We are a smart people... aren't we? Actually, don't answer that. Many of us are smart, or at least do a reasonable job of pretending to be. So why is it so many people can still be bamboozled by the obvious? Like a brilliant lawyer who looks for love online and sends their paramour 10Gs to get to there location without a phone call. These things happen still. And can happen to any of us, because, we all have some small, gullible part of us willing to be innocent. Don't be ashamed, tis life.
Redditor u/CountButtcrackula wanted to know what scams that are out there we need to be ready for by asking.... What's the biggest scam in history that people fall for?
Valentines Day Love GIFThe Bling....
Diamonds, worthless stone.
Diamonds are not a scam. They are precisely what they are claimed to be: sparkly rocks that will raise your social status because humans have collectively decided that owning these sparkly rocks is a sign of high social status.
Is this silly and arbitrary? Yes, but no more than certain clothes, watches, cars, phones, even accents being also regarded as signs of high social status.
Would many people be better off if they stopped caring so much about raising their social status via owning stuff? Also yes, and it's literally been thousands of years since this has been first observed.
But nonetheless, there is nothing deceptive about diamonds. If you own an expensive diamond, you will be able to show people that you are rich enough to own an expensive diamond; and this is exactly what expensive diamonds are for.
A Little Big!
My favorite scam is the World's Littlest Skyscraper in Wichita Falls, TX. It's a little skyscraper, but a pretty big scam!
The engineer who took up $200,000 to build the skyscraper in 1919 (which would be $2,927,876.16 in 2020) clearly noted 480" height on the plans rather than 480', but no one noticed. However, because they'd agreed to these plans, it was legally binding. That's how Wichita Falls, TX obtained a 4-story skyscraper that was too narrow to contain stairs.
That Mess....
blog value GIFGiphyAmway.
The problem isn't the products or even their quality. The problem is that the market for them just doesn't really exist. That means that the products largely just serve as nodes that transfer wealth back to the top.
Pay as you go?
You have an inheritance of $70,000 waiting for you, all you have to do is send them $10,000 to get it. Them = the people trying to scam you. They say the inheritance is waiting for you, as soon as you give them money to start the process. I had a friend fall for this, but he didn't have the money they wanted. He asked us to lend it to him, and we had to explain to him it was fake. He was into ancestry, and had distant relatives, which made him an easy mark.
"royalty"
Payday and title loans.
The concept of "royalty." How one person/family can be deified and hold so much power over so many other people. It's ridiculous.
Do I Need It?
Buying something that's on sale just because it's on sale when they wouldn't have bought it otherwise in the first place.
Well that depends imo. If it is something you know you'll end up using it is ok. E.g. last week coffee beans I like were on sale with 40% off. I know I have enough coffee for at least another month and had no intention of buying coffee that day, but I still bought two kilo cause I knew that I'll end up using them.
Seriously?
Angry Fox Tv GIF by Hell's KitchenGiphyPay TV.
You pay to watch ads?
What is wrong with you.
The Share....
As someone who works in timeshare escalations.... definitely timeshares... even points based ones..... you spend buttloads of money for something and get hounded on future trips by sales people at the resort, and if you meet with them they will tell the owner 'your points are worthless, you need to buy more' and they usually do.
Let me explain.
Attention Listen GIFGiphyPermanent life insurance. Let me explain. So if you have dependents (kids, spouse, family living with you), and you are the primary breadwinner in the family, you want to have life insurance in case something happens.
But, once your kids grow up and get their own jobs, you don't really need the life insurance payout anymore. Thats why term life insurance exists, to get through the dependency, but with permanent life insurance, you end up paying more than your payout most of the time, and when factoring that with the interest you lost...
Damn Barney
barney dancing GIFGiphyPrinter Ink cartridges. I swear to freaking God they make me want to make the American war crimes look like a freaking episode of barney and friends.
Nothing Back
Tax refunds. So many people think getting a big one is great, when it actually means you gave the government an interest-free loan for a year.
Unless you have massive child credits.
School Fraud
The college textbooks, they just get minor changes every year to make the current versions outdated and force you to buy new ones which the school will buy back at fraction of a fraction of what you paid for them.
Yeah this one really grinds my gears. Libgen is the best work around. Saved me literally thousands.
bingo!
loser lottery GIFGiphyThe lottery has to be up there.. it's so depressing seeing 70+ people spending their social security on scratchers.
Just One...
"C'mon, we're only going out for one beer."
Going out for one beer is like trying to fall down one stair... you fall down them all and then pee on your floor.
$20 as a cure-all
It'd be easy to pick on religion or wealth distribution in this thread, but that's a downer and we're here to have fun.
So I'll say homeopathic medication. Pour tap water into a vial and sell it for $20 as a cure-all. You don't even have to do all that crap with diluting an ingredient because your product has been proven not do do anything and if it actually does do anything you'll get in real trouble.
Get a Broom
This Is Fine GIFGiphyKirby vacuum cleaners......
Damn you got me. It's been a good vacuum, but $1500 is a lot. My parents still have theirs they got back in the 80s for a wedding gift.
Fairy Tales
Religion: Fairy Tales for Adults.
Came here to say the same thing. The question says "in history" and most replies are modern day scams from within the past century. Religion has been using fear of the unknown to scam people since prehistoric times.
It's all the same....
Organic.
Everything living is organic, so you can slap that label on every food if you wanted to. Also if it's non-gmo they actually use farming methods worse for the environment, like harsher pesticides and taking up even more land to farm the same amount of product that gmo foods could grow on a smaller area of land.
Plus the foods that are "non-gmo" are actually gmo bc they've changed over the years. Corn as you know it was genetically modified from how it was in the past, even if it says non-gmo. There used to be no sweet corn 'til they modified it. The only difference is they don't want to keep up with the latest gmo's that help the crops protect themselves from insects and stuff, so they have to use more pesticides than the latest gmo farms.
Maybe it's changed the past few years to be something different, but that's what we learned when stuff like this first came out. I only know this stuff bc I was raised in an agricultural community, and all of us at some point had to learn a bit about farming in school and from talking to our farmer friends.
Frauds...
Donald Trump Animation GIF by Richie BrownGiphyBelieving that politicians care about the voters. Wrong. They care about getting elected and re-elected and kowtow to party bosses, not the citizens who voted for them. There is no credible evidence to refute this fact.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.