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What are some notable scams in history that went unnoticed for so long? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by bady@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The McDonald's Monopoly promotions

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait, they were scams?

I knew employees fixed a couple, but...

[–] legion@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It wasn't McDonald's themselves that were scamming, it's more like the trusted 3rd party they engaged to run the promotion had a bad actor that used his position to fix the game.

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

He began stealing winning game pieces after a supplier mistakenly provided him a sheet of the anti-tamper seals needed to securely conduct the legitimate transfer of winning pieces. Jacobson first offered the game pieces to friends and family but eventually began selling them to Gennaro "Jerry" Colombo of the Colombo crime family, whom he had met by chance at the Atlanta airport.[11] Colombo would then recruit people to act as contest winners in exchange for half of the winnings.[9][10]

And that’s just the start.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly

[–] beanz00_@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember getting like 3 tickets for "part 1 out of 2 for a free car" a few months ago when they were doing the monopoly thing. I now realise that the employees probably just took all the part 2 ones for themselves.

[–] Simba@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

They definitely didn't because they count the sleeves that those prize pieces are on.

What really happens is they print 5 million part 1 pieces and like 10 part 2 pieces.