I have a huge business opportunity that you’re going to love! You’ll be earning six figures, have flexible hours and be able to work from anywhere in the world. All you have to do is invest $5,000 up front, and I guarantee that you’ll earn it back in no time!

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But unfortunately, plenty of people fall for scams every single day. Whether it’s a “Nigerian prince” sliding into their DMs or a grandchild begging Nana to cover their hospital bills, scams are running rampant all over the globe. To raise awareness for some of these schemes, Redditors have recently been discussing common scams people fall victim to, as well as things that are absolute wastes of money. Enjoy scrolling through this list, and be sure to upvote the things you would never give a dollar to! 

#1

Prosperity Gospel Preachers.

Battarray:

Specifically Joel Osteen and his ilk. They're why we should be taxing performative mega-churches like they live off of.

Image credits: UnrealisticPersona

#2

Funerals, weddings, and pretty much every other thing we blindly accept have to be insanely expensive without even thinking about it.

Image credits: pinkxsorbet

#3

I think unrealistic beauty standards pushed by media are the biggest scam.

Image credits: CozyThynara

#4

Having to pay for daily parking at your place of employment.

Image credits: bought_high_sold_low

#5

That one where you get a random “wrong number” text from a gorgeous woman who wants to get to know you. I promise no actual women want to get to know a random stranger they accidentally texted.

Image credits: raccoonhippopotamus

#6

The Mormon “Church” – check out the r/exmormon subreddit for more details.

It is a real estate and securities hedge fund masquerading as a church in order to maintain tax exemption.

Image credits: Jumpy_Cobbler7783

#7

Fake, RICH celebrities on Facebook begging for money.

cbostwick94:

The number of times "Vin Diesel" has confessed his love to my mother on Facebook is wild. Man has a LOT of accounts

Image credits: lysistrata3000

#8

Organic food in the U.S.

The regulations have been so watered down as to be meaningless….

Leading_Preparation6:

Happy to see this. It was my thesis topic and it’s definitely not what people think it is. Buy the “cheaper” version or grow your own because the USDA organic label means next to nothing.

Image credits: Dapper-Condition6041

#9

“Grandma? I’m calling from the police/hospital. Can you send me money?

Image credits: KathAlMyPal

#10

Printer ink. My printer cost $50 but replacing all the cartridges costs $75. Make it make sense.

Image credits: CurvyFlowerzx

#11

Health insurance in America. Paying $400 monthly only to still have a $5000 deductible and argue with insurance companies about ‘in-network’ doctors. It’s basically paying for the privilege of paying more.

Image credits: Desirable-Sweetheart

#12

The five-day work week.

Image credits: Ofugeranca

#13

Multi level marketing schemes. We have literally so much information now about how they are predatory. It’s disgusting how a lot of them target low income mothers who feel guilty about spending time away from home to work and earn a living.

life-love:

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.

Image credits: Confident-Guess4638

#14

Tipping and tip workers, tip shame, tip expectations.

THE_Lena:

This! Their income should be paid by their employer not the customer.

Image credits: FletchWazzle

#15

“Contractors” that show up to your door unsolicited telling you they’ll do work on your house for super cheap. *Especially* those “working in the area.”

Do your homework on anyone working on your house. Make sure they’re licensed, insured, permitted to work in your state etc.

Image credits: perpetual_student

#16

The Nigerian prince emails.

dude_stfu:

These are intentionally ridiculous / over-the-top / filled with errors. They don’t want to go back and forth with the 99% of people who can sniff out relatively obvious bulls**t. They want that rare, vulnerable 1% who will take the bait and believe it. Phishing is a science.

Image credits: _tanka_jahari

#17

Amway, Herbalife and any pseudo-pharma-sounding c**p.

Image credits: KazakiriKaoru

#18

Chiropractors. I’ve personally cared for two patients with vertebral artery dissections from chiro adjustments. I’ve known one other outside of work.

Image credits: RN-B

#19

“Detoxing” your gut/armpits/body. Your body does it for you if you’re a healthy individual. Most of the bacteria in your gut is beneficial and necessary.

Image credits: Squishymalloe

#20

When people say invest in Cryptocurrency.

I'll tell them let me know when you can buy anything in the store or online with it.

Image credits: Inner_Map_5004

#21

The gift card one! I know a full grown adult who got an email from their “boss” telling them to go buy gift cards and send pics of them back to random email address. $5000 later…

Image credits: Expensive_Structure2

#22

Paying money to the “IRS” in the form of Apple gift cards.

Image credits: anon

#23

The email/text “this is the United Postal Service, your package has been delayed, we need you to verify name, address, and card information for delivery” gotten those dozens of times when I don’t have any packages on the way, but a ton of friends have fallen for it.

Image credits: Belial_plz

#24

My stepfather texted me a year ago saying “your mom and I won a lottery, we just need to go to the store to get some cards to pay for the taxes”. Like cmon man, I know you are smarter than this. Thankfully enough all I had to do is ask him why would they make you use gift cards to pay taxes instead of just paying the IRS? He immediately connected the dots.

Image credits: charlesthefish

#25

Healing crystals. If anything, they’ve become even more popular recently.

Edit: Having said that, I *have* seen them be very effective as tools to effect introspection and discussion about mental health, basically operating as a fun, dialectical abstraction of psychological concepts that might be too complicated or daunting to address directly. But it’s a slippery slope to letting this abstraction become a real, significant part of how you live your life.

Image credits: DogsAreAnimals

#26

Religion.

Image credits: JoboosMojo

#27

“Don’t forget tomorrow starts the new Facebook rule where they can use your photos. Don’t forget Deadline today!!! It can be used in court cases in litigation against you. Everything you’ve ever posted becomes public from today Even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. It costs nothing for a simple copy and paste, better safe than sorry”.

#28

Literally anything related to the slimy Kenneth Copeland Ministries. That guy is one of the biggest con artists, if not THE biggest, to ever exist in this country.

#29

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.

#30

Being green.

top 10 corporations produce 90% of the pollution. but it always falls on the citizen to be green! buy an ev you can’t afford!!

if everyone is pissing in the pool besides you, are you making a difference?

and i don’t mean to litter freely, everyone should 110% do their part. BUT. it’s crazy to think/ask citizens to completely change their routine day to day life while you still move on private jets/ motorcades.

for those of you jay don’t know. i drive a diesel F250. a new one with modern emission systems. every 5k ish miles i have to buy DEF(Diesel exhaust fluid) for my emissions right?

it comes in a 2.5 gallon plastic jug. with a plastic nosel thats wrapped in plastic in a cardboard box.. so how f*****g much am i helping?… (this is a required chemical on all diesels 2011? 2010? and newer.

Image credits: Both-Holiday1489

#31

Homeopathy.

Carliebeans:

Right?! My Dad has a friend with serious health issues. He’s under the care of traditional western medicine which has saved his life, and he also has his homeopathic ‘potions’. Guess what he credits for his health?

#32

Payday loans. The interest rates are atrocious. They prey on the poor.

#33

Scientology.

#34

Those sites that make you do hours of work by downloading shady apps and watching endless ads just to get you 20% of the way to getting a $5 target gift card.

Image credits: E579Gaming

#35

Timeshares.

googlyevileye:

When my dad was young, he bought a time share. How he didn't realize signing a contract for 99 years isn't scammy is beyond me, but he also has put in his social security number into pop-ups trying to get out of said timeshare.

#36

Copper bracelets.

Quirky_Alt_Nerd:

Nothing upsets me more than making jewelry with copper and seeing people in the same market making the same thing but adding, “healing properties” or “natural healing remedy” to their website/shop/jewelry listings. It’s predatory behavior and I guarantee 99% of them don’t believe it themselves.

#37

People that fall for the post office "$2 to unlock your package" text messages.

Nuts4WrestlingButts:

Sweet old Vietnamese lady at work showed me she got one of those and it took a half hour to convince her that, no, customs does not have your package.

#38

The amount of people who put their trust in apps like Snapchat believing them to be 100% secure and private and that everything they send on there, yes EVERYTHING, isn’t stored in some server somewhere with their verified details attached to it all…. because…. Snapchat saves everything you send on there and there are countless examples of that information being retrieved and leaked online.

It’s also incredibly easy to install work around which don’t notify the person of images being screenshotted, so another reason to not blindly assume it’s some super secure social media platform.

#39

Emails that pretend to be from trusted companies, asking for personal information or account details.

Image credits: Subject-Seaweed6784

#40

The kids playing violin at Walmart.

#41

The wealth is going to “trickle down”.

#42

Those “you may be entitled to…” law ads. Depending on what scandal happens publicly there were be like 10 law firms foaming at the mouth trying to get clients.

Image credits: vaultdwellerno11

#43

VPNs. While there are situations where they are useful, those reasons do not always match the reasons the marketing material suggest. They are not a magical security and privacy unicorn that saves you from every possible security threat.

pipipupumees:

There's only 3 reasons anyone should use a VPN: if you want to access services or websites that are unavailable in your country; torrenting in specific countries (if you don't know what that is then I guarantee you don't have to worry about this); or if you need to connect to a remote network (in this case your VPN would either be provided by the company you work at or you'd set up a VPN yourself on your own machine. Again, if you don't know what this means then you don't need to worry about this). VPNs don't provide any meaningful privacy, if anything they just make you less private because now the VPN company has all your data.

#44

ED vitamins.

#45

Friendships with military colonel’s stuck overseas, looking for companionship, which turns into needing money.

#46

How about the scam I fell for 🙁 The fraud department of my bank calling me, alerting me to fraudulent charges happening on my card. I’ve had my identity stolen before, so I wasn’t surprised snd was just grateful they found the charges early on. I googled the number and it was the same # as my bank.

They had identifying info about me that not just anyone would have and asked me verifying questions after that my bank asks me any time I have called them before. It was so, so believable and I was already in a stressed mental state prior to the call. When I called my bank directly the next day, even the employee told me it was legitimate. It wasn’t until I called again that an employee dug into their logs of texts/calls to me that they determined it was fake. Luckily, I was only out about 1.5 hours of my time in total with talking to the scammer, changing card and bank numbers, updating accounts, etc and didn’t lose a dime.

Main lesson I learned: If your bank calls you for ANY reason, hang up and call them directly. Don’t be dumb like me.

Edited to add: When they were sending me texts to verify things / help me add the card alerts to my phone, the confirmation texts came from a number that I’ve gotten legitimate texts from my bank before. They’re too smart!!

#47

Scammers claiming to be from Verizon Fraud Protection were so convincing, they almost had me taken in.

Right up until they asked for my monthly payment (which would *immediately* be returned to my account after the transaction was completed) to be send to a Venmo recipient named Esteban Martinez.

#48

I’m surprised people still fall for fake job offer scams.

#49

Sending a cashiers check that’s for too much money to pay for something/reserve something and then asking for $ to be sent back (the original check subsequently bounces a few days later). So coming on Craigslist/Facebook/next door and people keep falling for it.

#50

Anything that involves free money.

#51

Going to university.

Not a total scam, but way overpriced for what it is. While tuition has skyrocketed, all the money has gone to more administrative jobs. Very little to the actual education of students.

#52

Ticketmaster.

GrumpyCoo:

Ticketmaster is one of the primary reasons I stopped going to concerts…

#53

The biggest scam is one we all just accept and take anyway. Like commercials on paid subscriptions, and sites that we can only use if we sign away all indemnity.

#54

Alkaline Water

It’s does nothing. It’s just bad tasting water.

Nothing marketing claims is true.

#55

Internet service providers advertising ‘up to’ certain speeds. I’m paying for ‘up to’ 100mbps but getting 15 on a good day. It’s like paying for a full tank of gas but only getting a quarter.

#56

I think the over-commercialization of health trends is a major scam.

#57

I just experienced this the other day – check engine light. How is it that with the electronics in today’s cars, that the car cannot just tell me what the code is and what it needs? And dealers charging $100+ to plug in a reader to get the code? That task takes 5 minutes or less. It should be mandated that anytime a CEL light comes on, the infotainment system tells you exactly what the problem is. Turns out on my car, the problem was the radiator flaps were not opening and closing properly. Luckily it was still under warranty.

#58

NFTs.

#59

Jake Paul / Logan Paul fights.

#60

Once fell for a fake tech support scam and lost $200.

#61

Buying new iPhones. They’re extremely overpriced.

#62

Dental insurance. It barely covers anything.

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