Scams

So I just came across this blog posting and did my usual scan of the text followed by a detailed reading of the comments and am fascinated. The absolutely hysterical point, made in the comments, is that this is supposed to be a blog about security. Like serious security. And the blog posting is about what can only be described as a beavis and butthead plan to get free food from a McDonalds. I qualify it as beavis and butthead esque because the pleasure that would be associated with such a scam is really that you are pulling it off, not that you are getting a free bag of grease that will damage every possible part and physical function of your body. What I really enjoyed about this is that it appears that there actually is a contingent of people like me out there. There is a very extensive discussion of ways to vary the scam, places the scam might be effective, where the scam would be most effective, what unknowns have to be taken into account, a discounting of the workers followed by a warning against that usw. It was like being stuck inside my head when presented with, well, pretty much anything.

The amusement goes on, though, when you follow the old link for a video showing the scam. The posting is old, so the link takes you to a general page where a french fellow does ridiculous things. A favorite is "L'escargot," a short 30 second video that shows cars slowing to a halt on a one-lane road and slowly scanning up to where the character is dressed in a snail costume (I doubt we even have such a thing in america but this would be totally reasonable as a costume in france) and he is moving very very slowly along the road, like a snail. Eventually the cars start going around him and the screen goes to black and says something that I just tried to translate into english for about 15 seconds but don't feel I can do it justice - the idea is that by engaging in total randomness/nonsense, you rise to the level of being "no one," which is the title of the site and actually means the opposite of what it says (you probably have a sense of why this was too complicated to translate - it also involves a pun).

But back to the point - I for one never tried to get free food from a fast food restaurant by telling the machine I had forgotten my money and would have to come back, to then proceed to the window and pick up the next person's food. In my opinion, it's okay as far as scams go. There's a lot of potential for being caught, particularly with security cameras and such nowadays and people seem to go nuts when people without much money or who are associated with things that people without money do, resulting in a greater likelihood of actually being punished (yes I am bringing up the ugly fact that people who are considered "undesirables" in our country end up in the legal system at a ridiculously higher rate than well-off people who engage in the same behavior). So it really isn't worth it.

Actual scams, ones that are funny, scam people, and are most likely illegal, I will not be posting here as I know that someone would do it, it would somehow get back to me and I would end up in jail b.c. some idiot didn't know how not to get caught (this is like a repeating dream in my life, except that it's actually how my life works - idiots ruin things and authority tries to crush my beautiful creativity). Sigh. But someday I will win this fight. (insert war cry here)