Let’s be honest, when we hear stories about falling for e-mail lottery schemes or phone call frauds, most of us shake our heads in disbelief at how gullible some people can be. But the truth is that not a single one of us is immune to being tricked, no matter how smart or savvy we may be. After all, our daily lives are full of seemingly innocent services and products that are just sneaky ways of luring us with promises and scamming us for every penny they can.
Thankfully, Redditor Doctor_Engineer recently decided to arm us with knowledge about the biggest gambits we should look out for. They reached out to fellow members of ‘Ask Reddit’ with a short but interesting question: “What is 100% a scam?” Needless to say, the thread immediately became a hit.
From questionable “free” seminars to multilevel marketing companies to malicious phishing tactics, people wasted no time in reminding us that we should never let our guard down. We at Bored Panda scoured the thread and gathered some of the most memorable responses to share with you all. So continue scrolling, upvote your favorite ones, and be sure to share your own takes about the big fat frauds that need to be exposed below in the comments.
#1
US health care system
Image source: MyWorkAccountMSA, Hush Naidoo Jade Photography
#2
Tips. Companies need to pay people fair wages. Period.
Image source: AlienBentOver
#3
Scientology
Image source: A-rat-on-a-keyboard
#4
Planned obsolescence
Image source: Hogtown-Horror
#5
Working 40 hrs a week until you are 65 so you can finally enjoy life.
Image source: Germa-Rican
#6
Essential oils, and anything claiming to “detox” you, like you don’t already have a liver.
Image source: jinkies3678, Magda Ehlers
#7
trickle-down economics
Image source: cricky101
#8
Mega Church tithing.
Image source: invalidpassword, Akira Hojo
#9
The credit score system.
How it should work: pay back loans early/on time, higher score. Don’t pay back loans or pay back late, lower score.
How it actually works: Pay back a loan too quick, score goes down. Open an account, score goes down. CLOSE an account, score goes down. You even ask for a copy of your credit report, your score goes down. It’s ridiculous.
It’s not about your reliability, it’s about how profitable you are to creditors looking to milk interest payments as long as possible.
Image source: MoochtheMushroom, Dylan Gillis
#10
Diamonds… engagement rings in general as well. What a racket.
Image source: skalives
#11
The Jehovah’s Witness religion. Its definitely a cult, I was raised in the religion until my 20s.
Dont recommend joining them
Image source: Havok1717
#12
Anyone – A-N-Y-O-N-E – promising to teach you the secrets of becoming wealthy at a free seminar.
I have a family member that got sucked into the Kiyosaki b******t vortex. It’s a damn cult.
Image source: throwaway3544219, wikipedia
#13
Payday loan businesses. Straight up predatory legal loansharking. It’s gross.
Image source: 1980pzx
#14
Low stakes but bikinis. There is no way that little fabric/stitching should be like $80 for each individual piece 🥵
Image source: Girlrockpearl, Pixabay
#15
Kids iPhone/iPad games. My kid is downloading these “free” games that constantly ask her to buy an extra skin or a treasure box of thousands of coins to upgrade and keep playing. It’s really scummy because they know exactly who their audience is, children who have no concept of money.
Image source: 0wlBear916, Anton
#16
We can’t give you a raise yet because (X), but if you work hard and prove your competency, there will be a raise next year.
Image source: deja_vuvuzela, Lukas
#17
Those Alpha Male courses
Image source: Ethan-Samurai
#18
Homeopathy. Watering something down to the point you may not even be able to detect a single molecule of the ‘active’ ingredient is not medicine. It’s a circus attraction and there is a sucker born every minute.
Image source: crystaloftruth
#19
Pretty much all youtube ads these days. If it starts with “this one trick can” or anything like “doctors hate this” doctors hate it because they have to explain green tea doesn’t cure typeone diabetes. Tbh its flat out dangerous false advertising but youtube doesn’t care.
Image source: neoben00, freestocks.org
#20
Most products peddled by influencers, hence the need to influence people into buying s**t
Image source: Mellopiex
#21
Designer and most luxury brands.
You’re paying considerably more money for an often worse product all to show off to some of the worse people society has to offer. Shallow, materialistic, and empty people.
Image source: FreddieDoes40k
#22
Joel Osteen’s church
Image source: limbodog
#23
Nazism and all the similarly crazy racial supremacy ideologies. Not only do they sell on ideas that are demonstrably false (that certain ethnicities are both an omnipresent enemy that controls the world and cause everything bad but who also are in all ways inferior to the “master race”) but if they ever win – congratulations loyal brownshirt, you are now a peon under a regime that uses extreme violence to solve issues both real and imaginary. Nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Image source: Ornery_Marionberry87
#24
Multi-level marketing. We see it ruin families and turn people into vapid shells of their old selves all the time, but somehow these schemes are still up
Image source: onetinysquid
#25
Paying for college in the United States.
College tuition is a full-on scam in the U.S. The thing I hate about the current educational system in the United States is that it is designed to put a college student in debt. As of 2022-2023, the average a student can expect to pay for one year’s in-state tuition, school-related expenses, and fees is $25,707 at a four-year state university, and for an out-of-state student it’s $43,421. As of 2022, the maximum amount of Federal Pell Grant money a student can get [per year is only $6895. That leaves the in-state student with $18,812 they have to cover somehow–and that almost always means borrowing the money. As a result, it’s common to see a student graduate college with a bachelor’s degree, and well over $50,000-$60,000 in debt that they’ll have to start paying off about six months after they get out of college. The government knows this, and the lending institutions know this. Students are actively getting screwed by this system.
Image source: driving_andflying
#26
Work 110% at your job and you will be successful.
Yeah you’ll be successful alright doing the work of 3 people while the people who don’t work as hard get promoted because you are too valuable in your position.
Image source: NoSpray2890, Alex Kotliarskyi
#27
Online dating services with monthly subscriptions. Any business that gets more money by failing than succeeding will be designed to fail, succeeding *just* enough to make users feel as though they can succeed. Basically the same principle as casinos.
Image source: IndigoFenix, cottonbro
#28
Fortune tellers.
Image source: Saint_Jackie, Mikhail Nilov
#29
Hot singles in your area
Image source: manicuresandmimosas
#30
Astrology
Image source: csabiakiraly69
Follow Us
