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submitted 9 months ago by Snapz@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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[-] QuantumBamboo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 9 months ago

When I was about 16 I was walking past a nightclub as some guys were packing up a van outside. One of them called out to me and started telling me a story about how they were fitting out the club with a new sound system and had some surplus speakers. They asked if I wanted to take them off their hands. Really, I wanted to go and research them first, but this was in the olden days before the entire internet was in your pocket. They showed me the brochure and manual, I gave them £200 cash, and they drove me home in the van with the speakers. On the journey I started to get suspicious and got them to drop me a few roads over from my actual house. Lugged the speakers home by hand, started researching them and found it was a common scam. The units themselves were totally fake and from what others had said were a fire hazard. Police weren't interested as I had given the money freely. I had a buddy take them to the dump in his van. I spent quite a while researching who was behind it and ended up with the details of the "company" manufacturing the units in a workshop in London. I then spent a few weeks having fun prank calling them with various soundboards (Arnie was the best!). I made my peace with the whole scenario by framing it as an overpriced, but entertaining subscription to a guilt-free prank call experience.

[-] flubba86@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Oh yeah, the old "white van speaker scam", I've heard of that, there's some interesting YouTube videos about it.

this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
207 points (99.1% liked)

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