People Share Wild Stories of How Con Artists Scammed Them Out of Some Big Bucks

Have you ever had a pop-up come across your computer screen congratulating you for being the umpteenth visitor to the page? And lo and behold, you won a brand new phone, worth thousands of dollars. All you have to do to claim your “free” prize is… wake up. You’re being scammed. If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is.

From fake IRS workers to foreign princes, scam artists are everywhere, just waiting to pounce on their next unsuspecting mark. Even before the digital age, con artists were scamming people out of money in ways that are completely unrelated to the internet. A group of Redditors came together online to admit and share the stories of how scammers duped them out of their money, so that others can be on the lookout for similar scams.

Don’t Give Your Password

I was in Thailand and suddenly received an email receipt from Apple with a few hundred dollars’ worth of iTunes stuff on it. I freaked out and thought the WiFi at the guesthouse was shady and someone had hacked my iTunes. So I clicked the little customer service link and typed in my Apple ID and password to log in….

Then I finally realized that I had clicked the link for my password and iTunes login information from the scammer’s email. The receipt wasn’t from Apple at all. It was the scammer. They then actually got a few hundred dollars worth from me, and I had to jump through tons of hoops to get that money back, and now I never click on weird emails like that. Reddit User: TrubboTrubboTrubbo

Desperate For A Job

I once got a text from a guy claiming to work in HR for a big company. He said he had seen my resume online and wanted to consider me for a job, but he was very pressed for time, thus the texting instead of calling. If I wasn’t so desperate for a job, I would’ve probably looked even more into it…. 

He gave me the name of a real person who had a LinkedIn profile that backed up his claims. I texted back and forth a few times, but his English was terrible (I imagine the original text was a pre-written script), and he wanted info like my social security number. It was very obviously a scam, so I blocked him. Reddit User: reusablethrowaway

Fraudulent Check

I put up a listing on a pet sitting website as an available pet sitter and got a response from a woman about a week later. She said she was moving to my area in the next two weeks, needed a dog sitter, and suggested very good pay. She said that because she’s moving, she needed help paying her furniture salesman and interior decorator….

She said she was going to send cashier’s checks, and I had to deposit them, withdraw the money, and MoneyGram the cash to both of them. I deposited the check, withdrew the cash, and sent the money. I got an email from my bank the next day saying the check didn’t go through and that it was fraudulent. She stole $2650 from me. Reddit User: asdarkasamara

Monkey For Sale

There was a Capuchin monkey, four weeks old, for free on Craiglist. Details were some guy had it smuggled in from a breeder in Florida to California, but his parents wouldn’t let him keep it. Red flags already, and I started to look up animal control’s number. He seemed adamant it go to a stable home experienced in keeping exotics….

He asked potential adopters to text him a short paragraph to his cell as to why they would make a good rescue for this poor baby monkey. This posting was so convincing that it took me forever to realize that it was listed on April 1st. Some poor schmuck named Bob had his cell listed by an evil friend. Good joke, buddy. Reddit User: cordeliaolin

My Two Cents

In high school, I worked at a Subway. I enjoyed this job, surprisingly, and worked there until I went off to college. I eventually was able to run the whole store. I was at the cash register one day when a woman came up and paid with two rolls of dimes. We were very busy, so I threw them in the drawer until later…. 

Even though I don’t usually like to judge books by their covers, if I were to judge her, I wouldn’t have put her in a sketchy category. When I got a chance to take a look, I broke them open, and the sleeves were full of pennies. You might ask why I didn’t notice the size difference; well, it was all pennies except the ends, and I wasn’t paying attention. Reddit User: yesacabbagez

Practice My English

A friend came to Shanghai, China for a quick vacation. She was approached by a “student who wanted to practice their English,” and she went with them to a tea shop that forced her to pay exorbitantly for the tea; it was something like $50 for the pot. I say forced because they didn’t offer to pay and begged her to pay for it…. 

She happily paid for the tea at the price they asked. She even bought some loose leaf tea from them before she left. When she saw me, she explained what a great experience it was. I had been to that tea shop before, and they had never charged me, someone who’s been living in the area for a while now, that much. Reddit User: ValueBasedPlugs

Hotel Call

In a hotel, the hotel phone rings at 6:30 am. I pick up the phone. A lady says the payment system crashed, and she needs my payment info again. In my sleepy logic-free mind, I give her my credit card information. I go downstairs to check out. They have no idea what I’m talking about with the system crashing….

What happened was that a scammer called up the hotel front desk and asked for a random room number, which happened to be mine, and the desk transferred them to me. So the hotel paid for my stay. I was able to cancel the card. They had only charged a hundred or so bucks to it before I got it back from the bank. Reddit User: GodFeedethTheRavens

It Costs to Park Here

When I first moved to this city, I was meeting some friends for brunch, and I parked on this side street. Everything seemed fine and dandy like it usually is, but then it changed. I started walking toward the restaurant, and this guy yelled after me, “Hey! It’s $5 to park here!” and I was like, “Oh shoot, I’m sorry, I didn’t know!” and then gave him the $5…. 

Then at brunch, I told my friends about it because I was like, “Jeepers, your parking enforcement is really intense here and very intimidating!” And then that’s when they told me that I was just scammed out of $5. Parking on those streets is free. I just gave $5 to a guy in a vest because he told me it was $5 and had a vest. Reddit User: Outrageous_Claims

White Van Speaker Scam

Back in 2001, I got tricked by the white van speaker scam when I was looking for a better speaker system for my car. This guy conned me out of over $1500 for installation and products to go with it. The white van speaker scam is a scam sales technique in which a con artist makes a buyer believe they’re getting a good price on home entertainment products…. 

Often a con artist will buy generic speakers worth around $40 and convince potential buyers that they’re premium products worth over $2,000, offering them for sale at around $200. Con artists in this type of scam call themselves “speaker guys” or “speaker men” and usually claim to be working for a speaker delivery or installation company. Reddit User: VdogameSndwchDimonds

I Need Cab Money

I pulled into a Target parking lot with my window down. No big deal, right? I had literally just parked, and this lady came up to me to ask me to buy her a cab (really just give her money “for a cab”) because her boyfriend left her at Target. She didn’t have any bags, and she said she didn’t feel like walking…. 

Whatever, an Uber would be cheap, and I didn’t know if she was lying, so I ordered her an Uber. So I went in and got what I needed, and the lady hadn’t gotten in the Uber yet. She said she would just rather have the cash. So I lied and said I don’t carry cash, and she wouldn’t even take the Uber. Reddit User: dolphinankletattoo

Potatoes

Not me, but my dad. He was in a car boot sale park. He calls me and asks me if he should buy this laptop and iPhone for $250 and if it seems like a good deal. I’m thinking it’s too good to be true, but why not if it can be done? Plus it’s my dad, as he’s sort of solid and tall….

I wouldn’t mess with him. I should have known better. He called me 2 hours later when he arrived home to tell me he was tricked into buying a backpack full of potatoes. What happened is that they showed him the stuff, proceeded by putting the items into a backpack, and then switched the backpacks while he was counting the money. Reddit User: thestrikr

No Gas

This scam was a couple of years ago now. I lived near a gas station, so I was walking home one day, and a block or so away from the gas station, an older lady came up to me and asked for ten bucks because she filled her gas tank up but forgot her wallet at home. She was panicking….

In Canada, they allow pumping gas before paying. I didn’t have any money on me at the time, so I rushed home to get money for her. On the way back, I noticed she didn’t even have a car. At this point, someone nearby stopped me and told me they had seen me talking to her and that she does this all the time. Reddit User: theycallmeMRpotato

Babysitting

It was summer, and I had quit my job in the middle of the (college) school year because I hated it; I had a nearly maxed-out credit card with jobs hard to come by. A bit desperate, I tried to join a website to get people jobs pet sitting, house sitting, and babysitting. A couple of days later, I got an email about someone in Australia….

They were getting ready to move to my area and were saying something about their dogs getting there first. I don’t remember the details. Multiple messages were traded until around midnight when, sitting on my bed with a laptop in my aunt’s basement, I got this sinking feeling and googled pet sitting scams. I found nearly an identical script to the messages I’d been receiving. Reddit User: [redacted]

Did You Get Your Money?

When I was in middle school, I went on the internet in the library and got one of those pop-up “You’re the 1231233 visitor, enter your email to claim your reward!” I told everyone that I was going to get the money, and then I was going to bring in Best Buy and Circuit City flyers to study hall. Yeah, it gets worse…. 

We spent the whole time picking out the video games I would buy. People would ask me in class, “Hey, did you get your money yet?” I would always tell them I was getting it in a couple of weeks. Eventually, the cringe set in, and I looked like a moron. Luckily it was near spring break, and when we got back from break, everyone stopped asking. Reddit User: [redacted]

Venmo Me

A friend talked to me seeming very desperate, telling me that he lost his Venmo account and how he needed money to pay his rent and had no way to receive it. I say friend, but we really only knew each other for a couple of weeks. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, because we’re both international students, and I thought maybe he wasn’t fully settled…. 

I was just like, “Sure I’ll help,” but then the next thing I knew, my Venmo account got banned because he didn’t need money for rent; he was doing some fraud stuff, but I don’t know the details. When I stop and think about it now, I’m like, “Was I really that stupid?” But oh well. Reddit User: Grey_Snow

Art Dealer Assistant

I was really desperate to find a job. I got an email about being a personal assistant to an art dealer. He said that he would send me a check, and I would put it in my bank account, and now typing it out, I realize I should have stopped it right there, but desperation hits you. I had made a schedule and a financial spreadsheet. I was that grateful…. 

Anyway, I got the check and used the camera tool to load it to my account. This was insufficient. Using my last $5, I took an Uber to the bank. I did more research and discovered it was a scam. I cried because these people prey on desperation. And thank goodness I had used the last of the money, so he got nothing. Reddit User: PartialSensibleness

Dragonvale

When I was 10, I was really obsessed with this mobile game, Dragonvale. One day I decided that I wanted to get some of the in-game currency that lets you buy special dragons. Eventually, I stumbled upon a post stating that they had found a way to get the in-game currency for free. All I had to do was send this guy the email and password for my Apple account…. 

I didn’t see what could go wrong, so I sent the email and told him to please not take my stuff, as I was only 11, and I would love some new stuff for my park. A few days passed, and I felt a deep disappointment, but on the 4th day, about 3500 gems popped up in my account. Reddit User: calvintdm

Fake $100

As a teenager, I was working alone in a small store. Some guy came in and brought about $9 worth of stuff to the counter. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at the time. He went into his wallet and then said something like, “Oh no, I’m sorry, man. I have to put this stuff back. I only have a 100 dollar bill….” 

I looked at the cash in the drawer and said, “Oh, it’s fine. We can break that for you.” Later that day, the owner of the store took me aside and showed me how I had taken a counterfeit c-note and given the guy back 91 dollars in actual real money. The printing was blurry, and the bill itself wasn’t even physically the right size. Reddit User: [redacted]

Cash This Check

I was once approached by a stranger at community college looking for help, and they said they needed someone to cash a check for them since there was a hold (or it was something like that; I can’t recall exact details) on their account. Yeah, right. Well, I went over to the bank with him, and his sister was waiting outside….

They handed me a check, which I attempted to cash for them, at which point the teller had another employee pull me aside into a different room to ask me what was going on. The teller quickly deduced I was being scammed and told me, then pointed to the two who by now were out of the parking lot making their leave. Reddit User: CommandoDude

The Broken Dishwasher

I paid a guy $100 to take his broken dishwasher to the dump. I thought I was buying a used working dishwasher. I took him at his word. Got it home, installed it, and it wouldn’t run. It only had lights on the front that lit up, but nothing else worked. I did open it up to take a look at the circuit board…. 

I could see where a circuit had burned through. As I was taking it out to put in the new dishwasher I’d bought, I could see where the insulation blanket had pushed into the heating element and melted a hole it in, and from there, I assume it had shorted something that caused that circuit board to burn through. Reddit User: roonerspize

The Wrong Change

I was working one of the registers at work (Target). Normally I’m a cart attendant, and it was a Saturday afternoon, so we were super busy, which means that, as the cart attendant, there are bunches of different people asking you to do bunches of things, and you’re also supposed to be the first responder for backup on the registers….

Anyways, I was mentally exhausted, and this man asked me to break two fifties into five twenties, and then by some slick words and sleight of hand, got me to give him his fifties back. It was about 10 minutes later that I realized what I allowed to happen. Luckily at Target, the drawers don’t get counted; the money just sort of gets thrown in a bag. Reddit User: HighLadySuroth

Headlight Restoration and Car Waxing

Some guy and his kid approached me and started telling me about headlight restoration out of nowhere. He said he’d clean my headlights for just $10. The guy instructed his kid just to clean a small spot to show me how well it works. I paid $10 and walked into the store. He approached me again and showed me some car wax….

Again, he told his kid to wax a small spot, and the kid did it. So he said he’d wax my car for $100. The kid told the dad that he was hungry, so the dad asked if I could pay him now to get something to eat, and he’d be back in 15 minutes. They never came back, and I had to remove the wax from my car. Reddit User: archie_victus

They Turned It Down

While my wife and I were dating, we went to an ATM to get some money before my paycheck was deposited, so I had like $200 available, and we were planning a decently fancy dinner and movie. Sounds pretty nice, right? Well, these guys came up and offered to fix the dents in my car for $200, $150, $120, last offer…. 

I turned them down because I wanted to have enough cash for the date. It turns out that it’s a common scam where people use putty to “fill in” the dents instead of actually pulling them out. You would think I know better, having worked at a car shop for a few years, but yeah, I only escaped because I was too broke to afford to be scammed. Reddit User: runasaur

Dating Websites

I was 18, very naive, and hadn’t even heard the word “scam.” I registered on a dating website and got messaged by a cute guy. Basically, I was to receive a check for $1500, cash it in my bank, and immediately wire him the money and get $200 for my trouble. I was in the US, and he was in Russia…. 

This was supposedly the remainder of his salary from when he worked in the US. I did it, though. The check bounced after a couple of days, and my balance was in the red. It was pricey but a valuable lesson. I’m kind of ashamed that I was such an idiot, but again, I was really, really naive back then. Reddit User: Idiotsandcheapskate

Data Entry Job

I interviewed for an at-home data entry job once. The interview was over Google hangouts (red flag #1). The interviewer used a Gmail account instead of their company email (red flag #2). The final tip-off was when they told me they were going to send me a check for a laptop, printer, and so on, and I had to send them back the difference….

Thankfully, they didn’t get any information out of me that wasn’t publicly available on my resume, so I didn’t really lose much, but I came pretty close to being in a bunch of trouble. I have a degree in business and can’t imagine being someone who just finds jobs online and gets sucked into doing stuff like that. Some people are just terrible. Reddit User: She_Likes_Cloth

Xbox For Sale

I was super excited when I sold my Xbox 360 for like $800 (+$200 for shipping) back when it was new on eBay or maybe Craigslist. I had gotten a PayPal transaction email confirmation and all. I went to pay for postage at the UPS Store. The nice (and bless his heart) man at the counter asked if I was sure….

Did I want to ship it to some random country in Africa? He told me to call PayPal and verify that it was, in fact, a legitimate transaction. It wasn’t. I was about to ship it to some Nigerian prince. I was so young and naive. Looking back now, as a software engineer, I can’t believe I almost fell for it. Reddit User: Anders13

John Adams’ Energy Drinks

During my freshman year of college, my friend introduced me to this guy and his wife. His name was “John Adams,” and his wife was this mega-hot Korean. They went around college campuses getting students to sell energy drinks and nutrition bars to other students. I agreed, and they gave me three boxes of the stuff to sell each month….

I’d get 10% of the profit plus stuff like backpacks and hoodies. Nobody wanted to buy the product, as it was expensive and tasted really awful. My roommate finally convinced me it was a scam, and when John came back into town to check on our sales, I gave the boxes back to him and told him I was out. Reddit User: gil_beard

Fuzzy Worm

When I was ten on a field trip, I saw an advertisement in a gift shop for a fuzzy worm that looked like magic and glided through your hands like butter. And everyone in the advertisement acted as if this worm was a pet and could do anything. In all my ten years at the time, I’d never seen anyone having so much fun with a toy on a TV commercial…. 

When I opened the package, there was this limp pipe cleaner with two googly eyes glued onto it in addition to what looked like a fishing line. And you had to tie the line to the worm’s nose and pull it through your hands gently to make the worm look like it was moving. I couldn’t figure it out. Reddit User: thunderclouds

I Need A Jump

This guy on the beach told me, “Hey, I need a jump, can you help me?” And I’d been there for about an hour, even noticing where he came from; he was part of a group of guys singing really loud. I replied, “Oh, you’re with those guys over there, partying?” I was trying to be cool, but he interrupted me. “No, just me; you going to help me?”

I told him that maybe my Civic wouldn’t be enough to jump his truck. He was quick to reply, “No, that’s enough. I got the cables, everything will be fine.” The pressure he was putting on made me feel stressed out. Then I figured it out, and I pointed to a group of other cars. “Try asking those guys.” I wasn’t about to turn my car on with him nearby. Reddit User: cheeri0so

Election Rigging

I was applying for my first credit card. A guy told me to fill out two forms in case something happened to the first one. Also, there was one time I registered to vote with the help of one of those people who stand outside of grocery stores with clipboards. She said I didn’t need to fill out my address, so I left that field blank…. 

Later that year, during campaign season, I started getting campaign calls for an area I’ve never lived in. “That’s strange,” I thought. When I went to vote, none of the polling places in my area could find my name on the rolls, and that’s when I finally realized my mistake! My dumb self unknowingly helped someone commit some form of election rigging. Reddit User: thepinkest

Stuck At The Airport

At 2 am, my best friend pounded on my door sobbing hysterically, saying our friend from high school was in trouble. She said our friend was on a trip and got stuck at an airport without any money and needed us to wire them $300 right away. Within 3 minutes of waking up, I was on the phone with Western Union, and thankfully the agent stopped me….

It made me pause for a second and realize what was going on. Our friend’s Facebook had been hacked, and they had sent the same message to all of her family and close friends. Luckily for the hackers, my friend was up at 1:45 am, drunk and high after being at a party and a mildly gullible person in general. Reddit User: thethundering

I Need To Go To The Hospital

This one is the “we just need some gas money to get to the hospital” scam. The couple sees me get in the car and pulls their car up to mine, get outs, and tells me their sob story. I was only 19 and believed it. So I gave them like $12 I think. I went and told my dad, and he said, “Oh, that’s an old scam….”

It’s been done for decades and is still happening. I felt bad and used, but I consider it my charitable donation for the month. And really anybody that has the gall to do that will still usually get a few bucks from me if I have it lying around my car, even though I know it’s most likely not true. Reddit User: blazinsun18

OpenPandora

I pre-ordered an OpenPandora. Not a straight-up scam per se, but depending on which of the two “stores” you pre-ordered through (I used the one they recommended for US customers at the time), you might’ve been connected with some idiot from the UK who basically took it upon himself to eventually (this pre-order crap went on for years) decide not to ship the device that you paid for…. 

That was after it finally materialized at a significantly higher price than originally quoted. The German guy who was actually the technical brains of the operation made some kind of attempt to make amends on his own dime; sounds like a nice guy, but the announcement was never passed along to me. Reddit User: PunchyMcStabbington

They Didn’t Tell Their Parents

This embarrassing and equally terrible scam didn’t happen to me but my sister. Someone hacked our old desktop, and made a pop-up come with a number that she called. They knew what every device we had in the house was and offered her a protection plan for them for the low, low price of $150. I showed up halfway into the conversation….

Her showing me what was going on set off all of the red flags. I told her to shut the computer down and hang the phone up. They called back, and I acted like she was a minor and had no credit card to pay for it (she’s actually a year and a half older than me) and then reset the router. We didn’t tell our parents. Reddit User: alwaysswingingit

They Needed Twenty Dollars

So you ever have someone come up to you and start giving a really long and elaborate story that ends with them needing money? I gave her a twenty, and she asked for my phone number. She never called after this either. The story was that she was, I kid you not, a mobile hairstylist. She took a job in Mesa, Arizona….

She needed to get back to Queen Creek (kind of far away but close enough for an expensive cab ride). There are just so many holes in that story, like “how did you get here in the first place?” and “if you’re a mobile hairstylist, why don’t you actually have a way to get around?” Just being young and naive. Reddit User: Heroshade

Happy Anniversary

My wife and I were at the Bahamas for our ten-year anniversary. It was the first time we had left the kids in years just to do something together. We walked the beach, and some guy offered us a coconut drink. He didn’t say any price, and we didn’t ask; he just asked if we wanted one. We said sure, and then after we took a sip, he said it’d be $20 each…. 

I was like, “Man I don’t have that much on me.” He asked what I had, and I stupidly said $30. He said he’d take it now and would collect the other $10 later. I was freaked out, and I don’t think we went anywhere near that area again the whole trip. We still enjoyed the island, but that was a bit much. Reddit User: onsideways

The Mechanic

Driving in NYC, this guy flags me down and tells me smoke is coming out of my hood. Once I pull over, I’m sure I saw it too; he probably tossed something in there. He tells me he’s a mechanic and can take a look for me right there. I forget now what he said the problem was, but he said he could fix it for me on the spot for just a couple hundred bucks…. 

It was a very stressful time of my life; my wife was pregnant with our first child, and I was really worried about money. There was a lot going on so, of course, this happened. Somehow in the panic of the moment, I believed him and gave him a couple hundred dollars to play around inside the engine for 20 minutes. Reddit User: dhas613

Housing Scam

I know this probably happens all the time, but I almost fell victim to a housing scam more than once. Basically, someone will list a house for rent or for sale but warn you not to bother the current owners. They’ll tell you that they, as the landlords, have recently moved out of state, so they can only accept a wire transfer for the deposit….

It’s pretty clear right away that it’s a scam, so when I say I almost fell for it, I mean I sent the first email. It was just so annoying because I was (am) desperate for a house to rent, and there’s not a lot out there. I never reported this incident because I didn’t know where to do it. Reddit User: miss-karly

Spring Break 

When I went to Jamaica with some friends, it was spring break during our last year in graduate school. We went to a bar and got pretty drunk. We left the bar and were walking towards the bus to take us back, and a street worker approached us. She walked up to my roommate at the time, and he immediately said, “No thanks, I’m gay” (he wasn’t, by the way)…. 

Then she approached me and grabbed my crotch. I told her no, and so did my other friend. We got on the bus, and then I realized my phone was gone. Clever, sure it was, but honestly, how rude at the same time. I was so angry because I should have known. But I was too drunk even to realize it. Reddit User: Viper1089

The Bus Card

I saw an ad on my city’s buy/sell/trade Facebook group for a bus/transit pass. It supposedly had $100 on it, and they were selling it for $50. Well, I thought there was no way it could be a scam, because I thought you couldn’t take money off it. Somewhat suspiciously, instead of the guy who posted the ad, a woman came with the card…. 

She said that he had sent her. Well, I checked the balance online, and it indeed had $100. So I paid $50 for it. Unfortunately, I failed to check if it was registered online. When I went to use it the next day, it was invalid. It turns out he had called up the transit company and reported it stolen. Reddit User: SpoonGuilder