Nowadays, one must always be hyper-aware about the situations they get themselves into.
Scams are on the rise more than ever, especially during the pandemic when random phone calls preyed on the gullible and the elderly and persuaded them to give an exorbitant amount of money in order to avoid various consequences.
But suspicious dealings are also prevalent in already familiar situations that appear legit but are not.
In an effort to raise awareness, Redditor Diligent-Log6805 asked:
"What's a modern day scam that's become normalized that we don't realize it's a scam anymore?"
Beware. Some institutions are trying to take advantage of you and have a sneaky way of doing it.
Privileged Information
"Employers insisting that employees not talk about their salaries AND job listings not posting salaries."
– aDogNamedPotato
Credit Score Scam
"Credit scores."
"They started in 1989 and are designed to encourage debt."
– kung_fu_jive
You Don't Know You're Even A Member
"Everything is a sneaky small monthly subscription."
– wowsers808
"This is getting ridiculous. A one time payment for an app or game used to be fine. Now you keep paying. Terrible for the consumer."
– 1shaggy123
Keep Track Of What You're Joining
"Free trial auto renewal subscriptions."
– ResidentOfTheWorld
More To Pay
"subscriptions for already-paid apps."
– Head_Membership_4252
Never rely on the face value of things purchased online.
You'll find that after the transaction is done, you're hit with some surprises that managed to slip past your radar.
The Fine Print
"Hidden fees. Especially in the medical and hospitality industries."
– spade13F
Enjoy Your Stay
"Resort fees at hotels."
– ChickenXing
An Annoying Practice
"Similarly, those U-Hauls that say '$20.00 a day!' I have never been able to rent a U-Haul for less than $100. Which is fine. I know that's what it costs. But the bait and switch is annoying."
– EatYourCheckers
If You Complain Enough, It Works In Your Favor
"I stayed at a hotel in Boston and they had a $30 per day charge that wasn't included in the price when we booked online. 'destination charge' or something. They told us that we got a credit at the restaurant because of it so we shrugged it off."
"The next morning we tried to use the credit and they told us it was only good for dinner. I went to the front desk after we ate and told them to reverse the charge. They said they couldn't. I politely said they could. They did. Saved us $120 that trip."
– PhishGreenLantern
Banking Fees
"Transaction fees when using online banking. I do all the work filling out the form so a bank employee doesn’t have too, yet I get charged the same."
– patrik3031
Blatant Thievery
"'Admin fees' for completely automated services."
– Hungry4Memes
Using Toll Roads In Australia
"In Australia if you use a toll road and don’t have a toll account, you get sent a toll notice with an added $10 admin fee. And if you don’t pay it within the requested time frame the admin fee goes up to $20. A $2.50 toll could end up costing you $22.50. Scam…"
– Ikewiththebeard
Try backing out of something you decided to sign up for. It's like a roach motel. You can get in but you can never get out.
It's Always Easy To Join
"Not being able to cancel a subscription online. I can subscribe in 5 minutes but I need to call your service agents and am forced to be rude to them to cancel it because as long as my voice sounds friendly they try to resell the damn subscription."
– Hardi_SMH
Gym Membership
"Try canceling a gym membership. Some want you to prove you've moved more than 25 miles away before they'll cancel you even when your contract is up. And unless you actively cancel the contract when it expires, they'll automatically renew your contract."
– LadyBug_0570
From A Different Perspective
"My wife and I took over ownership of a small, local yoga studio a couple years ago (ended up being terrible timing, as we took over about the time Covid started up). But one of our first tasks (started before we even took over) was replacing the old, terrible member management system."
"We wanted, among other things, for members to have the ability to sign up for a membership (which was easy enough) and edit or cancel their membership at will, on their own, with no interaction from us. We looked at probably dozens of systems, and not a single one had the ability for members to easily change membership levels or cancel their membership."
"I get that a lot of people want to make it harder to cancel as an effort to discourage cancelations, but it's ridiculous that so many softwares don't even give the option. Our philosophy was to keep members by keeping them happy, not by making it a pain in the a** to cancel."
– justahominid
I remember buying concert tickets from Ticketmaster and was offended after seeing all the service involved. It's highway robbery.
I've since found better, more reasonable deals, through second-hand markets like eBay. Yeah, even scalpers know they're not as bad as certain online ticketing agents.
As frustrating as it is though, obtaining a product or service is difficult unless you resort to paying those well-hidden fees.
Just remember to keep track of any memberships to services you've joined that are still charging you monthly, even though you think you've canceled them.
@winnieharlow/Instagram
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social