h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In general I think con artists get away with it as they often include a way for the victim to check that they aren't being conned which gives them false reasurance like waiting for a cheque to clear, ringing lottery people to check lottery numbers on ticket. A lack of a deep knowledge of how banking system works, or any system really can put us all at risk of a con. Also a person may be very wary of the 3 card trick in the street but drop their guard at work in a situation that isn't normally targeted by scammers.

I think you've been watching The Real Hustle, Strangely. It's pretty interesting, though the cons that I say, "Yeah, I'd probably go along with that," are vastly outnumbered by the, "How can someone fall for that?" ones. They've even included the three-card trick, presumably having the good luck to catch the four people in the country who haven't heard of it.

I'm not sure it's fair to call someone falling for Gomez's scam greedy; Skanky is only being offered the cost of the rooms people are supposedly staying in. One would hope the massive difference between the £10,000 cheque and the £1,110 price would ring alarm bells, but hotels, particularly posh, pricey ones, will go out of their way to accommodate their customers' wishes.

I didn't say the hotel scam worked due to greed, I said some scams work due to greed like the lottery ticket scam where the victim actually thinks he is tricking someone else, that is greed. A lot of scams like charity, lost wallet scams, etc work due to people being kind and wanting to help others, that is the opposite to greed.
The hotel scam might work due to people being off guard and quite rightly doing the right thing and checking if cheque has cleared. You can't check up` on every single thing that happens as nothing would get done. Not many would go to a great deal of checking if you were at home and a man in a delivery man's uniform turned up with a parcel and said the £5 delivery needed paying, even if the "parcel" is an empty box. You might query a request for payment on delivery for an X Box games machine though you know you didn't order though, but that woud be a bigger scam and perhaps some go for the smaler scam as might have more chance of working as people are less worried of losing a couple of quide.
Plausability comes into it. On this weeks Watchdog there was a man who takes up to £15,000 for conservatories builds a base and disappears. He has been caught loads of times and his numerous companies have gone into liquidation to escape beinbg caught. You know he is a villian but he is so plausable that even when he is coming up with his reasons for not building conservatories he still sounds genuine and plausable and start thinking is he really just having the business problems he claims, but the evidence and witness statements is overwhelming but he sounds plausable, which is why many cons work.

I forgot to add that there have been dodgy posts on here from people who suddenly turn up with tales of woe in African villages and e mail adresses given, the mods yikesed them.
Africa seems to a big con center as if I remember correctly from raids in Africa on TV a few weeks ago the scamers have gained around £6 billion world wide. Why do people fall for it? well presumably most don't but perhaps they only need one in a 1000 to fall for it and send off a few hundred pounds to clear the admin fees to get the £200,000 to the UK victims bank. some victims even keep sending more money to cover "admin" costs.
Villians even sell sucker lists of people who have fallen for scams so might do it again. Possibly one victim of such a list was the old lady who had, if I remember correctly, had already lost around £25,000 to scams. Every day she recieved masses of scam letters through her letter box.
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Perhaps I who thinks I couldn't be a con victim under any circumstance is a good target for a scam as I would carefully check everything out and think I was safe as couldn't be conned, then be ripe for a scam.
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There are those in UK who target vulnerable people who ae lonely and use love as a tool to extract money. To me these scamers are the lowest of the low, a greedy person perhaps deserves a little of what they get but someone who targets a lonely man/woman at a vulnerable time, perhaps after a bereavement, is beneath contempt.

"Africa seems to a big con center"

Well, I suppose they are entitled to their turn, too. We've been scamming them for generations!

Nice one KB

We got a simliar thingy (not the hotel room scam, more the generic 'I need somewhere to rest/transfer my cash' one) to the reception email of our hospital dept last week. Don't think the NHS had the cash, somehow...

Esteemed Sir

Happy it is that I am make your aquintance. I recently came into ownance of several hundred thousand acorns at this time of the year from my deceased brother who was eaten by a fox. Unfortunatley my hole on the ground is not large enough to encounter all the acorns. If you would be so kind as to shelter these acorns I would rewarding you with a 10% share to your advantage, upon recept. I will instruct my brother's executor to deliver the acorns to your hole in the grond for safe keeping of three months, after which time they will be removed and your share remain in payment for kind safe keeping and out of town expenses.

Yours regrettably
S. Nutkin

Dear sur, sounds like u mite squirrel away my fortune....

Dear blessed mister Nutkin

Would you to please forward me these nuts because I know exactly what to with them do.

Lovingly

Seamus Ballschtamper

Strangely:
"I didn't say the hotel scam worked due to greed,"

No you didn't, , Choleric Sanguine did. I should have made it clear who I was replying to.

Got a live one. This one, though, is very poor.

From: Mr mark don [mailto:@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 22 October 2007 05:26
To: [email protected]
Subject: BOOKING enquiry

Hello ,

I and my farmlys are coming for a vacation in your area from the 25th of November to 10th December 2007.

Kindly get back to me if you have vacancy for the
specified period,with the total cost of the 3 Double rooms for
3couples(6persons) for a 15 nights stay in pounds or Usd.

Do confirm credit cards accepted for payment,Also
get back to me with the total cost of their stay in Pounds or usd.

PS:Breakfast will be included to the total cost.

Kind Regards,
Make don.

Don't worry about the email showing in that one, folks. Nor this one

From: [email protected]
To: @yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:08:50 +0100

Dear Mr Don,

Thank you for your enquiry. I am pleased to inform you that we
have availability for these dates available. The price would be
£250 per person for seven nights and we would give you the 15th
night free, therefore the total sum for your stay would be £3,700.

Is the vacation for a special occasion? If so, we can probably
offer you something extra - perhaps a room upgrade or complimentary
champagne on arrival? Please let me know.

I don't know if you are travelling from a different region, but if
so you may be happy to note that we can also take care of any
bus/train tickets or car hire. Please let me know if you will
require this.

Thank you very much for your interest, and I hope to be of service
to you in the future.

Keith Chegwin
Highly Unusual Langwhanging Hotels

Highly Unusual Langwhanging Hotels?

You didn't answer his question about whether you accept credit cards.

TRiG.

I thought that if my fictional business was initialled HUSH, the free email might look a little less obvious. Then I stuffed it up by typing langwhanging instead of slangwhanging...

Typical!

If anyone can think of any business names that HUSH might stand for, please let me know

Just in case he's the biting type, I've also sent him the following email from an address at minister.com:

Dear Mark,

Thank you very much for your email.

Unfortunately, I believe you have sent your email to the wrong address. We are not a hotel, or indeed any sort of place that offers accommodation to tourists. I am the patriarch of a small community charity which specialises in building Christian churches in developing countries - we work with local villages, sending them funds to build churches in Africa and south Asia. Therefore I will be unable to help you with your requirements.

I'm sorry to be so brief in my reply, but at the moment we are arranging pre-Christmas funding for a batch of grant applicants - as you can imagine, we have plenty of Christian gifts to send to the poor people of this world!

All the best, and enjoy your holiday,

Father Dick Byrne
Rugged Island Parochial House

Holy Union of Sacred Hearts?


Or is that too close to RL?

That's pretty damn good, lil!

how about simple:

The Hush Hotel
Husher's Pavilion
Hussain Shamshir Inn
Hugo Shacks

Hercules & Ulysses Suites & Hotels

Hu Shing Hotels
Hashish Taverns
Hush Paradises
Holy Unicorn Satanic Houses
The Holy Usher

Gosh we can go on and on...

Black Cheetah -