No matter how careful people are, scammers always find a way to cheat them. 

A user asked the forum, “What are some scams everyone should be aware of in 2023?” Here are the top responses. 

FAMOUS PEOPLE DONT SEND DIRECT MESSAGE 

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“No famous person will directly message you from their ‘other’ Instagram account to connect with fans. It’s a scam. Don’t fall for it.”

EMAILS

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“Emails telling you that a fraudulent transaction was made on your Amazon or PayPal account. Look at the actual email address that sent that email.”

COLLECTION PLATE FOR GOD 

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“The money you put in the collection plate doesn’t go to God.”

MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING

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“As others have said, Multi-Level Marketing Scheme(MLM). They act like cults, have deceptive & predatory business practices, literally kill people from snake oil ‘cures,’ bankrupt families, & destroy marriages.”

LOW PAY SCAM

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“That guy who would like to hire me to work on a developer job, but he’s already paid thousands and thousands to other developers who all ran away with his money, so he can’t really afford to pay me much. Yeah, right, I heard that one before.”

ELECTRONIC BOOKS

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“Send me $19.99, and my electronic book (ebook) will reveal everything.”

ECOLOGICAL DESTRUCTION 

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“Bear with me: ecological destruction.

The environment provides a lot of goods and services. Rivers provide clean water and a source of fish for small businesses to harvest. Forests provide wood. Farms. Tourism. I could go on.

Destroying the environment increases Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but you lose all those resources, so your community/country will be worse off if you kill your environment for short-term gains.

Protect your environment. We’ll all be better off for it.”

COURSES

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“Fake gurus, almost nobody selling you anything are looking for your best interest, especially courses.”

CRYPTOCURRENCIES 

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“Cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens. It’s common knowledge at this point that they’re a scam, but like all successful scams, they have a lot of staying power because of the sheer amount of idiots who fall for them.” 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SCAMS 

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A user said, “Artificial Intelligence-generated voice calls from your relatives for money and texts from your relatives for money. WhatsApp/Instagram are easily hacked. Always confirm first.”

Another added, “The rise of a new generation of scamming using forever evolving Artificial Intelligence (AI). The traditional aspects of scams, such as fake pages and poor spelling, persist. However, with the introduction of AI, scams have undergone a transformative shift, and they have changed the game. Notably, social engineering has gained unprecedented traction. 

Scammers are easily victimizing employees, city officials, law enforcement officials, you name it. The most proficient scammers exhibit remarkable patience, initially presenting no apparent urgency. They strategically invest a significant amount of time working their mark, sometimes stretching over months or even years, capitalizing on the eventual guaranteed payoff. At the same time, scammers in developing nations are rapidly acquiring skills in hacking and refining their social engineering tactics.

On the other hand, United States teenagers appear to be far more interested in creating content for platforms like TikTok than they should be about their online security.”

VEGAN DIET CAN MEET YOUR PROTEIN REQUIREMENT 

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“You can fulfill your daily protein requirement while on a vegan diet despite what people say.”

PHOTOGRAPHY SCAMS 

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“Photography scams. You ‘won’ a free session with a non-refundable deposit and thousands of dollars of products pushed on you.”

OPTIMIZING APPS 

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“Has anyone dealt with EY (Emit and Young)? They are supposedly a platform for optimizing apps.”

FAKE CHECK SCAM 

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“The overpayment/phony check scam. If someone ever sends you a check and wants part of the money back, it is always a scam of some sort. 100% guaranteed.

Even if the check seems to clear in two days, it’s a scam. Fake reviews will usually take a few weeks to investigate, and United States law requires that funds be made available in 48 hours because of a law that prevents banks from intentionally holding checks for too long to get overdraft fees.

Even if you wait 30 days (and if that’s the plan, they will tell you actually to wait for it to clear), and the money is still there, then they are using you to launder money. You will get arrested by the feds and will end up having to pay back everything you got from all the checks they had in your cash and keep for yourself. So, even if the statement is accurate, you still won’t get to keep it.

There is never a legitimate reason to send back some of the proceeds from a check, buy gift cards with some money, buy and send cryptocurrency, or buy products for your business from the money they sent you. If it’s a single fake check, tear it up. Otherwise, consider going to the police.

Any legitimate business will buy and ship the products/equipment or wire you the money instead of sending a check.”

BOXING MATCHES 

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“Jake Paul’s boxing matches.”

AMERICAN DREAM DEALS 

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“American Dream Deals is selling products claiming to be famous brands and then shipping cheap substitutes from China. They don’t take returns. The ‘Merrell’ hiking boots I ordered are labeled fashion but are trash.”

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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.

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