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Life is no walk in a park, and it's even harder when you have to maneuver your way through many low- and high-key scams presented by our governments, retailers, and employers on top of your everyday problems. And when you truly think about it, it turns out that one of the biggest social problems is us is being scammed on a daily basis.
Have you ever bought a train ticket or paid extra to park at a hotel or wondered if the sale price is right, and thought to yourself 'hmm, it seems like they are ripping me off." Well, according to these Reddit users, you are right. One user under the name Eggaboy has asked people to name "the biggest everyday scam that people put up with," and some of the real stories are truly eye-opening. From lottery tickets to expensive water bottles, this list proves that all of us live in a world where everything is a scam accentuating our social issues. Scroll down to read some of the answers yourself, and don't forget to tell us your true stories on getting scammed every day in the comments!
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#1
The price of feminine hygiene products. Even from a dude's perspective, they are ludicrously priced for a necessary item.
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#2
Traffic. Why the h**l do I have to come into the office every day? Most of my job can be done remotely, sitting at home. I don't need to burn gas, waste my time, and get aggravated every day shuttling back and forth. I would much rather come in 2-3x a week. Cut down on traffic. Make for more productive and happier employees. Let us work from home on a regular basis.
#3
Built-in obsolescence. Consumers spend good money to buy products that are designed to fail or become obsolete in order to stimulate further sales. Not only that, but replacement parts become unavailable or are so expensive to buy and install that consumers end up replacing the item completely, even though it should have much more useful life.
#5
"Don't discuss your pay with fellow employees." Part of me understands that it's kind of tacky to do so, but I read that it was the companies way of not paying people what they deserve.
#6
Superfoods. They are all products of marketing and fads. Spinach is better and cheaper than Kale. Strawberries/Blueberries just as good and cheaper than Acai. Etc etc.
#7
Black Friday sales. The thing that made me realize how f**ked it all is was working in a furniture store. We were selling these small storage ottomans for Black Friday. Regular price: $39.99, Sale price: $19.99. You know how much we paid for them? A f*****g dollar. I’m breaking my NDA by telling you all this (lol).
#9
Direct to consumer prescription drug marketing. People shouldn’t go to the doctor and ask for a drug they saw on a commercial by name.
#10
My favorite is the "FAT FREE FOOD" on a bag of Twizzlers. Thank god this high-calorie compressed sugar gel doesn't have any fat in it. My diet is secure!
#11
Every now and then I come across a video where some pastor magically "heals/cures" a person in church by saying some lines and touching the person's head. In one of th videos, the pastor was suggesting to the person that if they bought his DVD, then they would heal faster. I find it rediculuos that people use religion and faith to instill fear and then scam innocent people.
#13
Listing prices as $[intimacy].99 to make them seem cheaper. It's a psychology trick. It works. We see 199.99 and think "That is less than 200." But it's exploiting human security vulnerabilities. And worst of all, we could have all these beautiful, round numbers. But instead we end up with a bunch of nines everywhere. Zeroes are more orderly than nines and deserve more respect.
#14
Textbooks, at least at US universities. Depending on the subject they can cost anywhere from $100-$400 USD per book. New editions are released annually to ensure that the content remains up to date. (and the price remains high) For an egregious example: I had a graduate level economics course that required a $300 textbook ($150 when rented for the semester) which actually had an "international version" available online that was the exact same book but instead cost $60 retail. The only thing is that the book was listed as being"not for distribution in the US".
#16
Airline fees. Fees to check a bag. Fees to carry-on a bag. Fees to get a seat assignment. Fees to get a seat assignment on the second leg of your flight. Your "cheap" $300 ticket just turned into a $500 flight. Infuriating.
#18
Having to give your email address out to basically any company you buy something from so they can spam your inbox. Yes, I'm aware you can unsubscribe, but it's a pain in the a**. I've got a life to live and it doesn't involve meticulously curating my email inbox on a regular basis.
#19
Why can't we live in a world where we don't have to expect that any call from a number not in our contacts is a scam or spam 99% of the time?
#20
"Convenience fee". This isn't MY convenience, it's YOURS. The fact that you don't have to hire a human to accept my payment is YOUR convenience, not mine. So I'm paying you for what exactly?
#21
Cellphone data. They sell it like it's a finite resource, like they'll run out if they give you too much. But yet if you don't use it all that month, none of it rolls over. In Canada we also pay the same amount of money for 2gb that other countries get 100gb or more for.
#22
Ink prices. Doesn't even cost them a quarter to manufacture the ink, yet they're selling it $60+.
#24
Police having to hit a quota. This means when there’s no crime going on police have to create false scenarios to ticket people, or pull citizens over for outdated mundane reasons. This creates resentment towards the people who are suppose to “protect” us. Biggest scam for a city to make money off of its citizens.
#25
Death duty. Paying the government money when a loved one has died. Half the time the older generation have paid way more tax during their lives and then the remnants are sifted through once gone.
#26
A few weeks ago I was in London, enjoying many of the completely free museums they have to offer. I wondered why such world famous museums would be free when they could easily charge money. I saw a sign that said, "this Museum is made free due to lottery funds." And I thought it was really really cool how lottery taxation and profits in London go towards making something so amazing free. I don't know how much lottery money in the states really does go to helpful causes, but I hope it's a lot and isn't just a scam.
#27
Healing crystals and other quackery like this. People paying top dollars to get a stone which does nothing else than just look good.
#28
Jewellery. A friend used to work for a well-known jewellery store, her employee benefits meant that she could buy rings, earrings, etc. for $7 - $15. But they would sell it to customers for $50 - $100.
#29
The new and used car market in the United States. I don’t think there is a field more shady and potentially harmful to the consumer.
#30
Booking fees when buying tickets to things online. They’re a rip-off, but we pay them because we want to see our favorite artists/sports teams/theatre productions.
#31
Standing in line for 20 minutes to spend $4-6 on mediocre coffee, looking at you Starbucks.
#34
That extra 9/10 of a cent that every gas station charges. Not exactly a scam, but nobody realized it’s even there. Even though it’s right there on their sign.
#35
Multi-level marketing schemes. Similar schemes bankrupted entire countries before but they somehow churn along just fine in the form of AmWay.
#37
Convenience fees for paying online. Oh so your employee doesnt need to waste time dealing with as much? And you probably have to pay less employees and possibly rent less space because I'm paying online? Ooooh online convenience fee I get that the company making the software needs to get paid, but I just dont like companies offloading that onto the customer especially when they're probably making more from the convenience fee than it costs them. On top of that, and I'm sure I'm not alone here, but the ability to pay a fee online would be a major factor in me deciding which company to use, hence a company adding the option for online payment will also bring in new customers which in a lot of cases could well be enough profit for the company to pay for the software without even having to charge the customer extra for it.
#38
Weight loss products. Seriously. There is only one secret to losing weight, it's calories. Count your [darn] calories. There is absolutely nothing else to it. Stop spending money on this [poop].
#44
I feel like the cafeteria food in schools doesn’t have value at all (both nutritional and monetary).
#46
Jilly Juice - The women gets destroyed on Doctor Phil about her Pseudoscience yet shes still making a killing.
#49
Donuts. They pay you full price for a danish with a giant hole in it! And then, they charge the same amount for one that DOESN'T have a hole in it! THEN, they make a longer one that costs the exact same! Oh, and don't even get me started on banana flavored products! THEY DON'T EVEN TASTE LIKE BANANA!
#50
Tupperware, my mom has the entire attic and basement full of that stuff. Sure some of its fine and few things great but really...
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