Scam artists are everywhere these days, and since we spend so much time online, it can be hard to tell when someone is for real and when they’re not. Needless to say, most of us have probably fallen for a scam at some point in our lives (even if we didn’t realize it at the time). Thankfully, these 15 people are ready to admit which ones totally fooled them so the rest of us can be warned.
#15. She broke up with me
“when I was 10-11 I online dated a girl on habbo hotel and after I gave her my furniture she motherfucking divorce/broke up with me”
#14. Don’t be ridiculous
“I actually got “sucked into” a pretty classic scam, but I was too honest for it to work.
Chick shows me a “Stradivarius” violin she supposedly got donated by a wealthy patron when she was playing in some Orchestra back east (Jersey maybe? Philly?) needs cash, wants me to buy it from her for a thousand or something…
I tell her, don’t be ridiculous, I’ll drive you over to the city and we’ll get it appraised and you’ll get more money…”
#13. “Helpful people”
“TLDR scammed by one of those “helpful people” in Italy. Ignore people at train stations unless you’re sure they’re officials
During my first year of university overseas in the UK, I took a trip to Italy with some friends. We had a great time and travelled between each city using trains. Got scammed at the Florence train station.
What you will notice at many Italian train stations is a bunch of official-looking people standing around the platforms. They wear hats and clothes that look like uniforms. When you enter their vicinity, they will ask to see your train tickets, and as a young, inexperienced and hapless traveller I do just that.
What they will immediately tell you is that you are late for your train, and grab your luggage and tell you to follow them, as they run towards your carriage. Once you’re in, they start placing your luggage on the rails for you….and then demand an obscene tip. We were in a group of five and the person demanded 10 euros for each of us- no matter how you cut it, that’s a very steep price to pay for some very simple help. With great disgust I forked over 10 euros, because I didn’t want her to pester my friends, and she eventually took it and ran.
It preys on your inexperience with the transport system and tries to make you panic, then proceeds to guilt trip you. Looking back it would’ve been really easy to just ignore her, I doubt anyone would come to her aid anyway.”
#12. They fooled me
“I was part of a legitimate challenge in college that I knew was being sponsored by Target, and I knew that the final prize was a thousand dollars. Partway through the contest I got a text with a url and a message that I had won a thousand dollars from Target. I would have never fallen for it otherwise but the coincidence (or maybe they knew who was part of this challenge?) fooled me. I did manage to wise up when they asked for a deposit, but not before I gave them my contact info and was signed up to all sorts of call lists.”
#11. IRS
“Almost fell for the IRS scam. I didn’t know that scam existed and I was scared about the irs sending me cops.”
#10. No way of cancelling payments
“Immediately after watching the Kony2012 video, 18yo me signed up to donate $5 monthly. A day or two later I learned more about it and the organisation itself.
The website itself had no way of cancelling the payments, I had to get my bank to block them.”
#9. Obviously fake
“Not me but my friend literally yesterday. Fell for one of those “put x amount in, get y amount back” scams.
Got messaged by an extremely attractive girl with an obvious fake name, pic, everything. He was extremely convinced it was real until they started refusing to give it back..”
#8. Three hours to close
“Working at Taco Bell. Constant “we will give you a raise for closing and take you off of closing”. I was in high school and would work until 3 or 4 am on week nights a few times a week. Never got as raise. Couldn’t play baseball anymore. Scam part was the manager would clock everyone out 30 minutes after closing to hide the fact that that it was taking 3 hours to close instead of one.
Got into it with a manager one night and quit. District manager liked me and would talk with me giving me like a hour break. She when she came around. She called about me quitting. I kinda unloaded all the bullshit. I went to pickup my last and the manager I got into it was working. She said she didn’t have my check. I knew she did and started yelling at her during the lunch rush. DM put a ton of extra hours on my check and as OT. Check was twice what the manager made.”
#7. I better Google this
“I almost got suckered into primerica.
I got halfway into the process then went hmm I better google this.
Most of the first page of results was how they are a scam/mlm.
I couldn’t run away faster.”
#6. Rocks for weights
“I had just purchased a brand new TV and I loved it. Games looked great, TV looked great, just a nice TV.
I went to the mall with my best friend one day just because we were bored. We were 16 at the time.
As we’re leaving (we had no items) a brown pickup truck pulls up and the guys who were driving it asked if we were shopping or what. I tell them no, just came to look at some stuff. They then tell me they got this brand new Surround System in there truck they were going to return but the store wouldn’t take it.
At this point I should have seen the multiple red flags, but I was hypnotized by this surround sound system.
I don’t recognize the name, but it seemed legit enough IMO, so I offered a little less than what the asked for (they asked $250 I offered $200).
As I’m pulling my money out of my wallet the scammers see I have more than just $200 and start berating me to pay more. I should have backed out there, but I was spineless and obliged.
They gave me the sound system and left. I get home still a little excited even though I had a gut feeling so just lost $250. I open the sound system and lo and behold…
There’s actually speakers wow. I pull everything out, subwoofer, and speakers…then I realized there was not a single cable. Wtf? I open the speakers because now I’m upset. They aren’t speakers, but wooden cut outs, with rocks for weights.
Now I’m checking the packaging closer, it was the worst photoshop I’ve ever seen. Lost $250.
Haven’t fallen for a scam since then…one and one only.”
#5. All my birthday money
“Once bought a PS3 on the craigslist of the netherlands. Turned out the mailman was fake, the package was filled with 2 juiceboxes. And it cost me all my birthday money back then. Asshole never got caught, he still is active to this day.”
#4. My first set
“… I gave away my first set of rune armor to have it trimmed.”
#3. My sister’s name
“I was invited to do a free “makeover” at a makeup party thrown by one of my friends. Me being stupid didn’t realize it was a Mary Kay party.
I was asked to write down contacts so my friends can come to another party. Each contact got me entered into a contest for free makeup. Wrote down my sisters name. Won some nail polish. She became a consultant.”
#2. I don’t think they’re coming back
“I was at a car boot sale and watched two guys in a back of a van promissing to sell iPods and iPads for a ridiculous low price, and you could see the apple boxes stacked up towards the back of the van. This started to attract some attention and a crowd soon formed around the back of the van. However before they started to sell the desirable apple products they began to flog some other obscure things into what I can only describe as a goody bag. They would be throwing a pen sets in the bag that would cost £20 in shops (so they claimed), and then some perfume that was £30 in shops (so they claimed).
This went on for a while, and all time they kept mentioning the iPods and iPads would be coming out next. Eventually they had created these “amazing goody bags” with various random things in and were claiming the contents would cost well over £100 in the shops, but they just want £30, and if you had a bag you will be first in line to buy a iPod or iPad. They stirred up such as frenzy that people were screeming to by one of these bags. As soon as they floged as many bags as they could, the van doors slam shut and they drove off quickly.
People just stood there staring at these goody bags they had just bought for £30 and they were just full of cheap knock off items you can get from the pound shop. Thats when I saw my then girlfriend walk over to me with a goody bag looking confused and wondering if they were going to come back to sell the iPads. “No darling I don’t think they’re coming back”.”
#1. I waited for years
“Someone once called my house when I was 10 years old saying he was from a research company conducting an experiment to see how long it takes a person to sneeze if they sniffed pepper. If I agree to the experiment, they would mail me 5 dollars. It took me three sniffs, and i waited for that damn 5 bucks for a couple years.”
Be smart out there!