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Wishmaster (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} didodiva) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} otf_wank,@ 2006-09-28 19:44:00 |
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They're stupid, they had it coming
Over on the Absolute Write Forums there's a thread warning people to think twice about buying from magazine sellers here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthre
There's apparently many of these that aren't reputable. A reasonable, calm discussion about experiences with sellers and relating of news stories about sellers follows. The calm enviroment is not to last, however, and winds change as jfreedan blows in on page two with this:
From what I've read on these pages, these "kids" you speak of are 18 years old or older.
Is this some kind of joke, like the Halloween candy scare from the 80s?
People are kidnapping LEGAL ADULTS, rooming them in hotels, and sending them out to sell magazine subscriptions? :p
Door-to-door salesman scams are nothing new, but I have feeling this is some kind of hoax. It is kind of hard to kidnap people when you let them run around town you know. They certaintly aren't trying very hard.
You can just tell it'll go downhill after that, can't you?
Some of them may be cults, but I think most of this is just some people pretending they haven't done anything wrong when they get caught as apart of a scam, and looking for a way out.
Playing the "omg the devil made me do it, I'm a victim too!" card is the oldest excuse in the book.
So, I don't think these cases are really kidnaps or even cult slavery. It's just a bunch of very stupid people getting duped by slightly more intelligent, but still pretty dang stupid people.
As with most unskilled laborers, a minority of them are violent criminal-type people; most of them are probably just ignorant college students who think they can make some quick bucks without doing a lot of work.
Scam artists prey upon two types of people:
A) Compassionate people (ie "Please donate to the United Hezbollah Children's Fund!")
B ) Greedy people (ie "Hey dude, I can hook you up with some cheap cable!")
From what I've heard so far (Free Vacations, Plane Tickets, Living in a hotel, Travel, Quick Money), they are preying on greedy people who don't have a whole lot of common sense.
When I was about 17, I had someone send me a random email from my (now non-existent) personal website saying they had seen my picture and wanted to hire me to audition for a leading role in Power Rangers (I'm not making this up. This is true). I knew it was total BS, but I replied anyway just to see how far down the rabbit hole goes, and once I learned the guy was basically trying to solicit me for prostitution, I sent his info to the FBI.
It's not hard to avoid obvious scams if you're not greedy and can look at a situation with a clear head.
In the rest of that post he goes on to add that he himself would never fall for scams because he went to the school of hard knocks (the Army) and knows better. It keeps going back and forth with people trying to reason with him and gain a bit of empathy, but it does no good.
BTW, I'm in there (as Aubrey) but my comment was unrelated to the arguement and ignored, so I don't think this qualifies fori_wank. If anyone disagrees, I'll more it.
Over on the Absolute Write Forums there's a thread warning people to think twice about buying from magazine sellers here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthre
There's apparently many of these that aren't reputable. A reasonable, calm discussion about experiences with sellers and relating of news stories about sellers follows. The calm enviroment is not to last, however, and winds change as jfreedan blows in on page two with this:
From what I've read on these pages, these "kids" you speak of are 18 years old or older.
Is this some kind of joke, like the Halloween candy scare from the 80s?
People are kidnapping LEGAL ADULTS, rooming them in hotels, and sending them out to sell magazine subscriptions? :p
Door-to-door salesman scams are nothing new, but I have feeling this is some kind of hoax. It is kind of hard to kidnap people when you let them run around town you know. They certaintly aren't trying very hard.
You can just tell it'll go downhill after that, can't you?
Some of them may be cults, but I think most of this is just some people pretending they haven't done anything wrong when they get caught as apart of a scam, and looking for a way out.
Playing the "omg the devil made me do it, I'm a victim too!" card is the oldest excuse in the book.
So, I don't think these cases are really kidnaps or even cult slavery. It's just a bunch of very stupid people getting duped by slightly more intelligent, but still pretty dang stupid people.
As with most unskilled laborers, a minority of them are violent criminal-type people; most of them are probably just ignorant college students who think they can make some quick bucks without doing a lot of work.
Scam artists prey upon two types of people:
A) Compassionate people (ie "Please donate to the United Hezbollah Children's Fund!")
B ) Greedy people (ie "Hey dude, I can hook you up with some cheap cable!")
From what I've heard so far (Free Vacations, Plane Tickets, Living in a hotel, Travel, Quick Money), they are preying on greedy people who don't have a whole lot of common sense.
When I was about 17, I had someone send me a random email from my (now non-existent) personal website saying they had seen my picture and wanted to hire me to audition for a leading role in Power Rangers (I'm not making this up. This is true). I knew it was total BS, but I replied anyway just to see how far down the rabbit hole goes, and once I learned the guy was basically trying to solicit me for prostitution, I sent his info to the FBI.
It's not hard to avoid obvious scams if you're not greedy and can look at a situation with a clear head.
In the rest of that post he goes on to add that he himself would never fall for scams because he went to the school of hard knocks (the Army) and knows better. It keeps going back and forth with people trying to reason with him and gain a bit of empathy, but it does no good.
BTW, I'm in there (as Aubrey) but my comment was unrelated to the arguement and ignored, so I don't think this qualifies for
i_wank. If anyone disagrees, I'll more it.Post a comment in response:
