Have you ever been scammed?

[Cappuccino]

Have you ever been scammed IRL? I bought a 'genuine' iphone charger on eBay, the seller stated the item was genuine. 3 days later it arrived and the logo of the apple is a pear. I got scammed. The seller refused to refund me and I made a dispute on PayPal with proof etc. I have many scam stories but this was my latest one. I got trolololole'd for sure. :'(

Have you ever been scammed? Don't be ashamed, tell us!

 

[rh71]

yeah while in college I signed up for $200+ medical software that allowed me to work at home. This was late 90s. They kept answering the calls but never actually gave the money back.

 

[Geosurface]

Hmm... scammed... I dunno, I tend to be pretty savvy. I did call a psychic once, when I was like 15. But I was mostly just doing that for amusement.

In case everyone isn't already aware: there's no such thing as psychic power.

Can't remember anything else off the top of my head... other than just y'know, your standard "this item isn't as useful or well made as I had expected" - which doesn't really count.

Oh I've got a good one: I was a liberal for most of my life until recently. I'd say I got pretty damn well scammed there.

 

[Maximilian]

IRL? No

On diablo II 11 year old me gave someone my lightsabre phase blade and shaftstop armor so I could transfer it to a new character, they ran off with my stuff Bastard lol.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Bought a pair of Pippen III's on ebay - turned out to be fake. I mean, who makes fake Pippen III's - this was like 9yrs ago too.

 

[wabbitslayer]

Yes, I got duped into believing a liberal arts degree would be worth something.:'(

 

[Six]

As a teenage I saw a bunch of cool toys on Popular Science Magazine by Information Unlimited www.amazing1.com. ie. lasers, night vision, etc before they were mainstream. I worked my butt off at McDonald at minimum wage for a month and was finally able to save enough to buy what I thought was a thermal imager. What I got was a plastic PVC pipe with a bunch of wires, "sterling cooler," and a on/off switch. I RMA'ed it for a refund and got a hand written "gift certificate" note, of which I was never able to used. Still pissed me off til this day.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I signed up for these forums, so obviously yes.

 

[KeithTalent]

Not that I can recall, but I probably just put it out of my head. Nothing too egregious that scarred me for life though.

KT

 

[Aikouka]

Have you ever been scammed IRL? I bought a 'genuine' iphone charger on eBay, the seller stated the item was genuine. 3 days later it arrived and the logo of the apple is a pear. I got scammed. The seller refused to refund me and I made a dispute on PayPal with proof etc. I have many scam stories but this was my latest one. I got trolololole'd for sure. :'(

There wasn't a photo in the auction? One of my top eBay tips is to be a bit more cautious around auctions that use stock images! To be fair, it doesn't necessarily mean the auction is a phony as the seller could just be lazy.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

most notable was buying 128mb of ram for like ~$99 free shipping way back when 128mb of ram was $100+. got it and it was DOA.

long story short (after research on ask jeeves) it was some scam site that sent out doa ram and had insanely high restocking fees and way overpriced "compatible ram". dont remember the site name though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Nope. I've seen scams that made me think twice since some actually do look legit at first glance, but never enough for me to remotely even come close to taking action on it.

 

[smackababy]

I got scammed once on eBay buying a pair of shoes. Got my money back, but still, it was annoying for sure. I generally don't resort to the reseller market to buy stuff, but even I miss out on releases some times. =(

If they don't say "100% authentic", I won't even bother. I can usually spot fakes in the pictures, but this guy had an authentic shoe pictured and sent me a replica. I knew it right away too, because the boxes for the replicas are much smaller. I suppose had he listed it as a replica I'd have been out of my money and he would have made like 250% profit, but he didn't.

 

[z1ggy]

Not scammed really. Bought some things that didn't work as advertised, or failed after a short period of time.

 

[nageov3t]

I did a lot of impulse buying on ebay when I was a teenager... the problem is that I'd pay for an item and then immediately forget about it.

there were many items that never actually got shipped out that I paid for, but usually by the time I remembered, it was too late to dispute the payment. mostly <$20 stuff, but I eventually wised up and nowadays, I'll leave an email invoice in my in-box until whatever item has arrived and confirmed to be working.

 

[Phoenix86]

This one time I got really close, I almost purchased "genuine" iphone charger like it matters.

 

[vshah]

As a teenage I saw a bunch of cool toys on Popular Science Magazine by Information Unlimited www.amazing1.com. ie. lasers, night vision, etc before they were mainstream. I worked my butt off at McDonald at minimum wage for a month and was finally able to save enough to buy what I thought was a thermal imager. What I got was a plastic PVC pipe with a bunch of wires, "sterling cooler," and a on/off switch. I RMA'ed it for a refund and got a hand written "gift certificate" note, of which I was never able to used. Still pissed me off til this day.

holy crap, i remember the ads for amazing1. Those were all a scam?

 

[Printer Bandit]

i've been scammed and it's the worst feeling in the world. one time was buying perfume for my mom for mother's day as a kid. upon opening the box, the bottle ended up being empty

i vow to never do it to anyone else.

 

[funmatters]

My brother got scammed once or twice, I'm extremely skeptical of things so I tend to steer well clear if something isn't quite right.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, a few times. Once with the usual "I need a few bucks for gas" parking lot scam. I'm happy to help someone in need because I'd be grateful if someone did the same if I was in that position, but the proper way to handle it is to offer to fill up their tank rather than handing out cash to see if they're legit. To date, no gas station con artist has taken me up on that offer

A couple times online too - once on eBay (the early days) I never got something I bid on (robot model from Lost in Space, dangit I really wanted that!!). Opened up a Paypal dispute, useless. Second time for a guy to modify some Xboxes, back in the emulator days, totally scammed on that one. Also via Paypal. Still have the claim open years later. Useless. I like the concept of Paypal, but they don't deliver when you need help, so I never keep money in there - works great as a funnel only.

It's always a crappy feeling getting scammed, but the lesson gets learned & you get smarter. Life, man.

 

[Kaido]

i've been scammed and it's the worst feeling in the world. one time was buying perfume for my mom for mother's day as a kid. upon opening the box, the bottle ended up being empty

i vow to never do it to anyone else.

Seriously. It makes me wonder what point you have to hit to scam people out of stupid stuff like that. I mean really, an empty perfume bottle? Seriously? Almost makes me want to give people begging for a few dollars for "gas" the money just because you have to be at a pretty crappy point in your life to not be ashamed to con people out of a couple bucks.

 

[Kaido]

I'm amazed at how many people ask me about the white van speaker scam. In fact, I'm amazed that's still going on haha. Just had a coworker ask me recently about it...they almost bought a pair of speakers from a guy in a van the next lane over at a stoplight, but didn't have the cash on them and then decided to run it by me (resident tech guy) first. I pointed them to Yoyo's thread. "But I really could use a great deal on speakers for my house!" And that's why it works

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Once, on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. In my own defense I was drunk at the time.

 

[Puppies04]

I know someone who bought 1000 32GB USB pens from ebay (he owns a computer shop). They all read as 32GB but are full after you put 2gb on them. I lol'd.

 

[alkemyst]

Hmm... scammed... I dunno, I tend to be pretty savvy. I did call a psychic once, when I was like 15. But I was mostly just doing that for amusement.

In case everyone isn't already aware: there's no such thing as psychic power.

Can't remember anything else off the top of my head... other than just y'know, your standard "this item isn't as useful or well made as I had expected" - which doesn't really count.

Oh I've got a good one: I was a liberal for most of my life until recently. I'd say I got pretty damn well scammed there.

So you screwed your parents even then?

Jesus, you are really trying too hard these past few days here to be a man finally.