What seems to be very obviously nefarious to you might not be obvious to someone else. That’s exactly the question that internet users have been tackling on the r/AskReddit subreddit. User u/Aurallius asked people to open up about what they personally believe to be scams that “everyone else accepts otherwise,” and they were glad to deliver.
The thread quickly went viral, getting over 36.6k upvotes and a whopping 27.3k comments: everyone was fired up to share their opinions and discuss each other’s views. From shopping channels to credit repair companies and more, you’ll find all things that some people think are secretly scams below.
Some of the things mentioned in this list are likely real-life scams. Of course, you might not agree with all of these conclusions, dear Pandas, but that’s part of the point—the grey area in which these things exist. Let us know what you think about these redditors’ opinions in the comments and if you agree with them or not and why.
The author of the thread, redditor Aurallius, gave Bored Panda some insights about the inspiration behind their question and what people should do to avoid scams. Aurallius is a design student at the School of Visual Arts in New York. They're an illustrator "working to make a living from art." You'll find their comments below.
#22
Wish.com
Yeah you find something you like for a dollar, BUT it has 7 dollar shipping fee AND it's from China and will take a month to get to you.
Yeah you find something you like for a dollar, BUT it has 7 dollar shipping fee AND it's from China and will take a month to get to you.
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#23
Autism speaks. The organisation is actually terrible, and views autism as a curable illness and as a burden that must be fixed.
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#24
Payment plans for phones and just paying $1000 for a phone in general.
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#25
Any company that makes you go to their dealers for repairs, like Apple, just so you have to pay triple the amount. If you had gotten an android and watched a youtube video, you could have fixed the problem yourself in 20 minutes for about 10 bucks.
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#26
Workout/meal plan apps that you have to pay for. All of their workouts and meal recipes are google'able and extremely generic. There’s no face time between you and the app people so there’s no individuality in it. I don’t get how people fall for it at all
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#27
The cost of mobile Data plans.
I'm from Sweden and here I currently pay $15 for 8 GB. I lived in Canada for the winter and they wanted $50 for like 3GB.
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#28
High School rings. I don’t know why people buy them. What do you use them for?
For those who don’t know what a class ring is, it’s a ring that you can buy when you’re going to graduate. Details vary from ring to ring, but it generally has the school’s logo on it, can be customized a bit, and costs anywhere from $100-$1000 depending on the materials, what school you go to, etc.
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#29
Fruit juice and most breakfast cereals. They're full of sugar and so obviously terrible for your health and teeth, but they also lead to an energy slump that makes late mornings at work unnecessarily irksome.
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#30
Subscriptions like xbox live gold, playstation plus, etcetera...
It feels odd to have to own a console + monitor/tv, buy a game, have an already paid internet subscription and then above that, before you can even play the game (not all of them, it's clearly stated which games you need a subscription for and which not) you need a paid subscription to your console's online service?
They aren't too expensive but it just feels a little odd.. (I do not own any consoles myself nor am I trying to speak bad about console players. It just feels odd to me personally)
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#31
Pancake mix. You literally only need flour and baking powder plus a bit of salt. That's it. That's all it is. The liquid ingredients (milk, eggs) are still the same. Don't spend your money on boxed pancake mix.
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#32
Credit repair companies. I used to sell this stuff. You pay $100 a month to send letters to credit companies to fight the debt. If they don't respond in X days, it goes off your credit. You can also dispute it if a name is barely spelt wrong or an address. You can do this 100% on your own and there are templates online you can print out.
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