I was once dragged along to a presentation on time shares––in Atlantic City, no less––by a friend who saw absolutely nothing wrong with the idea that we had hopped on a bus for a jaunt to Atlantic City in the middle of February only to traipse a barren, depressing boardwalk to a rundown hotel for three hours of poppycock in exchange for airline tickets.
They were better off getting a credit card that gives you air miles with each purchase, but I digress...
And yes, they purchased a time share. Ouch. But I got a free meal out of the day, so who's the real winner here?
After Redditor BrighterChimp asked the online community, "What was (in retrospect) a scam that you absolutely fell for?" people lined up to tell their stories.
Can I say "ouch" again?
Okay, I will: Ouch.
"My wife fell for..."
My wife fell for the "You have a warrant for your arrest if you pay x we will resolve the case and no arrest will be made." BS. They were referring to me.
I work for the government and she thought we were being tipped off and paid the people. I had no warrant, and I would have known myself. I was very mad, this was yeaaars ago.
"I ate..."
Free breakfast that turned into a time share pitch. I ate double breakfast so scam's on them.
"I was young, dumb..."
Cutko Knives. I was young, dumb, needed a job, and had no idea what a Multilevel Marketing scheme was. Fortunately I was too broke to get too deep into it, and I think calling them an MLM might be a bit harsh, but they had me hook line and sinker for about a month.
"They were going to give us..."
Getting sucked into a time share presentation in Las Vegas with my mom. They were going to give us gambling vouchers and some other stuff for what was supposed to be a 15 minute presentation. A couple hours later we bailed empty handed because the presentation would not end and my mom was getting pissed. Lesson learned.
"There was a green pebble..."
GiphySchool trip, went to a souvenir shop. There was a green pebble, literally just a pebble but green. Vendor told me it was an emerald and I ended up paying 5 bucks for it.
"I paid a lot of money..."
Some random real estate seminar back in 2015 or 2016. I paid a lot of money and ended up buying the full course. I luckily came to my senses the next day and went back for the second day of the seminar and got my money back.
"He knew all along..."
My first (and only so far) marriage.
Just after our 2nd anniversary he informed me he didn't love me, had never loved me, and love was a fantasy that people shouldn't pursue. He knew all along he was settling for me, and assumed i knew that and was settling for him too.
"All the times you said you loved me?? You were lying??" I asked.
"Yes, i thought you knew it was just a thing people say that they don't actually mean."
No, no i did not know that. Coincidentally, his green card had just arrived in the mail a few days earlier.
"I'm usually not that dumb..."
A guy on Facebook I didn't know added me and said he thought I was pretty and I should come do a photo shoot and he could make me a model. I was in college and considered it. Luckily my boyfriend at the time, who was usually an overall @ss, was like DO NOT DO THAT you're going to get killed.
Now I'm really into true crime and can't believe how close I almost came to probably getting human trafficked.
I'm usually not that dumb, but I felt really unsexy and just like a worthless garbage bag at the time and I really wanted to believe someone thought I was that beautiful.
"I saw a flyer..."
I saw a flyer for really cheap solar from Solar City. I called the number, they ask for my number. They came over consultation visit but it's was far more expensive that what the flyer said so I turned it down. Now I get calls at all hours of the day from solar companies, energy companies, scam call saying my electricity rates are going to be raised. I really regret it.
"When I was 18..."
When I was 18, I bought a computer for school. I had no idea what I was doing and it was absolutely not what I needed. I was young and dumb and didn't know how to just return it, so I tried to sell it on Craigslist.
This dude says he wants to buy it for his grandma. He wants me to ship it to Nigeria where he's "consulting" and he'll pay me back and then some for the insane cost of shipping. I think it was like $1000.
I was young and very naive, so I agreed. I got as far as boxing the damn thing up and addressing it. Smh. We start working for this guy who claims to be from PayPal, who tells me that the money has come out of the random dude's account and will go straight into mine once I send proof of the shipment. This was where I started to smell a rat (finally) because the "PayPal" was clearly an early attempt at a spoof account, I.e., at first glance it looked like it was from PayPal but even hovering over the email gave a different name. He also had a profile picture on his account.
I ended up reporting the guy to PayPal who immediately confirmed that he was a fraud and I was about to fall for a major scam.
I blocked them both, swallowed my pride, and asked my parents what I should do. I ended up just sending the computer back to wherever I bought it. Got a full refund.
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