When living in a world run by social media, and where social media influencers are making money just from their lifestyle, we can safely assume that there are a few imposters out there. From online they look like they are living the dream, but in reality they're just day dreaming about what a lavish life would be like.
Many people will go as far as to take fake photos or lie about their possessions to seem like they're rich. Maybe they think it looks good on them and they're really pulling the wool over our eyes, but it's not that convincing.
So, Redditor IntergalacticDog1 wanted to know what people without wealth do to make them seem rich.
On Ask Reddit, IntergalacticDog1 asked:
"What screams 'I'm poor but pretend I'm rich'?"
The people Reddit had plenty of examples and hilarious stories.
Selfies for the "gram"
"Posting selfies posed with things that aren't yours."
"Can I direct you to my ex, who used to take pics with my kind of expensive accessories that I bought for myself way before I met him? That Louis bag isn't really yours darlin'. It's mine, and you just look [ridiculous]."
"My ex rented a Porsche and flexed it on his Instagram … made me wish i could've broken up with him a second time."
"The bane of owning a nice car or motorcycle is the number of people that think they can lean or sit on them to take photos. Legit came back to people sitting IN my car several times when I left the top down."
Epic fail.
"I worked as a PA on a really low rent rap video years ago. The dude was freshly signed to a minor label. He was calling in favors from people in the old hood so he didn't have to pay extras and stuff. He slept on his mom's sofa for the week of the video."
"Somebody in his posse was old enough to rent an exotic car (Bentley) from the exotic dealer near airport."
"The guy who rented it refused to let the rapper drive for the first day of the shoot."
"The second day, the rapper talked the guy into it. He drove it over a curb and hit a parking meter square across the hood. Both were crying and throwing stuff at each other."
Influencer life.
"Following/constantly posting [ridiculous] 'entrepreneur' sh*t on Instagram."
"Posts pictures of their cubicle and 'Grinding' or 'Let's get this bread!'"
"The first insurance company I worked for was American income life. They don't have cubicles, but they constantly talk about how much money they made that week, call each other stud, use the fire emoji endlessly, and hashtag things like #hustle and #mindset. It's exhausting."
Did you even read the book?
"I FELT this. GOD there's this girl in my year who's always post sh*t like 'work hard uwu' and pictures of her 'studying' or 'reading a book'. I saw her post a picture of her reading War and Peace (we were reading this for book club) with a caption about how reading was important and everyone should read War and Peace and how it would get you out of a reading slump (and fyi NO. War and Peace will NOT get you out of a reading slump. It's a decent read but it's likely to demotivate you if you haven't read in a long time)."
"So I asked her about the book and she freaked and started spouting some bullshit about how its a book teaching about peace and it lists ways for countries for being 'peaceful'. That's when I confirmed, she didn't even read the Sparknotes."
Oh, the irony.
"My brother always carries a wad of cash in a money clip. He has a $100 bill on the outside, but the rest is all $1's. It's all for show. He has no money and lives with my parents."
"That's actually funny because wealthy people put the ones on the outside and the big bills on the inside."
Financial Aid.
"My old roommate spent his entire financial aid refund on a Gucci belt because the security guard at the mall assumed he couldn't afford it."
People Share The 'Dirty Secrets' That Their Bosses Don't Want Customers To Know
At the 7/11.
"Use to work at a 7/11. Once a month for a week this guy would come in with a rented green Cadillac and a very obvious sex worker on his arm. Would flash a wad of money while in the store and make it VERY specific that he wants $10 on 'THAT GREEN CADILLAC RIGHT THERE!' Co-worker told me he does it with his SSI check."
"Who did he think he was impressing pumping $10 worth of gas?"
- that2foo
Such a stark contrast.
"An expensive, current year model car, parked in front of a low income apartment complex."
"On an 80 month loan with 12% APR."
"My cousin financed a brand new car (2019 Chevy Trax) shortly after I financed my much nicer, lightly used car (2016 Lexus RX350). The loan amounts were within 5% of each other, and both were 6 year loans. I have good credit. He has garbage credit. His payments are more than double mine. When I'm done, I'll pay a couple grand in interest, if that. When he's done, he'll have spent enough to buy two or three new cars."
"Forget ya neck, protect ya credit."
Real fake.
"I have a relatively poor friend who doesn't have a tv or anything, but they go around in a several hundred pound tracksuit and wear fake diamond rings they bought on wish, which he tells people are real."
"I never understood people thinking others would believe they're rich just by having some (probably fake) diamonds while still living in the same run down apartment. Wealthy people might have a nice watch or something, but they don't wear massive chains."
"A while back I saw a guy on YouTube who would go up to strangers decked out in diamonds, he'd compliment them, ask if it's all real, they'd usually say yes, and he'd take out a handheld diamond tester and ask if he can check. Whether it's staged or not it's some incredibly funny sh*t."
Just doing it for the photo-op.
"Taking pictures in a fake luxury airplane."
"A buddy of mine went to pretty high end clubs."
"There was this Instagram dude constantly shooting pictures with empty expensive bottles that either he requested at the bar, or took off the tables. I can't imagine how much of a joke your life has become at that point lol."
"Any Instagram 'influencer,' really. For the most part, if you're rich, you appreciate your privacy because your money has drawn more attention than you want. If you have to scrabble after attention it's because people aren't already giving it to you on your own merits."
"Most of these are 'Old money/new money' distinctions, and this is no different...but you don't see many wealthy people plastering their private lives all over social media."
"Bragging about how much money you have. Clothes and accessories with huge logos on them. Posting pictures of new items you purchased on Instagram and stuff."
"Especially cause the brands that actually impress rich folks are the ones the rest of us have never even heard of."
"The huge logo thing is funny to me. I remember when the polo shirts with the HUGE polo guy logo came out and thought about how tacky it looked. It used to be a nice little subtle accent on the shirt. Plenty of other brands have gone this way too from being a nice product with a subtle or small logo that people who knew what it was would notice. Now it's about making the logo huge so that's all you see."
- snap802
Keep the "haters" away.
"There's a woman in my country who really takes it to the next level with pretending to be filthy rich. She hires 6-7 men all dressed in black to be her 'bodyguards' and carry her purse everywhere she goes, make a whole production of it. When asked why she needed the bodyguards, she said she's afraid of her 'haters.' She'd also wear poofy princess dresses or anything equally gaudy, but unfortunately you can tell from the quality of her clothes they don't look that expensive."
The truth, but not the whole truth.
"Me, telling people I own Bitcoin, but conveniently not mentioning that I only own .002BTC."
"Some guy at my job was like 'do you trade?' And I was like uh, what? Of course his way of telling me he made some money with Doge. F*ck off buddy, we work at Goodwill and your other job is Walmart, no one is impressed."
- wrp1
"A guy I know was flexing about his bitcoin skills, told people to sell their car and put the money into bitcoin, when asked if he was doing the same he says, 'Oh no, not me, I haven't been able to buy a car yet, haven't had one in 12 years.'"
"He's in his mid 40s."
What the social media influencers forget is that the world still sees them beyond their social media platform. It's time for a reality check.
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