11 People Share the Most Obvious Scams That People Still Fall For
To some, scams are obvious. But to others, they might be oblivious and accidentally give away money to scammers.
In a recent Reddit thread, people sounded off about the most obvious scams they can’t believe people still fall for. Here are some to be aware of—if you’re one of those people!
-
IRS Scams
The IRS has said over and over again, and they say it every year, and it is on the news, etc. WE WILL NEVER CALL YOU. Yet people fall for that all the time.
-
Facebook Scams
“Copy and paste this on your Facebook page to remove Facebook’s right to your pictures and information…” Always surprises me how stupid people can be.
-
Deployed Soldier Scams
Had a friend of mine fall for the deployed soldier scam…she payed $8,000 in court martial fines for this person because they lost their primary weapon. Then came the gold scam, there was a package with stolen Iraqi gold that was being held at the border and she could get it all taken care of for $22,000 or go to jail.
-
Nigerian Prince Scams
A nice exiled Nigerian Prince contacted me by email. His royal family has been overthrown by the military who has blocked access to the bank accounts whilst they are in hiding. Fortunately their accountant still can access their wealth and they desperately need a foreign account to move the money so it can’t be seized by the state until they are safe again. With amazing luck, they chose me in Australia to help them, which I must for the generous offer of 25% of the millions they need to move as long as I provide my bank details and a scan of my passport just to confirm I’m real. If I don’t help, I would never forgive myself. Apparently I’m their last chance as others have failed them and I’m to keep this just between the Prince and I. I’m probably putting myself and the Royal Family at risk by discussing it on Reddit, but thought this post worthy of bringing awareness to their plight.
-
Gift Card Scams
Anything where anyone is asking for gift cards, really. Especially your “boss.”
-
Contest Scams
My in-laws got a phone call a few years ago saying they had won millions in a contest but to get the money they needed to pay some ‘fees’ of some sort. Obvious scam. They hit my husband up asking for money to pay the fees, and were going on about how excited they were about winning all this money. My husband tried telling them it was a scam and they absolutely refused to believe it. The only way my husband was able to convince them was to get them on a three-way call between himself, his mother, and a police officer. The police officer (after quite a bit of time) finally convinced them it was a scam and they didn’t send any money. To this day they deny it ever happened.
-
The Dying Family Member Scam
“I love you. Please send me money so I can visit my dying sister in COUNTRYNAME. I know I’ve only known you two weeks online, and we’ve never met in person, and I’ve called you from three different burner phones–but that doesn’t mean we don’t love each other.”
-
Warranty Scams
“HELLO. WE’VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU ABOUT YOUR CAR’S EXTENDED WARRANTY!” My car is 20 years old and has 205K on the clock. There is no warranty.”
-
Family Member in Jail Scams
My grandma almost fell for this. She got a phone call saying “hey grandma, it’s your grandson. I’m in jail, and I need $2,000 in iTunes cards for my bail.” She thought it was my brother (I guess whoever the asshole was sounded like him) and she went out to transfer money at her bank.
-
Phishing Scams
“I got one the last week I was in the office before we closed for the month. Pretending to be my boss who was requesting me to buy several eBay cards for some of the staff. I had a good time emailing back and forth with the guy and stringing him along for about an hour and a half. We literally have 9 employees in the whole company. All of whom I can talk to just by raising my voice loud enough to be heard down the hallway. Additionally, I am the one in charge of birthdays and holiday office gifts. I don’t think my boss even knows when our birthdays and staff appreciation days are.”
-
Student Loan Forgiveness Scams
Crazy thing is they’re all Americans who are part of that. I told one person “I know you’re running a scam” they responded with “than why did you answer?” “To tell you to quit calling here, nobody here has any loans.
What scam have you or someone you know fallen for?
