MetaFilter posts tagged with scam

"No credit card needed to receive FarmCash within minutes."

jbickers — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:35:13 -0800

"I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away." So said Mark Pincus, CEO and founder of Zynga, the company behind social games like Mafia Wars and Farmville. It's the latest revelation in a week-long bit of drama between TechCrunch and the companies running the shady virtual currency that makes the games profitable. At issue are the in-game offers to receive points/currency in exchange for filling out surveys, taking IQ tests or agreeing to trial offers. Many result in a recurring and unadvertised charge on the user's mobile phone bill, while others are even more brazen. Especially entertaining in all of this: Michael Arrington from TechCrunch confronts Anu Shukla, CEO of Offerpal Media, at a virtual goods summit two weeks ago. He says her services facilitate fraud, punish legitimate advertisers and create a self-perpetuating cycle of deceit. Her response: "shit, doubleshit, and bullshit." Her company blog later responded in more CEO-like fashion. Also fascinating: A former Facebook spammer talks about how it's done, and the underlying technology that makes it all possible.

Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. (Correctly) Sees as Useless

Optimus Chyme — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:51:29 -0800

Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. (Correctly) Sees as Useless. Similar to the now debunked Sniffex (as seen previously on Metafilter), the ADE651 detects explosives, firearms, grenades, narcotics, elephant ivory, bank notes, and according to its manufacturer's website, "human research." There is no known mechanism by which the device can work, it has failed numerous tests, and the James Randi Educational Foundation has offered one million dollars if the ADE651 is successful in a double-blind test. With multi-million dollar profits already made from Iraqi and U.S. coffers, however, the various shell companies behind the ADE651 have so far declined.

Your TV would never lie to you, especially about gold

alan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:31:00 -0800

How to value and sell your gold. Probably a waste of time though, those real people who sold their gold on TV seem happy enough.

There are zillions of locksmiths in the naked city

grobstein — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:53:20 -0800

High-priced emergency locksmith services clog up local business listings (and Google Maps), driving all the emergency calls to their numbers. It's happened all over the country. E.g., a 'brash new locksmith company' comes to Madison, WI.

Thermodynamics FAIL

Avenger — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:29:59 -0800

Claiming to have invented a perpetual motion machine in 2006, Steorn Inc. (previously on Metafilter here and here) challenged a team of 22 international scientists and engineers to "verify" their apparently impossible device. Last week the scientific jury announced their results: “The unanimous verdict of the jury is that Steorn’s attempts to demonstrate the claim have not shown the production of energy,” it stated. “The jury is therefore ceasing work.” But have no fear, fellow citizens. Steorn has fixed the "key technical problems" which kept the device from working, and now plan to commercially launch their perpetual motion device towards the end of 2009. Perhaps more interesting than the repeated failure of impossible physics is the question of whether or not Sean McCarthy and the several dozen engineers that he employs are scammers or perhaps just delusional. A long postmodern treatise on Steorn, the Orbo and the Steorn Forums here.

Auto Warranty scammers Revenge

milovoo — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:19:33 -0800

It looks like the Auto Warranty phone scammers who keep calling your cell phone may finally be getting their comeuppance, right about ... now.

Trust me, I'm an attorney

Inspector.Gadget — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:44:21 -0800

More brazen than Madoff? Former NYC hotshot attorney Marc Dreier (he of the now-defunct vanity firm), was arrested in Canada in late 2008, charged with spearheading an occasionally daring series of frauds. Read the bankruptcy filing, ponder the fate of former Dreier associates, and maybe pick up some flashy furniture at a deep discount.

SEO can't save you now

christonabike — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:02:30 -0800

"Your article is ranking very well for term 'Cash4Gold'. Is it worth a few thousand to take it down?" The Consumerist picks up a Rob Cockerham report, resulting in some search results Cash4Gold finds unpleasant. They resort to bribery. They also seem to have disgruntled employees and trouble identifying gold.

The Things He Carried

chunking express — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:33:06 -0800

The Things He Carried. "Airport security in America is a sham—'security theater' designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease."

The Dollar Auction and Swoopo

Zarkonnen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:10:53 -0800

An online auction site called Swoopo, once called TeleBid, has hit upon an ingenious way to make money. They are an auction site not entirely unlike Ebay - but using a different auction scheme. Where EBay uses a slightly modified Vickrey auction system, Swoopo uses an auction system based on the "Dollar Auction" game - with interesting results. Their system is an open auction with a very tight time limit, where each bid made increases the price by seven pence, costs the bidder fifty pence to make and increases the time limit by a couple of seconds. This might seem benign at first, until you do the maths: For example, a camera worth £679.99 was recently sold for £189.49 to someone who had made 81 bids. This particular bidder paid a mere £229.99 for the camera. But to drive up the camera's price to £189.49, some 2706 bids had to be made, at a total cost of £1353. Hence, Swoopo ended up receiving £1542.49 for a camera valued at less than half that. It's a good deal for the winner - but an even better one for the company. An even stranger kind of auction takes place on the site - a "100% off" auction, where the final price does not have to be paid. Whoever makes the final bid before the timer runs out gets the object of the auction for no additional cost beyond the bidding fees. The object of the auction is five hundred pounds. So the deal is this: keep on giving money to Swoopo in 50p increments, hoping to be the one to get the money at the end. Whenever that is. At the time of writing, there was a £500 auction that has climbed to £738.08. If it ended at that point, one of the parties would walk away with £500 in exchange for however much it cost them to bid. And the company would end up with £5272 in fees in exchange for that £500. Is this auctioning or entertainment? A clever application of game theory? Gambling? A scam? It's probably not illegal, as far as anyone can tell. The decision on its morality is left up to the reader... Previously on Everything2 and TechCrunch, including a comment from (apparently) the CEO of Swoopo.

Lost in the Forster

not_the_water — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:40:49 -0800

"Room With A Screw: My 45-day quest to convince a craigslist scammer to write me a poem-- and how she lost her mind and tried to become my friend"

It was wrapped in white paper, I am loosing my mind paniking because that was almost my whole pay how could I possibly recoop that you know|?

orthogonality — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:27:33 -0800

I found your money. It's uncanny: the next guy emailing to claim the money that Rob "found" always describes it precisely as Rob described the money to the previous emailer.

"That kid at your door with a magazine order form will tell you a story -- part sad, part hopeful."

orthogonality — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:12:22 -0800

Winding their way down from California, they lost a few agents. Two were arrested in Albuquerque after they allegedly forced their way into the home of an elderly couple and beat them to death, raping the wife first.... Then, in West Texas, a van flipped, killing one agent and injuring three others. That's seven agents out of commission. That's about a $2,800 loss per day. After they turn in their cash and receipts, two agents, a pudgy girl and a lanky guy, hit the parking lot for a smoke.... It's a blast, they say. You lie all day to sell subscriptions, and you unwind afterward with some smoke. You tell the customers that you live a few streets over, that you go to the local school and play on the soccer team, that you just sold subscriptions to their neighbor, and the idiots buy it because by now you've got it down to a science. And on to the next town. And the next.

Charity begins at home. And sometimes ends in jail.

Shepherd — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:02:14 -0800

The Banyan Tree Foundation promised to take donations from contributors to be redistributed to worthy Canadian recipients. The foundation also gave donors inflated charity receipts for tax declarations, and donors were encouraged to borrow money to contribute even more, and did... from a company now owned by Banyan Tree president Robert Thiessen. Now, the money has stopped flowing, and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has called the organization a "sham" and is going after Banyan donors for past charity receipts totalling more than CAD$100 million. The charity is still listed as a charity, which is provoking anger in the House of Commons. Many donors are participating in a class-action lawsuit against the Foundation. This type of donating, known as tax shelter donations, has been the subject of previous precautions by tax authorities and charity law specialists, and has caused problems for donors in the past as well.

Apple cloner or scammer?

MythMaker — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:21:19 -0800

Recently, Psystar Corporation announced the Open Mac, now renamed "Open Computer," a $399.99 Mac clone. Besides violating Apple's EULA, and the license for the emulator that allows Leopard to run on commodity hardware, apparently the company itself seems a bit... shady. Metafilter's own Woz, on the other hand, says he might get one.

The Great World of Sound!

The Deej — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:13:42 -0800

Want to be a recording star? The Great World of Sound is looking for new talent!

"Do unto others what they'd like to do to you... But do it first!"

amyms — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:04:18 -0800

Soapy Smith was "the king of the frontier confidence men." Born Jefferson R. Smith, he gained the nickname "Soapy" after running a successful scam that the Denver newspapers dubbed "The Prize Package Soap Sell Swindle." He ran criminal enterprises in Colorado and Alaska until his death at the hands of vigilantes in 1898. Every year his descendants hold a wake in his honor. His story has inspired several books and movies. The Soapy Smith Preservation Trust maintains an extensive archive of his life and times.

30-Year Laptop Battery?

Kirth Gerson — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:46:02 -0800

Betavoltaic Batteries are supposed to last 30 years, run cool, and be inert and harmless when depleted. The batteries, which generate electricity from radioactive decay, have a 50-year development history, but breakthroughs at the U.S. Air Force Research Lab are said to make the batteries practical for use in consumer applications. So why doesn't the Air Force lab's website feature this discovery? Maybe because it's a hoax, or a scam.

This is why we dont build on spec anymore

crunchywelch — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:09:33 -0800

Columbia Law grad is scammed, along with 78 other professionals, into working for free for weeks. Craigslist, some detective work, and the unusual motivation behind the scam all contribute to this interesting story of internets-related shenanigans.

"Any help we can get with this will be greatly appreciated and, I believe, rewarded in heaven."

amberglow — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:45:06 -0800

Ted Haggard returns --with a cash for heaven offer to support him while he helps "broken people". Unfortunately, the procedure outlined is illegal, and the charity (Families With a Mission) is unregistered and run by a convicted sex offender. Meanwhile, Mike Jones, Haggard's favorite whore, pops up at a dirty bar trivia night (questions about Haggard and him, maybe nsfw, textwise)

The software awards scam

Armitage Shanks — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:36:13 -0800

The software awards scam. I put out a new product a couple of weeks ago. This new product has so far won 16 different awards and recommendations from software download sites. Download it now from PC World!

Free Energy Tomorrow

Optimus Chyme — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 07:12:45 -0800

Previously featured on MetaFilter, "Free Energy" company Steorn had scheduled a demonstration of their revolutionary, world-changing, physics-defying contraption Orbo to open today at London's Kinetica Museum. But due to "intense heat" from camera lighting, their fake invention isn't working today. Here's the live web feed of an empty box. Incidentally, it seems that the Steorn folks have allies in high - very high - places.

Clitoraid

theemperorhasnoclotheson — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:54:08 -0800

Restoring a sense of pleasure The Raelian movement has been discussed here before . Clitoraid is their latest scam and you can donate now to adopt a clitoris and help them build the Pleasure Hospital in Ouagadougou.

Ewe won't believe this, folks!

cerebus19 — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:55:28 -0800

A Japanese actress complains that her new poodle doesn't bark and won't eat dog food. Why's that? Because it's a lamb. Apparently as many as 2,000 people in Japan may have been duped. Let the punning commence.

Congratulations!

Blue Stone — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:32:31 -0800

Clive James on Scams and Hoaxes. "If the flim-flam man is sensible enough to offer you a return of only twice as much, the scam might even work. I was once defrauded of a heartbreakingly-large sum by a fellow writer who was smart enough to offer no return at all. True to her word, she didn't return my money either."