BEWARE! Blackpool Seafront Scam

David_B_2

Lakeuk wrote: »

I would recommend everyone watches 'The Real Hustle' thats regularly shown on BBC3

'The Real Hustle' broadcasts on BBC3:-
Wednesday 29/08/2007 at 22:45
Thursday 30/08/2007 at 21:30
Friday 31/08/2007 at 01:30
Friday 31/08/2007 at 21:30
Friday 31/08/2007 at 23:30
Saturday 01/09/2007 at 02:45
Saturday 01/09/2007 at 20:20
Saturday 01/09/2007 at 23:35
Sunday 02/09/2007 at 02:00
Monday 03/09/2007 at 01:35
Monday 03/09/2007 at 20:30
Tuesday 04/09/2007 at 01:25
Wednesday 05/09/2007 at 22:45
Thursday 06/09/2007 at 21:30
Friday 07/09/2007 at 01:25
Friday 07/09/2007 at 19:00
Friday 07/09/2007 at 23:30
Saturday 08/09/2007 at 02:40
Saturday 08/09/2007 at 20:20
Sunday 09/09/2007 at 00:20

I'd agree with this.
Brilliant program and well worth a watch.

Thanks for the listing information.

The those who watched the Hola clip earlier in this thread based at Blackpool, that was the 'The Real Hustle'.

codger

A_little_stressed!! wrote: »

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I worked for 2 years at a popular seaside fairground (the kind that doesn't leave) I was on the Cans & Hook 'a' duck etc. I can genuinely say that there is no scam. . . Obviously I can't vouch for all stalls but I believe less than 1/2 are bent!

PLEASE DON'T TREAT ALL STALLS AS THE SAME, IF YOU DON'T WANT A GO THATS FINE BUT PLEASE DO NOT ABUSE THE PERSON RUNNING THE STALL WHO QUITE OFTEN IS JUST EARNING A DECENT HONEST LIVING!

Good post! 'S true, not all are scammers, but the best advice still is for a punter to assume the worst.

The ducks though: please, don't mention the ducks.

The attraction I worked on wasn't rigged in any way, the numbers on the underside of the ducks were painted on in red or black but that caused aggro when someone with a red 15 duck thought they'd won a black 15 souvenir ashtray. Eventually the stall owner decided it'd be better just to have numbered and unnumbered ducks -- big decision, really, it certainly took him long enough to think it out. That meant waiting 'till the next summer season though for a change of ducks (wow, the anticipation) because we couldn't de-number the ducks by painting them over, it'd look suspicious, and unexpected capital expenditure of this nature (new ducks) was not within that fiscal year's planning.

New season, then, new ducks. I don't know what went wrong but when we opened up for the Easter weekend rush, the blerdy things hadn't been painted at all. So nobody could ever win anything. Total disaster. All we had were biros and they wouldn't write on the ducks so someone raced off to W H Smiths and came back with address labels so the numbers could be inked on them instead.

Mmm, brilliant. The labels were stuck on then almost immediately floated off, we now had numberless ducks swimming around in a sea of white confetti. The punters were quite amazed.

Then we discovered, amongst our store of hugely desirable prizes, a red plastic Sellotape dispenser complete with adhesive tape -- just the thing for some lucky 5-year-old child to win, along with an ashtray. So we sliced off tiny portions of tape from the dispenser to fix the blasted labels under the ducks. But all that achieved was to ensure that the labels now stayed in place longer than the numbers did.

The only thing to do was forget all about the numbers and just have labelled and unlabelled ducks, except the Amazing Prizes on offer were geared to certain numbers -- we'd have three or four identically numbered ducks for a plastic bracelet, but only one for a Giant Ted, so trying to figure out who should win what turned into a nightmare as well as a near-riot.

I think it was after that that I decided to become a management consultant. Real-world experience in the management of crisis and customer expectation on a duck stall beats MBA textbook crap any day.

A_little_stressed!!

codger wrote: »

Good post! 'S true, not all are scammers, but the best advice still is for a punter to assume the worst.

The ducks though: please, don't mention the ducks.

.;)

LMAO!!!:rotfl:

That sounds a bit complicated! We had ducks, no numbers just hook any duck (hopefully within 1/2 hour!) choose any prize! ALOT easier! Obviously prizes were basic buy from £1 shop and it was £1.50 a go, but all kids were happy choosing what they want and no aggro from parents!

The worst 4 me i guess was when it was windy they wouldn't blow round and I'd have 2 push them. Or they'd sink after a few months!

Also kids beating me up wiv fishing rods!

I reckon your boss did it all 2 give u a break down! :rotfl:

codger

I think he thought himself a captain of industry. If not an admiral of the fleet.

It was always blindingly obvious that there were easier ways to run a duck stall, but not him -- though to be fair, we never lost any time in people actually hooking 'their' duck. It was all the mayhem that broke out afterwards.

Your story of pushing the darned things around when the wind refused to blow has made my day -- ah, happy times! :T

marko4ever25

Nosskibird wrote: »

I have just returned from a weekend trip to Blackpool and would like to warn everyone about the scam that took place at the hoopla stall (by the Fun Palace) on the central promenade which resulted in my two friends and I losing £220 in cash.

We were lured in by a man claiming to ‘give’ us so much help to win the hoopla game that it was impossible for us to lose. We would win our money back, £50 in cash, a bottle of champagne and/or a giant teddy bear. In return he asked us to promote the stall to everyone we could.

We paid £10 each and couldn’t throw the hoops over. He then brought them forward but charged us £20 each for the privilege. He kept promising to put the stump right in front of us so we couldn’t lose. By then we were trapped into thinking the only way to get our money back was to keep playing.

There were 3 men altogether and all very intimidating. Saying things like we were tight fisted and couldn’t give up now or we’d lose. We told him we were out of money but he urged us to go to the cashpoint, again promising each time we were one step away from winning over £500 in cash. Eventually we had no money left, went into our overdrafts and still he said we had to pay £75 each for another go. I begged him not to take my money as I had no petrol to get home and realised what had happened. He just said it was how he makes his money.

We just didn’t think it was possible for someone to be so devious and caniving in a friendly place like Blackpool. After speaking to our hotelier, she told us that it happens on a regular basis and the council and police take no interest. I have also read on forums around the web of people’s exact same experiences. I really urge you make others aware of the scams taking place.:mad:

oh no this happened to me and a friend about a year ago too, we felt so silly

uktim29

Discodee wrote: »

he also wrote a brill email he sends to spammers, must find it so everyone can use it.

It's all sent by software. They just want to know the email address is working, no one will ever read your dads reply. All he'll end up doing is getting about 10 times as much junk mail.

superscaper

uktim29 wrote: »

It's all sent by software. They just want to know the email address is working, no one will ever read your dads reply. All he'll end up doing is getting about 10 times as much junk mail.

Not only that, for some spam the important thing is the link etc in the email. The return address may be spoofed, so he may also be sending his amazing email to completely innocent people who've got nothing to do with spamming. So from their point of view Discodee's father has actually now become the spammer by sending unsolicited emails en masse to people.

superscaper

On today's lifehacker website was this link, I thought it was appropriate: http://www.blifaloo.com/info/beat-carnival-games.php?showall=true

Discodee

well my dad is the most intelligent man I've ever met. He sends the replies from an e mail addy he doesn't use. He doesnt actually get much spam anyway though, so maybe hehas just been lucky. It is only the ones asking for money he sends it to. Itis specific to that theme.

Unlike me, silly old me, when I first started freebieing, I must have filled in a dodgy form and I get over 1000 spam e mails a week which I cannot shift. Most do not have an option to unsubscribe, and I have tried blocking them but they just keep coming.:mad:

I've since learned my lesson and use an alternative e mail for freebies!:o

uktim29

Discodee wrote: »

well my dad is the most intelligent man I've ever met.

Why is sending emails to a piece of software or email address's that have been hoaxed?