We’ve all been warned not to click suspicious links that we find in our inboxes and not to provide any personal information over the phone to unknown callers. But these obvious scammers aren’t the only ones trying to take more money from us than they should.
Reddit users have recently been discussing products and businesses that are beloved by many but might actually be scams. Whether it’s an item being marked up at ridiculous rates or a service that doesn’t actually do anything, we’ve gathered some of these potential scams down below. So enjoy reading through, and be sure to upvote the things you’d be hesitant to spend your money on!
#1
I feel like streaming platforms are starting to swing into scam territory by baiting everyone into joining with no ads and a low price. Then, raising the prices and bringing back ads.
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199points
#3
How about the fact that paying the employees at restaurants is somehow considered the customers responsibility.
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195points
#4
Paying for 3 different insurances, health, vision, and dental, when last time I checked the last two are part of your body therefore should fall under one, health insurance.
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193points
#5
Anything purporting to "cleanse" your body. As long as you've got a functioning liver and kidneys, you're already cleansing toxins from your body
192points
#6
"If we lower taxes on the rich, it'll come back down to us!"
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175points
#8
Minor textbook upgrades that the colleges require students to pay hundreds for to pass the class.
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163points
#10
Friggin printer ink/cartridges. What a racket. Especially new printers that don't work if you use 3rd party inks, and that none will even print in black if any of the colour ink is low/out.
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156points
#11
Influencers on social media. Many promote a product for the money, and then don’t mention the item ever again. Some even backtrack months/years later stating they don’t like the product, yet still promoted it to young people on limited budgets.
153points
#15
For women, almost any product with a different "Women's" version, that is only different because it is pink. This is actually called "the pink tax," because these products are nearly always more expensive than the men's version.
On a much smaller scale, men have a "jock" tax, where products for their genitals are more expensive than the same thing for other parts of the body. One example I saw recently was cream for jock itch, three times the price of the same antifungal cream sold for foot fungus.
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123points
#16
Uber Eats and Doordash (other food delivery apps) They mark up the prices of food, have huge delivery fees, and pocket all the money while their drivers get shafted with minimal pay and little to none of the delivery fee actually going to the driver. It is a major scam.
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118points
#17
Flushable wipes! They’re not really flushable. Spend the money on a bidet and never look back.
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114points
#20
Herbalife, they must have done something special to manage to sell it to a lot of people
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109points