iPad scammers swindle $180 from South Carolina woman

[n2doc]

If a stranger approached you in a McDonald's parking lot and offered to sell an iPad on the cheap, how would you react?

For Ashley McDowell, the answer was an immediate yes.

According to the sheriff's office in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, the 22-year-old McDowell was picking up food Monday night at a McDonald's when two men approached her in the parking lot.

After showing her a new iPad, the police report said, the guys told McDowell that they had purchased the tablet computers in bulk and were reselling them for $300 apiece.

McDowell evidently jumped at the chance to snag a cut-rate iPad but explained that she had only $180. The men decided to sell her one iPad at that price, she told police.

McDowell handed them the money and then waited to open the FedEx box supposedly containing the iPad until she got home -- where she proceeded to pull out not a shiny new Apple tablet, but a "piece of wood painted black with an Apple logo," the police report said.

more
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/08/wooden-ipad-scam.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. When a deal seems to be too good to be true...etc.

She got an expensive lesson...

It's unfortunate.

I feel bad for her, but I'm sure she'll never fall for that again...

[virgogal]

2. This happened to my son years ago when he was about 18. It

was a stereo and of course it was useless,but nicely packaged.

I couldn't believe he fell for it,but he did.

[Earth_First]

3. UGH.

As a contractor, I get guys showing up in pickup trucks trying to sell us equipment/tools ALL THE TIME.

I generally tell them to buzz off before I call the Sherriff's department...

[Electric Monk]

4. They bothered to paint a logo on the piece of wood?

Nice touch.

[dipsydoodle]

5. If something sounds too good to be true

it probably is too good to be true.

[Historic NY]

6. I'm selling a bridge here in NY.