Scams, one word that can make every person cry, news reporters cry with joy, people who were scammed cry in agony, people who read scams cry in amusement.
Well, all this because some people were smarter than the other people. So how can you avoid scams in your daily life, how can you possibly find out a scam and a truth?
It's simple, you observe. But it's simple but not easy. You have to be more than just attentive, more than just clever and more than just know-it-all to spot a scam and avoid it.
Here we are listing some of the greatest scams of all time, that happened with people due to their inefficiency to think and act. So sit back and enjoy reading people getting fooled :)
#1. Locked
A
guy buys a new, nice bicycle that he has always wanted for years. On
his way home, everybody gives him wonderful compliments on how stylish
and elegant his bicycle is.
He reckons the
thieves in his neighborhood will surely try to steal the coveted
vehicle, so he stops at a nearby market and buys 5 locks to lock it when necessary. Better safe than sorry, he says to himself.
One
day, he leaves his bicycle outside, locks it with the 5 locks, comes
inside to get some stuff, comes back out, unlocks all the 5 locks but
then he notices that there’s one more little lock. It looks strange,
certainly not his.
“Must be my wife’s. She’s more cautious than I think,” he says to himself.
So
he runs back in to ask his wife, “Hey, I appreciate your concern but 5
locks are enough, no need for one more. Now give me the key to your
lock, I’m running late.”
“What lock? I don't have any lock.”
Horrified, he rushes out but the bike is gone. The 6th lock is the thief’s and needless to say he's gone with the bicycle.
#2. Hospital Scams
So there is a boy whose
bike skid on the wet road and he sustained minor injuries. Some facial
scratches and a blow to his shoulder. To rule out anything serious, his
parents took him to a reputed Mumbai hospital.
What happened next is a
common, if not cleverest, scam that happens in the medical world.
Since
it was late in the evening, past 10 o’clock, he was taken to emergency
casualty. Parents were made to wait out. They advised a CT scan. Reports
were normal.
Then the hospital personnel asked the parents to keep
their son for overnight observation! On being asked why was it required,
since all his reports were normal and injuries were only superficial,
they were told that it was precautionary.
The parents refused. Next they
were billed for a specialist’s visit.. an orthopaedic surgeon, who
wasn’t even present in the hospital at that time and had not checked the
boy!
On being questioned, the staff said that the doctor shall be
checking the child tomorrow (next day) What kind of logic is that?!
This is a scam that most hospitals indulge in.
- They falsely bill for specialists. Especially in ICU and casualty. Most of the time people are too stressed to check whether the charge is justified or not.
- They conduct procedures which may not be required.
- They make the patients undergo tests in specific labs, thereby ensuring their cut!
- They force people to be kept in the hospital for observation! Mostly unwarranted.
- They bill according to the category of the room. Bills are inflated for superior category.
- The doctors prescribe expensive medicines/vaccines when cheaper and quality substitutes are available.
Medicine
is a noble profession and people trust hospitals to provide them with
the best possible treatment. To break this trust and scam people is
abhorrent!
#3. Watch Out For Bali Island!
In Bali there are a lot of normal shops and shacks that exchange money. You’ll see signs like these everywhere: (below is a story of couple who were about to be scammed in Bali)
Some shops have much better rates than the “official” money exchangers, which are big places devoted to only money exchange.
We
got into one of those shops and asked to exchange some USD (I dont
remember the exact amount, but I think it was $500). The rate was around
13,000 IDR to $1
The guy starts counting
the money, counting each million in its own stack and laying them on the
table in front of me. Then finally pulled them all together, and gave
them to me. There was some change involved so he called for a guy behind
us to get him some coins.
Then right before
we left, my wife sensed something wrong, she told me to count the money
again. I didn't think that was necessary, I had just counted each stack
after the guy. But I did anyway.
Lo and
behold, the amount I had in my hand was now 5.5 mil instead of 6.5 mil. A
FULL million rupiahs was missing (around $76 at the time).
Realising what just happened and wanting to get it over with, I tell the guy at the counter to check again, perhaps a stack “fell into the drawer or something”.
So he got all nervous, and then said they cant exchange for us today. We took our $ and left.
Went
to another shop, but now armed with the previous knowledge, I counted
our USD in front of him, then kept it on my side of the table.
Then
amusingly watched him do the same card trick. Count each stack and place
it on the table.
But this time every time he counted a stack, I would take it, count it, then place it on my side of the table directly under me.
After
he finished counting and all was well, he seemed pretty annoyed. Then
he told us that he forgot to mention there was a 10% commission!
Of course we refused that. And he said the same line, they cannot exchange for us today. And we took our USD again.
At the end, we went to an official exchange place, where we got a lower rate, but at least they didn't try to scam us.
#4. Police Has Your Wallet
Here is one you could easily fall for - clever and effective for scammers. It just happened to one of my readers and it’s called the “Police Has Your Wallet” scam. It could happen to you in EVERY city you stay at a hotel. Here is how it works quickly, as fully exposed below:
After
pick pocketing tourists of their wallet, the crooks follow the victims
to see what hotels they’re staying at. Then they call the hotel, asking
to talk to the victim, as they know their full name from the wallet.
The
thief then pretends to be an officer from the local Police station.
“Someone found your wallet and dropped it off here”, he says. The victim
will be directed to come down in a few hours to pick his wallet up.
At
this point the victim will feel a huge sense of relief, put his heart
back in his chest and relax a little. Minutes later, the robbers call
again and this time impersonate a rep from the victim’s bank, using the
cards found in the wallet.
They allege they
were just informed by the police about the situation and continue on to
ask about canceling the cards. But before they do they will need to
confirm the name and address, birth date, PIN, etc. And it's the PINs
they want so they can get some cash fast.
Chances are the victim won't be worried much anymore, because they think they've gotten lucky and their wallet was found.
#5. Still, Do Not Try This!
Not sure it was ever actually attempted, but it is stupidly simple.
Step 1: Get an email list of as many people as you can. (Let’s say it’s around one million people)
Step 2: Divide the list in half.
Step 3: Email half the list saying team x is going to win the next big game.
Step 4: Email the other half saying team y is going to win the next big game.
Step 5: Wait for the results of the game.
Step 6: Remove everyone from the list who received the incorrect prediction.
Step 7:Repeat steps 2 - 5 nine more times.
At
this point, you will have a list of just under 1000 people who have
received dead on predictions for 10 consecutive games. Now it’s time for
the final step.
Step 8: Send the remaining list the following email:
Dear sucker,
You’ve
seen 10 accurate predictions in a row now. There’s only a 1/1024 chance
of us randomly guessing those wins. You know this isn’t luck. We know
for a fact who will win every game beforehand.
To be notified of who will win the next 10 games, simply send $5000 to yourmoneysaremine@paypal.com
Sincerely,
Guy you’ll never hear from again
It’s just as brilliant as it is evil!
#6. Get Your Shoes Right
A man in India ordered for a expensive traditional pair of shoes.
The
order arrived and he decided to wear them on a festival. He reached
temple with his special shoes walking cautiously, keeping his shoes
clean.
At temple he got worried because here
in India we have to leave our shoes outside the gate of temple. Looking
at the crowd and bulk of shoes at gate of the temple he got anxious
because of fear of someone stealing his special shoes.
He
thought of a plan, as without the pair, lone shoe will be useless, he
left one shoe at the gate of temple and hid another shoe in bushes under
a tree. Then he went into temple.
Now comes
the thief, he saw the dazzling shoe which appeared completely
distinguished from the whole bulk of shoes. He picked up the shoe and
started looking for the second shoe.
After searching with his all effort
he did not find the second shoe. He was disappointed but he was not
willing to give up with such an extra-ordinary shoe.
He kept one shoe in
his bag and stood near the gate of the temple waiting for the owner of
special shoe. The thief knew, when owner will not find one shoe the
second shoe will be useless to him, so owner will leave his single shoe
and thief will pick that up to complete the pair.
The
owner of shoe came out of temple after completing his worship and got
downhearted after not finding his one shoe. He took out the hidden shoe
and left the temple. Thief followed him expecting that owner will dump
that lone shoe.
After few kilometers of
walking, owner stopped at a local shoemaker. Thief was still following
him, he was just not willing to give up. The owner asked shoemaker to
prepare a copy of the shoe to complete the pair and gave the one shoe
for reference and advance money to him and left.
Thief stopped following him and went back.
After few days, the owner arrived to shoemaker’s shop to get his complete pair of shoes.
The shoemaker told him, “On
the next day of your last visit, your son came to the shop with other
shoe of the pair and said that you have found the second shoe and now I
don’t need to craft such shoe for you.
So I gave back your shoe and
advance money to him”.
The owner replied, “ but I have no son...
#7. Evil or Brilliant?
A
man once ran an advertisement in a newspaper, offering to sell people
the greatest bug and insect killing device the world had ever known.
- He promised them that it would kill any insect at all in just one use.
- He promised that it was durable.
- He promised that it had never failed to kill an insect.
- He promised it for only $1, plus postage.
A
lot of people sent away their money for it, expecting to receive some
amazing new gadget that would solve all of their insect related
problems.
Unfortunately, when they received their ultimate insect
killer, here’s what they got.
Two blocks of wood, marked A and B:
The instructions were simple.
Place the insect on block A.
Smash the insect with block B.
It
did everything he’d promised. It really did kill any insect known to
man. The scammer just hadn’t mentioned that you’d need to catch the
insect first and persuade it to remain motionless on block A so that
block B could do its work.
I’m not sure what happened to that particular enterprising con artist.
And
that’s the key to a good scam. It’s got to be simple. It’s got to be
small enough to escape too much notice. It’s got to persuade people to
part with just enough money to make it worthwhile without getting people
mad enough to hunt you down…
These were some amazing scams you should be knowing about and that also gives you an edge over the people thoughts that how deep they can go to trick you...
Related Reads:
You may also visit my other blog for various Top 10 lists that you may need to reorder your preferences and find out something new.
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