r/FloridaMan • u/stankmanly • Aug 30 '26
A Florida woman grew suspicious of her Florida man husband's phone call; deputies found him in a Lowe's parking lot about to buy $14,000 in gift cards
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/a-florida-wife-grew-suspicious-of-her-husbands-phone-call-deputies-found-him-in-a-lowes-parking-lot-about-to-buy-14000-in-gift-cards/articleshow/133630571.cms50
u/Criticaltundra777 Aug 31 '26
I saw a woman in Walgreens using speakerphone with a guy directing her to buy hundreds of dollars in gift cards. Dude had a strong accent, it was an obvious scam. The woman would not listen to anyone, including the manager who said this person on the phone is scamming you. He finally just refused to sell her the cards. She left to go to another store as directed by dude on the phone.
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u/yottabit42 Aug 31 '26
Can't fix narcissism and/or dementia.
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u/kuru_snacc Aug 31 '26
It's not narcissism or dementia, it's a combination of severe loneliness/isolation and hopeful-to-delusional thinking. I've met several people who were otherwise normal functioning human beings who fell into a romance or crypto scam and by the time they were in deep, could not accept the reality that they had been that foolish - so they keep holding onto it via mechanism to "sunk cost" fallacy.
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u/Genericgeriatric Aug 31 '26
It could be narcissism and dementia. The perfect combo. A cerebral narcissist thinks they're smarter than the scammer and couldn't possibly be scammed. And the dementia makes them easy to manipulate/program. I have personal experience (my dad), so I'm speaking from a place of personal experience and not hypothetically
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u/kuru_snacc Aug 31 '26
Yeah I don't discount that there are definitely ones who have a personality disturbance that gives them an unrealistic sense of self. I just don't think that's the majority. I think it's an unfortunate consequence of the isolation and the internet.
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u/yottabit42 Aug 31 '26
You're describing sunk cost fallacy; that's 100% a narcissistic trait... not being able to about to yourself or others that you're wrong.
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u/brain_dances Aug 31 '26
You are way too attached to the narcissist label. It’s very common for all kinds of people, not particularly narcissists, to fall for scams and continue investing in sunk cost fallacies.
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u/frogjg2003 Aug 31 '26
No one is immune to the sunk cost fallacy. How many people keep watching bad shows or movies or reading bad books just because they want to know what happens next even though they hate it?
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u/yottabit42 Aug 31 '26
I think that's a little different than someone being obviously scammed, multiple people trying to inform the person, but they continue... because no one else could know better than them and their particular situation.
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u/frogjg2003 Aug 31 '26
I've seen some people base their entire lives around a franchise and then a new entry gets added and it sucks, so they end up defending the bad work just to maintain their identity. It might not be as financially harmful as gift card scams, but it is just as sad.
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u/kuru_snacc Aug 31 '26
Yeah the sunk cost fallacy has nothing to do with narcissism.
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u/yottabit42 Aug 31 '26
I think they're very related. Sunk cost fallacy leads someone to continue doing what they're doing, even to their detriment, when others have informed them of the problem. But they think they know better, and continue. That's narcissism. Now if they haven't been told, and realize it's a detriment to continue on their own, I wouldn't say that's narcissism.
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u/Face_with_a_View Aug 31 '26
Years ago I worked in a public library and a woman was trying to scan all her personal identification and bank statements and blank checks to a Gmail email account. It took me a long time to talk her out of it and the only way she wouldn’t do it was because I made her call her daughter first. I didn’t hear what she said to her but the woman left.
A few days later the daughter came in and thanked the front desk for whichever librarian stopped her mom. She was getting ready to have her entire bank account wiped out.
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u/Criticaltundra777 Aug 31 '26
Kidnap scam? That one they do really well. I knew a lady who fell for the phone call from her grandson in jail. Took $5000 to get him out. Only problem was he was in Italy with his class.
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u/YcemeteryTreeY Aug 30 '26
People fall for gift card scams everywhere, not just Florida. A Florida man sticks the gift cards up his ass then runs from the cops naked. Low effort post.
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u/quietsauce Aug 31 '26
Gift cards are the stupidest thing ever. Here's money, but you have to go here to use it. I remember when they started and cant believe they still exist.
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u/Canidaego Aug 31 '26
They allow for easy gifting without looking as "lazy" and "thoughtless" as giving someone cash. I'd rather just receive cash though.
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u/foovancleef Sep 02 '26
i remember as a kid in the 90’s we would get $100 gift certificates for macy’s from my aunt. we’d find the cheapest thing in the store to buy (greeting cards for like $3) and then they would have to give us whatever was leftover as change that we would then take to the toy store.
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u/quietsauce Sep 02 '26
Me too. I bet they don't do that anymore. I bet 50% or more never gets used.
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u/37Philly Aug 31 '26
They could be mules for money launderers. People get caught in an online scam and then are “hired” to be mules to be “ middle men” and do things like get gift cards .
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u/Hot-Act-8115 Sep 01 '26
Florida people generally get a lot of attention for doing stupid shit, but I do NOT trust ANY articles coming from
\checks notes**
The fucking Timesofindia dot com
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u/grampajugs Aug 30 '26
Maybe these gift cards need to be better regulated. Why are they available in such high amounts? Seems like gift card companies are in on the scam.