Scams

[vorlon13]

Your room might . . . .

[DramaQueen]

Get messy???

[jesus_wept]

This isn't me but last week a retired bloke who lives down the road from me had some "Irish people" to do his driveway, he paid them half up front and they set about doing his drive. Now they didn't do a good job because they were meant to dig it out bit didn't and just laid the Tarmac on top.of the old drive, so its now a couple of inches higher than it was before and drains onto the house so it needs redoing. But to make things worse they also talked him into painting his house, it rained after and ruined his and his neighbours drive, fixing his roof and patching up his rendering. All in all they quoted him £10000, and like an idiot he paid £5000 up front and, to cut this long story short, they downed tools, left the completely bodged job and buggered off with his money. Never to be seen again. Although he did ring them up to ask when they'll be back to finish and collect their tools, and they told him to piss off and keep the tools. But then came back a few nights later, broke into his garage and stole their tools back (and some of his).

The moral.of this story, don't pay cash upfront (reputable tradesmen (like myself) want paying after the job is done) and don't get the gypsies to tarmac your drive because they'll scam you and you'll never see them, or your money, ever again.

[vorlon13]

Nope, unless you count stuff like religion.
I've never been in a situation where i might get scammed. I'm an eighteen years who doesn't own much (my room can't get messy, it looks newish. Some westerners will say it lacks personality)

You don't lack personality.

And as for your room, you laying naked face down on the bed would give your room quite a bit of personality

[paulpablo]

I've got something to add to this now.


The people who I'm buying a car from really really want me to take their offer of finance.

This means I don't have to pay for the car outright I just pay a bit each month, but I think why should I do that if I can afford to pay for the car.

Psychologically it feels good to have the money stay in my account with only a bit going out each month but I can just pay myself back the money I would be giving them and not have to pay the interest they're asking for.

They made a case that sounded convincing, something to do with how I'm buying something that depreciates in value and so on, when I could put the money I have to something that appreciates in value instead.

I don't know much about money but I do know I want a car and I don't have enough to buy my own home, and I just want to pay for and own my own fucking car.

(I know I put in my first post I was already going through with the finance way of buying the car but I realized I never signed a contract to go through with that and so I called the car people and told them I changed my mind about doing it that way and I want to just buy it.)

Anyone else know anything about this subject? Right now I'm just going to go in and pay for the car, no weird finance deals where I'm getting stuck with charges with no idea what they're even for. The finance deal they're offering isn't even bad but an additional factor is they charge you £400 just to get the deal started, £199 for the first and last payments of the monthly charges. I still haven't been given a good explanation as to what these are for and I don't want to call them up and ask because I'll have to sit through another hour of listening to a used car salesman talk bullshit and use long technical words designed to confuse.

[Angrboda]

A couple years ago I was ordering stuff from a shop in Japan. The total came to $133, which I ordered primarily because they were offering free shipping that week. They didn't have an electronic payment option offered, so in order to pay, I had to send them a personal check. (I know, bad move.) Anyway, after they received my check, they emailed me back and said that the bank had subtracted a $35 processing fee. They suggested that I could send them the additional funds or accept a partial order. Typical scam. I'm just sure they were making up the "free shipping" on the back end by this way. At first I was confused about what to do. They had my money and I was in a vulnerable position. Well, I decided to email them back, threatening to complain to everybody from Japanese customs to the U.S. postal inspector general if they didn't send my order. They emailed back that they would send the order as requested. I was still in a vulnerable position because I had not requested any tracking or insurance on the order. I envisioned my order getting "lost in the mail" and them just pocketing my money. But that didn't happen. They sent the order as promised. I still don't know whether they were or were not trying to scam me as I never verified the processing fee charges with their bank (in France of all places). I'm just glad things worked out well. Lesson learned, I guess.