Scammers are everywhere these days. For those who are not vigilant, these fake texts, emails, and letters can trick them into giving up valuable personal information. But that was never at risk of happening with these hilariously obvious scamming attempts people shared online.
Aren’t you a billionaire, Ronaldo?
Ok, anyone who falls for this scam, sort of deserves it. You don’t need to know much about soccer, to know Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best in the sport. As a matter of fact, he has fairly recently become the first soccer player in the world to be classed not just as a millionaire, but a billionaire.
In other words, he does not need to borrow anyone’s debit card to buy new football shoes. He could buy entire stores filled with new football shoes if he wanted to.
Persistent and dramatic
This is a very persistent and dramatic scammer, and he definitely deserves some credit for his creativity in trying to adapt to whatever his victim says.
But, he missed the class about reading people, and being subtle in his attempts to convince others to trust him. Those are pretty important qualities if you’re trying to make a living as a scammer. So this one should probably look into changing career path. May we suggest actor in bad action movies?
Maybe the Nigerian prince was real all along!
Oh no, we’ve all made a terrible mistake when ignoring those emails from Nigerian princes wanting to give us money! We could have been millionaires, had we just chosen to trust that kind stranger…
Kidding aside, if this money belongs to a scammer, it’s clearly been collected from all the poor souls who did reply to the email and got roped into giving away their savings. Or, which is more likely, this money does not belong to some Nigerian prince at all, but a Nigerian criminal gang.
Preying on distressed pet owners
Any devoted pet owner loves their four-legged buddy as a family member. So if they go missing, it’s a devastating situation for the owners. Unfortunately, scammers know how to prey on the most vulnerable, such as people who desperately want something (like their pet back), and therefore will agree to things they wouldn’t normally.
Luckily this worried dog owner was still aware enough to realize she was being scammed, and instead of going along called them out.
What kind of fool do you take me for?
Why would anyone pay double the asking price for a second-hand phone? That makes zero sense, but definitely made the fact that this is a scam very obvious.
The other obvious give-away, was asking the phone owner for all their credit card information. If this scammer really intended to transfer the money, they wouldn’t need those details. They would simply need account number. These scammers really need to step up their game, or they’re not gonna make any money.
Sure, Mr. Dave Dawes…
Diplomatic agent Mr. Dave Dawes, now that sounds like a movie character we’d enjoy watching in some slapstick comedy spy movie. It’s however not the name of someone we’d trust either giving money to, or accepting money from.
We’re pretty sure the person responding to Mr. Dave Dawes knows this, and is just playing along for the fun of it. However, they also quickly call Dave out for being an unprofessional scammer, and quickly decides not to work with him. Good call!
Mark Zuckerberg is in the market for a used i-Phone
This redditor was contacted by the one and only Mark Zuckerberg, who wanted to buy his used iPhone from Craigslist. He asked to verify Mark’s identity, who obliged and sent him a picture of his ID. ID or not, we doubt anyone would ever believe the billionaire Mark Zuckerberg needs to buy a used iPhone.
Which begs the question, who do scammers think wealthy celebs are smart baits to choose when trying to trick people out of their money?
Scammers are keeping up with the pandemic
Scammers are nothing but not versatile, and they’re great at evolving with the times and catching on to new trends. The pandemic has caused plenty of new problems and worries, and many people are under a lot of stress being so isolated.
This scammer is trying to prey on people’s fear of infection, but we have a feeling even the most fearful of contracting the virus would just burst out laughing at this ridiculous scam attempt.
Ice cold
The best way to beat a scammer, is to throw them a curveball they never expected. Getting a call about someone being kidnapped would make a lot of people uncomfortable and confused, but this person didn’t miss a beat. They immediately realized it was a scam attempt, and decided to play along.
They came up with two random names, and as soon as the scammer excitedly agreed that yes, those were the kidnap victims – he coldly told him to kill them. That’s a plot twist the scammer probably didn’t expect.
How did that fool anyone?
We’d love to know where this fine business is located. Because if their staff accept bills that look like this, we could basically get away with using monopoly money there. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton would turn in his grave if he saw this completely inaccurate portrait of him. It basically looks like a bad caricature.
We almost feel bad for the staff who accepted this bill, because int he bottom left corner it clearly says it should only be used as a movie prop.
The direct approach
If any random (or known) person ever asks you to send them your Facebook password, or any password for that matter, sending three laughing emojis back is the only appropriate response.
We can’t decide of this scammer is just dumb, or if this trick has in fact worked enough times for them to know it actually works to be this direct. But if that’s the case, we’re gonna lose our faith in humanity right now.
See you never, maybe Chris
This is a very odd scam attempt, as usually scammers don’t just schedule a meetup and leave it at that. This guy also didn’t even notice the date scheduled doesn’t exist (and even if it did, would take place almost 100 years from now…)
But at least he was polite enough, and as far as we can see from this screenshot didn’t continue harassing his victim after scheduling the meeting. Now he’s probably just preparing for this financial consultation.
That’s not very convincing, Simon
Last time we checked, bank employees don’t talk like this. Spelling please as plz? Please, how stupid does this scammer think people are? Not to mention, no actual bank would randomly ask for your bank details over text. That’s a dead give-away something fishy is going on.
We would have reacted exactly as the person receiving these messages did – ignore them, and take a screenshot to share the whole thing online to laugh with, and warn, others.
Better luck next time, ‘Danny’
This office employee shared this little story, about when his office got an email from a supposed site manager. The site manager Danny asked all the employees to buy gift cards from Ebay to give to some client.
But this clever guy thought the whole thing seemed suspicious, so he tracked the Ip address. And lo and behold, it turned out the site manager was in Nigeria. So this is what he sent Danny instead of actual gift cards.
The most obvious type of scam
If a celebrity does any kind of give-away to fans, this is not how they do it. And most people on social media are today so used to spotting scams and possible viruses, they are very hesitant to trust anyone who reaches out to them with offers of money.
Especially if the person in question is The Rock. This guy or gal immediately went to the source, and realized the account definitely did not belong to The Rock.
The lost pet scammer strikes again
Oh no, the lost pet scammer is at it again. Do people have no shame? We had hoped this sort of thing was pretty rare, but apparently it’s a common thing.
There are several screenshots and stories like this one online, shared by devastated pet owners. We sincerely hope this poor girl found her cat in the end, and that this scammer was found out and had to pay the consequences for their distasteful actions.
Road Trip
Sometimes it’s hard to know what is going through scammers’ minds when they contact you. It’s one thing to request a bunch of gift cards from your victim, it’s another thing to expect them to drive almost 3,000 miles.
Let’s hope that the scammer spent 42 hours on the road and hit every single red light, all for nothing. It would serve them right.
Scamming from beyond the grave
Some people will fall for anything, but even the most gullible of people wouldn’t mistake a scam text for their late mother texting them from beyond the grave.
This is a classic case of why scammers need to do their research before threatening someone. If this person’s mom wanted to contact them through some kind of spiritual medium, this definitely wouldn’t be the way to do it.
No, it’s not
A picture is worth more than a thousand words, and in this case that was all that was needed to shut the scammer up. This is a great example of why it’s wise to do a quick google search whenever you receive some offer or coupon hat sounds too good to be true.
It’s also a great example of how rarely scammers do their homework to ensure their scams are even remotely convincing, so it’s almost always easy to call their bluff.
At least they were honest
Imagine how much easier life would be, if this was how every person deceiving us behaved. If every partner who would cheat on us, just told us up front they were a cheater. If every boss that would bully us, told us already at the job interview they are in fact a miserable bully.
Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. But, this blessed person at least stumbled upon an honest scammer, and that’s more than most of us will ever experience.
Scammer getting scammed
Have you ever gotten a message from someone asking for your login details to try and upgrade an app for you? Chances are you weren’t gullible enough to fall for it.
This person was wise enough to see through it and they actually scammed their scammer. The scammer got scammed. If there’s such thing as poetic justice, this would be it!
Double trouble
Making payments online is always a risk—you never know if the person you’re sending it to will actually receive it. And even when they do receive it, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be honest with you.
We’re not sure who the scammer is. Did this woman’s friend actually make the payment not once but twice or did they not actually make the payment in the first place?
Buddy Buddy
This is the least aggressive text exchange we’ve seen. Not only is the scammer asking them “kindly” but the person responded to their text by calling the scammer “bud.”
If we didn’t read the rest of the text message, we could almost be convinced that this is indeed a very civil conversation. It’s too bad that the scammer is trying to blackmail the other person.
So did he get the money?
Wait, did this actually work? Or did Patrick realize something fishy was going on, and sent a fake address just to get rid of the scammer? We sincerely hope so, because if not – God knows what Patrick’s address will be used for!
And again, why would anyone offer more than asking price for a second-hand product? Why add $30 to “reserve it”? A serious customer who wants to ensure they get the product would just offer to make a bank transfer immediately.
Just a message from your federal LinkedIn agent
A federal LinkedIn agent, now that’s a fake sounding title if we’ve ever heard one. Also, these scammers really need to work on their writing skills. Most scam attempts on this list are riddled with misspelled words and grammatical errors. That’s a sure way to lose credibility immediately, even if the actual scam idea is convincing.
In this case though, no matter how well articulated the text would have been – very few would send their ID card to some random federal LinkedIn agent…
Might wanna check again
There are some really generous people out there who would be willing to drop everything for the people they love, in their time of need. And unfortunately, there are some who just know how to take advantage of that.
We’re here to tell you not to blindly trust anyone who asks for a huge lump of money and promises they’ll “definitely refund”, because the chances are that that refund is never coming.
Bill Gate was feeling generous
Bill Gates is apparently a pretty generous guy, but we’re not sure who this Bill Gate dude is. And why is he using Bill Gates’ picture on his fake-looking winning ticket? This ticket was sent to a redditor’s home, and they of course immediately realized it was a scam.
Apparently these scams are so common, there is and entire section on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website warning people of the various attempts, and explaining all the things they would never send or ask of people.
A female named Nathan
This exchange is pretty confusing. Not only is this not even Nathan, but if the scammers’ target audience is women, why are they texting someone they think is named Nathan in the first place?
Also, it’s pretty low to prey on women suffering from cancer, and trying insinuate the baby powder they used is to blame. Talk about getting sick people’s hopes up, that maybe they might get compensated for their suffering in some class-action lawsuit.
Apple customer support has never looked better
People who love Apple, are usually such geeks about it they know everything about their beloved Apple products. They are also used to the perfect, minimalist company design and language – which means this email would convince literally none of them.
What is up with all the full stops in between letters here? What kind of computer or writing program was used to achieve this effect? This message would have looked more convincing if it was hand-written by an eight-year-old.
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