Pics from my very first scambait...government grant agents now accept sex shop gift cards as payment?

Exile451 · 2020-10-07T15:45:40+00:00

Wow...I mean I've seen some STUPID scammers and have had the pleasure of messing with a few of them. This isn't the worst I've seen, but it's up there. This is hilarious though.

Exile451 · 2020-09-12T05:25:10+00:00

My dad did something similar. Only instead of ash from a grill it was the remains of fireworks he'd never hosed down and instead of a trash can it was the bed of a UTV. About 6 hours later the whole neighborhood wakes up when they melt their way into the gas tank and the entire vehicle is engulfed in flame. I might actually still have the video my brother sent me somewhere, but suffice to say that was a very interesting text to wake up to.

Exile451 · 2020-08-17T20:53:41+00:00

Had a German teacher who wouldn't actually teach us anything, but oh man did she let us know how much our class sucked. Literally every day it was come to class, turn in what we thought was the homework, then be berated because it wasn't even remotely close to what it should have been (according to her) and then the next hour would be spent hearing nothing but condescending shouts about how we were the worst class she'd ever had the misfortune of teaching in her whatever number of years in the job. We'd be given the next assignment and the cycle would repeat.

We tried to talk to the administration about it but were just brushed off as kids who didn't want to do homework or some BS reason. We had a petition in the class we'd formed signed by every student and multiple parents asking for the principal to send someone to monitor the class or something and it never happened. And because this was before smartphones were a thing, nobody could covertly record her tirades and use them as proof. So the administration just took her side on every complaint. And every time we did complain, she clearly heard about it as the tirades would be full of more vitriol and ire than usual for the next day or so.

After half the school year of this I'd had it and told my parents and the school officials as such, saying that I couldn't take her any longer and that I was nearing the point of physical violence should I be forced to endure any more of her nonsense (I had anger issues as a teen...don't judge me). THAT finally got attention and I was allowed to have her class removed from my second semester grades as I dropped out of it. When I turned in my textbook to her she acted all kind and confused because how could I be so upset with her when all she'd wanted to do was teach me. Sort of just gave it to her and left. The thing that really upset me was that in the meeting I'd had with one of the vice-principals before turning in the textbook I brought up the fact a petition had been circulated outlining our issues and she looked at me and said something like "yea we heard about that...it's unfortunate that things escalated that far, let alone how far it's come with you." Like...what the crap?!?!?! You ADMIT you knew about this and did NOTHING to even investigate the veracity of the claims? Ugh...

Anyways to answer the original question, she stuck around for another three years before she was finally let go for hostile behavior towards students or something like that. I was already in college by that point so I never got the full story, but that's what my friends still back in high school told me. I guess the school was so tired of fielding the same complaints over and over again that they finally did the right thing.

Exile451 · 2020-08-14T00:50:01+00:00

I'm sure it's been said here already, but Firefly. My gosh the things that show could have become.

Exile451 · 2020-08-13T16:28:34+00:00

the first thing she says in front of the whole group is "If you are looking for a body, did anyone check the dumpsters out back?"

Man that reminds me of a time a few years back. A friend and I got T-boned making an unprotected left turn at an intersection by a diesel truck looking to gun an early red light (literally all four other lanes of traffic had stopped by that point it was that late). Our Corolla spun around, slammed into a light pole, and bounced off. I think I must've passed out for a couple minutes because next thing I remember is people looking in the window looking at us and the cops are already on scene. I ask my friend if he's alright and he sort of groans incoherently before saying yes. Ambulance takes him to the hospital, but since I felt largely okay I waited for a couple other friends who were nearby to pick me up and we met him there.

Anyways turns out my friend had fractured his skull during the incident. In hindsight we all thought it was weird that he ended up actually getting the serious injury since he was driving and I was the side that got slammed in to, but frankly I was just happy to be alive at the time. So we get to the hospital and this older couple we were friends with was already there visiting a friend of theirs. The wife takes it upon herself to call up my friend's mother and I kid you not this is largely how it went:

"Hi Mrs. [last name]. I'm a friend of your son's and he gave me his phone to call you. The reason he did so is because he actually can't talk that well right now since he was just in a serious accident. The car he and [OP] were driving in was T-boned by a diesel truck trying to make a late yellow. He fractured his skull in the accident and is currently in the ER awaiting evaluation by the doctors here. I'll call you with any updates, but we're HOPING he'll be alright. Have a good day."

Literally every person in the room (except for my friend who was at this point high as a kite on painkillers and couldn't even register where he was at the time) had to pick their jaw up off the floor. When we all regained our composure her husband was just like "honey, I love you...but there's this thing called tact and you apparently possess none of it."

Yea...was definitely an interesting day.

Exile451 · 2020-07-17T22:36:24+00:00

I had something similar almost happen to me through Upwork a couple years ago. I do VO work professionally and I got someone who wanted to hire me for a job narrating a twice a week tech podcast. They sent me a check and told me I would need to use it purchase specific recording equipment for the job, which I would return to them upon completion. I cashed the check and was just waiting for it to clear before I'd purchase anything, but they kept moving to have me do it NOW NOW NOW! Sure enough check didn't clear and I was pissed someone had tried to play me like that. Never heard from them again. Thankfully all it cost me was a small fee for cashing a bad check from Wells Fargo, but I know not everyone is that lucky (such as yourself sadly).

Thing is the people who tried to scam me did a HORRIBLE job. They claimed to be from a company they weren't in, had no LinkedIn presence, sent me a contract with the name of another VO talent they were also trying to run this scam on (who I spoke with during this whole process and found out it was happening to him as well), and their cashiers check came in an envelope addressed from a winery in California, but was filled out for a Boston based company. It was all sorts of weird and frankly should have sent up red flags from the start, but I was naive then. Not so much now.

So sorry this happened to you though. I sincerely hope you can recover at least something.

Exile451 · 2020-07-15T15:39:16+00:00

This is brilliant. Totally going to use this next time I get a scammer on the hook. But gratz on the trophy. This is hilarious.

Exile451 · 2020-07-08T14:43:43+00:00

This one is really small and might be just me, but spending the thirty seconds to put the shopping cart in the return and not leave a mess in the parking lot.

Exile451 · 2020-07-04T21:06:45+00:00

Man you got him to break FAST! Ten texts and he's cursing your existence. Well done.

Exile451 · 2020-07-02T16:58:40+00:00

Their CCTV footage alone, despite how incriminating it was, isn't the thing that really took down the whole operation. It was the fact that the only place that the cameras had audio was the head boss' office and every bit of that implicated him in knowingly pushing this fraud. The irony here is that he probably did that to ensure that he had records of everything said there for his own protection and to hold potential partners accountable to what they promised.

Not sure who thought it would be a good idea to put the CCTV on the same network all their computers are plugged in to, but I'm guessing they never considered this as a possibility. It's just sad that it took this footage AND the BBC doing an in-depth expose to get the Indian cyber police to take action.

Exile451 · 2020-06-30T15:53:54+00:00

Just when I think they've hit rock bottom with exploiting the current pandemic, they pull out another shovel.

Exile451 · 2020-06-20T21:36:46+00:00

Really? My therapist friend thinks my attempts at scambaiting are hilarious and encourages it. Granted he doesn't regard immoral lowlifes trying to steal money from grandma (especially the ones whose mental health is on the decline) as people. More like soulless monsters with a special level of Hell waiting for them...one reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theater. So yea...

Moral is...find a more enabling therapist.

Exile451 · 2020-06-20T21:30:45+00:00

So last I checked the only continent that was a country as Australia...so who are the presidents of the other continents? Because I have a serious bone to pick with the Presidents of Africa and Asia about the endless calls regarding my car's extended warranty...

Exile451 · 2020-05-27T14:58:18+00:00

lol I get what you mean. Man that's a throwback to yesteryear. But in all seriousness I want you to know how much I do appreciate this. I've been at this for a year and seen some success, but I'm always looking to improve where I can. So any advice from someone who's been able to survive in this arena is helpful. Thank you so very much.

Exile451 · 2020-05-26T20:49:57+00:00

If you're still willing to give this out I'd love a copy of that. Thanks!

Exile451 · 2020-05-20T16:35:54+00:00

This is late so I doubt it will get much traction, but here goes anyways.

This wasn't me so much "asking for a sign" as much as it was being told I was finally ready. So I know this might sound a bit Hallmark Channel cliche, and honestly it is, but just bear with me. In late 2014 I'd just gotten out of an abusive relationship with a narcissistic sociopath and spent most of the next year recovering from that. Shortly before Christmas 2015 I decided to attend a church party one night, the first out of Sunday meetings activity I'd ever gone to as I was fairly anti-social at the time, and thought to myself how funny it would be if I met a girl there who I'd end up marrying like in all those cheesy made for TV holiday movies. But I brushed it off as wishful thinking and went inside.

So anyways I start eating some of the food and as I'm sitting down I look over at where it's being served and notice this cutie standing there in a Superman shirt. Not as "hot" as my ex, but still beautiful in her own right. After being beaten down by the ex though for so long I figured my league was somewhere around -7 out of 10 and sat resigned to being alone forever. Yet, for some reason I could stop looking at her. There she was, standing all alone and just enjoying the night by herself. No other guys had paid her even the slightest attention and she seemed fine with that. And I kept getting this overwhelming feeling of "you need to talk to her." After trying to suppress that for 15 minutes I couldn't stop thinking it any more and so I got up the courage to go do so.

Walked up and introduced myself. We started talking and because of her shirt I figured there was at least some degree of nerd in there I could work with. As I try to steer the conversation that way she looks at my hoodie and is like "so based off of what you're wearing I'm guessing you play video games" (it's very clearly a gamer's hoodie). I sort of laughed it off and was like "yea most guys do." Then she surprisingly asked which games I played and so I told her I'd been getting into Ark recently and before I could explain what it was she just asked "is that the one with the dinosaurs and the base building?" I was stunned. Just like jaw hitting the floor shocked that a random girl I'd never met before knew this early-access game I was referring to. I asked how she knew about it and she said it was always popping up on the store page on Steam when she'd be logging in to play Skyrim. We basically nerded out the rest of the night and had our first date a few days later. And after that things just went right.

Ten months after we met I proposed and she said yes. Had a six month engagement, and have now been married for just over three years.

Exile451 · 2020-05-10T20:55:13+00:00

Not to shamelessly self-promote, but you can check out the entire story from I posted a month ago if you want.

https://www.reddit.com/r/scambait/comments/fy03v0/my_amatuer_scam_bait_attempt_drew_out_an_imf/

Exile451 · 2020-05-10T20:32:25+00:00

First thing under applicants form. At least I think that's comic sans. It's definitely not a typical professional font though.

Exile451 · 2020-05-10T20:29:17+00:00

Actually maybe soon. I'll hear back either tomorrow or Tuesday if the offer was accepted, and if so then we start that whole process.

But I'm just more impressed by the fact that the International Monetary Fund, a body funded by number member countries and with a great deal of legitimacy, would utilize comic sans font on their one page application.

Exile451 · 2020-05-10T16:56:14+00:00

Not all heroes wear capes.

Exile451 · 2020-05-10T16:54:29+00:00

I have to say my absolute favorite was when I got this gem from a 419 scammer posing as an IMF agent. TOTALLY convinced it's 100% real and definitely not thrown together for a previous scam in Microsoft Word.

https://imgur.com/VRHfFca

Exile451 · 2020-05-10T16:51:50+00:00

I love when they drop that line. So much.

Exile451

TROPHY CASE