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Financial scams are among the most common crimes. For example, in 2023, 15% of Americans said at least one member of their household had fallen prey to one, including 8% reporting that it had happened to themselves personally. (The latter figure translates into roughly 21 million U.S. adults.)

So we at Bored Panda decided to expand on the issue and asked our readers on Facebook to share what they believe to be the biggest frauds in the history of mankind. From the diamond industry to double taxation, here are the most popular answers that we've received.

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    #2

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Tax breaks for the wealthy

    Sabrina Toupe , RDNE Stock project / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Nerenahd Dhaneren
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'd say capitalism is the greatest scam ever. Sure, it drives innovation and generates wealth. However it will destroy humanity in the long run by: 1) turning the planet uninhabitable because of greed; 2) creating so much wealth concentration that in a century or two the 1% will own 99% of world assets. Good luck trying to take that power away from them.

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    #3

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Mega churches

    B-Rad Carithers , Vince Fleming / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Corvus
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    What, you didn't read that part of the Bible where Jesus builds a megachurch and then keeps asking for donations?

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    #4

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Privatized healthcare

    Jennie Thurber , National Cancer Institute / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Ray McArdle
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As someone in the hospital as I type, who has been told my child cannot be discharged because hi electrolytes are low, and who was told by a different doctor yesterday that electrolytes don't matter because his PICC line has been replaced, and my child is bored out of his mind, and after the news was delivered, the resident threw his hands up because he knows it's all about money, that US healthcare system. I have good health coverage from my company and they are milking it. Oh, they also contacted Child Protection Services in the event that I get any ideas about complaining. We're effectively PRISONERS!!!

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    #5

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day The idea that one group of people is innately better than another group of people

    Rebecca Furtado , Ryoji Iwata / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

    #6

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day The diamond industry. Super corrupt and monopolized. Diamonds are great, but it's time to step away from them being the coveted stone.

    Sol-leks Swearingen , Tahlia Doyle / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    cerinamroth
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They won't be coveted for long now that there are ways to produce them in 15 minutes! (Although they are microdiamonds, they will still force prices down.) Don't buy anything except lab-grown diamonds, people! It's the only way to be sure you aren't propping up the deeply unethical diamond mining industry.

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    #7

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Hospital car parking fees

    Sharon Kaye Boskovich , John Matychuk / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    ZGutr
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    *unless* you are donating blood. At least for me here (Sweden). Those who come to donate blood have reserved parking spaces, and don't pay parking fees.

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    #8

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day That if we work hard we'll be able to live comfortably!! afford to buy a house, car, and holidays, when the reality is we can barely afford food and energy

    Vicky Mckenna , Andrea Piacquadio / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    censorshipsucks
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    yep, you're hamsterwheeling. Basically going to work to pay for somewhere to sleep and a car to take you to work so you can earn money to pay for the place to sleep and the car to take you to work so you can... ad infinitum.

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    #9

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Millionaires running their companies into the ground, filing for bankruptcy, then rinse and repeat.

    Susan McKissick Smith , Tyler Harris / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    General Anaesthesia
    Community Member
    5 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Imagine bankrupting a casino, a place where people go to practically beg you to take their money. Then imagine doing that four times. Scam.

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    #10

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day the importance of politicians

    Aleksandar Stojanovic , History in HD / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Verena
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well, in a normal democracy with a multiple ( = more than two) party system, the solution is easy: Found a new party, run for elections, do better. It happens constantly in the Netherlands and Germany, in Germany it takes a couple of years to reach a seat in parliament because you need at least 5% of the voters voting for you. In the Netherlands there is no barrier and new parties come and go. Interestingly enough, no one does really better.

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    #11

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day The trickle down effect

    Lisa B. Whitaker , kennejima / flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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    Little Wonder
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We should try the trickle UP effect. Increase pensions and welfare payments, people will have more money to spend, which will make more money for businesses which can even lead to new jobs.

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    #12

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day That the rich deserve or are entitled to obscene wealth and privilege

    Sean Morrissey , Andrea Piacquadio/ pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Nerenahd Dhaneren
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'd say capitalism is the greatest scam ever. Sure, it drives innovation and generates wealth. However it will destroy humanity in the long run by: 1) turning the planet uninhabitable because of greed; 2) creating so much wealth concentration that in a century or two the 1% will own 99% of world assets. Good luck trying to take that power away from them.

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    #13

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day The 40 hour work week

    Destiny Lee Shastel Anderson , energepic.com / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Justin Tyme
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Forty hours was a short and easy work week in most of the jobs I had.

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    #14

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Insurance of any kind. You use it, the rates go up. You don’t use it, the rates go up

    Tina Placek-Pelot , Andrea Piacquadio / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Carl Roberts
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You use it, the company cancels your policy. My dad had the same homeowner's policy with AAA for almost 50 years. It was their top policy, and therefore had the highest premium. We had a house fire (the damage was mostly contained to a single room). The cost for repairs was less than what my dad had paid to AAA over the previous 5 decades. Not only did they require us to use their preferred contractor (which, BTW, has an F rating on the BBB, and has thousands of complaints), but the immediately cancelled the policy AND since all these are in cahoots with each other, nobody would insure the house afterwards. We were only able to get insurance on the house again after my dad passed away nearly 7 years after the fire, because AAA had blacklisted him. Oh, and get this, the fire was caused by a defective water heater, AAA sued the manufacturer (for far more than what they paid out to us), and won.

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    #15

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day At this point in time subscription services. Everything is that way now and the monthly fees for each item adds up.

    Melissa Ryan , freestocks / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Little Wonder
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When my PC died last year I went to get latest versions of various bits of software I'd been using for years and all of them are now subscription based. Found some good open source ones in the end because no thank you.

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    #16

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Double taxation. I get being taxed for roads, services and schools (can’t have roads if there’s no money to build them and can’t have schools and teachers if no one pays for that) but we are taxed on our income, fine. Then with the money we got left over, we get taxed again on anything we buy that isn’t groceries. Buy a used car, that tax has already been paid but they tax each new owner for the same car.

    Rachel Pitre , Nataliya Vaitkevich/ pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    #17

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Having to buy water to drink something that's already natural but it was never originally owned by anyone

    Katherine Lloyd , voronaman111 / envato (not the actual photo) Report

    #18

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day The banking system, particularly loans and especially mortgages. Diabolical, evil, criminal, sinful

    Dane Douglas , Mikhail Nilov / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    censorshipsucks
    Community Member
    5 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    it's not the loans per se, it's the profiteering pricks on wall street who want a certain level of interest return on the loans. You think paying 6% in usa or whever is bad? Try africa where we are ALSO paying ""investors"" in wall street... at 12%. Most of our loans are owned by USA or china.

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    #19

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Interest and credit scores.

    Dani Renfro , LightFieldStudios / envato (not the actual photo) Report

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    René Sauer
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well, interest I dunno. Loans are a business just as any other. They don´t give out money because they have good hearts. But there should be methods in place to control them, that it doesn´t get to high and such.

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    #20

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Health insurance

    Carla Pickering Ochrin , Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    viimatar
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You mean, private health insurance. There's this funny concept called social security, which includes a health insurance - at least in Europe.

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    #21

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Government works for the people

    Brenda Kiehlmeier , Marco Oriolesi / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    censorshipsucks
    Community Member
    5 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    the problem is more how your voting system works. In usa you have too few choices of political parties; bascially you can choose fascism (republicans) or centre-right (democrats). Yes really you guys only have rightwingers, except Bernie. In my country we have over 40 political parties on the ballots for our upcoming elections and three major parties of those who actually get above 10% of the vote. The trouble WE have is that the opposition parties are not strong enough to demonstrate competence but ARE strong enough to prevent votes in parliament.

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    #22

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Adulting, it's really not all it's cracked up to be

    Suzanne McAleese , Ron Lach / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Little Wonder
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The worst part is I don't FEEL like an adult, I just have all these stupid adult things that need doing.

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    #23

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Anyone thinking they “own” land or homes. Try not paying your taxes and see how that goes. We are renting everything from the government

    Denise Knickerbocker , Oleksandr P / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    censorshipsucks
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    not true. The taxes etc you are paying are funding things like sewer pipes and garbage removal.

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    #24

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Job agencies. The get about $5 an hour of your pay for you doing the same and more if you went for a job without them. It’s a dam wall restricting jobs and have removed all Human Resources from companies to help the employer to get away with treating people like s**t.

    Paul Kinder , fauxels / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Hey!
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I disagree with this one. At a time when I did not need any benefits and didn't want to stay at one place for long, I used those agencies and loved it. Also, a job hunter found me and negotiated (with my personal requests) a contract when I was ready to find a permanent job.

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    #25

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Schooling, judging by the number of people who "did their own research" with their conspiracy theory articles

    J.J. Chien , Dids . / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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    Corvus
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Disagree. It's not the school's fault that some people willingly choose ignorance.

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    #26

    27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day College

    Marianne Sloan Hoffman , Charles DeLoye / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

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    Corvus
    Community Member
    5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Only in the USA, though. In Europe, it's quite affordable... and even free in some countries. Student debt is mostly unheard of ;)

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