‘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…
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.
lest you forget that that 90% of the politicians are Boomers and the trumpublicans always vote against free healthcare because they have government funded healthcare!
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This "pitting age groups against each other" really needs to stop. The expansion of Medicare to children and eventually all other population groups in the US was stopped by POLITICIANS when boomers were not even of voting age yet.
Only young millennials, they dont even know the age range of what makes someone a Boomer.
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It's not free, because they pay premiums for it, just like any other insurance and pay for medications.
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1) It's not free if you've been taxed your whole life to support it and still have to pay premiums to use it. 2) The coverage sucks and the majority of those on medicare have to pay for supplemental insurance. 3) Blame the politicians
SAY WHAT? Boomers paid into the system their whole lives! My mom at 92 still pays $448.65/month for Medicare, drug plan, and supplemental premiums.
THIS ^ is exactly what I came to say. My mother pays for hers and if you try to get a secondary insurance with it, you will still have to pay the higher premium for Medicare but will lose benefits.
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Please stop the stereotyping. I am a boomer on medicare, and I support free healthcare for everyone. The vast majority of my boomer friends feel the same way. Health care industry lobbyists and the politicians they pay are the villains here. BTW, medicare is far from free.
Boomers paid for decades to get that "free" health care. You're just a spoiled brat wanting "free stuff". European countries pay double our tax rate to get their "free" health care. Educate yourself before commenting.
Except they still pay a monthly premium for it. It's not free.
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Did the OP survey those getting Medicare? I think not. 🤦🏽♀️ This is not a scam, and I’m boggled why it has so many upvotes! 😳
I hate the philosphy behind all of this, the it was hard for me so I want it to be hard on the next generation. I am not a Boomer, I am a Gen Xer, but I want the world to be better for my kids and grandkids, but for some reason the old generations seem to want to freeze progress where it is now or go back to some more awful time before. I just don't get this way of thinking. I may never get to enjoy the benefits of universal healthcare or free college, but damn sure hope my kids or grandkids can.
The modern world can seem rather confusing to someone who has not grown up in it. At a certain age learning to handle new technology is rahter hard, especially with the tempo the world is changing in right now. What they want is a stable world where they know the rules, and the only example of that that they can find is the world they grew up in. It may not be better, but at least it may feel more familiar. It is a quite common phenomena as the older generations seem to always condemn what young people are doing. E.i. there were days when it was said that comic books and reading that where spoiling the young, now it is videogames, and why does the young generation not read anymore.
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We need to just stop with this stupidity. There are 73 million baby boomers. they are not all anti-healthcare and anti-welfare.
Hey the term Boomer is derogatory as hell.And I'm below poverty level as I only have Social Security. I recieve free health care and if I didn't I couldn't afford even a dr visit. And I have never once voted against anyone else getting it. Generalizations and blaming an entire generation of people for the crooked politicians who would prefer that older poor people just die as long as its not them.
This one is wrong. Medicare is not free. The payments are deducted from your retirement benefit. You could be talking about Medicaid, which is a program to help the needy and indigent, not the people who are voting against healthcare.
BP, excellent divisive clickbait! Waiting for the regular racial inequality one, too! Only in the US, of course!
It's not free. They still have to have supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare does not. Nor do they have a choice on using Medicare. They can pay for 30 years into their insurance plan to be able to use it when they retire, but the government mandates Medicare. Which then leads to more bills.
The boomers "free" healthcare of Medicare isnt free. Its taken out of their Social Security which is like 100-200 a month.
As a Boomer, I can say that Medicare and other healthcare costs for the elderly are a drop in the bucket as far as actual healthcare costs go. You have to understand truly how screwed our medical care is in America. Many older people suffer more medical issues than you could possibly comprehend until you're there. Many older people like me, have lived a full life, and are very accepting of the fact that their time is closing. But, the medical profession could care less about your daily suffering. They want you alive regardless of your suffering. Wonder why? Simple answer: The longer you live, the more money they can make. Welcome to old age.
Medicare is not free. And you need a supplement to pay your bills because Medicare does not pay everything. If you think seniors are living high off the hog, you are in for a rude awakening one day my dear.
'Scuse me! Boomers don't get free healthcare. Medicare is AUTOMATICALLY taken out of our Social Security checks (we have no say in this except to choose our plan) every month. Is it cheaper? Sure, but it doesn't cover everything, and some people have to purchase a supplement (which isn't cheap) on top of Medicare.
Hey my Medicare is not free, they deduct it from social security payment every month and before I retired they were deducting it from my paycheck. In addition, Medicare only pays 80% of our medical bills, so we have to buy supplemental insurance too. Boomers don't get free health care.
It's not free. Medicaid is free for the poor. Medicare has monthly premiums and only covers 80% & doesn't cover lots of medical costs. You can get Medicare supplement insurance but it sure as hell isn't free & they increase the price as you get older. Plus federal tax is deducted from workers' pay to help pay for Medicare.
lmao its the law at a certain age you MUST USE MEDICARE no matter how much money you do or do not make! No insurance will cover you unless its a co-insurance. And even that is hard to get for some with health problems. But yeah damn them boomers working all their lives and then being forced by the law to use medicare which is s**t insurance from the jump.
You PAY to be on Medicare. You PAY for an adjunct policy to pay for doctor visits. You PAY for a policy covering medications. You PAY full price for MD visits if you don’t buy an extra policy. Medicare does not cover vision, dental, or hearing aids. I ASK you, what do older people need? Vision correction, hearing aids, dental. I PAY $360 a month for my “health care”. And by the way, I have PAID into Medicare and social security my entire working life. And I think it’s criminal that the US is the only first world country that does NOT have universal, single payer, low cost or free health insurance. Why? Because corporations rule this country. Look at what takes up, by far, the largest part of the US budget. It’s NOT health care for “old people.”
Seniors definitely do NOT get free healthcare (e.g. Medicare). 1) All workers pay premiums through payroll deductions all their working lives. 2) At 65, we get on Medicare. This is simply an insurance policy, for which WE ARE CHARGED A MONTHLY INSURANCE PREMIUM UNTIL THE DAY WE DIE. 3) There is still a deductible and a co-pay and an amount that is not covered by Medicare., just like everyone's insurance. To say it's free is bulls**t.
Where do people get the idea that Medicare is FREE? I pay for that ($145.00) and a separate drug plan ($25) AND a supplement to cover what Medicare doesn't ($50) every single month! That's $220/month. Last I checked, that wasn't free. BUT, I do thing ALL people should get free health care and I am always voting in favor of it and fighting ignorance around 'socialized' medicine.
medicare aint free! i pay $150 a month to be forced to have it, out of my $700 a month social security payment, which btw, is from my EARNINGS...AND medicare never pays for ANYTHING, EVERYTHING is ALWAYS DENIED
Medicare isn't necessarily free. We pay out of pocket more for our coverage than what we did when I was on my employer's insurance. What Medicare does is guarantee we can afford the coverage. And that's good. Also, we vote for Medicare for all.
Actually, we paid into it for many years and after retirement we still pay a monthly premium.
Let's see. I'm on medicare. There are premiums if you get more than the very basic. Part B (office visits with your doctor), Part D (prescription drug coverage) and Part F (gym, dental, and a bunch of other stuff) all have premiums and co-pays. Even the doctor visits. Mine has visits to your primary care are free, but visits to specialists have co-pays. And being old, visits to specialists are prescribed frequently. So, no, medicare is not free. And, no, I vote for health benefits for everyone, regardless of age or need.
Working Boomers paid taxes into Medicare their entire careers. It's technically not "free."
Medicare is forced government insurance and people WORK for this...it is taken out of our checks every payday. If you want it GO TO WORK. But it wont be around long anyway....government mis-use.
Actually, most of us have been behind increasing public access to healthcare. The original HMO movement began in the '70's as a way of providing broader based access, with the HMO's being non-profit. However, the insurance industry lobbied legislatures to allow for-profit HMO's and HMO's became just another insurer with similar methods. The US needs a publicly-funded system of basic health care, starting with pre-natal care. When people understand that living in the US comes with obligations to care for more than just themselves, we might have a chance.
Majority of reTHUGlican't voters are boomers.
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This is bull! I am a Boomer who thinks universal healthcare should be available to all Americans. Also, Medicare is not free and elderly must purchase a supplement plan in order to have full coverage. It is unfortunate that our healthcare and educational costs are so exorbitant and we cannot follow the lead of other countries to provide these things for our citizens.
Does no one realize Medicare sucks? If you want to receive healthcare, you have to have a secondary insurance company. Medicare may lower the cost of treatment, but not by much. Some healthcare providers don’t even accept Medicare. I don’t understand this “Medicare for all” push. If you want to actually help people, it should be “Medicaid for all” or better yet, “healthcare treatment is a right, not a privilege; Universal Health Care for all.”
dun blame the whole boomers, only politicians selfish n greed n uncaring attitude screwed the healthcare
Boomers are obsolete. We've been slave to their culture since the 70's. Time to go and take their complaining and ossified mentality with them.
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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