S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[paige =^..^=]

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.

Hobby Lobby does this, too. They'll have a product on sale, and the product comes in multiple sizes or varieties. So they'll set up an endcap with a big sign that says "Product 50% off" and in tiny little print "does not include variety X." Nine times out of ten the endcap behind the sign is filled with variety X, even though there are multiple other varieties that are on sale that could have been placed there. I've seen this with multiple things, which is why I'm saying "product" instead of whatever. I notice it most with candles. I've told the employees that I find that practice misleading, but nothing changed.

Yup! We went to Hobby Lobby for clear glass ornaments to decorate.  There was a huge display with a 50% off sign, and we grabbed 8 boxes.  When we finally got to the cashier, she leaned over to us and half-whispered that *these* glass ornaments were not the ones on sale.  The blue boxes were on sale, not these silver ones.  Not only were the silver ones not on sale, they were more expensive than the regular price of the blue ones. 

We decided not to buy them, and the cashier just nodded and mumbled something about them using both blue and silver boxes to make a pretty display, even though the sign didn't technically apply to both products.  I can only imagine the other customers' confusion, let alone the SS meltdowns the poor cashier must have seen that week.  Can't blame her at all for warning people about the price differences; the store's being sneaky and she's on the front line taking all the abuse.    

[ica171]

My fantastic luck continues, you guys! Today DH and I got a letter that we've won two airline tickets anywhere in the continental US, up to $1300! The website of the company in the letter doesn't actually work or have any information, and if I google the number I find out that they want me to attend some sort of seminar, but I'm sure it's legit.

I'm pretty sure this is the first scam letter we've received via snail mail. I was surprised that scammers still sent letters, but then I realized that people are probably catching on to email scams or getting them filtered out, so my guess is this way has a better chance of snaring someone even if you do have to pony up for postage.

[Outdoor Girl]

I got the famous Windows virus scam over the weekend.  So I said 'I don't have a Windows computer.  Please take me off your calling list and stop trying to scam me.  Thank you so much.' Click.

Anybody else getting these 'Air Duct Cleaning' calls?  I got 3 or 4 calls in one day a while back.  I asked for a supervisor and got told 'My supervisor is dead.'  Really?  Take me off your flipping calling list.  I got one of those calls this weekend, too.  As soon as they identified themselves, I just hung up.  I'm done being polite.

[Elfmama]

"Your company wants to clean my air ducts?  Honey, I'll pay you $5000 for every air duct in my house that you clean." 

[CakeEater]

Moochers of the year 2012: my brother and his family.  They are continually claiming to be poor because they spend their money on things for themselves (constant ordering out because they don't want to cook, for instance).  None of them are able to hold a job for very long, partially because they all think they're the best thing since sliced bread and the world should fall and worship at their feet.

My mother gives them very nice Christmas gifts (usually cash actually).  They actually gave her a Christmas gift this year too... one of those cards that, if you use your store credit card, you get $10 per $100 spent put back on this gift card.  But you have to use it in a certain week and I'm sure you have to buy a minimum amount. But my brother is at least supposed to take Mom to the store to do this shopping.  We'll see. So it means they spent $200 at this department store on themselves and got her gift for free(that doesn't sell ANYTHING they couldn't have gotten way cheaper at Walmart).

Mom's birthday is near Christmas, and she decided to take brother and family out for dinner.  They suggested a steakhouse.  She assumed they'd all order appetizers to share (poor naive mom).  Brother and family all ordered steak and lobster.

And they didn't give Mom anything for her birthday.  Not a card even.

If I was still talking to my brother he'd get an earful.  As it is I am glad I was there to hug Mom when she cried afterwards.

Ohh, give her an extra hug from me.

[DaisyG]

I got the famous Windows virus scam over the weekend.  So I said 'I don't have a Windows computer.  Please take me off your calling list and stop trying to scam me.  Thank you so much.' Click.

My computer runs Ubuntu Linux. Someone phoned trying the Windows virus scam and told me off as they said all PCs run Windows underneath everything and I must not know what I was talking about.

[cicero]

just heard this one the other day -  a co worker and i were kvetching about our aging parents etc and he said how you have to be so careful that they don't fall for scams. he told me that his sister works in an assisted living place with full 24/7 nurse coverage and emergency buttons in each unit that connected to their own medical team.

one day, she noticed that one of the clients had an added service - emergency buttons that called out to a "X service" (well known outside service). she asked the client why they had that and client said that the salesperson kept calling him and calling him and he didnt' know how to get rid of him so he got the service that he didn't need because he already had the same kind of service.

thankfully , this person was in a facility so my co worker's sister immediately contacted the client's son who not only got the father off the service but made them reimburse him.

[Luci45]

In the '90s, my dad was conned into paying extra for digital cable service when he only had an analog TV and the signals were all analog anyway. He paid for the cable company to convert the original signal to digital, send it to his house and then had a converter to change it back to analog. (I know 'digital' is the correct term, but not sure about 'analog'. Now, of course, digital has taken over, so this wouldn't happen.)

Then, Reader's Digest sent him extra notices about my subscription's being ready to expire even after he had renewed it, so for a year I got two issues. Fortunately, my name got misspelled from 'Luci' to 'Lucy' so I knew which it was. I never told him because I didn't want to embarrass him over a few bucks and knew his time was coming to an end. (That was 8 years ago, and I still get ads for 'Lucy' sometimes, so I know Reader's Digest has sold my name and address.) Reader's Digest also kept sending him stuff he ordered to get the free item and then forget to cancel. Once I just packed it all up, mailed it back to to them and told them what I thought of that practice. He did NOT get charged for those items, so I have to give them kudos for that! He never opened anything that came without asking me again so at least I didn't have to pay for the postage after that.

There was a lady who was renting a Princess Phone from a phone company since the '50s. When she died in the '90s, she still had the phone but was paying $2.50 a month for all those years. (That was a news story - I can't site the source.)

We noticed we were paying repair insurance on our phone lines through our phone bill every month, so I stopped it after about 2 years. Then 30 years later, we had a problem. The service representative was rather stern with me when pointing out that if the problem was in the home, we would have to pay for the service call, but if we had been paying this free repair item it would be no charge. I pointed out how long ago we had stopped the fee and that we never had a problem. so paying for the service call would still be money ahead. I simply said, "You do the math." His answer was, "Oh." ( I do realize that if we had, for example, a mouse probem, the fee would have been worth it.)

We were also paying for 'free' light bulbs through the electric company. My father-in-law was, too, and he loaded up on the allowed 'free' bulbs (which had had paid for, of course) he got occasionally and passed them on to us. I stopped that fee, and after he passed away, I started buying light bulds as needed. We were money ahead by the time the service was discontinued, even on our own.

These are all little things in the great scheme of preying on people, but they really do add up, and it really burns me. I often wonder what little things I'm missing now. Not all these are scams, but they really feel like it sometimes. Read the fine print!

[rose red]

The Reader's Digest story remind me.  There was a series of magazines called True Story, True Confessions, etc.  One day, the magazine stopped coming.  Googling the title led to a forum where it happened to many people.  The company apparently went of of business or something, but they kept cashing checks for subscriptions right till the end.  There were no notices or warnings or refunds (some pre-paid for several years ahead).  They just disappeared off the face of the planet.

[ACBNYC]

I love Reader's Digest, but they send URGENT RENEWAL NOTICES constantly. Since I didn't remember when I had originally subscribed, I would occasionally write a check without looking at prior payments. I'm now paid up through 2016, as I wasn't renewing so much as extending!

[Elfmama]

just heard this one the other day -  a co worker and i were kvetching about our aging parents etc and he said how you have to be so careful that they don't fall for scams. he told me that his sister works in an assisted living place with full 24/7 nurse coverage and emergency buttons in each unit that connected to their own medical team.

My parents are in such a facility.  The emergency calls are pullchains, hanging on the wall.  If a resident falls and breaks a hip or some such other emergency, they may not be able to reach the emergency signal. 

[siamesecat2965]

I love Reader's Digest, but they send URGENT RENEWAL NOTICES constantly. Since I didn't remember when I had originally subscribed, I would occasionally write a check without looking at prior payments. I'm now paid up through 2016, as I wasn't renewing so much as extending!

They all do this, and it drives me batty. I subscribed to Vanity Fair, last Jan, for 2 years. so my subscription is good through Jan 2014. Yet not three months after I first sent my payment in, I was getting these urgent notices taht my subscription was about to expire, blah, blah, blah,and I must take advantage of this fabulous deal. I've found that each notice, even though its in small print and you have to hunt for it, will tell you exactly when your subscription will expire.

[Thipu1]

I love Reader's Digest, but they send URGENT RENEWAL NOTICES constantly. Since I didn't remember when I had originally subscribed, I would occasionally write a check without looking at prior payments. I'm now paid up through 2016, as I wasn't renewing so much as extending!

Ah yes, the LAST ISSUE or FINAL NOTICE notifications.  We get those all the time.

  It's humorous because these are services and publications to which we have never subscribed.  We know we are not being charged for them and we have never even heard of some of these things. 

MIL gets the Reader's Digest URGENT RENEWAL NOTICES on a regular basis.  this is odd because she was given a life-time subscription about 40 years ago.  They may be getting desperate.

[jedikaiti]

I love Reader's Digest, but they send URGENT RENEWAL NOTICES constantly. Since I didn't remember when I had originally subscribed, I would occasionally write a check without looking at prior payments. I'm now paid up through 2016, as I wasn't renewing so much as extending!

They all do this, and it drives me batty. I subscribed to Vanity Fair, last Jan, for 2 years. so my subscription is good through Jan 2014. Yet not three months after I first sent my payment in, I was getting these urgent notices taht my subscription was about to expire, blah, blah, blah,and I must take advantage of this fabulous deal. I've found that each notice, even though its in small print and you have to hunt for it, will tell you exactly when your subscription will expire.

I've also found that it's usually somewhere in the address block of both the notices and the magazines themselves. I always look at that now, and toss out any renewal notices that come before the last month of my subscription. :-)

[ica171]

I can't remember which magazine it was now, but I remember getting an "urgent renewal notice" before I had even received the first issue of the magazine. It was paid at the time I subscribed so it wasn't like they were asking for the first payment, they wanted me to renew.