The James Hydrick story goes far deeper than PhantomStrider talked about. After being exposed, he gave a bunch of excuses about how his powers were weakened due to having a cold that day. He later admitted to being a fraud in 1981, as he learned the trick in prison and wanted to see how easily he can scam the world. Despite all of this, people still believed he was psychic and he had a relatively successful career afterwards. He was later arrested in 1989 for the molestation of 5 boys he was "training" and was institutionalized because of california laws. He is still commited to this day due to his tendencies of pedophilia, paraphilia, and antisocial personality disorder, which combined make him a danger to the general public.
Yep true :) I cut a crapload out of James Hydrick due to both some of it being distasteful and I felt there wouldn't be much interest from viewers hearing the detail. Honestly it mostly just made me want to talk about James Randi's career debunking psychics and I felt there wasn't much artistic or educational value in me discussing Hydrick's criminal behaviour and future. So I kept it very very short :) Thanks for the extra info!
As a store clerk i have so many depressing stories about people who buy lotto numbers and it’s just sad. Dealt with guys who bought $100 dollars worth of tickets but begged me to give him free food.
Yup. I can see dropping a few $ now and then, but never the $50-100 some people do. I never play, but occasionally when one of the mega lottos reaches $1billion or so I have dropped maybe $8-10.
I remember when a store clerk said that they were going to be throwing away food bagged it twice dude spent his entire paycheck on lotto numbers he was luckily living in a apartment complex that was cheapest place to live in my home town and it being a small town were everyone knows everyone for the most part so he wasn't going to starve
One of the places where I used to work didn't give us Christmas bonus's. Instead, he gave us lottery tickets in Christmas cards. Needless to say, I was personally insulted.
One of my best friends and former coworkers used to spend hundreds of dollars a day on these tickets. She was a very underprivileged person, on a fixed income, living in government housing, with multiple children, and living off EBT. She'd waste so much of her checks on these tickets and spend up to an hour buying and paying out random tickets. It honestly made me really sad to see someone so desperate to do that.
So about the Max headroom incident: He wasn't calling Doctor Who a nerd. He was calling Chuck Swirsky, a local sportscaster on the first station they tried to intercept, a nerd. It was two stations they intercepted and the first one didn't have any sound go through.
This. The other station was WGN, and the signal for them lasted about a few seconds before they went to a back-up transmitter. The sportscaster said something along the lines of "Well, if you're wondering what happened, so am I." There was a post on reddit from someone who was supposedly in the group of people who did the hijacking or was the sibling of the person who was Max Headroom. It does provide some plausible points for why and how it happened, but take it with a grain of salt
@@pierrecusmybladdersempty1938 i actually thought it was WGN themselves. Since they’re the types to do that? I live in lake county Illinois… and I’ve watched em my entire life, they’ve got to be the most unprofessional bunch of news casters well not unprofessional, more careless and just normal people. But for some reason the line up of them reminds me of the number 2 station from anchor man. They’re all just super schemy looking to me and I love it.
It’s great that you’re covering stuff like this, even when the scams in question aren’t recent. Hopefully videos like these help people realize how subtle and not so subtle scams can really be.
Looking back on these I’m glad scam commercials and ads have become easier to notice than ever especially with how mainstream social media is nowadays. This was a very unique and fun video Strider
Remember, just because it isn't illegal doesn't mean it still isn't wrong and won't bite you in the ass in the end. I may want to have more money, but I don't want to scam innocent people like these idiots did. We all work better with a clear conscience. With that said, I wish you PhantomStrider, your fiance, your cat, Boo, and all of your loved ones happy holidays! Let me know what kinds of Australian Christmas foods you like! 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Add Publishers Clearing House to this list. They sent my mother at least 2 envelopes a day, and sometimes 4 or 5. Each one said a winner was going to be picked on [x] day. "It could be you! You have a good chance of winning! No purchase necessary! But hey, we have a ton of shit to sell you!" She used to say, "God will let me win the jackpot!" but that never happened. She passed away in March. I am still trying to purge all the damn crap she bought because she thought she would have a better chance.
Fun fact about the Fyre Festival: Apparently I found out that rapper Ja Rule also founded the event with Billy and thought it was legitimate. However, he wasn’t as hands on and left Billy mostly in charge. Unlike Billy, he was remorseful about what happened, mostly avoided the eight lawsuits and even sued Billy himself. Which is a shame because I bet if he had found out earlier he would’ve done something or probably made the event better. It honestly shocked me that he okayed this!
I was so tickled pink that you covered Ms. Cleo! My family and I would laugh our butts off when we saw her commercials. I was just a kid, but it was the first scam I really understood. Sadly, I fell hook, line, and sinker for those Skechers shoes! You forgot to mention that they turned out to be kind of dangerous because customers could easily roll/sprain their ankle while wearing them. I agree 110% with you about the lottery. I’m from Las Vegas, and we don’t have a lottery, we just have the giant, bottomless pits downtown where people can toss their money if they feel like it. Some people call them “casinos” lol 😆 Love this, it was fascinating and funny!
Lol, I thought Vegas residents would be more adverse to buying lottery tickets but man, the number of people I know that regularly take an afternoon to drive to Primm is shocking! I guess it's more understandable they tend to only buy in once the jackpot gets relatively high, though. And I guess my balance was better than I thought because I never had the rolling ankle problem or bad knees afterwards. I miss those shoes so much; nothing since has offered the comfort of Shape Ups.
Me and my siblings used to watch Miss Cleo religousily as kids back in the 90s. I don't remember if we actually believed her claims, but her personality always made her a fun watch.
Miss Cleo told me, a 13 year old girl at the time, that my husband was finally getting out of jail. I didn’t even ask a question first just said good day lol.
Cleo is not a good person. She committed the grave sin of lying and scamming, all of which are sins that God is no longer forgiving as of 2020. If she had died later, she would most certainly be tormented by the demons lurking in the fiery pits of Hell. I refuse to show compassion to people like her. And it saddens me to know that you guys still show kindness to people like her.
as someone who’s just fascinated by this stuff; More of this stuff please! The Max Headroom incident was started with Chicago's local news station, and outside of calling Dr Who a nerd after the news channel cut him off, he also poked insults at the news anchor who was live during the hijacking (the Chuck Swirsky guy he mentions in footage you used). As for suggestions maybe cover Gameshow bloopers. I remember one incident on the Price is Right where they rigged their most famous game (Plinko) for a commercial to promote the home console versions of The Price is Right... and accidentally forgot to unrig the Plinko game board before a contestant was called up to play Plinko the next day. They ended up owing this contestant extra money off camera, on top of what she won during the redo. ... the family fued music on the last segment made me think of this.
Lottery tickets being more of a scam than Fyre Festival is one hell of an achievement. Also, I had no idea Skechers even made shoes for adults, I just thought they made those shoes that looked awesome to kids.
Yeah I think Josh was really stretching on that one, it's not so much that you're unlikely to win the lottery, you'll probably win small or moderate amounts of money if you play enough, it's the winning millions things that's unlikely and I personally don't see anything wrong with buying the occasional ticket, it's better then wasting money on booze and tobacco that's for sure, at least lottery tickets won't slowly kill you.
@@jadedheartsz If you get satisfaction out of buying tickets that argument is sound. If you buy the tickets to actually win a good amount of money the argument is not there. I at least get positive brain chemicals when I drink or smoke.
@@salamantics Yeah i do get satisfaction out of it, but even if I don't win at least's no risk of cancer from playing the lottery(or chance of getting a DUI and losing your license like my dad did from drinking).
In Germany ads for the lottery are always followed by a disclaimer of how low the chances of winning are, how it can be addicting and how you are not allowed to play if you're under 18 years old. It doesn't help much, but it does put things into perspective a bit.
Kids are far more resilient and knowledgeable than their parents expect. They pick up on a lot. When my parents sat young me and my sister down to explain how Santa wasn't real and how "the birds & bees" worked, we admitted we knew all that. Every kid in early elementary school knew. 😅
@@lancerevell5979 When I was in fourth grade, we had to watch a video about periods to explain what they were, it was during school, and the video also mentioned "by the way periods happen because this is how babies are made." And they even showed digital art of it. They don't bring it up again, and just move onto what a period is and why it happens, but all of us learned "the birds and the bees" that day just from that one scene.
South Park did an episode based upon the Shake Weight. It made me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one who thought it looked inappropriate. That episode was pretty funny.
I remember so many of these ones from the 90s growing up. not to mention the infomertials,.. "BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Call within the next 20 minutes and we will double your offer, not one BUT TWO of these pieces of garbage we couldnt sell at a discount store. Your satisfaction is guaranteed, and if you aren't completely satisfied with your purchase, return it, for a full refund - just pay the shipping and handling." I swear the only decent stuff sold on an infomercial was sold by "Billy Mays, here! Introducing Oxy clean!" Oh and the scam that was the shopping channel. Brings back memories.
My old coworkers used to say I was a wet blanket because I didn’t put money into a lottery bank that someone used to buy an expensive ticket and if they won, they would split the money. Pretty much everyone except me and one other person did it. And guess what. They didn’t win. They were just each out $5 and got horribly disappointed. But the joke’s on me, I guess
You forgot gambling ads on Aussie TV that airs every ad break and they tell you to waste all of your money on bets on sports. The only reason why they're allowed to air their ads is because of two reasons. Reason one is because they air a 5 second warning at the end to tell people to gamble responsibly and reason two is because they pay the government so that the government doesn't outlaw gambling.
Oh lord, did some Australia states legalize sports betting recently too? Just happened in the US. It was really bad this spring and summer. Soooo many ads. Hasn't completely been legalized in the country but I think 25 or so states just passed legislation about it. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Indiana are a few at the top of my head. And they brought out a bunch of celebrities to hawk these services.
@@SheilaDeBonis At least in your country they don't have pokies in restaurants like AppleBees and inside of pubs because in AUS there is a lot of space in the pubs that caters to slots. Also in the USA you have to be 21 to gamble which is weird but that means that less young people would waste their money while in AUS you can gamble at 18. The gambling industry doesn't have as much grip on your politicians like they do here but it still a bad thing because your politicians don't want to outlaw gambling in children games like FC 24 or Fornite because their are being paid off by the companies. There are a lot of people playing EA sports games here on RUclips and are winning meaning that there is a likely chance that those guys and gals are plants paid by EA to glorify gambling. Those games also have no age verification meaning there is nothing stopping kids from using their parents money to gamble on players in the ultimate team or skins in Fortnite. The FC/ FIFA, NBA 2k and Madden series are all rated E in your country even though you can spend real money on players and skins that you can't buy directly and instead you have to put money in a slot and hope that you get the item that you wanted which is gambling and yet it rated E and not AO. Same thing in AUS because most sports games are either G or PG meaning that there is no restriction on who can play it and the only thing that the advisory board said about gambling is that the game got in game purchases which is more than the ESRB does where they don't even mention that because the ESRB is compromised because the ESRB board is made up of the leaders of video game companies who are the ones who put gambling inside of full price games Fornite is M here and T over in USA but my point still stands because M is not a restricted rating like MA15 or R18 and anyone can still play it while in USA T for teen is 13+ but in USA you have to be 21 to gamble.
The Kevin Trudeau story is really appalling-he got in trouble for infomercial product scams and through some legal loophole was able to sell books, so started selling those instead of things like his memory system and I think some real estate fraud system. Of course the books were scamming people too. But he was an absolute fixture on program length infomercials starting in the 80s, Wild West times for infomercials
It’s really sad that he did what he did. My friend and I did his diet that came out before the cure book. Both of us did very well and a Dr in my town and her brother followed the original dr’s plan for it and did so well she was helping patients with it. When it first started the injections of the hCG were illegal in the states. About a year or two they were legalized and GNC and many other places sold the synthetic form. I have an extreme needle phobia so I did the synthetic form and she did the injections. Only diet program that truly helped me loose weight. Also it was the easiest for me to follow, probably because it said you can eat this, this and this and nothing else. There are many recipes on Pinterest that are the hCG diet friendly. I actually have been pondering going back on it as I have had some health issues and have put on a good bit since. If he had of stopped there and not gotten greedy. Sadly some just can’t.
15:04 Canadian here, our prime minister has the last name. It's easier than you think, it's just pronounced "True doh" Love your videos! They're incredible, keep going!
My mom used to watch a lady called Sylvia Brown when I was growing up, she was the first person I thought of while hearing about that "Miss Cleo" gal. I think she either had her own show or her own segment on a show. Sadly I think she's passed on now, but goes to show how some scams are timeless. Edit: I never knew Miss Cleo was a supporter of LGBTQ rights or came out as a lesbian though, good for her
Kinda sad that because someone nefarious aligns with your ideals just makes everything hunky-dorey. Ya'll need to start living as critical-thinking individuals.
@@mr.voidout4739 Never said that. Just giving credit where credit is due. That doesn't necessarily mean I agree with every single thing she said/did. Although I will say, from the info given in the video, it sounded to me like she might not have been treated well by the people actually in charge. I wouldn't be surprised if she simply played a character and wasn't afforded the decision to warn viewers that it was only that- a character. Like all those ""psychic"" people shows/call lines etc should have been doing and still do in the first place. Again, nowhere am I saying that I agree with the scam or absolutely everything about her. Because I don't.
This might end up becoming one of my favorite videos that he's ever mad Edit: Guys, half of you told me I made a typo. It's not original. I'm not changing it, probably would've if only one person said it, but now I won't out of spite.
I have a family member who won the lottery, it's all well and good that he won but from what i heard he didn't spend much of the money. And there was major issues when he died cause my family fought over who could get what was left. Sad thing is they fought in court so much the money wasn't really given to us it more went to the lawyers. Only my grandfather tried to respect what my relative wanted but everyone else like "screw that, gimme money now!" From what i know I think my relative would have sooner had the money donated to a school or something.
The flip side is if you DO win the lottery its a huge life change and not usually for the better. There are plenty of videos on here about what happens to people and its very sad
I used to love Miss Cleo, she definitely had a warm character, even if she was all fake. Of course I wasn't surprised when I found out she wanted to be an actor. Shame she was instead part of a giant scam and didn't even make a whole lot despite her fame. I don't think "Max Headroom" was calling The Doctor a nerd since the failed first attempt at signal hijacking was done on WGN, and "Max" even references the network and Chuck Swirsky, who was one of their sports commentators. It's likely "Max" was either referring to Chuck or someone else at WGN he also had issues with. We'll probably never know.
in 1997 I was about ten. I called Miss Cleo. She said I would marry and have a baby. Twenty four years later, I did. COINCIDENCE????? Probably. But she technically wasnt wrong....
Theranos should've been #1 instead. Also I think Bishop Sycamore should've been on the list instead of the Max Headroom(as that wasn't really a scam so much as a bizarre event). The fact that a fake school got broadcast on ESPN is mind-boggling.
This is probably gonna hit some folks in the childhood, but Fushigi was a pretty big scam during the 2000s. Fushigi was a big metal "Magic Gravity" ball that was advertised as being capable of floating in odd ways when in reality it was quite literally just the sleight of hand making it look like it was floating or holding still in some capacity. Basically Fushigi was a fancy magic trick to show those unaware of how such things worked but it required *a lot* of time and effort to successfully pull it off. A waste of money for the buyers and a waste of resources for the manufacturers. But at least you could make something worthwhile that uses those oversized paperweights with enough of them.
It's astonishing to me that Billy McFarland is still trying to get Fyre Festival 2 off the ground. He's selling tickets to an event that doesn't have a location or date yet. He's sold a few so far but it's widely believed no one will listen to him after what he did before. Bonus Fact: Billy did actually rent out the island once owned by Pablo Escobar. But did so on the condition he wouldn't mention that it was formally owned by Escobar. He mentioned him immediately and the owners pulled the plug.
Honestly, those 900 number ads were really stupid. I remember one about a rabbit, and another about famous cartoon characters like He-man. All of which I never called said number. As for lottery tickets, I never bought any, because it's a waste of money and I know I'll never win.
Scammers are absolute scum. I’m ashamed to say that I fel for one. They took a few thousand dollars before I realized it and felt like the dumbest person because it seems so obvious now. I wonder if people who fell for these felt the same way
One thing about the Lottery is that even if you win, most blow it all, getting into worse debt that before, and some have a bunch of people asking for a cut. And some would try to kill you for the winnings
What sucks about the Sketchers Shape-Ups is that they did indeed have benefits. My girlfriend has had bad feet, ankles, and knees her whole life. From what she told me, the dr had to pull her out of her mom by the feet which dislocated them and they never healed properly. The Shape-Ups were the only shoes she could find that would let her walk all day long without pain due to the rounded shape at the bottom (she doesn't have a proper arch in either foot). If only those advertising morons didn't make such outrageous claims.
Thank you for dunking on the Lottery. It's also considering gambling. Not only are your chances slim to none, but all that money will be given to a company with clear deceptive practices in mind. Thus, you won't have any money for said lottery tickets. The more you want, the more you'll consume.
Actually in New York the lottery is controlled by the state and the money goes to education, actually in 2022-2023 the lottery contributed $3.7 billion dollars to the states education system. From what I understand in the United States, lotteries are controlled by the states they are in, not a private company and not all states have the lottery.
Listen, even if you don't think the sun causes cancer maybe it's not the best idea to not use sunscreen? Like I got painful sunburns and needed aloe vera after a trip to cedar point due to it being on a lake so please don't go to the beach or the pool with no sunscreen.
I work at a supermarket in the US, and I used to work the customer service desk (where lottery tickets were sold) but lasted less than a month because having the same customers spend upwards of $100 to $200 on lottery tickets WEEKLY took a serious toll on my mental health. It was almost always people who were not well-off financially, so people on low/fixed income, the elderly or people on disability and it just made me feel so disgusting.
You really had me thinking that you were gonna talk about Theranos with the clip of Elizabeth Holmes at the beginning, but I still 100% agree with every placement on this list, Strider. This was an absolute rollercoaster of a video and I would love to see it get another installment, if you’d like to make one, of course. And hey, you already have another Top 3 Scam Contender right there! 😄 Anyways, regardless of whether or not this is the only one of these videos that you do, this was a very telling and well made video! Great work, Strider! 👍
Depending on where you live, the money spent on lottery tickets can actually be used for a good cause. Where I live, 95 cents of each dollar spent on buying state lottery tickets have been used to help benefit education.
The Fyre Festival did have one attendee who was having a blacked: he had won his ticket and travel fare through a radio concert and was vibing on the misery of the rich attendees.
My Meme (grandma) bought the Shape-Ups but didn't like them, so she gave them to me. I wore them bc the way they made me step made me feel like I was marching on the field, which as a band geek, was a good thing (plus I was poor, they were all I had) I did get bullied for wearing them though bc I was very much not skinny or attractive n other students seemed to think that I had gotten the shoes to try and make myself look better :/
Exactly! My marching band bought special shoes for us to wear, so we could get our toes high & really roll our steps. (Mid 90s basically.) I betcha that is where Skechers got the idea from, too.
When the max headroom thing happened most people did not have computers or internet... a network getting hacked was terrifying.... if you asked most people what hacking meant they would say a really bad cough and you need to stop smoking!!!! This scared people so much because they thought that if they could hack this they could hack the military.. This was right after the movie War Games...I remember how this scared my parents...I was in college at the time!!!!
The Joker broadcast stunt in the 1989 Batman film is more likely than not a reference to the very first Joker Batman comic book story where The Joker took over radio broadcasts to deliver his specific death threats before they were actually committed.
Strider: Number 5, Kevin Trudeau… Me: The Prime Minister of Canada?! Strider: (Does segment) Me: Oh, that’s…that’s a different guy… (blushes from embarrassment) Also, I love the Animal Crossing music during the Fyre Festival segment! 🦝 🐢
I've always considered the Max Headroom incident very similar to something the Joker would just to troll Gotham. No malicious intentions, just an irritating, weird WTF moment in the final scene of a series finale.
Considering that the lottery is more of a major gamble than anything. Honestly when I was finally able to enter seven feathers casino. I didn't even spend my full 40 bucks there I stopped after losing the first half. there's really no joy there. I heavily agree with the fact that the lottery is a scam since a person is more likely to get struck by lightning than win it.
So a thing about the Max Headroom incident. Most people know that it interrupted the Doctor Who episode since it played in full there. However, the same video overtook news coverage on a different channel earlier that day, though there was no audio and the broadcast was restored after only a few seconds. You might have noticed the hijacker mentioned a specific name (Chuck Swirsky). That was one of the newscasters on that channel, so it can be assumed that he was the "nerd" that Max Headroom was referring to.
My favourite story of a fraud psychic was a story of a guy who claimed to be a martial arts master who could destroy his opponents without even touching them... that was until he fought someone outside of his dojo and got absolutely destroyed. Turns out not only was he not psychic but he couldn't take a punch either.
lol my dad was at work when the hijack happened 😅he thought it was hilarious. He worked about 30 mins from where the alleged signal had been hi jacked. “I just wanted to watch a lil tv during my shift 👨🏾”
15:05 Kevin Trudeau reminds so much of that Wizard from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets The one who would erase people's memories and wrote books taking credits for what other wizards have done
In 1977 , 10 years before the Max Headroom incident , there was a TV hijacking on Southern TV an independent TV that ran in southern England . The broadcast was made by someone calling themselves Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command . The ITC (Independent Television Commission) have yet to identify whoever Vrillon is .
The worst thing about scams is that most people fall for them because they are desperate, disillusioned or just bamboozled by the scammer. The desperate often feel they don't have any other choice to solve their problems. And sadly, the scammers nearly always add more problems. The disillusioned have completely lost faith in any kind of "official" statements, which leaves them open to believing just about anything else. Which usually leaves them badly misinformed and very often makes them a danger to themselves. The bamboozlers are rely on people being ignorant and lazy. The simple truth is that they know none of us are experts at everything, and they exploit the gaps in our knowledge. And they're counting on us not making the effort to verify what they're telling us with an appropriate expert. It's depressing how often the people who were scammed never realize that it even happened. It's even more depressing how often these scammers present themselves as legitimate charities.
One scam that always annoyed me as a kid was that french Microsoft virus pop up that would basically say that if you close the pop up before you call them, they will deactivate your computer. It's really sad that some people are so desperate that they would scam people, and even sadder that some people would fall for them. Let's just hope that the people who got scammed get a happier ending. Great video PhantomStrider!
Of course it wasn't a TV scam, but I just thought I should mention those virus scams. I also just found out that there was an English language version that basically says the same thing, but slightly shorter by a few seconds.
My grandfather lived in the Chicago area in the 80s, and he told me that he actually saw the Mac Headroom incident occur live on TV that night in 1987 He wasn’t freaked out or scared out of his mind, but he recalls being definitely a little disturbed by the incident.
11:43 I gave Miss Cleo a call back in 2001, mostly just for ha-has because I don't really believe in psychics, but when the operator on the 1-800 number I called directed to a 1-900, I was like "Yeah Nah, Shut it down."
That section on gambling really hit me. I've been thinking the exact same thing about lottery probability since childhood! And I've definitely seen how it can negatively affect the poor 😣I'd like to see an end to the existence of lotteries one day, but I doubt that could be for a long time...
Great video! 👍 Biggest Scams in Video Games next time? 🤔 There’s plenty of material to work with in that department! • false advertising for phone games • consoles that break easily or require day-one updates • Games very obviously released incomplete • Loot-boxes • NFTs
I briefly worked at an AT&T call center. A customer called complaining about being scammed by a 900 sex line. At first it was assumed that he was claiming that he never dialed the number, but his actual complaint was that he called the number and talked to a couple of ladies, but he wanted a refund because he didn't have sex with any of them. Needless to say the charges were sustained.
The shape ups were actually hell to wear. I remember wearing them to run a mile in PE and I actually ended up twisting my ankle because of the heel on them
scams on TV fall under both illegal use of interruption of TV advertising (Interrupting broadcast under false pretense / fraud) and based on how many features the scam promised, a grand-mass fraud charge for every feature that was untrue. This can range anywhere from 50 to 165 years in prison, with it dropped to 90 years if the person practices good behavior in custody of prison.
So, in 2001 I met someone on a dating chat phone service- it was free for women, men paid to use it. I know quite a few people who used phone dating. It was like a chat room where you'd record a greeting and others could send you messages. It was pretty popular.
15:00 I always laugh when I see sketchers ads 😂 but my family almost all own a pair of one kind or another. I just love that they are slip on and comfortable
The James Hydrick story goes far deeper than PhantomStrider talked about. After being exposed, he gave a bunch of excuses about how his powers were weakened due to having a cold that day. He later admitted to being a fraud in 1981, as he learned the trick in prison and wanted to see how easily he can scam the world. Despite all of this, people still believed he was psychic and he had a relatively successful career afterwards. He was later arrested in 1989 for the molestation of 5 boys he was "training" and was institutionalized because of california laws. He is still commited to this day due to his tendencies of pedophilia, paraphilia, and antisocial personality disorder, which combined make him a danger to the general public.
Yep true :) I cut a crapload out of James Hydrick due to both some of it being distasteful and I felt there wouldn't be much interest from viewers hearing the detail. Honestly it mostly just made me want to talk about James Randi's career debunking psychics and I felt there wasn't much artistic or educational value in me discussing Hydrick's criminal behaviour and future. So I kept it very very short :) Thanks for the extra info!
Celebrities be like “CHILDREN!!!!”
@@AccurateThings fr especially back in the 70s & 80s
@@andykishoresothertvstuff5759 it’s trafficker dumbass
Institutionalized? As in Not in prison?
Yep. Sounds like California alright.
As a store clerk i have so many depressing stories about people who buy lotto numbers and it’s just sad. Dealt with guys who bought $100 dollars worth of tickets but begged me to give him free food.
Yup. I can see dropping a few $ now and then, but never the $50-100 some people do. I never play, but occasionally when one of the mega lottos reaches $1billion or so I have dropped maybe $8-10.
The lottery industry profits off of addiction. That's how they make so much money.
I remember when a store clerk said that they were going to be throwing away food bagged it twice dude spent his entire paycheck on lotto numbers he was luckily living in a apartment complex that was cheapest place to live in my home town and it being a small town were everyone knows everyone for the most part so he wasn't going to starve
One of the places where I used to work didn't give us Christmas bonus's. Instead, he gave us lottery tickets in Christmas cards. Needless to say, I was personally insulted.
One of my best friends and former coworkers used to spend hundreds of dollars a day on these tickets. She was a very underprivileged person, on a fixed income, living in government housing, with multiple children, and living off EBT. She'd waste so much of her checks on these tickets and spend up to an hour buying and paying out random tickets. It honestly made me really sad to see someone so desperate to do that.
That sex hotline joke was the most R rated joke I've ever seen Strider make 😭
Nah that caught me so off guard lmao
@@abbygamepop Bruh same lmfao XD
@@bgaming2297yeah back then Strider I believe used to make more r rated jokes but now he really doesent so it's actually surprising
Lol
It the less offensive R rated joke I seen
So about the Max headroom incident:
He wasn't calling Doctor Who a nerd. He was calling Chuck Swirsky, a local sportscaster on the first station they tried to intercept, a nerd.
It was two stations they intercepted and the first one didn't have any sound go through.
This. The other station was WGN, and the signal for them lasted about a few seconds before they went to a back-up transmitter. The sportscaster said something along the lines of "Well, if you're wondering what happened, so am I." There was a post on reddit from someone who was supposedly in the group of people who did the hijacking or was the sibling of the person who was Max Headroom. It does provide some plausible points for why and how it happened, but take it with a grain of salt
@@pierrecusmybladdersempty1938 Oddity Archive.
@@pierrecusmybladdersempty1938 i actually thought it was WGN themselves. Since they’re the types to do that? I live in lake county Illinois… and I’ve watched em my entire life, they’ve got to be the most unprofessional bunch of news casters well not unprofessional, more careless and just normal people. But for some reason the line up of them reminds me of the number 2 station from anchor man. They’re all just super schemy looking to me and I love it.
Max headroom, sounds like it should be combined with max legroom.
It was the greatest and funniest hijacking in American TV history.
The thought of scamming innocent people makes me sick to my stomach. Great video as always PhantomStrider.
That sickness means you have more humanity than most. Great job! Keep it up and happy holidays to you.
@@dolphincrescent54thank you very much. Happy holidays to you too :)
Same
I hope all three of y’all have a very merry Christmas.
@@Megajaybreaker4thanks! I hope you have a Merry Christmas too!
“But hold on! In a previous life, he could have been George Washington!”
That’s literally Ed Edd n Eddy worthy scam material.
It’s great that you’re covering stuff like this, even when the scams in question aren’t recent. Hopefully videos like these help people realize how subtle and not so subtle scams can really be.
the way Josh says "Brittney Spears was my crush" killed me 😭
Looking back on these I’m glad scam commercials and ads have become easier to notice than ever especially with how mainstream social media is nowadays. This was a very unique and fun video Strider
Yeah, it's mostly just FB etc. scams now...
Remember, just because it isn't illegal doesn't mean it still isn't wrong and won't bite you in the ass in the end. I may want to have more money, but I don't want to scam innocent people like these idiots did. We all work better with a clear conscience.
With that said, I wish you PhantomStrider, your fiance, your cat, Boo, and all of your loved ones happy holidays! Let me know what kinds of Australian Christmas foods you like! 🎄🎄🎄🎄
You spoke nothing but facts.
And happy holidays!
Happy holidays to you too Dolphin :) I really like roast turkey this time of year! 🍗 Delish
You know,i got scammed a lot out of pokemon cards from 7-10 years old,so i understand completely
Exactly @NateB_cu8wy
@@phantomstrider I'm more of a ham person for Christmas.
Add Publishers Clearing House to this list. They sent my mother at least 2 envelopes a day, and sometimes 4 or 5. Each one said a winner was going to be picked on [x] day. "It could be you! You have a good chance of winning! No purchase necessary! But hey, we have a ton of shit to sell you!" She used to say, "God will let me win the jackpot!" but that never happened. She passed away in March. I am still trying to purge all the damn crap she bought because she thought she would have a better chance.
“Look at the dog in his previous life he could have been George Washington” 💀
The napealin one made me laugh
Some girl I know thinks her cat used to be Ethel Merman.
😂@@josephrowe849
*_REINCARNATION_*
I'd like to think if reincarnation was real, we'd move UP the foodchain, not down it. 😒
Fun fact about the Fyre Festival: Apparently I found out that rapper Ja Rule also founded the event with Billy and thought it was legitimate. However, he wasn’t as hands on and left Billy mostly in charge. Unlike Billy, he was remorseful about what happened, mostly avoided the eight lawsuits and even sued Billy himself. Which is a shame because I bet if he had found out earlier he would’ve done something or probably made the event better. It honestly shocked me that he okayed this!
Also Ja Rule 10 minutes after festival opening on twitter: I AM NOT GUILTY and IT WAS *NOT* A SCAM
As a fellow Dr Who fan after max headroom hijacked the show and called the Doctor a nerd, I consider him my greatest enemy
I understood it more as "If the doctor is a nerd, then being a nerd is fantastic!"
Reddit ass comment
Allegedly part of the Eminem rap God music video is inspired by the max headroom incident
ALL OF BRITAIN HATES HIM AT THIS POINT
Rassilon would like a word with him.
I was so tickled pink that you covered Ms. Cleo! My family and I would laugh our butts off when we saw her commercials. I was just a kid, but it was the first scam I really understood. Sadly, I fell hook, line, and sinker for those Skechers shoes! You forgot to mention that they turned out to be kind of dangerous because customers could easily roll/sprain their ankle while wearing them. I agree 110% with you about the lottery. I’m from Las Vegas, and we don’t have a lottery, we just have the giant, bottomless pits downtown where people can toss their money if they feel like it. Some people call them “casinos” lol 😆 Love this, it was fascinating and funny!
Lol, I thought Vegas residents would be more adverse to buying lottery tickets but man, the number of people I know that regularly take an afternoon to drive to Primm is shocking! I guess it's more understandable they tend to only buy in once the jackpot gets relatively high, though.
And I guess my balance was better than I thought because I never had the rolling ankle problem or bad knees afterwards. I miss those shoes so much; nothing since has offered the comfort of Shape Ups.
@@sujimtangerines my mom also really liked how those shoes felt
Me and my siblings used to watch Miss Cleo religousily as kids back in the 90s. I don't remember if we actually believed her claims, but her personality always made her a fun watch.
Miss Cleo told me, a 13 year old girl at the time, that my husband was finally getting out of jail. I didn’t even ask a question first just said good day lol.
If I remember right there was an episode of that's so raven about a similar thing
Cleo is not a good person. She committed the grave sin of lying and scamming, all of which are sins that God is no longer forgiving as of 2020. If she had died later, she would most certainly be tormented by the demons lurking in the fiery pits of Hell. I refuse to show compassion to people like her. And it saddens me to know that you guys still show kindness to people like her.
@@nevaehhamilton3493 I never said that she was a good person, just that she was fun to watch when I was a kid
@@stlouisrocker100 your youth of the past are just as intellectually inept as ours of the present day.
as someone who’s just fascinated by this stuff; More of this stuff please!
The Max Headroom incident was started with Chicago's local news station, and outside of calling Dr Who a nerd after the news channel cut him off, he also poked insults at the news anchor who was live during the hijacking (the Chuck Swirsky guy he mentions in footage you used).
As for suggestions maybe cover Gameshow bloopers. I remember one incident on the Price is Right where they rigged their most famous game (Plinko) for a commercial to promote the home console versions of The Price is Right... and accidentally forgot to unrig the Plinko game board before a contestant was called up to play Plinko the next day. They ended up owing this contestant extra money off camera, on top of what she won during the redo. ... the family fued music on the last segment made me think of this.
Out of any attempt to recreate the max headroom hijack Nintendo win
Lottery tickets being more of a scam than Fyre Festival is one hell of an achievement. Also, I had no idea Skechers even made shoes for adults, I just thought they made those shoes that looked awesome to kids.
Yeah I think Josh was really stretching on that one, it's not so much that you're unlikely to win the lottery, you'll probably win small or moderate amounts of money if you play enough, it's the winning millions things that's unlikely and I personally don't see anything wrong with buying the occasional ticket, it's better then wasting money on booze and tobacco that's for sure, at least lottery tickets won't slowly kill you.
@@jadedheartsz If I could trade out my addiction of Fast Food with an addiction to the Lottery, I would.
@@jadedheartsz If you get satisfaction out of buying tickets that argument is sound. If you buy the tickets to actually win a good amount of money the argument is not there. I at least get positive brain chemicals when I drink or smoke.
@@salamantics Yeah i do get satisfaction out of it, but even if I don't win at least's no risk of cancer from playing the lottery(or chance of getting a DUI and losing your license like my dad did from drinking).
Pay £2 for scratch card wins £2, buys another scratch card and wins nothing
In Germany ads for the lottery are always followed by a disclaimer of how low the chances of winning are, how it can be addicting and how you are not allowed to play if you're under 18 years old. It doesn't help much, but it does put things into perspective a bit.
We have a fast and soft-spoken bit at the end for ours about "gambling responsibly" and the exact chances of winning.
It's always funny to me when adults act like something is going to traumatize their kids, but the kids just laugh
Kids are far more resilient and knowledgeable than their parents expect. They pick up on a lot. When my parents sat young me and my sister down to explain how Santa wasn't real and how "the birds & bees" worked, we admitted we knew all that. Every kid in early elementary school knew. 😅
@@lancerevell5979 When I was in fourth grade, we had to watch a video about periods to explain what they were, it was during school, and the video also mentioned "by the way periods happen because this is how babies are made." And they even showed digital art of it. They don't bring it up again, and just move onto what a period is and why it happens, but all of us learned "the birds and the bees" that day just from that one scene.
I only knew about the birds and the bees 🐝 in the 5th grade which is strange
"They" are whoever people want them to be. Fox News uses it all the time, and when pressed for details, "they" always change.
Everytime I see the shake-weight in action, I laugh like a child.
Never gets old, I swear.
I would have started a company handing them out for free and advertising it to women for videos.
South Park did an episode based upon the Shake Weight. It made me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one who thought it looked inappropriate. That episode was pretty funny.
I remember so many of these ones from the 90s growing up. not to mention the infomertials,.. "BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Call within the next 20 minutes and we will double your offer, not one BUT TWO of these pieces of garbage we couldnt sell at a discount store. Your satisfaction is guaranteed, and if you aren't completely satisfied with your purchase, return it, for a full refund - just pay the shipping and handling." I swear the only decent stuff sold on an infomercial was sold by "Billy Mays, here! Introducing Oxy clean!" Oh and the scam that was the shopping channel. Brings back memories.
My old coworkers used to say I was a wet blanket because I didn’t put money into a lottery bank that someone used to buy an expensive ticket and if they won, they would split the money. Pretty much everyone except me and one other person did it. And guess what. They didn’t win. They were just each out $5 and got horribly disappointed. But the joke’s on me, I guess
You forgot gambling ads on Aussie TV that airs every ad break and they tell you to waste all of your money on bets on sports. The only reason why they're allowed to air their ads is because of two reasons. Reason one is because they air a 5 second warning at the end to tell people to gamble responsibly and reason two is because they pay the government so that the government doesn't outlaw gambling.
From the US here and we have those ads as well.
Oh lord, did some Australia states legalize sports betting recently too? Just happened in the US. It was really bad this spring and summer. Soooo many ads. Hasn't completely been legalized in the country but I think 25 or so states just passed legislation about it. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Indiana are a few at the top of my head. And they brought out a bunch of celebrities to hawk these services.
@@SheilaDeBonis At least in your country they don't have pokies in restaurants like AppleBees and inside of pubs because in AUS there is a lot of space in the pubs that caters to slots. Also in the USA you have to be 21 to gamble which is weird but that means that less young people would waste their money while in AUS you can gamble at 18. The gambling industry doesn't have as much grip on your politicians like they do here but it still a bad thing because your politicians don't want to outlaw gambling in children games like FC 24 or Fornite because their are being paid off by the companies. There are a lot of people playing EA sports games here on RUclips and are winning meaning that there is a likely chance that those guys and gals are plants paid by EA to glorify gambling. Those games also have no age verification meaning there is nothing stopping kids from using their parents money to gamble on players in the ultimate team or skins in Fortnite. The FC/ FIFA, NBA 2k and Madden series are all rated E in your country even though you can spend real money on players and skins that you can't buy directly and instead you have to put money in a slot and hope that you get the item that you wanted which is gambling and yet it rated E and not AO. Same thing in AUS because most sports games are either G or PG meaning that there is no restriction on who can play it and the only thing that the advisory board said about gambling is that the game got in game purchases which is more than the ESRB does where they don't even mention that because the ESRB is compromised because the ESRB board is made up of the leaders of video game companies who are the ones who put gambling inside of full price games Fornite is M here and T over in USA but my point still stands because M is not a restricted rating like MA15 or R18 and anyone can still play it while in USA T for teen is 13+ but in USA you have to be 21 to gamble.
@@Ensign_gamesWE DO??? I cut the cable cord maybe 5-6 years ago so it must be a more recent development?
yeah it became a more recent development@@sujimtangerines
The Kevin Trudeau story is really appalling-he got in trouble for infomercial product scams and through some legal loophole was able to sell books, so started selling those instead of things like his memory system and I think some real estate fraud system. Of course the books were scamming people too. But he was an absolute fixture on program length infomercials starting in the 80s, Wild West times for infomercials
I remember my aunt trying to buy some of his cancer cures iirc for her father. Ofc it didn't work. He graveyard dead. No disprespect, Papa I miss you.
It’s really sad that he did what he did. My friend and I did his diet that came out before the cure book. Both of us did very well and a Dr in my town and her brother followed the original dr’s plan for it and did so well she was helping patients with it. When it first started the injections of the hCG were illegal in the states. About a year or two they were legalized and GNC and many other places sold the synthetic form. I have an extreme needle phobia so I did the synthetic form and she did the injections. Only diet program that truly helped me loose weight. Also it was the easiest for me to follow, probably because it said you can eat this, this and this and nothing else. There are many recipes on Pinterest that are the hCG diet friendly. I actually have been pondering going back on it as I have had some health issues and have put on a good bit since. If he had of stopped there and not gotten greedy. Sadly some just can’t.
15:04
Canadian here, our prime minister has the last name. It's easier than you think, it's just pronounced "True doh"
Love your videos! They're incredible, keep going!
Thank you from a fellow Canadian!
Oh, he knew how to pronounce it, he just did not want to say it lol
My mom used to watch a lady called Sylvia Brown when I was growing up, she was the first person I thought of while hearing about that "Miss Cleo" gal. I think she either had her own show or her own segment on a show. Sadly I think she's passed on now, but goes to show how some scams are timeless.
Edit: I never knew Miss Cleo was a supporter of LGBTQ rights or came out as a lesbian though, good for her
Kinda sad that because someone nefarious aligns with your ideals just makes everything hunky-dorey. Ya'll need to start living as critical-thinking individuals.
@@mr.voidout4739 Never said that. Just giving credit where credit is due. That doesn't necessarily mean I agree with every single thing she said/did. Although I will say, from the info given in the video, it sounded to me like she might not have been treated well by the people actually in charge. I wouldn't be surprised if she simply played a character and wasn't afforded the decision to warn viewers that it was only that- a character. Like all those ""psychic"" people shows/call lines etc should have been doing and still do in the first place. Again, nowhere am I saying that I agree with the scam or absolutely everything about her. Because I don't.
It's all right in the end since she suddenly found a way to be excused of scamming people by having a mental illness.
I REMEMBER SYLVIA BROWN! She got completely destroyed on Montel Williams IIRC.
A scammer is a scum period
This might end up becoming one of my favorite videos that he's ever mad
Edit: Guys, half of you told me I made a typo. It's not original. I'm not changing it, probably would've if only one person said it, but now I won't out of spite.
All of his videos are my favorite.
I like his TV show reviews the most :3
Sorry to be that guy, but *made
@@samariathemaniacsamee :D
What a simp
@@nicosfangsalso, your profile picture looks adorable
I have a shakeweight. It did actually help me bulk up. It wasn’t for 9 seconds though. Everyone knows that action needs at least 30 mins
Think less about baseball.
I have a family member who won the lottery, it's all well and good that he won but from what i heard he didn't spend much of the money. And there was major issues when he died cause my family fought over who could get what was left. Sad thing is they fought in court so much the money wasn't really given to us it more went to the lawyers. Only my grandfather tried to respect what my relative wanted but everyone else like "screw that, gimme money now!" From what i know I think my relative would have sooner had the money donated to a school or something.
The flip side is if you DO win the lottery its a huge life change and not usually for the better. There are plenty of videos on here about what happens to people and its very sad
I used to love Miss Cleo, she definitely had a warm character, even if she was all fake. Of course I wasn't surprised when I found out she wanted to be an actor. Shame she was instead part of a giant scam and didn't even make a whole lot despite her fame.
I don't think "Max Headroom" was calling The Doctor a nerd since the failed first attempt at signal hijacking was done on WGN, and "Max" even references the network and Chuck Swirsky, who was one of their sports commentators. It's likely "Max" was either referring to Chuck or someone else at WGN he also had issues with. We'll probably never know.
in 1997 I was about ten. I called Miss Cleo. She said I would marry and have a baby. Twenty four years later, I did. COINCIDENCE????? Probably. But she technically wasnt wrong....
Theranos should've been #1 instead. Also I think Bishop Sycamore should've been on the list instead of the Max Headroom(as that wasn't really a scam so much as a bizarre event). The fact that a fake school got broadcast on ESPN is mind-boggling.
This is probably gonna hit some folks in the childhood, but Fushigi was a pretty big scam during the 2000s.
Fushigi was a big metal "Magic Gravity" ball that was advertised as being capable of floating in odd ways when in reality it was quite literally just the sleight of hand making it look like it was floating or holding still in some capacity.
Basically Fushigi was a fancy magic trick to show those unaware of how such things worked but it required *a lot* of time and effort to successfully pull it off.
A waste of money for the buyers and a waste of resources for the manufacturers. But at least you could make something worthwhile that uses those oversized paperweights with enough of them.
Never heard of it
It's astonishing to me that Billy McFarland is still trying to get Fyre Festival 2 off the ground. He's selling tickets to an event that doesn't have a location or date yet. He's sold a few so far but it's widely believed no one will listen to him after what he did before.
Bonus Fact: Billy did actually rent out the island once owned by Pablo Escobar. But did so on the condition he wouldn't mention that it was formally owned by Escobar. He mentioned him immediately and the owners pulled the plug.
That's because the island didn't actually belong to him, just an associate of his
Honestly, those 900 number ads were really stupid.
I remember one about a rabbit, and another about famous cartoon characters like He-man.
All of which I never called said number.
As for lottery tickets, I never bought any, because it's a waste of money and I know I'll never win.
Scammers are absolute scum. I’m ashamed to say that I fel for one. They took a few thousand dollars before I realized it and felt like the dumbest person because it seems so obvious now. I wonder if people who fell for these felt the same way
One thing about the Lottery is that even if you win, most blow it all, getting into worse debt that before, and some have a bunch of people asking for a cut. And some would try to kill you for the winnings
What sucks about the Sketchers Shape-Ups is that they did indeed have benefits. My girlfriend has had bad feet, ankles, and knees her whole life. From what she told me, the dr had to pull her out of her mom by the feet which dislocated them and they never healed properly. The Shape-Ups were the only shoes she could find that would let her walk all day long without pain due to the rounded shape at the bottom (she doesn't have a proper arch in either foot). If only those advertising morons didn't make such outrageous claims.
Thank you for dunking on the Lottery. It's also considering gambling. Not only are your chances slim to none, but all that money will be given to a company with clear deceptive practices in mind. Thus, you won't have any money for said lottery tickets. The more you want, the more you'll consume.
Actually in New York the lottery is controlled by the state and the money goes to education, actually in 2022-2023 the lottery contributed $3.7 billion dollars to the states education system. From what I understand in the United States, lotteries are controlled by the states they are in, not a private company and not all states have the lottery.
Strider: who's they?
Josh duhmal: THEYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
Listen, even if you don't think the sun causes cancer maybe it's not the best idea to not use sunscreen? Like I got painful sunburns and needed aloe vera after a trip to cedar point due to it being on a lake so please don't go to the beach or the pool with no sunscreen.
You know it’s a good day when Strider posts a video.
I still have the shape up shoes 😅 I wore them and all they did was hurt my ankles
It's kinda funny, those are basically the shoes we had to wear for marching band back in the 90s lol
In germany, there is a whole TV channel for people to call someone that can "read their future" and talk to ghosts etc. Old People love calling there
I work at a supermarket in the US, and I used to work the customer service desk (where lottery tickets were sold) but lasted less than a month because having the same customers spend upwards of $100 to $200 on lottery tickets WEEKLY took a serious toll on my mental health. It was almost always people who were not well-off financially, so people on low/fixed income, the elderly or people on disability and it just made me feel so disgusting.
The government is scamming people. It continues to this day.
You really had me thinking that you were gonna talk about Theranos with the clip of Elizabeth Holmes at the beginning, but I still 100% agree with every placement on this list, Strider.
This was an absolute rollercoaster of a video and I would love to see it get another installment, if you’d like to make one, of course.
And hey, you already have another Top 3 Scam Contender right there! 😄
Anyways, regardless of whether or not this is the only one of these videos that you do, this was a very telling and well made video!
Great work, Strider! 👍
Depending on where you live, the money spent on lottery tickets can actually be used for a good cause. Where I live, 95 cents of each dollar spent on buying state lottery tickets have been used to help benefit education.
The Fyre Festival did have one attendee who was having a blacked: he had won his ticket and travel fare through a radio concert and was vibing on the misery of the rich attendees.
My Meme (grandma) bought the Shape-Ups but didn't like them, so she gave them to me. I wore them bc the way they made me step made me feel like I was marching on the field, which as a band geek, was a good thing (plus I was poor, they were all I had)
I did get bullied for wearing them though bc I was very much not skinny or attractive n other students seemed to think that I had gotten the shoes to try and make myself look better :/
Exactly! My marching band bought special shoes for us to wear, so we could get our toes high & really roll our steps. (Mid 90s basically.) I betcha that is where Skechers got the idea from, too.
9:16
That’s So Raven parodied this!
😎
When the max headroom thing happened most people did not have computers or internet... a network getting hacked was terrifying.... if you asked most people what hacking meant they would say a really bad cough and you need to stop smoking!!!! This scared people so much because they thought that if they could hack this they could hack the military.. This was right after the movie War Games...I remember how this scared my parents...I was in college at the time!!!!
You've probably never heard of Oddity Archive, but its Host Ben Minnotte covered the Hijack in Depth on his Channel 11 years ago.
The Joker broadcast stunt in the 1989 Batman film is more likely than not a reference to the very first Joker Batman comic book story where The Joker took over radio broadcasts to deliver his specific death threats before they were actually committed.
Strider: Number 5, Kevin Trudeau…
Me: The Prime Minister of Canada?!
Strider: (Does segment)
Me: Oh, that’s…that’s a different guy… (blushes from embarrassment)
Also, I love the Animal Crossing music during the Fyre Festival segment! 🦝 🐢
You're thinking of Justin Trudeau
I've always considered the Max Headroom incident very similar to something the Joker would just to troll Gotham. No malicious intentions, just an irritating, weird WTF moment in the final scene of a series finale.
Your unexpected videos always makes my day better : ) Cheers to you mate!
Until the max headroom mystery is finally solved, I’m gonna say that it was a prank by disgruntled TV station employees at the time.
I had fun, i don't mind more like this
Considering that the lottery is more of a major gamble than anything. Honestly when I was finally able to enter seven feathers casino. I didn't even spend my full 40 bucks there I stopped after losing the first half. there's really no joy there. I heavily agree with the fact that the lottery is a scam since a person is more likely to get struck by lightning than win it.
Its not a scam when its actually possible to win the lottery though. It would only be a scam if no one has ever won, and thats certainly not true
So a thing about the Max Headroom incident. Most people know that it interrupted the Doctor Who episode since it played in full there. However, the same video overtook news coverage on a different channel earlier that day, though there was no audio and the broadcast was restored after only a few seconds. You might have noticed the hijacker mentioned a specific name (Chuck Swirsky). That was one of the newscasters on that channel, so it can be assumed that he was the "nerd" that Max Headroom was referring to.
Something tells me there was a reason The Piña Colada song included a newspaper ad instead of those 1 900 phone numbers. 😂
To be fair the psychic Jamaican lady died of liver cancer 😢 so there’s that
My favourite story of a fraud psychic was a story of a guy who claimed to be a martial arts master who could destroy his opponents without even touching them... that was until he fought someone outside of his dojo and got absolutely destroyed. Turns out not only was he not psychic but he couldn't take a punch either.
You see, you can resist chi attacks simply by lifting one of your big toes and then lifting the other /s
RIP Mrs. Cleo. She was a part of my childhood TV programing.
lol my dad was at work when the hijack happened 😅he thought it was hilarious. He worked about 30 mins from where the alleged signal had been hi jacked.
“I just wanted to watch a lil tv during my shift 👨🏾”
Oddity Archive. Look it up.
15:05 Kevin Trudeau reminds so much of that Wizard from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
The one who would erase people's memories and wrote books taking credits for what other wizards have done
Great video, Strider! Hope you and your family have a Happy Holidays and a great New Year! ☺️👋
I remember the Shake Weight. I knew one person who actually bought it. I was not allowed to pick it up and use it.
18:54 I actually loved the shake weight.
In 1977 , 10 years before the Max Headroom incident , there was a TV hijacking on Southern TV an independent TV that ran in southern England . The broadcast was made by someone calling themselves Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command . The ITC (Independent Television Commission) have yet to identify whoever Vrillon is .
The worst thing about scams is that most people fall for them because they are desperate, disillusioned or just bamboozled by the scammer. The desperate often feel they don't have any other choice to solve their problems. And sadly, the scammers nearly always add more problems. The disillusioned have completely lost faith in any kind of "official" statements, which leaves them open to believing just about anything else. Which usually leaves them badly misinformed and very often makes them a danger to themselves.
The bamboozlers are rely on people being ignorant and lazy. The simple truth is that they know none of us are experts at everything, and they exploit the gaps in our knowledge. And they're counting on us not making the effort to verify what they're telling us with an appropriate expert. It's depressing how often the people who were scammed never realize that it even happened. It's even more depressing how often these scammers present themselves as legitimate charities.
Hell yes, out of all the options, I was really hoping for this one :3
Dissing the lotto is one of the most based thing Strider has ever said like THANK YOU PHANTOMSTRIDER AND FUCK THE LOTTERY
If Mistress Cleo the Psychic isn't on the list, I will be shocked.
Edit:
CALLED IT! I'm shocked she was only at number 7!
The number of psychics and my own skepticism immediately makes me call bs on them existing 😂
I recognize some of these
One scam that always annoyed me as a kid was that french Microsoft virus pop up that would basically say that if you close the pop up before you call them, they will deactivate your computer.
It's really sad that some people are so desperate that they would scam people, and even sadder that some people would fall for them. Let's just hope that the people who got scammed get a happier ending. Great video PhantomStrider!
Of course it wasn't a TV scam, but I just thought I should mention those virus scams. I also just found out that there was an English language version that basically says the same thing, but slightly shorter by a few seconds.
ahh your back merry christmas to you big fella you are a delight.
My grandfather lived in the Chicago area in the 80s, and he told me that he actually saw the Mac Headroom incident occur live on TV that night in 1987
He wasn’t freaked out or scared out of his mind, but he recalls being definitely a little disturbed by the incident.
11:43 I gave Miss Cleo a call back in 2001, mostly just for ha-has because I don't really believe in psychics, but when the operator on the 1-800 number I called directed to a 1-900, I was like "Yeah Nah, Shut it down."
Phantom strider your my favourite RUclipsr and put so much effort in your videos
I actually first learned of the Shake Weight via South Park. I think you can put tow an two together on how that wasn't the best idea.
That section on gambling really hit me. I've been thinking the exact same thing about lottery probability since childhood! And I've definitely seen how it can negatively affect the poor 😣I'd like to see an end to the existence of lotteries one day, but I doubt that could be for a long time...
Great video! 👍
Biggest Scams in Video Games next time?
🤔
There’s plenty of material to work with in that department!
• false advertising for phone games
• consoles that break easily or require day-one updates
• Games very obviously released incomplete
• Loot-boxes
• NFTs
Do Top 6 Worst/Best Czech Cartoons!
13:02 I was waiting for "With a name like Sketchers it has to be good." Ya that reference showed my age.
Max Headroom was not "computer generated." He was played by actor Matt Frewer. His image was distorted to make him jerky but he was very real.
I briefly worked at an AT&T call center. A customer called complaining about being scammed by a 900 sex line. At first it was assumed that he was claiming that he never dialed the number, but his actual complaint was that he called the number and talked to a couple of ladies, but he wanted a refund because he didn't have sex with any of them. Needless to say the charges were sustained.
I'm excited for the video Strider!
I called one of the psychic ones with first 2 minutes free. The psychic asked my name. I said, shouldn't you already know that.
i will always enjoy your work, strider!
The shape ups were actually hell to wear. I remember wearing them to run a mile in PE and I actually ended up twisting my ankle because of the heel on them
Kid Danger: *wearing his big trucker pup outfit* lie, my tan flank! my unicorn family used to PLAY the lottery.
Ok Im gonna give you 1 last warning before I report you to yt
scams on TV fall under both illegal use of interruption of TV advertising (Interrupting broadcast under false pretense / fraud) and based on how many features the scam promised, a grand-mass fraud charge for every feature that was untrue. This can range anywhere from 50 to 165 years in prison, with it dropped to 90 years if the person practices good behavior in custody of prison.
The shake-wheight would be used for ASMR if it was realesed in 2023
Was not expecting to hear space queens in the background. This was truly a xtremely good video.
So, in 2001 I met someone on a dating chat phone service- it was free for women, men paid to use it. I know quite a few people who used phone dating. It was like a chat room where you'd record a greeting and others could send you messages. It was pretty popular.
4:14 "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Cheat
(Also, I agree. Charles and the others have been through enough and I hope they're doing better)
15:00 I always laugh when I see sketchers ads 😂 but my family almost all own a pair of one kind or another. I just love that they are slip on and comfortable