Ever been hoodwinked by a snake in the grass? Had the wool pulled over your eyes? Share your acts of gulibility


For me, i was 11yrs old. It was Christmas time, Dec 23rd and i had just broken up from school so i went down to the Merseyway shopping centre (Our mall!) to buy a family of 5 gifts with 20 sheets i had managed to save over the year. Half way through my expedition a was a pproached by a man in a flash BMW. he shouted me over and said that he had just done a drop delivery for some jewelers but was given too much stock. He went on to explain that he needed to shift the stock before he headed back to work. He showed me this velvet brochure of huge gold chains and asked how much i had. i said 10 pounds. He said he was selling them for 50 each but could do me a deal on a smaller chain. Being a young, naive prick i thought i could buy it for me ma and she'd be blown away at the expense of the pressie (i had planned to get her a pair of totes toasties sock slippers). The guy took my tennerand left me with the chain.

When i got it home, i showed my oldest brother who said it was mickey mouse. and showed me the equivelant chain for sale in the argos catalouge for less than a tenner boxed up!

what a dick! but fear not, i managed to sell it on for the same price to a second year at my school when we went back in the new year. My mother never got the totes toasties.


what u got?

I once thought that this certain moderators flirtations with me were genuine.

His cute little smile, big doe eyes, shiny silvery hair, and cute button nose--they all made me sooooo happy at one time.

Then he went to Iceland.


That tramp.

for me it was the sea monkeys.

i loved comic books and i even loved the advertisements in the back.

who didn't secretly cheer for the skinny guy to buy those weights and bulk up and kick sand back in the bully's face? the entire drama was spelled out on the last few pages of most comic books back in the day.

that's where the sea monkeys lived. those last few pages, in their underwater castle which came complete with little battalions and spires, little ramparts and drawbridges. the King, the Queen and their son and daughter wore crowns and velvet capes and rode on sea horses and waved their scepters and grinned wildly, happily because they were little tiny happy shiny sea monkeys.

and i believed! not only that but i wanted to see them up close, the little reins on the sea horses and the way their sea monkey hair would float out behind them in an underwater breeze. i wanted to commune with the sea monkeys.

So I mailed my optimistic allowance off to the address as instructed, and i waited and waited and waited the six to eight week eternity it took until the sea monkeys finally arrived.

i had expected a delivery person, maybe riding a unicorn, who would bring the sea monkeys with fanfare. something so magical should only be delivered by something equally magical. but instead i got a packet in the postbox. just a packet with instructions to pour the contents into water, in a fishbowl, and watch the sea monkeys grow.

which i did. and watched snd watched until something tiny, vague and squirmy, began to wriggle across my field of vision. if they were monkeys i sure couldn't see any tails and if they wore capes and velvet crowns i'll never know, they were too miniscule to see.

at the ripe old age of, well let's just say adulthood i know now they were simply little brine shrimp, packaged and sold to the unsuspecting. but back then i was a rube, a newbie suckered totally into the scam. optimistic, a dreamer of big dreams.

sea monkeys my ass. and you know what? to be honest it still stings a bit this day. i'm fine though. just saying

XxAxX said:

that was a good read!
and as a child, i too was VERY close to ordering a bunch... i'm really glad i didn't...

Imago said:

sammij said:

i believe they are STILL pulling this scam off on innocent children.
someone should sue the abstards for false advertising

about 4 years ago.....enough said lol

I gave a stranger $20 to go to his place & get me some weed. I waited for a half hour or so, but I knew it was a mistake the moment i gave him the money.

Hey, when you're dumb & desperate, you're dumb & desperate!

Other than trusted the wrong people, I don't get taken.

Stymie said:

I'll take you baby

Dude said he was going to get me a '71 'Cuda convertible for $1,024. Said some guy in Louisiana had hundreds of Mopars, and Alzheimers. He was giving away $millions in cars.

I gave the dude $130. He did give me a real Mopar key, but alas, no car.

Mach said:

You can have it.

Stymie said:

off to bellydance class

One time my buddy and I decided to go out drinking in Cleveland on a Wednesday night. When we pulled into a parking lot (which usually charges on the weekends to park there), some guy came up to us and said it would be 5 dollars for parking. So me, being an idiot, gave it to him. As we were walking into the bar, it dawned on me that he was a bum and just tricked me. Then he had the nerve to stop us again and ask for a smoke, and I was like "yeah, if I can have my 5 bucks back!".

I was driving through WeHo and I stopped at a light and this young woman tapped on my window.

I asked her if something was wrong and if she needed a ride home. She got in and...
[Edited 3/10/08 16:40pm]