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Things you are sure are scams in commercials?

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Ken 1802 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 8:10am
After a poster on here claimed he fell for a scam in a commercial because a respected, trusted celebrity was the spokesperson, I decided to make a thread about things you're sure are scams in commercial. I think the reverse mortgages that Henry Winkler is shelling for is a scam. Something about "Borrow money from your home equity(or something like that) and still own your home," doesn't seem right to me. I'm almost sure if you start borrowing money from your house, the bank actually owns your house, not you.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote insanity213 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 3:42pm
Western Sky - "Yes, the money IS expensive" is all they need to say.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 3:52pm
Weight loss, hormone replacement, etc are mainly scams.  

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't."
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote insanity213 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 4:00pm
^^ I love how some in weight loss commercials, the girl not only loses 100 lbs in just 4 weeks, but in the 'after' picture she has also magically gotten a new hair style & color, a tan, and a facelift.   But rest assured that is the same person in both pictures.  They say it is in the commercial, so it must be true.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Miseryguts Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 4:14pm
"We can fix your credit" ads always set my radar off, especially when it involves some shifty car dealer with lots of used junkers on his lot that he needs to sell. One of my clients fell for one of these schemes and ended up further down the toilet than he was before. He managed to get financing on a used car at 19.5% interest and thought it was a good deal. The car was sold "as is" and, needless to say, it shuddered to a permanent halt about 9 months later. The guy stopped making payments and you can guess the rest. I'd rather borrow money from the Cosa Nostra than a car dealer cum financier any day. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ken 1802 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 4:21pm
I just saw a commercial for Western Sky, insanity. The guy looks like a creep. I'd rather go to my local payday loan place than pay 35,000 for 5000. That's mes outrageous! Why would you pay 7 times the loan amountEven paying 10,000 back would be way too outrageous.?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote Moochamoocha Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 6:17pm
All those shyster lawyer ads that air during daytime TV. There's one that runs here that has the guy saying, "If YOU have PAIN, you need LAW! Call 1-800-PAIN-LAW!" Like I'm really going to give my business to some guy who advertises like that!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote msmadz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 7:07pm
Originally posted by Ken 1802 Ken 1802 wrote:

I just saw a commercial for Western Sky, insanity. The guy looks like a creep. I'd rather go to my local payday loan place than pay 35,000 for 5000. That's mes outrageous! Why would you pay 7 times the loan amountEven paying 10,000 back would be way too outrageous.?
 
 
Because if you DIDN'T pay, they'll sic Chief Hatchet Thrower and Squaw Slit Throat to MAKE you pay. LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote stan319 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 9:06pm
I agree about the scumball lawyers. They will take a person who has a pimple on there ass and find some one to sue. We have one here in PA. who says that if you were injured on a bus to let him know. I guess they have deep pockets ( or the taxpayers do !). Even if they "suggest that you take a settlement, they get their cut.
  Another good one is the person who loses 100 lbs. but has no flabby skin or stretch marks. especially the woman in the bikini who has the nice tight flat stomach.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ad nauseous Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 9:49pm
Carter Mario has been carpetbombing the airwaves here in Connecticut! They're all like "If you were in a accident, Get Carter!" For f**ks sake go away, get the f**k off my TV screen! Right now I'm avoiding the local TV stations so I don't get barraged by his damn ads!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ken 1802 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 10:51pm
The Everest and IT Tech scream scam to me, especially because I actually applied to one of these "schools," called National School Of Technology, and the woman in charge of Admissions couldn't even properly answer my mother's(who wanted her then 20 year old to go to a good school, graduate, and find a good job) reasonable question of how many students graduate and find good jobs. Plus, they would have charged me thousanfs of dollars for this for profit school, and I would have to have to basically have to put up my parent's house as collateral to get a school loan.

My Mom called it a scam and urged me to go to a non profit vocational school, which gave me classes for free. I was glad Mom saved me from that scam
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tiz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 11:28pm
*I* wouldn't classify those Western Sky commercials as scams. They do tell you up front that the money is expensive to borrow.

Finally Fast - Clean PC and the rest of those "we'll make your pc run like new" commercials.
All those "you'll get six pack abs in 30 days" exercise gadgets.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote DirtyD79 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 11:47pm
Originally posted by Ken 1802 Ken 1802 wrote:

The Everest and IT Tech scream scam to me, especially because I actually applied to one of these "schools," called National School Of Technology, and the woman in charge of Admissions couldn't even properly answer my mother's(who wanted her then 20 year old to go to a good school, graduate, and find a good job) reasonable question of how many students graduate and find good jobs. Plus, they would have charged me thousanfs of dollars for this for profit school, and I would have to have to basically have to put up my parent's house as collateral to get a school loan.

My Mom called it a scam and urged me to go to a non profit vocational school, which gave me classes for free. I was glad Mom saved me from that scam
 
I know when I see the disclaimer "Credits earned are unlikely to transfer" that usually makes my bullsh*t alarm start buzzing. It makes me wonder "Why won't they transfer?" I know many colleges want you to take so many credits worth of your major with them in order to get a degree but still you expect a college would recognize some of the work you did.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote jenjen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Aug 2013 at 11:57pm
PC matic...any "can make your PC run faster..and it"s FREE! I find hard to believe and QBIDS (and there is another one I can't remember the name) HD  flat screen for 25.00...yeah.....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Ad nauseous Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 12:23am
I find those Lipozene ads with the gross animation of the person getting fatter and fatter (that only fat fetishists would like.) Seems to be like a scam to me!
One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ChrisInMI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 2:05am
Speaking of lawyer commercials... any lawyer who uses actors rather than actual clients in his/her commercial, I automatically find untrustworthy.  Example: "1-800-LEE-FREE."

And as a previous poster says, anything that seems just too good to be true... like, for example, Sensa... probably is.  (It doesn't help that Sensa's commercials are all steaming piles of excrement, and that they continue to bombard my inbox with spam.)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ken 1802 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 9:25am
There was a anti drug commercial the FCC(or whoever's in charge of TV allowance airings)emselves made the staff pull from the airwaves for straight up fraud. In the commercial, they showed the suppossed brain waves of a 14 year old non marijuana smoker as being fast. Then, they showed the suppossed brain waves of a 14 year old marijuana smoker as being slow. It turns out, these weren't brain waves at all, they scammed the country by using a heart machine of conscious person and a person in a coma(or something like that). They were forced to stop lying to the public with a cease and desist order to remove the dishonest commercial.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Darthhillbilly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 11:08am
Originally posted by jenjen jenjen wrote:

PC matic...any "can make your PC run faster..and it"s FREE! I find hard to believe and QBIDS (and there is another one I can't remember the name) HD  flat screen for 25.00...yeah.....

If I understand it right, the QBIDS thing isn't really a scam per se. You buy penny bids for 50 cents or a dollar, meaning if I spend 10 bucks, I get 20 bids, each bid capable of raising the price by 1 cent. By the time the price reaches 25 bucks, that means that users have bought and bid 2500 bucks worth of bids. That 500 dollar LCD just made QBIDS two grand, and you only spent 10 bucks to get it..... if you're the one that wins.

It's actually kinda ingenious if you think about it. No one really risks a whole lot of money (provided they have SOME self-control) and QBIDS makes a fortune.

Wish I'd have thought of it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 70s80s Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 2:59pm
I just saw an ad for "Free Rx"...."Plus you get a free cellphone, free this, free that...."

I figure at some point they will ask for Grandma's credit card number and such...you can imagine the rest.
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I think that the R2L (Radiation 2 Light) cellular telephone radiation buster is just a sham to suck $25 out of your wallet...I purchased a set of these things not long ago for CIH sakes and nothing at all happens when I attempt to use the product as directed. OuchAngryOuch

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Snesgamer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 7:21pm
Mostly everything unfortunately - because of how people abuse marketing.

If I had to list an example:

As Seen On TV products - never bought an ASOT product that either a) worked or b) when it did, had any lasting durability. It's gotten to the point where the red ASOT box on a product is the kiss of death as far me actually buying it.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sgtrock21 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 7:41pm
Originally posted by DirtyD79 DirtyD79 wrote:

Originally posted by Ken 1802 Ken 1802 wrote:

The Everest and IT Tech scream scam to me, especially because I actually applied to one of these "schools," called National School Of Technology, and the woman in charge of Admissions couldn't even properly answer my mother's(who wanted her then 20 year old to go to a good school, graduate, and find a good job) reasonable question of how many students graduate and find good jobs. Plus, they would have charged me thousanfs of dollars for this for profit school, and I would have to have to basically have to put up my parent's house as collateral to get a school loan.

My Mom called it a scam and urged me to go to a non profit vocational school, which gave me classes for free. I was glad Mom saved me from that scam


 

I know when I see the disclaimer "Credits earned are unlikely to transfer" that usually makes my bullsh*t alarm start buzzing. It makes me wonder "Why won't they transfer?" I know many colleges want you to take so many credits worth of your major with them in order to get a degree but still you expect a college would recognize some of the work you did.


As far as I know credits will not transfer from a "prestigious non-accredited university" which many of them state like it's something to brag about to an actual accredited university that was or was not "prestigious".
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Thor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Aug 2013 at 9:31pm
Originally posted by Snesgamer Snesgamer wrote:

Mostly everything unfortunately - because of how people abuse marketing.

If I had to list an example:

As Seen On TV products - never bought an ASOT product that either a) worked or b) when it did, had any lasting durability. It's gotten to the point where the red ASOT box on a product is the kiss of death as far me actually buying it.


 
I think about how, even if the stuff works and it lasts, how much would I really use a particular product.  I think a lot of the ASOT products might seem like a good idea at the moment you see them on TV but, in reality, they'd end up barely having been used.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jhiller21 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2013 at 12:34am
I saw a commercial for a teeth whitening product a few days ago with before and after pictures. The pictures were hilarious.

The "before" pics were all middle-aged women with disheveled hair, no makeup, ugly clothes, and frowns on their faces that barely showed the color of their teeth. In the "after" pics, they all had salon quality hair, makeup, and giant smiles to show off their new pearly whites. It was so obvious it was sad.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Snesgamer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Aug 2013 at 12:38am
I'd like to add the line "For a limited time only!"

They might as well say "We're full of BULLSH**!"

Go ahead, think of a commercial that uses that phrase - say for example one of those "commemorative coin" ones.

"These new Obama coins can be yours for the low, low price of $xx.yy!! WE'RE FULL OF BULLSH**!" Makes a lot more sense.
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