You ever experience the white van scam?

evergreenrider said:
Lol. They still are doing this huh? Happened to me about 16 years ago or so. My question is, how is it so scam? Obviously they are lying about how the acquired them, but if you do want them they do actually give em to you.
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The scam is that they tell you they have super high-end speakers and they usually have fancy-sounding names that sound similar to legit companies or just fancy enough to fool people when the actual speakers inside are just cheap Chinese junk. They buy these speakers for say $50. They tell you they're really worth $2,000 a pair, but they're willing to sell them to you for the low, low price of only $500. Even if you haggle them down to $200, easy $150 profit. Plus they usually have a huge stack of them in the van, so they can easily multiply that $150.
 
yup, about 8 years ago, I never knew it was so common lol.
 
you guys are missing out. i bought a kickass pair of home theater subs and a full surround sound set up out of one of those white vans. only cost 800$ but they had extra leftover froma store closing, and they are worth over 6 thousand dollars! best decision I have ever made. Why would u think this is a scam? these dudes hooked it up, they just had extra stuff they didnt need, and sold it at a very reasonable price.
 
Yea I remember a couple guys approached me trying to sell me some speakers or some bullshit about 8 or 9 years ago in a mall parking lot. I never saw what the guy was driving, he was just making his pitch as I was walking to my car. I told him I wasn't interested, he ramped up his pitch, so I said something to him like "if this is such a great deal, why do you seem so fuckin desperate to sell it to me, right here and right now?" The guy just left me alone after that.

Not really related to this, but it reminds me of another white van sketchy ass motherfucker. When I was in high school, there was a guy in the neighbourhood who would give the local kids these boxes of chocolates, you know like boy scouts or air cadets sell outside the liquor store. He'd give you all these chocolates and some phony paper showing the people that it's for some charity, and you would go door to door selling them. Then you bring the money back to him and he breaks you off some of it.

Well me and like 4 of my bros got a bunch of chocolates from him and just never gave him the money we made, plus we ate a shitload of chocolate. The guy was pissed and when he would see us on the street he would try to come after us. We were ducking that white van for months before he disappeared, probably on to a new neighbourhood to do the same shit.
 
Like 20 years ago, guys in a van asks me if I want to buy "speakers, got a good deal".
I said no.

I've always heard the scam as they give you real boxes, but loaded with bricks. And they drive off as you're opening the box.
 
Yes - although it wasn't really a scam, so much as it was people selling things from a big white van.

They normally set up shop in busy parking lots and peddle their wares (perfume, clothing, electronics etc)
 
There are videos online showing these systems taken apart. You see things like tiny cheap speakers mounted in cases that look like woofers, ultra thin cables connecting everything, hdmi and various inputs and outputs that are just for decoration and do not actually do anything when connected, and on and on...

This is a long vid but this guy gives a detailed breakdown of what piles of crap these systems are. If you jump around the vid it will tell you everything you need to know to avoid these dirtbags.

 
lts5025 said:
The scam is that they tell you they have super high-end speakers and they usually have fancy-sounding names that sound similar to legit companies or just fancy enough to fool people when the actual speakers inside are just cheap Chinese junk. They buy these speakers for say $50. They tell you they're really worth $2,000 a pair, but they're willing to sell them to you for the low, low price of only $500. Even if you haggle them down to $200, easy $150 profit. Plus they usually have a huge stack of them in the van, so they can easily multiply that $150.
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Well, I guess Im glad he wouldn't take the $100 I was offering lol. I was 16 at the time and very much into stereos at that point
 
Never knew this was a common scam. Someone approached me a year ago in a shopping center parking lot with the same exact wording about a surround sound system, lol.
 
KaNesDeath said:
Never knew this was a common scam. Someone approached me a year ago in a shopping center parking lot with the same exact wording about a surround sound system, lol.
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It's good to spread the word about it from time to time so people don't fall for it. Amazing how long this scam has been going on.

Read an amusing description from a victim on how his system's sound quality was:

Thing sounded like an alarm clock.
 
RawHawg said:

Thing sounded like an alarm clock.
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That's like a memorable line from a good novel. If you pick up a book and see a line like that in it you just close it right there and walk it to the cash register
 
I was approached once by these guys out of a white van. Fortunately for me (and common sense) I was already aware of this scam. I let the guys sell me their pitch and I put on a Kevin Spacey-like acting job of believing them and asking really dumb questions that followed up with "oh wow those are high level specs!" and "damn you can sell these on eBay for this much?!?".

I was at a supermarket that had a Wells Fargo. I told them I didn't have checks or cash on me so let's go into the Wells Fargo so I can withdraw. I convinced one of them to follow me inside and proceeded to do more acting telling him that there was a problem with my card and needed to talk to a teller.

So, I sat down with the teller and proceeded to teller to take a quick look at that man over there, he is trying to scam me out of fake speakers with fake specifications etc. I told her to call the police as he is waiting for me to withdraw funds.

The cops came in like 1 minute as I guess there was a unit very close by not doing much. The guy was looking out the window and I saw him instantly run out the store as the officer pulled in the lot. I ran outside and pointed to the cop then pointed to the guy running into the van. The cop popped his berrie beams and long story short more units arrived and confiscated all their shit.

As I think about it now and being a LEO, I was never called into court for the incident even though I exposed these fucks as best I could. Which means that they got away with any trademark issues, statutes of selling without a license, fraud etc.

Regardless, I didn't need to be a cop at the time to tell that these guys were lifetime losers and would never amount to anything in life besides a jail cell, even if they got some quick cash scamming saps.
 
Look on the bright side, at least you weren't sniped.
 
I was approached as a kid, teenager. I ended up buying the speakers for much less than they were selling them for. I tell you what though, those things both sounded awesome and lasted forever!!! I ended up throwing them away just a few years ago. I bet they still worked. My friend bought the same pair and he loved them too. So maybe it was a scam but it worked out for me!!!
 
^^^Same.

I got aproached to buy these huge speakers for $2500. I talked them down to $200. That was 11 years ago. The speakers are still working to this day. The "brand" is Samaurai. They're the best speakers I've ever had.
 
Never trust a proprietor operating out of a white van.

Unless its painted funny and is playing music.

Then get yoself some ice cream.
 
Anung Un Rama said:
They tried that that shit with me, but I was a lite more naive. I wound up driving around with them for a bit. Then I started giving in to their advances by taking off articles of clothing for money. Eventually I wound up having sex on camera in the van. Afterwards, I asked to get out because I had to take a leak and they wound up driving away, leaving me in the middle of nowhere. Smh
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I hope he was thoughtful enough to lube you up
 
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