‘What’s A Scam Most People Don’t Even Realize Is A Scam?’: 40 People Deliver Their Insights
Here’s a dirty little secret that a lot of us don’t want others to know: we like to think of ourselves as the smartest person in the room. Well, even if we might not be the smartest, we’re definitely (way) above average! And there’s no way that we’d ever fall for a cheap scam. Tricksters and fraudsters—beware! There’s no way that you’ll weasel cash out of here! (Hey, that rhymed.) However, reality shows us that many do fall prey to scams and that the scammers themselves are constantly adapting and finding new ways to bamboozle their marks.
Reddit users have been pooling all of their experience together and sharing all the common scams, small and large, that other people don’t always realize are scams or are potential scams. The thread got over 3.2k comments and has helped internet users gain a new perspective on a variety of things, from multilevel marketing and men’s and women’s products to diamonds and superfoods and more. There’s nothing like seeing something with a fresh pair of eyes.
Have a read about some of the most common scams, upvote the most informative posts, and let us know if any of these were new to you, dear Pandas. Oh! And if you know of any other swindles that people tend to fall for, be sure to let everyone know, too!
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Paying money to a religion to guarantee your eternal salvation.
As a 37 years old Catholic I find strange all this talking of "paying" to a religion... I contribute to my church because a building need maitenance. I payed for the summer camps organized by my oratory. I gave to missionary to help them in their works. But if I want to go to mass and exit without paying anything nobody would tell me anything.
Insurance. You’re obligated to get it legally but when you actually need it, they’ll do everything in their power to not pay out…
This very much depends on the type of insurance, how well regulated it is, and the insurer.
Well, I'm 45 years old and all of my experiences with insurance companies have been exactly that way.
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After Hurricane Florence hit my home in Surf City, NC, and having paid insurance for years (including flood insurance in the thousands of dollars), USAA broke me & my spirit. They did this just as much as losing everything I had, my home, my business, all of my belongings, gone. Everything was to be covered at full market value, not even close. Not to go without mentioning the adjuster was simply ugly on the inside. Since then I only see insurance companies as legal thieves that quite frankly, make me sick to my stomach.
I am done with usaa also. They are a horrible company.
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Check your insurance company. We paid our maximum out of pocket for my wife's surgery instead of the billed $50,000. Insurance kept us from losing our house.
When someone hit my car in a parking lot, his insurance company was great. I had approval for repairs within 48 hours, and the work was done at the body shop that my dealership uses. At five miles an hour, he did just over $5000.00 damage.
When I had an accident, my insurance company called me and told me that the repair shop needed to hold onto my car longer for repairs. They called to tell me that I would be responsible for the extended rental time. I told them to pound sand and they relented. You pay them for decades and when you have a claim, they try to squeeze every nickel out of you. As far as I am concerned, insurance should be at the very top of this list.
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We have had only one bad experience with an insurer. After they dropped us, we found a gem of and insurance company through sheer luck and have never ever had a problem with them since.
Whether they pay out or not they're still a scam. My father was in a car crash because some guy in a big hurry to get nowhere fast cut round the back end of a car and shot across a turn straight into my dad's car, after everything was sorted out the insurance company decided it was too expensive to fix the car and my father who is disabled and needs the car to get around was given just £500. He'd been with the company for years paying them thousands for insurance and gets a pittance when he actually has to claim, insurance is a scam plain and simple.
In the UK the only legally obligated insurance is for your vehicle. Even then it's a minimum requirement to cover 3rd party damage & injury. I used to be an adjuster and I can promise you we paid 95% of the time (100% with one particular insurer who would not let us repudiate a claim).
Disagree bc it depends on the company n case, n maybe which country u r living
Not true in our country. Our insurance is cheap and companies compete against each other to "out-service" one another. Bragging rights include highest percentage of claims paid AS WELL AS highest fraudulent claims revoked.
I recently learned this-- as a safe, good driver for over 40 years with the same insurance (state farm), and one day I had a very mild fender bump. The repair cost to the car was $2500.00. I have to repay my insurance over the next 3 years for the $2500.00. Why do I need insurance, if I have to pay for it myself anyways?
I paid extra money to fully insure a rental car on my vacation and somebody left a scratch on it while it was parked. I had to pay everything and get my money back from the insurance, but they claimed the rental company "forgot" to sign the form I sent them. I contacted the rental company and they said no, the insurance will accept the form as it is. After hours and days on the phone, I gave up. It was a scam from the beginning, although it was one of the biggest and most well known insurance companies in Germany.
Hey stop dissing us like this alright, we are the biggest scam of the 21st century!!! we will never forget to debit you but we will always give you the run around for your claims because who really wants to pay anything in this day and age lol
Did you know that in America, most insurance is sold by charitable organizations, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, AAA, AARP, etc? For-profit insurance was almost unheard of until the 1980s when the Reagan administration tightened the rules on non-profit finances that many hospitals and insurers said, "screw it... we're for-profit."
This applies to most countries. It's YOUR money (you pay premiums etc) but the hoops they make you jump through is friggen ridiculous
I worked for an insurance company many years ago, once of the biggest and most "trusted" yeah this is true, of course it is, it's a business, they try to avoid loss.
Long term care insurance... total scam. Odds are you'll be dead before they payout.
$2,600 a year for flood insurance. Central california....Nevermind the fact my city and county were just designated an emergency drought area and have been in a drought for years. FEMA is supposed to update their maps every 5 years. My area was last mapped in 2009.
This depends on where you are I think. All my insurances do what they say they will, there is no blacklisting or higher rates and deductibles etc etc. I think it's a little different for car insurances where your rates go up if you've caused an accident, but don't drive so I'm not 100% on that.
The trick is to find a non-profit ensurance company. The way it works is, that you have to pay a fixed and typically a bit high amount, but when the year is over, what has not been paid out to cover claims or has been spend running the company is returned to the customers. E.i the customers also functions as the owners of the company. "For profit" often (always) means delivering the worst product while charging the maximum amount, and it often involves a lot of lawers to find a way to exploit the law maximally combined with lobbying to make sure that sure that new laws are introduced to give you the most freedom to screw people over. People who doesn't have a chance to find head and tails in what you offer and what conditions apply. This is done in order to prevent the marked from regulating the business through see-thorugh deals and informed choices.
Life insurance: They bet you you'll pay them more money than they will have to pay out in the event of your death. Only way to win is to die young.
I work with insurances, the company I'm working for have to policy to find a way to help, that's our main goal.
The US healthcare system. Hell, just name any aspect of life in the US and there's probably a scam somewhere in there.
America commits crimes against humanity in the majority of instances I for those who aren’t wealthy. The political leaders are so reliant on the profit based system that they make anti-human choices and laws. It’s plain old deadly greed. And too many people pretend it’s normal. It’s not. Tens of thousands of people die needlessly every year because our govt thinks healthcare is a market like any other business. And people aren’t allowed to know up front what costs will be. We are a very rich country and could afford to have healthcare for everyone, including better preventive care, dental, eye care and mental health care but that would not make profits for the needless middlemen. People who aren’t doctors make life and death decisions about what health care. The rest of the globe should call us on this as a anti- humanitarian crime - if not a deliberate profit based genocide based on lack of wealth.
Previously, I’d had a chat with one of the moderators at the r/Scams subreddit about internet scams, how they’re different from regular ones, and what we can do to protect ourselves from them. Though nobody’s ever truly foolproof, education, preparation, and even rudimentary research are all lifesavers.
"I think online shopping scams are different because you lose that layer of dealing with a real-life person. When you have a real person in front of you, a typical person will feel shame or guilt at the thought of taking advantage of a person,” one of the mods from r/Scams told me during an earlier interview.
“With the internet, you aren't dealing with a person, but a username and avatar. It is much easier to act maliciously when you don't have a real victim directly in front of you," they said.
Diamonds. Diamonds are a fairly common gemstone but the world's supplier of them is a monopoly and they hoard the majority of their stock to jack the prices up. Emeralds, Rubies and Sapphires are actually rarer than diamonds but cost less because of this.
Diamond are not only used as gemstones but also in the industry for various cutting and polisihing effects. You can't use the other gemstones for this as they are not as hard. This is also a contributor.
"Woman's" anything. 90% are just colored different. Razors are the biggest offenders IMOP.
Men's razors are so much better in my opinion and not just because they are cheaper, but I get a closer shave with them.
Planned obsolescence. Appliances being designed to fail sooner in order to sooner create demand for a replacement. In the same vein, devices being designed to not be repairable, so that you need to invest in a shiny new specimen whenever fashion or the predesigned breakdown require it.
I'm not sure "most people don't realise [this] is a scam" applies here. Most people know their appliances break before their parents version ever did, or know that it cannot be fixed the way their grandparents did. But a key feature of a scam is that you have a way to avoid it. You cannot avoid your microwave breaking due to planned obsolescence unless you build your own damn*d microwave, because EVERY microwave is built with planned obsolescence. This is more like "suspect and unethical practices we consumers encounter from companies"
“Online scams also use a lot of tricks to pressure buyers; low prices, pushes to buy now!, taking advantage of someone's kindness or naivete (re: advance check fraud, money mules, etc), or advertising one product and sending another (or nothing at all, by using a fake tracking number). Getting a person to make a decision via high-pressure tactics and preventing them from reflecting and making a sound decision is key," the mod listed some of the tactics that online fraudsters use to get their victims to part with their hard-earned cash.
"If a deal is too good to be true, it is. If you see a pair of brand new Apple AirPods advertised for $50, you are not getting an authentic product. There are many counterfeit items out there on the market, and you need to verify authenticity before hitting buy," the redditor reiterated that we should always trust our gut and stay skeptical of empty promises.
Unpaid internships. What the actual f**k is wrong with America.
Not exclusively an American thing. The reason I work in a completely different sector than my degree in art history is that I refused to do an unpaid or minimally paid internship, because I couldn't afford to. These art galleries would straight faced tell you they don't have money to pay you more than 195 euro a month for 40 hours of work, but spend triple that on an opening party for a new exhibition. Screw that. Edit: 40 hours of work a week. So 195 euro for 160 hours of work in a four-week month.
Scientology... And by most people, I mean those people in it.
The Humane Society of the United States
"HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter. HSUS is not affiliated with any pet shelters. And HSUS only gives 1% of donations to pet shelters." Most of the donated money goes into the higher up's pension plans.
Seriously don't donate money to them, instead donate to a local shelter near you, they're the ones doing real work & helping animals.
Any "charity" whose president is living high on the hog on donations is a scam.
Most "charities" do this, sending money to the directors and doing very little of use. It's almost as bad as the millionaire celebs pestering us to give money to "their" charity. Look at the Oxfam scandals for a start!!
"Not only to avoid contributing to the counterfeit market, but because these knockoff products do not always go through the same safety standards of the real item; they may not be UL certified, they may use chemicals or ingredients that are not FDA approved and are unsafe for use on or in the human body, or could cause major harm to human life or property."
What’s more, even seemingly safe activities like renting properties online can lead to disappointment and lost money. “It is very common for scammers to lift photos and descriptions of houses for sale, mark down the rent as ridiculously cheap, then insist on getting the deposit sent via Western Union or other untraceable means; when it comes time to pick up your keys, the money is gone and there was no rental for you to move into, to begin with."
Contrary to popular belief, there a very few hot Russian singles in my area.
I love the ones where someone in *my town* is making thousands per day, accompanied by an image of someone with a pile of foreign money. Oooh, so authentic 🤗
The mod explained how doing some background research can help you avoid online rental scams. For starters, try Googling the address and seeing if it’s on a real estate listing for the property for sale. “You may find a real estate listing on MLS, Zillow, or other popular property rental/sale sites. I ran into this recently with a too-good-to-be-true rental, and I was able to report the listing and notify the listing agent that their listing was being used in a scam," they said.
An extra line of defense that you should consider is getting a credit card and using that instead of a debit card. “Credit card protections for most cards are much more forgiving than debit cards. You can generally get your money back faster if you were scammed or mislead by a business, versus initiating an investigation through your bank. It is always smarter to pay by credit card (and pay off your balance monthly!)."
Expiration date on million years old himalayan salt.
Expiration date is added on these things because packaking materials (plastic etc) releases chemicals over the years into the product.
Trickle down economics.
That people ever bought into this, or worse - still push it - is another draconian greed grab.
Recycling plastic. The “recycling symbol” with the number on it is not a recycling symbol. It’s a resin identification code. It was intentionally designed to look like the recycling symbol to fool consumers. Only around 10% of plastics are recycled and usually only once. The whole campaign about recycling plastics and consumer responsibility was set up by the bottling companies to avoid legislation banning plastics because of their harm to the environment.
We should go back to glass bottles. Everything tastes better out of glass anyway, easier and cheaper to recycle, and a surcharge on the bottles (money back for empty bottles) means less litter.
Ordering a full carafe of wine in a restaurant. Where I work, a full carafe can fill 4-5 glasses. Ordering 5 glasses of some of our types of wine is actually $1-2 cheaper than the full carafe. Check the prices and do the math before ordering! Same goes for pitchers of beer!
When stores ask you to donate at checkout, they're using it as a tax write off.
This. I learned about this recently and it made me ill. I wonder what actually goes to the charity. Things like this should be transparent and easy to find out but most, if not all - are not. It’s devastating because I want to donate what I can to things and I don’t. : ( I donate to the KIND fund for desks and tuition for girls in Africa (school is not free and girls lose the most. They need personal products, too). I hope it is a meaningful way to give.
The concept of "superfoods" and "organic" anything. I work at a smoothie bowl place, and people will come in and literally pile 1500 calories full of peanut butter and granola into a bowl and think it's healthy because they put some superfood organic something into a bowl. It's literally pumpkin granola cereal from the store down the street, it's not going to cure cancer.
This one needs a bit of nuance on the organic part. Just because something is organic doesn't mean all the rules about nutrition fly out the window, but it isn't a scam in itself, it is a product that is better for the environment and the body as there are no (potentially) hazardous chemicals involved in the production process. However, the thing that gets me the most about organic produce is that the main reason it's so expensive (at least in my country) is that the certificates are so expensive and it drives the prices up way more than it needs. So what I do instead is find local producers who work organically but don't want to pay the certificates, and there are more of those than you'd think.
Psychics.
I love my tarot cards. The cards in themselves are beautiful. My mom gave them to me when I was young to perpetuate the tradition. I do tarot reading to my friends (very occasionnally). Mind you, I don't believe they're magic in any way. I just think that there is so many interpretations possible, that the one you chose to believe is true tells a lot about your frame of mind. So I don't read the cards per se, I read my friends instead :)
In app mobile purchases. Especially for kids games.
I hate this. I don’t get apps that have “in app purchases.” It’s limiting, but I won’t do it. The growth of “subscription” products (apps and other things) is another example of limiting access to things for lower wage people - I might buy something for ten dollars flat, but I can’t afford $4.00 a month - with automatic renewal. Also, “free trials” are usually not, requiring your credit card info and only available if you agree to pay after the free trial.
Insurance, at least in the US. If you have to fight for something YOU PAY FOR to pay THAT WHICH IT'S LITERALLY SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR and in return GET SCREWED with higher premiums, higher deductibles and higher copay amounts, then it's basically useless. We're paying into a scam cause we're idiots who don't understand, and don't WANT to understand how much better off our we'd be with Universal coverage, due to cost alone. But hey, what do I know?
I had such a nightmare with travel insurance once, we had to cancel a holiday as my son got sick a couple of days before, they did everything to avoid paying out. Even said that not using blue ink when filling out the form was a reason to reject the claim. It went on and on until we threatened court action, then it was settled.
"Hustle" culture. Capital doesn't even have to manage you anymore; you manage yourself by convincing yourself that lack of sleep is good and that you should be working around the clock.
Individualism is a cancer - divide and conquer has worked for Boris the ballbag, Trump etc. And is an easy go to for conservatives. Pit anyone with any difference against each other and it’s an easy win for them. It’s all just a class war at the end of the day but they manage to chop society up and weaken their opponents. ‘Hustles’ shouldn’t have to exist but there is a political will to encourage them to weaken you. They want everyone to think it is every man for themselves, to fight each other for resources, because together we’d vote them out.
“Work 12 hours a day every day and I’m surrrre they’ll move me up. I’m very valuable to my company “
If you show that you’re willing to do the dog job they’ll keep you in it!
Our (US) health care system.
Human lives depending on a profit based “market” - every other developed country rejected this model, many for decades - because it’s inhumane and unthinkable.
Bottled water.
In some places bottled water is the only safe water to drink.
Funeral services. There is nothing wrong or dangerous about dead bodies. The idea that random people come into your home and take your loved one away, rip out their insides, fill them will chemicals and out them on display and you have to pay to put them to rest is ridiculous and quite frankly evil.
When I was a kid my brother would tell me the lottery is 'a tax on stupid people.
I’m most intrigued by the vague life coaches, who use lots of big words and mention specific figures they have supposedly earned, but there is no clarity on what exactly they do.
It’s just awful, especially given that life coaching isn’t a regulated discipline. Sure, there are several scam accreditation bodies, but most people just don’t understand that I could make up my own college of life coaching and accreditation right here and now, give it a fancy name, and it wouldn’t really mean anything. Yet so many people fall for it. Please, please, please, stick to licensed and regulated psychologists and mental health professional (and check what ‘licensed’ and ‘registered’ actually means for your country, as it’s different everywhere.)
Those Facebook post that my grandparents always repost that go on about some s**t like Facebook doesn’t want you see this... trump bla bla bla ...... repost this if your brave .... let’s make this go viral etc
"Shrinkflation." Where they give you less, and charge you more.
Crystal healing, religion, and horoscopes. How are we still buying this bulls**t with the internet out there.
Crystals can definitely keep bad people away. If you throw them correctly, that is.
Boomers getting free healthcare (Medicare) while voting against anyone else getting it.
'Oooo, let's blame older people for a problem that could easily be solved by politicians if they could stop starting wars for five minutes'. In other news, the wall is working in hampering Mexican border-crossing. Apparently they are finding it much harder to get out of the US than ever before.
I don't know if they are still around but around 2010, people were buying these "ionic footbaths" that supposedly removed toxins in your body through your feet.
Supplements. Because they are considered a food they are not regulated. A recent study found that 25% don't contain any of the substance it is sold as. About as many others contain actual prescription medicines that are not listed. In the US about 23 000 people a year are hospitalized, have organ failure or need a transplant due to taking unregulated supplements.
This might be a "unique to the US" thing. Food supplements aren't separately regulated in the UK, but are covered by multiple food regulations, which means they sort of are regulated (they can't contain something not listed on the packaging, for example, and cannot claim medical benefits they don't actually provide)
Most extended warranties on electronics. Usually you're paying extra for the warranty and extra on top of that as a "labor cost" of whoever is fixing the device.
Cheaper than a new device? Sure but can still be pricey.
Willfully deciding that a week inside the casinos of Vegas sounds like a good vacation.
Premium cables. In order for one hdmi cable to have better quality over another, you'd need hundreds of yards between the source and display. Cat5 vs. Cat 6 makes a difference for high bandwidth companies, not for your cable internet ass. Really the only thing it matters in is phone charging durability. Yes, don't get the gas station cables if you help it, but if you do, your phone will still charge at the same rate.
Note: this post originally had 86 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
And mens! We have fake pockets instead, even worse hehe😆
Load More Replies... House buying/ selling & estate agents are a scam….in the uk they have no qualifications, pluck numbers out of the sky and skew the market, to scam themselves better commission. Not passing on offers if they think it is too low and they can get more commission…not whether the seller wants to take the price
Pandora jewellery. It might be pretty but it's cheaply made shite that causes so many allergies and breaks very quickly
Communication degree here. I abandoned my thesis (graduate school) when the realization struck me.
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I don’t think this was mentioned, but something else that is a scam is optimum cablevision for your TV. They just keep raising the prices and it’s so annoying. Seriously, just use YouTube TV, it’s so much cheaper.
Don't forget Dave Ramsey. He fails to really help those who are in low income situations. Worse he always suggests that people just skip out on lenders rather than pursuing bankruptcy when they can unload and perhaps even have hope for a future.
If your reading this I hope you have a great day and know. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV
Streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, ect) releasing one episode per week for shows.
And paying for these subscriptions to have to also pay for a new release movi, or wait until they make it 'free' (as in part of the service you're paying for).
Load More Replies... I always wonder if people missunderstand the word "scam".Also why is bs art sold for millions never mentioned?
Gold. People believe that gold has some intrinsic value just because it's rare. It only has value because people BELIEVE that it has value, just like paper money.
I disagree with number 35. Tipping is not a scam tipped minimum wage is. It is to low for a lot of people to actually survive.
Oils, lubricants for motor vehicles, boats, bikes and lawn mowers etc. I worked for an oil company, all 200 odd marketed products came out of the same 4 silos. People won't put multi purpose oil In their Mercedes so a new label and snazzy packaging with a 200% mark up needs to be sold to attract their elitist mindset. Same with boats, won't put engine oil in boats unless the word boat is on the label. Total rip off and it's the consumers own fault for not doing their homework and being picky about branding.
The base oils are all the same, absolutely. The differences come from the additive packages combined with those base oils. "Lawn mower oil" is engineered for small engines in that it is not multi-viscosity, and it has more zinc than the oil you would put in a modern automobile because that reduces wear on the flat-tappet cams. Marine engine oil has greater moisture tolerance and higher shear strength than automotive oil because boat engines run at very high RPM for extended periods of time. Auto manufacturers have very exacting standards for their motor oils depending on what they do with them. Vehicles with VVT cam phasers require very specific properties to work correctly, ask any Volkswagen owner who's put Walmart oil in it. It's important to remember that the "premium grade oils" of our grandparents wouldn't pass for bar & chain oil today.
Load More Replies... And mens! We have fake pockets instead, even worse hehe😆
Load More Replies... House buying/ selling & estate agents are a scam….in the uk they have no qualifications, pluck numbers out of the sky and skew the market, to scam themselves better commission. Not passing on offers if they think it is too low and they can get more commission…not whether the seller wants to take the price
Pandora jewellery. It might be pretty but it's cheaply made shite that causes so many allergies and breaks very quickly
Communication degree here. I abandoned my thesis (graduate school) when the realization struck me.
Load More Replies... I don’t think this was mentioned, but something else that is a scam is optimum cablevision for your TV. They just keep raising the prices and it’s so annoying. Seriously, just use YouTube TV, it’s so much cheaper.
Don't forget Dave Ramsey. He fails to really help those who are in low income situations. Worse he always suggests that people just skip out on lenders rather than pursuing bankruptcy when they can unload and perhaps even have hope for a future.
If your reading this I hope you have a great day and know. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV
Streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, ect) releasing one episode per week for shows.
And paying for these subscriptions to have to also pay for a new release movi, or wait until they make it 'free' (as in part of the service you're paying for).
Load More Replies... I always wonder if people missunderstand the word "scam".Also why is bs art sold for millions never mentioned?
Gold. People believe that gold has some intrinsic value just because it's rare. It only has value because people BELIEVE that it has value, just like paper money.
I disagree with number 35. Tipping is not a scam tipped minimum wage is. It is to low for a lot of people to actually survive.
Oils, lubricants for motor vehicles, boats, bikes and lawn mowers etc. I worked for an oil company, all 200 odd marketed products came out of the same 4 silos. People won't put multi purpose oil In their Mercedes so a new label and snazzy packaging with a 200% mark up needs to be sold to attract their elitist mindset. Same with boats, won't put engine oil in boats unless the word boat is on the label. Total rip off and it's the consumers own fault for not doing their homework and being picky about branding.
The base oils are all the same, absolutely. The differences come from the additive packages combined with those base oils. "Lawn mower oil" is engineered for small engines in that it is not multi-viscosity, and it has more zinc than the oil you would put in a modern automobile because that reduces wear on the flat-tappet cams. Marine engine oil has greater moisture tolerance and higher shear strength than automotive oil because boat engines run at very high RPM for extended periods of time. Auto manufacturers have very exacting standards for their motor oils depending on what they do with them. Vehicles with VVT cam phasers require very specific properties to work correctly, ask any Volkswagen owner who's put Walmart oil in it. It's important to remember that the "premium grade oils" of our grandparents wouldn't pass for bar & chain oil today.
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