You’re not a true adult until you’ve been scammed one way or another. Whether you’ve simply been duped into paying extra for something you don’t need or stupidly fell victim to one of those fake IRS calls, you’ve probably been taken advantage of it like the rest of us. Even the most hyper-vigilant, ultra-paranoid of us will feel the pain at some point.
People of Reddit started talking about the most common, normalized scams that are happening to people everywhere. Redditor u/MR_COOL_ICE_ asked:
“What do you consider to be the biggest scam that is completely normalized by society?”
And the responses will might make you feel a little bit better about the stupid situations you’ve put yourself in.
Here are the most popular normalized scams according to the people of Reddit.
1. Salary secrets
“Companies not disclosing salaries on job listings and encouraging staff not to discuss pay. It only benefits the employer, but everyone goes long with it.” –R1ven36
2. Detox
“Detox drinks.” –JustAJumpToTheLeft_
3. Subscriptions
“The easy-to-join, difficult-to-cancel subscription model.” –Gorf_the_Magnificent
4. Ticketmaster
“Ticketmaster. F*ck Ticketmaster.” –your-playboy
5. Printer ink
“Printer ink. Every single company that sells printers sells them at a loss. They then make up their profits my making their ink cost an arm and a leg. They even put special chips on each cartridge that will tell the printer not to work if it has been refilled.” –yumomgaey
6. Funerals
“The funeral industry. You have to spend thousands of dollars to get rid of a body because otherwise you’re “disrespecting” it.” –WikiWantsYourPics
7. Recycling
“the majority of plastic “recycling” in the US. Not only did corporations pass off the burden of dealing with it to the consumer while they just produce more and more every year,
the majority of plastic beyond pop bottles isn’t even actually recyclable and will end up being shipped to small South Asian countries where it will be burned. Its a huge scam. Metal and glass recycling still kind of works in some areas but where fresh water is scarce everything is net negative environmentally speaking, even paper.” –areuseriousjk
8. Insulin
“Insulin prices in USA.” –EverybodyLikesStonks
9. Warranties
“Extended car warranties.” –Tink2013
10. Tracking
“All this tracking happening with everything on the internet. Social networks, ads, our banks, our phones with all those sensors. Everything is tracking us and collects information about us and they use it in some spooky ways. Either way I’d be happier if I at least could have more control over it or even maybe could make money from the data about me myself. When you really see how deep this goes it kinda feels like something from 1984. Oh and also the ever growing attempts of companies to go against ownership and to keep control over everything even after we buy it.” –Mozkozrout