r/mildlyinfuriating • u/L0n3_C3nturi0n • 26d ago

Too mild for school My stepdad keeps putting these things all over the house

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He refuses to believe that they're a scam despite showing multiple videos of people testing them and ripping them open and showing that it's legit just an led light. It started with just 1 before I went on a small trip. I come back and there's 3 more around the house

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u/account-suspenped 26d ago

hearing stories like this makes me scared for my parents.

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u/HeyYouGuyyyyyyys 25d ago

It breaks my heart what has happened to mine. Three advanced degrees between them, and my dad has his Ph.D. He researched and wrote nine books (ten? I keep losing track) My mom taught, wrote articles, and kept a family alive on dad's tiny salary by learning to bake, sew, and forage for food in urban lots.

Now they swallow Fox News uncritically. Dad reassures me that ICE isn't chasing anyone any more. Mom is a climate change denier. After feeding a family by knowing USDA grow zones, soil acidity, and weather cycles, she's a climate change denier.

So. Yeah. I'm sorry that you have to be afraid. Like I said, it's fucking heartbreaking.

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u/ReddiWhippp 25d ago

Yeah, it happened to my dad too. The far right has been pushing ordinary people to become hateful, ignorant, and nasty for over forty years. Propaganda pushers like Limbaugh, Gingrich, Fox tv 'opinionators,' Alex Jones, etc have been thoroughly brainwashing Americans, making them ripe for the picking by a con artist like trump. There's a great documentary, "The Brainwashing of My Dad" from 2016 that describes it very well. (Available on Amazon Prime.) 

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u/Obant 26d ago

It happened today. I thought he was too smart. Never thought it'd be him, even though he's been getting stupider and stupider the more he keeps the tv on conservative media. I should have physically stopped him, but my gf woke me up crying telling me the story and I had no idea what tf was happening and he wouldn't talk to me.

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u/abstr_xn 25d ago

if parent's didnt think they knew everything they would be open to discussing things like this before acting on them.

But there is no one else in the entire world smarter than them so there is no use asking anyone, whatever decision they make is the right one because they made it.

He didn't get scammed, something just went wrong, FBI probably just got something wrong, the next scammer that targets him because he's a marked victim will be so understanding and will surely get to the bottom of it, just after your dad helps him out again. And again, there won't be any need to run this past anyone because he's fell for that once, he knows what to look for, not again, this person is different, they specifically said they aren't going to scam him. He'll get his money back and more because he's such a well thought out man of action, even went to college once and us children are just stupid dumb dumbs who don't know anything and have everything handed to us. Except money because that's all gone to stupid shit.

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u/kaki024 25d ago

I just watched an old ep of Intervention where an older man was addicted to the thrill of those email scams. He was also addicted to pills, but he’d spend his family’s savings on send money to people who he was sure were going to send him more money in return. They even showed him talking to a man with a South Indian accent who called himself George Washington…. It was brutal.

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u/Obant 25d ago

He freely admits he got scammed and should have listened.

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u/abstr_xn 25d ago

if only others could see him as a role model

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u/Obant 25d ago

Eh, he will admit it, but will he actually listen next time or be stubborn like you said? I do not know.

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u/New_Accident_4909 25d ago

Similar, my father is a smart educated guy but he is getting progressively more gullible as the time goes.

It awaits us all if we don't exercise our brain and critical thought (not too much to become paranoid tho hahhaha)

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u/cshmn 25d ago

It's not paranoia if they really are all out to get you.

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u/TransGirlIndy 25d ago

Makes me almost glad all the older people I care about have already passed. Because my aunt, rest her soul, would have fallen for shit like this. Mom, too, but mom at least had a couple strokes to justify it.

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u/account-suspenped 25d ago

about 10+ years ago my grandma called me one morning asking if i was in a Mexican prison.... i was like .... WHAT? no... Apparently some scammers called her pretending to be federales saying if she didnt pay over 6 grand immediately I would be all kinds of fucked up... and they knew all this random personal info, she almost fell for it but decided to try and call me first- if I didnt answer the phone that morning she probably woulda got scammed. I am glad she never got scammed before passing but now my parents are getting way up there in age and AI is able to clone anyones voice including family which make it 10x worse.

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u/So_ThereItIs 25d ago

yup, its all a bit much for them at some point

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u/Creative_Excuse_1940 25d ago

Be very afraid. Also, be prepared to take their cell phone away so they can't call those 800 numbers and order the random trash items. My mother, Alzheimers, would call 911 for help when she couldn't figure out how to use her smart phone. Cops finally said take the phone away or we charge you money every time she calls. Took the phone away, then she couldn't figure out why she couldn't get a dial tone on the remote. Funny, yes. Sad, also yes.