Most of us know not to send out banking info to any foreign "royalty" that pops up in our email, but there are so many other scams out there that it's not even funny - many of them are things we just deal with in our lives as if they were normal.
One Reddit user asked:
What is clearly a scam but is so normalized people don't notice?
Some of this we were totally aware of over here - but a lot of this stuff has us asking some serious questions.
Charging Me For My Own Stuff
My cable company recently started trying to charge me for my router. Which I own.
I got a notice saying "we noticed an error in billing and we will be charging you for the equipment rental starting in December".
The f*ck you will, I have every receipt from every cable or phone transaction I've ever done for that exact reason.
I paid outright for my router so I wouldnt be renting their sh*tty equipment at $12/month. Now they want to charge me for my own property.
After receiving that notice I hopped right on to customer service to get it resolved, and they directed me to their "loyalty department" because "they could best handle it over there".
I cut off the conversation and just cancelled my service. Cable companies are pure scum.
What The Deceased Would Have Wanted
Roses Funeral GIF by Un si grand soleilGiphyFunerals and everything to do with them.
The funeral industry has insane pricing. Some of the funeral homes and vendors are even predatory, getting grieving families to pay upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, because "that's what the deceased would have wanted."
"You didn't love your father at all, did you?" was the question that had me slam my fist down on the table.
My dad wanted a cardboard box cremation and no memorial. He got a cardboard box cremation and no memorial, with zero up selling from a different cremation service.
The state AG got a complaint about the first cremation service.
Right To Repair
Manufacturers refusing documentation to private repair enterprises and requiring you to get your products fixed by the dealer.
Basically, the reason for the "Right-to-repair" movement.
We had a combine sit in a field for 4 months waiting for a hydraulic manifold. The part had to come from I believe Germany.
And zero chance you can repair it yourself because after the part is installed the tractor has to be hooked up to computer running an $800,000 software package. Just to tell the tractor, "yeah that part is okay"
After 3 generations of owning exclusively JD equipment we are considering alternatives.
John Deere is the Apple of tractors.
$1
The Verizon $1 scam.
Verizon tacked on a $1 fee onto 8% of their customer's bills each month so over the course of the year, they did it to every customer, about 150,000,000.
Their rationale was: 50% wouldn't notice and just pay the charge or would notice and wouldn't spend anytime fighting a $1 charge. 50% would notice the charge and call to have it removed. Of those, 35% would get frustrated while on the call and give up.
This added approximately $120,000,000 to the bottom line each year (3 total) until caught. Once caught, they paid a $25,000,000 fine.
It's All Fun And Games
Those Keymaster games that usually have something like a Switch and a pair of Beats and stuff.
I work part time at an arcade and you physically cannot win a prize until the machine has taken it's retail equivalent in cash.
Can confirmed. I worked at an arcade and this was blatantly explained to me by the manager. Some of the machines I had (mostly the giant crane machine we had) would just shut off if it didn't make a certain amount of money at a certain point.
They Aren't Special
GiphyThe diamond industry, specifically as it relates to jewelry.
Everything that the average person "knows" about it stems from propaganda and advertisements created by DeBeers.
They aren't rare, they aren't worth what you pay for them, they don't appreciate in value and are a terrible investment. They aren't special.
I work in the industry, 10/10 can confirm.
Your $10,000 diamond you purchase at a jewelry store is worth maybe $1,000. Before I start to work up a number to purchase a diamond I take the appraised value and divide by 10. If the customer thinks its worth more than that, I'm not interested
- Fiasco6
Ink
Ink cartridges.
Printer companies make barely any profit off of actual printers, they're just vessels to make you buy unreasonably priced cartridges.
"Hey please print this document in black and white"
"F*ck you give magenta!"
Buy a laser printer. Expensive up front ($100 - $700) but pennies in the long run, compared to inkjet. Most come with scan/copy/fax features which come in handy in the Work-from-home era.
What's new and even scummier, just saw on Twitter a guy who couldn't print from his $300 printer unless he purchased a subscription to use his ink cartridges that were included with the printer. Absolute madness.
Back To Base
Back to base security system monitoring is a Huge Scam.
My smart home security system alerts me faster than ADT ever did. They're the biggest offenders!
When you don't answer the call, they will send out someone and will charge you a fee.
And every-time your system messes up, it will send false error codes to the monitoring station, which they will charge you a huge fee to fix.
And oh if you want to disconnect it, good luck. They guy I spoke to from ADT was going to charge me $250 call out + $50 for every 15 minutes he was at my house, and the job would of taken at least an hour. He they said they may need to go onto the roof.
No.
I just called a security installation electrician and he said $50 call out and $30 for every 30 minutes he was there but that was depending on the type of job.
He was at my house for 5 minutes.
Power off. Remove power wires from control box. Protect the wires so its safe. Replace cover on control box. Done.
He only charged $50. Compared to ADTs service which would of cost about $450
ADT hardwired it into our power system... without telling us what circuit they plugged into. Basically one flip of a switch outside and the system turns off. So secure.
PayDay
Pay Day Loans.
One of the biggest problems is once you feel you need to start them it's, in many cases, a very hard and painful bullet to bite to be able to stop, and that's if you hit a point you can stop it while still making payments on everything you need.
I was doing work in a payday loan office and started noticing that the line of people there were almost like a family. They knew each other, the cashiers knew all of them by name, and they all treated the astronomical loan as just a casual part of life. I'm looking at the interest rate disclaimer chart on the wall and then looking back at the people and forcing myself to not start screaming that this sh!t should be criminal
They're Not Millionaires
EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the Internet that sells some sort of "millionaire education" it's all bullshit.
Every single one of them. They are all f*cking liars, most of them are not even rich to begin with!
They fake it enough that some idiots buy it. You are customers to them. Nothing more.
Man, my stepfather used to fall for that sh*t all the time when I was a kid, only it was books and not online. I remember reading one where the guy spun all this bullsh!t about the courage of his convictions and whatnot, and it turns out he was a millionaire because his dad was one.
Or the guy who "built his own fortune" after getting a business loan of $250,000... In the 1970s.
Even as a kid I knew this was crap. And my idiot stepfather is worth less money than ever now.
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.