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Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

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Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#311

Post by owenmarshall »

pwg wrote: post #191
justinclift wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a thought, you might find Robert Cialdini's book "Influence" useful: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Rober... He gave a talk covering the same subject matter too, which is faster to grok if that's your kind of thing. After reading/watching this stuff, these kind of scams become incredibly transparent. And it's fairly ugh to see fellow humans subsequently get sucked in by them.

Thanks. I'll check it out. I'm quite immune to the tactics myself due to watching my father fall for way too many of them growing up. As a result of seeing that at an early age I've become quite immune to the tactics. But I could easily see how the less immune could readily be drawn in to something they likely could not afford.

Paul Wilson gave a talk at DEF CON 20[1] - he said something that stuck with me (which I'm paraphrasing now):

"The way you spot a mark is to look for the person who thinks they can't be taken. They're the greenest grass to a con man."

I'm sure it's in the video somewhere :-)

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkz1ItKLAvk

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#312

Post by im3w1l »

shoo wrote: post #293
logfromblammo wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3000 on a mattress? WTF? How is that even possible for such a highly commoditized good?

I do agree. Mattress sellers love the value based sales pitch: how much would you pay for 1 hour extra sleep per night? Maybe paying $10/hour for extra sleep for one year is a bargain in some contexts, then you have a payback period of < 1 year, even for a ridiculously overpriced mattress.

The difference between a $200 mattress and the best in the world is way less than 1h per night.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#314

Post by frockington »

mikro2nd wrote: post #187
dxxvi wrote: post #166

Once, there was a telemarketer calling me and trying to persuade me to buy a home alarm system. All he wanted is to get my credit card #. I asked him to repeat himself 2-3 times for almost all of his sentences (not all, because that would make him hang up). After about 20 mins, he knew my game and said that I was wasting his time and I was not a good citizen of the U.S. I was sad because somebody said that but the wh…

Have to smile, reading this. It reminds me of the time I received a very scammy call telling me I'd won a week's holiday in Florida (US accented person; I am not in the US). Now in my world view, if first prize is a week in Florida, second prize would be two weeks in Florida. Losers get to spend the rest of eternity at Maralago (sp?). But all that's a horse of a different colour... I asked the caller to hold a moment…

I know a lot of telemarketers can not hang up a phone themselves or require a manager to do it for them. Not hanging up is a great method if you want to annoy them

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#315

Post by dec0dedab0de »

mathattack wrote: post #268
cobbzilla wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YES! This was at a Chicago Bulls game in the late 90's iirc. I watched the game on TV. The shot was from the free-throw line to the basket on the opposite end of the court. The guy shot one handed, wheeling his arm around wide to throw the ball with a great arc. It took a few seconds to travel through the air, and from the moment he released the ball the crowd was silent - we could all see it was looking on-target. I…

Thank You! I was pretty sure it was the Bulls but I couldn’t find it after 3 or 4 Google searches, and chalked it up to too much drinking in college.

I found a story about it, if anyone is curious

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/04/18/Chicago-Bulls-Millio...

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#316

Post by s73v3r_ »

polynomial wrote: post #152
cornholio wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car is surrounded by posters that read "Enter to win" above a picture of a white vehicle otherwise similar to the blue car physically present. There is absolutely no doubt that ideogram promises a chance to win the car in exchange for the registration.

> There is absolutely no doubt that ideogram promises a chance to win the car in exchange for the registration. While a naive person may make that inference, a rational person may understand that 'ideogram' does not constitute an assertion that the picture depicts the prize to be won. I sure don't mean to defend such predatory scammers, but I'm pretty sure they are legally safe on that part. I had a friend last year…

Why on earth should we sacrifice people who may not have had exposure to financial literacy to allow these scammers to keep going?

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#317

Post by sandworm101 »

lysp wrote: post #215

About 30 years ago in Australia There was a competition at the local shopping centre. Spend $20 at any shop in the centre, show your receipt and you get a chance to win the displayed car. The chance involved folding a paper plane, and then trying to get it into the car through the sunroof. Which was only open a small crack. A friend of the family tried about 5 times over the day and never got close. They came back qu…

Technically, that is a different type of competition. That is an event at least partially based on skill rather than a pure-chance lottery. In places like Canada, and I suspect Australia too, such rules draw lines between competitions for prizes and a lottery subject to gambling rules.

I'd bet that a suburban mall couldn't got a gambling license, but a paper airplane throwing competition is something else. It may seem silly but that small requirement does negate many of the evils associated with gambling. You aren't going to see someone dropping thousands on lotto tickets if they have to throw a paper airplane each time.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#318

Post by rrauenza »

technofiend wrote: post #245
lysp wrote: post #215

About 30 years ago in Australia There was a competition at the local shopping centre. Spend $20 at any shop in the centre, show your receipt and you get a chance to win the displayed car. The chance involved folding a paper plane, and then trying to get it into the car through the sunroof. Which was only open a small crack. A friend of the family tried about 5 times over the day and never got close. They came back qu…

There's a furniture salesman here in Houston who makes heavy use of that sort of promotion. His latest if you spend $3,000 on a mattress and the Astros win the "2018 baseball final championship series" you'll be refunded the purchase price. Not sure why it's worded so formally; must be a legal thing.

I'm trying to recall the Mancini Mattress (Bay Area) ad -- something like "If we can't beat the price, the mattress is free!" I'm thinking ... ohhh... I bet they always somehow manage to beat the price!

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#319

Post by blang »

btilly wrote: post #307
Zetaphor wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who insures the reinsurance company?

Berkshire Hathaway. Per https://www.reuters.com/article/us-berkshire-buffett-insuran... , they are planning for handling a potential $400 billion catastrophe.

Yup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_for_a_Billion

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#320

Post by kozikow »

Zetaphor wrote: post #256
braythwayt wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way back in the day, I had a reinsurance company as a client. For those unfamiliar, reinsurance companies insure insurance companies. For example, they might insure a standard insurance company for automobile accidents, with a $1,000,000 deductible. So the retail insurance company handles payouts up to a million dollars, but when there's a really wild claim, the reinsurance company pays the insurance company for anyt…

Who insures the reinsurance company?

It eventually ends on a reinsurance company that can shoulder insane amounts of risk, e.g. Munich Re, Berkshire Hathaway, Swiss Re etc.
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