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

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.

This post may include affiliate links.

27 People Share The Biggest Scams In History That Are Still Up To This Day Without a doubt: Religion

Petter Jakobsson , Noah Holm / unsplash (not the actual photo) Report

Final score:

207points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

185points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

159points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

156points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

140points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

138points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

135points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

122points

POST

View more comments

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

Final score:

118points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

115points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

107points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

107points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

100points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

99points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

98points

POST

View more comments

#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

Final score:

87points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

French Diver’s “Jewels” In Tight Swimming Trunks Become Talk Of The Town At Olympics

What do you think ?

Molly Whuppie 6 months ago

Streaming services now that they are suckering people into paying to watch ads.

11points

Everydayhuman83 5 months ago

yeah, its annoying that people have to pay for ads on streaming services now.

0points

Load More Replies...

Jeevesssssss 5 months ago (edited)

I think the one I read about that upset me most (and finally pushed me into giving up KitKats, Curiously Cinnamon, Maggi noodles, and Haagen Dasz - all Nestle or Nestle-owned) was what Nestle did with baby formula in Brazil. They went around the most deprived areas, really pushing formula at new mums, either for free or very cheaply. Once the mothers had stopped lactating and were dependent they jacked up the price. As well as not being remotely affordable, the women didn't have the means to sterilise their equipment and they mostly weren't literate either, so couldn't read the mixing quantities even if they could have afforded anything like enough formula. I can't remember all of the details (I read about it in Chris Van Tulleken's excellent book 'Ultra-Processed People - why do we all eat stuff that isn’t food and why can't we stop?' which I highly recommend) but it really upset me at a deeply visceral level. (Formula is a literal life-saver if you can't produce or don't produce enough... 1/2

9points

2/2 ... and getting your child FED is what's most important, I'm not trashing those who use formula here, just to be clear. But pushing it, how they did, at successfully breastfeeding mothers who didn't need and couldn't afford their product... so many babies died.)

4points

Gavin Johnson 5 months ago

I live in Buxton, yep the home of Buxton Water. Nestlé have their bottling plant just outside of the town. You can buy Buxton Water in the local supermarket, it’s been through the pipes across town, put into plastic bottles, wrapped up into pallets, shifted way out of town, stored in a distribution centre, put back onto a wagon, shipped back to the town and put on display for you to buy and transport home, this will cost you roughly £1 a litre OR you can wander into town and fill as many bottles or containers as you like from St Ann’s Well, that’s it, FREE OF CHARGE, all you need is a bottle. FREE! And yet Buxton Water still sells in the supermarket 🤷🏻‍♂️

1point

Load More Comments

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

Games

Kotryna Br

Kotryna Br

Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius