91–100 of 152 posts
Shame and pride are such strong motivators. My wife was taken by a very elaborate and well-crafted scam in November. In retrospect, it all sounds ridiculous... but in the moment, with kids in tow, it was very convincing. It was so traumatizing that when it was over and she finally realized it was a scam, she was relieved! They had convinced her she was going to jail and that was terrifying. Losing the money was less…
A friend (he was experiencing psychosis, so that played a big part) fell prey to some bog-standard love scam when some bot added him on facebook. He ended up sending his life savings to the scammers. Everyone around him were warning him, trying to intervene - but to no avail. In the end he got mad at everyone trying to show the warning signs. Started ranting about people trying to ruin his love life.
Older family acquaintance that suddenly started to purchase gift cards. Gets all fired up when someone say that this is a scam. (The scam was crypto investments, and scammers would only take gift cards, yeah...) The person was convinced it was legit, and got frustrated and pissed off that people were trying to hinder investments.
> What really annoys me in these situations is how the institutions show loyalty to the people who did research misconduct. When researcher X works at or publishes with institution Y, and it turns out that X did something wrong, why does Y so often try to bury the problem and attack the messenger? Y should be mad at X; after all, it’s X who has leveraged the reputation of Y for his personal gain. I’d think that the l…
In the USA, is this not the current state of the sociopolitical system? Let's take Philadelphia for example. Known to be long-time loyal to Party L. Yet, chronic poverty, plenty of gun violence, Etc. Yet in the most recent election, Party L replaced Party L. And the former Party L mayor had high praise for the new mayor (also Party L).
That is, the mayor who did little for me / us / them is a critic of others? How is that disconnect going to help anyone?
I've literally spent afternoons resecuring business infrastructure after it was compromised by my boss whom I had already cautioned upon hearing dodgy calls.
And more than once.
I've seen the same thing happen in recordings of people getting scammed, where even if they acknowledge they might be getting scammed, their panic or frustration becomes so frantic that they just refuse to take a breath because the people warning them just "don't understand the urgency of the situation" or some such thinking. For whatever reason I haven't fallen into this trap yet, it might just be a generational thing, I dunno, but I suspect the fact that I meditate a lot means I can see my own thought process from abive, and so far short-circuit any of these tricks ptetty quickly.
I've put myself into classical con situations out of curiosity. Even when I purposefully seek to be conned, it's embarrassing to have it happen. In my case, simple subway con artist performing the classic magic trick where you bet money to determine where the queen is under three cards. As a hobbyist magician I'm able to follow him as the subway scammer performs the drop, switching the queen for another card. I'm not…
I was listening to Joe Rogan interview David Blaine and he said there are plenty of card players where it’s literally undetectable the tricks they use, even with cameras everywhere. Makes me have no interest in playing card games with anyone but a few friends.
Shame and pride are such strong motivators. My wife was taken by a very elaborate and well-crafted scam in November. In retrospect, it all sounds ridiculous... but in the moment, with kids in tow, it was very convincing. It was so traumatizing that when it was over and she finally realized it was a scam, she was relieved! They had convinced her she was going to jail and that was terrifying. Losing the money was less…
A trick I started using was asking the scammer for a challenge code to prove they where who they said they were (from my bank). The scammer was dumbfounded and hung up. I agree it is always better to just hang up and call the bank yourself but it was pretty humorous.
Related, a close friend of mine was looking for jobs and in a moment of desperation he got prayed on by someone asking all their personal information. No follow up. Not sure what the end game is there, however it might turn ugly.
I find your strategy - putting them off foot - is a very good deterrent and an effective way to get rid of most scammers quickly.
I am incredibly fascinated by how scammers work and their inventive - many of them would be very successful in a corporate environment, they are clearly very smart and capable, you wonder why they end up doing this for a living.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Russian Communist Party during the USSR Or during Putin. Here's another: Donald Trump's inner court.
How is that different then their oppositions ‘inner’ court?
Show me the Democratic equivalent of Trump leaning on Brad Raffensperger to find 11780 votes. Show me the Democratic equivalent of the Eastman memo and the attempt to swap in fake slates of electors. Show me the Democratic equivalent of Sydney Powell launching and losing 60 post-election lawsuits to maintain the party line at all costs until Eastman's fix could be put into play.
I've put myself into classical con situations out of curiosity. Even when I purposefully seek to be conned, it's embarrassing to have it happen. In my case, simple subway con artist performing the classic magic trick where you bet money to determine where the queen is under three cards. As a hobbyist magician I'm able to follow him as the subway scammer performs the drop, switching the queen for another card. I'm not…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The police don't call you if they are trying to serve a warrant, they show up. But be aware that the converse isn't true: someone who shows up at your door claiming to be law enforcement with a warrant isn't necessarily legitimate. E.g.: https://madison.com/news/local/crime-courts/jack-mcquestion-...
I don't trust anyone to be a police officer unless there's another police officer present certifying that they are in fact a police officer, and another police officer present certifying that that person is a police officer, and so on, up to a piece of paper listing hundreds of "root" police officers around the world that was prepared in an unspecified way by an unknown programmer involved in making whichever browser…