Some of THE most gullible people on earth are on Facebook. Case in point.

[schmee]

You're right, most folks do have good experiences with PayPal, as do I (I mostly use it for ebay where sellers often can't take direct CC payments). The thing is that because PayPal is the intermediary, buyers are paying PayPal, so it's up to PayPal to decide if they've met the obligation for the transaction, which is pretty much like an escrow. However, once they release the payment to the seller (which takes place after they are satisfied that the exchange has occurred), they are usually hands off, because there isn't much they can do from that point. If you don't receive your goods/services at all, that's an easy one for PayPal. If you get a tiny $8 toolbox instead of an enormous tool rack, that may be more complicated.

Credit card companies, on the other hand, have many more tools at their disposal and are in fact motivated by their legal liability for the payment. If the CC company does ever take a loss (rare), that cost is already built into the service (on the seller's end). If you are unlucky enough to have to file a complaint about a CC transaction, typically you'll notice that your account gets credited immediately (while the company investigates it).

Very true about CC companies. But if you have ever tried to actually get a refund with a CC company, it takes a lot of work, phone calls, waiting for them to contact the other party for their side of the story, etc. If it's outright fraud they do act quickly... cancelling your card and you wait a week for another one.
I've found Paypal stands behind the purchase even if they've paid the seller. But I think they don't pay sellers right away UNLESS it's someone they've approved over time. They will eat it if they have to. They offered me "Paypal Protection" years ago. Maybe it's because I have used them for probably 20 years, they treat me differently? I really don't know, and I know that minimal users of PP have some bad experiences.
But for me.... anything I don't want the other end of a purchase to have my CC #....... I use Paypal. It's been bulletproof.

 

[John Backlund]

And lookeeee here, they've just popped back up under a different fake company name...

 

[ping-ping-clicka]

While I'm grateful for stuff like penicillin and modern dentistry etc, I think the price we pay in cancelling evolution is mass numbers of unfit humans consuming resources to a degree that will soon bring us all to extinction.

 

[ping-ping-clicka]

yes doing that which will result in one more extinct species seems to be fore most on the list of things to do in the near future hopefully it will progress at a slower pace than I have experienced in the past, I'm really looking forward to missing

 

[telemnemonics]

That reminds me... when I was a kid, reading backs of comic books, I sent away for this 'karate' book. Pamphlet more like. Anyway, one of the so-called 'moves' was teaching yourself to jump 20 feet. Line drawing shows a guy squatting, then a dotted line, big impossible arc, and another image of him squatting way 'over there'.

The implication was clear. If only I practiced enough, I could perform this amazing feat with ease.

I practiced and practiced. What my parents must have thought, as I landed hard on the bedroom floor over and over and over. The best I could get was about three or four feet.

I'm sure if I re-read that text today, it could also be interpreted that one could make many little (very unimpressive) hops, instead of one amazing leap.

Hey, I was a kid. I never bought the XRay specs, but I did dream about 'em....

I DID buy the XRay Specs!
I forget what else, maybe a strong man book(let) and some other foolishness.
I seem to recall though the martial arts book was Jiu Jitsu?
A better investment there...

 

[Zoso420]

I DID buy the XRay Specs!
I forget what else, maybe a strong man book(let) and some other foolishness.
I seem to recall though the martial arts book was Jiu Jitsu?
A better investment there...

A comic book nerd guy I watch on youtube has an episode about the ads in the back of comic books. They once were able to sell live spider monkeys through the mail. The story goes two brothers saved up their money and sent in for the spider monkey. A box came with a real spider monkey in it. When they opened the box the spider monkey proceeded to destroy the living room.

 

[TwoBear]

I think I will send for one too.

Maybe me, myself, & I, all ‘‘3’’ of us, Will send $2 for one too! Haha!

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

An interesting observation. I was plastered with ads of the "Pacific Peach(?)" Fender line and of course I checked them out, more than once. Subsequently I started to see ads for different products pop up with that same color in the background.

*Woof/salivate*

 

[TwoBear]

I DID buy the XRay Specs!
I forget what else, maybe a strong man book(let) and some other foolishness.
I seem to recall though the martial arts book was Jiu Jitsu?
A better investment there...

We got the jujitsu book also but it was marketed as marital aid… after the initial excitement, we’re considering calling it quits… bandage and splint bills outta hand, don’tcha know!

 

[moosie]

I DID buy the XRay Specs!
I forget what else, maybe a strong man book(let) and some other foolishness.
I seem to recall though the martial arts book was Jiu Jitsu?
A better investment there...

Yeah, jiu jitsu, that was it!

I know others have talked on here earlier about falling for the raising 'sea monkeys'.

 

[telemnemonics]

We got the jujitsu book also but it was marketed as marital aid… after the initial excitement, we’re considering calling it quits… bandage and splint bills outta hand, don’tcha know!

Oh yeah the good old days when us five year olds carried guns, sniffed glue and bought marital aids from the back of magazines!

 

[Willie Johnson]

What's that they say about a fool and his money? If it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true.

He's fun to go out with, I think?

 

[JL_LI]

He's fun to go out with, I think?

Folks who are too free with and flash their money attract people I prefer to keep my distance from.

 

[willie ray]

facebook be damned!

 

[JustABluesGuy]

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. At least you had to be a kid to fall for this:

The sub is cardboard crap. What you want are the X-Ray glasses. Those really work!

 

[JustABluesGuy]

Twitter is a lot like that as well. I was just correcting lies and misinformation from a certain well-known person, and her cult followers mass reported me, and they eventually banned me permanently for harassment. I saw that a few months later she was finally banned for constantly posting misinformation. Twitter and Facebook can both go to H as far as I'm concerned. Their moderation is largely done by algorithms, and is arbitrary and completely ineffective.

I have found that the algorithm can be confused by using coded language, but that doesn’t help with communication unless everyone else uses the same code.

 

[JustABluesGuy]

Yup....these are the people that surround us, and yes it is scary I think all the time about how dumb the general population is

And I’m no Einstein

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that!”

— George Carlin

 

[richiek65]

Did you know that "gullible" is the only English word that doesn't appear in any dictionary? Don't take my word for it, go look it up!

 

[3-Chord-Genius]

Is the problem that people are gullible, or is the problem that people are evil?

 

[John Backlund]

This ought to go well.

Ya...maybe.....eh, I got q

Did you know that "gullible" is the only English word that doesn't appear in any dictionary? Don't take my word for it, go look it up!

I see what you did there.