The Internet Shares Shady Scam Stories To Serve As Cautionary Tales So You Won't Fall For Them

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Chelsi

• Published in Interesting
• November 8, 2021

Getting a questionable email, an odd message, or a robocall is somewhat of a right of passage in the digital world. If you're not new to the internet, you are more than familiar with the scam tactics of criminals to take advantage of you.

These 24 horror scam stories were the answer to the question: Have you ever got scammed? What happened? Redditors gladly shared their infuriating encounters with these ruthless scammers.

It's honestly surprising and begrudgingly impressive that these scammers seem to find new and creative ways to bamboozle people out of their hard-earned money. It's a lucrative business and this is probably the reason why scammers keep scamming.

Americans alone lose over $29 Billion from phone scams. That's billion with a b.

It's a lot of money and it's just from phone scams, if you add the money people lose over the internet then you'll be richer than the Nigerian prince who wants to be your friend. Sadly, even young people aged 20-24 years old who spend a lot of their time on the internet, fall for these scams. Second to them are seniors aged 70 and above.

Heartless scammers, target vulnerable people and sadly, their MO works. Redditors hope that by sharing their unfortunate fraud stories, other won't fall prey to the same shady tactics.

1. This 'friend' who tried to pull a fast one over another kid old school style

2. Instead of flagging the unusual purchase from the account, the bank upped the credit limit on the card without warning

3. An employee who made a quick buck from an innocent kid

4. An almost successful scam that was foiled thanks to this person's quick thinking

5. A scammer who used their child for sympathy and to get money from strangers

6. This wasn't probably the first time she tried to do this and got away with it

7. This trusting customer who only wanted to purchase a TV but was scammed for a lot of money.

8. Scammers who pretend that your family member is in trouble and if you don't send them money they will go to jail

It also sucks that even after they got a lot of money off of you, they will try the same trick in the future.

9. A tech savvy scammer who can easily fool people to enter their banking details on his sketchy website

10. A seller pulling tricks on eBay to charge you for an item you never ordered

11. This bizzare encounter with a real life scammer who was honest about his tricks

12. Another quick thinking scammer who almost succeeded

13. Con men who hacked famous child star's account to trick kids into using their parents' card information

14. Somehow there's always a horror story where a white van is involved

15. This old school scam that would have caused enormous phone bills

16. A trick that would have fooled people who aren't familiar with the accessories included with consoles

17. This horrifying story that drained your bank account and made all of your hair fall off literally

18. Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I know this mobile game

19. A sexist scam that they thought would work

20. Don't trust pop-up ads from shady websites

21. Would love to hear more about these stories

22. Another eBay scammer story and a con man who played the long game

23. Oh how the turn tables

24. This popular RuneScape scam where people pretended to customize your armor for you and never returned them

You would think with ad blocks and spam filters, these scams would eventually die off. Unfortunately, as long as there are people who have no remorse, these tricks will keep on going.

Be mindful of who you're talking to and hopefully, you won't fall victim to these scams.

Do you have your own horror scam stories? Would you mind sharing them in the comments below? Let's protect each other from these con men.

Chelsi