17 Cunning Tricks We See So Often That We Don’t Even Notice Anymore

We all know that nothing good can come for free. But it is hard to know if you paid too much for something. A Reddit user asked this question, “What scam is so normalized that people don’t even notice?” And many of their responses surprised us.

While reading about the scams people noticed, we at Bright Side realized we should be even more careful with our money and time. We hope that these stories will give you some valuable lessons.

• Diamonds. The best part of the diamond scam is it’s literally only worth the money paid for it by the person paying it. If that person tries to resell the diamond it will never fetch anywhere near the price they paid, but will then be crazily marked up again for retail. © theinquisition / Reddit
  

• Fake reviews. They are everywhere now. I don’t even trust social media comments sometimes because I wouldn’t be surprised if there are company plants commenting about how great their product is. © ndcdshed / Reddit
• Getting students/interns to work for free while treating them poorly. © yk003 / Reddit
• So many scams in dentistry. Years back my dentist told me I might have a cavity in between the cusps of one of my molars, but he couldn’t tell for sure. He asked me to come back in a few days and he would drill into it to check. If it was a cavity, he’d fill it. If it wasn’t... Well, he’d fill the tooth anyway because he’d just drilled a hole into it. Decided to go to another practice. The new dentist carefully examined it, gave me a (free) dental x-ray just to confirm, and said, “Yeah, that’s a stain.” © thyIacoIeo / Reddit

• A lot of undergraduate degrees. You need some serious direction in college or you end up as a barista with a philosophy degree. © The_Polar_Bear__ / Reddit
• Unpaid overtime. Any work you can’t complete in your paid hours should be done by an extra employee the company pays for. By doing unpaid overtime you are “paying” for the cost of your time and donating that to your employer. © Fraerie / Reddit
• Cups with so much ice that you only get 4 oz of a drink in a 20 oz cup. © your99thproblem / Reddit
  

• The majority of plastic “recycling.” Not only did corporations pass off the burden of dealing with it to the consumer while they just produce more and more every year, the majority of plastic beyond soda bottles isn’t even actually recyclable and will end up being burned. © Areuseriousjk / Reddit
• The funeral industry. You have to spend thousands of dollars to get rid of a body because otherwise, you’re “disrespecting” it. My parents have told me “whatever is the cheapest way to dispose of the body, do that, and then invite our friends to a party to remember us.” © WikiWantsYourPics / Reddit
• Outlet malls. You are not actually getting marked down high-end products, just special cheaply made products created by brands for outlet malls. © LbGuns / Reddit

• Black Friday. For example, a product could be $100 that they sell for $80 throughout the year but on “Prime day” or Black Friday they’ll list it at $70 and claim a 30% discount. © taybul / Reddit
• Any free trial that needs my credit card, I skip. Free is free, if I like it I’ll buy it. © Muliciber / Reddit
• The reason why your clothes don’t look good after you start wearing them is that they were meant to break in/fade after the first wash. So you can keep buying more and more. © Totue13 / Reddit
  

A T-shirt after 2 washes

• Needing experience for an entry-level position. © faizanalam / Reddit
• People 65 and up are considered unemployable in the workplace due to mental decline. As a newly-unemployed 57-year-old woman, this is a problem. Jobs I’m fully qualified for won’t even look at me. I’m simultaneously considered overqualified (computer user since 1985) and underqualified (I’m over 50! I must be completely clueless about technology!) Seriously considering becoming a truck driver. Sigh. © salamander13 / Reddit
• The fact that someone cut a chicken wing in half and managed to convince everyone it was 2 wings. © GodChangedMyChromies / Reddit

• Work in banking for one week, you’ll realize there is no scam too stupid for people to fall for. My favorite was a woman who came in to get a $20,000 official check. My manager thought it was strange so he stopped to ask her what it was for. The client said it was bail for her nephew, which the client thought was strange too because she didn’t actually have a nephew. © twec21 / Reddit

What else do you think is a scam?

Got some cool photos or stories and want to be featured on Bright Side? Send them all right HERE and right now. Meanwhile, we’re waiting!