The world is full of swindles and scams. They lurk at every turn and sometimes jump right up in your face. It use to be that we only had to keep our spidey senses up when it came to things like a Ponzi scheme or a chain letter but thanks to technology and the internet, the reach is wide and vast and often times.... legal. You'd be surprised by the amount of "valid" tomfoolery is running amok. Don't feel bad, we've all fallen victim.... I'm still waiting on my returns from my 1999 chain letter. I want my dollar back!!!!!
Redditor u/EdgelordOfEdginess wanted everyone to get a heads up on some swindles we need to be aware of so that we're not bamboozled by asking....
What is a big scam, but is allowed?
School Thief
As a US college student I hated having to buy a book AND an "access code" for a class. Basically paying twice to be able to do my work.
Now THAT is a scam. A scam consisting of exorbitant prices of text books and the proven collusion between schools and text book publishers.
That's a Sale?
Keeping prices of products way too high and then marking them down to their appropriate prices but calling it a "sale".
I'm looking at you Kohl's.
I work for a local frame shop, and people will occasionally come in with a Hobby Lobby frame and they are so excited because they got it 50% off, and they still spent more than they would have if they just bought from us in the first place!
Weak Trap
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Grab machines. They purposely have weak claws so you can pick up what you won but it may be too heavy to hold, so it'll get lifted then dropped.
I taste Sugar
Tic tacs. They are advertised as sugar free. They are mostly just complete sugar. This is allowed because anything under 1 gram of sugar can be labeled sugar free. Tic tacs aren't even 1 gram in total.
What the heck they can actually label it per individual tic tac?
Here everything has to list nutrition facts per 100g. Anything else (like per xg portion or per tic tac, whatever) is optional, but the 100g list must be on there.
So sure, an individual tic tac may not even be 1g, but there's definitely plenty of sugar to be found in 100g worth of tic tacs.
"better black"
Ink cartridges for printers.
This is very true, the manufacturing cost for in is well below a dollar but is sold at 30-50$ (to MY knowledge). But the printers themselves are actually sold at no profit or at a loss. Also some printers uses some colored ink with black to give a "better black" (obviously BS). Some ink cartridges don't work if one color runs out.
You Lose!
Those ads on mobile games but make it look like it's from PC but in reality it's just one of those trashy ripoffs That are pay to win.
I've seen so many mobile ads where they just take clips of another games gameplay entirely(usually a stunning looking pc game that absolutely cant run on mobiles) and try to pass it off as their game. they always have super high ratings in the reviews too but its all generic crap comments like "great game! well worth your time!"
Not Forever
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Diamonds. The De Beers Corporation pretty much ran the diamond trade.
They have intentionally inflated the price on diamonds by artificially lowering the supply. They withhold a great deal from going into circulation so they can keep the price high. Then, they ran a huge ad campaign to enforce the idea that a proper engagement needed a diamond ring. Even the "two months salary" thing is tied to them.
Gimme a Spot!
Pay parking lots outside hospitals. Especially emergency rooms. Absolute scum of the earth.
A few years ago, I discovered I get ovarian cysts and drove myself to the hospital.
My husband drove me back after they figured out what it was, and I was too drugged up on pain killers for a couple days after to retrieve my car. Parking at Kaiser was something like $10-20 a day, I don't remember.
But the security guy told me to just put in that I had lost my ticket, and I would just pay one day's ticket. That man was a hero.
No Magic Pill
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Weight loss supplements.
Unless they're amphetamines, they really won't affect your metabolic rate or appetite enough to make any significant changes.
"...you weren't missing?"
Mediums that ask for money. It's wrong to exploit and manipulate those grieving the death of a family member or friend.
There's a clip from a some news station where they brought a photo of a young girl to a medium, asking about a missing child case. The medium confirmed that the girl was dead, and that she had likely suffered before her death. She even offered to show the interviewer to the location the girls body was buried.
The next day, a reporter interviewed the woman and asked about the case, before revealing that the picture was one of her childhood photos. The medium pauses for a moment and goes "...you weren't missing?" before quickly fleeing the interview. Absolutely hilarious.
Edit: here's the clip
Holy Scam
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Scientology.
Boom, idk why this isn't top voted comment. Scientology such a big scam that they're getting pretty close to being shut down forever by the FBI. They're extortionists, liars and genuinely evil cult of people. Donald Trump is their Messiah.
Enhancements?
"Male enhancement"
No such thing. They sell millions of these pills every year, and I'm still the same size.
My conspiracy is that it must exist and is just covered up. Think about it. We can give a new penis to someone who has none at all but can't even enlarge an existing one? Bullcrap. Clearly the people in power are hoarding it. Which is why they're all evil.
Damn Clicks
Clicker games especially on Roblox. All they are is click this button so you can click it better and oh at one point the difficulty will escalate so much you will have to pay them if you want to make any progress.
No, you don't "need" to pay them. Just click it 999,999,999,999,999,999,999.69 more times to level up your click speed.
Define "Legitimate"
Fake charities are big scams, especially around the holidays. There are GoFundMe's for all sorts of seemingly worthy causes along with fundraising drives for all kinds of legitimate-sounding charities. Many are considered "legitimate" but divert a high a percentage of donations to administrative costs.
Good places to check out charities and how they spend your donations:
Guidestar https://www.guidestar.org/
Charity navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277#.VI4W6lfF_FA
Parchment Fakers
Academic paper publishers.
When I was doing my masters thesis there was a journal article I needed that I couldn't get through my university so I looked about buying just that article from the publisher... it would have been like $30 just for that one article... and not to print it, just to read it online. And not even $0.01 of that goes to the author. No thanks.
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Check out Moissanite. Almost as hard as diamonds. More sparkly. In nature they are found in meteorites.
Much less expensive. No guilt. And I get so many compliments on my ring. Check out Charles & Covard in the US.
Scam Cycles
Payday loans.
Bad high interest loans to get you through till your next paycheck is how they are marketed.
Basically if you get one you get stuck in an endless cycle of paying them off and getting another. The people running them are legitimate scam artists and they are absolutely disgusting.
Go to go Pay
Charging to use restrooms in public places like airports or train stations, what are you meant to do? Pee yourself?
People say that the cost is to pay for cleaning the bathroom, but you know what costs more? The mess and health hazard from a homeless guy using the floor as a toilet.
I feel like public bathrooms should be designed more with cleaning in mind, too. Get some sort of cover that can lock waterproof for the toilet paper, and make everything else just ready to be power washed. Nice big drain in the floor, just hose it down.
No Extras....
Online booking fees, I mean seriously? It's actually cheaper for me now to buy a movie ticket at the cinemas then to pre-buy online because of this, which makes absolutely no sense.
I just refuse to pay extra for something that saves the company money. No matter how convenient it may be for me.
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