unknown group of people on the street and ask them were to get weed. A guy walked towards us and with a friendly actitude told us that he had. He made us follow him four blocks to make the transaction. Once done, we parted with pleasure, only to find out right away that it was a pine cone . We were mad as shit hahaha.

Lesson learned: Watch out with the typical tourist confidence

Edited August 12, 2021 by Human Mint

[somegirl]

My older ex took advantage of my inexperience and tried to install ideas about what is normal and what is not normal in relationships (because he knows I don't have a reference). I felt uncomfortable in some situations and intuitively I knew they were wrong but I wasn't assertive enough to say "No" and call him out on his bullshit behaviour.

Lesson learned - Learn to say "No" assertively and unapologetically. Even if it leads to fight. You will regret not saying anything when you felt something was wrong. If it feels wrong it probably IS wrong. Listen to your gut feeling. It can *literally* be a life savior. 

Edited August 12, 2021 by somegirl

[Seeker531]

Got a job in a lab which was sold as an opportunity to do stuff I really like if i'm willing to lend a helping hand now and then in some other section working my ass off. 

I ended up working only in the other departments without proper initial training and additionally without proper safety gear and that was extremely dangerous cancerous stuff.  

In the adverd and interview the job sounded so nice and the few parts of the small company I saw looked good as well. 

I learned that there is a difference between words and the real thing and that I have to think more critical and less needy and to resist firmly exploytation. Just say "no" more often. Also, since then I've got an eye for safety issues. 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Seeker531

[Sempiternity]

Back in 2003 I got invited to a Landmark Education "graduation" night. I respected the person who invited me, so I went. I immediately got a creeped out vibe, with just about everyone there with a nametag on asking me if I signed up yet. The stories being told that night about what each person got out of one of their weekend events were quite inspiring, so I reluctantly signed up for around $600.

The Landmark Forum weekend was pretty amazing. Being young and inexperienced, this type of self-help was revolutionary to me. At the end of the weekend, just about everyone there heavily pressured and shamed me to invite every single person in my life to come to the last night, so they could pressure them into signing up for the next Forum course. And I was also heavily pressured to sign up for the next course (there was always a next course). Which I did for $800.

And so it went. Each course was pretty amazing, and I got lots out of them, but at the end of each course there was strong shaming and pressure to invite everyone you know, and for you to sign up for the next course (there's always a next course). So I ended up pressuring all of my friends and family to take the courses, at over $1400 each. They only did it because I asked them. They really didn't get much of anything out of them.

Another thing about Landmark is they have most of their labor is unpaid. They had me clean bathrooms, stand at a door for all night so I can open doors for people, set up stages, do audio for the presenter, and so on. 5 days of working 16 hours a day, all for free x maybe two dozen people per each event (there are many many events per month). While they were charging 120 people at between $600 to $800 each = $72,000 to $96,000 for a 3 day presentation. And they say this is the bare minimum they can go to be able to stay in business. Load of bullshit. Each location, and there are hundreds of locations around the world, pull in over $300,000 per month = about $4 million per year, per location. 

I got brainwashed into doing this for 8 years before I wised up to being scammed. So if you want to get scammed out of thousands of dollars, and get shamed into getting everyone you know to getting scammed out of thousands of dollars, and get brainwashed into doing this for years, then landmark Education is the way to go. 

P.S. I'll spoil the entire Landmark forum for you. The entire 3 day forum is all building up to this nugget of revolutionary knowledge. Ready for it? "Life is empty meaningless, and it's empty and meaningless that it is empty and meaningless". That is it, that is the whole bit of knowledge that you pay $600 for. The same knowledge that you would find in about any meme with a pretty background on Facebook. 

P.P.S. This is my experience, yours may have differed.

[Jacob Morres]

My ex told me he was just a friend lol 

My lesson was to avoid self deception in relationships and acknowledge the real facts 

[RendHeaven]

7 minutes ago, Jacob Morres said:

My ex told me he was just a friend lol 

Fuck, man...

[SaltyMeatballs]

I was a tourist in Ukraine and I noticed a group of 5 men with monkeys. I smiled, thinking to myself how cute...

After making eye contact, these men got in my way and put 3-4 monkeys on me. They told me to give them my phone so they could take a picture. Me being stupid, I played along with it. After the picture was taken they wanted $60 from me. It seemed rather pricey so I resisted and offered to pay less. They got extremely angry and even started to threaten me. At that point I thought they were gonna rob me. Luckily, I managed to pay in the end without anyone getting hurt. At least the picture wasn't so bad lool.

 

Edit:

The lesson here is to simply say NO! Be aware of anyone trying to touch or approach you. Always assume that these people want nothing more but to exploit you.

Edited August 12, 2021 by SaltyMeatballs

[Jameskells]

Minor swindle

 

I did some work for a cousin, charged a cheaper rate as I was inexperience and it was family (naive stage blue),

They immediately exploited my cheaper rates and gave us extra work.

 

I was charging day rate, and must have been nearing to the original quote for the main work (not the extra work), and was told by her dad (who i was staying with) that they were "running out of money", by this time I was working on the extra job which they were basically getting done for free.

 

They said I had to get it finished in 3 days. It took 6 days and wasn’t paid for those last three days.

 

I rang the dad afterwards saying I was underpaid, a few days later got a text from my cousin going along the lines of

"what's the problem???" and contained a lot of  "?" marks in the text and making a big deal about it.

 

Said I expected more money, and was told that they "ran out of money" and "the other contractors quoted the same for all that extra work." I  was blatantly getting gaslighted but didn’t know it at the time.

I know she's lying because

1. how her parents reacted when I told them it was gonna take longer.

2. her husband works in finance.

 

And if they did "run of the money" they could of just saved up and then payed up.

Lesson learned: do not underestimate how petty people can be.

Narcissists/sociopaths make up about 4%-15% of the human population. (I think)

 

 

[Happy Lizard]

@Jacob Morres wanted to share my story with basically the same scenario but felt too self aware…

its painful, sending loving compassion towards your way.

[Matt23]

A guy came up to me on the street, asking for $20 for a bus ticket to go home. I gave him the money.  He seemed genuine to me.

A few weeks (or months) later I saw him doing the same thing to another guy on the street.  I didn't say anything though since I think I just didn't care at that point and realized that he would just keep on doing it.  I may have said something, but I'm not sure.  

 

I guess there are probably many lesson.  One being to not sweat the small stuff.  Also, that my estimation of who's genuine and not isn't always accurate.  Also, when people on the street come up and ask for money, if I decide to give them money, I think doing that without any expectations about how they'll spend it (no matter what they say) is probably a wise move.  Just give it freely if I feel like it.  Even if they say it's for food but I suspect it's probably for drugs or something, just recognize that and then determine if I want to give them some money.  

Either way, even if it is for drugs, giving some money (I'm talking like some change) isn't a bad thing and can still help despite it potentially going towards an addiction.  

 

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Matt23

[Girzo]

I have scammed quite a few people as a kid and teenager.

I have always been looking for something that people wanted, but I knew was impossible to deliver. The first scam I had ever pulled was "Paypal Money Adder", for real, I had been 11 years old, uploaded a video to youtube with some shitty Visual Basic app and scammed my first dollar. I couldn't believe at first that there were people as stupid as to believe in Paypal Money Adder stitched togerher in VB by some kid and recorded with Camtasia. There were. 

I have been the first to come up with the idea of CS:GO Case Hack and put a scam website about it, had also some esoteric technical scams with fake mobile game patches to allow playing games written for ARMv7 processors on older hardware, very niche.

I have never been scammed on a scale I have been scamming other people, but I am not immune, even though I know most of the trade tricks.

I have always rationalized it as doing a favor for the scammed people, as I have been only taking their time and not money and maybe getting scammed by me would open their eyes and help avoid getting scammed by more serious scammers. But I know it doesn't work that way. Some people just are believers, they can get scammed 15 times in a row and not change anything in their epistemology.

[Sempiternity]

Jim Browning's channel is invaluable for modern scams and how to spot them.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JimBrowning/videos

 

[AtheisticNonduality]

Quote

It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.

--W.C. Fields

[Extreme Z7]

@Leo Gura I'm still in my early 20s and I do have one small story from my (really) early 20s.

The first time I tried to live on my own and pay for my own rent, I could only afford a very small room barely the size of an average home bathroom.

The rent was cheap and I was told the other extra fees (water, electricity, and garbage disposal) would be just be a fraction of the rent.
This ended up being true for the rent, water, and garbage, but I feel I was charged way more than I expected for electricity. Something was up.

At first, I thought it might be normal. The landlady even pointed out how expensive my electricity bill was at first and suggested it might be because of my laptop. Yes, I used my laptop everyday but something still felt off as I needed to go to work every weekday and I usually liked to spend part of my weekends outside so I wasn't using my laptop that much. But I just went with it.

The electricity bill slowly got more expensive over the next few months and I still thought it was may have been normal, albeit weird.
I was being given what looked like actual electricity bills with the weirdly high numbers 4x larger than I was originally told. . . and still rising. How would I even challenge that? It's an actual paper bill telling me how much I needed to pay.

My suspicions really started to arise when one time bills were due, I didn't receive an electricity bill. The landlady insisted she slid it under my door but there really was nothing there. She then just proceeded to tell me what she claimed was my number for the month and it was predictably higher than what my bill was the previous month. I still didn't say anything at the time and I just paid it.

Something was definitely wrong. The laptop was the only high-end electronic I had and I wasn't exactly using it more and more each month.

Unfortunately (and also very fortunately), I got fired from my job that month so I didn't have to stay at that crappy place anymore and that was the last time I paid for that bill. I didn't have the mind to bring up my suspicions to her as I was thinking about having to move back to my parent's house at the time. And even if that wasn't the case, I didn't even know if there was a way to prove it and get my money back at all.

It was only when I looked back to my time there that the possibility that I've been financially scammed seriously dawned on me. I didn't feel that upset about it, I mostly saw it as a learning experience. I was taken advantage of because of my lack of life experience. Looking back, I would have contacted my uncle immediately when I got that first bill and asked him for advice but that thought didn't even crop up in my mind. I was too arrogant at the time to look for help from people who may have had more experience than me and I just decided I could "figure it out on my own".

I have not told this story to anyone because frankly, I just want to move on from it. I didn't want to cause a fuss from my parents or relatives that would force me to have to confront my ex-landlady, I thought it would be a waste of time. Better just to be proactive and earn more money by focusing on my LP.

However, the next time I feel something like this is happening again, I will be ready.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Extreme Z7