Scams lurk in the shadows of our daily lives, often undetected and underestimated. It’s time to expose these deceptive schemes and heighten our defenses against their lurking threats.
A user asked the forum, “What scam have we normalized in our lives that we don’t even realize it’s a scam anymore?”. Here are the top responses.
CONVENIENCE FEE
“The convenience fee for paying your balance in a way that is convenient for them and also the only form of payment they allow.”
WEBSITES ASKING FOR EMAIL
“Entering your email before even being able to view the website.”
SHRINKFLATION
“Shrinkflation.
I remember watching an ad for cordial. The biggest selling point of the new cordial was that you only needed to add half the amount of cordial to half the amount of water for the perfect ratio.
It used to be a quarter cordial (rest water). They basically just completely diluted the cordial and were only selling you half the amount for the same price.”
INSURANCE
“Insurance. I’m going to pay for protection on my car, health, home, etc., just to have the insurance companies make up a thousand excuses not to give some of that money back when something goes wrong for the thing I’m paying protection for.”
COLLEGE
“Like, why does college have to be so expensive? It makes no sense.”
BANK OVERDRAFT FEES
“Bank overdraft fees. Financial institutions rake in billions every year by penalizing poor people for not having enough money. It’s shameful.”
RECYCLING
“Recycling, wish I was wrong, but sadly, I am not. A fraction is actually recycled.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
“Thinking social media is free when all of our data is mined and capitalized.”
WARRANTIES
“Warranties. Anything you get insured always breaks after the warranty has already expired.”
TIPPING
“Tipping. It is a scam for business owners to underpay employees, expecting customers to supplement the extremely low wages. They threaten with the “we will have to raise prices” and “we will not be able to afford to stay open” lines to guilt/prey upon our empathy.”
PAYING TAXES
“Paying taxes on used goods. Some items may get sold 5-10 times, like books, and the government gets taxes EVERY time.”
TRANSACTION FEES
“Fees added to every transaction.”
DIAMONDS
“Diamonds, the greatest marketing scam of all time. Convincing mainly young newlyweds to spend thousands on something with no inherent value and that 99% of the population could not tell from a piece of common glass is a tragic example of worthless materialism and our obsession with purchasing ‘status.’
Expecting many downvotes from the majority that have bought into this scam but won’t look into this further as it is so ingrained in world culture.”
NEW CARS
“New cars. Seems like they have more serious problems than the 90’s cars did or later. Planned obsolescence to fuel the beast. As well as more complicated.
Some mechanics won’t work on some newer cars.”
CERTIFICATIONS
“Certifications. All it is is a money racket that was sold to companies and governments. Just because you can spew a particular flavor of Kool-Aid back out for a test doesn’t mean you know Jack about a particular field.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.