There was a news article the other day about a pensioner who'd been in the military all his life and had inherited £100,000 which he invested in property. It turned out it was worthless and there was an audio recording where the person who sold it to him was on the phone demanding he sell all his possessions to get even more out of him through some legal loop hole. This poor guy got through his whole life and was about to retire comfortably when someone just fucks him over. It always makes me really angry that people can be like that. I always wonder how their mind works and what happened in their life to make them do these things, unless they're just psychopathic and they don't feel sympathy anyway. The only time I’ve ever been conned was from ordering porn through a website which turned out to be fake. I only lost about £80 which is nothing compared to people like this and it taught me to be a little bit more wary. Focus: Have you or anyone you know ever been conned out of a large sum of money? I've read some advice on how to avoid people like that: * know when people are trying to charm you and don't let it take your guard down * making you feel bad for not trusting them Alt Focus: Maybe some of the members here have professional experience with people like this - do you have any advice on how to spot them/avoid being conned? Ever found someone out who was trying to con you?
I do pretty well at avoiding scams but my family members are less well-defended. My grandmother with dementia was particularly susceptible...sigh.
I know of some dummies that fell for the early "gold in Nigeria" type scams for $10k or so. Locally I know a few business owners that were bilked out of $50-100k each by a guy who was opening a ski area on a local mountain that was a defunct ski area from the 70's. This guy had these investors come out and see that we was clearing trees, he had blue prints, etc. The problem? The land is a state park! He didn't own shiiiiiit. Just complete fakery. The funniest part is that this guy was running this scam over the course of a few months in the summer. Speaks to the underfunded/understaffed conditions for the state parks dept. Nobody ever bagged this guy trespassing with heavy equipment in a state park. Ridiculous.
A few decades ago my grandparents were sold some property in Florida. It sounded pretty awesome until they visited their land a few years later and discovered that the area was all swamp. It didn't ruin them financially or anything but it is still pretty sleazy.
I really don't know the details of how it went down or how they were even initially contacted by the realtor or developer or whatever but yeah it happened. My folks were able to sell the property about 5 years ago. I don't know if the land was ever developed or if we even recouped the loss but I seriously doubt it. I should really ask them about it.
We got taken for the sum of about $40,000 by an ex-employee. He was a manager in a regional office a few years back. We all managers access to internet banking of the company accounts on a view only basis, so that they can keep an eye on funds and budget accordingly. This guy somehow manages to convince our bank to give him full access to the account. He waits until Monday morning, which has the highest deposits, clears it out and runs. We contact the police and the bank. The bank spend two to three months claiming it was our fault, despite them knowing he is not a signatory, not a director and having known us for the past 20 something years, before caving and providing restitution. The police are too slow and he flees the state. On a tipoff, we find him in Tasmania and alert the fraud squad to his location. Their reply, "We don't have the money in the budget to go get him." We offer to pay all expenses. "Nah, we're just not going to do that. If he comes back to the state, let us know."
The most important thing I've learned over the years about scammers is this: Scammers don't look like this guy: Spoiler They look like this guy: Spoiler
The Real Hustle has a bunch of scams, and the videos are pretty entertaining. Some are just sleight of hand tricks, or stupid bar bets, but one of the scams I've seen done before (and Dr. Rob fell for it a while ago). They're good for getting an idea of how con artists look at things, it's a pretty different way of seeing the world.
I was witness to my friend getting scammed in Las Vegas. No, he didn't double down on a 12. That was me. We were walking along the strip, heading off to the a hotel to go to the club there when we were stopped by a large black dude. Now, keep in mind, my friend is 6'6 and skinny, and I am 6'3 built like a brick shithouse. This guy put both of us into our places he was so huge. He was selling VIP cards to get into the club we wanted to get into. I immediately had my bullshit sensors go off, and was like, no thanks, and moved away. My friend was completely sold. He bought 2 of the VIP cards from the guy for 20 bucks each. He was bragging to me about how we were going to get in for no cover charge, and skip the line, and we were so getting laid, and that if I got laid, I would have to pay him double the cost of the VIP card So we approach the entrance of the club in the hotel, and I point out to my friend that the "VIP cards" he bought were scattered all over the floor, and piled on every slot machine. Turns out, this guy had just grabbed a handful or cards, and went around intimidating stupid white tourists into giving up their hard earned money to him for worthless cards.