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29 Scams That Are So Normalized That We Don’t Realize We’re Being Tricked
Some things are so normal in our society that we don’t even think about it, just accept it the way it is. But the minute you start thinking about it, you realize how questionable it is. And that if people wouldn’t have normalized such a thing, we definitely would understand it to be a scam.
Today, let’s take a look at some money-related things that would be considered scams if society hadn’t normalized them.
More info: Reddit
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#2
Subscription services in vehicles. Pay monthly/yearly for heated seats or to unlock performance mode. I don't get how people support this business practice.
#3
I have to pay a 3% convenience fee to pay my rent online… I literally have to pay to pay my rent, it’s disgraceful.
sweet emotion 1 month ago
My "convenience fee" is 5% for "direct withdrawals guaranteed to arrive on time". There is no way in hell I would provide access to my bank account for that kind of scam. So I got around them by setting up direct ACH payments from my bank to the landlord's bank dated two days before the first of the month.
#4
Landlords buy up property they don’t need so they can sell it back at an extreme markup as rent to people who actually do need it. With almost any other commodity it would be called scalping, and be regarded as the scam that it is, but with a commodity so material we literally call it “real estate”, we just act like this is how things are supposed to be.
#6
Charging subscription fees to access software on hardware you already own.
"*Our customers pay for our over priced goods, but they appear to still have money. How can we make them buy the product every month without us having to pay to make or ship any new materials*!?"
#13
Voting. We don't pick them they pick us. They draw the lines to better the chances for they're demographic. Gerrymandering it's a thing
#14
>I'll start: paying for water
You're not paying for water, per se. You're paying for *treated* water. Tap water is filtered, purified, and tested. Bottled water is ... bottled. Either way, some work has been done to it, and that is the value-added portion of the water which you're paying for.
You are welcome to go down to the lake and drink out of it for free. Good luck with that, by the way.
#15
Insurance. You give them money month after month, year after year, and then when it comes time where you need to use it they will try their absolute hardest to give you as little as possible
#20
buying schoolbooks. publishers know you have literally no choice but to buy it and jack up the price in many cases. And some teachers get a cut on those sales which is insanely scummy but somehow tolerated in many schools.
I’ve had classes where you had to pay 150$ for a book we didn’t even use once during the class, but you literally couldn’t do any of the online evaluations unless you bought it. It’s just a way for some company to make an easy 500-600 dollars or more off the back of students.
#21
Temu, TikTok, Wish
sweet emotion 1 month ago
Temu ads made it look like a good deal at first......until I noticed the Chinese characters in the small print.
#23
Hospitals taking additional fees on so you have to constantly ask them to itemize it so they remove the bogus add one
#24
Every type of monthly bill going up year-on-year above inflation unless you change providers every year.
#25
The lottery
Almost all other forms of gambling at least give you a reasonable chance of winning something. The lottery is straight up robbing the stupid
#28
Light bulbs. Apparently when first invented they lasted too long and so manufacturers had to reduce their longevity to make them commercially viable. Scam.
What do you think ?
sweet emotion 1 month ago (edited)
Severe weather alerts issued three days in advance by news stations that could not figure out when the rain would start this afternoon. Especially in winter, when the weather bimbos.....I mean, "meteorologists", start with their scare tactics about how dangerous the icy streets will be and how deadly the wind chill will be and there could be up to fifty inches of snow. It's all a scam to get people to race to the grocery store and clear the shelves of milk, bread and eggs - which is why around here we now call snow days "french toast days".
sweet emotion 1 month ago (edited)
Severe weather alerts issued three days in advance by news stations that could not figure out when the rain would start this afternoon. Especially in winter, when the weather bimbos.....I mean, "meteorologists", start with their scare tactics about how dangerous the icy streets will be and how deadly the wind chill will be and there could be up to fifty inches of snow. It's all a scam to get people to race to the grocery store and clear the shelves of milk, bread and eggs - which is why around here we now call snow days "french toast days".
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