fact
A bankrupted con-artist from Oregon was able to purchase a bank license and opened a offshore bank in Grenada by claiming to own a 4 pound ruby worth $20 million dollars and a appraisal document proving its worth. The ruby was owned by a man in California who didn’t know the scammer.
The post A bankrupted con-artist… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Workplaces can be a bit rough around the edges and, especially if you’re new to the workforce, it can sometimes be hard to determine if everything that’s going on is above board.
Sometimes, though, employers do things that are so obviously corrupt it can be hard to believe they get away with it.
“What’s the most corrupt thing you’ve witnessed your employer do?”
“Worked in a restaurant that didn’t allow employees to work over 40 hours as they did not want to pay any overtime. Instead of you wanted to work extra or if they asked you to work extra they would delete hours off of your time card to keep it under 40. They always asked you when they did that in a kind of hush hushed way so it wasn’t exactly without permission but I think it was bullshit all the same.” -cloudstrife1191
“Permission or not they’re breaking the law. It’s not suddenly legal because you agreed to it” -Hugebluestr*pon
“My class action lawsuit alarm bells are going off right now. If your employer does this, I would recommend filing a complaint with the US Department of Labor and also contacting an attorney who deals with wage/hour violations who can review the case. These are serious violations that should be stopped.” -UKnowDaxoAndDancer
“Had a job out of college selling yellow pages advertising. A big part of the job was just renewing the old ads in the book and we had to call each business to have them renew their ad. But as the yellow pages book became more and more obsolete more customers would cancel their ads. So the company changed the policy of having us call each business and instead put in a policy that any customer who didn’t specifically call to cancel would be auto renewed.”
“Then they would purposefully send out the renewal notices late enough that the customers couldn’t cancel in time to avoid the following years charges. If one of us did actually get a call from a customer looking to cancel and with time to legitimately do so and we actually cancelled them….fired.” -totspur1982
“Literally Fraud. A lawyer could tear this yellowpage company to pieces.” -Redditor
“And I believe a lawyer did for this and a multitude of other reasons. We also go charge backs on our check for cancellations, even if it wasn’t your original account. A few employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company and won. I got a nice check out of that.” -totspur1982
“I worked for a company like that, the “Customer Service Reps” (people who would field the customer calls asking for returns) were graded and given bonuses for how many sales they ‘saved.’ ‘Saved’ meaning how many people who called to return our products they tricked into holding on to it past the full refund window.” -HamsterIV
“Growing up my father always told me to save my pay stubs and time receipts. I ended up working a job in my early 20 ‘s at an airport moving cars. I get my paycheck one day and i realize that it’s not right. So i do a little digging, and a lot of math, and i figure out that the company was taking hours from me.”
“I ask around and it turns out that they were taking hours from literally everyone at the job site. After doing more math we figured out that over the six months we all worked together, the company had stolen a combined 400 hours from eight people.” -42spuuns
“Wage theft is more money than all other forms of theft.”
“Robbery, fraud, burglary, etc – none of it accounts for more value/dollars than companies stealing money from their employees through under or non payment of wages.” -inthrees
“Would you like to know why?”
“It’s because if you steal from your boss, you go to prison. If your boss steals from you, it usually doesn’t get reported. If it does get reported there’s no jail time, but you have the option to sue. Suing takes years and the judgment doesn’t usually amount to all that was stolen, and your lawyer takes their cut out of the judgment. The ruling class made theft profitable when they do it, and unprofitable when we do it, and that is why they’re the country’s biggest thieves.” -reverendsteveii
“Also suing an employer will black list you from an industry so f*cking fast. ETA: and whether or not it was fully justified doesn’t matter.” -Kai_Emery
“I was working at a small brewery / bar, and caught the owner dipping into the tip jar at the end of big nights.”
“It was a new place that just opened and was kind of struggling during the off season. We literally had a staff of two bartenders and the owners (husband and wife), so the bar staff would pool and split that days tips.”
“Come to find out that he was taking a cut of the tips because “he worked there too”. When I confronted him, I explained that its actually a violation of the FLSA. In fact it’s even an exact example listed as illegal things to do with tips. He argued that it was his right as owner and fired me, so I reported him to Dept. of Labor.” -Rustee_nail
“My girlfriend used to work at a deli where the owner was taking half the tips. She’s never worked food, so she suspected it was wrong, but didn’t know for sure. She asked me like “hey is this normal?” as I was a chef for a couple years, and I explained how taking tips as the owner is probably the most frowned upon thing you can do in the food service industry.” -Mirraco323
“I was a mechanic that found out that the company was not letting me fix customers cars that had oil leaks when the customers had paid for a 200k mile warranty. The manager would tell the service writer to say that the warranty company declined it and eventually started making me take a photo to him so that he could tell me that the leak wasn’t bad enough to fix.”
“The customer paid for a warranty and the company wasn’t holding up their end of the deal because it was costing them money. They are one of the most profitable car dealerships in my town and now have 3 dealerships and are expanding.” -Idontgetitbrah
“When I used to housekeep at a hotel, our head housekeeper would go into all of our checkouts and steal our tips before we could get to them. I remember a few times seeing tips in my rooms and foolishly not thinking to pick them up before they disappeared. A few of my other coworkers witnessed similar instances.”
“At one point, a guest came up to me and said she’d leave a big tip in her room for me bc it was a mess. I found out later that the head housekeeper cleaned the room herself.”
“She walked out like a year later bc our GM demoted her to regular housekeeper bc everyone had complaints about her. She was a very awful person in general.” -Redditor
“When I was a housekeeper you’d get your room list at the beginning of the shift, so if we couldn’t finish that day the girls would go in all their rooms and take the tips, that way if they were off the next day or the room was someone else’s, they’d get nothing. The head housekeeper though worked salary so wasn’t allowed to keep tips even if they were handed to her.” -Tinycatgirl
“A few years ago I was working/living at a McDonald’s in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The area manager decided to “save” the store so she became very… involved… in its day to day micromanagement. One payday morning she made an announcement that, because everyone kept coming in asking for their checks and bothering her, she would be giving them to us when she felt we deserved them.”
“I called the local Department of Labor, who referred me to the state, who referred me back to local, who then told me they just didn’t care and weren’t looking into it. It eventually resolved itself anyway when she handed checks out the next day.” -twistedlemon732
“See there’s your mistake. You should’ve called McDonalds corporate threatening to call the DoL. Much more effective!” -zvug
“Actually, just call McDonalds corporate. Don’t even need to threaten to call. McDonalds doesn’t screw around when it comes to paying workers anymore. That kind of stuff has led to several million in lawsuit settlements in just the past ten years.” -betterthanamaster
“I work underground in the mines. One place started having, what the workers found out later, was asbestos type rock in the ore. The company took samples of it and then said it’s kind of like asbestos, but it’s not old enough to harm you. Later after a bit of more concern from the workers, it was found out that the sample they took came back as inconclusive due to something else. They lied and allowed their workforce exposure to asbestos. I quit after that and found work elsewhere.” -Chillay_90
“One time when I was a chef in college, I worked 14 days straight, with half of those days being 12 hour days. This all fell in one pay period too. It was rough but it was summer and I was gushing over the amount over overtime I was about to get. It came out to like over 70 hours overtime. I was supposed get almost an additional $1000 dollars on my paycheck. I calculated the math with tax and everything and couldn’t wait to pick up my paycheck the next week for that pay period.”
“I pick it up, and the paycheck is quite larger than I’m used to given I normally only worked 25 hours a week, but there is ZERO overtime on it. It was short almost a a thousand bucks. I got to the HR office the next day (it was located at a different casino) and ask, and they go ‘yeah so in Nevada, you only qualify for overtime if you average 40 hours a week normally.’”
“That sounded like bullshit to me, but I asked my mom who used to run finances for our family business, and she says that IS in fact 100% bullshit. She pulled up the statute online and it clearly said if you exceed 8 hours in a day, you get overtime. It said nothing about a weekly average.”
“So printed that bitch out and drove right back down to the HR office, and showed it to them. The lady at the desk who just told me that lie calls out the head of HR. She would frequent the different locations to check in with people and was always nice, but you could always tell she was shady as fuck. They both seem to get very nervous and in a stuttering voice ‘okay we will reevaluate’”
“I never heard anything or got any apology, but when the next paycheck came, the exact amount of overtime I calculated was put on that paycheck down to the penny.”
“I tell some of the other guys in the kitchen what happened, and apparently the family who owned the casino our restaurant was located in was known for pulling shit like this. Making ‘accounting errors’ knowing a lot of people who do direct deposit don’t even look at their paystubs. Funny how these accounting ‘errors’ always ended up in saving the company money, and never gave the employee extra cash lol. A server no more than a few months later had the same exact shit happen to him. Rat b*stards.” -Mirraco323
“At the first company I worked at the general manager had all his personal expenses paid by the company. His wife also had a company credit card and was paid a salary but she didn’t work. The company paid for things like their groceries, house mortgage, car payments and family vacations. The kicker is he wasn’t the owner of the company.”
“He had a creative accountant that hid these expenses but the owners became suspicious and they hired an auditor. It took them about 4 years to figure it out. He was fired and his family fled the country so I am not sure what happened to him.” -optoph
If your employer is doing something that seems shady, there’s a way for you to report it if it’s safe for you to do so.
You’re probably not the only one who is affected, and people doing shady things don’t usually stop unless they’re made to.
The melon drop scam was a con that targeted Japanese tourists. Scammers would buy a watermelon for a low price and then bump into an Asian tourist and charge them about $100 for the broken melon. This is due to the higher fruit prices in Japan. These days the scam involves any broken item.
The post The melon drop scam was a con that… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
This promises to be a very interesting article.
Why?
Because there are a whole lot of scams going on around us that we don’t even realize are scams!
It’s true…and it’s also pretty scary…
AskReddit users went on the record and discussed things that most people don’t realize are scams.
Let’s take a look.
““Free Trials” that ask for your credit card anyways?
I’ve never tried buying them because I don’t know what actually happens and I don’t wanna lose random money.”
“Mega churches.
When the preacher’s suit cost more than your car….”
“Being told not to discuss your salary.
If your boss doesn’t want you discussing salaries it may mean theres a major problem concerning equal pay.”
“In my own opinion, the wedding industry.
Little girls are taught from birth that they have to have a massive blowout of a wedding. Little boys are taught that they have no say in how their wedding will be.
I just got married, and my wife and I were trying very hard to keep it as cheap as possible while my mother-in-law and mom kept adding bigger and bigger things.
It was a fun party, admittedly, but with a price tag a would have much rather spent on rent and gas.”
“How much toothpaste you actually need on your toothbrush.
You really only need a pea-sized amount, but every toothpaste commercial would have you believe you need to use a 1-inch strip!”
“Low fat products.
They just replaced the fat with sugar and made the food even unhealthier and probably more expensive.”
“Diamonds.
They aren’t even close to being as rare as they are depicted.
So the prices people pay for this glorified coal are just dumb.”
“Adobe’s subscription model.
The fact that it’s a yearly subscription with a cancellation fee, but they hide that fact well in the small print and let people think it’s a monthly subscription instead, when that’s just the payment schedule.”
“Funeral services
I don’t know the legality of this, but just bury my a** in the backyard and throw a party in my honor, rather than spending thousands.
Doubt I’ll mind considering I’m d**d.”
“The act of doing your own taxes. In other countries, they do it for you, and you can double check them.
But here in America, taxes are so convoluted that you might even have to hire a guy to do them for you, or big bad Government will come and get you!
For those unaware, there are free options for people with simple tax forms. The IRS website has links for their Free File program, which will take you to a partnered site that will file your taxes for free. (Use the link, because just going to the listed site on your own may not get you the Free File.)
I have happily been using TaxACT for several years, as my taxes are usually just one or two jobs a year at most. 2021 will be interesting, as I started investing in s**t, so I don’t know how that process works yet.”
“Donating money at checkout.
“Would you like to donate $1 to support ______”. These corporations take the $1 they earn multiplied by millions of customers and use it for a massive tax write off as a large donation.
Donate your money yourself and write it off on your taxes. Even if it is a small amount, don’t contribute to the tax evasion of the mega rich!”
““Natural ingredients” “All natural” “no chemicals” Bulls**t marketing. Its in food, in skincare in hair care…
Literally EVERYTHING is a chemical. also “natural” MOST of the time is worse for your health
You know whats also natural? arsenic, lead, cianide. You know what is a chemical? water, all vitamins, all proteins… but it doesn’t sound as good if i say dihidromonoxide (water), or retinoic acid (vit A) , or ascorbic acid (vit C)… which is the same thing.”
“The 40 hour work week. It was created with the idea that one adult person, working only 40 hours a week would be able to support a family at a decent quality of life and would have the support of a spouse or other adult at home to handle all the cleaning, cooking, etc.
Except now it usually takes both parents working 40+ hours to barely keep their heads above water which makes all the rest of the work at home impossible to fit in unless you can afford to pay someone else to do it.”
“The Mormon Church.
Most people recognize the insanity of Mormons, but don’t realize how much money is involved with that religion. They are the wealthiest religion on the planet, with a horde of over 100 billion dollars sitting in their bank account.
Okay, they have lots of money, but how does that make them a scam? The fact that all of their money comes off the backs of their members. The members of the church clean, maintain, and operate the buildings.
The members put hours of work in weekly and get absolutely nothing in return. On top of that, they are required to pay 10% of their own income to be in good standing. If they stop paying, their access to the temple is revoked.
Awful scam.”
What do you think about this?
Talk to us in the comments and let us know.
We’d love to hear from you!
The post People Discuss the Scams That Most People Don’t Realize Are Underhanded appeared first on UberFacts.
It’s a true fact of life that there are people everywhere trying to separate you from your money and your belongings in any way that they can.
They’re called SCAMMERS.
And some of them are hiding in plain sight…
What do most folks not realize are total scams?
AskReddit users shared their thoughts.
“People instinctively perceive weight to indicate quality, so a lot of manufacturers across multiple industries will artificially increase the weight of their products with cheap material.”
“Mobile game ads.
Chances are they want your data/info on your device and it’s social engineering, really.”
“Most popular branded sunglasses out there are crazy expensive for what is basically mass produced plastic.”
“Black Friday is it’s own scam.
They manufacture products specifically of lower quality to sell for Black Friday.
It’s how you can buy a nice Samsung TV that only has 1 HDMI input.”
“People who knock on your door asking about your windows. Happened to my friends wife.
She invited them in, let them evaluate, said all the windows needed to be fixed (they were all 3 years old…my friend did a full renovation when they moved in) and said the windows were bad. My friends wife thinks everyone is truthful and agrees to start the process.
My friend said he came home to find them still there and his wife was seconds away from signing and writing a $6,000 check. He politely asked them to leave and calmly told his wife she was so naive.
If someone comes knocking at your door to look at anything and you didn’t call them…it’s a scam.”
“Publishers Clearing House.
Ever wonder why you get so much junk mail? It’s because you gave all your information to PCH for free (or possibly even paid them for some piece of garbage they sell) and they turned around and sold it to EVERYONE.
Avoid PCH at all costs.
Sincerely,
Your mailman.”
“Unpaid internships.
There are very specific rules for what can be an unpaid internship and what has to be a paid internship. If you are getting any sort of internship, look up the difference so you don’t get taken advantage of.
Telling interns this has contributed to me losing a job before because one of the interns turned me in, and later got my job.”
“Some colleges will offer a full ride scholarship to any student who stays above a certain GPA, give these out to everyone who applies, and then institute a strict grading curve so that the required GPA is nearly impossible to achieve. The “scholarship” usually only lasts through freshman year as a result.
Its usually s**tty for-profit colleges that do this, so the credits won’t transfer. The student is now forced to either pay full price tuition for three years, or lose a years worth of work.”
“College textbooks.
It doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars to print a book, and we don’t need new additions of algebra and other basic subjects every semester.
We’re not uncovering or developing any new basic math, they just want you to have to spend as much money as possible.”
“Small towns giving speeding tickets to people with out-of-town license plates.
Almost everyone will pay instead of showing up to court, and it is the number one source of revenue for many small towns in America.”
“Herbal Detox products, or detox anything in a health store.
It’s just dumb. If your body is actually full of toxins a herbal laxative enema is not going to help.”
“Payday loans, they are preying on people with bad credit. Instead, get yourself a secured credit card.
That’s a one time payment (I initially went through Discover, whatever you deposit is now your credit limit) and the interest rate on even the worst card is better than that they offer.
Pay it off every month, just like you are forced to with your payday loan. You’re doing the same thing you were previously only now your building credit instead of paying some scummy company.
Yep, I’m one of those suckers who did this for far too long, then I did this and now I have good credit. I was actually quite surprised how quickly my score went up. That’s my one neat trick – pay your bills on time.”
“Stores that always have big “sales” are actually just charging you the accurate price of what the item is worth.
But when it looks like you’re getting it half off you’re more likely to buy it.”
“Work in banking for one week, you’ll realize there is no scam too stupid for people to fall for.
At least once a week we have people who try to file fraud claims because “the IRS called me and told me I need to pay them in apple gift cards”
My favorite was a woman who came in to get a $20,000 official check. My manager thought it was strange so he stopped to ask her what it was for. The client said it was bail for her nephew, which *the client thought was strange too, because she didn’t actually have a nephew.”
What are some more scams that people don’t quite realize?
Talk to us in the comments and let us know.
Thanks a lot, friends!
The post What Do A Lot Of People Not Realize Are Scams? appeared first on UberFacts.
It’s a sad fact of life: there are scammers are everywhere.
And you gotta keep your eyes open and be aware of your surroundings so you don’t fall victim to any number of scams that are around us.
Unfortunately, some of these scams even get normalized by people.
AskReddit users talked about scams that they believe have been normalized by society.
Let’s see what they had to say.
“Funerals.
Paying for things like caskets for your loved once when you’re at possibly the most emotionally vulnerable that you could be.”
“Amway.
Multi-Level Marketing in general is just a pyramid scheme that is only allowed to go on because the people behind the scheme actually sell a product.”
“The $130 a photography company is requesting of me to release the 4 electronic photos they took of me during my university graduation procession.”
“Diamond anything.
Just saw the front page post of McGregor’s watch and was thinking its resale value must be as low as it is hideous.”
“Payday loans.
Unconscionable bulls**t designed to suck wealth out of the people who cannot afford to lose it, who would ptherise have spent that money anyway on something worthwhile for their families, that would improve their lives and potentially provide for the livelihood of others in their community.
If a payday loan place is in a community, it is literally putting 10s if not 100s of thousands of dollars into the hands of very rich people who are definitely not spending that money at the corner store.
It’s even worse in the UK. The US has a cap on how high a monthly loan can be, like 500% IIRC, which is still terrible, but in the UK there was a company putting people in hock to the tune of 5000%.”
“Being Trendy. Fast fashion.
People buy unnecessary clothes just to keep up with the trend.
Its totally fine if you wear old clothes for years.”
“100% HOAs.
I pay for my house then pay some Karen money for her to tell me I can’t do whatever I want to MY HOUSE.
Ridiculous”
“U.S. Health Insurance and Medical Billing.
I used to think healthcare was expensive because of equipment and the cost of the provider salaries, and then I learned about allowed amounts and how it’s the insurers that profit from healthcare not the hospitals or clinics.
What they do should be illegal. Randomly denying claims, paying partial reimbursement, hiking premiums – its madness.”
“Working for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year for 50 years, and that’s assuming you’re lucky, and it’s the only way to even get by for most people.
I sell my life and get the bare minimum in return. Fun.”
“Weddings. Holy s**t are weddings a rip off.
It’s such a huge amount of money for one. F**king. Day. We have ingrained the idea in most young girls that they have to grow up to have their “special day” and passed that down from generation to generation.
You’re no less married than if you just go down to the courthouse on a Tuesday afternoon, and/or have your small religious ceremony.”
“Superfoods, which is basically just a scam for people to spend tons of money on imported exotic foods which are not superior any way to the humble potato or raddish.”
“In order to cancel my smartphone contract this month, I had to fill out a form on my providers website, call a specific number within 7 days, only to sit on hold for minutes twice before being redirected, confirm the last four digits of by IBAN, answer a security question and finally, again listen to 10 minutes of, “Can I interest you in this special offer we‘ve designed just for you?“.
To contrast this, all I would have needed to do in order to continue or change my subscription plan, even to a significantly more expensive one, was pick an option on their website. No more affordable alternatives though, obviously,
Following that I received several calls a day by different customer retention numbers, which I had to block. They are now sending letters…
Never again. Sad thing is, I know this would‘ve worked had I been only a little less patient or busier. F**king vampires.”
“Tipping, in particular how it’s viewed in the United States.
Biggest f**king scam that restaurants have pulled off. They don’t pay their employees a living wage then have somehow convinced both their employees and society to shift the blame from the establishment onto the customers.
It baffles me. Pay them a living wage, let me decide if I want to tip or not.”
Now we want to hear from you.
In the comments, tell us about the scams that you think are normalized by society.
Please and thank you!
The post People Talk About Scams That They Think Are Normalized by Society appeared first on UberFacts.
It always breaks my heart when I hear about people (particularly older ones) who get bilked out of all their money because they fell for a scam.
And it also makes me want to find the people responsible for those scams so I could have a few words with them.
Bottom line: there are a ton of scammers out there doing everything they can to try to separate you from your money.
What’s the biggest scam you ever fell for?
AskReddit users admitted their shame.
“There was a company advertising that they would help people wipe out predatory student loans.
Long story short I blew $800 on a company that got shut down by the Gov’t for fraudulent practices and was denied a refund.”
“Spent $250 on Talkspace (got $200 back because I demanded a redund).
They (their therapists) waste a week of your time to reply once and reply with a canned response of, “oh that sounds stressful, how is your sleep schedule?”
I cannot stress enough how much of a waste of time and money that s**t was.”
“These people called me with one of HMRC numbers telling me I didn’t pay some taxes, saying they sent lots of letters to my old address to which I never responded.
I didn’t know they could make me see the number they wanted. After a quick check on the government website I saw that the number was the same and I believed them. I was 20 years old and living in London on my own.
I gave them 1000£ and never felt so stupid in my life.”
“Not too bad I lost 35 bucks. I fell for those stores on Instagram.
I was just getting on it so I didn’t know most were scam stores. Because I followed some small retailers that I already bought from.
I thought it was the same thing. Website was or looked legit but I never got my boots.
Smart too because I got it from them because they were 15 bucks cheaper. Not some crazy amount that made you question it.
Luckily I paid with PayPal. It could’ve been worse if they had my credit card information.”
“My former best friend and his dad cheated me out of my money to invest in their company.
When I asked for a contract, his dad said, “Between true friends, words aren’t necessary.”
When they started making money, I asked for my money back, and they said they didn’t owe me a thing.”
“There was a company advertising that they would help people wipe out predatory student loans.
Long story short, I blew $800 on a company that got shut down by the government for fraudulent practices and was denied a refund.”
“Right after my dad died I got a call from a number I didn’t know.
They left a voice mail saying they needed my social security number so they could pay out a life insurance policy to me. I was 21 and super inexperienced with stuff like this. So I did what any real adult would do. I asked my mom for advice.
She told me it was legit and to give them my SS number. I had a weird feeling about it but if my mom said it was ok then it must be ok. I did it. I called back and gave the guy that answered my SS number.
I never got a check but my mom suddenly did from a policy my dad “forgot” to take her off of even though they had been divorced years before.
She did give my 10k but I’m 100% positive it was worth way more and she had something to do with it all. We don’t talk anymore for various reasons including this one.”
“I went to buy a Rolling Stones ticket from a scalper years ago (i know, i know) and he talked me into a VIP Backstage Pass. He said that’s all I need!
Free food, booze, all the perks. He insisted the sticker was all I needed to get in, no paper ticket necessary.
So a few hours later I go to the show, obviously can’t get in – it was a VIP pass from the night before. There was no date on it, just a different shape.
I try every single gate hoping someone won’t notice/not care and finally try the media entrance. The nice lady ushered me right in, I took an elevator up to the main concourse and I was free as a bird. I didn’t have a seat obviously but I snuck down to the floor and ended up having a great show.
Still feel burned by the stupid f**k to this day though. I’ve seen him at other shows (nice neck tattoo of a fish, you fu**in’ pr**k) and I always f**k with him.”
“It happened while I was at work in a grocery store (no longer working there for unrelated reasons). Overworked, stressed out of my mind, and probably had some form of sleep deprivation going on at the time.
Answered a customer service call for Western Union during a very busy time and had a severe lapse in judgement that resulted in me doing a transaction over the phone (the biggest thing they drill into our heads NOT to do).
I thankfully didn’t get any further (only one transaction went through rather than several) before things clicked and I hung up on them horrified. Reported it asap for damage control and spent the next few days praying that I wouldn’t lose my job for it (transaction over the phone = fire-able offense).
Thankfully, since I didn’t have a problematic work history my boss was able to save my job with the only caveats being retraining and a note being on file for at least a year. Huge self-esteem and mental health loss though, felt like a gigantic idiot for months afterwards.”
“I was in Rome walking around when a guy came up to me and handed me a rose saying it was a gift. I took it, and then he demanded money.
I refused to pay, and tried to give it back (should have just placed it on the floor). Long story short, my friend saw me from across the plaza arguing and came over.
The guy wouldn’t leave me alone, so my friend paid him off. I felt so bad.”
“An email something like:
“You’re paypal has been accessed from an unknown source, click here to update your password.”
It looked official and asked for me to login to update my password. When I realized the website didn’t allow me to view my profile I panicked. I then spent the day taking the nessassary precautions.
Lesson, always go to the website yourself and don’t click links in emails.”
Have you ever been scammed before?
If so, please tell us all about it in the comments.
We’d love to hear from you!
The post What’s the Biggest Scam You Ever Fell For? People Shared Their Stories. appeared first on UberFacts.
In case you haven’t heard, a “Karen” is an entitled, usually middle-aged woman who complains to authority figures about others’ behavior.
This particular Karen decided that her complaint to the manager would get her a free meal. She couldn’t have been more off-base in her assumption, specifically as it concerned the owner.
A friend of his begins the story:
Photo credit: Reddit
With help from his dad, the man was able to open the restaurant in the perfect location, and it was a smashing success right out of the gate. Everything was going well, until Karen showed up with her husband.
Photo credit: Reddit
Right away, the owner, who was also the server, knew she was going to be a problem—the complaints began as soon as she sat down. Initially, he played along .
Photo credit: Reddit
He knew he couldn’t keep his composure for long—so did she and, sensing a potential free meal, increased her demands.
Photo credit: Reddit
She asked for the manager, as Karens often do. He brought someone over to take on the role.
Photo credit: Reddit
She could have won an Academy Award for the story she told.
Photo credit: Reddit
The “owner” and the server couldn’t keep up the ruse for long. They broke character.
Photo Credit: Reddit
The real owner came clean, and Karen was finally speechless.
Photo credit: Reddit
Redditors who work in restaurants loved how this story ended, and the person who told it also had a bit of an update.
Photo credit: Reddit
They deal with customers who try to scam free meals all the time and say restaurant owners are usually oblivious to this behavior because they’re not on the floor.
Photo credit: Reddit
Workers shared that this also occurs in fast food places. Even though they’re a lot cheaper, free is free to some people.
Photo credit: Reddit
Are you a resturant worker? Share your stories of terrible customers below!
The post A “Karen” Tried to Scam a Free Meal Until She Realized Who the Owner Was appeared first on UberFacts.
It always breaks my heart when I hear about vulnerable people getting scammed and losing a ton of money.
I feel like this happens to older people quite a bit and you have to question what kind of evil people do these kinds of things.
But, the sad fact is that scams are everywhere and you have to be careful.
AskReddit users weighed in on what big scams people still fall for.
“Those Microsoft scam calls.
It works so well that they have offices.”
“The Sauna Slim Belt was a thing in my country for almost a decade.
People never lost an inch of fat, only got marks from the heat which the belt produced.
Pure Scam.”
“Not gonna lie, I attended one of those pyramid scheme meetings at my friend’s insistence and man it was filled with low-income people and the whole thing was clearly targeted at them.
Felt really bad seeing how they were being sold dreams of earning a lot of money and stuff. Such a scam.”
“Online charlatans that will share their “secrets” if you buy their course.”
“These Facebook posts imitating real companies saying you’d win whatever they’re offering, despite the page being created hours ago and the only post being said giveaway.
The comments are always tragic to read.”
“Those phone calls that claim your social security number is suspended due to criminal activity.
My own mom fell for this unfortunately.
Tips to avoid this kind of scam (if you live in the US):
Your SSN will never get suspended.
SSA/FBI/IRS will contact you directly through mail not by phone.
Scammers are experts on phone spoofing; the phone numbers may look legit but they’re not calling from them.
Don’t panic if a scammer does have your information; it was all obtained through hacking a website where you filled out a form. Be sure to clear auto form fill data. Always have strong, hard to guess passwords
Never confirm any personal data even if it’s 100% correct over the phone (they want you to verify this)
Pay attention to unusual background noise. (Our scammer played a blaring siren noise after transferring the call to the “police” during the entire conversation. My mom only figured out it was a scam when she heard background noises of an Indian street)
No one will call saying you’re going to be arrested. Arrests only happen in person with an arrest warrant signed by a judge.
Government agencies do not take payments through gift cards nor ask for the codes and pins when you deposit money on them.
Gov agencies won’t stay on the line with you the entire time you’re withdrawing and depositing money especially past business hours. At all.
Always have antivirus software; viruses are the common way to steal your data and scam you.”
“Mobile games which are designed to be bad so they can frustrate you enough to buy their currency.
Failing that, the game will feature spam-clicking until you run out of energy, which will spawn a “buy more energy” pop-up, hoping you will buy lots of it by accident.”
“I have several clients that fell for the scam where when you do a password reset on a bank web site and they text you a code to complete the password reset and the scammer calls you for the code.
If you receive a code via text, never tell it to someone else.”
“You’ll get a job at X organisation if you pay X amount.
It’s always a scam!
You never have to pay someone to work for them.”
“Nigerian Prince emails.
I can’t believe people still fall for them, but apparently it’s a multimillion dollar industry.”
“Weight loss pills and weight loss tea.
And in this vein: detoxifying teas, shakes, etc. that claim to clear years of sludge and fecal build up out of your intestines which will boost weight loss.
If you had fecal matter building up in your GI tract you’d know about it and your pants size would be the least of your concerns!”
“Penis enlargement pills.
“They do sell a lot of weird things in sex shops. They have this stuff called Mr. Big Cream. It says, “Rub it on your dick and your dick gets bigger.” Great. Wouldn’t your hands get bigger too?”
RIP Robert Schimmel.”
“”I’ll pay in gift cards… is that ok?”
Remember: if they don’t want to use Paypal (goods and services only), Venmo, or even cash face to face, you’re probably being scammed.”
“Buying a timeshare.
My friend let me use his timeshare but i had to attend a meeting (to sell me one) but i would receive a free gift for the 1.5 hour meeting. I had to meet someone first before the bigger meeting, they asked how much i make.
I said 20k a year.. they said that’s not even enough for the free gift, you don’t have to attend.”
“Expensive coffins, diamond rings, bottled water, timeshare promos.
What the fuck is up with coffins? Hell the whole funeral thing is expensive and your guilted into it bc “it was a love one and you want to honor them right”.
I remember when my bfs uncle died and the family went down to the funeral parlor and his grandmother (mother of the deceased) was just bawling as the officiant went through their options and “packages”.
The grandmother just kept saying over and over in tears “I don’t want you to think we didn’t love him or anything we just don’t got a whole lot of money.”
Made me really bitter toward the whole thing.”
“Hey babe!
I’ve just come into some really
great
They’re looking for hard working ladies
who want to empower each other by starting their own businesses!
I know that sounds scary but just wait until you see the paycheck at the end of it
You can be your
own
”
Now we want to hear from you!
What are some scams that you think people still fall for?
Talk to us in the comments!
The post People Discuss What Big Scams Folks Out There Still Fall Prey To appeared first on UberFacts.
People still get scammed ALL THE TIME.
Whether it’s by fake emails or texts or the old-fashioned way of someone knocking on your door to swindle you out of money, these scammers are EVERYWHERE.
So it’s best to be informed about what the hell they’re up to, right?
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about scams that people still fall for.
“I got caught up in Amway when I was a teenager. I was waiting tables and this super charismatic guy started working there. He got a bunch of us to go meet with his mentor and the guy had a house on the beach, which he was probably renting, and I remember him showing us this stupid model car saying he was going to get a real one some day by believing he would.
Well, I bought the little $75 starter kit, the one they sell you to demonstrate the products and use them yourself. They actually weren’t horrible. I even went to a meeting. It was at the meeting that I went “WTF did I get myself into?”
They were truly like a cult. It was scary. I think that experience is part of why I’m so antisocial and don’t like going to group things… I just have flashbacks to this cultish Amway meeting. All they needed was the summoning circle and robes, I swear.
So I just stopped going to meetings and didn’t contact them again. The guy and his mentor both harassed me for months with threatening phone calls.
Telling me I owed them money if I quit because the $75 was just a down payment on the products they gave me. I just ignored them and they finally went away.
First and last time getting into some mess like that.”
“Jim Fucking Bakker.
A couple months back, Jim Bakker got sued by the state of Missouri for trying to sell a fake coronavirus cure. I guess stealing millions from his own church 30 years ago just wasn’t enough…
My nephew, who is around 22 or 23 now is a youth minister, when he first started doing minister training or whatever it’s called he went to a camp that Jim Bakker and his son own and trained there for like a year.
He’s so young that he probably hadn’t even heard of what the Bakkers are most famous for (being con artist pieces of shit) and I never talked about them around him because he was an adult choosing his own path. But man did I hate it.
To this day he’s still good friends with Jim’s son.”
“I was in the insurance industry as an auto damages appraiser. The biggest one is the anti-insurance body shop that will “fight for you.” or that pans itself as “a quick fix shop” or that “pays your deductible”
No, they wont. Every one of those places is going to fuck you in the ass. Collision repair centers are absolutely, 100% in a symbiotic relationship with insurance companies, because SO FUCKING MUCH of their business comes form insurance jobs.
If the shop claims to hate insurance companies, run the fuck way, because if you use them, your life will get very aggravating, very quickly.”
“Online reviews.
A huge percentage of them are written but the seller (if good) or by a competitor (if not).”
“Door-to-door magazine sales. No that kid is not getting sent on a camping trip if you will just buy subscriptions to Boys Life and Wine Aficionado. Most of the time they are a traveling troop that goes city-to-city, pulling the same scam each time.
Honestly, just door-to-door sales in general are usually a scam. Don’t trust the guy trying to sell you a new roof, or a driveway resurface, or a spanking new Hoover vacuum at your front door. Need a new roof or driveway? Call your insurance company and get a list of reputable companies.
Even if you aren’t filing an insurance claim, they will happily give you the name of several companies that can be trusted.”
“Had an older coworker who you just couldn’t believe. Have many stories to tell, but this is just one for this thread.
Coworker in his late 60’s fell for dating app scams SO MANY FUCKING TIMES. These women always needed money for something and he obliged. Then when they’d come “meet” him something else would come up.
He never talked to one of these women on the phone. Always text. Best excuse was “she has a text only phone” So a beeper? NO! A text only phone!
Anyways he sent one scammer 4 $500 Amazon gift cards during a shift.
Another one got $500 transferred, said she lost it, then got another $500 and he called her stupid.
Thought he was talking to a porn star and getting special pictures which he showed us. Other coworker looked her up, and found that same picture on google images. Guy getting scammed, got mad, found the actual porn star and messaged her. Then demanded he gets actual special pics, she has no clue wtf he’s talking about since he’s been talking to a scammer.
Wire transferred insane amounts of money once a week, from $5,000 – $7,000. Bank would say sir, you’re getting scammed. He’d tell em fucking send it or he’d take his business elsewhere.
Once he was finally broke and got nothing in return he found out he was getting scammed and called the FBI. Which reported it to our higher ups, which in turn got him fired for being a security risk.
While we don’t know the actual amounts our best guess placed it somewhere between $50,000 – $100,000.
We told him he was being scammed for months before this point.”
“Diamond rings.
You waste thousands of dollars just for the ring, and if you don’t, the idea is that you “don’t think she’s worth anything”. Annoys me so much. (This is coming from a 22 year old female).”
“Faith healing.
Where people are suddenly cured from cancer, blindness, and can walk again through the power of God.”
“Self Publishing.
It’s a vanity press with a new name. Everyone would love to get their name on a book, but instead of having to go through the process of finding a publisher who will sign you and pay you to print your books, they’ll just have you fork over the money to get published.
And then, the real fun starts. There’s a book fair in city X, and every major book publisher is going to be there. It’ll only cost you another $1500 to have your books on the table.
And a film studio might be interested. $5,000 to get them really interested.
Oh, and this guy will interview you on the radio. For $1600.
By the way, they won’t sell your books. That’s also your job.
They’re all scummy companies. Don’t ever hand money over to Xlibris or any other self publishing company. Your name might look nice in print, but it’s going to cost you a lot more than you’ll ever get from it.”
“Getting a new phone every year for 1200$ to then use it for the same 5 apps that everyone uses, which run perfectly fine on 200$ phones.”
“Title loans/payday loans.
Please, just fucking don’t. Read the WHOLE DAMN THING if you’re really desperate. I’d rather just eat rice and beans for a week. Or just go to a credit union/bank/whatever and get cash advance on a new credit card and pay that bitch off before a month goes by.
You might fuck up your credit if you don’t pay, but you won’t get your car taken.”
“The Mormon Church has $100 Billion despite being totally debunked over a century ago.
The whole religion is predicated under the notion that Joseph Smith Jr was able to translate the “Reformed Egyptian” on the plates. Now the plates themselves were (conveniently) lost, but we do have an example of the language itself thanks to the papyrus from which the Book of Abraham is supposed to have been translated from.
Unfortunately for the church, we have the Rosetta Stone, which instead reveals said papyrus to have nothing to do with Abraham, instead being a pagan funeral rite. What this means in practice is that Joseph Smith did not have the ability to translate said “reformed egyptian” and thus could not have translated the plates from which the Book of Mormon came.
This leads us to a few possible avenues, none of which prevent the religion from being false.
He genuinely found plates, but was unable to translate them, and either made up the translation or had delusions that he could.
The plates didn’t exist, which is my personal belief due to his character.”
“That raising children is a ‘joy’. Sure it’s necessary for our species to survive, but spending all your money to take care of you and someone else, spending the remaining time you have to help them turn into well adjusted human beings and ‘giving’ them everything to meet social expectations of what a good parent is, just so they can become adults and leave your exhausted mind and body in the socially sanctioned prison we call an ‘old age home’ to die REALLY DOES NOT SOUND LIKE A JOYFUL LIFE.”
“The old pyramid scheme still works despite being old and every trait of it being widely known.
Sometimes you can’t beat a classic.”
What do you think?
What are the big scams that people still fall for?
Talk to us in the comments and let us know what you think!
The post People Share the Biggest Scams That Folks Still Fall For appeared first on UberFacts.
