Idiots......

[Bassbeater]

Uh, the usual victims are people who are mentally ill and elderly people with the onset of dementia.

\
-So... TB forum regulars... and TB forums regulars? That's two of the same group. I'm confused. Who do I pay to make it stop!

 

[two fingers]

My neighborhood is out in the country. We don't often do it, but we are allowed to shoot firearms in my area. Usually if we see a poisonous snake or something like that....

To that end....

I would LOVE to get one of these calls. I would scare the crap out of the caller.

Me....

"Really????? Woooooohooooo! I'm going down in a blaze of glory, brother!!!!! Let's do this thing!!!! You talking about the guys in that white van???? Take that you piece of $#!+!!!!!"

During my rant, I would have made my way out to the woods behind my house. Pop off a few rounds into the ground and hang up.

 

[ICM]

Man, I'm with you on the scammers being the bad guy here.

But the elderly aren't paying with iTunes accounts. And millions of dollars aren't coming from the "mentally ill". A percentage is for sure. But not millions.

Sometimes in my posts, I'll omit something that I feel goes without saying, when in reality, I should probably just say it to stay on the safe side. Prime example is earlier in this thread. Of course, someone who is easily victimized doesn't deserve to be a victim. However, someone who should "know better" should, well, know better. If this happened to me (which I strongly doubt it would) I'd be more pissed at myself than the scammer. Scammers will scam, they're scum, but I hold myself to a higher standard than that, so I'd be upset with myself. And no, this is not victim blaming, this is the criticism of a momentary lack in judgement and critical thinking.

\
-So... TB forum regulars... and TB forums regulars? That's two of the same group. I'm confused. Who do I pay to make it stop!

You're cracking me up...

My neighborhood is out in the country. We don't often do it, but we are allowed to shoot firearms in my area. Usually if we see a poisonous snake or something like that....

To that end....

I would LOVE to get one of these calls. I would scare the crap out of the caller.

Me....

"Really????? Woooooohooooo! I'm going down in a blaze of glory, brother!!!!! Let's do this thing!!!! You talking about the guys in that white van???? Take that you piece of $#!+!!!!!"

During my rant, I would have made my way out to the woods behind my house. Pop off a few rounds into the ground and hang up.

That's pure gold.

 

[two fingers]

I have a family member who would fall for any of those gags, but she's a sweet old lady who is probably having the onset of dementia.
The thing that has saves her is that she has no computer or smartphone, & she wouldn't know the first thing about loading a gift card.

I think the choices for the poll are in bad taste, so I won't vote.

Aw, come on. You know I'm just picking on @Joe Nerve @slobake and @Spidey2112 !!!! I mean, they ain't too bright, but we still love em!!!!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I'm just thinkin' I wouldn't be too happy if my name were in a poll for being called an idiot.

 

[Skeezix]

 

[Wood and Wire]

Sadly, idiocy appears to be the new normal.
I was just reading an article about the latest daft trend after the tide-pod thing.
Apparently, snorting a condom(un-used, I'm hoping, although it wouldn't surprise me one bit if not) through your nose and pulling it out your throat is now a thing.
I discovered this from a warning article on my news feed. ( Link Removed )
Frankly, I'd be inclined not to be issuing warnings, and let natural selection take it's course.
View attachment 2972579

That was "a thing" back in the late 80's / early 90's.

It was called "Flossing".

Legendary post-pub, drunken kebab TV show "The Word", used to have a spot where attention whores, desperate to be on TV, would do some pretty repellent stuff (there's sure to be a showreel on YouTube), including Flossing.

Hooray for progress!

 

[Wood and Wire]

*sigh*

We have created a society of idiots.

I won't even get into the dozen or so idiots I deal with during my (relatively short) morning commute every day.

But I just heard a PSA on the radio. It was warning people about a phone scam.

I am NOT making this up.

Someone calls pretending to be with the IRS. They claim to have law enforcement ready to go just down the street to come and pick up the target for unpaid back taxes.

So far, you would only have to be mildly stupid to fall for it. But you would still have to be stupid none the less.

Here's where it gets "you should be wearing a helmet all day every day" stupid. The scammer then says "I can take care of this right now for you and call off the police. All you have to do is pay these back taxes using (brace yourself) iTunes or gift cards!!!!!

Now, I'm fully aware that we all can't be rocket surgeons. But this radio ad said that they had already scammed people out of MILLIONS of dollars. MILLIONS. They then went on to explain that the "real IRS" will never make these kinds of calls. (Duh)

Now, what kind of DIPSTICK must you be to think that the IRS will accept iTunes payments and gift cards?

Never mind that this scam isn't designed to target 100 year olds. If they are talking iTunes and gift cards they are going after 40 and under.

Tell me this isn't serious. Tell me that I am not walking around on the Big Blue Marble with the kind of dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers crowd that could be a victim of something like this.

It makes me want to go get my children and home school. I can't expose them to this kind of idiocy. It hurts my head to even ponder it.

Come on, people.

Recently a woman was arrested for making a video of herself assisting her BABY with smoking a joint.

Some YouTube prankster in England recently had to be rescued from a block of concrete. He had used an unplugged microwave as a mold, poured a bunch of fast-drying concrete into it, placed his head in it, and held still until it hardened.


There are some pieces of advice we should not have to give anyone..... ever.

1) Don't help your baby smoke a joint.
2) Don't concrete your head in a microwave.
3) Don't pay your back taxes over the phone with your iTunes account.

"The Scarlet Letter" comes to mind. If you don't have a diagnosed mental condition, but fail a standardized test containing questions everyone should be able to answer, you should be required to get a tattoo on your forehead that explains to everyone that you are not to be trusted.

The questions could be....
1) Can you pay your taxes over the phone using iTunes?
2) Should you help your baby smoke a joint?
3) Is placing your head in a microwave (with or without it being filled with wet concrete) ever a good idea?

Come on, people. Stop being stupid.

So let's at least have fun with the idiots. Post your favorite "What a dipstick!" stories, memes, pics, videos, etc.

The official SOP* thread is officially open!

*Stupidity On Parade

You're sure you weren't listening to a re-run of an April Fools gag?

 

[Aberdumbie]

Personally, I been sorta happy the rest of the world has become so helpless of late. I don't have to hear the Carolina-boy country redneck jokes nearly as often anymore.

 

[GregC]

Sadly, idiocy appears to be the new normal.
I was just reading an article about the latest daft trend after the tide-pod thing.
Apparently, snorting a condom(un-used, I'm hoping, although it wouldn't surprise me one bit if not) through your nose and pulling it out your throat is now a thing.
I discovered this from a warning article on my news feed. ( Link Removed )
Frankly, I'd be inclined not to be issuing warnings, and let natural selection take it's course.
View attachment 2972579

Idiocy has always been widespread, I think. The Internet has just given the idiots a much bigger platform, thus inspiring more copycats and making the rest of us more aware of how many dopes there are out there.

 

[two fingers]

I'm just thinkin' I wouldn't be too happy if my name were in a poll for being called an idiot.

Those guys are some of my "cyber pals" and are fully aware of the kind of goofball I can be. It's all in good fun. No actual idiots were harmed in the making of this thread.

 

[two fingers]

You're sure you weren't listening to a re-run of an April Fools gag?

Nope. It gave phone numbers and web sites one can contact if one receives such a call. It also warned that the actual IRS will only contact you via US Postal service and never by phone.

It was legit and I habe heard the ad several times since. I'll try to record it if I hear it again.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Yeah, we get it. You're pals

 

[Paulabass]

Same scam in Canada. Oy Vay, there's a sucker born every minute.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

My aunt would tell about these strange calls she got at family get-togethers.
We'd all look at her, before she finished the story, and say "It was a scam!".

Next get-together, very similar story...

The scary thing is they knew information about her family, claiming that so-and-so was in trouble someplace & needed money.
Instead of sending money she was clever enough to call around & find out the person they insisted was in trouble was not.

Unfortunately she never has learned how to identify the scams up-front like most of us have.
She's the nicest person you'd ever want to meet, but she's spent her whole life in debt due to some bad decisions.

As she got older she turned to me for advice, but then she can't follow through.
Right now it's about her cat. She won't give up her pet to move into cheaper housing. (where pets aren't allowed)

 

[slobake]

Aw, come on. You know I'm just picking on @Joe Nerve @slobake and @Spidey2112 !!!! I mean, they ain't too bright, but we still love em!!!!

HA! I voted grumpy pants.
I did see this sign in the men's room at my local gas station " Attention all two fingered redneck Carolina county boys. Please don't eat the rock candy in the toilet."

 

[richntiff]

the funniest thing about this thread is that by far the most vulnerable cross section of society vulnerable to any type of scam like this is the older/elderly. Even throwing in the iTunes card curveball....

 

[Wood and Wire]

Funny you should mention this particular scam...

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from the "IRS"---I usually don't answer my landline phone if it's not a family member, but on this particular day I was in a dicky mood.

"James" with the IRS informed me that the U.S Marshall Service has a warrant out for my arrest because of unpaid taxes. "Oh my goodness gracious!! We can't have that now, can we?", I replied and told him that I will go and get my bank account and routing numbers so that he can arrange for a direct payment.

So I put the phone down and went back to watching The X-Files. The desperate fool, thinking he had a sucker, stayed on the line and waited for almost 20 minutes before he disconnected.

I really wish I had more time to mess with these clowns.

I used to do that with nuisance calls - eventually it worked.

I did find it baffling, a few years ago, when movie director John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator) got an unsolicited call, out of the blue, from someone claiming to be an FBI agent.

McTiernan, apparently didn't believe the guy was who he claimed to be (who hasn't had calls from people claiming to be from their bank etc), and promptly ended the call.

Turns out he actually was from the FBI, and because McTiernan didn't answer all of the guys questions, or blew him off with goofy responses, he was arrested, and charged with lying to an FBI agent - so he wound up in prison for a few years.

 

[pacojas]

Same scam in Canada. Oy Vay, there's a sucker born every minute.

except for that baby!

 

[dlb1001]

I have only gotten one of those calls...just ignored it! However, my co-workers, who are Hindi, get a high number of these of scam calls. And the scammers try to scare them by saying that they will could go to jail or get deported.
Once instance, the co-worker asked me about a number that scammer had left. Doing some checking, we found that the call had originated from NY and the co-worker is in CA. So, I just told her to ignore any call if she doesn't recognize the number and showed her how to block the offending number.