NationStates Jolt Archive

First, a disclaimer:THIS POSTING DOES NOT PROMOTE FRAUD OF ANY KIND, AND IS NOT ASKING FOR INFORMATION (SUCH AS CODE) THAT WOULD ALLOW A READER TO COMMIT FRAUD.

Sorry for the capitals, but it makes it look more warranty-ish, and is noticeable.

I would like to know the best scam users have heard of or fallen for (or carried out, but don't say so if you did). By "best" I mean most effective, clever, creative, or inadvertently funny (Nigerian email, for example).

The Cold War.

Very embarrassing, but me and my father was conned by an italian "businessman" some years ago. He sold a nifty little camcorder which looked cool. Just 200 bucks and it was the smallest in the world. Needless to say, neither my father nor I knew anything about the subject. It was worth around 30 bucks and was in fact only the 3rd smallest, and beyond its tiny size it was downright useless. We agreed not to tell anyone, but now I have :D

The Patriot Act. :rolleyes:

I like the Ponzi scheme, partly because an altered version of it is what allows banks to exist.
It's very simple: the con man asks for small investments from people, telling them their investments will double (or triple, or increase n-fold in) in two weeks. Then, he gets more investments from other people a week later, and uses their investment as "profit" for the first investors. These people get excited, so they invest more, and the cycle repeats. Eventually, the con man gives everyone their money back and explains it was a joke, or he gets as much as he thinks he can safely get before he leaves town.
The funny thing is, banks work on a similar principle, as I said earlier. If everyone pulled out their money at the same time, they bank would bust (see Great Depression.

Bottled water or canned air are also pretty good.

Bottled water or canned air are also pretty good.
Goddamn, you beat me to it.

(I was going to say bottled water)

Purchasing a short domain (such as uk.net or eu.com) then selling off subdomains as "new" top level domains for a hefty profit. E.g., www.blah.uk.net is simply a subdomain of uk.net, which is actually in the tld of .net rather than .uk.net.

http://www.picture.com/contest/enter.asp

Nintendo peripherals.

RIAA/MPAA "Pay us $30K or we'll put you in prison for life for stealing our mp3 song" scam.

Goddamn, you beat me to it.

(I was going to say bottled water)Drink the tap water in Fort McMurray and say that again.

Drink the tap water in Fort McMurray and say that again.
Buy a filter.

Buy a filter.You'd think that would help, but you'd be wrong.

You'd think that would help, but you'd be wrong.
Buy two of them.

Or get a water cooler for your drinking water.

Income tax!

Buy two of them.

Or get a water cooler for your drinking water.Two filters won't accomplish anything, but boiling it may work.

A water cooler is bottled water, just I prefer the 500mL size as it is easily portable.

Communism or taxation/redistribution.... maybe both.

extended warranties

Buy two of them.

Or get a water cooler for your drinking water.

Suppose you travel to Haiti, or Mexico. Unless, of course, you enjoy a few days of diarrhea and vomiting. Or you can carry a pot and a gas range and pot around with you everywhere, so you can boil the local water (because that's really practical).

Suppose you travel to Haiti, or Mexico. Unless, of course, you enjoy a few days of diarrhea and vomiting. Or you can carry a pot and a gas range and pot around with you everywhere, so you can boil the local water (because that's really practical).
Or you can buy the tablets that purify water... or you can boil water at home, put it in a reusable water bottle and carry it with you. Or you drink the water on the resort that's super filtered and safe to drink.

Two filters won't accomplish anything, but boiling it may work.

A water cooler is bottled water, just I prefer the 500mL size as it is easily portable.
It's bottled water that's in containers that are more frequently reused and it's probably cheaper per volume.

Or you can buy the tablets that purify water... or you can boil water at home, put it in a reusable water bottle and carry it with you. Or you drink the water on the resort that's super filtered and safe to drink.In the time it takes me to boil enough water to fill 5 or 6 bottles, I could have earned enough to buy a flat of 24 bottles.

I'm not exactly sure how much those tablets cost, or even where to get them, but I doubt it is as cheap or as convenient as just buying a few flats of water.

In the time it takes me to boil enough water to fill 5 or 6 bottles, I could have earned enough to buy a flat of 24 bottles.

I'm not exactly sure how much those tablets cost, or even where to get them, but I doubt it is as cheap or as convenient as just buying a few flats of water.
If you're worried about the cost, then you should be buying the big jugs.


Although the scam part of bottled water is more that they've convinced people in areas with lots of water that is fine to drink that they need to buy bottled water and carry it with them at all times.

If you're worried about the cost, then you should be buying the big jugs.


Although the scam part of bottled water is more that they've convinced people in areas with lots of water that is fine to drink that they need to buy bottled water and carry it with them at all times.See, our water will make you vomit if you drink more than a mouthful. Bottled water is a savior.

Also, the cost is a non-issue for me, but most people from the anti-bottled water camp seem to be deeply disturbed by the fact that you are "paying for something you get out of the tap for free." Well here we do not get it out of the tap for free, and bottles happen to be the best available solution.

My "Best Scam", the "You should drink 8 bottles of water a day" scam, which came out right around the time bottled water was introduced. The University of Toronto, and an American University (Berkley?) found this to be bullshit, with the actual number being close to 5.

Or you can buy the tablets that purify water... or you can boil water at home, put it in a reusable water bottle and carry it with you. Or you drink the water on the resort that's super filtered and safe to drink.

Considering, the bottled water imported from the US to these countries costs a few American pennies, why would you waste your money on water purification tablets? When you convert the money, it's much cheaper/easier/available to buy bottled water. And who says you're always going to be in a resort? Certainly hasn't always been the case for me.

Bottled water is scam but in some countries the tap water is toxic, bottled water is not such a big scam as it will save lots of people getting sick from drinking bad local water supplies.

If you're worried about the cost, then you should be buying the big jugs.
.

Yes I agree. It is always good to have big jugs. In fact I say surround yourself with big jugs. Your worries will seem to go away.;)

Bottled water is scam but in some countries the tap water is toxic, bottled water is not such a big scam as it will save lots of people getting sick from drinking bad local water supplies.

You apparently don't know what the word scam means.

Income taxes, redistribution of wealth, diversity for the sake of diversity, the bottle water being "spring" water or "Waterfall" water.

Those advertisement where you can work from home and be a millionaire in a month! Please if that was true, would anyone ever leave their home?

Peter Popoff's infomercials.

Tithe.

Dare I say it? God.

corporatocracy, symbolic value (i.e. money), 'conservative' politics, neo-ism, conservative OR liberal, but still conservative especially.

the use of elected office and the influence and control that goes with it to get away with what anyone else would go to jail for.

the list is so long it's really rather hard to choose one 'best'

but when you have organized crime usurping a government and becoming that government, and by having already gained control of the media and by control of corporate media and it's manor of expressing things and it's choices of what to report and not report at all, lulling people into believing this is normal and to be expected. historically i'm sure there have been many equivalents, or at least probably some(?), and what label of idiology is paid lip service to, i can't see as having all that much to do with it.

=^^=
.../\...

Dare I say it? God.

I would extend that to religion.

I think a good scam would be to get a 0900 number (or whatever # in your country that charges you $4.99 a minute when you dial it), print a bumper sticker with, "How am I driving? ph: 0900 ...." and then drive round like a total arsehole.

Another great scam is Life Insurance.
"Give us all your money and when you die, we'll give it back!"

I think a good scam would be to get a 0900 number (or whatever # in your country that charges you $4.99 a minute when you dial it), print a bumper sticker with, "How am I driving? ph: 0900 ...." and then drive round like a total arsehole.

I like this for many reasons - the icing on the cake would be if the number has a pre-recorded message that, when called, says "Screw you buddy, I drive how I like, deal with it - ah ha ha ha"

Awesome doesn't quite describe how that would be.

Ohh ohh I know, going into McDonalds, saying that you have a cheese allergy, and then suing the bastards!

Peter Popoff's infomercials.
Not as good as the Nintendo peripheral scam.