Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Normalized Scams People Don't Notice


Someone on AskReddit got a thread going about the scams of this world that are so normalized that nobody seems to notice. It's wild when it comes to some of the shady stuff that people/companies can somehow get away with. For instance, some of those internships can get pretty scammy real quick. 

1.

Text - distrucktocon • 3h 4 Awards Manufacturers refusing documentation to private repair enterprises and requiring you to get your products fixed by the dealer. Basically, the reason for the "Right-to- repair" movement. Reply 9.8k ...

2.

Text - VictorBlimpmuscle • 4h Those registries that people pay money to "name a star" Reply 1 1.1k ...

3.

Text - suelzlej • 4h Paying for cable tv. The whole idea of paying was to create a revenue stream separate from that of marketing. There are a few out there (HBO, I think) but generally we pay to access the content and still have to spend 20% of the time sitting through commericals. Then streaming comes in and were free of advertisements again, for a bit. Now YouTube has tons of ads and other streaming services are talking about adding ads as well. Reply 2.0k 3 ...

4.

Text - ChaChaRealSmoothe • 5h The games at fairs/carnivals. Reply 1.9k ...

5.

Text - WW_History_Buff • 3h 3 10 Awards Mobile game ads that show gameplay of a Call of Duty or Skyrim style game but in reality are just a spin-off of Candy Crush. QReply 1 15.3k ...

6.

Text - DoYuNoDaWae6321 • 4h 2 3 12 Awards "If you tell me the truth, I won't get mad." -Mom Reply 9.5k ...

7.

Text - 3 1 Award Idk if anyone remembers Power Balance bracelets from the early 2000s. A lot of celebrities and athletes advertised for them and they claimed to improve your balance and overall health. Well being a rubber bracelet made in a factory, it was all nonsense but they still sold millions of units before shutting down. A new company owns them now and you can still buy them though

8.

Text - TheBassMeister • 4h 3 Awards Planned obsolescence, where products are deliberatly designed to have a defect or worse performance shortly after the warranty has expired. Reply 11.4k ...

9.

Text - Solitary-Dolphin • 4h Social media. From their happy beginnings they are now mostly a funnel used to ram as many advertisements into your mind as inhumanly possible. "Sponsored Posts" every third or fourth item - I see you, IG/FB/Red/etc. And that's not even mentioning the extensive filtering network that "curates" the information you get to see when you are looking for something. "Curated information" is just a nice expression for you being conditioned to form certain opinions / buy more

10.

Text - strawberrywords • 4h Doing your own taxes, and paying to use a privately- owned software (or a service) when the government could totally do it for you, send you the details, and ask if it's correct.

11.

Text - Hadrian_x_Antinous • 4h Cat food. Look at the cat food at a random store, and see how the design brags about all the healthy vegetables they've crammed into your obligate carnivore's diet. Then check out the ingredients and see how corn, rice, etc. are often the first ingredients. Pet foods market toward humans by trying to appeal to human sensibilities, not genuine desire to provide your cat with the best diet. | Reply 2.0k 3

12.

Text - -EDGAR- • 4h 1 Award College textbook prices. It's crazy how ridiculous expensive they are putting even more of a financial burden on students. Reply 1 2.5k 3 ...

13.

Text - TheSanitylnspector • 4h 2 8 2 Awards Rent-to-own furniture and appliances. Reply 1 12.5k ...

14.

Text - GrandTadpole18 • 4h 8 1 Award Most mega churches... I remember an interview with Kenneth Copeland talking about how he needed a private jet to spread religion Reply 5.9k 3 ...

15.

Text - Red-7134 • 4h 8 3 Awards Diamond rings for marriage. Reply 4 2.8k ...

16.

Text - LISHPjuice • 3h 3 7 Awards The Verizon $1 scam. Verizon tacked on a $1 fee onto 8% of their customer's bills each month so over the course of the year, they did it to every customer, about 150,000,000. Their rationale was: 50% wouldn't notice and just pay the charge or would notice and wouldn't spend anytime fighting a $1 charge. 50% would notice the charge and call to have it removed. Of those, 35% would get frustrated while on the call and give up. This added approximately $120,000,000

17.

Text - Lonewolf23319 • 4h S 8 4 Awards Having to pay $100+ for glasses Reply 5.9k ...

18.

Text - KungFu-omega-warrior • 4h Scientific journal memberships. Reply 312 ...

19.

Text - that-fed-up-guy • 1h "Once you finish the high school, it's all fun ahead.." "Once you finish the degree, it's all fun ahead.." "Once you get a job, it's all fun ahead.." .. "Once you die, it's all fun ahead.." Reply 238 ...

20.

Text - jaceandcathy • 4h Scientology Reply 495 5 ...

21.

Text - Icapaz • 4h Annual college tuition increases. Why aren't they held to a competitive pricing model as opposed to having to take out a mortgage to go to school? Everyone wants to talk about government paying for college education, but there is no conversation on why is it that expensive anyway? Especially when some unis have endowments in the billions that just the interest on those funds could literally pay the tuition for everyone that goes through the door. Q Reply 1 204 3 ...

22.

Text - llcucf80 • 5h Lotteries Reply 1 689 •.. +R

23.

Text - i_am_dan17 • 5h 2 1 Award Internships. It's basically free labour for "work experience" and it doesn't even count most of the times Reply 1.9k 3 ...

24.

Text - chiggenNuggs• 3h S 8 Awards Funerals and everything to do with them. The funeral industry has insane pricing. Some of the funeral homes and vendors are even predatory, getting grieving families to pay upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, because "that's what the deceased would have wanted". Reply 8.4k 3 ...

25.

Text - perspectives • 4h 3 2 Awards Members of Senate, Congress, and Presidential candidates, collecting money from corporations, big donors, and hiding it in campaign accounts, Pac's and Super Pac's, and then doling it out as they like. They no longer act as a government of the people and for the реople.

26.

Text - MojoJojo1945 • 4h 1 Award Unpaid internships. Fuck anyone who gives unpaid internships! People get exploited like shit in that and for what? Most times they don't even count. For what purpose?

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