Have you ever been conned or scammed by a good friend?
Have you ever been conned at all, for that matter? What did you do about it?
I got hosed by a supposed "friend" in high school in a deal concerning concert tickets. A group of us planned to see Aerosmith and Dokken (hey, it was 1987) and we gave our $$ to one guy who was supposed to go to Ticketmaster and pick up tickets for the entire gang.
The night before the concert I got a call from the "ticket buyer" who nervously laid down an obvous B.S. story about how Ticketmaster hadn't reserved the right # of tickets for him so they came up one short, and he wasn't able to get a ticket for me. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled and said so. The guy promised he'd get my money back to me at school on Monday.
Over the course of the weekend, I heard from another "sucker" who'd gotten screwed by the same guy. Apparently he'd used our money to buy tickets for a couple of girls who wanted to go. I can't say I was terribly surprised. By that point, he was lucky that we didn't hop in a car, drive to his house, drag him outside and kick the you-know-what out of him...
That Monday as soon as he handed me back my $$, I grabbed the guy by the face, bounced his head off a locker, and I never spoke to him again.
I would LOVE to know if you went to school in Long Beach CA - sounds like someone I know from there. PM me if that's the case. Would have been a class long ago, though.
Hi Marcy - nope, I've lived my whole life in New Jersey. I've never even been to California.
Thanks for the reply FFC - it was worth a try!
I would say that the biggest "scam" I experienced through a friend was more of a betrayal. I believe she felt that I had discovered something unsavory going on between her and our boss so she culled every negative e-mail of mine that I had sent her throughout the past few years (I was amazed that she had saved all of those) which challenged my credibility and those e-mails included issues on mental health matters. She also added some incriminatory Facebook postings of mine for good measure. She gave those packets to two of my supervisors (and, for all I know, she could have distributed them to the rest of the office). I was not disciplined as I made no negative remarks about the work place or co-workers but I was very hurt as she had managed to convince me that having a mental health diagnosis was no stigma but yet she culled these e-mails specifically to challenge my credibility. She was my best friend and I was devastated. There was nothing I could do about this as I had violated the work e-mail protocol by sending these personal e-mails to her to her work address (smartly, she had never given me her home email addy). The protocol prohibited sending personal e-mails at work so there wasn't much I could do. Besides, the more attention I brought to it, the more publicity those e-mails would have been given so I did nothing. I just decided from now on to learn who to trust and what to write.
Oh, geez - that is sad, Lynda. You don't deserve that kind of abuse and betrayal. You handled it very well - you rose above it.
No, I've never been truly "conned" but I have had some "buyer's remorse" on a few occasions.
Having said that I note you have this question listed under Gender & Relationships - Dating and Online Dating. If being cheated on, lied to, or having someone break your heart is considered a "con" I suppose everyone has had that experience if they've dated more than one person in their life.
I tend to take responsibility for the choices I make in my life. Whenever something doesn't go as I expected I learn from it.
Yeah - the topic is weird - I tried to find friendships or just plain relationships. Some people think of cons in dating, so I went that direction. I think we could use some tweaks on the topics here.
Yes, I have. My neighbor, X, started conning us the day she moved in. She was really nice, friendly and fun to hang around with, but she was always out of money. She even got me to pay one of her mortgage payments because she had an "emergency".
Over the years, she ended up "borrowing" money from all of the neighbors on the block. By the time she found out she had cancer and really needed friends, she had used everyone up and no one would loan her money or even food.
She died penniless and alone except for her live in boyfriend who is still trying to con everyone out of money and help for this or that. No one wants to be around him and his house is falling apart.
He even told me he wanted to "end it all" when I gave him a ride to the grocery store. I called Adult Protective Services for him, but that's as far as I am willing to go.
It's a shame that some people are so out of control of their lives. They do need someone to take care of them, but it's just impossible to help everyone.
Wow - she was a real pro, and sick in more ways than one. I worked with someone who conned an innocent (and very young) coworker out of money for 'doctors' visit' - and then went off on weekend trips. And we had excellent health insurance.
You said it! She was a pro. She made it a full time job trying to get welfare, church help, ex husbands, her own family. She could have made more money working at McDonalds or something.
Yes, by a lawyer "friend" who was urging me to use a lawyer friend of his to take a case. He couldn't take it because we work together, but he kept insisting that I use this one. When he steered me wrong, I asked for his help to get me out of the jam this one was getting me into. He said it would be "unethical" for him to interfere. I told him it was unethical for him to twist my arm into using this particular lawyer. He wouldn't help. It was a simple case that a first-year law student could have won, but I lost and it affected my family's life forever. He was killed the next year in an accident. I had no feelings for him after his betrayal, but I went through the false motions of grieving with the rest of the office because I didn't want to appear to be the hard-nosed bitch I actually felt myself to be. .
Oh wow - a lawyer, no less! So sorry, MizBJ! I refinanced my house some years ago, and the mortgage broker practically insisted I use a certain home insurance firm to save money. I suspect he got little 'fees' from them - they were awful.
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