Scams you have seen or done

[techman1]

This is not quite matching the title. More of a Joke / Scam thread. I have two, the second will come later, saw a workmate do it.

At my previous job, the breakroom had a .60 cent soda machine.

When new employees were going thru orientation, I would always try to be there, and before they made it to the breakroom, drop a dime in the machine....
Once they arrived, I would welcome them, and clue them into the peculiar soda machine.
Even though it says ".60" , drop .50 into the machine, bang it hard on the side, then press your drink selection.

Nothing was funnier (and mean, I admit) than the next day watching them drop two quarters in, then bang the he11 out of the machine in an attempt to get a drink.

[Bigtoe32067]

That’s actually pretty funny. I wasn’t expecting much and am pleasantly surprised.
Now I have think of one.

[fastfredracing]

Back when a can of soda was .55. We would laminate the very edge of a dollar bill, and leave a small strip hanging off the side . Insert the bill, and right when the machine would "click, accepting the bill, yank it out , get a free pop, and .45 change .
We also used to do a long distance ride on our dirtbikes when we were 12-13. We would always stop off at the Holiday inn next to the interstate, and they had this old school soda machine, where you could reach up through the chute, pop the tab on the can, then squeeze the can out from the bars holding it in . Free soda , on a hot day . We were like suburban outlaws .
The pranks I have had played on me, and seen played on others at work are numerous

[1990C4S]

My favorite was a workplace where the guy got a new diesel VW. Every day he would brag about his great mileage. For a couple of weeks the guys were adding diesel to his car at lunch until he was bragging about getting 70 mpg.

Then they started siphoning fuel out and he stopped talking about his car...

[techman1]

Fred,

You reminded me!!
We had an old country store with a outside soda machine...bottles, lined up vertically, caps facing out.
We would open the door, hold a cup under the bottle and pop the cap!

a few days later the machine was moved indoors.

[MikeSid]

A buddy and I used to go the the airport Marriott and park in this big open parking lot in the rear. The back lot was on a lower level than the main lobby and had an unlocked door to the hotel. We would enter the lower level with our bags and take the elevator up one floor to the lobby.

At that point, we're just a couple of guys with bags getting off the elevator and leaving the hotel. The bellhop would take our bags and load them onto the shuttle and we'd get a short ride to the airport.

The return was a little trickier getting through the lobby and out the back. Hotel security was quite a bit different then.

Took a 10 day trip to Manhattan and the airport parking cost amounted to only a few bucks in tips to the shuttle driver for handling the bags.

[techman1]

Second one, not me:

Saw him near the microwave in the morning. Later in the day a "Out of order" sign was on the microwave.

There were other break-rooms with microwaves, no problem. But a line would form, even with all of them working.

He showed up for lunch, reached behind the machine, plugged it in and used it!!!

[peppy]

We did a secret Santa at work when I was a teen, and all of the names in the cup where mine. It would have worked, but my sister and an ex girlfriend complained they didn't want my name.

[legion]

The apartment I had in college had a coin-operated washer and dryer on each floor.

The apartment company failed to empty coins from the machines the entire school year. By late winter, the quarters had started to build up inside the machine to the point that you really had to work the coin tray that slid back and forth to displace some quarters to be able to get a wash or dry. I called the apartment company multiple times (as did a few other people in the building) asking them to empty coins out of the machines but nothing ever happened.

Then one day in the early spring, I put my quarters in and no amount of jiggling the coin tray or hitting the machine would let the coin tray slide all the way in to activate the wash. I desperately needed clean clothes for work the next day and the machine had eaten $1.50 that I didn't really have the funds to replace. So I decided I would try to pull the coin tray back out to get my money so that I could go to a (more expensive) laundromat. So I pulled on the tray. I pulled hard. I pulled harder. Eventually I had both hands on the lip of the coin tray and my feet against the machine and pulled with all my might. Something metal snapped in the machine.

It turns out what had broke was the lock on the door to the coin holding area, which I cleaned out to allowed the coin tray to slide back and forth again. There must have been $100 in quarters in there. Also inside the door I could see the switch that the coin tray would hit when laden with quarters. I got free washes for the rest of the semester and I told everyone in the building about it. A couple of weeks later the drier had finally gotten so jammed full of coins that it would no longer work either. I repeated that procedure on the drier.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

My favorite was a workplace where the guy got a new diesel VW. Every day he would brag about his great mileage. For a couple of weeks the guys were adding diesel to his car at lunch until he was bragging about getting 70 mpg.

Then they started siphoning fuel out and he stopped talking about his car...

You stole that from Tacoma FD

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by widebody911

You stole that from Tacoma FD

Maybe not. The movie Pete and Tilly (1972) had Walter Matthau and a youngster doing that to their neighbors Beetle. It's a great prank and probably old as the earth especially if there were gas mileage blow-hards in the way back.

[Bob Kontak]

Early 1970's. Pal and I got hold of Abby Hoffman's Steal This Book. It was loaded with info on how to steal things. E.g., how many albums would fit into a certain size pizza box.

We liked the counterfeit coin scam.

We bought a box of #20 brass washers for cheap at the hardware store. Size of a dime and same weight. Put a piece of masking tape on one side to thwart the optical scanner/eject function in a candy, soda or cigarette machine and we had it made right up until we got caught. Cig machine took maybe ten "coins" and most remember how long it would take a dime to drop through the mechanism. Too long of a passage of time and a passer-by got up our rears about being too young at 15. No time served, just a verbal beat down.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by legion

The apartment I had in college had a coin-operated washer and dryer on each floor.

The apartment company failed to empty coins from the machines the entire school year. By late winter, the quarters had started to build up inside the machine to the point that you really had to work the coin tray that slid back and forth to displace some quarters to be able to get a wash or dry. I called the apartment company multiple times (as did a few other people in the building) asking them to empty coins out of the machines but nothing ever happened.

Then one day in the early spring, I put my quarters in and no amount of jiggling the coin tray or hitting the machine would let the coin tray slide all the way in to activate the wash. I desperately needed clean clothes for work the next day and the machine had eaten $1.50 that I didn't really have the funds to replace. So I decided I would try to pull the coin tray back out to get my money so that I could go to a (more expensive) laundromat. So I pulled on the tray. I pulled hard. I pulled harder. Eventually I had both hands on the lip of the coin tray and my feet against the machine and pulled with all my might. Something metal snapped in the machine.

It turns out what had broke was the lock on the door to the coin holding area, which I cleaned out to allowed the coin tray to slide back and forth again. There must have been $100 in quarters in there. Also inside the door I could see the switch that the coin tray would hit when laden with quarters. I got free washes for the rest of the semester and I told everyone in the building about it. A couple of weeks later the drier had finally gotten so jammed full of coins that it would no longer work either. I repeated that procedure on the drier.

We had crap machines in the dorms. .75 per "ticket" which was a small plastic ticket that had circuits printed on it. The drier with a normal size load (not some moron's "how much stuff can I get in here" load) would often take 4-5 tickets to get things like underwear and socks or shirts dry, and jeans or towels, forget it, never dry. I felt like I was getting gouged. I eventually figured out how to open the door on the side of the washer and discovered that it would melt the tickets on one corner so they'd be too fat to go back through. But I also discovered that you could shave that corner and stick them in with the other end first since they were symmetric. I helped out some other folks on my floor. One guy ended up reporting me to the RA. I was on probation for the rest of the semester and had to pay $150. I'm certain that I saved far more than that over the course of the period before I was turned in.

[stevej37]

Not sure if this qualifies as a 'scam' or just 'good clean fun'

As 5th or 6th grade kids...we would sometimes use the nearby laundromat for our fun times.
A minimum of thirty cents would get us ten minutes of 'ride the dryer' time.
Climb in and have a buddy close the door and insert three dimes. The challenge was to see how long you could go before kicking the door open. There were no 'air only' options at that time...so the heat was on!
There was always a jokester who would move the heat up to 'hot' to protect his time.
Good times.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by stevej37

A minimum of thirty cents would get us ten minutes of 'ride the dryer' time.

How long could you last? I woulda yakked/freaked in a heartbeat.

With same pal mentioned above. We broke into the Jr High School late on a Friday night through the basement boiler room and collected all of the teachers "whack" paddles and put them in an empty display case built into the wall in the hallway. Come Monday morning it was tough not saying anything as it was a big hit.

[stevej37]

[QUOTE=Bob Kontak;11027191]How long could you last? I woulda yakked/freaked in a heartbeat.

If you tuck in with your back to the 'paddles' and feet to the drum...you can last a long time. (Have to make sure of which way the drum rotates. If wrong..it's not good.)

The heat is what would get us...even low was hot.

[biosurfer1]

When I used to work for car dealerships (extreme high turnover) every time there was a new person, I would sneak into their office and switch 2 keys on their keyboards.

The other option would be to just pop every single key off and put them in a baggie on the desk. Took about 10 seconds to pop them off, but took a while to try and put them all back on and thats after finding a similar keyboard to know where each one goes. Seems like it would be hard but imagine staring at an empty keyboard and which key goes where!

[LWJ]

Countless...

Putting denture adhesive inside the toothpaste tube of the co-worker who had drinks every day at lunch followed by brushing his teeth?

Or, stuffing tampons in the pockets of a suit coat of a co-worker who then placed in in the upper bin on an airplane only to have tampons rain down on folks?

Or, waking guests in the college fraternity up at 2 am and telling them their car was being towed? As they came down the stairs, a bunch of us grabbed them and them tossed them into the stream out back?

Or, covering my drunk naked buddy head to toe with felt pen?

Most recently, my office hired a person who will be somewhat of an assistant to me. I have not met her due to COVID. I sent the typical BS email introduction. I added some pictures so she would know what I looked like. Last pic was of my BIL who sports a full ZZ Top style beard. I told her it was me (I am clean shaven and work in a conservative industry). Then sent the email to all other employees and suggested they do similar.

Love this sort of thing.

[GH85Carrera]

My brother is a life long deer hunter with a bow and arrow. Now that is a grizzled old man he has had more than a few younger guys ask him to show him how he hunts. One thing he has done several times is to get some chocolate covered raisins, and keep them in a pocket in his coat.

They start walking to a good place to camp, or a good place to set up a tree stand. Often they find deer poop, or droppings. They look a little bit like a chocolate covered raisins and with the right slight of hand its close enough. He will of course get a couple of the chocolate covered raisins in his hand, pretend to pick up some of the deer droppings and pop one in his mouth and chew on it. He will think and then ask one of the other old greys what they think about it, and drop on of the raisins in his buddy's hand. Clearly he pops it in his mouth and chews. Then proclaims I think it is a buck, about 6 points and headed east. My brother will reply no, I think it is a 8 point buck headed northeast.

Then they point at the dropping on the ground and ask the new guy what he thinks. Most of the time they just stand there with their mouths open and say no way man, I ain't doing that. They get back home and the new guy is telling everyone "Those guys eat deer poop and know how big the deer is!" and almost everyone just nods and says that is the best way to learn.

[porsche tech]

I still feel bad about doing this to this day: the guy next to me had just finished overhauling his first 911 motor all the way to splitting the case. After checking everything over, he got in the car to start it. At the exact right moment when he cranked it, I slung the metal lid off a can of hand cleaner into the metal parts sink between our bays. A loud clanging noise at the exact right time sent him scrambling to the back of the car looking underneath it. I still confess it as sin daily. We both laughed (and are still friends) but I'm a jerk.