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.
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.
I would say that roughly 1 out of every 1 phone call I get is from a scammer.
That’s not to say I don’t have friends or family who communicate with me. It’s just that that’s usually over some form of text, or in person. If it’s an actual *phone call,* it’s almost definitely a scam.
And boy oh boy are they tiring to deal with.
I love scam phone calls.
I pretend I'm an old Scottish woman desperate to pay them.
My record's an hour.
I pretended to go to the toilet 4 times during that one & spent half an hour reading out my card details incorrectly.
At one point I said my couch was on fire.
Great fun— joe heenan (@joeheenan) April 3, 2021
Lucky for us the internet is replete with suggestions on ways to turn those annoying calls into fun little diversions. Let’s let Twitter teach us how to scam the scammers.
The best supervisor tag-in ever.
Scam caller: I understand you’ve been in an accident
Me: was that the one I was killed in?
Scam caller: please hold the line, I have to get my supervisor as I’m not allowed to deal with death cases
— Left Back in the Dressing Room
(@RealCariari) April 3, 2021
How about you just come do it for the entire state while you’re at it?
My Dad used to stuff like that. He was once offered free replacement windows, they asked how many he wanted, he replied 500. Yes he said may as well do the whole street.
— Maggie Leat (@maggieleat) April 3, 2021
The Batman was right – The Penguin is a true menace to our city and must be dealt with at once.
I had a company ring me about an accident – I said thank god you’ve called I need to report that I was assaulted by a penguin at Edinburgh Zoo – then said I can’t sue the zoo so I want to press charges against the penguin – can u help me ?? They hang up then not sure why
— Rob Hunter (@humphiemcglumph) April 3, 2021
You’d be surprised what people will hang on through in the pursuit of cash.
Another favorite is to agreed to all their request, but first I want them to pray with me. I make up some real weird crap, about forgiveness for all the laws I’ve broken, fraud, violence & murders I’ve committed – most hang up, but some still want to pursue the scam!
— PinBath
(@PinBath) April 3, 2021
Getting into character is one of the most fun ways to mess with ’em.
I did about 17 minutes as a posh old lady before one of them started swearing at me in his old language, then he said in English, “YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS? YOU’RE A COCKSUCKER.” I replied, “oh goodness, I haven’t done anything like that since my Dennis passed away in 1973.”
— Andy All Wrighty Roberts (@AndyRob19133934) April 3, 2021
Think of it as a public service to put your unlimited plan to use.
I know what you mean, which is why, if they’re just trying to sell something, I’ll thank them and hang up, but if it’s an obvious scam attempt (your computer has a virus, etc.), then it’s game on, because all the time they’re talking to me, they’re not ripping someone off.
— Scimmia Lustrini (@monkeyspangles) April 3, 2021
The ol’ bait and switch.
I love the ones telling me I have an issue with my Windows on my pc…..I keep them in talking about windows, then after about half an hour I tell them I’ve got a Mac and I thought they were on about double glazing.
— Chris Smith (@cmsdrums) April 3, 2021
Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you please not be.
I’m now disappointed I’ve only managed 34 minutes. Repeating back instructions using a made up phonetic alphabet is a fun challenge (“A anuerism, D detectorist, B bedpan, L lasciviousness” etc.)
— Pete Moore (@RedPete07) April 3, 2021
I don’t know what’s so confusing about that.
“So that’s T for… Pterodactyl… K as in Knight, and M as in Mancy… hello? Hello?
— James E. Bird
&
– slowly going insane. (@James_Bird01) April 3, 2021
It was a dark and stormy night…
My fave is to be a “detective” investigating a murder at the premises, just picking up the phone and how the caller is a suspect as they must’ve known the occupant, and they must attend their nearest police station to help with enquiries….
— Karen
(@KarenHeard) April 3, 2021
That oughta keep ’em busy for a while.
How do you handle scam calls?
Tell us in the comments.
The post People Talk About Their Favorite Ways to Deal with Scam Callers 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.
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.
While you’re focusing on remembering to write “2020” instead of “2019” for the rest of the year, don’t forget to write out all four digits of the year instead of abbreviating it.
Reports warn that if you abbreviate “2020” to “20,” scammers could easily modify it to become any other year by adding two more numbers onto the end.
The East Millinocket Police Department in Maine warned folks about the potential for fraud on their Facebook page.
“When signing and dating legal documents, do not use 20 as the year 2020. March 3rd, 2020 being written as 3/3/20 could be modified to 3/3/2017 or 3/3/2018. Protect yourself. Do not abbreviate 2020,” their post says.
This is sound advice and should be considered when signing any legal or professional document. It could potentially save you some trouble down the road.Meme credited to George E. Moore Law Office, LLC.
Posted by East Millinocket Police Department on Wednesday, January 1, 2020
The post went viral, with many people thanking the police department for a simple bit of cautionary advice. It only takes a couple extra seconds to write the full year, after all!
Others were more critical of the post, pointing out that there are many other ways to alter the dates on documents. Some also pointed out that artificially post-dating a check wouldn’t help a scammer very much.
The police department followed up on their post to respond to the critics.
“There seems to be a lot of criticism here for a simple cautionary post. Please understand that we handle scam and fraud calls on a regular basis so we try to provide our small community with tips to avoid potential problems. Of course we understand that all dates can be altered, however I believe that most here would agree that if a document of any kind, either legal or professional, is brought to our attention as being forged or fraudulent, it would likely raise far more red flags, depending on the circumstances, if it had a date of 1999 as opposed to 2019 or 2021.”
Photo Credit: iStock
They added: “Again, we shared this meme with a simple cautionary post, giving the citizens of our small community information to consider. Criminals are always looking for ways to take advantage of people.”
Very true.
The post A Police Department Warned Against Abbreviating ‘2020’ When Signing Important Documents appeared first on UberFacts.
They say there’s a sucker born every minute, and thanks to the internet that number has only gone up exponentially.
We all know the infamous Nigerian prince emails, but it might do you good to read up on these scams that AskReddit users shared. You never know when someone will come at you with some shady business.
“School fundraisers. My kids school tells the kids they can win a grand prize (junk toy) if they have the winning ticket. They send forms home for the parents. You have to go to their website where you learn that you have to validate your email and give them 5 other emails of friends and family and after they validate those you can enter your ticket number to see if you won. It provides me a good time to talk with the kids about scams.
This year I told my 7 year old that I’m thinking of a number 1-100 and if he guesses right on the first try he can have the grand prize. He guessed wrong and I said he can try again next year.”
“This almost got me but it is pretty well known. They send you an Email saying that they need someone to buy things for them. They will pay like 13 an hour. They send you a check for like $3,000 tell you to put it in your bank. It has a wait time on it to go through in like 5 days. They than say they need you to send money to their wife or husband somewhere, and go to Walmart and do the money transfer thing.
Transfer like $2,700 to their wife who is stranded somewhere in Africa. The check “clears” in 2 days. you don’t do it the first day, but they harass you for the entire second day to try and have you send them the money. Of course the check doesn’t go through and the bank charges you for it, and if you fall for the scam you are out $2.7K. it is so common that in money transfer places they have pamphlet explaining the scam.”
“Hey, we see you’re using an ad blocker. Please disable the blocker on your browser to be able to view or website”.
No thanks. I’ll just look up how to beat this difficult boss on one of a thousand other gaming websites.
Look, I get the websites are maintained by ads. I have no problem with that. But f*cking “popups” and other intrusive ads are bullshit. And not one single person in the world thinks they’re cool. Not even the dickheads who make them. And another reason I use an ad blocker? Because even with high speed internet I have to wait 30 seconds for your g*ddamn page to load because you have half a dozen videos embedded on it. This is one of the reasons I had to stop going to Cracked.com: the aggressive ads kept causing the browser on my work computer to crash.
And while we’re talking about scams on sh*tty websites: “Click this button to see the next slide” only to have to wait for an entire new page to load (with another 25 banner ads and popups) just so I can see one pic and a half a paragraph to find out what these celebrities from 80s sitcoms are up to.”
“Delta dental told me 80% of fillings are covered so I would sign up. Got work done, wasn’t paid for, found out they cover 80% except all your back teeth.”
“Received an e-mail from “me”, threatening to release a split screen video of me pleasuring myself on one side, while the other side shows the porn video I was watching. But for the one time only, low price of $587 bitcoin, the video would be deleted. Closed off with “Best wishes!”. At least this was more entertaining than a Nigerian prince.”
“If anyone calls and tells you they can get rid of your interest on your credit cards, or anything credit card related, it’s a scam. The only person who can really do that is your actual credit card company, and you can call them yourself to see if you qualify for any deals.
If anyone calls and says “The IRS is going to pursue legal action if you do not act now” it’s a scam. The IRS will not call you. They will send you official mail.
If you are sleuthing through ads on one of those bootleg TV sites and an ad comes up saying “your mac needs to be cleared of viruses!” it’s a scam.
These might be common knowledge, but I have a friend who fell for all of these.”
“First the mild end of the spectrum. It’s not legal to cold call people on the do not call list for sales. You can do so for surveys though. Some companies, most prolifically in my area Eagle Water, abuse this They call for a survey which is only 2 questions and they really don’t care about your answers. Afterward you’ll get a call back saying you’ve won something, where they try to get you to let someone from their sales team into your house for some dollar store piece of junk.
Recently they’ve also taken to sending out mail spam with the same general concept. Basically fake scratch-off tickets which always say you’ve won something, possibly even a jeep or other nonsense. It’s all just a scam to sell massively overpriced water filters though.
On the infuriating side of things some shady apps will claim you have to hold your finger on the home button for several seconds as some kind of login or scan. Then when your finger is held there they’ll try to process a large payment hoping you’ll accept it accidentally. Here is one such app.
One of the more successful scams, the baby formula scam. Someone with a child in a store will say they can’t afford formula for their baby, and they’ll even let you know they don’t want money. They’ll try to get you to buy baby formula, diapers, and things like that, then they’ll return all the items later for money.
Finally one of the worst scams which seems far more common than it should be and which has the potential to really screw someone. People will try to rent out properties they don’t own. Any listing for renting a property which seems too good to be true, often is. Really they just want your deposit.
I had to move for work at one point and didn’t really know the area at all. So I was just looking to rent for a bit before finding a more permanent arrangement. I picked up on the scam pretty quickly after contacting anyone, but there were so many of them that I ultimately gave up on that plan. I just became way too uncomfortable with the idea of giving money to someone for something I hadn’t seen when half of the listings seemed to be scams.”
“I’m a freshman in college looking for internships and someone messaged me on LinkedIn and said they would like the talk on the phone. I asked for the company name, company website, and what the internship was about but they said they’ll tell me everything over the phone. This was a bad mistake, if they’re reluctant to give the information when you ask then they’re hiding something. It turns out they wanted me to pay for this special program at her company.
I kept asking her what the name of the company was but she just brushed it off and continued talking about how she thinks I’d be a great entrepreneur. After the phone call, every time she messaged me on LinkedIn I would keep asking for the company website until she eventually sent it and I looked it up and it was a pyramid scheme.
I told her I wasn’t interested but she kept calling me so I blocked her number and she contacted me from at least 7 other numbers after that (I could tell because I can see the location of the phone calls and they all came from the same location). I regret giving her my phone number because I still get phone calls and I believe she gave my information to telemarketers because I’ve gotten calls from random numbers too which I haven’t before.”
“Publishers Clearing House’s various sweepstakes.
Source: I spent almost three years working at their distribution center.
In a legal sense, they do the absolute bare minimum required to not be a “scam,” but that doesn’t mean they don’t screw a LOT of people.
First of all, there’s the legal definition of a contest vs. a sweepstakes. A contest can’t require an entry fee, purchase, etc. or have any kind of payment improve your odds of winning, while a sweepstakes can. PCH is TECHNICALLY a contest, but they do everything they can to hide the “no purchase necessary” disclaimer. You’re automatically entered with a purchase, which is fine, they just can’t REQUIRE it. They make this even less clear by using the terms “contest” and “sweepstakes” interchangeably in their literature.
So you probably think PCH just sells books and magazine subscriptions right? You’d be surprised. You know all those late-night infomercial products? Flex Seal, Slap Chop, the Thighmaster, and all those crappy CD compilations? Pretty much any “As Seen on TV” product is distributed by PCH (side note – the majority of these products are also available through regular retailers, despite what they’d have you believe). The infomercials aren’t exactly forthcoming about this, and when you order any of that stuff off a TV ad, you end up on the PCH contest/mailing list. That wouldn’t be so bad, except…
Regardless of what you buy, being put on the PCH mailing list is actually a subscription service. This is yet another thing they purposely avoid telling you. You buy one thing from them, and every month after that they’re going to send out some other product that they “think you’ll love,” and automatically bill you for it.
Now of course there’s a returns process and a way to cancel your subscription (and technically there’s a way to opt out of subscribing when you make a purchase in the first place, but again, you have to know that because they aren’t going to tell you), but as you might expect, it’s purposely as convoluted as possible to discourage people from canceling. Oh, but you get another contest entry every month that way, so that’s cool, right? Well…
You know how you get that cute contest entry form with your package? I bet it was like a peel-and-stick bingo card or a scratch-off lotto ticket kind of thing? I bet it said you were pre-selected as a finalist for the contest! That’s exciting right? Well no, because every single one of those inserts they send out is exactly the same.
Everyone is a “finalist,” and back to the “no purchase necessary” thing, they conveniently package the contest form with an insert that lists other products, to make it look like you have to order more stuff to get entered in the (non-existent) “next round” or whatever. The golden rule we had to follow packaging products was to NEVER accidentally put two contest inserts in a package – can’t let people catch on that they’re all the same, and therefore meaningless!
It’s a pyramid scheme, except there isn’t actually even a pyramid, they just want you to think there is! When all is said and done, they just randomly select a winner the way any other luck-of-the-draw contest does.
So how do they get away with all this and not have angry people show up at their HQ? This is the best part – the return address on the packages they send out is fake! The warehouse IS in St. Cloud, MN, but the street address flat-out doesn’t exist and the zip code is one that isn’t assigned anywhere in the United States. They have a special arrangement in place with the post office so their workers all know where stuff sent to that address is actually supposed to go. The same is true of their customer service address in NY -both use a fake “Winners Circle” street name.
Also, said warehouse is listed as “Office of the PCH Controller” or something like that on the envelope, but nobody from PCH actually works there (I never met a single PCH employee the entire time I was there, although SUPPOSEDLY they show up to tour the place every once in a while…)! It’s a third-party distribution center whose only client is PCH, and in turn is the only place PCH distributes through. There’s no PCH signage on the building, it’s purposely as nondescript as possible.
So yeah, people do win and the Prize Patrol shows up and all that. But pretty much everybody who doesn’t win is getting screwed, or at least deceived.”
“Activated Charcoal products: They are more harmful than good.
That activated charcoal toothpaste…it’s nothing but an abrasive powder that will slowly erode away your enamel. It will leave you with whiter teeth but weaker ones
That activated charcoal lemonade…all that will do is actually absorb the essential nutrients…this is why doctors use them in case of poisonings. The activated charcoal would absorb the poisonous compounds to a certain degree…
EDIT: I am referring here to the AC products that are being ingested or used for toothpaste etc.
AC is widely used in many other applications like water filters etc where they work great.
They are just not recommended at all to be ingested.”
The post People Reveal the Scams That Most Folks Don’t Even Know Exist appeared first on UberFacts.
