Humiliating scam led to mum and daughter licking Poundworld staff's feet after fake phone call

Of the shop, not tree ones

I guess maybe the straws are very easy to manipulate if you have only one arm? And presumably itā€™s not that only Poundworld stock them in general just thatā€™s the only place local she can obtain them?

Fuck that was a grim read.

Yeah, this is just straight up horrible. I know we read it in the cold light of day and think ā€œIā€™d never fall for thatā€, but the fact is all of us are vulnerable to scams of one sort of another, even if it not to level those women went through. Iā€™m sure weā€™ve all given cash to a chancer who prayed on our good will, or opened a dodgy email link before realising.

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That doesnā€™t seem so surprising to me. Theyā€™d already gone through a long ordeal for nothing and then the guy says just 10 mins more and they can have the money so yeah, they go back.

200 scratch cards

grim story

just feel bad for them, donā€™t find it funny

Iā€™d forgotten about that Compliance film (my memory for films Iā€™ve seen is so terrible these days). Was that a true story? Pretty sure it was

yep it was

it seems a bit strange that the manager and staff would close the shop cause someone ā€œfrom a charityā€ asks them too

Nah. Look at it mate

"I started to think this was a scam and my mum then mentioned this to the staff and eventually we left [ā€¦]

ā€œHe said to go back to the store and when you arrive, you have to knock on the door on your hands and knees. You have ten minutes left to win the money.ā€

What would make you think, ā€œah yeah, definitely not a scam if the guy on the phone is asking us to grovel for moneyā€. Itā€™s obviously very grim that someone is exploiting them but letā€™s not say itā€™s a display of remarkable common sense.

Fingers crossed. If not, then I guess Ā£10 is the price of doing a nice deed for someone.

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No, I think youā€™re the one whoā€™s completely ignoring psychology and how people tend to rationalise things.

Itā€™s always very easy to dismiss this sort of thing from the outside.

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sounds like they knew it was a scam but were willing to make an arse of themselves on the off chance.

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Weā€™re all susceptible to displays of authority though. I remember getting a phone call claiming to be from my bank that started asking me for details before I thought ā€œhmm, I donā€™t need anything from them, Iā€™ll call them on my own timeā€, and I still donā€™t know whether it was legit or not. I can see how if the requests on the phone started off small, youā€™d go along with it, until suddenly youā€™re committed and it turns into something else.

BURN

also there is that whole ā€œchasing your lossesā€ thing.

Like you have committed yourself believing itā€™s real - a bit like how onstage hypnotism gets people to do crazy things

I donā€™t thing Iā€™m explaining this very well

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iā€™ve had legit calls from my bank where they phone you out the blue and ask you for security info before they can proceed or tell you what itā€™s about. uh, nah m8

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Yeah, I just said Iā€™d call them back, they offered me a number to call but I said Iā€™d get it online (in case it was a double layer to their scam!). Then never called back because I can see everything online anyway.

yeah me too - an old credit card company (think it was Santander) were constantly calling me about ā€œSuspicious transactionsā€, which were in fact just normal typical transactions you might do on a credit card.

so basically this all happened because of one prank caller? bizarre.

This is weird. I bet the person who did it is getting off on the story too.

It is like a switch goes off in peopleā€™s heads then they decide to go for it. Then they are in too deep so carry on despite it taking dark turns, as otherwise it would all be wasted. Reminds me in a way of that girl in Magaluf who went round a nightclub sucking 30 guyā€™s cocks to win a ā€œholidayā€. Turned out it was the name of a cocktail.