We think we are the smartest person in the room. Even we are not, we are way above average and would never fall for the cheap scams. Tricksters and fraudsters—beware! But here’s a dirty little secret. Unknowingly, we all fall prey to scams.
We get scammed almost everywhere and scammers are also finding new ways to trick us. Reddit users have been pooling all of their experience and telling new ways of scams. They have tried to point everything that is a scam which most people don’t realize.
Scroll down to check the newest and trendiest ways fraudsters use to bamboozle their marks. And yes, if you also know of any swindles, don’t forget to share them with us.
1.
Paying money to religion to guarantee your eternal salvation.
2.
Insurance. You’re obligated to get it legally but when you actually need it, they’ll do everything in their power to not pay out…
3.
The US healthcare system. Hell, just name any aspect of life in the US and there’s probably a scam somewhere in there.
4.
“Woman’s” anything. 90% are just colored differently. Razors are the biggest offenders IMOP.
5.
Diamonds. Diamonds are a fairly common gemstone but the world’s supplier of them is a monopoly and they hoard the majority of their stock to jack the prices up. Emeralds, Rubies, and Sapphires are actually rarer than diamonds but cost less because of this.
6.
Unpaid internships. What the actual f**k is wrong with America.
7.
Planned obsolescence. Appliances being designed to fail sooner in order to sooner create demand for a replacement. In the same vein, devices being designed to not be repairable, so that you need to invest in a shiny new specimen whenever fashion or the predesigned breakdown requires it.
8.
Scientology… And by most people, I mean those people in it.
9.
The Humane Society of the United States
“HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter. HSUS is not affiliated with any pet shelters. And HSUS only gives 1% of donations to pet shelters.” Most of the donated money goes into the higher-up’s pension plans.
Seriously don’t donate money to them, instead donate to a local shelter near you, they’re the ones doing real work & helping animals.
Any “charity” whose president is living high on the hog on donations is a scam.
10.
Contrary to popular belief, there a very few hot Russian singles in my area.
11.
.99 cents at the end of pricing.
12.
Printer ink.
13.
Having to pay $100+ bucks for Microsoft word.
14.
The expiration date on million years old Himalayan salt.
15.
Trickle-down economics.
16.
Ordering a full carafe of wine in a restaurant. Where I work, a full carafe can fill 4-5 glasses. Ordering 5 glasses of some of our types of wine is actually $1-2 cheaper than the full carafe. Check the prices and do the math before ordering! Same goes for pitchers of beer!
17.
Recycling plastic. The “recycling symbol” with the number on it is not a recycling symbol. It’s a resin identification code. It was intentionally designed to look like a recycling symbol to fool consumers. Only around 10% of plastics are recycled and usually only once. The whole campaign about recycling plastics and consumer responsibility were set up by the bottling companies to avoid legislation banning plastics because of their harm to the environment.
18.
Psychics.
19.
The concept of “superfoods” and “organic” anything. I work at a smoothie bowl place, and people will come in and literally pile 1500 calories full of peanut butter and granola into a bowl and think it’s healthy because they put some superfood organic something into a bowl. It’s literally pumpkin granola cereal from the store down the street, it’s not going to cure cancer.
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21.
In-app mobile purchases. Especially for kids’ games.
22.
Insurance, at least in the US. If you have to fight for something YOU PAY FOR to pay THAT WHICH IT’S LITERALLY SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR and in return GET SCREWED with higher premiums, higher deductibles, and higher copay amounts, then it’s basically useless. We’re paying into a scam cause we’re idiots who don’t understand and don’t WANT to understand how much better off we’d be with Universal coverage, due to cost alone. But hey, what do I know?
23.
24.
Bottled water.
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26.
Out-of-network ATM fees.
27.
Our (US) health care system.
28.
29.
Boomers getting free healthcare (Medicare) while voting against anyone else getting it.
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