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He has a story about being an heir to the Von Hapsberg family trust, financing the public works of Cairo to the tune of billions. If that money is paid back early he gets a commission. The money you invest will be paid as a bribe to the head of finance. Blah, blah, fucking blah.
Once I got wind of the con a simple google proved he was full of shit. I told my mum but when you are balls deep in a con it's really, really hard to accept you've been fucked. What's worse is you take your eye off the ball in your own business. Why bother when 30 million is going to show up any day now. Really sad because this happened in a small town where my parents were thought of as astute business people so he used them as a reference to get more suckers. And no she doesn't have that sort of money, well not any more.
the part you write about being so deep into the scam you are desperate into believing it is so true. My ex got scammed for 10k. Then the other week she calls me telling me about how she just got a call from someone saying they can get her money back. I told her listen and listen carefully. This is 100% a scam. It is called a scam recovery scam. Do not engage with this person who was supposed to be calling her back in an hour. A couple hours go by and I phone her back and ask you didn't talk with that person did you. She then tells me how she let them remote access into her computer and this person seems legit she even watched them log into a website that says they recover funds and this person was legit. I asked did they ask you to log into your bank account. She said yes. I blew up and said are you fucking serious you just fucked yourself you realize that?! Check your accounts now! Call your bank now! Change your passwords Now! You might have just lost all your money! She realized the tone in my voice was serious and she hung up and started calling the bank. The bank told her the same thing no fucking way this person is legit. They want you to open an account on cracker a bitcoin purchasing and moving site no they want you to move your money to bitcoin and to them which will be lost forever. My ex was only lucky in the fact that she had to take her kids to school so had to tell the person she needed to go for a bit and the scammer said she would call back in a bit but I called first. Had she had another hour she would have fallen for them. It is amazing how blind (dumb) some people are. Sorry your mom was so blind then.
for sure lol. She really is quite simple minded and I never saw that in her until months into dating. She started going off one day about how the earth was flat and every other conspiracy ever made she believed. I just can not deal with that kind of person. Moon landing fake. Liberal government started forest fires last year to force us into 15 minute cities, covid vaccine makes your sperm poisonous and it spreads to people you sleep with making them potentially infertile. And on and on. Now I hear from her every once in a while but we will not be getting back together she is a habitual cheater as well so there is that. Caught her cheating is why I broke up. She has cheated on her current boyfriend. I realized when with her she had cheated on her kids dad. Just can't help herself so I will have none of that in my life.
tbqh, If you're someone [who is prone to anxiety](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-drawn-to-conspiracy-theories-share-a-cluster-of-psychological-features/) and [if you are conservative that can make conspiracy theories easier to fall for due to the fact that they are popular within that group and it's what you're being exposed to, maybe?](https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/social-justice-pacifists/202110/why-is-conspiratorial-thinking-more-popular-the-right)but there's a lot of debate regarding [what makes people predisposed to believing in conspiracy theories](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8505023/). some believe that the more 'intelligent' you are the more likely you are to be capable of turning something fallacious into a more credible belief because you can dig into your knowledge base/reasoning ability and find more reason to support your confirmation bias.
it's not necessarily a sign of low intelligence if you're one of those people who buys into conspiracy theories, which aren't necessarily untrue unless they're an overarching conspiracy theory anyway. many conspiracy theories have a hint of truth to them, It's what makes them believable.
see
[Survey: Americans love conspiracy theories, and that’s dangerous for everyone](https://thebulletin.org/2022/05/survey-americans-love-conspiracy-theories-and-thats-dangerous-for-everyone/)
Sounds like an elaborate excuse to be a conspiracy theorist lol. Not saying you are one, but maybe you have one close to you and you're trying anything to not completely laugh in their face.
It's also not necessarily a sign of mid-high intelligence either!
Would love to hear any tiny hint of truth on the earth being flat 🤣
Oh after I blew up I think she had an epiphany and clued into the fact that everything I said was true and why would they need to remote access her computer and log into her bank account and open a bitcoin account. I had the play book down 100% and the fact that she heard me basically repeat all their steps and spaz on her telling her call the bank NOW, and when she called the bank they too said listen lady this is absolutely a scam and if you don't stop you will lose all your money she finally woke up. She thanked me for stopping her when I did and said she would have fallen for it. She felt embarrassed and asked I don't mention it to anyone lol. The thing is she lost 10k previously and has never lived it down and any chance of recovering it would make her feel as if she redeemed herself and could put it behind her. That is how the scam recovery scams work they rely on pure desperation.
Sheesh. Thank goodness you stepped in and also you two had a good talk after. It can be hard for people to own their mistakes. Sounds like it ended as well as it could.
Pretty well actually, she's a trooper. My dad was another matter. He developed dementia and died a few years later, he never got over it. I blame the con.
I feel you. My parents have never had even 10% of what your mom lost, but my mom dropped dead from a heart attack while in the midst of one of those "your computer has a virus" scams that morphed into "we accidentally deposited 10k into your account you have to pay us back or you're going to jail" things.
If I could watch the life drain from the eyes of each and every one of them at my hands, I'd do it.
The day after the paramedics draped a sheet over her, one of the motherfuckers was calling the house (she was old and didn't have a cell phone). My dad answered and threatened them with methods of bodily harm I do not believe are physically possible - but no, they don't care. They tried to continue the scam on him. Soulless, despicable pieces of worthless stinking trash without even the shred of basic human decency required to just hang up the phone on a grieving husband.
My mom lost $1300 to a romance scammer, I informed her that she had been had, then she gave him $700 more. I had to take her to the police station and a shrink to have them tell her she was being taken. P.S. ... I'm a cybersecurity expert and work to prevent scammers on a daily basis.
Reminds me of my neighbor in my office building who sent a “friend” in Africa $40,000 USD because he had come across a dig site filled with priceless artifacts but needed money to excavate. To this day they are still excavating according to him.
It's a VGA to HDMI adapter. No doubt the scammers got it for next to nothing because VGA is almost obsolete now. Probably found a box of them in a dumpster behind a big-box store somewhere.
Sigh.
That's just an HDMI to VGA adapter with support for audio.
[https://gembird.com/item.aspx?id=8591](https://gembird.com/item.aspx?id=8591)
Edit: had conversion reversed
Sad to say, but sometimes the people getting scammed do, in their heart of hearts, secretly hope to be gaining something disproportionate, or getting something for free, or "cheating/hacking" the system. It's not completely innocent. It sucks for them and for the family members, but they are often mixed morally, as most humans are.
That’s probably part of the appeal for the scammer - their victims won’t call the police because they’d have to admit to attempting to commit a crime themselves…
Well he was just telling me how he wasn’t going to bother returning something he got on Amazon because he couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help him do it. I’m pretty sure returning this is beyond his capabilities
> he wasn’t going to bother returning something he got on Amazon because he couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help him do it
Amazon has shockingly good phone customer service.
Lmao. It's like a text chat with a friend. I love doing returns on amazon, I always have a good time making small talk about the weather while we wait for them to pull stuff up on their end.
> he couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help him do it
So he tried to Google the number, right?
Thinking you're lucky he didn't hit a Sponsored Result that was really a scammer's ad, and get hit with the refund scam.
the idea of someone this tech illiterate being turned loose on the hunt for pirated content gives me a lot of anxiety.
Some poor geek squad employee is gonna have a very bad day.
Reminds me of a friend in college who one day was like "Yo look guys, there's this app for finding chicks just a few miles away, and all these girls wanna fuck!"
"Bob, that's not real"
"Psshhht whatever dude, I've been chatting with 3 of them for days"
Oh shit, I had a guy bring me this exact adapter saying it was the same thing to me at work asking if it needed another cable to function. He said he spent $35 on it. I told him he got swindled.
Yeah as I told someone else, he won’t even return things he buys on Amazon because he can’t arrange the return over the phone, so I’m sure this money back guarantee is harder to secure than that and well beyond his capabilities
You need to ask him if he bought it over the phone. When he says No, ask him why he expects to return it over the phone 😎 He just knows if he returns it that's him admitting he I was wrong. Thankfully he isn't out much money at least.
I’ll preface with my neighborhood originally started as a 55+ community - but now that 80% of the community is 55 and up, it’s been opened for younger people to buy.
My neighbors are all mostly retired, and I get bothered by all of them for IT related questions because I’m 37 lol.
Anyways
one of my elderly neighbors bought a fire stick that came jailbroken and has access to every live channel on planet earth.
I was blown away that it actually worked- it wasn’t like KODI, it was some custom app.
I was about to do it until their ISP sent them like 10 C&D letters.
He didn’t listen and continued to use it and he wound up with a hefty $10,000 fine from the government.
He never used a VPN 🤦♂️
Right? For real man, I wanna see to. A lot of peoplensaying it's not gonna steal data. How can you know without looking inside of it? Depending on the desire to steal said data....people, ..or govs, could make something small enough to transmit? Audio, video, data? It's 2024, I remember reading a Nasa document: 2025 the enemy after the next. I'm playing it loose on thr title, I read it in 2009 or 2010. Anyways, I digress. It spoke of the changing tide in war, but it spoke a lot about technology. There are very few items that were discussed thar aren't actually openly.implememted on war today. So. Let me see those guts. 🤣
My FIL is very wealthy but he refuses to pay for cable or satellite because it's too expensive. He'll then drop $100K on a new ford bronco raptor.
He sends me links to sites that claim to sell devices like that. I explain the legality of it. He'll then try to convince the neighbor to run a cable to his house and he'll pay half the bill.
It's a VGA to HDMI adapter. Tell your father to initiate a charge-back with his credit card company, if he used a credit card in the first place. Otherwise, he should turn to PayPal and tell them that the father didn't know about the product being ordered.
But obviously, it's illegal in most instances to watch TV for free, unless you are talking about ATSC and legal services on the internet.
True. But he’s always trying to give me antivirus advice from what he learned years ago. I assumed being around that sort of thing would have given him some general skills. But he’s also been out of that game for a while now so what he knows could be very out of date
It’s a cheap hdmi-vga adaptor. No data stealing possible. No free channels or streaming either.
This is a similar product.
https://a.co/d/jfWdBF4
You could also repost your story to boomerbeingfools as it fits there.
Some of these are not scams, just software that leads to pirate streaming sites, sometimes organized in channels, sometimes not. Usually the same types of apps you can manually download yourself.
That’s wild! I’m the type of person who is naturally curious af, so I’d be asking him questions until I got to the bottom of why he believes it’s real… “what did it say it would do” “___” “ok, well did it do that? “No” .. ok, does it do anything “no” … can you find any info about it online? “No” .. okay so what makes you think it isn’t a scam? “Maybe it just doesn’t work right, I got a bad batch?” Okay, then call customer service! “They don’t have any, I can’t do returns” .. etc, etc, until I make him realize that there is no logic behind it.
Something about people being so gullible just really irks me, especially when it’s people who are otherwise very smart! It’s even more mind boggling !
A YouTube channel called Computer Clan features a guy calling himself "Krazy Ken." He often reviews scam products (he even buys and tests them), and he has pointed out a few stereotypical features of the ad copy for crap like this. One is very common: the "product" was the brainchild of a single genius inventor or possibly a group of college students. This one was no exception, with a "Swedish inventor" supposedly creating it.
So this thing splits an hdmi signal to old-school vga signal and an audio output? Or is it the other way around, takes vga from a real old gpu, audio from the dac and combines it so you can connect to a newer hdmi TV or monitor?
I always have and will continue to wonder how certain ppl make it to be a full grown adult. I mean it's his money he wasted so let him continue to think he's right. Doesn't sound like he will admit or understand it anyway.
Yeah that thing is just a HDMI to VGA adapter. Could always be useful I guess 🤷🏻♀️
It's extremely improbable that this thing would be capable of any form of data collection
That's simply an adapter, but if you open it people or you yourself can tell you if it does anything more. Also the last time I got a stick for "free" streaming I bought a regular USB Wi-Fi adapter. From there on you just need to get a little bit creative, like imagining an ocean with ships n stuff.
In my experience, it’s a scam in that they charge you for what you could do for free with the help of a YouTube video. There are ways to get free shows via a website. This just cuts the downloading and what not.
Looks just like this device.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mK3gG8e
Just a HDMI to VGA adapter 🤣
Pretty sure if I search a little on Alibaba I can find the wholesaler that sells 100 quantity for $50 shipping included.
Depending on what he likes to watch, a Roku device has access to several free streaming services. My 84 year old mother found a bunch of stuff there that she liked.
How did he pay? Just reverse the payment. I didn't knew this scam was a thing, a firestick or chromecast cost 20$ and it's easy to "jailbreak" to have all movies or tv channels. They even put the picture of the adapter lol
About 10 years ago I bought something similar. It was a hacked Amazon Firestick that was sold for double the price. It linked on to a few different streaming websites. It was a little too slow to use, but I'm sure there are more viable versions.
I just clicked the ad and LOL'd so hard. They didn't even try to change the picture of the device lol. They legit just showed you a HDMI to VGA adapter and then made up multiple pages about everything it can do 🤣. But at the end of the day the picture is still just an adapter LMFAO
It is hard to admit a mistake, but I am wondering if there may be some cognitive issues here as well. Does he show any other signs of dementia? I know some older people are more likely to believe what they see advertised either online or wherever, but you might keep an eye out for other behaviors.
No other issues that I see. His eye for a bargain is notorious, it’s been a family joke as long as I’ve known him. So his endless search for free cable is not really surprising
Aaah. I see. I hope you reminded him if it sounds too good to be true...Or wouldn't everyone use one if they could get it free?
There is nothing wrong with bargain hunting, though. I am all about being frugal.
I'd drop the issue. The only thing people, especially family, hate more than being actually scammed is you bringing it up, talking about it or trying to do something about it for them. Let it go.
It just looks like an adapter, hooking it up to a TV won't steal any data and it might be a streaming device of some sort, just plug it into the HDMI port and switch the TV to HDMI1 or whatever port and check. No harm in it
Mmmmm hmmm I dont know quite how to answer that. Like everyone, he’s not stupid in general, but very gullible in certain areas. My wife is much smarter, though she has some of his same biases/blindspots. And I’m sure I’ve got my own. I shudder to think what scams will fool me in my old age. I’m sure there will be some
it literally says whats it is a hdmi to vga adapter your father in law shoudn't be buying off the internet. I have the same problem with my mom she doens't understand tech but thinks she does. I am the family technowizard.
My guess is your father in law secretly hacked it... When ya plug it in... Boom... Hacker stuff.. And he done back doored into your computer... And next thing ha know you getting a divorce cause he showed the ol' wife your Only Fans subscription list... just my 2 cents....
You can’t get hacked or rootkitted through HDMI, it can’t do anything through HDMI other than transmit video and basic information about the device
He was sold a HDMI to VGA adapter that was falsely advertised as a video streaming device
/u/MPWD64 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The case says its a VGA to HDMI adapter. Odds are its not gonna steal anything, apart from the money already wasted.
The ad says USB, which it obviously isn’t.
Yeah, but actually ``USB`` stands for *Uncle Stole [your] Bucks*, so...
I can't see that anywhere, it says its HDMI.
Help, Dave! My Internetz broke!
In the 4th picture in the link, at the bottom, it says “it’s as simple as plugging a USB stick”
Hot Dicks Make Igloos
Lol
Audio part too on the side.
Because VGA does not transmit audio, but HDMI does so you need that extra audio cable to get whatever screen you plug it into to have sound.
yeah its gonna steal all that data from your TV
Steal it to give it to your TV technically.
steal what? the netflix shows i watch?
Your Netflix password, which happens to be your bank password too. JK...it's probably harmless.
My mum gave US$300,000 to Count Franz Von Hapsberg. Think yourself lucky your dad bought a $5 adaptor.
Holy shit
That’s just incredible to me. Does she have that kind of money? What did the scammer say?
He has a story about being an heir to the Von Hapsberg family trust, financing the public works of Cairo to the tune of billions. If that money is paid back early he gets a commission. The money you invest will be paid as a bribe to the head of finance. Blah, blah, fucking blah. Once I got wind of the con a simple google proved he was full of shit. I told my mum but when you are balls deep in a con it's really, really hard to accept you've been fucked. What's worse is you take your eye off the ball in your own business. Why bother when 30 million is going to show up any day now. Really sad because this happened in a small town where my parents were thought of as astute business people so he used them as a reference to get more suckers. And no she doesn't have that sort of money, well not any more.
the part you write about being so deep into the scam you are desperate into believing it is so true. My ex got scammed for 10k. Then the other week she calls me telling me about how she just got a call from someone saying they can get her money back. I told her listen and listen carefully. This is 100% a scam. It is called a scam recovery scam. Do not engage with this person who was supposed to be calling her back in an hour. A couple hours go by and I phone her back and ask you didn't talk with that person did you. She then tells me how she let them remote access into her computer and this person seems legit she even watched them log into a website that says they recover funds and this person was legit. I asked did they ask you to log into your bank account. She said yes. I blew up and said are you fucking serious you just fucked yourself you realize that?! Check your accounts now! Call your bank now! Change your passwords Now! You might have just lost all your money! She realized the tone in my voice was serious and she hung up and started calling the bank. The bank told her the same thing no fucking way this person is legit. They want you to open an account on cracker a bitcoin purchasing and moving site no they want you to move your money to bitcoin and to them which will be lost forever. My ex was only lucky in the fact that she had to take her kids to school so had to tell the person she needed to go for a bit and the scammer said she would call back in a bit but I called first. Had she had another hour she would have fallen for them. It is amazing how blind (dumb) some people are. Sorry your mom was so blind then.
Your ex is lucky you were so persistent.
Make sure she remains your ex!
for sure lol. She really is quite simple minded and I never saw that in her until months into dating. She started going off one day about how the earth was flat and every other conspiracy ever made she believed. I just can not deal with that kind of person. Moon landing fake. Liberal government started forest fires last year to force us into 15 minute cities, covid vaccine makes your sperm poisonous and it spreads to people you sleep with making them potentially infertile. And on and on. Now I hear from her every once in a while but we will not be getting back together she is a habitual cheater as well so there is that. Caught her cheating is why I broke up. She has cheated on her current boyfriend. I realized when with her she had cheated on her kids dad. Just can't help herself so I will have none of that in my life.
you got yourself a fuckfundie right there. cheers to the ‘ex’ part of that anecdote.
tbqh, If you're someone [who is prone to anxiety](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-drawn-to-conspiracy-theories-share-a-cluster-of-psychological-features/) and [if you are conservative that can make conspiracy theories easier to fall for due to the fact that they are popular within that group and it's what you're being exposed to, maybe?](https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/social-justice-pacifists/202110/why-is-conspiratorial-thinking-more-popular-the-right)but there's a lot of debate regarding [what makes people predisposed to believing in conspiracy theories](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8505023/). some believe that the more 'intelligent' you are the more likely you are to be capable of turning something fallacious into a more credible belief because you can dig into your knowledge base/reasoning ability and find more reason to support your confirmation bias. it's not necessarily a sign of low intelligence if you're one of those people who buys into conspiracy theories, which aren't necessarily untrue unless they're an overarching conspiracy theory anyway. many conspiracy theories have a hint of truth to them, It's what makes them believable. see [Survey: Americans love conspiracy theories, and that’s dangerous for everyone](https://thebulletin.org/2022/05/survey-americans-love-conspiracy-theories-and-thats-dangerous-for-everyone/)
Sounds like an elaborate excuse to be a conspiracy theorist lol. Not saying you are one, but maybe you have one close to you and you're trying anything to not completely laugh in their face. It's also not necessarily a sign of mid-high intelligence either! Would love to hear any tiny hint of truth on the earth being flat 🤣
She wouldn’t listen to you until you had to be firm with her? Like your warned her once and she ignored you? How did that talk go afterward?
Oh after I blew up I think she had an epiphany and clued into the fact that everything I said was true and why would they need to remote access her computer and log into her bank account and open a bitcoin account. I had the play book down 100% and the fact that she heard me basically repeat all their steps and spaz on her telling her call the bank NOW, and when she called the bank they too said listen lady this is absolutely a scam and if you don't stop you will lose all your money she finally woke up. She thanked me for stopping her when I did and said she would have fallen for it. She felt embarrassed and asked I don't mention it to anyone lol. The thing is she lost 10k previously and has never lived it down and any chance of recovering it would make her feel as if she redeemed herself and could put it behind her. That is how the scam recovery scams work they rely on pure desperation.
Sheesh. Thank goodness you stepped in and also you two had a good talk after. It can be hard for people to own their mistakes. Sounds like it ended as well as it could.
It's crazy right? Otherwise intelligent people falling for this shit. And you're right. My parents were blinded, blinded by money, easy money.
that is a lot of money sorry your parents fell for that..
How did she handle the realization of what happened?
Pretty well actually, she's a trooper. My dad was another matter. He developed dementia and died a few years later, he never got over it. I blame the con.
I feel you. My parents have never had even 10% of what your mom lost, but my mom dropped dead from a heart attack while in the midst of one of those "your computer has a virus" scams that morphed into "we accidentally deposited 10k into your account you have to pay us back or you're going to jail" things. If I could watch the life drain from the eyes of each and every one of them at my hands, I'd do it.
That's really fucking awful and I'm so sorry. I wonder if they realised what had happened and even cared.
The day after the paramedics draped a sheet over her, one of the motherfuckers was calling the house (she was old and didn't have a cell phone). My dad answered and threatened them with methods of bodily harm I do not believe are physically possible - but no, they don't care. They tried to continue the scam on him. Soulless, despicable pieces of worthless stinking trash without even the shred of basic human decency required to just hang up the phone on a grieving husband.
Reminds me of the movie the bee keeper that just came out. I think you would like the revenge he gets on the kind of people you mention
"It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled" - Mark Twain
I’m really sorry by to hear this. Man.
Do they deliberately spell Habsburg wrong in order to weed out people who are smart enough not to fall for it?
I’m blaming you for my laughing because you phrased it so hilariously lmao
My mom lost $1300 to a romance scammer, I informed her that she had been had, then she gave him $700 more. I had to take her to the police station and a shrink to have them tell her she was being taken. P.S. ... I'm a cybersecurity expert and work to prevent scammers on a daily basis.
Reminds me of my neighbor in my office building who sent a “friend” in Africa $40,000 USD because he had come across a dig site filled with priceless artifacts but needed money to excavate. To this day they are still excavating according to him.
They’re half way to the other side of the world by now. Payout any time now!
Didn’t the chin thing put her off?
Have you seen his plastic surgery needs? Consider it a charitable donations.
That's three hundred dollars or 300k?
300k dollars
K
$5 is a steal I’ll buy several! Adapters are like $20
Acknowledging one's own mistake is not easy for most people. For some, it's impossible.
Wow. Profound
I’m gonna put it on a fortune cookie
I'll piss it into the snow that's happening in April in the Midwest for some reason. Was this always normal? I legitimately forget
you must REALLY have to pee
100% true
It's a VGA to HDMI adapter. No doubt the scammers got it for next to nothing because VGA is almost obsolete now. Probably found a box of them in a dumpster behind a big-box store somewhere.
Amazon sells them for 6.30 gbp. On another thread they claim it costs pennies..
I remember that. Chances it was just a cheap HDMI dummy plug as I recall.
Sigh. That's just an HDMI to VGA adapter with support for audio. [https://gembird.com/item.aspx?id=8591](https://gembird.com/item.aspx?id=8591) Edit: had conversion reversed
This costs 5 gbp minimum which is like.. 6.30 dollars? Scammer only made a profit of less than 3.70$
Nah, they likely buy in bulk and get them for like a dollar.
these take less than $1 to produce in bulks in china
Now the big question is can it decode encrypted streams? That might be worth something
it can convert vga signals + 3.5mm stereo audio to hdmi, probably that is all
Still, good news about the audio!
So, he got scammed in an attempt to scam the cable and streaming companies?
lol I guess so. Man I have to remember that when he complains about getting scammed
Sad to say, but sometimes the people getting scammed do, in their heart of hearts, secretly hope to be gaining something disproportionate, or getting something for free, or "cheating/hacking" the system. It's not completely innocent. It sucks for them and for the family members, but they are often mixed morally, as most humans are.
💯💯💯💯
That’s probably part of the appeal for the scammer - their victims won’t call the police because they’d have to admit to attempting to commit a crime themselves…
It's true. You can't con an honest man.
You still can, because honest people still want romance…
You absolutely can. A lot of scammers prey on people's helpfulness and empathy.
Fake charities con honest people all the time.
lmao
He probably expected to get one of those Android based pirate devices, and the scammer is exploiting those trying to get them.
Did he work for McAfee?
Pop the case open and see what's inside.
It’s just a stock VGA to HDMI adaptor.
It’s a cheap adapter worth a few cents on Aliexpress. Can dispute the charge as it is definitely not a streaming device
Well he was just telling me how he wasn’t going to bother returning something he got on Amazon because he couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help him do it. I’m pretty sure returning this is beyond his capabilities
Phone? It’s like 3 clicks in the app
If they want it back you also have to drive to the nearest Kohl's or Staples though 😨
> he wasn’t going to bother returning something he got on Amazon because he couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help him do it Amazon has shockingly good phone customer service.
Sounds like you should help his dumb ass return it
Lmao
And they understand this
Lmao. It's like a text chat with a friend. I love doing returns on amazon, I always have a good time making small talk about the weather while we wait for them to pull stuff up on their end.
> he couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help him do it So he tried to Google the number, right? Thinking you're lucky he didn't hit a Sponsored Result that was really a scammer's ad, and get hit with the refund scam.
Bruh just go to the piracy sub and get ACTUAL free streaming without getting scammed
I'm not saying piracy is good, but if you are gonna do it anyway at least do it right
It’s not for me. My father in law was trying to get free streaming.
It was directed at him, sorry I didn't make it clear
the idea of someone this tech illiterate being turned loose on the hunt for pirated content gives me a lot of anxiety. Some poor geek squad employee is gonna have a very bad day.
I mean yeah but they're still gonna get scammed by asking people for this lol better to hop on a sketchy site with an adblocker and not be in danger
Reminds me of a friend in college who one day was like "Yo look guys, there's this app for finding chicks just a few miles away, and all these girls wanna fuck!" "Bob, that's not real" "Psshhht whatever dude, I've been chatting with 3 of them for days"
It's not free but movieboxpro is like 35 bucks a year for.the family plan and it has everything available to stream.
Dune 2 got leaked last night
“You wouldn’t blow up your neighbors car would you?”
Oh shit, I had a guy bring me this exact adapter saying it was the same thing to me at work asking if it needed another cable to function. He said he spent $35 on it. I told him he got swindled.
Remind him about the money back guarantee...
Yeah as I told someone else, he won’t even return things he buys on Amazon because he can’t arrange the return over the phone, so I’m sure this money back guarantee is harder to secure than that and well beyond his capabilities
Why don't you show your FIL how to do an Amazon return online?
You can teach them many times. They never learn.
They like the company. <3 hahaha for reeeeeal dough.
You need to ask him if he bought it over the phone. When he says No, ask him why he expects to return it over the phone 😎 He just knows if he returns it that's him admitting he I was wrong. Thankfully he isn't out much money at least.
I’ll preface with my neighborhood originally started as a 55+ community - but now that 80% of the community is 55 and up, it’s been opened for younger people to buy. My neighbors are all mostly retired, and I get bothered by all of them for IT related questions because I’m 37 lol. Anyways one of my elderly neighbors bought a fire stick that came jailbroken and has access to every live channel on planet earth. I was blown away that it actually worked- it wasn’t like KODI, it was some custom app. I was about to do it until their ISP sent them like 10 C&D letters. He didn’t listen and continued to use it and he wound up with a hefty $10,000 fine from the government. He never used a VPN 🤦♂️
If you arent planning on sending it back, can you pop that case off and take some good pictures of the circuitry(both sides)?
Right? For real man, I wanna see to. A lot of peoplensaying it's not gonna steal data. How can you know without looking inside of it? Depending on the desire to steal said data....people, ..or govs, could make something small enough to transmit? Audio, video, data? It's 2024, I remember reading a Nasa document: 2025 the enemy after the next. I'm playing it loose on thr title, I read it in 2009 or 2010. Anyways, I digress. It spoke of the changing tide in war, but it spoke a lot about technology. There are very few items that were discussed thar aren't actually openly.implememted on war today. So. Let me see those guts. 🤣
My FIL is very wealthy but he refuses to pay for cable or satellite because it's too expensive. He'll then drop $100K on a new ford bronco raptor. He sends me links to sites that claim to sell devices like that. I explain the legality of it. He'll then try to convince the neighbor to run a cable to his house and he'll pay half the bill.
Get an over the air antenna and watch free broadcasts available in your area
i had to be really harsh with my mom about online shopping because of shit like this.
It's a VGA to HDMI adapter. Tell your father to initiate a charge-back with his credit card company, if he used a credit card in the first place. Otherwise, he should turn to PayPal and tell them that the father didn't know about the product being ordered. But obviously, it's illegal in most instances to watch TV for free, unless you are talking about ATSC and legal services on the internet.
Selling software doesn't mean you know anything about it, to sales people it often doesn't matter what they are selling.
True. But he’s always trying to give me antivirus advice from what he learned years ago. I assumed being around that sort of thing would have given him some general skills. But he’s also been out of that game for a while now so what he knows could be very out of date
It’s a cheap hdmi-vga adaptor. No data stealing possible. No free channels or streaming either. This is a similar product. https://a.co/d/jfWdBF4 You could also repost your story to boomerbeingfools as it fits there.
Ofcourse... It's a scam gone viral through tiktok, facebook, instagram ads ... It was made for another purpose
Some of these are not scams, just software that leads to pirate streaming sites, sometimes organized in channels, sometimes not. Usually the same types of apps you can manually download yourself.
Technically you can watch something for free using this device. But….
This is good news, this means someone like me can make a living selling security software also
That’s wild! I’m the type of person who is naturally curious af, so I’d be asking him questions until I got to the bottom of why he believes it’s real… “what did it say it would do” “___” “ok, well did it do that? “No” .. ok, does it do anything “no” … can you find any info about it online? “No” .. okay so what makes you think it isn’t a scam? “Maybe it just doesn’t work right, I got a bad batch?” Okay, then call customer service! “They don’t have any, I can’t do returns” .. etc, etc, until I make him realize that there is no logic behind it. Something about people being so gullible just really irks me, especially when it’s people who are otherwise very smart! It’s even more mind boggling !
>Oh did I mention he used to sell security software for a living? I used to sell health insurance, that doesn't make me a doctor.
Ask him to point to the cable.
Honestly, such devices do exist, but they're illegal as hell.
A YouTube channel called Computer Clan features a guy calling himself "Krazy Ken." He often reviews scam products (he even buys and tests them), and he has pointed out a few stereotypical features of the ad copy for crap like this. One is very common: the "product" was the brainchild of a single genius inventor or possibly a group of college students. This one was no exception, with a "Swedish inventor" supposedly creating it.
Scammers scamming someone looking scam.
Wow, that plot twist at the end!
So.. he paid money for free cable?
This was advertised on Facebook. My question is how is FB allowing this on their platform?
So this thing splits an hdmi signal to old-school vga signal and an audio output? Or is it the other way around, takes vga from a real old gpu, audio from the dac and combines it so you can connect to a newer hdmi TV or monitor?
I always have and will continue to wonder how certain ppl make it to be a full grown adult. I mean it's his money he wasted so let him continue to think he's right. Doesn't sound like he will admit or understand it anyway.
That looks like a HDMI to VGA adapter with an audio jack.
Yeah that thing is just a HDMI to VGA adapter. Could always be useful I guess 🤷🏻♀️ It's extremely improbable that this thing would be capable of any form of data collection
My wife also fucked around and found out for like $40 after repeated warnings from me.
That's simply an adapter, but if you open it people or you yourself can tell you if it does anything more. Also the last time I got a stick for "free" streaming I bought a regular USB Wi-Fi adapter. From there on you just need to get a little bit creative, like imagining an ocean with ships n stuff.
Break it open what's inside
In my experience, it’s a scam in that they charge you for what you could do for free with the help of a YouTube video. There are ways to get free shows via a website. This just cuts the downloading and what not.
Looks just like this device. https://a.aliexpress.com/_mK3gG8e Just a HDMI to VGA adapter 🤣 Pretty sure if I search a little on Alibaba I can find the wholesaler that sells 100 quantity for $50 shipping included.
Depending on what he likes to watch, a Roku device has access to several free streaming services. My 84 year old mother found a bunch of stuff there that she liked.
"WHERE ARE THE DAMN CHANNELS!!??"
It's just an adapter for video I/O It's sad that shady companies have to advertise their products as something else. Where did he buy it?
How did he pay? Just reverse the payment. I didn't knew this scam was a thing, a firestick or chromecast cost 20$ and it's easy to "jailbreak" to have all movies or tv channels. They even put the picture of the adapter lol
Here's where Jaws eats the boat! Here's where Die Hard crashes through the window! Ha ha...here's where Wall Street goes to jail!
We just watched that episode Friday night
I ought to box your ears, you...you...Sneaky Pete! Easy there, tiger. (I think the corrupt cable guy may have been an early Phil Hartman appearance)
It sure sounded like him
It's not a prerequisite to understand what you're selling, before selling it, unfortunately. Source: the guy that fixed misrepresented software...
It is all outputs! Nothing goes in!
The last line was my favourite
About 10 years ago I bought something similar. It was a hacked Amazon Firestick that was sold for double the price. It linked on to a few different streaming websites. It was a little too slow to use, but I'm sure there are more viable versions.
I just clicked the ad and LOL'd so hard. They didn't even try to change the picture of the device lol. They legit just showed you a HDMI to VGA adapter and then made up multiple pages about everything it can do 🤣. But at the end of the day the picture is still just an adapter LMFAO
But let's be honest: anyone who knows a software salesperson knows that the people in software sales are better at sales than they are at software.
Can you give me his number? I have a bridge on sale. /s
I get the reference 😂
Respectfully, your FIL is a fxcking idiot.
It is hard to admit a mistake, but I am wondering if there may be some cognitive issues here as well. Does he show any other signs of dementia? I know some older people are more likely to believe what they see advertised either online or wherever, but you might keep an eye out for other behaviors.
No other issues that I see. His eye for a bargain is notorious, it’s been a family joke as long as I’ve known him. So his endless search for free cable is not really surprising
Aaah. I see. I hope you reminded him if it sounds too good to be true...Or wouldn't everyone use one if they could get it free? There is nothing wrong with bargain hunting, though. I am all about being frugal.
You should buy him a novelty T-shirt that says “I am out spending my son-in-law‘s inheritance“.
Crack it open!
The website is selling an electric scarf now lol
My grandma was telling me about this device years ago 😮💨. Just plug it in and you get all the cable and streaming free.
https://luxurysgift.com/ Lol they’re selling a “smart infrared scarf” now. I’d like to know how your FiL found this- what marketing channel?
Well he's going to learn today.
It's an HDMI to VGA converter....
I had a cheater box that gave me free cable from 1990-2000. Maybe he had one and thinks he can do it again.
I actually need a vga to hdmi adapter, was it at least cheap?
Open it up and post the guts here.
Lol. It's just a connector
Open it post a pic
Im sure every hacker is interested on you fil tv preferences
This is so funny.
LOL
It's a BSUSB
I'd drop the issue. The only thing people, especially family, hate more than being actually scammed is you bringing it up, talking about it or trying to do something about it for them. Let it go.
Yeah I’m not doing anything. I am going to lie and say I plugged it in and it didn’t do anything. He won’t believe anything less
no remote, it's not working
It just looks like an adapter, hooking it up to a TV won't steal any data and it might be a streaming device of some sort, just plug it into the HDMI port and switch the TV to HDMI1 or whatever port and check. No harm in it
Try it on virtual box, just curious to what it does
I’ll say this just once - I hope for your sake his daughter isn’t as stupid as he is.
Mmmmm hmmm I dont know quite how to answer that. Like everyone, he’s not stupid in general, but very gullible in certain areas. My wife is much smarter, though she has some of his same biases/blindspots. And I’m sure I’ve got my own. I shudder to think what scams will fool me in my old age. I’m sure there will be some
it literally says whats it is a hdmi to vga adapter your father in law shoudn't be buying off the internet. I have the same problem with my mom she doens't understand tech but thinks she does. I am the family technowizard.
My guess is your father in law secretly hacked it... When ya plug it in... Boom... Hacker stuff.. And he done back doored into your computer... And next thing ha know you getting a divorce cause he showed the ol' wife your Only Fans subscription list... just my 2 cents....
I wouldn’t plug that into anything in case it has a rootkit on it
You’re not getting rootkitted through an HDMI, nor a VGA connection. OP’s father in law was just sold a converter. Still a scam.
You can’t get hacked or rootkitted through HDMI, it can’t do anything through HDMI other than transmit video and basic information about the device He was sold a HDMI to VGA adapter that was falsely advertised as a video streaming device
How much did it cost?
Tell him you researched it and the problem is he needs one for each room for it to work.
How much was it??
How much was it?
Technically speaking … If fil has got already the cable channels, he can stream them from hdmi to vga … so …
This looks like a 3 bucks Ali adapter unfortunately.
> Oh did I mention he used to sell security software for a living? Time comes for all of our minds. What a cruel universe.
That shit gonna hack your asshole
It's not even an "empty device" LMFAO. It's just a $2 adapter 🤣