$300 iPad Too Good To Be True?

Before you wander too far down the page, yes it IS too good to be true!

The underlying theme which guides most of my thinking about vulnerability and deception, has to do with deciding who you trust in any given situation.

If you don’t trust your bank, your accountant, your insurance adviser or your local manicurist, find a new one. It is really that simple.

I do trust McDonald’s to help me slap on a few pounds or feed my face for just a couple of bucks, but the two guys at McDonald’s offering to “let me in” on their iPad deal of the century? Not.

A large part of deciding who you trust has to do with the outside party’s reputation, the believability of the offer, and carefully listening your gut instincts!

A South Carolina woman named Ashley McDowell recently fell for the “brick in a box” scam and bought what was supposed to be a new iPAD from 2 guys loitering at McDonald’s. Inside the box was a wooden slab with an Apple logo glued on for effect.

Although the price was $300 at first, the victim made the effort to get an even better deal by offering all she had, which was only $180. Fraudsters prey on our natural desire to save time, money or effort.

According the the website The Smoking Gun:

After McDowell explained that she only had $180, the duo agreed to sell her the device at a cut rate. But when McDowell drove home and opened the FedEx box containing the iPad, she instead discovered the wood with the Apple logo. The “screen”–which was framed with black tape–included replicas of iPad icons for Safari, mail, photos, and an iPod. It also had what cops described as a “Best Buy sales ticket.

A few reminders for you:

• Give yourself time to think about what your “gut” is telling you.
• Doing a deal with someone you don’t know is usually never desirable.
• Fraudsters want the easy path and will usually flee from scrutiny or resistance.
• Belief that you are too smart to “fall” for a scam, makes you more vulnerable.
• Walmart, Costco and Target are great resources for pricing research.

The rear-view mirror often reveals more than normally meets the eye. In this case, the victim fooled herself into thinking she could beat Walmart’s falling prices.