How Can I Help You Survive a Con Game?

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I used Askmen’s Con List, but used the explanation that I was trained on.

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    Let’s start off the New Year right by learning about the top ten cons pulled on people every day of the year.  Lack of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

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10.  The Melon Drop:  Oh, you broke my expensive vase!  It cost me $100!  In reality I bumped into you and it cost me $2.00.  It can also be more advanced with two cars, where one car comes up behind you and another one pulls out in front of you and you hit it.  You’ll get a “boxy” odd feel about the cars around you right before it happens begins. 

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9.  Salting the Mine:  Load gold dust into shotgun shells and shoot them in an abandoned mine.  This is a million dollar scam so most of us won’t have this happen to us, but wait!  What if they had puppies for sale and they are registered?  They print up the registrations on some fancy paper and find a shelter dog.

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8.  The Landlord Scam: Very popular today!  You find an empty house, break in and change the locks then “rent” it out to a young couple.  Longest I heard that this scam went on was for 3 years, before the relatives checked on their mom’s property.

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7.  Phishing:  Think of it as “fishing” for your personal information.  You know the official looking email from a bank needing to verify your bank account, social security number, information your real bank would already have.  Statistically 20% of the targets send them their information!   

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6.  The Beijing Tea Con:  Think of this as a woman going to a car mechanic, you’re not shown the menu and you get hit with a whopping bill!  Always take a man with you or an older grouchy woman with you to the car mechanic! 

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5.   Jewelry Cleaners (Or the Car Valet Scam):  You go to a nice restaurant and a kid in black pants and white shirt waves you over so they can “park” your car and then drives off with it.   

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4.  The False Good Samaritan Con:  My personal favorite!  Here’s a very simple example:  A guy kicks in your back door, you go to investigate and “run into” another victim, who assists you, maybe walks through your house to make it safe.  The “other victim” will leave before the cops show up, but both of them will come back when everybody’s gone tomorrow and steal everything.  If you need to “infiltrate” a group quickly this is the best way…i.e... Give them a problem only you can solve.

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3.  The Pigeon Drop:  A person walks up to you and says they found a bunch of money and after a while you “talk” them into sharing it with you.  Actually your greed button gets pushed hard by the con artist.  You both take the money to a lawyer or other authority figure for safe keeping, but you are tricked into paying for their professional services and they both disappear.  Think store parking lots with lots of strangers running around and that’s where you’ll be approached.

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2.  The Spanish Prisoner:  Help!  I’m trapped in Nigeria without airfare and my daughter is sick with Ebola!  Send me your bank account, social security information and all your kids information too, so I can be free to empty out your bank account.  Old con, new adaptation with technology.

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1.  The Wire Game (The movie, “The Sting” was based on it.)  Awesome movie, normally for the full blown “Sting” to work it’s a huge production and requires man power, money and lots of time and planning.  BUT….Let us downsize the con a little…say you go to a car dealer with a trade in, the salesman is now your best friend, everything is good.  Until the sales manager, says the VIN number on your car is wrong, you don’t have the deluxe package after all.  Same con, just updated.

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Quick Rules to Remember!

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If you can get rich FAST, don’t do it.

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If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

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When you add drugs to the mix, there will be guns too.

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Nothing good happens after 2 A.M.

 

Be Safe!