• danciestlobster@lemmy.zip
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    4 hours ago

    We used to play assorted games on tabletop simulator and we used a virtual button that just said “bruh” every time you clicked it. After the pandemic when we returned to playing in person I tried to order a bruh button. It never arrived. My credit card had fraudulent charges a week later. Bruh

  • Punkie@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Google the older “envelope-stuffing scams” or “work-at-home envelope-stuffing schemes.” It was essentially a chain-letter / pyramid scheme disguised as home employment in the backs of magazines, supermarket tabloids, comic books, classifieds, and alternative newspapers WAAAAAY before the Internet. The classic version went something like you could make money at home, earn $500 a week stuffing envelopes, always stating “No experience necessary!” and tell you all you gotta do is send $1.00 and a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for complete details!

    You’d dutifully send your dollar and SASE, expecting instructions from Acme Envelope Stuffing Industries. What came back was basically, “HERE’S HOW. Place an ad saying’ MAKE MONEY AT HOME! Earn $500 a week stuffing envelopes! Send $1.00 and a SASE for details!'” and so on. When people send you a dollar, put these instructions in their SASE. And the loop keeps repeating.

    So congratulations: you had just purchased the privilege of becoming the next layer of the scam. There were several names floating around for these, including “envelope stuffing,” “home mailing programs,” “mail order plans,” “money-making opportunities,” and sometimes simply “SASE schemes.” Law-enforcement and consumer-protection literature generally lumped them into work-at-home schemes or work-at-home scams. And they were everywhere before the Internet. The $1 was brilliant in a sleazy sort of way. It was too little money for almost anyone to pursue after discovering they’d been had. You weren’t going to call a lawyer because some bastard in Baltimore stole your dollar. But if 5,000 people mailed the bastard a dollar…

    • BJW@lemmus.org
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      4 hours ago

      I participated in this. I had IRS agents show up at my door wanting to know why I hadn’t paid taxes on the money I “claimed” I had made in the copy/paste ads.

      I made a total of $2.

    • Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      I remember how a man made million dollars for the ad “send me a dollar.” He got sued and won, because he literally said “send me a dollar” never promised anything in return. There also the guy who made 2 million selling the pet rock. The good old days before internet. Of course we have the grift you can rip off Maga with fake AI women. I of course thought about trying the send me a dollar thing but just couldn’t do it. And almost did the chain mail thing, but just kept the dollar mailed to me and never returned the letter with my name at bottom of the list.

  • MrShankles@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Lesson 1 complete! Order now for a special discount on Lesson 2! Order within 10 minutes and shipping is free! Hurry, time is running out! Learn how to scam the correct way today