Kid Scams

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kyleb

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My son is 7 and a prodigious reader. He was reading one of his magazines this evening and noticed a scratch off game in the back of the magazine. Of course, he won the game.

There was a tear-out card that accompanied the game and if you mailed it in you got a free prize, but you needed a parent to fill out the card. Near the "parent" section of the card it said something like "pay no money now, yada yada yada". It noted that details and conditions were on the reverse side.

Hmm, no details or conditions on the reverse side of the card. Hey, son, bring me your magazine.

Aah, the details. Located on the reverse side of the "left behind" portion of the page that contained the tear-off card. I'd have been signing him up for a $16 "mystery gift" every 3 weeks.

My son did not see the value in a mystery gift that cost $16 every 3 weeks.

YGBSM. I need to find the publisher of the magazine and nut punch him. Every 3 weeks.
 
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denverpilot said:
Man. All we had for kid scams back in the day were Sea Monkeys. :)
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Don't forget all the little scam ads in the back of magazines: a survival knife for only 9.95 that turns out to be plastic metal, xray glasses, "valuable" collector coins for only the cost of S&H....
 
denverpilot said:
Man. All we had for kid scams back in the day were Sea Monkeys. :)
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When I was in 2nd grade, we were all fascinated by the ads in the back of comic books. The item everyone jonesed for was a "working submarine" that was described in terms like "able to travel 8 fartleks completely submerged" and "overall size: three picoguanas long and 2 wide". I think it cost $6.95. The sketch showed a submarine approximately the size of a school bus, relative to the kids playing beside it.

Nobody ever ordered one. I think it was the fear of being scammed on one hand, and the fear of the beating you'd get from your parents if they came home from work and the entire driveway was occupied by a submarine.

BTW, here's a link to the sub ad:

http://www.retroland.com/polaris-nuclear-submarine/
 
kyleb said:
When I was in 2nd grade, we were all fascinated by the ads in the back of comic books. The item everyone jonesed for was a "working submarine" that was described in terms like "able to travel 8 fartleks completely submerged" and "overall size: three picoguanas long and 2 wide". I think it cost $6.95. The sketch showed a submarine approximately the size of a school bus, relative to the kids playing beside it.

Nobody ever ordered one. I think it was the fear of being scammed on one hand, and the fear of the beating you'd get from your parents if they came home from work and the entire driveway was occupied by a submarine.

BTW, here's a link to the sub ad:

http://www.retroland.com/polaris-nuclear-submarine/
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Bad link... I get sent to some click bait spin to win redirect
 
kyleb said:
Strange. The link works on both my PC and iPad.
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Yup works correctly for me, too.

I can just picture today's lawyers chasing ambulances trying to find a kid that drowned in one of those things.
 
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Yeah, kid scams have always existed. Any checkout line is a great example. Useless junk and candy right at eye level with bright colors. Kids instantly go "I WANT!!!"

When I was a kid my mom mostly just said: "No."
 
I miss the ads in the back of Boys Life. I always wanted to buy the plans to build a hovercraft from a vacuum cleaner. Of course my mom would have been ticked off to find her electrolux in pieces and the motor stolen.
 
Zeldman said:
Anyone sell The Grit Newspaper.??
http://www.jeffs60s.com/the-grit-paper.php
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Sheet, I was in something like that very briefly (I think I drifted to a newspaper route right about then).
In any case, as much as these were scams or shady dealings - I think they helped teach the entrepreneurial spirit, encouraged kids to get off their duff and scrabble for a few bucks.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Sheet, I was in something like that very briefly (I think I drifted to a newspaper route right about then).
In any case, as much as these were scams or shady dealings - I think they helped teach the entrepreneurial spirit, encouraged kids to get off their duff and scrabble for a few bucks.
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Mmmm. Taught you that scrabbling for $0.07 takes way too much time to be worth it, you mean. :)
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Sheet, I was in something like that very briefly (I think I drifted to a newspaper route right about then).
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I had a newspaper route -- that taught me a lot about business and how to screw the "independent contractor". The newspaper would telemarket people to sign up for the paper. The carriers would get a list of subscribers and papers dropped on our driveway every morning to deliver -- but we were independent contractors so we had to buy the papers from the newspaper. At the end of the month we'd have to collect from everyone on our route and pay the newspaper for the papers and we kept the difference as our profit. Of course some people wouldn't pay -- they were out of money for the month or some people who were never home when you knocked, etc. But the worst was when they said they never subscribed to the paper or that they already paid over the phone. In those cases the carrier ate the cost for their papers. Your profit as a carrier went down quickly....
 
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ColoPilot said:
I had a newspaper route -- that taught me a lot about business and how to screw the "independent contractor". The newspaper would telemarket people to sign up for the paper. The carriers would get a list of subscribers and papers dropped on our driveway every morning to deliver -- but we were independent contractors so we had to buy the papers from the newspaper. At the end of the month we'd have to collect from everyone on our route and pay the newspaper for the papers and we kept the difference as our profit. Of course some people wouldn't pay -- they were out of money for the month or some people who were never home when you knocked, etc. But the worst was when they said they never subscribed to the paper or that they already paid over the phone. In those cases the carrier ate the cost for their papers. Your profit as a carrier went down quickly....
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I did a paper route for 5 years. I had people that refused to pay. Seems like having a family member that is also a lawyer was nice. People could not pay their $2.80 fast enough after they would get a registered letter....:lol::lol:

I remember one old witch would do everything she could think of the screw me out of my $2.80. One month she probably threw away the registered letter saying I would take her to small claims court. Man, that judge took every penny she had, then advised me to drop her as a customer, which I did. This was back in the late 60s. I remember I was a young adult when she died. I was going to send the family a congratulations card....but my mom found out.

But yes, I learned a lot about responsibilities, paying bills, the importance of being on time and how to deal with customers. Back then we had to go out and knock on doors to collect money and get new customers.
 
Zeldman said:
I did a paper route for 5 years. I had people that refused to pay. Seems like having a family member that is also a lawyer was nice. People could not pay their $2.80 fast enough after they would get a registered letter....:lol::lol:

I remember one old witch would do everything she could think of the screw me out of my $2.80. One month she probably threw away the registered letter saying I would take her to small claims court. Man, that judge took every penny she had, then advised me to drop her as a customer, which I did. This was back in the late 60s. I remember I was a young adult when she died. I was going to send the family a congratulations card....but my mom found out.

But yes, I learned a lot about responsibilities, paying bills, the importance of being on time and how to deal with customers. Back then we had to go out and knock on doors to collect money and get new customers.
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Kid @Zeldman
 
I love this thread - brings back memories!

I remember those old comic book ads, although I never remember wanting to send off for anything. I looked at that article on Retroland, which had a link in it to a Cracked article on the top 12 comic book ads that made us cynical:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16310_12-comic-book-ads-that-taught-us-to-be-cynical.html

And I saw something that I did have as a kid. I had one of those Kryptonite rocks! I don't remember sending off for it, though. I'm pretty sure I bought it from a Spencer's or something like that. The article doesn't mention it, but mine glowed in the dark. You could leave it under a lamp for a few minutes, turn off the lights, and it glowed a bright green. I used to leave it on my bedside table as a little kid and use it almost like a nightlight. I had totally forgotten about that thing until I read that article just now.

Cool stuff!
 
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