Lolz....I think the most financially lucrative piece of software I've ever wrote was a fake memory erase program.

Also, tons of teachers at my HS were so computer illiterate you could pretty much get them to give you access to anything....set up a key logger, change their password, claim it's from some sort of external hacker and you need all the admin rights etc to fix it. These were more just scamming just to scam to kill time....but the biggest one was through one teacher who was an admin before moving over to teaching and she still had a bunch of privileges on her computer... so I was able to get friends on the free lunch program by just manually changing it in the data base and getting them to say they lost their ID and pay for a new one with the magnetic strip coded for free lunches. It was pretty amazing at the stuff you could do with the lowest tech 2 bit scams....

OK, here's one I've been using successfully for ten years, and all the hand-wringers can rest easy that no theft is involved:

In some parts of the country, the red left turn arrow is the scourge of drivers. Imagine you want to turn left. The people going straight have a green light, but those in the left turn lane have a red arrow--even if there's absolutely no oncoming traffic.

Adam Corolla advises that if you're facing a red left-turn arrow, don't sit there and seethe when there's no oncoming traffic, and you're stopped for no reason whatever--RUN IT! Just make sure there's no cop behind you, because only the people behind you can see what color arrow you've got. You've endangered absolutely no one.

Thanks, Adam. Ten years now, never been pulled over, let alone ticketed. Countless hours of driving time saved over that time.

Great example. Our's you could turn it part way and just wiggle it in the middle (half way turned) and get some extra ones.

This is hilarious and depressing all at the same time. But I can't imagine doing this more than once at a certain place.

What about the cameras they have on stop lights?

Smashing nickels into quarters was the biggest scam of my life.

I guess they don't snap pics during green lights? Or maybe I've been lucky enough to never visit/live in an area with those dreaded cams.

afaik, many of those cameras are fake and are just put there to discourage people running reds

I think you are the first scammer in this thread that could be prosecuted in federal court, so congraluations.

That would make sense, I didn't think about that I suppose.

I guess it depends where you are. I've had friends get tickets from these before in the mail.

By extra large Slurpee at 7-11, fill cup with candy, pour Slurpee over the top. Enjoy Slurpee and free candy when done.

Our cable company offers a special rate for your first year before jacking the price way up. (I assume that's pretty standard for cable companies.) So my various roommates that I've lived with the last 4-5 years and I - we just switch the account to another person's name and get the 1st year rates again. Saves probably $90 a month or something.

When I was a teen, I used to get up to 3 friends into elitch gardens with me for free. I had a season pass, and it works like this:

scout the old person\ person not really examining the cards and tickets as you enter the park. Have friend take your pass and enter the park. Exit park, and get hand stamp for return entry. Repeat. When they ask you why you didn't get your hand stamped, you can just say you forgot... this worked without fail, every single time, and i'm sure it still would. Used to do this all summer

There is a hint of the OTT life tricks and stingy thread in here but I agree with those that say most of this stuff is plain stealing.

I was expecting things like people getting out of traffic tickets and fooling parking meters

The Hertz rental and the Cable Subscription are about the least dishonest, enjoying the read all the same

This isn't a scam, it's called being homeless.

To shamelessly quote myself:
This one is worth about $10/hr ($.33/flop x30 hands/hr)

This one's gross. I have ~40% edge.

P.S. Awesome tip on the Hertz thing

jtm those scam stories were really boring

I used to bring a ton of 1 dollar bills to HS everyday, like 20 minimum. I'd keep 4 on my wallet and the rest in my pocket. People would inevitably need change for a five to use a vending machine and I would tell them I only had 4, lolz

I sometimes cut through parking lots to avoid red lights.

Stealing bottles to sell to a homeless chick is being homeless?

Real one I used to do. Not sure if scam or good business.

Had a season pass to the amusement park that had a waterpark. They had lockers that you would rent for $8, then get back $3 when you returned the key. We used to hit the water park early in the day. Around 1 PM or so, there were pretty significant lines of people trying to buy and return keys. So we would just sell our keys to people in line for $5, saving us $2, and saving them $3. Sometimes people thought we might be scamming them so we'd take them to the locker and all would be well. We later expanded this when the lines were long and just bought keys off people returning keys for $3. People certainly didn't mind selling us the key for $3 since they avoided waiting and got the cash. We'd sell them for $5 to people in a different line. I had a friend who would buy, and I would sell, so it wasn't obvious what we were doing.

Eventually we started going back to the water park at closing time just to buy keys from people, then saved them until the next time we went, then sold them at open. Worked pretty well until they changed the locks on us. So no more overnight sales after that. But at least we could still get our deposits back on those keys.

If you walk into a store and point a gun at the person behind the counter, they usually give you money.

Drunken nights in college would lead to me taking two bags of chips at subway (paid for one) when I was leaving. In AC one drunken night at a restaurant it was taking an eternity to get the check (in reality probably wasn't that long) and we dined and dashed. Only time in my life I've done that.

HS at McDonalds we would hit up the drive thru for like ten double cheeseburgers (back when they were a dollar) throw two in the glove box and drive around and say they forgot two. Also if you ask for your mcdouble or double cheeseburger on a "quarter seeded bun" and with lettuce and Mac sauce boom you have a dollar big Mac sans the middle bread.

One kid wouldnt even bother asking for a complimentary water cup, he used those TINY ketchup paper holder things and wouldn't stand by the soda machine taking shots of soda.

did this many times

my favorite scam was in middle school. me and a friend jammed some paper down the coin slot of the soda machine and would fish out the stuck quarters with a paper clip.

eventually people noticed and put a "machine broken" sign, so obviously we took that down and replaced it with "machine fixed"

this would repeat weekly

Thread needs less stories of armed robbery imo and more key scams

I bet that works 100% of the time if you carry a gun.

loled at this one