expensive lessons learned...
dont buy off a dodgy bloke in a car park... with a deal to good to be true
id be be keeping quite about it myself...
paris because even she wouldnt be so thick to get caught out
Portsmouth student peeled in potato laptop scam
A student in Portsmouth has fallen victim to the classic potato PC scam, parting with £600 for nothing more than a bag full of spuds, the Portsmouth News reports. The unnamed 27-year-old was shown a bagged Sony laptop by a "man in the back of a car" parked at the rear of Debenhams in Slindon Street, Portsmouth, on 6 March. He …
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 11:40 GMT Robert Hill
Absolute idiocy...
£600 for something out of the back of a car??? Even PC World (rip-off kings of High Street) will sell you a brand new laptop, with warranty and in a box, for £600.
People, if you are going to get scammed, at least fall for deals that LOOK worth your while!
Paris, 'cause not even she is that dumb...
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 11:40 GMT Richard
Speakers
This seems like a varient of the bloke who turns up in a van with some "high quality" speakers. Sells them to you, leaving you to discover that you have a high value brick.
I very nearly laughed in the guys face when someone tried this scam on me.
Paris Icon, coz even she wouln't fall for this scam.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 12:24 GMT Stu
She said WHAT!?
"I would advise members of the public to refrain from buying high-value goods from people out of the back of cars or vans. If you do choose to make a purchase, ensure that you have the goods before you hand over any money."
Is that an actual quote from that constable???
This is typical police-person stupidity - I think the statement should have gone something like this -
"I would say to the public that they should NEVER, under any circumstances, buy ANY goods from people out of the back of cars or vans, or in the pub. If you do choose to make a purchase, understand that there is a high possibility that the items are stolen, or are faked, or could actually be a sack of potatoes. Such persons should not be dealt with due to possible violent tendencies and connections with organised crime / terrorism. If such items are found on yourself they will be confiscated, and you may face prosecution for ownership of stolen goods."
Her statements nearly encourage such nefarious dealings.
*I Always wanted to use the word nefarious in a posting!*
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 12:39 GMT bluesxman
hardly a new scam
As an impoverished student I remember some dodgy geezah approaching me in a supermarket car park (blocked me in actually, tosser) trying to sell me a jen-u-wine Tag Heuer for about a ton "just like the one pictured in this BMW magazine I happen to have with me". Span me story about how he had these left over samples he had to shift, or some such malarkey.
I pointed out I was a) a student; b) in possession of a shiny new watch I'd just been given for Christmas; c) brassic; and d) simply not fucking interested in his dodgy knock-off £10-a-go-from-some-market-stall shite. OK I didn't actually mention "d", I value my teeth.
Anyway, this was early 1995 and I'm sure it was an old ruse even then. Point to my story? Not a great deal.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 12:40 GMT Stuza
Far too many Darwin contenders out there
Another example of this: This weekend I had a guys come round to buy my Gumtree advertised car. He was up for taking it without checking the paperwork, getting in the car or even taking it for a test drive.
I had to force the guys to go for a test drive with me and practically ram the paperwork down his throat. Aparently I had a "nice family" and we appeared very "trustworthy".
Too many people need protecting from themselves....
Paris? She'd of looked great in a bikini on the bonnet
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 12:40 GMT Hedley Phillips
Serves him right
He was more than happy to buy something knowing full well that the method of sale made it a high possibility that the item was stolen.
So, if he is happy with the idea of theft and benefitting from someone elses misfortune, then why is he complaining that he has been the victim of a scam/theft?
Maybe he should have gone to the University of Life and learnt not to be such a selfish <insert word here>
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:03 GMT Gordon
Oh, well.
This is a well-known scam. Often it's a bottle of water in there.
I tend to agree. The bloke probably thought "I'm getting it for cheap because it's knocked off". Poetic justice, if that's the case. He thought he was going to profit from someone else's misfortune - but ended up getting stung himself.
What kind of idiot pays 600 notes for a laptop from a car boot, anyways? You can get a decent new, warranteed laptop for that from any number of retailers. And they'll be there next month if it goes wrong.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:03 GMT George Johnson
"Too good to be true? Probably is!"
OK we can all get fleeced sometimes, when we get caught on the hop, but seriously? Putting aside the stupidity of buying anything out of the back of a car, regardless of price, didn't he even just open the bag after paying up to make sure it was in there? I do that with a £10 item from Argos, before I leave the car park!
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Old Trick
A friend of mine at university thought it was a good idea to buy a bag of pot from a bloke in the street at Leeds. Ended up a hundred quid poorer and with a bag of christmas tree clippings - it still brings tears of laughter to my eyes remembering him desperately trying to smoke some of his 'pot'
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:08 GMT Robert Harrison
600 quid!
A fortune! When I were a student lad, I wish I was heavy to the tune of 600 quid to be ripped off me in a dodgy scam. I had to make do with just enough hard-earned[1] to get blind drunk at every opportunity.
Mines the one with the traffic cones and pint glasses in each pocket.
[1] back when grants were still available that is.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:17 GMT Rik
Technology Refresh Warning ! ! !
Never, ever buy a bag of Jersey Royals. This old 32 bit technology was superceded years ago and the current 64bit Maris Piper is sure to be outdone soon too. In short, Jersey Royals are no longer supported. Clearly the seller in this case knew that and cleverly avoided the subject, perhaps distracting him with his stripy shirt & mask. Let this be a lesson to all of us, NOT ALL POTATOES ARE JERSEY ROYALS and NOT ALL 64bit SPUDS ARE MARIS PIPERS!!!! In the words of Shaw Taylor - 'Keep 'em peeled'!!!!
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:31 GMT milan
I remember
Being stopped in the street when a car pulled up beside me, I thought they wanted directions.
Ello mate, we just dropped some stock off at Argos for our boss, turns out he handed over too much to us and Argos signed for the lot anyway.
We gotta get rid of them before we go back to work. I've got all this kit, Solid gold gen-uuuuine necklaces, bracelets and take a look at this corker, what a bloody diamond in that. Tell you what. Bung us 50 quid and it's yours. A few sharp words later they took off...about 20 ft to the next bloke that obviously looked like a mug.
a minute later, said mug dips into pocket, hands over cash, has something pretty much thrown out the window at him and they screech off like a bat out of hell. Said mug was still standing there looking into a bag and looking seriously depressed when I passed him by.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 13:32 GMT Reminds me of a time
when I used to live in Lagos
guys used to sell bottles of 'spirits' up and down bar beach that looked the real deal until you realised the bottle of bells or other whisky had been drilled at the bottom and refilled with cold tea.
it was worth beinig ripped off just to be part of the ingenuity behind it.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 14:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
re: Old Trick
and i've got the rest of the xmas tree if anyones interested
;o)
school chum of mine got ripped off for a £15 bag of sage and then to add insult to injury was totally shown up when he was lifted by the rozzers who then laughed him out of maccie d's in the st johns centre
ah sweet 6th form days at city of leeds high school
neb
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 15:27 GMT Caspah Scottorn
Saw this for real last year in Scumpton
I saw this happen to a pair of Chinese students in the back of East Street in Southampton. I couldn't believe my luck seeing this scam in action as I was walking by. The guys doing the sale jumped into a beaten up Astra and made a very quick wheel spin exit while the students opened the bag and found a yellow pages.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 15:49 GMT Anonymous Coward
the most polite mugging..
I ever experienced was to the tune of as tenner for a bag of 'lavender' I was advised would be a good thing to purchase by three lads on Oxford Street, Manchester.
well.. I say lavender..could have been some knock-off rosemary in there... and it was 3am and I was a student and heading home from Rockworld.. all weighed against the dentistry bills and reconstructive surgery they were very politely not mentioning whilst standing either side of me..
overall, a simple transaction... and the sympathy from my dealer friend and the laugh afterwards over a couple was worth it..
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 15:57 GMT Nick Rutland
@speakers
Actually this seemed to be the preferred sales channel for this particular brand of speaker. A friend of mine (in our contractor days - too much money) bought a pair and took them home. Thye were fine: not special, but the value was about ok. We did a search the next day when he told us, and got a reference to a guy in Berlin who'd had exactly the same experience - same brand, same spiel. A bit more poking around got us to a collective site about this brand. The general opinion was that the deal was OK: you got a receipt, and people who turned up at the address to return unwanted speakers got their money back (cash, natch). No questions asked. There was even one guy who, ah, 'upgraded' the amount he'd paid, and got that back.
Honest people get villains a bad reputation, I say.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 16:08 GMT Slaine
ha ha ha OMG - I've wet myself again
...and did anyone catch what subject this "Brain of Britain" is studying at tertiary level in Postmouth?... degree in fastfood cuisine possibly, MBA personal welfare and social interation perhaps, or how about ROV hairdressing?
Oh! sorry mate - thought this was MY jacket.
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 16:48 GMT Herby
For the price...
He could have gotten one of those EEEpc's WITH the nice model (probably only an hour, but...)
Of course if the spuds were nice imported Idaho russets from here in the USA, it would have been a little less painful.
My question, why potatoes? Aren't bricks a bit cheaper (easier to find "surplus")?
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Tuesday 11th March 2008 20:39 GMT Warren
Could end in a Darwin Award...
Due to being properly skint, he could try the old favourite of filling up the top drawer of the desk with oats, pour over a pint or two of milk, hey presto! flapjack diet FTW!
Darwin attempt, because the last guy to do this after blowing his grant (remember them) on a hi-fi, forgot the limes and nearly died of scurvy!!
[tale recounted from an old salt at Loughborough Uni]
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 00:06 GMT Simon Day
@Markie Dussard
Actually you can con an honest man, quite easily usually.
The thing it its just not sporting - not to mention the severe difficulty in finding them!
Its so much easier conning dishonest people, besides they are so many more of them!
For those that want a crash course with a little entertainment on the side may I recommend a copy of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal - which if you have a couple of spare quid on you I can do you a sweet deal on an original signed hardback edition, if you'd just step towards the back of my car....
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 00:06 GMT Andy Enderby
When I rule the world......
Sounds like a good test case for my two suggestions for new laws. Intent to receive stolen goods, and not being in possession of a full deck. Case proved, ship the pillock off to Anthrax Island for 5 years or so.
As suggested elsewhere in this thread, I do feel the copper should have been a tad less sympathetic and more forthright.
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 08:56 GMT Wayland Sothcott
Scams target the dodgy people
The buyer knows the deal is a bit dodgy but greed carries it through. It's a sort of nudge nudge, wink wink between the buyer and seller. The seller does not have to come up with a convincing story and the buyer by the same agreement accepts the obviously fake reason for selling.
Serves him right. Very brave to admit it though. I feel sorry for the government employee who lost their laptop though, it could have my data on it.
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 09:57 GMT R. Jones
Been there, seen that
When I was a student there ten years ago I was stopped not far from that spot, only this time for the speaker scam. Ironically I was actually on the lookout for some decent speakers at the time, but the ones on offer looked a bit crap frankly. And, well, I don't tend to buy from geezers out the back of vans, oddly enough.
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 11:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
IBM
Remember them? They had a big presence in Portsmouth at one time.
Except that in the case of Portsmouth it stood for In Bred Mutant.
Jeez, it's a dump. And the locals think it's so great. Usually because they've never been anywhere else.
Paris as even she's got more brain cells than some of the local beauties.
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 11:02 GMT Slaine
...going postal, making money...
...good books - VERY good books.
Now then, before the "urban myth" team get involved, there was a tale I heard in my distant youth, many many moons ago, of the mythical student who survived for a term on "Porrage Oats" after blowing his first grant in 2 weeks. The story I heard suggested that this student then elected to go on an oat-only diet for the following terms and thus to release the grant money for infinitely more important substances. Desk drawers were given over to the storage of prepared porrage which could then be portioned out as required. After a suitable length of time, the individual was apparantly diagnosed as the first "modern history" case of scurvy in the UK.
I had always assumed this to be a myth. I discovered over the recent festive visits that my aunt actually studied with that very real student. And if you're reading this, "nice one!!!"
Icon, because she keeps something nicer in her drawers.
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Wednesday 12th March 2008 13:47 GMT Simon Painter
And while you're at it...
I have some lovely italian leather jackets for sale... no, I am italian and have been over for a trade show but don't want to pay for these samples to go back on the plane so that's why I am selling them out of the back of a rental car in a motorway service station.
Paris Hilton because she's nearly as fake.
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Thursday 13th March 2008 19:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
As the WPC in question....!
The quote from me is actually correct. The reason I put it in those words, is that there will always be some stupid person who will buy things like, irrespective of the advice they are given.
It is not up to me (or any other police officer) to tell everyone what to do, just to try to advise them how best to protect themselves - and you never know - they might just get the real laptop out of these guys one day!
Also, the victim of this scam is an East African bloke who is studying to be a plumber at the local college - nothing to do with university at all.
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Thursday 20th March 2008 10:00 GMT Henry Lockwood
@Simon Day et alii
Yes, Terry Pratchett's latest books are good examples of the "humorous conman" trope. Another recommendation: older, but still good: is Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series. Stick to the earlier ones though; some of the later novels aren't quite as funny.
PS: what a twonk. Really.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
