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

[roopepa]

Does scamming oneself count? 

"This isn't really about Actualized.org. This is about me. I had spirituality backwards. The Actualized - part is just projection.

The name of this thread should be: the issue with spiritual seeking/work.

The issue with seeking/work is that it is fundamentally already based on untruth. From the perspective of direct experience and the law of attraction, it's backwards. Seeking implies something missing, and work implies something to be done, somewhere to get. This is the wheel spinning in mud, getting nowhere.

It's really just about being who you are. No teaching/learning, but expression. No understanding, but meditation."

[Rishabh R]

I had a major past story on it. I liked a girl , used to talk to her ,flirt with her ,we even got intimate a little bit but on the last day of my seeing her she told me to focus on studies instead of doing this and she after few minutes started flirting with someone else , she was also rude to me during some interactions between me and her in days before. After that incident I developed obsessive compulsive disorder due to which when I am not on antidepressants I imagine the imaginary her in a hypothetical situation with me and I hit her but that is hitting or talking to someone who is not there.At certain times my father spots me and tells me that this is an incurable disorder even if I talk with him about it.

Lesson learnt: there are costs to being authentic but much more serious costs to being inauthentic. If someone who doesn't value you or talks rudely one must not tolerate it more than two times and stop talking to that person or leave whether it is with a girl or boy. @Leo Gura do make a video on this as it is an important topic . Also the thing which made me fell in this trap was her fairness. I think I must understand this idea that beautifulness is in the heart not in the face so not every beautiful person is really beautiful from the inside.

Edited January 22, 2022 by Rishabh R
Forgot to include a line

[At awe]

I’ll try to keep it short.

I was in my early twenties. Had just moved to the other side of the world. Met a woman, chemistry was great but unfortunately that was it. We met on weekends and hanged out. Couple months of this and she tells me that she’s pregnant. So we had a long discussion and we decided that we are too young and we must choose abortion. So doctors visit was made and life went on. Ca 5 months later her belly was visibly growing. Not because of donuts. So obviously she didn’t/ couldn’t  do it. I was furious at the time. Now i know that since I don’t know how it feels to be a pregnant woman, it’s impossible for me  to judge her. So I had a choice to make: l could leave and never find out who my child is or play home with a person that wasn’t my 1st choice or 6th. Chose the second option and stayed for ca 8 years. I needed to know my daughter. We live 10 minutes from each other so we meet frequently. She’s soon 20. I’m very proud father, being a parent has given me endless insights. In a way it was a blessing. Quite sure I would have not become a parent otherwise..

Lessons:

1. It was the hardest thing for me in life to forgive someone.

 2. I don’t know how other people think/feel.

3. ALWAYS wear a condom if you don’t have serious plans.

4. Took tons of work to learn to trust women again.

etc.

[Bittu]

When I broke up with my ex She made up a story that im mentally ill and I spent 6 months in a mental hospital.

The head doctor is basically a sociopath. I live in Finland.

When I was taken to the hospital, I got injected with a drug so violently that I screamed shocked.

Life is not the same after that experience.. Never will be.

I feel like treating depression and other mental illness is so so corrupt. No drug ever helped me (nothing wrong in the first place) but I was still forced to take amounts that would make a horse sleep.

 

[Lyubov]

Has this episode come out? I’m in Russia and I’ve probably encountered more scamming here than ever before. It’s almost worked into everyday culture. A dentist literally made up a lie I had cavities so he could drill in my mouth and get some cash. Went to a friend dentist and they told me my mouth had zero cavities. Private clinics will literally run bullshit tests and scare patients into getting treatment they don’t need. It’s insane. At best you lose some cash to some benign treatment, at worst they ruin your perfectly healthy teeth for some cash. Fuck them honestly.

[LordFall]

When I was maybe 10-11, I got scammed out some gear in a random MMORPG at the time. The guy offered me to be in his powerful guild if I gave him the stuff, he invited me in then kicked me after. It was the first time in my life that I can remember encoutering a scammer and I'm very thankful for that guy. Taught me a lot and I'm a lot harder to scam today

About two years ago, I was walking early morning in a less than great part of town near a Mcdonald's when this homeless-looking guy came up to me. He said he was in a tight spot and he needed some quick cash. Offered to sell me his sterling silver ring for 50$, when it should easily be able to be pawned for a few hundred dollars but he didn't have an ID so the shops refused to deal with him for fear of being a stolen item. I didn't really buy it but decided to go along with it because I thought it was an interesting story. I talked with him for about 20 mins as I went to an ATM and took out the money. We had actually similar experiences and we related on some stuff so I actually got convinced that he was telling the truth, he was telling me about his ex-girlfriend and tough times that he's had. I also do a lot of games and usually have a great read when it comes to people's motives and lies so I was pretty confident I could tell a scammer apart. 100% scammed me with a ring worth 2$ at best after I took it to a jeweler. 

Also a great lesson and made me a bit scared that my so-called social reading skills could be so off. Made me a lot more understanding of the nuance a character can have. People are very multifaceted and a person can seemingly bond with you and relate with you while ruthlessly be trying to take everything from you they can. Cool life lesson. 

[LSD-Rumi]

13 hours ago, LordFall said:

Also a great lesson and made me a bit scared that my so-called social reading skills could be so off

Some people are just great at lying, so you always should keep that in mind.

[peqkno]

Not personal:
There's a documentary on Netflix called "Tinder Swindler"..., this scam got him thousands of dollars from women he went on dates with...

[INFP RACOON BABY]

When you sign up for a gym membership and they scam you into 6 months when you thought you were paying monthly and you try to cancel but you cant get through to anyone and then you cancel payment from your bank and then you get an email saying they will be sending someone round to your address for cash collection becasue they charged you even though you cancelled them direct from your bank account. LMAO

[mivafofa]

1. While looking for a martial art school in China, I came upon Beijing Sport University which is a well known facility. I contacted them through a certain website and they offered a place for me to join with a high cost.  I was so desperate to leave Henan at the time I jumped on the train.  Long story short, the people I contacted were actually some kind of agent who pretended to represent the school, charged me twice as much as the real cost of the school, and in fact has NOTHING to do with the school... they were just some 3rd party scammer. This scam costed me around 5000$CAD 

 

2. Looking for an apartment. Had to move the very same week. Urgent, low in funds (the perfect formula state of mind to get scammed).  Dude pretended to be out of town, and will come in person with the key in exchange of the Answer to the Question on eTransfer.  He sent a confirmation site to me where I stupidly confirmed my Answer there. This scam costed me 1400$ CAD

 

3. I sent 40$CAD for deposit for a bike. The girl decided to sell it to someone else, refused to give me back my 40$ then blocked me.

 

These instances costed me money, but it especially costed a lot of stress and anxiety. No matter what was the amount, low or high, the feeling of getting cheated felt terrible. 

[vizual]

Once bought a PS3 game on an internet marketplace. Once it came the disc was scratched up and wouldn't play. Seller said she didn't know, that it probably happened during shipping blablabla. Said she wouldn't refund. I just cut my losses and learned to be more careful buying stuff from internet marketplaces.

And the sad thing was; it wasn't even a great deal or something. It was pretty much second hand market value I paid for it. Because usually; when a deal seems too good to be true, it's usually not true.

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by vizual

[Michal__]

A few years ago I bought something from wish. It never came (I didn´t have much money back then, so that sucked).

[Harikrishnan]

Dont buy items marketed through facebook ads.

[mmKay]

cell phone companies claiming that there is no small print and they are transparent about their conditions, when in fact there is small print and they are not clear about their conditions . 

[mmKay]

a friend of mine thought he found a tremendous deal for his electric scooter .

His wheel broke and he found an  aliexpress ad for a wheel on scrolling through the internet.

he ordered two and they turned out to be donut sized.

 

not scammed really he just stoopid. But the cookies fed him misleading info I guess.

Edited June 1, 2023 by mmKay

[Ulax]

When I was a teen I played a dude from my high school at fifa (football/ soccer video game). We agreed that if I won he would give me a certain online fifa item and if I won I would give him a certain online fifa item. The way to transfer the item was to list it on an online transfer market and then the other person would type in the items name then offer to buy it for a very relatively low fee. Then the first person would accept that offer.

I ended up winning. The dude said he would list the item in the described way. However, upon searching for the item I could not find the item. He insisted it was listed and it was either my fault or a technical fault. For a while I continued searching, but it soon became clear he was cheating me.

and hence your boi was swindled

[mmKay]

Let's revive this thread boys

[mmKay]

I wanted to revive this thread since Leo announced an episode on Theft.

 

Theft is a spectrum and had different degrees and kinds.

I recently was thinking about how for example, mosquitoes only steal a little amount of blood -- which seems to be effective as their survival strategy. Evolution concluded that that's the most effective survival strategy thus far.

They steal just enough not to be big enough of threat -- a minor inconvenience , so that you don't focus on them that much .

 

There is a kind of theft that operates in a sweet spot , which can persist without little reaction , until it reaches a tipping point.

[mmKay]

On 23/1/2022 at 4:51 AM, LordFall said:

Two years ago, I was walking early morning in a less than great part of town near a Mcdonald's when this homeless-looking guy came up to me. He said he was in a tight spot and he needed some quick cash. Offered to sell me his sterling silver ring for 50$, when it should easily be able to be pawned for a few hundred dollars but he didn't have an ID so the shops refused to deal with him for fear of being a stolen item. I didn't really buy it but decided to go along with it because I thought it was an interesting story. I talked with him for about 20 mins as I went to an ATM and took out the money. We had actually similar experiences and we related on some stuff so I actually got convinced that he was telling the truth, he was telling me about his ex-girlfriend and tough times that he's had. I also do a lot of games and usually have a great read when it comes to people's motives and lies so I was pretty confident I could tell a scammer apart. 100% scammed me with a ring worth 2$ at best after I took it to a jeweler. 

Plot twist : it was the jeweler that scammed you

[Yimpa]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/s/PwaicFmvtg