While there are plenty of scams out there that scream "SKETCHY" and drive most people away immediately, there are other shake-downs that operate pretty far below the radar.
In fact, these all-too-common ploys make one wonder exactly where the line between scam and rip off actually is.
They're not scams in the formal sense. Nothing illegal is happening and nobody ever lies per se. But all the while we're shelling out way more cash than we'd like for reasons we don't quite understand.
jungledolphiiin asked, "What's the biggest scam we all just accept?"
Knowledge is Power
"COLLEGE TEXT BOOKS."
"You need edition 10 for this class. They change one chapter in the book make it a new edition over price it and f*** the college kids. Always drove me nuts when I was I college."
-- coptivity
Inch by Inch
"Commercials on subscription tv." -- Fatalis_Drakk
"This was the original point of cable TV, that you'd pay a fee for it and the shows would be commercial free." -- throwawayobviqxy
"That will bring back piracy" -- liquidsh**sinmypants
Multiple Streams of Income
"Academic journals."
"Authors need to pay to get published, but readers need to pay to read them. What a load of bullsh**." -- Nekronous
The Earliest Scam
"Mom: tell me the truth and I wont be mad" -- SkysHorrorPlace
"Or Principal: if you are the person who did this one bad thing, tell us who you are now and we won't punish you" -- go_away-im_not_here
"Same with the cops." -- mumsheila
Very Inconvenient
"Ticket master 'convenience' fees" -- s32ddd
"Convenience fees for paying online" -- __flatline__
"I always ask them, convenience to who?" -- dcotoz
"The DMV is the worst one, IMO. There's a convenience fee to pay it online, and there's a 'counter fee' to pay in person." -- JonesNate
Honoring Properly, For a Price
"How expensive funerals are. Companies are taking advantage of emotions, and it's actually cruel."
"Someone died for goodness sake, and now you want to break people's banks over it because 'it's what grandma would have wanted'!!!"
-- Funnybunnie_
Some Strategic Pricing
"Large popcorn."
"Hear me out. When the only options are a large and a small, if the large is $5 but the small is $2, the theaters don't want you to pick the small. So they'll invent a medium size."
"But instead of pricing the medium as perfectly between $2 and $5 ($3.50), they'll price the medium as slightly less than the large."
"So, in your mind, you think 'well, I could get even more popcorn for just a little bit more. I'd be a fool to miss out on that deal.'"
"The theater never wanted you to pick the medium. They just artificially made the large more attractive."
-- nWo1997
Arbitrary Valuation
"Data caps" -- TheHeroicOnion
"Seriously. It's like a nickel a TB in electricity, maybe less."
"But the ISPs and Cell Phone providers act like the data is being handled by a switchboard where people have to manually move cables around so that you can get your Facebook feed." -- Snoo74401
Growing Numb
"Being forced to always click 'I accept terms and conditions' by every company online for everything, no matter what those conditions are."
"Need to pay some medical bills? Well, you can only do it on xxx.paythedoc.cm and if you DON'T agree to terms and conditions, you can't get it done."
"Need to order a specific part from a company? Same thing. Even agreeing to Zoom meetings, if I remember correctly."
"So we've raised an entire generation of people who don't even bother reading contracts because they are conditioned to believe you have no choice but to agree to the contract."
"This is extremely insidious and there's no real recourse."
-- buggytoujour
Who Decided?
"The value of diamonds" -- C**tyMcGiggles
"My wife was talking about how she wants more/bigger diamonds for her ring for our 10 year. It's a few years away but sh** if she wants that I better start saving now."
"Then I asked how she felt about the lab diamonds. Game changer. She said they look exactly the same and would be fine with it."
"I'll possibly financially recover from this." -- Yakstein
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