Tag: fraud

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Fiddle File #10

fiddler-75Editor’s Note: Ask The Fiddler is a lifestyle advice column that aims to remedy more chaos and confusion than it creates. Questions may be submitted to us here at Art of the Prank, and good luck.

The Fiddle File #10

Here we go with another madcap roundup of hoaxes, scams and damn fool idiocy making the rounds these days. Take heed. Some of these fiddles may soon be showing up on your computer, phone or even up close and personal. Check it out:

Kentucky & Etc: Take it off? You got a gig serving burgers and fries. Now the restaurant manager is ordering you to submit to a strip-search. Here”s the history of a very bizarre hoax, pulled time and again.

FaceBook: What makes you click? Here are some hoax headlines that have steered the curious into a marketing scam: Huge plane crashes into bridge? – Terrible roller coaster accident! – 99% Can’t Watch More Than 15 Seconds – Half Girl Half Snake! – Terrible accident with pencil! – HUGE pimple explodes – Shark eats living man! – Spider lives under skin!

plane-crashes-bridge

FaceBook, email: Here”s another example of the “What makes you click?” hoax. Continue reading “Fiddle File #10”

Related posts:

  1. Fiddle File #9
  2. Fiddle File #3
  3. Fiddle File #2
  4. The Fiddle File: Scam Report
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Fiddle File #9

fiddler-75Editor’s Note: Ask The Fiddler is a lifestyle advice column that aims to remedy more chaos and confusion than it creates. Questions may be submitted to us here at Art of the Prank, and good luck.

The Fiddle File #9

Here we go with another madcap roundup of hoaxes, scams and damn fool idiocy making the rounds these days. Take heed. Some of these fiddles may soon be showing up on your computer, phone or even up close and personal. Check it out:

superstarEverywhere: Got what it takes to be a supermodel? There are plenty of sharks out there to assure you of that, all you need is some up front money. Article is from a Canadian perspective but the advice is universal.

Cleveland: The nice stranger will give you half the proceeds if you let him cash a check using your debit card. Sounds like an easy way to pocket some loot. And it is, for the scammer.

Staten Island: Ah, for a good night”s rest. WTF, the bed”s on fire. And your “prankster” roomy is facing a handful of charges.

Baltimore: Looking to make a few extra bucks? Become a hoaxer bounty hunter. Coast Guard offers $2000 for the right info on this trouble-maker.

FaceBook: What are friends for? Overseas con artists think they”re for exploiting through impostor accounts set up using your info.

Continue reading “Fiddle File #9”

Related posts:

  1. Fiddle File #10
  2. Fiddle File #3
  3. Fiddle File #2
  4. The Fiddle File: Scam Report
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Fiddle File #3

fiddler-75Editor’s Note: Ask The Fiddler is a lifestyle advice column that aims to remedy more chaos and confusion than it creates. Questions may be submitted to us here at Art of the Prank, and good luck.

The Fiddle File #3

Here we go with another madcap roundup of hoaxes, scams and damn fool idiocy making the rounds these days. Take heed. Some of these fiddles may soon be showing up on your computer, phone or even up close and personal. Check it out:

Maine: Free groceries if you”re over sixty. Whoops, sorry, no free lunch, just hustlers phishing for personal info.

Everywhere: It”s called “pet-flipping.” Your dog is lost or stolen. Watch for it for sale on Craigslist and probably other classifieds.

Kansas: Pranksters toilet paper this guy”s house, he isn”t happy, shotguns the neighborhood.

Florida, California, Arizona, etc.: This one is called “swoop and squat,” the auto in front of you jams on the brakes, the one behind collides with you. One of several collision scams.

China: Fabricate a terrorist threat, win up to five years in a Chinese jail that probably lacks the comforts of home.

California: The water company employee needs to check your house for pollution. Hint: The public water company isn”t responsible for checking water problems inside your home.

Everywhere: You search for sites featuring Lily Collins. Your reward? A computer loaded with malware. Other dangerous searches noted by McAfee security firm, in order: Avril Lavigne, Sandra Bullock, Kathy Griffith, Zoe Saldana, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Jon Hamm, Adriana Lima and Emma Roberts.

Spotted a hoax or scam deserving mention in our next roundup? We”d be happy to hear from you at Art of the Prank. You might save some reader a heap of hurting (or give them wild ideas for their next fiddle).

Related posts:

  1. Fiddle File #10
  2. Fiddle File #9
  3. Fiddle File #2
  4. The Fiddle File: Scam Report
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Ask the Fiddler #9: Obamacare Spawns a Slew of Scams

fiddler-75Editor’s Note: Ask The Fiddler is a lifestyle advice column that aims to remedy more chaos and confusion than it creates. Questions may be submitted to us here at Art of the Prank, and good luck.

Dear Fiddler:

Have they set up the death panels that will be part of Obamacare, deciding who lives and who dies?

Rodney in Shreveport

Dear Rodney,

whitehouse.200Yes. And the panels are made up of radical liberal Democrats with Fu Manchu beards, dressed in white frocks, huddled over complicated charts, chanting and tossing chicken bones to decide the fates of vulnerable victims of Obamacare. Those victims will be mostly rightwing Republicans, of course. It is their fate to suffer from conspiracies.

Well, back here on planet Earth. Sorry, big disappointment, I”ve searched high and low and can find no evidence of death panels.

As best as I can figure, the whole crazy idea seems to be a mad-dog rightwing conspiracy theory concocted to counter a Big Mother Government health-nazi plot. Something like that. Continue reading “Ask the Fiddler #9: Obamacare Spawns a Slew of Scams”

Related posts:

  1. Fake Newsmaker Cameron Harris: Lying for Profit
  2. Joey Skaggs on Fake News (and he should know)
  3. Wanted: Media Gate Keeper
  4. Collateral Cover-up
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Ask The Fiddler #7: Your Parents’ Worst Nightmare Career

fiddler-75Editor’s Note: Ask The Fiddler is a lifestyle advice column that aims to remedy more chaos and confusion than it creates. Questions may be submitted to us here at Art of the Prank, and good luck.

Dear Fiddler: Is it possible to make a career of pranking?

Vinnie in Cleveland

Dear Vinnie,

Of course it is. Fame and fortune await. Just get your mojo working. Need help? You”ll want to send for my informative booklet, “How to Prank Your Bank.” And, then, you”ll want to be prepared to spend five or ten years behind bars if something goes wrong.

To be practical, though, possible doesn”t mean probable. And pranking has a whole crazy carnival of meanings, as a look through the index here at Art of the Prank indicates.

So the wiser choice might be to consider pranking as a secondary calling. Establish yourself on some more respectable platform from which to leap. There are pathways through art, theater, literature and a host of other professions.

Personally, I favor archaeology and anthropology.

Piltdown-gang-425

Continue reading “Ask The Fiddler #7: Your Parents’ Worst Nightmare Career”

Related posts:

  1. Ask The Fiddler #19: Electile Dysfunction
  2. Ask the Fiddler #8: Roadkill Cuisine: Scrambled Armadillo Brains, Anyone?
  3. The Fiddle File: Scam Report
  4. Ask The Fiddler #1: Read My Hips

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