I just wanted to give a thanks to everyone who weighed in on the scam situation. After some legal advice, I’m not going to name the scammer (yet!) in a public forum until the case is resolved.
Anyway, I am perfectly willing to pass on her name/address /usernames via email if you think you have been scammed by this person. I am fully planning a “name and shame” in public after the case is settled, but it’s time to play my cards a little closer at the moment.
So, onto something more fun! A contest!
The prize is 10 bottles of Pa nail polish, (Japanese exclusive), four sheets of nail decals, some glittah, Pa hand cream, and three sachets of funky bath salts, plus some other fun funky goodies yet to be decided. This prize will have to go by sea-mail to your country. Open to all readers worldwide!
So, when life hands us scams, we’re going to make scam-ade! Let’s turn a huge bummer into something positive. Tell us the stupidest untrue excuse, lie or outright scam that you’ve personally experienced. One entry per person, please. Contest will go until June 9, 2010. This is going to be a cross-cultural experience- the winning answer will be chosen by two people: one American, one Japanese. If they can’t agree on a clear winner, we’ll have a third judge do a tiebreaker.
If you’re lucky enough never to have been scammed, cheated or lied to in your life, you can post the most deceptive advertisement you’ve ever seen and explain why it’s a scam. But I’m looking for personal experience here!
OK, here’s the stupidest lie I’ve been told in a while:
That Person Who Shall Not Be Named had her “mom” write me an email on her behalf and said she was involved with the Witness Protection Program, so it was difficult to communicate with me. She also mentioned that the Witness Protection program was forwarding mail to her. Uh….DUH! The entire point of the Witness Protection Program is that you disappear. I actually think she meant the Witless Protection Program, which is what you should join if you’re stupid enough to have goods you’ve fradulently obtained delivered to your actual home address.
All right everyone! Tell us your stories! The money may be long gone, but maybe you can get some Japan-only goodies out of it. I hope that can ease the pain a little. Shame those bad guys and win some nail polish!
NeverTooMuchGlitter Nail Wonderland 
For almost a year now, I’ve been working for a website a lot like ebay, except it operates out of Goodwill. I sold a woman a set of champagne glasses for about $20. After she got them, she emailed me about six times a day to tell me that they were ‘chipped’ on the inside rim, they cut her mouth, it was my fault, I needed to refund all her money, shipping, and handling, she wanted to keep the glasses, she was at least 70 years old and didn’t think that she should have to do anything to fix my mistake. Errr.
Yikes! I would have blocked her if that was an option, or perhaps told her to bring them to you for a refund. Then I would have smashed them in front of her and said, “Ha! NOW they’re broken!”
What a bogus “customer.”
The “best” lie that I was ever told was when some girl in Jr. Highschool wanted to get me in trouble. She told a particular teacher that I was selling my work out of our French grammar book (a total lie…I didn’t even like helping people, lol!) When it came down to it, and when we were in a meeting with the vice principal, she changed her story not once, not twice, but THREE times. Needless to say, I didn’t get in trouble…but I still don’t think she really got punished for her deception.
Boo! She should have been hung up by the ears for making trouble and telling lies. But that was at least a pretty creative lie.
I am just copy/paste-ing this from the other post. I didn’t realize until after that I wasn’t supposed to do that. =\
“But the worst excuse I was given…
I was supposed to go out with a friend for her birthday. She called the day of and told me her mother died and everything was canceled all while crying hysterically. So I sat at home all night. Looked at pictures from the party the next day, and also received a phone call from her mum asking why I wasn’t there… needless to say, her and I no longer talk, but her mum and I do. nice, aye?”
And the saddest thing ever just happened to me… Back story: I was leaving to visit my dying grandfather, just for a few days. And I had some family look after my bearded dragons while I was gone. One is about a year old, the other maybe 4 months. And while I was away, they had text me that they had fed them. I just got home about half an hour ago to find my baby beardie had died to starvation. I had to muster up the courage to do an autopsy by myself… Their texts went as follows: “Hey, just stopped in. Fed them both. The big one sure ate fast” “just stopped in again. the baby sure was hungry” And I just got off the phone with them… They told me that they had come every single day, even twice one day. Little do they know, I know for a fact that they didn’t come because our alarm system keeps track of when the door is opened, AND the containers of counted crickets were still full. All of them. Their excuse? “We had to go to the city (Edmonton) to visit grandpa” I was in the city the entire time. Was at the hospital with him every day all day.
Thanks for sharing your story! Sorry that the other post wasn’t clear- I’ve been feeling pretty emotional about being scammed, so I don’t think I wrote the instructions clearly.
And as for your bearded dragons, that is just absolutely hideous. Kick those “friends” in the box and don’t ever trust them again, ever. Maybe pour weed killer on their plants and burn their house down if they ever ask you to house-sit. I love bearded dragons and I’m so sorry that happened and for all the circumstances around it. 😦
Well after reading again, I realized what I did…
I don’t think I could do that, but I definitely won’t be talking to them for a long time. I live for my pets. They’re my children, so it was very heartbreaking. And thank you for your condolences. Very much appreciated.
This was actually recent:
Less than a month ago, I got into a traffic accident where I hit a stopped car at a red light. I’m not denying that it was my fault, and I took full responsibility for the situation. However, it was pretty far fetched for the woman to file an injury claim when I hit her at about 5-15 mph. Plus I had pictures of the accident, and the most noticeable “damage” on her car was a blue scratch; not even a dent. I’m still trying to deal with the insurance company because of her false claim
Ugh! Next she’ll be claiming “pain and suffering.” Ridiculous. Stake her house out and take photos of her lugging in groceries or doing aerobics (hmm, maybe I’ve been watching a bit too much Perry Mason.) Best of luck to you and I hope justice prevails!
I was scammed big time by Calypso Minerals. I paid and got wrong product. She offered to send the right one but it was never sent. When I gave up in getting my money back, she came back promising me (and lots of other victims) to settle all unfinished orders, just to crush my hope once again since she disappeared again and I haven’t heard anything back after that 😦
The whole story is on my blog http://sparkledbeauty.blogspot.com/search/label/Calypso, if you are interested.
That STINKS! Do a Paypal claim. Heaven knows everyone else does, valid or not. That will be your only way to get the $$ back. I’d like to see the Paypal system actually reward an honest claim. Use it- that’s what it’s there for!
Like I said in the post, paypal only looks at claim within 45 days. Over that time frame and you’re on your own 😦
When I was in Jr. High my mother told me about a guy in downtown LA (where she worked) who would scam people for money saying he was a messenger whose bike was stolen and needed money to get back to his office to report in. People would sometimes give him some change or a dollar or two and he would do this ALL DAY! She described him in detail. Well 9 years later, I was in college and out with my friends when a bike messenger guy approached us and proceeds to give us the same story, I immediately remembered my moms story and I pointed and screamed “I know you, your not a messenger, its a scam” He had a look of shock and took off running…it was hilarious! He looked just as my mother described and made a living scamming people for change!
Haha! “THe Mooching Messenger” must have been making pretty good money to go on that long! Plus he didn’t have to sit in an office all day. Hard to believe he pulled it off for almost a decade!
I used to manage an apartment complex, and in that time I learned that people will lie to you as you are watching them do the very thing they say they aren’t.
So anyway, for my story.
We did six month apartment inspections, we go into this one apartment and the vent over the stove and the walls are just black with soot. And the paint on the hood is scorched and peeling back. Clearly something has been on fire in this apartment on top of the stove. The man tells us, no that’s not what happened his wife just COOKS ON THAT BURNER A LOT. So whatever, we repaint, replace the hood and bill him because this is fishy stuff and clearly they are responsible as the oven didn’t have e mechanical malfunction and smoke the kitchen out or something.
Well weeks later someone down by their apartment calls me (we lived on site) saying that there was smoke billowing out of that apartment and the smoke detectors were going off. I go down there and there is a ton of smoke coming out of the apartment. But the lady is crouched down by the door with a giant scorched cooking pot with a brick down inside it with charcoal briquettes on it and a haphazard piece of grating over the top of the pot cooking some thin strips of beef.
Did I mention this was a SECOND story apartment? Yeah, lady was bbqing meat in a copper pot on top of her stove.
Words fail me. Did you get them evicted for a grossly dangerous activity that must be prohibited in the lease? Heck, even in Japan where ovens are really rare, we have little gas grills built into the stove for grilling fish and such. The BBQ thing is just over the top!
Maybe you could write a pitch and submit it to Hunt’s BBQ sauce for a commerical or something. “These people loved Hunt’s soooo much that they risked eviction to make BBQ!”
I told her she couldn’t do it anymore under no uncertain terms or she WOULD be evicted. Her husband came down and shouted at me about telling him what to do in his apartment. I was like dude you can’t set fire to things inside the building? Are you trying to kill us all.
Besides we allowed outside grills just not on the second story walk way which is a clear violation of the fire code as many might suspect 😀
I don’t have a story DARN IT! But I can’t wait for you to get his sorry excuse for a woman! And YES YES YES!!!!! you need to put all her info out there! You weren’t her first rodeo so she knew full well what she was doing was wrong! I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that she is acutally selling and making a profit off the stuff she is stealing from you! Go get her Jen! i got your back girl 🙂
*this not his – I was typing furiously!!
Yeah! Right on, sister! Let’s do a glitter-bomb tag team on her!
I’m gonna name her- with a PHOTO of her ugly self wearing MY nails…but after I get through convincing the DA that she should be prosecuted. Paypal theft is like bad checks and El Paso is currently cracking down on those.
What a creep. Nothing says “classy” like stealing your Christmas presents and holiday manicures from small-time artisans!
That scammer is such a sleaze. I just don’t understand how a person could do that do another person. There’s something seriously wrong with her, that’s all I can say. Best of luck with the case!
My story’s not a scam, but it’s features a pretty lousy lie. 😀
When I was in kindergarten, I knew this girl who was my semi-friend. (You’ll see why she was only “semi” in a moment.) She used to come up to me during recess when I was playing with my other friend, and demand that I go and play with *her* instead. I refused. So she went and told the teacher I had hit her. This got me put in time-out, of course. I had to go stand against the fence near the teachers and couldn’t play at all.
This went on *all year.* I refused to let her blackmail me, but I also didn’t say anything to the teachers because I figured nobody would believe me (her word against mine, no evidence); but towards the end of the school-year I finally told my mom and she went down to the school and put a stop to it. But I remember it all really well, even though it was nearly twenty years ago now.
The really hilarious thing is that I remained friends with this girl all through elementary school! Granted, we often got into fights, buuuut. I still can’t really hold it against her, because we were five, but you just don’t forget something like that.
Oh no! I can just imagine the scene at the schoolyard! Boo! The teachers must not have been too sharp if they got fooled by this the whole year!
She might have been five at the time, but tigers don’t change their stripes! This girl had emotional blackmail down to a science in kindergarten. I feel sorry for her future romantic partners, that’s for sure. Eep!
Hi, this story refers to my father but we are all living in it now… 😦
One months ago, a family called looking for my father (he is a carpenter) and they wanted a canopy for their new house. I made a quote before the work and they said: no, too much money! We will paint it, you will only do it, carry it to our hose, assemble it and itìll be ok. I did not write again a quote, I didn’t think it would be necessary. My father called two other carpenter, they made the work, he bought the paint and the customer painted himself. My father finished the work in 5 days, he came back at home and the same evening the customer called at the phone: “What’s that?!?! you made a bad work! I don’t like it. I’ll not pay you!” my father asked why and the customer:” I don’t like the painting! It’s not done well!!I’llnot pay!” Then there was an argue, my father was terribly in anger, he was not his fault but the customer said that he was wrong accepting not painting (he made it to help the customer about the final cost) and that for the law he done the work because it was written on the quote. My father now has spent about 1 000 euros for thw wood and materials, another 1000 to pay the other two carpenters… we are desperate… we are not able to reach the customers, they dont answer to the phone, we don’t know where the first house is… We are thinking about legal action but it is very expencive… I hate them. If i could, i will put the beam in their a**!
Your father should chop off the work with a big chainsaw!
That’s terrible. A lot of people try to cheat builders and carpenters. I hope the situation gets resolved soon!
thank you… We hope so…
I live on a college campus, and across the street is a center with various restaurants and a grocery store. There’s an elderly lady who sits in a wheelchair begging for money in the center … but I’ve seen her drive her car there to set up her spot. She’s also said numerous times to people that she has a rich son, although I’m not sure whether or not that’s true. It’s horrible because you feel so guilty at first, but once you find out she has a car, it pretty much ruins that.
Hmm, if I had a rich relative I don’t think I’d mention it in that case! Kinda turns down the sympathy level a bit. There are so many hustlers begging for money that I don’t give it- I offer them food if I have any, which they usually don’t want. I was in San Francisco and it was just plain ridiculous. Scam!
I’m so sorry you had to deal with unscrupulous people. That’s the chance you take when buying online. Thank God I haven’t had any problems. I buy everything online. I was in high school when this happened. I was at my girlfriends apartment visiting and her Mom and Dad were home. This girl knocks on my friends door looking for me. Her Father came to get me to talk to the girl. This girl who I didn’t know accused me of going after her boyfriend. This guy was my good friend & there wasn’t any romantic feelings between us. This girl was ready to fight me. She wasn’t even his girlfriend. Someone put her up to doing this as some kind of sick joke. My girlfriends Mother finally came out to see what was going on and told the girl to get the hell out of here. She was a sheriff’s officer and in uniform. I was just a nice shy idiot standing there trying to talk to this girl. I don’t know what the purpose was in this. Just shook me up as I wasn’t a fighter. It was a ridiculous situation and lie about me. Still this makes me feel uncomfortable which is crazy. Thanks for this giveaway. Crazy how things in your youth still affect you.
Wow, that sounds frightening and confusing. I’ve been in situations like that where I was so surprised at the time I didn’t know WHAT to do. I too, tried to talk it out or reason with people before realizing that wasn’t what they wanted. Glad to hear the sherrif’s officer was conveniently on the scene! Those incidents are always shocking and scary no matter when and how they happen.
I’ve been very, very lucky so far-other than roommates who feel that since they leave a few days early they should have to pay less rent when they move out (uh hello, I can’t rent out that room for 10 days you dummy) I haven’t been burned too badly. A long time ago I bought a bottle of tanning lotion off of ebay and because I was new I didn’t realize that it doesn’t take 2 months to ship from the U.S. so I was unable to recover my money. I left negative feedback, and the seller was still a registered user and so left some for me! A few days later ebay suspended his account. What I imagine happened is that he was selling stock he didn’t even have yet and when his source dried up he didn’t bother refunding. Lesson learned.
The things that make me the most ill are people who prey on the elderly. Most of them are on a limited fixed income and can’t afford to be fleeced of thousands or even hundreds of dollars.
Boo! EvilBay! I used to use it a lot back in the day but I got ripped off so many times I just gave up. Now the sellers just use stock photos and you have no idea of what you’re really getting- if anything! I got burned buying a kind of limited edition perfume. They had the bottle of the perfume I wanted on the listing- the limited one- and they sent me the much cheaper regular version and refused to refund my money. Plus they were nasty about it. So, been there, done that.
Elderly abuse is the pits. My mom is a nursing home administrator and it’s amazing what people will do with Mom and Dad’s money when they aren’t competent enough to know what’s going on. If people will steal from their elderly relatives, then there is no hope for them.
hmmm… worst scam ever? not hard. my husband delivers news papers, and so drives around from about 3-6 am. in the same part of this one neighborhood there is a man, in his 40’s, he lives with his parents because he is mentally handicapped. he likes to play chicken with people who drive by, no joke, he runs in front of the cars. many different paper carriers have called the police to report this, in effort for the parents to take better care of him, you know, actually try to keep him in the house, not running out in front of cars in the middle of the night. finally, a couple of weeks ago, the inevitable happened. my husband hit this poor man with the car. he swerved to miss him, but caught in the legg. he stopped, called 911, did everything right. the police know who the other man is and said *yes, we know he does this all the time. you did everything you could NOT to hit him, we are reporting that the accident is NOT YOUR FAULT.* we have insurance that is willingly paying all the man’s hospital/doctor bills. then we get a call from our car insurance company saying the man’s mom wants to SUE US!!!! i’m not kidding, this is a true story.
Wow! What a nightmare. Maybe the police can submit a statement on behalf of your dad. I’m glad the man wasn’t hurt worse, but he could kill motorists if they swerve to avoid him. His guardians should be charged with negligence at the least. Hope it all turns out well.
Oh, I guess what I was thinking of then is filling a claim with the credit card company that is linked to your Paypal account (if that was the case), rather than Paypal directly. You have a long time to do that- the credit card company tells Paypal to freeze the sum while they investigate. If you paid via bank account, you might be out of luck. Sorry to hear that!
i used to have this best friend when i was young, did everything together, shared everything together and i also told her all my secrets, including the boy i liked. One day, we were supposed to go out together, but at the last minute, she called me to say that she was feeling unwell and couldn’t go out with me. Since i need to get somethings urgently, i went out alone instead to the nearby mall instead of going to town as planned earlier. I even bought some porridge, intending to bring it to her since her parents were on holidays and she was all alone. And what happened? I saw her and my crush at the mall, talkng and laughing happily and they walked into the cinemas together! But i didn’t want to confront her in front of my crush. so that evening, i called her and asked if she was feeling alright, and she had the cheek to tell me that she was feeling so weak that she can’t even get off bed! I was so pissed obviously and told her i saw her at the mall, she insisted that it was not her at all and scolded me for doubting her. I trusted her and thought that perhaps i saw wrong? However, the next day at school, my crush came up to us and passed my best friend her jacket, which she supposingly left it in his car yesterday when they went out. I was shocked beyond words, the lying b*itch! seriously? i would just appreciated if she had told me the truth, not only did she cancel our outing because of a guy but also went out with the guy that i liked and i had liked him for the longest time ever and she knew it from day 1! Previously, we liked the same guy but because i knew that she liked him, i backed off. Also, ironically, some time later, i had become good friends with my crush’s best friend due to some project we worked on together and apparently, my ex-best friend had bad mouthed me infront of my crush and also previously i had asked my best friend to pass gifts that i got my crush cos i was afraid of doing it myself and she had claimed that those gifts were from her. Needlessly to say, after this incident, i had stopped talking to her, in fact, ever since then, i was quite wary of others and had unconciously build up a natural barrier against people, i never dare to trust anyone 100% again which was quite sad and had some issues with friends who had felt my barrier against them, but what was I to do. It was to protect myself and prevent from getting hurt.
and not only that, she had also owned me money as she wanted to get a branded bag and was short of cash and since we were such good friends, i lent her willingly. after that incident, i asked her to return me the money one day as i need the money to get my cousin a birthday present and you know what? she claimed that she didn’t borrow any $ from me at all and that the bag was a gift from me and i should not ask back for the things that i gift others and i was a miser for doing so! seriously, i never knew that she would become such a scary person and i had lent her $750+ which was seriously not a big sum. I told her mum about it and her mum called me a liar and that her daughter wouldn’t do such a thing and even complained to my mum that i tried to scam $ from her. Luckily, my mum knew me better than to trust her words and even retorted back to her and hanged up on her eventually. Humans are quite scary sometimes, don’t you agree?
This person is a toxic user. Better to be rid of her- I bet she continues the same pattern all her life and will wonder why she has no friends. I have also lent money to friends and had it turn out poorly- I never did it again- too dangerous.
*not a small sum
thanks, i know right. i heard from mutual friends a few months later, my crush and her broke up cos she was constantly lying. so i guess, it’s retribution? Oh, but i actually don’t mind lending money to friends if they need it, as long as they will return, i’m fine with that. For example, i was meeting a spree-er to pass her somethings that she got from me and i saw something that i knew she would love so i texted her to ask if she wanted it, and paid up first. Actually i had experienced a scam from another friend as well, and the most ironic thing was, this friend is rich but borrowed some money from me cos she forgot to bring her wallet out and of cos i don’t mind lending because i thought that she would return me. so i paid up first and she said she will interbank the $ to me, and a few days later, she texted me and said she had transferred the money. Since interbank transfers takes some time, i trusted her and waited, but one week later (interbank usually takes up to 3-5 days), still no signs of any deposits made by her, so i called her and let her know about this, then she say that there is no reason and she will call up the bank to check, a few days later, she called me and asked me for my bank account and say that she will go down to the bank personally to tell the bank. And then she disappeared for a few weeks. With no news from her for so long later, i fb-ed her and asked her for the money cos i need it urgently to get something, and know what? She say that she will transfer soon, but obviously, no news from her again. Then i was seriously quite pissed off at this point of time but the irony is that it is not that she doesn’t have money, but why then, did she not want to return me? so, i’ve decided to meet up with her for shopping as well as for her to return me the money in cash (no more bank transfer this time), but then on that day we were supposed to go out, before going out, i called her to see where she was, but she didn’t answer the phone, feeling suspiscious, i didn’t step out of the house and kept calling her but to no avail. in the end, three days later, she called me and said that she wasn’t feeling well that day. wow, really? since then, i’ve given up all hopes of getting my money back, it’s quite a painful & expensive experience. While i still do lend money to my friends who need it, (afterall if this could help a friend out, why not right?) but i’m more selective this time round, only to those who i’m very close to.
Hmm, I recommend you don’t lend money that you aren’t willing to lose! You must have a kind heart but don’t let people take advantage of you!
My school rips off students. I attend a top public university (which I will not name) that scams students who tried to get ahead during high school. Basically, to have gotten an edge to get in the school, most students have a large number of units that technically counts towards their degree from taking AP exams.
But, the school isn’t willing to deduct those units when counting the maximum number of units you can have before you must declare your graduation candidacy. So basically a bunch of units that won’t count towards your degree forces you to declare very early on. (Most of the units are worthless since they can’t count towards anything, just pads your unit count) This results in a lot of students having to declare when they will graduate in their 1st or 2nd year! Try predicting how many more years you need after taking only 1 year of college! Otherwise, you end up paying a $20 penalty fee!!
Pretty much everyone gets hit with it at least once (including me), since they charge you the same amount if you declared then change it. The school claims they can’t distinguish units from before entering and units after entering, which is untrue since you can see it in your unofficial transcript!!
Also, if your department decides to slack off and enters your independent studies classes after the deadline, you end up paying the late fee for “adding your class late”. Sure, it’s only a few dollars, but the fact that I did everything on time, by their rules, and then they screwed up and charged me was totally wrong.
There’s fees for pretty much everything! You can try to get fee waivers, but they’re rarely granted. You can’t fight it either. And if you refuse to pay something, they’ll just prevent you from signing up for the next term’s classes or withhold your diploma… so you can’t really not pay up.
Sadly, this is nothing really new. I graduated from college…well, a few years ago..and the FEES were more than the tuition. t was ridiculous. But I think AP credits should count as real credit. It seems disadvantageous to even mention those credits at all. University really is blackmail. It’s far too expensive in the US!
Ahh, i think i’m too late for this contest, ONE DAY LATE! :O
haha, anyway. i’m sorry to hear about your incident
i don’t think i’ve ever scammed or lied to before..
well i HAVE been lied to but they were huge lies which could of changed my life forever and everyone around me could be affected and blahblahblah.
anyway, good luck to those who entered though! 🙂