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Comment by A4ET8a8uTh0 | Hacker News Reader

I agree. My friend got scammed with a variation of the gift card scam. The main difference in his case, fear was not exploited, but rather the search of an amazing deal ( $100 for a new ipad or something like that ).

I probed a little bit since I was curious how he perceived it and he effectively said the idea of getting a deal took the best of him.

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At this point I just assume that any deal that looks too good to be true probably is.

There's been a few times where I've found out after the fact that the deal really was real, but I'd rather miss out on a good deal than get scammed.

All phone solicitation is scammy, I think the government should advertise that to old people.

For sure. I was mostly referring to online "deals" with my comment, but it definitely applies to phone solicitation, too.

I personally ignore almost any phone call from unknown numbers these days because so many are scammy or robocalls. I figure that if anyone really needs me, they'll leave a message.

I keep on getting robocalls from a Chinese scam for more than 1 to 2 years now. I don't understand Chinese but asked a friend to translate and it's obviously a scam aimed at older chinese expats. They always leave the same message. Im surprised it still works after all this time.

I avoid all solicitation in general. If I want something I research it and buy it. I never make a purchcase based on an incoming offer of any sort even if I want the item or service and it’s a good deal. It avoids 90% of scams before I even enter the funnel.

I once went to a car show where Samsung was showing their Android Auto connectivity. They had a raffle for a 49" 32:9 monitor, I put in my name. A few weeks later an email came saying I had won. Of course I thought it was a scam, on second reading I remember giving my details for the raffle, and I genuinely had won the nonitor..

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