Topic: Modern Day Hoaxes

[C110]

Can anyone think of any hoaxes or what they think may have been hoaxes or scams that a lot of people fell for?  I have two that come to mind that I think were hoaxes.
 
The first is back in the late 90's when the Golden Palace Casino was receiving a lot of coverage in the news media and on talk shows by the likes of Leno and others for not only bidding big outrageous sums of $$ for wacky crap such as a haunted cane or a grilled cheese with the face of Jesus etc. etc.  Final bid by the casino would always be like $30K or something.  Anyway, people fell for it and would put anything on ebay with hopes the casino or anyone with more money than brains would bid on it.
 
Well I think, and have always thought it was a big hoax created by the casino to get free advertising and attention.  Think about it.  For a piece of toast with the face of Jesus on it to have a final bid of $30K or whatever it was there would have to of been at least two or more brainless people submitting bids to drive up the price as high as it got.
 
When Leno had reps from the casino as well as the woman selling the toast on his show I could tell it was all an act.  I think all the casino was shelling out was the commision of the 30K to ebay.....so lets say ebay gets 10% of the ending bid that would only be 3k.  The bid to the seller would never be paid because the actual seller and all the bidders WERE the casino.  Thats a hell of a deal...national news coverage and exposure on talk shows all for the sum of 3k and what ever they paid the actor who played the seller on the talk show circuit.
 
The second big hoax in my opinion was the Beanie Baby craze.  All the news coverage of these stuffed toys fetching thousands of $$ by so called collectors.  Sure some did pay big bucks...but that is because they fell for the initial news coverage of the original ficticious high bidders.  I think the high bid phenom was nothing more than a marketing scheme by the makers to increase sales of their crappy bean bags. 
 
Also they tried to portray the owner and the company as a quiet secretative guy like Willi Wonka and his chocolate factory.  Many people fell for it.  And don't forget the so called price guides found everywhere mags were sold.  In my opinion created and funded by the parent company.  Again, people took the bait and kept buying bean bags.
 
Agree...Disagree?  Can you think of any hoaxes or what you suspect were hoaxes?

[aldousburbank]

Three Words:  Federal Reserve Notes

[JustOneFix]

Facebook- It's supported by the CIA as a means to easily spy on everyone. Like Beanie Babies, Jesus Toast, Ed Hardy shirts, and anything else along that line it's a trend and with proper marketing you could get people to buy a steak with a pile of soft shit on top and they would not only buy it & eat it, they'd brag about it on Facebook.

Facebook is pure evil, and the people who actively post their day's routine on it are the ones that have taken the bait. Do we really care what restaurant you are eating at or where you are buying your clothes? Not really, in fact hell no we don't give a damn!

[C110]

How true...How true Justonefix

[onan]

it's just not facebook... google has its origins with the cia.
 
I lead a pretty boring life... not a lot to alarm the powers that be. But I still don't care to have anyone else knowing wtf I do with my time or money.
 
Not to mention the less dangerous but certainly more annoying is the info being passed on to douchebag marketers wanting to chat with me at their leisure.
 
When I share these concerns with most they give me that glassy stare like I am some kind of loon... ok maybe they have other reasons but still. I fucken hate facebook, twitter, myspace, and any other variation on that theme.
 
So if anyone thinks facebook data collection is a hoax... send me what you are smokin.

[The General]

The FICO score.

The hoax is to make you care about your FICO score.  So you can borrow more money.  So you can get a higher FICO score.  So you can borrow more money.  So you can get a higher FICO score.  SCAM!  Why do I care what score lending institutions give me?  FICO was invented by Fair Isaac Corp to make you think that you need to maintain a high score to make people borrow more money. 

How a FICO is calculated....
-Payment history 35% of score
-Current credit usage 30% of score
-Length of credit history 15% of score
-Applications for new credit 10% of score
-Total credit types (Mortgage, loans, cars, credit cards etc.) 10% of score

It's an "I Love Debt" score.  SCAM!  Everybody is so worried about it and it irritates me that they don't see through this farce.  It's like if I sold Widgets, and came up with a score to make you think that you are a loser if you don't buy more Widgets.  That's all debt is, a product.  And it's a product that has damn near ruined America if you ask me.  Give FICO the finger!  I want a score of zero.

[MV]

The FICO score.

The hoax is to make you care about your FICO score.  So you can borrow more money.  So you can get a higher FICO score.  So you can borrow more money.  So you can get a higher FICO score.  SCAM!  Why do I care what score lending institutions give me?  FICO was invented by Fair Isaac Corp to make you think that you need to maintain a high score to make people borrow more money. 

How a FICO is calculated....
-Payment history 35% of score
-Current credit usage 30% of score
-Length of credit history 15% of score
-Applications for new credit 10% of score
-Total credit types (Mortgage, loans, cars, credit cards etc.) 10% of score

It's an "I Love Debt" score.  SCAM!  Everybody is so worried about it and it irritates me that they don't see through this farce.  It's like if I sold Widgets, and came up with a score to make you think that you are a loser if you don't buy more Widgets.  That's all debt is, a product.  And it's a product that has damn near ruined America if you ask me.  Give FICO the finger!  I want a score of zero.

you, sir, are my mental twin.

[999]

The BBC pulled off a famous hoax in 1957


http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm

[The General]

you, sir, are my mental twin.

Ha ha!  Right on.  Great minds think alike.  Or misery loves company.  Or some cliche like that.

[The General]

The BBC pulled off a famous hoax in 1957


http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm

NICE!
Here's the video...

April Fool's Day Hoax - Panorama - Spaghetti Harvest - 1st April 1957

[b_dubb]

i can win an auction on ebay and never actually PAY for anything.  there's a distinction

[haloedorchid]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies

[b_dubb]

i feel like most the guests on C2C are hoaxers.  ed dames.  hoagland.  steve greer isn't a hoaxer ... just batshit crazy

[haloedorchid]

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