One moment of madness!! The cost £200

thepid

Well what can I say apart from one moment of madness has cost me £200.

I went today to a place today in Leeds that was selling stock that were either seconds or brand new.e.g Ipod nanos-£20 etc, at least thats what it said on the leaflet and it was for one day only.

After he had put various packages together of slight seconds(damaged boxes) like dvds player, xboxs, ps3, psp, laptop etc together for people and he sold those at £500. The new stuff was brought out and he sold these in 3 different packages. e.g maxim LCD TV+bush surround system+philips phones(2 pack) all for £400.

There were a number of buyers but the items were not even worth £400.
He then asked if anyone was willing to gamble £200 and this where me and my brother fell for it. The gamble was for something worth while that would be put on the shelf later but we had to pay there and then and wait to see what we would get. I stupidly paid then after he had gone through £50 gamble then £20 gamble we were given our goods.
For the princely sum of £200 I was given a Levv 5.1 speaker system and a non branded digital camera. :T
We left like mugs felling stupid and angry for having fallen for such a con.
This is just a warning to the rest of you. I now have learned my lesson.

Just wondering though if there is any way i can stop or get my money back

Bamber19

Your unlikely to get your money back, firstly because they'll argue that you paid for exactly what you got, and secondly because they'll be gone by now. Thanks to the Real Hustle this scam is better known now but still not widely enough that they can't operate. Some people will have got a great deal, unfortunately these people will have been hired stooges who handed everything back at the end in return for their £30 fee for being involved.

soolin

I'm susrpised these scams are still going..the coverage they get is enormous. back in the 1970s I remember walking down Oxford Street and seeing these 'one day sales' in some of the empty shops and my dad telling me they were out to get people. They even used this scam as a basis of an advert recently..can't remember what they were promoting though?

Going back to the OP, you have been s cammed and if this was a normal shop you would probably have had some leeway with trading standards. As it is you will probably have to put in a lot of effort to even get anywhere near the scum. be warned as well, they employ 'heavies' to deal with anyone following them to their next venue to make a fuss..and they will persuade even the biggest guy that walking away and not staying is the better idea.

Amanda

Without wanting to be inflammatory, I would say that I am surprised that anybody would fall for such a scam.

Why would anybody sell something worth £400 for £200? And, if it was so good a deal, why wouldn't they openly sell it rather than make it a mystery bid?

There's no such thing as a free lunch, you get what you pay for, and if something seems too good to be true, it is!

Put it down to experience, lick your wounds and don't be silly again!

roddydogs

Thes scams have be going on at least since the 50's, they used to be in fairgrounds, anyone old enough to remember?

trisontana

A few years ago there was one of these scams operating in an empty shop in Ipswich. Local Trading Standards plastered the area surrounding this shop with posters warning people, and telling them not to go near the place.

superscaper

roddydogs wrote: »

Thes scams have be going on at least since the 50's, they used to be in fairgrounds, anyone old enough to remember?

Well I'm not that old but they used to be rife here in Blackpool. Even as school children we knew about these scams, which is why I'm also surprised they're still going and people are still falling for them.

snails's_pace

:eek::eek: gordon bennett, thats an old con/scam

i can remember falling for that 1 many years ago at blackbushe market , i paid 50 quid for my mystery prize aznd it turned out to be 3 garden pots, 1 of which was chipped :rolleyes:

delboy still at large !

HP_Guy

superscaper wrote: »

Well I'm not that old but they used to be rife here in Blackpool. Even as school children we knew about these scams, which is why I'm also surprised they're still going and people are still falling for them.

Was going to say exactly the same thing! Someone I know was on the front of the Gazette having fallen for it - silly mare!

superscaper

HP_Guy wrote: »

Was going to say exactly the same thing! Someone I know was on the front of the Gazette having fallen for it - silly mare!

Probably a claim to fame they'd like to forget.

At least local TS have cleared a majority of the scammers, but there's always going to be some. Especially for the tourists, just the other month someone on here posted being scammed out of £200 by a stall on the promenade. I think it was a hoop game or something, they even left to go to a cash machine to get more money out I think. It's like a temporary insanity, I can't explain it any other way. In school I used to have a summer job at a McDonalds on the prom and going to work I'd always get accosted by the stall holders and gypsies selling heather etc. But even at 15/16 I knew best thing was to say "I'm a local" without stopping or engaging them in conversation (in the case of the gypsies I'd just say "no thanks" and put up with their "evil eye" and curses).

Horasio

Even as a kid they always looked suss to me.