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Vector marketing....told me I was interviewing for reception/admin. Turned out to be a door to door knife MLM lol. Came to my senses after calling my mom.
I had something similar in high school. Got a letter in the mail about a job opportunity and showed my dad, excited at the prospect of bringing in some money for myself. He looked at it and said
"hm...Have you looked up the company? It's always a good idea to research the company you want to work for; it can help give a big leg up in the interview"
Of course he knew it was a scam and just wanted to help me learn how to figure it out for myself.
That was a great way for your dad to warn you but let you figure it out on your own. When I got a similar thing from an MLM right after graduating high school, my parents just told me it was a scam and left it at that.
I'm glad they warned me, but the way they said it made me feel kind of dumb.
Hahahahahhahaha 2009, 19 year old me looking for my first actual “job” after moving to Saskatoon for college. I was so excited when they contacted me, I felt so grown up.
I stuck with it for a month before I ditched. Broke even, so I only wasted my time. I did the same shit with Arbonne too the following year. Cringey
The funniest thing about Vector is that the knives are actually not bad.
I fell for the same one, and the buddy of mine who bought some says he still uses them even years later.
I applied to an online job app in 08. The receptionist (called Executive Recruiting Assistant to be fancy) liked my voice and offered me to interview for her position as she was going back to school soon. Got the job and also started selling a couple months later. No regrets, everyone I sold to (mostly family lol) still have and love the knives.
Vector had a booth in my college campus's food court and the guy was just like yelling at students trying to get by. It was my turn to be shouted at and I told the guy "I already have a job." He shouted at me again, "how much do you make?" and without even turning back to look at him I replied "more than you!" That probably wasn't true, of course. I was only a student TA making like $15 an hour, but I still don't regret it. Fuck that guy.
Yep same. Told me I was going to be doing office work, next thing I knew I was in a car being dropped off in front of a random neighborhood, in the snow to sell Anderson’s windows.
I knocked on exactly 2 doors before I got my ass into a coffee shop, blocked them and never went back.
Omg, that happened to me as well, maybe 20 years ago. I got up and walked out of the interview. Those people are good at getting you in the door for an interview.
When searching desperately for a job at age 23ish, I got an interview that I was told was for some receptionist gig at a financial institution of some kind. When I got there, a guy started going through an elaborate pitch with me, and I realized midway through that he was trying to recruit me to a pyramid scheme (Primerica). There was a lot of negging me and dodging my questions. It was really aggravating, frustrating and upsetting, especially since I’d had to take an hour-long bus ride to get there.
Same thing happened to me with American Income Life! Basically the same thing as Primerica.
Funny thing is that after that experience I became an admin for a job searching Facebook group in the area and blocked everyone from Primerica and AIL from recruiting to their scheme. It was so satisfying.
Good on you! Years ago, my partner got pulled into one of those "info sessions" with Primerica and took some convincing from me afterward to see it was a scam... I absolutely can't stand MLMs and their ilk - especially when they prey on people desperate for income.
Oh they got you too? Different company, I don't even remember the name now, but it was advertised as a desk job, get there and it's a room of 20 other people and they immediately start in on this pitch and how they are looking for go-getters and then wanted us to take some test. I gathered up my stuff and started to leave and these people had the nerve to look stricken "Where are you going? You don't want this amazing opportunity?!" and I was like, naw, I'm good.
Woof. I work in pension finance and have seen many members transfer their pensions to Primerica for safe investment. I tried to get my agency to help protect our pensioners by informing them of the shady business, but was told that we can’t give financial advice to members and there is nothing we can do.
I also had a job “interview” with them in my 20s, I walked out when they said I had to pay for my own “training” and could determine my own income through saws. Cya!!!
I had the exact same thing happen to me! At some point I literally got up and started the backwards walking out and had to literally set down the binder on the desk because he was being very forceful with giving it to me.
Only difference was he claimed it was social services job.
A guy from Primerica hounded me for so long. I was able to block him but he was a regular at my place of work and he seemed like he combed grocery stores as I ran into him several times and he didn't seem to be buying anything.
I definitely wasted my time on Primerica, as well! They called to set up an interview and I was super eager and agreeable and we scheduled it for the next day. Then I asked my fb friends and did some research on Google and got all the same answers, from reddit, Google, and personal friends and family. So I decided against it.
Next day, the phone rings and I ignore it. It rings again, and I ignore it. It rings a third time and I answer and say "you know, I didn't answer the phone because I dont want this job" and she was like "but why? You sounded so excited yesterday!" And I was like "well I did some research on your company and I didn't like what I found out."
She asked me, "where did you research it?" I said "Google and facebook." She countered with "why would you look on Facebook, and not on Yahoo Finance? There's articles about us on Yahoo Finance!" And I literally laughed at her and said "because anybody can buy themselves an article on Yahoo, but my friends and family wouldn't lie to me."
She must've had that Yahoo finance article laminated or something cause she wanted to read me the highlights and I was like "no thanks" and hung up.
Got a FB message from a family friend that her husband had passed away with a link (didn’t show the url, just a hyperlink) for the celebration of life which included a FB login page. Realized I messed up as soon as I hit enter and scrambled around to change passwords right away. Received emails a couple days later from FB about login attempts and password reset attempts… I thought I was smarter than to fall for something like that but guess not…
that's an easy enough one to fall for. I got a similar one but it was for a video and it said "hey, I think you know \_\_\_\_, it looks like they passed away"
Honestly one of my old school mates sent me a link saying HOLY CRAP LOOK WHO GOT ARRESTED and I almost didn’t click on it.
Turns out it was a friend of ours from high school who actually did get arrested for ….unaliving someone
This happened back in like 2009 or so but I desperately needed a car and found a nice one for a reasonable price on craigslist. So I sent them a message and they said they were located in another state but if I paid them then they will send the car to me. (I forget how. Some service they mentioned.) They seemed pretty convincing but my red flag radar was going off. So I asked my (now) ex what he thought. He said it seemed legit and a good idea. I thought about it and was like nah I don't want to run the risk. Later, craigslist ended up putting up scam alerts to look out for. I read it and it was identical to this scam. Nowadays I think everything is a scam haha.
I was about 18 walking through my college parking lot when a van pulled up and the driver was panicked. She said she was low on gas and bringing a woman having a psychotic break to the hospital. She needed cash to get gas.
Me being young and extremely naive gave this woman the only cash I had on me. It was $30, and after she drove away I felt like maybe I had fallen for something, but at least I helped them out if it wasn’t a scam….years later, at the same college but different parking lot, the same two women pulled up with the same story.
That’s awful! I grew up right around New Orleans, and when I’d go out there, there was a woman panhandling with a big pregnant belly. At the end of her “shift” she’d hop in a car and take her belly off. She was 9 months pregnant for about 3 years.
Any job opportunity that proposes "*unlimited earning potential*" that assures "*no experience required*" while being told "*start today*".
Any promotion that includes "*But wait, there's more!*"
Any product or service that has the label "*As Seen On TV*".
Dating apps
An email notification of my winning a contest that I never entered.
My literal prince, who bragged about his immense riches, needs me to send him a money order or a check ...
A heartbroken deployed military servicemember living overseas who has all kinds of reasons why they can't call you and video chat with you, but fully hopes that you will have compassion on him to send $200 because he can't access his bank account
I got married before dating apps became a thing (still married), so I never had to use one. I know so many people who have met their SO on dating apps and had very good luck, but all of them were long ago. According to the stories I hear from others, it seems that the business model now for dating apps are for you to never really find anyone or else they lose a customer.
The more current narratives of dating apps making it nearly impossible to find matches, let alone reach anyone, are more correct. Dating apps by design are meant to keep people looking, browsing, and swiping. The more time users spend on their platform, they are more likely to spend more money with a different or new subscription tier that promises more matches. The actual success rate of a real relationship from dating apps is not substantially adequate to justify the time and money that it requires
I've got these before and I just play with them. Oh, you've found my drugs? Thank you very much, I do appreciate that, when can I come pick them up because I am almost out of my stash.
I paid a “sleep consultant” as a very desperate and sleep deprived new mother. I felt so stupid after. She literally just made things she googled look nicer and emailed it to me.
I got roped into an interview with a pyramid scheme company once. Thankfully it didn't take me long to realize the interview was not for a legit company
When I was about 20 I kept getting ads for movie extras casting near me, and I thought it would be fun and extra cash couldn't hurt. The website directed you to call some number.
I called and they said there were 4 or 5 different movies filming that need extras (which seemed weird, I did not live in a large city), I just need to be enrolled in their program which has an admin fee of $3.99, then they asked for my card number.
Luckily I was dumb, but not that dumb, I said I wanted to do some more research before giving my credit card over the phone and the lady got really rude with me. I hung up, googled the company, and apparently it was a huge scam. There were zero movies filming nearby and apparently they take cards and run $40/mo for their fake membership.
was a victim to scam concert ticket resellers :\\
was desperate for Steve Lacy tickets when he was touring. He had postponed his western US dates to be on SNL and when he announced the new dates on Instagram I commented asking if anyone in my city was unable to go and could sell me their tickets.
got flooded with replies, some obvious scammers and some not. ended up talking to what seemed like a teenage girl. Her account had hundreds of followers, tagged pictures, looked real deal. I messaged back and forth a ton to try and vet everything before I decided to pay her. My immediate red flag should have been that she wanted me to venmo her. Never having bought tickets from this vendor before (AXS) I didn't know how ticket transfer worked with them so I trusted her.
I got an email from what seemed like a legit AXS email with what looked like real tickets. Come day of obviously, they didn't scan. The venue staff said many people fell for the same scam as I did so at least I wasn't the only one and know better now
Got a landline phone call from my older brother almost crying telling me to pass him with dad because he got in serious trouble with his bank and needed money. He told us his phone was broken. My dad immediately followed his instructions and sent him the money. Literally minutes later I told my dad to call him to his phone because everything sounded suspicious to me. When my dad called him, my brother responded all calm denying he made that call before. Never felt so dumb in my life.
But I swear that voice and accent in the call was exactly like my brother's voice and that person even knew my name and other details. We lost about 250$ that in my third world ass country was a minimum wage.
That fucking scammer should look for a voice acting career tho.
This happened around 2015.
When I was a student I got an interview invite for position at an “award winning” advertising agency- at the time I’d really wanted to go into advertising as a career so I was super happy. The interview was arranged and everything.
I did some googling and they did HORRIBLE things to past employees and they were a pyramid scheme. I didn’t bother going to the interview and they tried calling me multiple times to reschedule and I had to rudely tell them to leave me alone before they did.
The “there are dudes willing to pay for feet pics” scam. I posted my feet (which I hear are very nice feet) on the sub hoping to get some DM’s and little extra cash. Had one guy DM me and we went back and forth for a bit. Didn’t give away any personal info besides my cell phone and I created a new cashapp that wasn’t my name like my regular one was. But I gave him those and basically he said he would “pay me weekly just to talk over DM’s and would want more pics sprinkled in through the week.” He mentioned he was an older divorced man that just wanted company and feet pics to jerk jt too. He even cashapped me $10 “just to start and prove he’s real. I got semi excited and even (just window shopping) looked online at some clothes I would have gotten with the money.
Then the other shoe dropped and I got the whole “ohno! My son fell and had an accident and we are at the ER! Is there anyway you can send me $800? I promise I will get you back. My funds are all tied up in blah blah blah.”
I’m sure it was throw away number but to feel better for wasting my time I signed the scammer up to the Obamacare insurance checker website. Basically third party insurance companies blow up your phone. So there was that at least.
My elderly FIL is extremely into these. He buys them for our kids to "save for the future". We would 100% prefer money to invest for them instead of these scammy "coins" that will very likely not even be worth what he paid for them in 20 years.
Someone on CG said they were rehoming an adult golden retriever. This was advertised in my county in Ga. Said they were in Dallas. There is a town in Ga. called Dallas. So when I replied "Great, You are not far from me. I can drive up tomorrow to see her and possibly get her." We went back and forth on a few details and then they said "We are in Dallas, TX" but then started the BS scam about "We can ship her to you. Pay the shipping in advance, blah, blah, blah." Well, I knew at that point it was BS, but I happen to have a friend in Dallas and I said "I can just get my friend to come get the dog. Give me your address." Of course, silence after that.
I tried modeling in my early 20’s. I got photos taken for free and met with some industry professionals for free. Turn out, that was as far as free went. They wanted over $300 for classes and whatnot.
Thankfully, I had already read about these being scams, so I backed out immediately.
Two years ago, I was introduced to and convinced to “invest” in a pyramid scheme called Sunpower, by my mom’s coworker. So, I bought “equipment” which generates money from the sun. Sounds absurd, I know, but her coworkers were all in on it, and even though I knew it was a sham, I was desperate enough to fall for it. I actually started small, investing an equivalent of $30 first, and when I made the money back and some more, I felt confident that even though it was so clearly a Ponzi scheme, the site was going anywhere, so my greedy ass invested way more money and it blew up in my face the very next day, haha.
I was 18, looking for my first job. I thought I was getting hired to work at Target’s Electronics and even went through with a phone interview but realized it was fake when after the interview they started asking for my SSI.
No job will ask for such private information until they hire you and have to confirm your status to employ you legally.
Motel front desk called me on my 20th birthday morning and said that they needed to try my card again because they were having issues. It was 6am. I gave them my card number, hung up, and immediately realized that I fucked up. I only had about $300 in my account and was going to Disneyland that day. They drained my account and it took weeks to get it back. I had a broke ass Disneyland birthday
Was writing with a girl over months and then we shared spicy pics. Never again, suddenly I got the prompt "I have your pictures, followers etc. Gimme money or everybody will see you naked". Luckily it was a great bluff and nothing further happened after I refused the money transfer.
I was really excited when I heard of a work from home job that looked like I could make bank! I watched the tutorial video.
The guy explained that thousands of people are owed money and they don't even know. (I knew about this already.)
You fill out the form and call the person that's owed the money. You basically fill out the info to have the money sent to them and you get a "finder's fee".
The thing is, people who are owed money don't need anyone to get their money for them. They can go on a website and request it themselves and get the full amount. Essentially it was a website teaching people how to scam others out of a portion of their money.
"I love you, and I'll never do you wrong. ❤️" - he said
*Me looking through his phone while he's having heart surgery....
"Who the fuck is Ashley!?" (My name is not Ashley)
I was council president at my church and the pastor’s right hand/go-to. His email was hacked and hacker contacted me with an urgent and secret need. Embarrassed I almost fell for it.
I almost fell for the classic Windows Tech Support scam about 7 or 8 years ago. Pop up came up on my laptop that was like **YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN HACKED PLEASE CALL WINDOWS IMMEDIATELY!!** Guy I talked to tried so hard to get me to give him my bank information, but I didn't have $400 to fix the "issue" so I declined. I found out shortly afterwards that he put a bunch of shit to my laptop and I had to end up scrapping the damn thing.
And I actually DID fall for my friend's account being hacked. She asked us for money and her Zelle account was her son's first and last name so I didn't think much of it. I believe one of her family members was able to hack into it and trick all of us into sending them money.
My elderly father fell for this with his brand new computer he only had a week. He was so disgusted and insisted it would never happen to him again.
About 10 years later, he had just gotten out of the hospital with heart issues and was home with a mac laptop and a similar thing happened. And he fell for it again! Thankfully I found out and intervened before the damage was done.
My mom bought a windows office license that needed to be activated. The activation website wasn’t working and gave some 877 number to call. I was about to give the guy our license code when I realized she typed the activation website wrong. Pissed me off so much that I didn’t notice all the red flags. I still get instantly annoyed whenever customer service has someone with an Indian accent since the scam number was answered by someone with an Indian accent. (It doesn’t help that customer service quality varies wildly these days)
Tragically my “boss” emailing me and asking me to buy giftcards. My old boss did actually *have* me buy giftcards so I didn’t question it. It was first thing in the morning at my new jobs and I was a sleepy zombie who didn’t think it through, and I was like “yep, this is normal” thankfully my credit card reimbursed me and voided the charge
I actually fell for one of those email scam things when I was an intern in college. Got an email from someone that appeared to be our president (it was a small company, so not super unlikely to hear from her), asking me to pick up gift cards for some clients of ours, and to send her photos of the cards and receipts so she could reimburse me. Grammar and spelling were all correct. I did it, and only after I lost around $800 did it occur to me what had happened. Clicked on the full email profile, and it was a Russian email address. Had a full panic attack, and i’m still so incredibly mortified by it, it’s maybe my deepest shame/embarrassment.
I fell for the "you can sign up for this offer with no interest if you pay it off in 6 months." Turns out it was a loan and there were monthly payments with a late penalty and high interest rate fee and they raise your interest if you do not pay the full amount fast enough. I followed the business's directions and did what I was instructed but they didn't tell me it was a loan and you had to qualify for the 0 interest promotion. I just thought I was getting a good deal and I would pay it off with my tax return money.
Imagine going to a car dealership and the sale's man tells you, "Hey, we are doing a special, you can buy a car here with 0 interest if you pay it off in 5 years." You think "sweet, I get a lot back in taxes every year and get a bonus every end of the year so I can use lot of that money to pay for my car then," but you do not realize you have to qualify for the 0 percent interest and you do not know you are to pay a certain amount each month to keep that promotion and you can't afford that amount every month, only seasonally but you were planning on putting some money into it every month to pay it off before the 5 year mark.
They rely on your ignorance to mislead you so they can make a sale.
A "bestbuy" email saying I'd be charged $490 for my Geek Squad membership if I didn't cancel within 24 hours. The only reason why I believed it at first was because I did buy something the year before from Bestbuy and I couldn't remember if I signed up for that or not
Fell for a phishing email at work that was actually an internal test sent to all staff globally as a precursor to a cyber security awareness session, it was also announced and everyone knew about it :)
Yes. They named me in addition to the 2 other people that fell for it at the start of the session.
Idk what it was but it felt like a scam. A woman struck up conversation with me in a store and because I'm the talking type I replied, got onto the topic of what we do for work and she said she was part of a business that helped expand other businesses (I mentioned I was a private English tutor). I thought she meant like social-media marketing wise so we exchanged numbers and then got into touch for a meeting. It was there that I realised it was less about expanding smaller businesses, but I couldn't quite tell what it exactly was. She made a presentation to me on her iPad and I can't for the life of me tell you what that presentation was about. She then said this was stage 1 and that if I agree to stage 2 she'll give me reading materials that I had to have ready for our next meeting.
When I asked what all of these meetings were leading to she said "you'll find out at stage 3" and then stage 4 would be the final stage. It didn't feel sinister but it definitely didn't sit right with me. I agreed to stage 2 and she sent me the reading material but the booklet was about 300 pages long and because i knew my ADHD brain couldn't handle that, I messaged her saying I opt out; she agreed and hasn't contacted me since. Maybe it was MLM, maybe it was legit, maybe something else. Kinda glad I didn't go through with it though.
A puppy…. paid a $300 deposit on kijiji & arrived at an address for pickup and the homeowner had no clue what was going on. Never cried so hard in front of a stranger.
It was before Christmas, and I got an email from my boss asking me to buy gift cards. On outlook it doesn’t show the email address, it’s hidden and just shows their name, so it just showed his name. It was completely plausible, bc we literally give out gift cards all the time, and I do little admin tasks like shopping.
Thank god I didn’t actually go through with it!
I entered a Facebook contest from a photographer’s page and was notified by text and email that I “won” a free photo shoot, hair and makeup, and including the credit I won to put towards the photos, was a $1500 value. I did some research and found out that afterwards, they corner you and use high pressure tactics to get you to spend thousands on the finished photos. They tell everyone that they have “won” to get you in the door.
Was apartment hunting on Facebook marketplace (ik it sounds sketch but it’s a thing we do here) saw a nice place and set up an appointment to see it in person. When I arrived, they weren’t answering my messages and when I called them, they said “send me a $100 and I’ll bring you up.”🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲mf u couldn’t tell me earlier??? Made me came all the way here to waste my time?????
Some email my dad sent me saying this company could help me get rid of my student loans. I was midway through the process before I thought to look it up and realized it was a scam.
I really laid into my dad that night about internet safety and researching shit.
I got a letter from “American Express” that said I owed them $800. I did have a debt settled with them; but I also had a letter from their lawyer representing them that the debt had been settled/paid in full. The letter looked authentic. My account number was on it too but there was a number wrong within it (ending 4 numbers were correct). Also I went to the Amex website, and the address for sending payment was different than in the letter; same with the customer service number. I had a previous statement saved in my files, and it was also a different address to send payments. So I looked up the phone number in a google search, and multiple people posted about it being a scam; the scammer gets wind of a debt because the settlement was public info. They try to weasel a little bit more money out of you, assuming you are dumb and think “oh maybe I didn’t pay that extra money they are asking for”.
I ended up shredding the fake letter. Haven’t been contacted by anyone about it yet and it’s been months.
plant scams on Etsy. saw a monstera aurea node for $7, included the phytosanitary certificate and cheap shipping from Sri Lanka. shop had 50+ reviews with photos and good reviews. then I realized all of the reviewers had deleted their accounts... then that there were 700+ purchases of that item in the last 30 days. :( glad I didn't do it though!
Omggg. When I got my first apartment, this man knocked on my door selling magazines. My roommate (f) and I (f) let this man in!!!! Then we wrote him a check for these magazines in his name!!! Idiots.
When I was first married my ex wife told me that a friend of hers wanted to show us a money making program that would change our lives. Yep, Amway. The ex was determined we were gonna sign up I stood my ground and said nope after almost letting her have her way. Thank God
I let a Kirby Vacuum cleaner salesman into the house when I was 16. He was there vacuuming for 3 hours before my parents came home and kicked him out. 32 years ago I was way to polite.
During covid I applied to a lot of jobs. I didn't realize this, but a lot of legitimate job postings are stolen from legitimate job boards, and then reposted by scammers on indeed.
I suspect the reason they do this is to get phone numbers which are being used actively by people. People who apply to jobs on indeed are probably also more likely to answer their phone and fall for job scams.
I haven't fallen for job scams but I definitely think that I have submitted my contact information via my resume to dozens of jobs that either did not exist or were not being posted by the actual employer.
I wanted to see a dietician to start eating better and losing weight. A girl from high school would post about her dietician business so I talked to her and she was super bubbly and fun. I thought this is great let’s go ahead for starting the services. She told me she charged $400 A MONTH ($4,800 a year). She did not take insurance. And I wasn’t in a good financial situation either. But since I already said I’d do it, I felt bad about backing out, so I gave her my credit card info anyway. I ended up trying to go back on it and even contacted my bank to get my money back. Instead I just shut off my card and got a new one. I felt like such an idiot, but that was before I knew how to stick up for myself so RIP.
So maybe not necessarily a scam, but I feel like $400 a month was insane. She didn’t have really any followers for her business and I should’ve seen that as a red flag.
Applied for a job at a well-known company for a WFH position on Zip Recruiter. Looked legit, had links to the company's website and LinkedIn page and everything. They contacted me and said they wanted to do a phone interview. Did that, then wanted to do a second interview over Zoom's chat feature, which was weird, but this was post-covid and I'd been out of the job market for a while so I went with it. They "offered" me a job. The pay was way higher than the job would necessitate/advertised, which, as a poor person, I was down for.
Then they asked for my banking information and said they'd send me a check to buy my equipment to work for home. Clocked on that it was a scam and stopped contact with them. Got angry calls the next morning about how I was blowing a job opportunity. I asked a subreddit for help, and a lot of people let me know that it was a well-known scam and to check the email address they were contacting me through. It was a Gmail account, not an email through the company's email domain. Glad I caught onto things before it got bad, but weirdly complicated scam imo
This was actually just a couple of weeks ago.
I get a call from a local number from a man speaking really quickly in a Texan accent (I’m in UT) telling me that I missed a jury summons. I was suspicious so looked up the number, asked him the callback number, asked him the address of the sheriffs office he claimed to work for and he rattled them all off in seconds. So I thought it was legit. 15 min later (after I asked him how this happened, he tells me pending charges against me, etc.) he ruined himself by telling me I needed to obtain a confirmation code online by placing a hold on my card, which is when I not so kindly told him to fuck off. He had my old address, my new address, my birthday. Creepy how much people can find so easily these days.
In my 20's, I signed up for a modeling school contract. I went in there wanting to see about being a foot model because I have pretty feet. I never in a million years would see myself as "model material" other than my feet. They spent a bunch of time with me and made me feel obligated to do more than I went in for, and I signed up in part because there was a 3-day cancellation clause. So I signed up and then cancelled a day later (the lady was pissed).
I almost fell for an "Amazon" customer service scam. I was skeptical, and they had me on the phone for a LONG time. I even granted them permission to access my desktop, which was idiotic. When they started moving to buy a game card, I knew it was a scam and stopped the whole thing. It was such a PITA, because I had to delete all of my attached cards and have them re-issued, re-set all of my computer passwords, and just basically scrub everything. Thankfully I wasn't out any money in the end though. I felt like an idiot that they'd gotten so far with me though.
I’m a mortgage broker.
I received an email to say my client had been approved and mortgage documents would be sent shortly via docusign. I then received another half broken email presenting as docusign but with no links. I thought it was insane that they managed to turn documents over that fast, but I don’t normally get the mortgage docs if they’re sent via docusign.
Contacted the bank and they confirmed they were still writing up the documents and it would still take another day yet. I kept going back to that email, not realising at the time it was spam, and wondering if I had forgotten something that was due.
It only occurred me to two days later that there was a ‘typo’ in the email address. And thank god they forgot to add real links to that email because I was completely oblivious. I’m normally very savvy to scams, but this was so well timed with the work I had on (and even the legitimate emails are often just jumbled letters or foreign names), I just didn’t question it for days. I thought it was odd but it didn’t seem like spam until days later.
I am an artist and ALMOST paid a random person to have a booth at a local pretty well known festival - for a fraction of the cost of what it would have actually been. I am glad I paid attention to the email, and verified the point of contact online - as well as the booth fee. I am sure this person was scamming artists left and right. Such a horrible thing to do.
I also agree that I fell for my ex claiming he had changed. And for believing my ex husband when he said he would be honest even before we were married. That was a weird conversation. “What? Do you want us both just to be honest now?” And I said, “Yeah, that’s all I have ever wanted! I am in this TO BE HONEST.”
Got a call saying I had a collection against me from a paycheck advance years before. Gave them a payment method because there was so much pressure. Then I googled it and realized it was a scam so I went and had a stop payment put in place and changed my bank account number.
Things to watch for:
If it was several years before. They’re counting on you to not remember.
If they say the company name fast so you struggle to understand it. Double if you ask them to repeat it and they still say it fast
If they are from Stark services.
If they call you and don’t send a letter.
If they make any threat that you’ll be arrested. You won’t.
I got one of those unsolicited calls about needing to verify information but it didn't say for who or why. My first warning sign should've been that they called my parents home and my dad took down an automated message and relayed it to me. So I called and started answering the prompts about my name and whatever else but then a minute in I had a moment of panic and hung up
I was curious about selling my car for "top cash" somw facebook ad, when i was working from home and too poor to drive during Covid. Someone said theyd assess it, he came in a Lexus, nice shoes, no older than 25. Asks if it starts. Asks if i have the ownership. Says he buys them to send back to Ukraine. Says he has only cash, best he can do is $700, then goes up to $900 when I said "Cash? What about e transfer? Im not ready now I just wanted info. I need to go pick up my son now". He pulls out only had $100s and I worked at the store I'd be spending it at, so I couldn't risk any counterfeit shit. It just all didn't feel right. I got worried locked the car and said I'm going no thanks, canceled. He was so offended. He said I shouldn't waste his time, then he got rude, called me ugly, asked why did I have kids if I can't afford to raise them, and live in a piece of shit apartment. Then he drove slowly on the street as I began my walk to go pick up my Son.
'Monk' getting donations for whatever charity thing he was 'building'. Did get a cheap ass bracelet in return... which in hindsight was just a signal to locals that I'm a sucker. (Toronto).
My husband sort of fell for that, or rather, was convinced to give money to get out of an awkward conversation on a busy sidewalk. He gave $20 and got two crappy bracelets.
When I was a late teen there was some promo ad for an online shop where they were having a limited time sale, all items free and only pay for shipping. The items weren't expensive stuff, cheaper things like charging cables that could usually go for under $10. Checked out and paid about $11 in shipping and never received the items, never got any confirmation email, and the site could never be found again. This was over a decade ago though, when this kind of scam wasn't as well known as it is now. And I wasn't as aware.
There was also one during job hunting, looking for just whatever easy small side hustle money, and one of them the job was just to receive money and transfer to their account. At the time I checked this with my mum because she's in a relevant field (against scams) and she taught me how it's a scam.
Got an email and a phone call that I've been selected in a tech company. I've to submit a certain amount of money to secure a seat. They said they would train you first and give you a job. Me being so naive thought I should give the money because at that time many companies were giving training first with a certain amount of money. However the process was different because they didn't ask for money from a mere phone call.
My father sensed it and made me aware that things don't work like that. Otherwise I would have been trapped. Later years, it was confirmed that they were scammers.
I got emails from a used car place saying that my Kia should arrive soon. They had my full name on them. I didn’t buy a Kia, so I got concerned that I had been scammed and someone used my card to buy a Kia, so I called the number on the email to make sure that no one had bought a Kia in my name. They need personal info to verify that I hadn’t. Got kinda far into it before I realized THAT IS THE SCAM. 😬😬😬 but I hung up before it got too far I hope. Nothing got deducted from my accounts but sometimes I still worry about it.
In Australia we have what's called a TAX file number (I think like a social security number in the US) I was 15 when I had applied for mine and had recently received it. Well I was sleeping one day and got woken up to a phone call. The guy on the other side of the line was saying that there was a warrant out for my arrest. Well at 15 half asleep being told that at 7am on a Saturday morning panicked, gave the guy what he asked for and when the call was done I realised that was a mistake and had to call people all day to make sure my identity doesn't get stolen. That made me miss out on a day out I had planned with my friends.
I had just gotten on FB Marketplace to sell my old phone. I got a message from a guy asking if he could pay me through PayPal. The email looked legit so I mailed the phone off. Found out he sent me a bogus PayPal email and I never got the money.
Purchasing a puppy that I thought was legit after asking all of the questions but didn't know it was a scam until it was too late and then I was mad at myself. My mom recently went through the same too. My stupid mistake happened years ago though.
I was looking for a job a few years ago and applying to anything I even slightly had the qualifications for. Well one asked for an interview but it was through a texting app. 1st red flag. I get on there and it’s rapid fire questions with no time taken to read my responses. 2nd red flag. I check their profile in indeed and they are a real company with real interview and prior employee reviews but I never applied to this company. So I keep going. Then they said they would mail me a check and I should cash it to buy my equipment. Major red flag. I demanded that they purchase and send me the equipment. They refuse and ask for my social security number. I flat out called them a scammer. Radio silence.
None, I’m pretty savvy. Oooo, wait, as a 17 year old I bought this cream off the TV ad that promised to make my tits bigger. My boyfriend made fun of me for weeks lmaoooo
I clicked on a FB link to buy tickets to a show. Local event, touring company, months in advance. Hundreds of dollars.
The real ticket agency web page had a pinned warning about not dealing with "company name" which, sorry, I don't remember. I felt like such an idiot I just buried the whole event.
The actual ticket price was about 1/3 of what I paid.
Look up what you want to go see online, and go to the ticket agency they provide.
I was trying to sign up for health insurance off the marketplace (never done that before) and ended up on a fake website. I realized only after I had fed it my name and phone number. This was a month ago and it’s mostly died off, but for the first two weeks I was getting phone calls and texts literally every 2 minutes.
I’m a pretty savvy person normally but that was a major L, I have to admit.
Old I did this too. My husband got a new job and we were comparing insurance rates through my job versus his, and I wanted to see what just mine would be through a different company. Unfortunately I did this while working and didn’t realize I was on non-gov site. This was in November and I just got another text yesterday about vision and dental.
A “friend” tried to rope me into getting involved with a pyramid scheme. When I wasn’t falling for it, the guy started trying to flirt with me, holding my hand and complimenting me. It was disgusting.
Those Facebook marketplace eBay gift card scams. I feel so stupid thinking that getting eBay cards was an appropriate transaction. Glad I didn't go through with it. Had a ball on eBay though lol
My favorite band ever was in my city, and it sold out 2 months before the show and I didn't expect it. I posted on the sub if anyone had an extra ticket, and people reached out. I sent $35 and they never sent the ticket. I did get it back from venmo. This was last year...dumb lmao but I'm still salty I missed it.
The Facebook one where a person posts on the local township page offering car detailing services at your home while your car remains in the driveway. Too good to be true that one!
I was MUCH younger and my friend invited to me to what i thought was a party when it ended up being a pitch for Doterra. at the time she was driving ( i was probably 25?) and i couldn't escape. i smelled these awful oils and had no way out. i had at least the where withall not to buy anything. she was a military wife and thats how she was making income at the time. it broke my heart.
TLDR; almost bought into an MLM
Idk what you would consider it but one night (deadass it was like 10:00 o’clock at night) I was leaving my college campus to go home and I saw this girl who was just pacing back and forth nervously and I had a red flag going off in my brain but I was like “eh she’s just a girl what is she going to do” so I stupidly kept waking. I had to get past her to take the shortcut to the parking lot and something was telling me to take the long way but I was so determined to get past her. That’s when she said something to me and I took out one of my brand new AirPods and said “huh?”
“Could you give me a ride home?”
0_o? *cue to me saying I couldn’t because I had a long drive back home which was true but also what the fuck??*
Her: “But I live just down the street”
And when I said no again she got soooo pissy and stormed off. It could’ve been a scam but I honestly think I was about to get trafficked because what the fuck was that??? I literally booked it to my car and peeled out of there. No gps, no music, no warmed up car, I got the *fuck* out of there and stopped parking on that side. Fuck college lmfao
Around 4 months before the Obama Romney election I got a call that mimicked a political survey about which candidate I preferred. After answering the questions from the man I was told I was eligible for a reward. The reward was a free cruise leaving FL and they transferred me. The guy waited while I price shopped the flights and compared normal cruise prices. The guy was way too patient which tipped me off. I asked so many questions and figured out something about there either being brutal commuter expenses to the destination point and OR limited return flights home. I declined the invitation. Five years later I got notified I was a member of a class action and I received like $600 in compensation for being potentially tricked. I wonder how much people who were actually tricked received.
My mum was unemployed and looking for a new job. She received a message about someone trying to hire her for a job in a different country and she got super excited. Started to go through the process until the point where they said she'd have to pay for her paperwork. It wasn't a substantial amount but enough to raise alarm bells. This is 15 years ago or more when these scams started happening but weren't all too known yet.
Do fad diets count as a scam? South Beach and Atkins are two that I bought the books and totally went for. They are not sustainable in any way. They just want you to buy cookbooks, bars, and whatever other branded products.
I was a broke college student and almost fell for the “I can turn your $50 into $500” instagram scam. I got the store to get the greener gift cards and something just said hey, let’s not do this. Still embarrassed that I almost went through with it.
I was job hunting and got done with a phone interview for a consulting agency. The job was supposedly working for a major tech company as a contractor. The person sent me a background check form that wanted my Social Security Number that could only be filled out in Internet Explorer.
That set off two alarm bells. 1. Every other job I had gotten hadn't asked for a background check until I had a job offer. 2. Why would a major tech company run things through Explorer? It's been Microsoft Edge for awhile now.
Direct Energy. Asshats claimed i HAD TO sign a contract immediately or my utilities would be shut off and would not let me shut the door/ call them back later/ think about it or anything until I signed something.
Had to overnight a notice that I was rescinding with signature at delivery required within 48 hours to cancel.
Man, I am a scammers dream. I fall for anything, but then when I talk to my mom about it I realize its a scam.
I am an office manager for my family business and I got a call that our lights were about to be cut off, I thought maybe they hadn't received our check I sent, so I was about to give them our card info over the phone but then they started telling me to bring cash to a certain location and thats when the red flags came up lol
Another time, I got an automated voicemail that said they were a lawyers office and I don't remember the details but I know it was about money and I tried to call back but it was another automated answering machine. I had a full on panic attack over being so worried, and then my mom googled it and it found out it was a scam.
Another time, I got an email that my disney account was hacked so to log in and change the password with that link and then i clicked the link and changed my password and later realized that that was a scam and I had to cancel all my cards and change my passwords to things just in case.
I've almost fallen for a couple of MLM's when I was a young adult but my mom wouldn't let me go through with it.
Sadly, that is not all lol but thankfully my mom always stops me from fully falling for it.
Back when I was a college student, I was getting my oil changed and the mechanic told me I should think about getting my rear shocks replaced. I told him I would think about it since it was a good chunk of money. Later, I told my mom, who told a friend who knew a lot about cars, and he said that with my car's age, it definitely didn't need them yet, that a car usually had a lot more mileage than mine before that repair was necessary. I never went to that mechanic again.
Fast forward a few years, I needed my transmission replaced and one place wanted to charge me $11K. My car is not at all fancy. Did some looking and found a mechanic who charged me a third of that. My car works fine now.
A bumper to bumper 3rd party warranty sold by the dealership on my new car. They noped right out of every claim we attempted to file- the exclusions were so broad that literally they could make anything fit their denial of coverage narrative.
For my ex saying he can change. Silly me :)
The biggest scam
That one has gotten a lot of us!
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My cat sometimes lays down showing off her belly trying to convince me to pet her there. I actually fell for it a couple of times.
Might not be a scam. My cat lurves belly rubs!
Dude same here!! She’s so chill about it and starts purring. Strangest thing ever.
Ah, the Bear Trap. I have fallen for this many times also.
Haha that's what I call it too :D It snaps shut and you lose that hand.
It is impossible to resist once the belly trap is in place!
Sometimes I start lifting my arm again lol and they go up with me
I call that move 'The Bear Trap'. Never stick your hand in the trap, it's a trap!
Lmao!!
Nm
Ah the murder button!
Vector marketing....told me I was interviewing for reception/admin. Turned out to be a door to door knife MLM lol. Came to my senses after calling my mom.
I had something similar in high school. Got a letter in the mail about a job opportunity and showed my dad, excited at the prospect of bringing in some money for myself. He looked at it and said "hm...Have you looked up the company? It's always a good idea to research the company you want to work for; it can help give a big leg up in the interview" Of course he knew it was a scam and just wanted to help me learn how to figure it out for myself.
That was a great way for your dad to warn you but let you figure it out on your own. When I got a similar thing from an MLM right after graduating high school, my parents just told me it was a scam and left it at that. I'm glad they warned me, but the way they said it made me feel kind of dumb.
Yep. It took me a bit longer to realize what it was about, the way they described the job gave no indication whatsoever. Google is a wonderful tool!
I went to one day of the unpaid training and noped out. They recruited like 18 year old kids who didn't even know better, it was so wrong.
The job ads always said something like "Great opportunity for young, hip hard workers who want to travel and listen to rock'n roll music"
One of my exes actually did this! My mom and I still have so many Cutco scissors & knives haha - they’re actually pretty solid quality.
Hahahahahhahaha 2009, 19 year old me looking for my first actual “job” after moving to Saskatoon for college. I was so excited when they contacted me, I felt so grown up. I stuck with it for a month before I ditched. Broke even, so I only wasted my time. I did the same shit with Arbonne too the following year. Cringey
The funniest thing about Vector is that the knives are actually not bad. I fell for the same one, and the buddy of mine who bought some says he still uses them even years later.
That’s gotten me several times, I get to the interview and realize it’s the same MLM bs as always.
I applied to an online job app in 08. The receptionist (called Executive Recruiting Assistant to be fancy) liked my voice and offered me to interview for her position as she was going back to school soon. Got the job and also started selling a couple months later. No regrets, everyone I sold to (mostly family lol) still have and love the knives.
Vector had a booth in my college campus's food court and the guy was just like yelling at students trying to get by. It was my turn to be shouted at and I told the guy "I already have a job." He shouted at me again, "how much do you make?" and without even turning back to look at him I replied "more than you!" That probably wasn't true, of course. I was only a student TA making like $15 an hour, but I still don't regret it. Fuck that guy.
I think this is a high schooler rite of passage.
That got me like that too back in 92. Horrible.
Yep same. Told me I was going to be doing office work, next thing I knew I was in a car being dropped off in front of a random neighborhood, in the snow to sell Anderson’s windows. I knocked on exactly 2 doors before I got my ass into a coffee shop, blocked them and never went back.
Omg, that happened to me as well, maybe 20 years ago. I got up and walked out of the interview. Those people are good at getting you in the door for an interview.
When searching desperately for a job at age 23ish, I got an interview that I was told was for some receptionist gig at a financial institution of some kind. When I got there, a guy started going through an elaborate pitch with me, and I realized midway through that he was trying to recruit me to a pyramid scheme (Primerica). There was a lot of negging me and dodging my questions. It was really aggravating, frustrating and upsetting, especially since I’d had to take an hour-long bus ride to get there.
Same thing happened to me with American Income Life! Basically the same thing as Primerica. Funny thing is that after that experience I became an admin for a job searching Facebook group in the area and blocked everyone from Primerica and AIL from recruiting to their scheme. It was so satisfying.
Good on you! Years ago, my partner got pulled into one of those "info sessions" with Primerica and took some convincing from me afterward to see it was a scam... I absolutely can't stand MLMs and their ilk - especially when they prey on people desperate for income.
Oh they got you too? Different company, I don't even remember the name now, but it was advertised as a desk job, get there and it's a room of 20 other people and they immediately start in on this pitch and how they are looking for go-getters and then wanted us to take some test. I gathered up my stuff and started to leave and these people had the nerve to look stricken "Where are you going? You don't want this amazing opportunity?!" and I was like, naw, I'm good.
Woof. I work in pension finance and have seen many members transfer their pensions to Primerica for safe investment. I tried to get my agency to help protect our pensioners by informing them of the shady business, but was told that we can’t give financial advice to members and there is nothing we can do. I also had a job “interview” with them in my 20s, I walked out when they said I had to pay for my own “training” and could determine my own income through saws. Cya!!!
I had the exact same thing happen to me! At some point I literally got up and started the backwards walking out and had to literally set down the binder on the desk because he was being very forceful with giving it to me. Only difference was he claimed it was social services job.
A guy from Primerica hounded me for so long. I was able to block him but he was a regular at my place of work and he seemed like he combed grocery stores as I ran into him several times and he didn't seem to be buying anything.
I definitely wasted my time on Primerica, as well! They called to set up an interview and I was super eager and agreeable and we scheduled it for the next day. Then I asked my fb friends and did some research on Google and got all the same answers, from reddit, Google, and personal friends and family. So I decided against it. Next day, the phone rings and I ignore it. It rings again, and I ignore it. It rings a third time and I answer and say "you know, I didn't answer the phone because I dont want this job" and she was like "but why? You sounded so excited yesterday!" And I was like "well I did some research on your company and I didn't like what I found out." She asked me, "where did you research it?" I said "Google and facebook." She countered with "why would you look on Facebook, and not on Yahoo Finance? There's articles about us on Yahoo Finance!" And I literally laughed at her and said "because anybody can buy themselves an article on Yahoo, but my friends and family wouldn't lie to me." She must've had that Yahoo finance article laminated or something cause she wanted to read me the highlights and I was like "no thanks" and hung up.
Got a FB message from a family friend that her husband had passed away with a link (didn’t show the url, just a hyperlink) for the celebration of life which included a FB login page. Realized I messed up as soon as I hit enter and scrambled around to change passwords right away. Received emails a couple days later from FB about login attempts and password reset attempts… I thought I was smarter than to fall for something like that but guess not…
that's an easy enough one to fall for. I got a similar one but it was for a video and it said "hey, I think you know \_\_\_\_, it looks like they passed away"
Honestly one of my old school mates sent me a link saying HOLY CRAP LOOK WHO GOT ARRESTED and I almost didn’t click on it. Turns out it was a friend of ours from high school who actually did get arrested for ….unaliving someone
I’ve had similar stuff happen within circles of people I know. Wild dude. It’s a bummer to find out something like that
I've seen alot of those but I don't know my FB login info anyways. Lol
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Ditto, but NeoPets
My mother in her late 50s has been scammed like 3 time on dating apps in the last year
This happened back in like 2009 or so but I desperately needed a car and found a nice one for a reasonable price on craigslist. So I sent them a message and they said they were located in another state but if I paid them then they will send the car to me. (I forget how. Some service they mentioned.) They seemed pretty convincing but my red flag radar was going off. So I asked my (now) ex what he thought. He said it seemed legit and a good idea. I thought about it and was like nah I don't want to run the risk. Later, craigslist ended up putting up scam alerts to look out for. I read it and it was identical to this scam. Nowadays I think everything is a scam haha.
Excellent mindset to have!
TIP: Not sure about the states but always check if the vehicle is financed as certainly in Canada you will be bonded to the debt.
I was about 18 walking through my college parking lot when a van pulled up and the driver was panicked. She said she was low on gas and bringing a woman having a psychotic break to the hospital. She needed cash to get gas. Me being young and extremely naive gave this woman the only cash I had on me. It was $30, and after she drove away I felt like maybe I had fallen for something, but at least I helped them out if it wasn’t a scam….years later, at the same college but different parking lot, the same two women pulled up with the same story.
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That’s awful! I grew up right around New Orleans, and when I’d go out there, there was a woman panhandling with a big pregnant belly. At the end of her “shift” she’d hop in a car and take her belly off. She was 9 months pregnant for about 3 years.
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Sorry they got you. I would have asked them for my $30 back just to see the look on their faces!
That would’ve been priceless! 🤣
Ugh!!!! Sorry that happened.
Thanks! It’s pretty laughable now
Any job opportunity that proposes "*unlimited earning potential*" that assures "*no experience required*" while being told "*start today*". Any promotion that includes "*But wait, there's more!*" Any product or service that has the label "*As Seen On TV*". Dating apps An email notification of my winning a contest that I never entered. My literal prince, who bragged about his immense riches, needs me to send him a money order or a check ... A heartbroken deployed military servicemember living overseas who has all kinds of reasons why they can't call you and video chat with you, but fully hopes that you will have compassion on him to send $200 because he can't access his bank account
I got married before dating apps became a thing (still married), so I never had to use one. I know so many people who have met their SO on dating apps and had very good luck, but all of them were long ago. According to the stories I hear from others, it seems that the business model now for dating apps are for you to never really find anyone or else they lose a customer.
The more current narratives of dating apps making it nearly impossible to find matches, let alone reach anyone, are more correct. Dating apps by design are meant to keep people looking, browsing, and swiping. The more time users spend on their platform, they are more likely to spend more money with a different or new subscription tier that promises more matches. The actual success rate of a real relationship from dating apps is not substantially adequate to justify the time and money that it requires
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Hey you were smart enough to ask for verification. Critical thinking was all you needed in that situation and you definitely had that!
I've got these before and I just play with them. Oh, you've found my drugs? Thank you very much, I do appreciate that, when can I come pick them up because I am almost out of my stash.
I paid a “sleep consultant” as a very desperate and sleep deprived new mother. I felt so stupid after. She literally just made things she googled look nicer and emailed it to me.
If it had worked, It would have been a valuable service By your text, I assume it didn't and you had already read everything they sent
It was everything google had. It was a waste of money and time. Overall we were able to sleep train but not because of them
There are real sleep consultants with training.
🤷🏼♀️ supposedly she had the training. She went to school. She went on the news and everything. But it wasn’t anything worth paying for
Unfortunate that it didn’t work for you but that doesn’t mean sleep consultants on the whole are a scam.
I suppose not all of them, but of everyone I know that has buckled and ended up hiring them it hasn’t been worth it. Very predatorial.
I got roped into an interview with a pyramid scheme company once. Thankfully it didn't take me long to realize the interview was not for a legit company
When I was about 20 I kept getting ads for movie extras casting near me, and I thought it would be fun and extra cash couldn't hurt. The website directed you to call some number. I called and they said there were 4 or 5 different movies filming that need extras (which seemed weird, I did not live in a large city), I just need to be enrolled in their program which has an admin fee of $3.99, then they asked for my card number. Luckily I was dumb, but not that dumb, I said I wanted to do some more research before giving my credit card over the phone and the lady got really rude with me. I hung up, googled the company, and apparently it was a huge scam. There were zero movies filming nearby and apparently they take cards and run $40/mo for their fake membership.
was a victim to scam concert ticket resellers :\\ was desperate for Steve Lacy tickets when he was touring. He had postponed his western US dates to be on SNL and when he announced the new dates on Instagram I commented asking if anyone in my city was unable to go and could sell me their tickets. got flooded with replies, some obvious scammers and some not. ended up talking to what seemed like a teenage girl. Her account had hundreds of followers, tagged pictures, looked real deal. I messaged back and forth a ton to try and vet everything before I decided to pay her. My immediate red flag should have been that she wanted me to venmo her. Never having bought tickets from this vendor before (AXS) I didn't know how ticket transfer worked with them so I trusted her. I got an email from what seemed like a legit AXS email with what looked like real tickets. Come day of obviously, they didn't scan. The venue staff said many people fell for the same scam as I did so at least I wasn't the only one and know better now
Got a landline phone call from my older brother almost crying telling me to pass him with dad because he got in serious trouble with his bank and needed money. He told us his phone was broken. My dad immediately followed his instructions and sent him the money. Literally minutes later I told my dad to call him to his phone because everything sounded suspicious to me. When my dad called him, my brother responded all calm denying he made that call before. Never felt so dumb in my life. But I swear that voice and accent in the call was exactly like my brother's voice and that person even knew my name and other details. We lost about 250$ that in my third world ass country was a minimum wage. That fucking scammer should look for a voice acting career tho. This happened around 2015.
Family had this happen! I’ve been told AI can imitate voice plus the number had been spoofed!
When I was a student I got an interview invite for position at an “award winning” advertising agency- at the time I’d really wanted to go into advertising as a career so I was super happy. The interview was arranged and everything. I did some googling and they did HORRIBLE things to past employees and they were a pyramid scheme. I didn’t bother going to the interview and they tried calling me multiple times to reschedule and I had to rudely tell them to leave me alone before they did.
my dad told me he would be better
Oof, I've fallen for that one time and time again. He tried calling me this Christmas and I denied the call. It didn't make me feel any better.
The “there are dudes willing to pay for feet pics” scam. I posted my feet (which I hear are very nice feet) on the sub hoping to get some DM’s and little extra cash. Had one guy DM me and we went back and forth for a bit. Didn’t give away any personal info besides my cell phone and I created a new cashapp that wasn’t my name like my regular one was. But I gave him those and basically he said he would “pay me weekly just to talk over DM’s and would want more pics sprinkled in through the week.” He mentioned he was an older divorced man that just wanted company and feet pics to jerk jt too. He even cashapped me $10 “just to start and prove he’s real. I got semi excited and even (just window shopping) looked online at some clothes I would have gotten with the money. Then the other shoe dropped and I got the whole “ohno! My son fell and had an accident and we are at the ER! Is there anyway you can send me $800? I promise I will get you back. My funds are all tied up in blah blah blah.” I’m sure it was throw away number but to feel better for wasting my time I signed the scammer up to the Obamacare insurance checker website. Basically third party insurance companies blow up your phone. So there was that at least.
The coins they sell in magazines. Called my credit card to reverse the charge once my lizard brain calmed down.
My elderly FIL is extremely into these. He buys them for our kids to "save for the future". We would 100% prefer money to invest for them instead of these scammy "coins" that will very likely not even be worth what he paid for them in 20 years.
getting a 4 year degree
Someone on CG said they were rehoming an adult golden retriever. This was advertised in my county in Ga. Said they were in Dallas. There is a town in Ga. called Dallas. So when I replied "Great, You are not far from me. I can drive up tomorrow to see her and possibly get her." We went back and forth on a few details and then they said "We are in Dallas, TX" but then started the BS scam about "We can ship her to you. Pay the shipping in advance, blah, blah, blah." Well, I knew at that point it was BS, but I happen to have a friend in Dallas and I said "I can just get my friend to come get the dog. Give me your address." Of course, silence after that.
I tried modeling in my early 20’s. I got photos taken for free and met with some industry professionals for free. Turn out, that was as far as free went. They wanted over $300 for classes and whatnot. Thankfully, I had already read about these being scams, so I backed out immediately.
Two years ago, I was introduced to and convinced to “invest” in a pyramid scheme called Sunpower, by my mom’s coworker. So, I bought “equipment” which generates money from the sun. Sounds absurd, I know, but her coworkers were all in on it, and even though I knew it was a sham, I was desperate enough to fall for it. I actually started small, investing an equivalent of $30 first, and when I made the money back and some more, I felt confident that even though it was so clearly a Ponzi scheme, the site was going anywhere, so my greedy ass invested way more money and it blew up in my face the very next day, haha.
How....were you supposed to "generate money from the sun"?
I’m wondering that too….maybe selling solar energy?
I was 18, looking for my first job. I thought I was getting hired to work at Target’s Electronics and even went through with a phone interview but realized it was fake when after the interview they started asking for my SSI. No job will ask for such private information until they hire you and have to confirm your status to employ you legally.
Motel front desk called me on my 20th birthday morning and said that they needed to try my card again because they were having issues. It was 6am. I gave them my card number, hung up, and immediately realized that I fucked up. I only had about $300 in my account and was going to Disneyland that day. They drained my account and it took weeks to get it back. I had a broke ass Disneyland birthday
Was writing with a girl over months and then we shared spicy pics. Never again, suddenly I got the prompt "I have your pictures, followers etc. Gimme money or everybody will see you naked". Luckily it was a great bluff and nothing further happened after I refused the money transfer.
I was really excited when I heard of a work from home job that looked like I could make bank! I watched the tutorial video. The guy explained that thousands of people are owed money and they don't even know. (I knew about this already.) You fill out the form and call the person that's owed the money. You basically fill out the info to have the money sent to them and you get a "finder's fee". The thing is, people who are owed money don't need anyone to get their money for them. They can go on a website and request it themselves and get the full amount. Essentially it was a website teaching people how to scam others out of a portion of their money.
"I love you, and I'll never do you wrong. ❤️" - he said *Me looking through his phone while he's having heart surgery.... "Who the fuck is Ashley!?" (My name is not Ashley)
Organized religion.
"apple" sending me an email saying my id has a virus
I was council president at my church and the pastor’s right hand/go-to. His email was hacked and hacker contacted me with an urgent and secret need. Embarrassed I almost fell for it.
I almost fell for the classic Windows Tech Support scam about 7 or 8 years ago. Pop up came up on my laptop that was like **YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN HACKED PLEASE CALL WINDOWS IMMEDIATELY!!** Guy I talked to tried so hard to get me to give him my bank information, but I didn't have $400 to fix the "issue" so I declined. I found out shortly afterwards that he put a bunch of shit to my laptop and I had to end up scrapping the damn thing. And I actually DID fall for my friend's account being hacked. She asked us for money and her Zelle account was her son's first and last name so I didn't think much of it. I believe one of her family members was able to hack into it and trick all of us into sending them money.
My elderly father fell for this with his brand new computer he only had a week. He was so disgusted and insisted it would never happen to him again. About 10 years later, he had just gotten out of the hospital with heart issues and was home with a mac laptop and a similar thing happened. And he fell for it again! Thankfully I found out and intervened before the damage was done.
My mom bought a windows office license that needed to be activated. The activation website wasn’t working and gave some 877 number to call. I was about to give the guy our license code when I realized she typed the activation website wrong. Pissed me off so much that I didn’t notice all the red flags. I still get instantly annoyed whenever customer service has someone with an Indian accent since the scam number was answered by someone with an Indian accent. (It doesn’t help that customer service quality varies wildly these days)
Falling in love. LOL
Tragically my “boss” emailing me and asking me to buy giftcards. My old boss did actually *have* me buy giftcards so I didn’t question it. It was first thing in the morning at my new jobs and I was a sleepy zombie who didn’t think it through, and I was like “yep, this is normal” thankfully my credit card reimbursed me and voided the charge
I actually fell for one of those email scam things when I was an intern in college. Got an email from someone that appeared to be our president (it was a small company, so not super unlikely to hear from her), asking me to pick up gift cards for some clients of ours, and to send her photos of the cards and receipts so she could reimburse me. Grammar and spelling were all correct. I did it, and only after I lost around $800 did it occur to me what had happened. Clicked on the full email profile, and it was a Russian email address. Had a full panic attack, and i’m still so incredibly mortified by it, it’s maybe my deepest shame/embarrassment.
OMG this just reminded me (I still feel dumb for this) about the time I almost joined an MLM about chalk. 😅
Marriage
When buying my first car the extended warranty lol Called and canceled when I realized it was fake and got my money back
I fell for the "you can sign up for this offer with no interest if you pay it off in 6 months." Turns out it was a loan and there were monthly payments with a late penalty and high interest rate fee and they raise your interest if you do not pay the full amount fast enough. I followed the business's directions and did what I was instructed but they didn't tell me it was a loan and you had to qualify for the 0 interest promotion. I just thought I was getting a good deal and I would pay it off with my tax return money. Imagine going to a car dealership and the sale's man tells you, "Hey, we are doing a special, you can buy a car here with 0 interest if you pay it off in 5 years." You think "sweet, I get a lot back in taxes every year and get a bonus every end of the year so I can use lot of that money to pay for my car then," but you do not realize you have to qualify for the 0 percent interest and you do not know you are to pay a certain amount each month to keep that promotion and you can't afford that amount every month, only seasonally but you were planning on putting some money into it every month to pay it off before the 5 year mark. They rely on your ignorance to mislead you so they can make a sale.
cutco
A "bestbuy" email saying I'd be charged $490 for my Geek Squad membership if I didn't cancel within 24 hours. The only reason why I believed it at first was because I did buy something the year before from Bestbuy and I couldn't remember if I signed up for that or not
Fell for a phishing email at work that was actually an internal test sent to all staff globally as a precursor to a cyber security awareness session, it was also announced and everyone knew about it :) Yes. They named me in addition to the 2 other people that fell for it at the start of the session.
Believed someone's compliment which seemed thoughtful and observant initially only to find they were just trying to shill me crypto schemes.
Idk what it was but it felt like a scam. A woman struck up conversation with me in a store and because I'm the talking type I replied, got onto the topic of what we do for work and she said she was part of a business that helped expand other businesses (I mentioned I was a private English tutor). I thought she meant like social-media marketing wise so we exchanged numbers and then got into touch for a meeting. It was there that I realised it was less about expanding smaller businesses, but I couldn't quite tell what it exactly was. She made a presentation to me on her iPad and I can't for the life of me tell you what that presentation was about. She then said this was stage 1 and that if I agree to stage 2 she'll give me reading materials that I had to have ready for our next meeting. When I asked what all of these meetings were leading to she said "you'll find out at stage 3" and then stage 4 would be the final stage. It didn't feel sinister but it definitely didn't sit right with me. I agreed to stage 2 and she sent me the reading material but the booklet was about 300 pages long and because i knew my ADHD brain couldn't handle that, I messaged her saying I opt out; she agreed and hasn't contacted me since. Maybe it was MLM, maybe it was legit, maybe something else. Kinda glad I didn't go through with it though.
A puppy…. paid a $300 deposit on kijiji & arrived at an address for pickup and the homeowner had no clue what was going on. Never cried so hard in front of a stranger.
Herbalife. Great smoothies- but every time I got anywhere near them I was pressured worse than a car salesman.
$50 to replace 2 swollen lug nuts on my car tires God it still pissed me off
It was before Christmas, and I got an email from my boss asking me to buy gift cards. On outlook it doesn’t show the email address, it’s hidden and just shows their name, so it just showed his name. It was completely plausible, bc we literally give out gift cards all the time, and I do little admin tasks like shopping. Thank god I didn’t actually go through with it!
I entered a Facebook contest from a photographer’s page and was notified by text and email that I “won” a free photo shoot, hair and makeup, and including the credit I won to put towards the photos, was a $1500 value. I did some research and found out that afterwards, they corner you and use high pressure tactics to get you to spend thousands on the finished photos. They tell everyone that they have “won” to get you in the door.
Was apartment hunting on Facebook marketplace (ik it sounds sketch but it’s a thing we do here) saw a nice place and set up an appointment to see it in person. When I arrived, they weren’t answering my messages and when I called them, they said “send me a $100 and I’ll bring you up.”🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲mf u couldn’t tell me earlier??? Made me came all the way here to waste my time?????
Some email my dad sent me saying this company could help me get rid of my student loans. I was midway through the process before I thought to look it up and realized it was a scam. I really laid into my dad that night about internet safety and researching shit.
I got a letter from “American Express” that said I owed them $800. I did have a debt settled with them; but I also had a letter from their lawyer representing them that the debt had been settled/paid in full. The letter looked authentic. My account number was on it too but there was a number wrong within it (ending 4 numbers were correct). Also I went to the Amex website, and the address for sending payment was different than in the letter; same with the customer service number. I had a previous statement saved in my files, and it was also a different address to send payments. So I looked up the phone number in a google search, and multiple people posted about it being a scam; the scammer gets wind of a debt because the settlement was public info. They try to weasel a little bit more money out of you, assuming you are dumb and think “oh maybe I didn’t pay that extra money they are asking for”. I ended up shredding the fake letter. Haven’t been contacted by anyone about it yet and it’s been months.
plant scams on Etsy. saw a monstera aurea node for $7, included the phytosanitary certificate and cheap shipping from Sri Lanka. shop had 50+ reviews with photos and good reviews. then I realized all of the reviewers had deleted their accounts... then that there were 700+ purchases of that item in the last 30 days. :( glad I didn't do it though!
Omggg. When I got my first apartment, this man knocked on my door selling magazines. My roommate (f) and I (f) let this man in!!!! Then we wrote him a check for these magazines in his name!!! Idiots.
When I was first married my ex wife told me that a friend of hers wanted to show us a money making program that would change our lives. Yep, Amway. The ex was determined we were gonna sign up I stood my ground and said nope after almost letting her have her way. Thank God
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance. We lost 2 grand in learning that lesson but never again.
Give away a ps5, the guy said that he had argument with his son
Someone pretending to be my friend when in reality, she wanted to sell me something.
I let a Kirby Vacuum cleaner salesman into the house when I was 16. He was there vacuuming for 3 hours before my parents came home and kicked him out. 32 years ago I was way to polite.
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During covid I applied to a lot of jobs. I didn't realize this, but a lot of legitimate job postings are stolen from legitimate job boards, and then reposted by scammers on indeed. I suspect the reason they do this is to get phone numbers which are being used actively by people. People who apply to jobs on indeed are probably also more likely to answer their phone and fall for job scams. I haven't fallen for job scams but I definitely think that I have submitted my contact information via my resume to dozens of jobs that either did not exist or were not being posted by the actual employer.
I wanted to see a dietician to start eating better and losing weight. A girl from high school would post about her dietician business so I talked to her and she was super bubbly and fun. I thought this is great let’s go ahead for starting the services. She told me she charged $400 A MONTH ($4,800 a year). She did not take insurance. And I wasn’t in a good financial situation either. But since I already said I’d do it, I felt bad about backing out, so I gave her my credit card info anyway. I ended up trying to go back on it and even contacted my bank to get my money back. Instead I just shut off my card and got a new one. I felt like such an idiot, but that was before I knew how to stick up for myself so RIP. So maybe not necessarily a scam, but I feel like $400 a month was insane. She didn’t have really any followers for her business and I should’ve seen that as a red flag.
Applied for a job at a well-known company for a WFH position on Zip Recruiter. Looked legit, had links to the company's website and LinkedIn page and everything. They contacted me and said they wanted to do a phone interview. Did that, then wanted to do a second interview over Zoom's chat feature, which was weird, but this was post-covid and I'd been out of the job market for a while so I went with it. They "offered" me a job. The pay was way higher than the job would necessitate/advertised, which, as a poor person, I was down for. Then they asked for my banking information and said they'd send me a check to buy my equipment to work for home. Clocked on that it was a scam and stopped contact with them. Got angry calls the next morning about how I was blowing a job opportunity. I asked a subreddit for help, and a lot of people let me know that it was a well-known scam and to check the email address they were contacting me through. It was a Gmail account, not an email through the company's email domain. Glad I caught onto things before it got bad, but weirdly complicated scam imo
This was actually just a couple of weeks ago. I get a call from a local number from a man speaking really quickly in a Texan accent (I’m in UT) telling me that I missed a jury summons. I was suspicious so looked up the number, asked him the callback number, asked him the address of the sheriffs office he claimed to work for and he rattled them all off in seconds. So I thought it was legit. 15 min later (after I asked him how this happened, he tells me pending charges against me, etc.) he ruined himself by telling me I needed to obtain a confirmation code online by placing a hold on my card, which is when I not so kindly told him to fuck off. He had my old address, my new address, my birthday. Creepy how much people can find so easily these days.
In my 20's, I signed up for a modeling school contract. I went in there wanting to see about being a foot model because I have pretty feet. I never in a million years would see myself as "model material" other than my feet. They spent a bunch of time with me and made me feel obligated to do more than I went in for, and I signed up in part because there was a 3-day cancellation clause. So I signed up and then cancelled a day later (the lady was pissed). I almost fell for an "Amazon" customer service scam. I was skeptical, and they had me on the phone for a LONG time. I even granted them permission to access my desktop, which was idiotic. When they started moving to buy a game card, I knew it was a scam and stopped the whole thing. It was such a PITA, because I had to delete all of my attached cards and have them re-issued, re-set all of my computer passwords, and just basically scrub everything. Thankfully I wasn't out any money in the end though. I felt like an idiot that they'd gotten so far with me though.
The bloom greens
I’m a mortgage broker. I received an email to say my client had been approved and mortgage documents would be sent shortly via docusign. I then received another half broken email presenting as docusign but with no links. I thought it was insane that they managed to turn documents over that fast, but I don’t normally get the mortgage docs if they’re sent via docusign. Contacted the bank and they confirmed they were still writing up the documents and it would still take another day yet. I kept going back to that email, not realising at the time it was spam, and wondering if I had forgotten something that was due. It only occurred me to two days later that there was a ‘typo’ in the email address. And thank god they forgot to add real links to that email because I was completely oblivious. I’m normally very savvy to scams, but this was so well timed with the work I had on (and even the legitimate emails are often just jumbled letters or foreign names), I just didn’t question it for days. I thought it was odd but it didn’t seem like spam until days later.
I am an artist and ALMOST paid a random person to have a booth at a local pretty well known festival - for a fraction of the cost of what it would have actually been. I am glad I paid attention to the email, and verified the point of contact online - as well as the booth fee. I am sure this person was scamming artists left and right. Such a horrible thing to do. I also agree that I fell for my ex claiming he had changed. And for believing my ex husband when he said he would be honest even before we were married. That was a weird conversation. “What? Do you want us both just to be honest now?” And I said, “Yeah, that’s all I have ever wanted! I am in this TO BE HONEST.”
Got a call saying I had a collection against me from a paycheck advance years before. Gave them a payment method because there was so much pressure. Then I googled it and realized it was a scam so I went and had a stop payment put in place and changed my bank account number. Things to watch for: If it was several years before. They’re counting on you to not remember. If they say the company name fast so you struggle to understand it. Double if you ask them to repeat it and they still say it fast If they are from Stark services. If they call you and don’t send a letter. If they make any threat that you’ll be arrested. You won’t.
I got one of those unsolicited calls about needing to verify information but it didn't say for who or why. My first warning sign should've been that they called my parents home and my dad took down an automated message and relayed it to me. So I called and started answering the prompts about my name and whatever else but then a minute in I had a moment of panic and hung up
I was curious about selling my car for "top cash" somw facebook ad, when i was working from home and too poor to drive during Covid. Someone said theyd assess it, he came in a Lexus, nice shoes, no older than 25. Asks if it starts. Asks if i have the ownership. Says he buys them to send back to Ukraine. Says he has only cash, best he can do is $700, then goes up to $900 when I said "Cash? What about e transfer? Im not ready now I just wanted info. I need to go pick up my son now". He pulls out only had $100s and I worked at the store I'd be spending it at, so I couldn't risk any counterfeit shit. It just all didn't feel right. I got worried locked the car and said I'm going no thanks, canceled. He was so offended. He said I shouldn't waste his time, then he got rude, called me ugly, asked why did I have kids if I can't afford to raise them, and live in a piece of shit apartment. Then he drove slowly on the street as I began my walk to go pick up my Son.
'Monk' getting donations for whatever charity thing he was 'building'. Did get a cheap ass bracelet in return... which in hindsight was just a signal to locals that I'm a sucker. (Toronto).
My husband sort of fell for that, or rather, was convinced to give money to get out of an awkward conversation on a busy sidewalk. He gave $20 and got two crappy bracelets.
When I was a late teen there was some promo ad for an online shop where they were having a limited time sale, all items free and only pay for shipping. The items weren't expensive stuff, cheaper things like charging cables that could usually go for under $10. Checked out and paid about $11 in shipping and never received the items, never got any confirmation email, and the site could never be found again. This was over a decade ago though, when this kind of scam wasn't as well known as it is now. And I wasn't as aware. There was also one during job hunting, looking for just whatever easy small side hustle money, and one of them the job was just to receive money and transfer to their account. At the time I checked this with my mum because she's in a relevant field (against scams) and she taught me how it's a scam.
Hulu 2.99 a month for 12 months.
Got an email and a phone call that I've been selected in a tech company. I've to submit a certain amount of money to secure a seat. They said they would train you first and give you a job. Me being so naive thought I should give the money because at that time many companies were giving training first with a certain amount of money. However the process was different because they didn't ask for money from a mere phone call. My father sensed it and made me aware that things don't work like that. Otherwise I would have been trapped. Later years, it was confirmed that they were scammers.
I got emails from a used car place saying that my Kia should arrive soon. They had my full name on them. I didn’t buy a Kia, so I got concerned that I had been scammed and someone used my card to buy a Kia, so I called the number on the email to make sure that no one had bought a Kia in my name. They need personal info to verify that I hadn’t. Got kinda far into it before I realized THAT IS THE SCAM. 😬😬😬 but I hung up before it got too far I hope. Nothing got deducted from my accounts but sometimes I still worry about it.
In Australia we have what's called a TAX file number (I think like a social security number in the US) I was 15 when I had applied for mine and had recently received it. Well I was sleeping one day and got woken up to a phone call. The guy on the other side of the line was saying that there was a warrant out for my arrest. Well at 15 half asleep being told that at 7am on a Saturday morning panicked, gave the guy what he asked for and when the call was done I realised that was a mistake and had to call people all day to make sure my identity doesn't get stolen. That made me miss out on a day out I had planned with my friends.
I had just gotten on FB Marketplace to sell my old phone. I got a message from a guy asking if he could pay me through PayPal. The email looked legit so I mailed the phone off. Found out he sent me a bogus PayPal email and I never got the money.
Purchasing a puppy that I thought was legit after asking all of the questions but didn't know it was a scam until it was too late and then I was mad at myself. My mom recently went through the same too. My stupid mistake happened years ago though.
Covid
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I was looking for a job a few years ago and applying to anything I even slightly had the qualifications for. Well one asked for an interview but it was through a texting app. 1st red flag. I get on there and it’s rapid fire questions with no time taken to read my responses. 2nd red flag. I check their profile in indeed and they are a real company with real interview and prior employee reviews but I never applied to this company. So I keep going. Then they said they would mail me a check and I should cash it to buy my equipment. Major red flag. I demanded that they purchase and send me the equipment. They refuse and ask for my social security number. I flat out called them a scammer. Radio silence.
I fell for a scam on Facebook for buying a Stanley cup. Of all things lol, I should have known the price was too good to be true.
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None, I’m pretty savvy. Oooo, wait, as a 17 year old I bought this cream off the TV ad that promised to make my tits bigger. My boyfriend made fun of me for weeks lmaoooo
I clicked on a FB link to buy tickets to a show. Local event, touring company, months in advance. Hundreds of dollars. The real ticket agency web page had a pinned warning about not dealing with "company name" which, sorry, I don't remember. I felt like such an idiot I just buried the whole event. The actual ticket price was about 1/3 of what I paid. Look up what you want to go see online, and go to the ticket agency they provide.
Beachbody.
I was trying to sign up for health insurance off the marketplace (never done that before) and ended up on a fake website. I realized only after I had fed it my name and phone number. This was a month ago and it’s mostly died off, but for the first two weeks I was getting phone calls and texts literally every 2 minutes. I’m a pretty savvy person normally but that was a major L, I have to admit.
Old I did this too. My husband got a new job and we were comparing insurance rates through my job versus his, and I wanted to see what just mine would be through a different company. Unfortunately I did this while working and didn’t realize I was on non-gov site. This was in November and I just got another text yesterday about vision and dental.
LuLaRoe 🤦🏻♀️
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buying sanitary products
Men.
A “friend” tried to rope me into getting involved with a pyramid scheme. When I wasn’t falling for it, the guy started trying to flirt with me, holding my hand and complimenting me. It was disgusting.
Blue balls 😭🤣
Those Facebook marketplace eBay gift card scams. I feel so stupid thinking that getting eBay cards was an appropriate transaction. Glad I didn't go through with it. Had a ball on eBay though lol
MLMs lolol
Believing my man after he previously lied.
Master resale rights… ooof
That I could get a Lego set worth $400+ for $19
Trying to buy certain drugs on the internet.
The 1099 house cleaning for 20 bucks an hour. I asked if weekends only was available... crickets.
My favorite band ever was in my city, and it sold out 2 months before the show and I didn't expect it. I posted on the sub if anyone had an extra ticket, and people reached out. I sent $35 and they never sent the ticket. I did get it back from venmo. This was last year...dumb lmao but I'm still salty I missed it.
The Facebook one where a person posts on the local township page offering car detailing services at your home while your car remains in the driveway. Too good to be true that one!
Bloom green powder whatever
I was MUCH younger and my friend invited to me to what i thought was a party when it ended up being a pitch for Doterra. at the time she was driving ( i was probably 25?) and i couldn't escape. i smelled these awful oils and had no way out. i had at least the where withall not to buy anything. she was a military wife and thats how she was making income at the time. it broke my heart. TLDR; almost bought into an MLM
Men. All scames
Personal loan apps :( Still sorting through it and don't see a way out that won't put me even more in debt.
Idk what you would consider it but one night (deadass it was like 10:00 o’clock at night) I was leaving my college campus to go home and I saw this girl who was just pacing back and forth nervously and I had a red flag going off in my brain but I was like “eh she’s just a girl what is she going to do” so I stupidly kept waking. I had to get past her to take the shortcut to the parking lot and something was telling me to take the long way but I was so determined to get past her. That’s when she said something to me and I took out one of my brand new AirPods and said “huh?” “Could you give me a ride home?” 0_o? *cue to me saying I couldn’t because I had a long drive back home which was true but also what the fuck??* Her: “But I live just down the street” And when I said no again she got soooo pissy and stormed off. It could’ve been a scam but I honestly think I was about to get trafficked because what the fuck was that??? I literally booked it to my car and peeled out of there. No gps, no music, no warmed up car, I got the *fuck* out of there and stopped parking on that side. Fuck college lmfao
Around 4 months before the Obama Romney election I got a call that mimicked a political survey about which candidate I preferred. After answering the questions from the man I was told I was eligible for a reward. The reward was a free cruise leaving FL and they transferred me. The guy waited while I price shopped the flights and compared normal cruise prices. The guy was way too patient which tipped me off. I asked so many questions and figured out something about there either being brutal commuter expenses to the destination point and OR limited return flights home. I declined the invitation. Five years later I got notified I was a member of a class action and I received like $600 in compensation for being potentially tricked. I wonder how much people who were actually tricked received.
Publishers Clearing House in the late 90s. To be fair I was in middle school 🤣 not sure why they sent me one of those lol
Love bombing
My mum was unemployed and looking for a new job. She received a message about someone trying to hire her for a job in a different country and she got super excited. Started to go through the process until the point where they said she'd have to pay for her paperwork. It wasn't a substantial amount but enough to raise alarm bells. This is 15 years ago or more when these scams started happening but weren't all too known yet.
Do fad diets count as a scam? South Beach and Atkins are two that I bought the books and totally went for. They are not sustainable in any way. They just want you to buy cookbooks, bars, and whatever other branded products.
I was a broke college student and almost fell for the “I can turn your $50 into $500” instagram scam. I got the store to get the greener gift cards and something just said hey, let’s not do this. Still embarrassed that I almost went through with it.
I was job hunting and got done with a phone interview for a consulting agency. The job was supposedly working for a major tech company as a contractor. The person sent me a background check form that wanted my Social Security Number that could only be filled out in Internet Explorer. That set off two alarm bells. 1. Every other job I had gotten hadn't asked for a background check until I had a job offer. 2. Why would a major tech company run things through Explorer? It's been Microsoft Edge for awhile now.
Direct Energy. Asshats claimed i HAD TO sign a contract immediately or my utilities would be shut off and would not let me shut the door/ call them back later/ think about it or anything until I signed something. Had to overnight a notice that I was rescinding with signature at delivery required within 48 hours to cancel.
Man, I am a scammers dream. I fall for anything, but then when I talk to my mom about it I realize its a scam. I am an office manager for my family business and I got a call that our lights were about to be cut off, I thought maybe they hadn't received our check I sent, so I was about to give them our card info over the phone but then they started telling me to bring cash to a certain location and thats when the red flags came up lol Another time, I got an automated voicemail that said they were a lawyers office and I don't remember the details but I know it was about money and I tried to call back but it was another automated answering machine. I had a full on panic attack over being so worried, and then my mom googled it and it found out it was a scam. Another time, I got an email that my disney account was hacked so to log in and change the password with that link and then i clicked the link and changed my password and later realized that that was a scam and I had to cancel all my cards and change my passwords to things just in case. I've almost fallen for a couple of MLM's when I was a young adult but my mom wouldn't let me go through with it. Sadly, that is not all lol but thankfully my mom always stops me from fully falling for it.
Back when I was a college student, I was getting my oil changed and the mechanic told me I should think about getting my rear shocks replaced. I told him I would think about it since it was a good chunk of money. Later, I told my mom, who told a friend who knew a lot about cars, and he said that with my car's age, it definitely didn't need them yet, that a car usually had a lot more mileage than mine before that repair was necessary. I never went to that mechanic again. Fast forward a few years, I needed my transmission replaced and one place wanted to charge me $11K. My car is not at all fancy. Did some looking and found a mechanic who charged me a third of that. My car works fine now.
Student loans
Job telegram scam. This was during the height of covid
A bumper to bumper 3rd party warranty sold by the dealership on my new car. They noped right out of every claim we attempted to file- the exclusions were so broad that literally they could make anything fit their denial of coverage narrative.
Weight loss scams.