S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[Hillia]

I learned something from this thread, I thought Freecycle was an offer/accept site, I had no idea enough information was exchanged that one could judge another's finances, motivations and life to determine whether or not they deserve a persons castoffs.

Stick around a Freecycle group with a moderator that lets sob stories and off-topic posts through. Be a member long enough and you can find out a lot.

Also, Amara mentioned that she has dealt with this person numerous times, and he appears to be a chatty sort, even based  on the one email (we now know one of his sister's hobbies, for example).  So I can easily see how she would have gathered a lot of info about him during normal dealings.

[squeakers]

I learned something from this thread, I thought Freecycle was an offer/accept site, I had no idea enough information was exchanged that one could judge another's finances, motivations and life to determine whether or not they deserve a persons castoffs.

Stick around a Freecycle group with a moderator that lets sob stories and off-topic posts through. Be a member long enough and you can find out a lot.

Also, Amara mentioned that she has dealt with this person numerous times, and he appears to be a chatty sort, even based  on the one email (we now know one of his sister's hobbies, for example).  So I can easily see how she would have gathered a lot of info about him during normal dealings.

That shouldn't matter a whit.  "Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."

That says nothing about whether one can afford an item or not.  The idea is to keep things from just being thrown away.

Now Amara can mentally/pc-ally block anyone she chooses from getting her stuff for whatever reason she chooses. And that is fine.  But she should make that determination on more than whether someone can afford said throwaways.

Because I can afford to buy a lot of crap.  But I prefer to buy stuff on sale, for free, or from friends. To recycle, reuse and reduce the amount of waste from my household and my community. Which is what Freecycle is all about.

[Giggity]

You judged his worth based on the amount of money you think he makes? I'm not comfortable with that.

[Giggity]

Amara, I can kind of understand where you're coming from. When I give stuff away on Freecycle, although it's supposed to just be to keep stuff out of the landfill I want things to go to people who need them before they go to people who can buy them but don't want to for selfish reasons. (There are unselfish reasons, such as the aforementioned keeping stuff out of the landfill or asking for a friend who can't or won't ask themselves--selfish reasons would just be not wanting to spend the money even if you can afford it when someone else can't.)

Freecycle is the exact opposite of how to go about ensuring that you like where your stuff ends up. If you want it to go to someone who doesn't have much, target that demographic: give your stuff to a shelter or similar.

[Ticia]

Let's move on from the freecycle debate, please. Amara has already acknowledged her mistake.

[bloo]

One time we went to a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up some eats. The guy at the window had a very extroverted personality but I just got a feeling of hostility or condescension from him. My DH was driving and paid the guy with a $100 bill. Window guy counted out our change but had to go and get more change. He was gone several minutes. So my DH waited with his hand out in the exact same position as when Window guy gave the short-change. When Window guy came back he had our bags and tried to hand them to DH and say, "Have a good one!"

DH said, "You owe me another $20" and gestured with his hand that we were still waiting for our change.

Window Guy said, "Oh" and pulled a $20 out of his pocket and handed it to DH!

[mbbored]

One time we went to a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up some eats. The guy at the window had a very extroverted personality but I just got a feeling of hostility or condescension from him. My DH was driving and paid the guy with a $100 bill. Window guy counted out our change but had to go and get more change. He was gone several minutes. So my DH waited with his hand out in the exact same position as when Window guy gave the short-change. When Window guy came back he had our bags and tried to hand them to DH and say, "Have a good one!"

DH said, "You owe me another $20" and gestured with his hand that we were still waiting for our change.

Window Guy said, "Oh" and pulled a $20 out of his pocket and handed it to DH!

Please tell me you then went in and told a manager.

[Sirius]

i'm deep into Craigslist rental scams now.  We're moving very soon and I'm checking Craigslist for rentals; lots of property management places use it.  The scammers will steal pictures from a legitimate listing, then put up their own listing using those pics but with a ridiculously low rent.  If you contact them, you'll get an email telling you how they don't live in the city any more (usually they're building houses for orphans or something similar) but they can tell you are a wonderful, honest person - so they'll send you the keys and you can move in as soon as you send them the rent and deposit.

They get reported and removed pretty quickly  but it's still aggravating; this finding a rental business is very stressful and this doesn't help at all.

Since we just bought this house I'm wondering if someone is going to show up and claim it's theirs.  Not that it's likely - we dealt with a very reputable real estate agent.  But who knows.

[bloo]

One time we went to a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up some eats. The guy at the window had a very extroverted personality but I just got a feeling of hostility or condescension from him. My DH was driving and paid the guy with a $100 bill. Window guy counted out our change but had to go and get more change. He was gone several minutes. So my DH waited with his hand out in the exact same position as when Window guy gave the short-change. When Window guy came back he had our bags and tried to hand them to DH and say, "Have a good one!"

DH said, "You owe me another $20" and gestured with his hand that we were still waiting for our change.

Window Guy said, "Oh" and pulled a $20 out of his pocket and handed it to DH!

Please tell me you then went in and told a manager.

We were exhausted from a long drive. This place was in the middle of a loooong drive and our blood sugars had collectively tanked. But we've often regretted not telling the manager.

[Margo]

My most memorable scammer was one I had a few years back. I'm in the UK, and at the time (still now, although it's not as bad) there was a a problem with various gs and electricty companies 'switching' customers without their knowledge. The salesperson would call, ask about your gas / electricity bills and, under the guise of getting details in order to be able to send you offers, or details of how they would be a far better supplier, would get enough details to switch you to their company.

I had been doing some research and had decided to switch my supplier, to get my gas & electricty from one provider (many do a 'dual fuel' discount, so it is cheaper than having one gas and one electricty supplier). I'd decided which company, and which tarif, I wanted, but I hadn't got around to calling them to set up the switch. At the time, I was getting door-to-door salesmen several times a week, so I wasn't particularly surprised to open the door one evening to find a salesman from the company I'd already decided to switch to. I decided (after checking his ID) to let him in to hear what he had to say.

He took details of my enregy usage and told me that he would be able to get my costs lower (which I already knew) but didn't realise I could see that the numbers he was entering into his computer were lower than the ones I was giving him, so the result would be artificially low.

He then went into his speil about needing my details to let me have the full details and comparisons, and specifically told me that he was NOT switching me. I noticed how he had set up his clipboard so the clip covered the words ' contract for supply'. I signed, however, as I had already decided to go with this company on this tarif, before he ever knocked on the door.

At which point, as he got up to go, he asked me, chattily, what I did for a living. "I'm a lawyer" I explained "That's why I read what I signed" The conversation then went like this:
Him: "Oh"
"Er, perhaps there are one or two things I should mention"
Me: "Is one of them the fact you just got me to sign a contract, while telling me explicitly it wasn't a contract, and was for information only?"
Him : "Um. yes"
Me " And perhaps another was the bit about how the figures you gave me wen't based on the consumption details I gave you"
Him "Er, yes, that too"
Me: "Anything Else"
Him "um. no"

(Yes, I did call both the company, and local trading standards. Since I had the copy of the contract  I had, and was able to give them,  all his details.  I received a fulsome apology from the company, and they agreed to honour the (unrealistically low) figures he's given me, for the first year of my contract. I don't know whether he was fired or not, although I'm fairly sure that at that time it was something which all of the energy companies were actively encouraging their salesmen to do)

It made me better realize how people are caught out. I was 99% sure before he started that he was going to try to switch me, AND I have always been very cautious about signing anything, but he was VERY convincing .

[kherbert05]

Got a voice mail saying there was a problem with my insurance payment and to call specific number with 12 hours or I would be cancelled.They made it sound I had to call that number not my agent. My payments are automatic. I called my agent. They checked there was no problem. Now I just need to find out how to report the fraud to the state.

[weeblewobble]

One time we went to a McDonald's drive-thru to pick up some eats. The guy at the window had a very extroverted personality but I just got a feeling of hostility or condescension from him. My DH was driving and paid the guy with a $100 bill. Window guy counted out our change but had to go and get more change. He was gone several minutes. So my DH waited with his hand out in the exact same position as when Window guy gave the short-change. When Window guy came back he had our bags and tried to hand them to DH and say, "Have a good one!"

DH said, "You owe me another $20" and gestured with his hand that we were still waiting for our change.

Window Guy said, "Oh" and pulled a $20 out of his pocket and handed it to DH!

I posted a few weeks ago about one of the worst fast food drive-thru experiences I've had in a while.  The "highlight" was when I was owed $3.94 in change from paying with a $10.  The cashier, who I'd already had arguments with over what the menu actually said, gave me 94 cents in change, and then turned her back on me to talk to another employee.  When she turned back around to give me my drink, I reminded her that I was still owed $3 in change.  She acted put out and said, "Well, I've already closed my register." Meanwhile, her coworker was scrambling to hand her the register key to open it.

When she realized the coworker (and, I realized later, her manager) were watching, she started laughing hysterically and said, ""Yeah, I took her $3.  She caught me.  I'm trying to steal a whopping $3 from her." as if I was unreasonable for wanting me measly bit of money back. 

Overall, my experience was so bad, I am not going to write a complaint.  The manager and another coworker saw what happened.  I'm going to vote with my dollars and just not go back.

[2littlemonkeys]

My MIL doesn't use email much but she was initiated into the world of scams last week. 

BG: My ILs live with us.  We have an arrangement where I pay the utilities and they pay for food so we both put out about the same amount of money each month and aren't cut each other checks every month.  One of the utilities is our internet bill.  This particular bill is paid automatically each month and is current.  I have paid the bill forever and as far as I know, they don't even know my MIL exists, much less have her email address (it's one of the basic free ones...like yahoo, etc.).

One day last week, she was checking her email and came across one from our "internet provider," stating her bill was past due.  So she came to me and asked me if I forgot to pay the bill because she got that email and that I needed to give her my credit card info right away so she can make it right. 

It took some time to explain to her that it was a scam, it wasn't really coming from our provider and scammers were trying to get her credit card info. "But I don't even pay that bill!"  Uh, yeah, that's why all signs are pointing to phishing.

She was totally scandalized and had never heard of anyone doing that before.  DH had to make her promise to show him any other emails demanding payment before she filled out any forms because any legit request is not going to her yahoo account, it would come in the mail to our address.   I think I hit the point home when I told her about all of Yahoo emails I received for the alleged speeding tickets I got in upstate NY when I was really tucked safely into bed in IL. 

[otterwoman]

The NYS Thruway was the worst on trying to rip me off, but I couldn't avoid them! The toll booth workers were not expecting me to actually look at and count the change they gave me, even slipping in Canadian change. Fools! I can hear Canadian change when it hits my hand! Nice try! I always made them give me the correct change. (At the time, Canadian money was worth about 65 cents on the dollar, and they would discount Canadian when you gave it to them.)

[rose red]

This may not technically be a scam, but I can't say it's honest.  I went to Target this weekend and saw a huge end-self full of "product" with large and small labels priced $2.50, yet the small print shows that price is for a different size which is nowhere to be found. 

There was also a label for $2.00 covering the regular price for potato chips.  But that price is for baked potato chips, yet the label is covering the price of the regular non-baked chips.

This happens frequently at this store and I have learned to read the labels and do self-scan before going to the checkout.  But it's really deceiving and I'm sure there are people who trust the sign or who can't read English.