"What's a obvious scam that too many people fall for?" was likely Redditor MrQuackALotOWO's way of warning the average person to steer clear from anything remotely connected to Gwyneth Paltrow and her empire of preying on the gullible, but it could just be me reading into things.
But seriously, stay away from Goop.
And all of these scams while you're at it.
"If we had a simple..."
If we had a simple, painless way to increase the size of a mans penis, it wouldn't be a secret to be uncovered in an adult video ad. It'd be front page news. It would be the scientific achievement of the millennium. There would be ticker tape parades and national holidays. Time itself would be divided up into pre and post discovery of penial equality, much like b.c. and a.d. The world would grow tired of war and hate and we would finally know lasting peace.
"All of them."
You know all those totally obvious scam calls you get on your phone?
All of them. All of them work on enough people to make it worthwhile.
"Those Indian guys..."
Those Indian guys that claim to be from the IRS or CRA (if you're Canadian). What federal agency accepts payment in gift cards and bitcoin?
"Hi this is..."
"Hi this is tech support from Microsoft, we noticed you have a virus on your PC. Please install our access app so we can remove it for you."
"Go to the doctor."
Essential oils being used as medicine. Like they smell good but they aren't gonna cure your anxiety or your upset stomach. It's just a placebo. Go to the doctor.
"Older people..."
"This is the IRS you owe us ____..."
Older people are more likely to fall for this and it sucks. It can often sound just convincing enough to trick people. Most of the time the government will start with a letter.
"People who say..."
People who say they made millions with e-commerce or any other online business, and selling "private group for 997 USD a year."
"You think..."
Bi-weekly gym memberships instead of monthly payments. Goodlife near me advertises for $30 and then in fine print says it's bi-weekly. You think, oh, hey $360/year (30x12) isn't bad, but then it works out to more than double (30x26)
"There are still..."
In Bulgaria, there are a lot of scammers calling old people, pretending that a member of their family is in trouble and they're calling from the police. They ask for the old people to get all the savings they have and drop them off at a certain place
Not necessarily the most obvious scam, but everyone in Bulgaria knows it exists - and I mean everyone. There are still people that fall for it.
"This also applies..."
I work for the fraud department in a credit card company and this is the one scam that makes me shake my head.
Scammer calls the cardholder, scammer pretends that they're with some law enforcement agency or a business, hell they'll say they're with the credit card company, they will say anything to intimidate or scare the cardholder, then have the cardholder go out to Target, Walmart, Walgreens, or CVS and buy a bunch of gift cards to pay off a fine or supposed charge.
This also applies to suspicious pop ups. They'll say your PC is infected with a virus or has been hacked. Please call the number in the pop up to get assistance. Don't! Just close your browser if you can, power off your computer if you have too, but don't call that number. Either run a anti-virus or take your PC to a reputable PC repair service if you have to.
Also remember no business or law enforcement agency will ever, let me repeat, ever ask you to pay them in gift cards. The reason why they do this is because they know that there are no refunds on a gift card purchase and once that gift card is spent it's gone.
So if you ever have someone over the phone say you need to pay us with a gift card. Hang up on them. It's a scam.
