To wonder why people are so gullible

[Idontknowwhyinfrench]

On here and on fb. People are so quick to respond to sob stories without giving the slightest heed to the fact that they are almost certainly bullshit.

I know people will say that truth can be stranger than fiction and that events in their own lives have seemed unbelievable but come on. Some of the stuff in here at the moment is akin to the dog with ham in his face!

"Due to government rules, we're unable to sell these £70,000 motorhomes, please like and share this post for a chance to win one of the 10 we have available to give away"

Aye, ok.

Same goes for brand new iphones they're "unable to sell".

Idiots share it as well.

@Biker, those ones make me laugh every time! Along with the "holidays we can't sell", and the "Tesco are giving everyone a free £250 gift card".

It does make me wonder how people think regulations work, though. Do they genuinely think that "EU regulations" can prevent someone from selling a brand new camper van? If they do, I'm not surprised we're heading for Brexit.

Some people are just thick. It's amazing the crap that you can tell them that they take seriously.

Everytime I see anything that starts 'Most people will scroll past this..' etc I think too bloody right and scroll even faster.

Horrible ham thing. Repulsive behaviour.

I work in a fraud role and the amount of gullible people who give money away on line is unreal. We had a customer last year who have 10k to Hugh jackman because he was emailing her personally looking for help to get a top secret film project off the ground.

“There’s one on Facebook that I’ve seen shared a few times. It says if you’re forced to take money out at an atm by a thief, if you enter your pin backwards it will immediately alert the local police and the machine will start taking photos. People actually believe and share this sort of nonsense! ”

That might because some alarm companies this is true for. Growing up, our homemade security system would actually alert PD of code was entered backwards or you pressed the middle numbers in order. It set off a silent alarm to PD. For this reason your code could not be a palindrome or the middle numbers in order.

OMG I actually believed that the 'backwards PIN to summon the cops' thing was real. I believed that.

@WinterfellWench If it's any consolation, there is actually a germ of truth in this, in that some intruder alarm systems do (or did) have a set up like this.

I remember being arriving at work to find two burly and startlingly attractive police officers* striding into our building. Apparently one of my colleagues (fortunately rapidly approaching retirement) had turned up early, entered the code to unlock the doors - but entered it in backwards. That did actually trigger the alarm company's contacting the police response. As the door opened with no alarms, my colleague was none the wiser and was as surprised as I was when police turned up to investigate.

No photos or filming could take place, though.

*It had been a while but they were lovely

How did they get the dog to sit still though? DDog has her mouth open wider than Jaws when a bit of ham is remotely close (and you do risk losing an arm) - there's no way she'd sit there and let me drape ham over her.

Basically most of the world are fucking stupid

I saw loads of people sharing a thing on Facebook a while back saying that onions absorb bacteria and viruses and so you should tuck a couple of onions into your socks when you go to bed at night if you have the cold because it will draw the illness out.

My granny used to sit with an onion on her knee for her knee pain, was super funny

I'm looking forward to "Muslims at a BRITISH school have banned christmas" to go round again this December

The friend of mine on Facebook who is most prone to sharing those obviously-scam 'share to win a holiday/campervan/brand new iPhone' ones is an Oxford graduate. She is certainly not thick, but maybe just a little too trusting or optimistic, and not as well off as she'd like to be.

Another relative is more prone to sharing the obviously-fake 'police warnings' about unlikely gang initiations and carjackings etc. She lives in a very small, virtually crime-free town but is a real worrier.

I'm pretty sure this guy is just a bit stupid, though: Scammer made Bristol man buy £1,000 in iTunes vouchers.

I've reached the point where Snopes is now permanently at the top of the screen. Ready for whatever bit of idiocy SIL2 or Cousin XX posts to FB next.

I have a FB friend rule - If I have to link to snopes more than once on FB fiends posts, I unfriend them.

I think it just boils down to people being thick. Lacking in critical thinking.

I have a lot of people on social media sharing all sorts of posts because they think they'll get a free Disney holiday or Mercedes car. Or posting warnings about serial killers at petrol stations. Or sharing product warnings or scare stories about vaccines or other stuff.

And these are supposedly educated people - one of them is a Vet!

The scare stories about women being abducted after stopping to help a crying baby etc really anger me because, as usual, there is an element of trying to keep women in their place. Women, this could happen to you unless you behave in a certain way. And women, this could happen to your friends unless you pass this on. Some people enjoy the idea that women are, or should be, constantly frightened.

RangeRider "How did they get the dog to sit still though? DDog has her mouth open wider than Jaws when a bit of ham is remotely close (and you do risk losing an arm) - there's no way she'd sit there and let me drape ham over her."

Oh honestly! It's as if some people have never even heard of superglue or staple guns! It's easy to stop a dog eating things if you put your mind to it!.

Insomniac that made me laugh

I saw one recently which had a picture of the apparent CEO of Centerparcs saying that the first 50 shares would get a free holiday. Needless to say I didn't click on it.

The ones about missing children sometimes irritate me, often they are a year or so old but unless it's a link to a police page like the two missing teenagers in Scotland at the moment I won't ever share them because you never know if it's a parent with no contact looking for them for dodgy reasons.

My aunt got Facebook when she retired (wasn’t a good idea beforehand). The next day she had joined every group in existence, the next day she had deep dived everyone’s photos, liking stuff from years ago and I had a hilarious phonecall explaining I’d let it pass for now but generally it looked stalkerish. I’m not a cow, it was all in good humour. The next day she had like some “look how beautiful the Yorkshire dales are in the snow” type post. Completely inoffensive, except it was a Britain First post. Another phone call but this time she was livid. It’s not like my own personal snopes. She’s no technophobe but lots of her peers are and if you haven’t grown up with it you don’t necessarily know the rules.

I’ve lost all respect for my manager who shares this crap all the time.

Plus the centre parc giveaways, people not claiming their winning holiday and her particular favourite “Romanian kidnappers”

It’s hard to listen to her advice during an appraisal when all I can think is, you’re so bloody thick

There is no way my Labrador would stay so still with ham on his face, even using glue (which is bloody cruel!)

So makes me wonder if they drugged the dog?!

I also have a friend who genuinely believes giant humans existed once. He posts clearly doctored photos of massive human skulls etc

I’ve tried explaining the square cube law, but alas he doesn’t “believe in it”. Like physics is there for him to believe in

"we have been unable to contact the Smith family so have a lodge for 4 to give away" from "center parks UK officially official ". These shares do my bonce in, with replys of "me please" on the shared post ffs

@aLilNonnyMouse This makes me feel slightly better wonders if I should also 'fess up to the blind drivers misunderstanding also...