Most philosophers would like you to believe that humans are innately good. Left to our own devices, we all sort of lean toward what is right, which gives rise to the idea that goodness and rightness are universal. But then someone comes along and ruins the whole idea, because they seem like complete scumbags, just ripping people off for their own gain in the most dubious ways possible. Scams so bizarre that they shouldn't work, but somehow they do.
10. Melon Scam
What would you do if you were walking down a crowded street and accidentally bumped into a stranger, causing them to drop their precious melon? Would you apologize? Maybe give them a few bucks for their melon? Well, then this scam is not for you, because this is a scam can rip people off $60 or more a pop. Melon pop, that is.
In a busy city like New York, there will be a lot of tourists from places like Japan. And in Japan, a watermelon can cost you a lot more money than it would in New York. Scammers know this, so when they identify some Japanese tourists, they deliberately get in their way, stumble upon and throw a melon. A very remorseful and apologetic tourist will offer to pay for the melon, and the scammers will get maybe 10 times more than it's worth, or even more.
If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don't hesitate to tell them. Or call the cops.
9. Cruise Line Art Fraud
Art fraud seems a bit arrogant for the average person on the street. How often do you buy a new painting anyway? Of course, if you're not on the street, it must be a bit easier to pull off, since that's what happens when people are at sea.
Detroit-based gallery Park West has been sued multiple times by art buyers who were caught in bogus art auctions while cruising international waters. As early as 2009 they were accused of this 10 customers . These auctions seem to bring in money every year. cruise companies hundreds of millions of dollars income, which is divided between them and the galleries that supply the art. The problem is that some of the art is fake. Somehow people are deluded into believing that their cruise line has found the real Picasso or Dali.
Since 2008, the company has faced 21 lawsuits Among the allegations are that the cruise line and gallery pressured and lied to customers while winning and dining them to pull off the scam.
8. Bomb Detector Scam
Some scams are a little more sneaky than others. Overpaying for a melon is one thing, but doing something that could get people killed takes it to a whole new level. That's what got scammer James McCormick jailed for 10 years .
McCormick was a fraudster in Iraq. He sold bomb detectors to various governments and agencies for huge sums of money. Some went for as little as £5,000 and he even fraudulently obtained £500,000 for one . But they weren't real bomb detectors. They were modified versions of a device called the Gopher, which was designed to retrieve golf balls. And he sold 5,000 of them to Iraq for £53 million. No one has the total sales figures, but they could have been as much as £100 million.
The devices were exposed as fakes in the US a few years ago, but the creator moved to the UK, where McCormick got involved. And they were exposed as worthless fakes by more than one agency, but no one did anything about it. They were just boxes with lights and antennas that didn't connect to anything and didn't serve any purpose.
McCormick's scam resulted in several deaths and many others being sent to prison by corrupt officials.
7. Automobile bus from China
Back in 2016, the internet was briefly captivated by a story from China about overground bus The bus was designed to reduce traffic congestion by allowing cars to pass directly underneath it. The bus was raised on narrow side supports, but the center was clear and large enough for cars to pass underneath as they went about their business. No more being stuck waiting for people to get on and off the bus, right? Well, not exactly.
The bus did exist, but there was a problem with it. After it had demonstrated several times riding up and down on one stretch of road, it didn't do anything else. And the days went by, and that bus didn't go anywhere. It was abandoned in the middle of the road. But people could still drive under it, so it wasn't that bad.
It turns out the entire project was a fundraising scam. Thirty people were arrested in connection with a scam that raised money for investors for a project that apparently was never going to get off the ground, so to speak.
6. Chocolate Weight Loss Scam
Remember the chocolate diet? You can still find articles online from 2015 that talk about how chocolate can help you lose weight Some articles have been updated and some have had their wording changed after the fact when it became clear that all of this divorce . But not malicious.
The story was exposed by a journalist named John Bohannon. He created the fake story to prove how easily health and nutrition news spreads without any critical thought or analysis. Nobody checks , is the news true?
In fact, it was a real study, in which 16 participants followed a low-carb diet and also ate a chocolate bar daily. But the methodology was intentionally terrible. The group was too small, and there were too many factors included that could have skewed the results. It was bad science, but none of the media outlets that printed their stories cared.
5. Brooklyn Bridge Scam
This may be one of the most famous scams ever, and it's still strange to think that anyone ever fell for it. George Parker was the man who sold the brooklyn bridge . Again and again. He also sold the Statue of Liberty, Grant's Tomb, and the Metropolitan Museum. The man was really good at what he did. Some of his victims tried to set up toll barriers to make money on their new purchase.
At some point, Packer managed to get from its customers as much as 50,000 dollars , which was a significant amount of change in the late 1800s. Other times, he would settle for as little as $75. He used forged documents to sell his fake property, and some estimate that he was able to sell the bridge twice a year for 40 years. In 1908, he was charged with fraud, but stole a police officer's hat and coat and walked away scot-free. It wasn't until 1928 that he was finally sent to Sing Sing, where he died 8 years later.
4. Scam cure for impotence
Medical fraud is always painful because the outcome is rarely pleasant. This is certainly the case withDr. John Brinkley, who wasn't really a doctor at all. But he achieved fame by offering a cure for impotence back in the 1920s and '30s, when nothing else worked. Unfortunately, his fraudulent solution wasn't as harmless as a pick-me-up tonic. The Man sewed on goat testicles to their human patients.
Believe it or not, goat testicles do not cure impotence. But they made Brinkley a millionaire, and he ended up opening his own Mexican radio station. The operation "worked" because he transplanted the goat's testicles and sealed them in there. Over time, they would be destroyed by the patient's own immune system as foreign bodies. It is doubtful, of course, that anyone would experience increased virility, because the operation was nonsense. No wonder he was also have filed lawsuits repeatedly for abuse of office.
3. Chinese University Scam
Scam schools are not a new concept. Trump University is one of the most famous examples, and many other places will sell you a fake degree online. But this scam from China played out in a really weird way, because the school wasn’t fake, and the students weren’t fake. It just had nothing to do with the other.
As part of the scandal with fake diplomas, at least 68 students thought they were enrolled in the Shandong Institute of Light Industry for the equivalent of about $1,200 a year. They attended classes, did all their work, and shortly before release found out that none of them were actually enrolled. That's four years of school, by the way. The school wasn't involved, just some dude and his cronies who showed up every day for four years to teach these students in rooms that no one was using.
2. Cremation diamonds are a scam
Have you ever seen an advert for turning a loved one's remains into a diamond to remember them by forever? There are many companies offering the service. The problem is, it's all a scam. The idea is that cremation remains are carbon, diamonds are carbon, and you can make a lab-grown diamond from cremation remains. But experts say cremation remains contain an incredible amount of small quantity material from which to make a diamond. More needs to be added, so it is impossible to know what the diamond's composition is.
Companies they take more for your fake diamonds than for real diamonds of the same size, and there is no guarantee that the remains of your loved ones are inside.
1. Gregor McGregor's Country of Fraud
We've seen some pretty big scams here that have worked, despite sounding a little shady. Now it's time to give credit to Gregor MacGregor for pulling off perhaps the most incredible scam of all. This man created an entire country and made people believe in it.
Back in 1822, MacGregor was living in England and was the son of a banker and a former military man. Or was he? He began spreading the rumor that he was actually a prince from Poyais lands . You know Poyais, right? Right there, near Honduras, you can't miss it unless you look at any maps, because it's not a real place.
McGregor received from the king eight million acres the Mosquito Coast area of modern-day Honduras and Nicaragua. The land was his, but still under government control. But investment in South America was booming at the time, with the British elite having no idea what they were doing.
MacGregor created an entire fake country, complete with a flag and even a book, to fool wealthy investors. He made the equivalent of millions of dollars selling land that people thought would prosper and pay for itself. Hundreds scrambled to move there. But there was nothing waiting for them. Less than a third returned to England alive. Another five ships had to be stopped before their passengers could set sail.
For his part, MacGregor fled to France and tried the same scam again. He was arrested and fled again, ending up in Caracas, where he spent the rest of his days.
Оставить Комментарий