Scams are pervasive in the digital age, leaving many people feeling helpless. Although reporting and awareness campaigns exist, holding scammers accountable and protecting individuals remains challenging.
A user asked, what’s the biggest scam in America? and here are the top picks:
1. Cellphone Data
“Cellphone data. They sell it like a finite resource, like they’ll run out if they give you too much. But yet, if you don’t use it all that month, none of it rolls over.” said one.
2. Cable Bill
A user shared “Paying a giant cable bill to watch commercials”
3. Giving Email Address To Buy Things
“You must give your email address to basically any company you buy something from so they can spam your inbox. Yes, I’m aware you can unsubscribe, but it’s a pain. I have a life to live, and it doesn’t involve meticulously curating my email inbox regularly.” said another
4. Ticketmaster
“They jack the ticket prices up with tons of hidden fees. A ticket will be priced at $50, and then Ticketmaster will tack on all kinds of stupid things like “venue fees,” “service fees,” etc. All of a sudden, that $50 ticket costs you over $100″ shared one.
5. Rent To Own Stores
“They sell furniture and electronics type stuff to people with bad credit who can’t really afford it, let them pay a small amount weekly.
If people end up paying on time and pay stuff off, they will pay 2 or 3 times more than the item is worth. If they make a payment late the item is repossessed and are sold to someone else and the first person loses all the money they paid” said one.
6. Funerals
Funerals are often expected to be grand affairs, with elaborate ceremonies and expensive caskets, but it’s important to remember that the true value lies in the memories and legacy of the person who has passed away.
7. Wedding Standards
“Weddings. Put the word “wedding” in front of anything, and you can jack the price up by 10 times. Wedding cake Wedding dress Wedding flowers” said one.
8. Student Loan Companies
“Cried on the phone the other day with a student loans agent. I was getting penalized for a form they still needed to process. I was devastated by financial repercussions – threatening my ability to finish my education – because their processing system was backed up.” said one
“I’ve been in some pretty messed up scenarios where the student loan company was 100% at fault for messing with me, potentially royally, multiple times.” shared another.
9. Online Gurus
“Online charlatans will share their “secrets” if you buy their course” said one.
“I purchased a day trading course for $300. I was about 5 minutes in when I said, “oh, I get it! I’ve been scammed.” added another.
10. Insulin prices
A user shared “I called the pharmacy about a generic today. One that’s been around for several years. $379 without insurance. The generic. They just want us all to die.”
11. PayDay
“Those payday loan businesses are predatory as hell, and it’s just legal loansharking.” said one.
12. MLM
“My cousin is always involved in multiple MLMs and tells us she’s a “small business owner” and gets mad if we don’t support her “business.” Here’s the thing, though. I would instead send her a check every month so that I don’t have to be solicited with this protein shake or that skincare line. How much would it take? $50 a month? $100? Because I know she’s not making any money doing this. YET SHE KEEPS ON DOING IT!!!” said one.
13. Online Convenience Fee
“The online convenience fee for paying bills. Not every bill has it, but I found it’s usually utilities, and it’s stupid. Not the biggest scam but something that irritates me” said one.
14. College Tuition
“College tuition is ridiculously high. We do great with community colleges. They accept everyone. Fairly cheap. But the 4-year schools are ridiculous. My community college has more excellent facilities, better professors, and smaller class sizes. And it was like 7 or 8 times cheaper.” shared one.
15. College Text Books
“College textbooks. You need edition 10 for this class. They change one chapter in the book, make it a new edition, overprice it, and mess with the college kids. Always drove me nuts when I was in college.” said one.
16. Filing Taxes
A user says “How do we have to file our taxes correctly even though the government knows exactly how much we make every year, and if we file it wrong, we get penalized.”
17. Health Care
“I think our healthcare system is the largest and most comically villainous of all of them but man, the list is looooong for common scams in this wasteland.” said one.
“Yup, I had to pay over 200 a month for the most basic health insurance. It was all I could afford, barely. I barely could afford co-pays, so I kept putting off getting tested when I tried; I wasn’t taken seriously and had to pay more co-pays while my right side pain spread to my back and left side. When I lost my job and moved to my mom, I qualified for free Healthcare as I was unemployed. I could finally try again to be tested, and I’m stage 4 cancer with only a few years left. Too bad Universal Healthcare wasn’t a thing. I could have went and gotten the right tests sooner. But apparently, if you are not flat broke or rich, you get screwed in Healthcare.” shared one.
18. Bottled water
“I never understood why people panic-bought bottled water when the pandemic started. You will be home, where you have a reliable water source, not driving across the country. Just get a filter.” said one.
19. Productivity
“The idea is that you need to be always productive, and it’s okay to just exist.” said one Another adds “Truth. Existing is an okay choice in life so long as you enjoy the simple things in life.”
20. Home Ownership
“Homeownership. You never actually truly own a home/land. Skip out on property taxes or HOA fees, and your home can be legally taken from you. Arguably better than renting still, but it’s never really ‘yours.'” said one.
“Property tax. First, you buy the house, then eventually, it becomes yours. But oh! The land your home is on isn’t yours, and you have to pay for that forever because everything needs to be built on the land. Might as well charge sky tax, too at this point” said another.
21. Tipping
A Redditor says “The concept of tipping. I paid 30 bucks for my dinner, and now you want me to support your employees instead of you? I still tip because it’s not the server’s fault, but it’s insane we’ve been conditioned to think this is normal”
22. Diamonds
Despite being physically, chemically and optically identical to natural diamonds, many people still hold the misconception that lab-grown diamonds are “fake” and believe they must pay a premium for natural diamonds, which can result in them overpaying for a diamond that is not necessarily rarer or of higher quality than its lab-grown counterpart.
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This article originally appeared on Mrs Daaku Studio.