There will always be thieves who think they’re smarter than everyone else and try to rob us of our money. Thanks to the internet and social media, they can even do it remotely while the whole world is locked down, going through a pandemic.
And while we try to calm ourselves down by saying that sooner or later they will get caught and punished, as one Reddit post shows, some won’t. Because we’re not even chasing them!
Сreated by user u/F1yff, it asked people the question: “What is a legal scam that is still happening in 2022?” and has received plenty of real-life examples that are still thriving. Here are some of them.
#1
Charging people money to withdraw money or because they have small (positive) balances in their bank accounts.
Image credits: P13r15
#2
Having to file your own taxes then being fined if you don’t do it right.
Image credits: DestroyingAwesome
#3
“Printing” fee for digital tickets.
Image credits: eastherbunni
#4
Charging for parking in Hospitals and Clinics.
Image credits: P13r15
#5
Insider trading within Congress.
But if WE do it, we end up in prison.
Image credits: vabeach23451
#6
MLMs (multi-level marketing companies). ‘I’m my own CEO.’ No, you aren’t. You literally have a company telling you what you can and can’t do.
Image credits: Ok-Act-6869
#7
Private prisons. You’re telling me that they charge the government for the beds and the taxpayers still gotta foot the bill if those beds are empty so the company running it “doesn’t lose money”? F*ck you.
Image credits: Silverback_Vanilla
#8
Civil forfeiture. You’re going to tell me that a cop thinks that my property might be used for illegal activity, and that cop is going to steal it from me and pad their departments bottom line? What the actual f.
Image credits: MYule90
#9
Charging patients in hospitals for TV service. Their bills are high enough, but you want to add $8/day to not have to sit in silence for 23 hours a day?
Image credits: angryguido69
#10
Cable company making you “rent” a router for 10$ a month.
Image credits: xmuskorx
#11
Super-high interest, predatory rent-to-own furniture rental/loan things — where you end up paying, like, $3,000 in the end for a $500 laptop.
Image credits: codenameZora
#12
My kid’s school charges a $3 “internet fee” if you want to refill their cafeteria cards via the website. If you do it in person there’s no fee.
If they feel they have to charge a fee shouldn’t it be the other way around since if you use their website you aren’t taking up anyone’s time?
Image credits: akeoGaming
#13
Sadly overplayed, but health insurance. Just yesterday there was a post about a guy who had medically necessary surgery and the insurance didn’t want to pay the hospital.
Image credits: ForkShirtUp
#14
The troubled teen industry. It doesn’t work. It traumatizes children. It’s legal kidnapping.
I hope more attention comes to it and something happens. They’re a business and the goal is to make money, not help troubled teenagers. Ffs, half the time the kids aren’t even troubled!
E.T.A.: The “Troubled teen industry” refers to for-profit organizations aimed at steering rebellious and at-risk youth onto a better path through reform camps. But their methods are “tough love”, negative/positive punishments and physical labor.
Because it’s a business meant to make money, a lot of corner-cutting happens. They hire young and untrained staff for less pay rather than therapists and certified nurses & teachers. It’s also not regulated at all so they can effectively do whatever they want with little recourse.
They use “scared straight” tactics and beat kids into obedience. They claim the best way to send a kid there is by surprise “so they don’t try and run beforehand” – AKA burst into their room at 2AM and drag them into a van with very few belongings.
Look up “Elan School” for a notorious one.
Paris Hilton was kidnapped at 2AM and sent to Provo Canyon when she was 16. Look at how well that worked.
Go through this thread for some horror stories.
Image credits: st0dad
#15
Education prices
#16
Paying services charges I don’t mind paying a $10 delivery fee but will not pay a $0.99 service charge.
Image credits: carbondupe
#17
If you’re a personal business owner, you may receive what looks to be a bill in your mail from the US Domain Authority. At first glance, you’re under the impression that you need to pay 289 dollars to renew your website domain name… HOWEVER. There is very fine print stating that you are not legally required to pay the listed amount. It’s actually an ad requesting you pay that amount in order to have your website listed on the US Domain Authority site. I can’t imagine how many people have been tricked by this. READ YOUR MAIL CAREFULLY.
Image credits: RecentLingonberry821
#18
Funeral homes. Or to specify for the dunces among us, unethical funeral homes chasing profit at the expense of bereaved people…
The amount of Leeching done to grieving people just boils my blood.
#19
Automatic tipping at fast food places. I mean I get leaving a tip at a sit down restaurant where a waiter or waitress is taking care of you.
But if I go to Chipotle and get a bowl and they automatically add a 20% tip, that’s a lot of money. I might consider a tip if they could add cheese last so the guac doesnt stick to the lid… BIG OOF…
Image credits: I_Am_Every_Redditor
#20
Estate agents, they charge you thousands to open a door to a house so you can look around it and a couple of emails.
Image credits: joshym0nster
#21
Medication Costs
my dog had hookworm and so my doctor recommended i get treated as well just to be safe – pharmacy called me warning that it would cost me $2,995… asked my doctor if there was an alternative; was able to get an equally effective treatment for $45
#22
Extended warranties, so many promises made, but when time comes for a claim, almost all are denied.
Image credits: ggs_golf
#23
Working for the current minimum wage. I just want it to have kept up with inflation. That is probably around 22.5/hr iirc. The hardest jobs I’ve ever had was my lowest paying job.
Healthcare in the USA. When you work at a hospital and see the f*ckery that happens you get even more mad.
Student debt in its current state. I know physicians who can’t pay those loans off because the interest is just too high. They’ve been paying for 10 years and still have their original principal loan amount.
Those are just three things that make me the most mad right now.
#24
College textbooks. “We updated a figure in chapter 8 and changed the page numbers for three Third Edition. It costs $180.”
#25
Insane rent prices for houses even squatters wouldn’t stay at.
Image credits: highangler
#26
Insurance companies stating they’ll cover 100% of the cost. But when you get the bill, it’s 200% and you gotta cover the difference. Who the hell reads 100% as literally anything other than fully covered?
Image credits: DTF_Truck
#27
Printer ink
#28
I’m not sure if there’s an actual name for it, but the practice of banks where they prioritize your automatic payments in order of highest to lowest so that you’re more likely to overdraw earlier, and then they can slap on their “overdrawn fees” for each consecutive payment that attempts to go through. For example:
You have 600 dollars in your account and have 6 automatic payments coming out. They prioritise the 400 dollar loan payment first, then the 120 dollar car insurance, then 50 internet, 50 cell phone, 50 utilities, 50 renters insurance. You now owe 90 dollars in overdrawn fees, are late on 3 bills, and are mostly broke. If they’d have prioritised the last 5 first, then the loan payment, you’d have 280 dollars left, a bill you’re late on, and 30 dollars in overdrawn fees.
#29
“News” which isn’t useful or objectively true, and therefore not news, but propaganda.
Image credits: Dude_With_A_Truck
#30
that cookies still exists on websites. sometimes i don’t have an option but just to give them goddamn cookies! cancel cookies!
#31
American restaurants forcing the burden of employee wages onto their customers
#32
Software as a service.
Once I buy a piece of software that works, it doesn’t cost the company more money to make it if I use it for longer. It makes no sense to pay a monthly fee for the permission to use Adobe Photoshop, it’s ridiculous.
People say “oh, but you get updates” — if I want to get the new version of Photoshop, I can pay for a new license.
Any update that fixes bugs should come free, because actually I’m not paying for a buggy product am I?
Video games, as sh*tty as the industry is, are doing this right. You pay once, up front. Then you get patches and security updates for free. Of course there are still problems, but at least buying a video game isn’t as much of a scam as subscribing to Adobe’s Creative Cloud plans. Total ripoffs.
#33
the “business” of higher education
#34
Tax preparers. I should just be told how much money I owe and pay that instead of paying someone between $65 (because turbotax isn’t truly “free”) to $200+. The IRS or whatever gov entity knows what we owe already and someone else trying to figure that out means there is another possibly weak link in the chain. It really sucks that there is an entire huge industry that, if we did away with it, a lot of people would be out of work but it’s still unnecessary.
#35
$4.95 ATM service charge.
#36
Like 90% of all crypto companies out there. “Buy ETH through us and guarantee a return!” They are all either pump-and-dump, or pyramid schemes.
Image credits: Yserbius
#37
Charging huge fees for parking permits without spending any of that money on the maintenance of those parking spots.
#38
politicians and their families investing in the stock market.
#39
if debt collectors can trick a grieving person into uttering words that imply you take responsibility for your dead relatives’ debts, that can be treated as a binding oral contract and allow them to collect from you
#40
Legally required, but not federally provided, insurance
#41
Ticket master. WTF is a handling fee when I am the one handling my own phone?
#42
Not being able to vote where our tax dollars go…
Using tax dollars to pay thousands of politicians around the country when al they do is get paid 6 figures, live in glorious mansions, drive sick cars, and argue all day and get nothing done
#43
Time shares. I figured AirBnB and VRBO and all the other temp rental disrupters would have put a stop to this predatory own-little-pay-mucho cash grab which destroys local housing markets and creates wet paint ghost towns. But alas it persists and we have to stare at lines of cheap shacks or soviet bloc style complexes left vacant on off seasons or occupied by flightless grey birds who only fly south because some Iowa idiot got conned in a Ramada Inn on a Tuesday looking for a free golf bag. Arguably these apps have created more of a problem but I figured it’d be better.
#44
Taxes on taxes
#45
That news in America is entertainment. Can get away with saying pretty much anything and still call it “news”.
#46
churches not paying taxes. It’s completely unacceptable and really disgusting. I cannot imagine tithing to a church with a pastor who has big houses and a private jet and luxury cars.
#47
Televangelists like Joel Osteen
#48
Income tax
#49
Modern art collecting as a easy route to evade taxes. Wealthy person buys painting of black line for $20k, have art appraiser friend appraise for $1.2mm, donate painting to museum or non-profit, write off over a million in losses, zero taxes, celebrate black line like it’s an amazing and deeply moving piece.
#50
Title pawns, pay day loans some charging 300% interest.
#51
Having to pay for your own “official transcripts” from a 3rd party company after graduating from college.
#52
Congress officials being allowed to trade stocks
#53
Insurance covering less because you have dual insurance
#54
University fees. I have to not only pay for my classes and admin fees, I have to pay for two separate student Union fees, a technology fee, an online processing fee, and a “recreation and athletic” fee, despite the Fieldhouse being entirely closed due to covid.
#55
Usa tax paying system.
Paraphrasing: We know how much you owe, but we want you to calculate it and you have to get it correct under pain of prison or paying too much. Oh and the whole process is more complicated than it needs to be because of private interests.
#56
Paying convenience charges when booking tickets online.
#57
The housing market. So many corporations are buying up houses and then jacking up rent. construction and real estate industries. And then you have builders that build small, cheap, units that won’t stand the test of time because corners are being cut. And real estate agents trying to line their own pockets with bidding wars and creating a sense of scarcity and urgency
#58
Why insurance goes up after an incident.
The fact that you give regular monthly installments is the intent that they will save you the hassle in case of a problem.
#59
Entering your contact info on any website. They can track and contact you with only keystrokes. You should NEVER enter your sh*t online, unless you know the site is secured.
#60
Convincing people if they don’t give 10% of their money to rich a*s churches, they will burn in hell.
#61
MLMs
#62
Fake job offer scams
#63
Civil forfeiture & cash bail.
#64
Qualified Immunity
#65
Civil asset forfeiture
#66
Pay to win mobile games
#67
Live youtube crypto giveaway
#68
All televangelists
#69
Public service student loan repayment programs
#70
80+ hour work weeks for understaffed tourism towns around the world
#71
I used to go to the ticket gate to get tickets, to circumvent the fee, but now the ticket office is only open when another concert is going on. It really pisses me off. I’m looking at a downtown concert in the summer, and hoping that their ticket office actually has predictable hours.
#72
Inflation: the government prints more money and spends it and all your savings are slashed in half without you realising.
It also gives you a pay cut as an extra f*ck you.
#73
Lobbying.
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