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 GIF
The 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 GIF
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Amway.
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 Kitchen
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Pay 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 GIF
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Permanent 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 GIF
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Printer 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 GIF
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The 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 GIF
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Kirby 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 Brown
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Believing 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.
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I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
Black Friday Nbc GIF by SuperstoreGiphy"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
sushi GIFGiphy"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
Janet Jackson Reaction GIFGiphy"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
Season 5 Friends Tv Show GIF by FriendsGiphy"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
Role Playing Reaction GIF by Hyper RPGGiphy"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
Happy GIFGiphy"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
Bored Episode 15 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
Circle Of Life Loop GIFGiphy"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
Nbc Im Done GIF by SuperstoreGiphy"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
customer service waiter GIFGiphy"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
Admit It Tell The Truth GIF by TV LandGiphy"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
move leading GIFGiphy"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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