Classic Phone Scam: The Free Lawnmower

An Oldie But a GOODIE!!!!!!

Another one of my favorite phone scams was the "free lawnmower" call. My brother and I called the neighbor across the street from our house. We told him we were from Sears at the local mall. We told him that we had conducted a raffle for a brand new Sears Craftsman lawnmower. He claimed he did not enter any raffle and seemed a little reluctant to claim his prize. We assured him it was legit and that we had taken the names of all our Sears charge customers and did various "Customer Appreciation" raffles. He said, ok, "What's the Catch." I said, well there is a catch. All you have to do is trade in your old lawnmower and we'll upgrade you to a brand new Sears Craftsman. He started laughing and said, "You can have my old mower, it's 10 years old, now what do I do to get my new mower?" We told him to bring his old lawnmower and 2 forms of ID to the local Sears to claim his prize within the next 4 hours. About 20 minutes after we hung up with him, the neighbor and his son were hoisting the old mower on top of their station wagon and tying it down. They drove off with the mower tied to the car's roof and headed for Sears. About 40 minutes later, they came back, visibly angry, with the SAME old mower tied to their car. They untied it, threw it in the garage, slammed the garage door, and went inside. A classic indeed.