40+ Pitiful Scam Attempts That Were Shut Down Immediately

By Arvyn B

No one likes a scam. We will never understand how someone would fall into this dishonest and unrewarding lifestyle. It’s never a good idea to trick innocent people because they can get badly hurt. Some scam artists are masters of lying and taking advantage of any and everyone they can contact. A text or email is all it takes. The victim can end up paying more than just their paycheck. Scammers can destroy people’s whole lives and families. Then, there are the not-so-smooth scammers. These people are so obvious that it feels like a joke. When they get called out for it, it is even better. We doubt that they learned from their mistake. Here are just a few of these apparent scams that people caught onto immediately.

Messages from Malta

Everyone would love to receive a bunch of free cash from a bank. It sounds too good to be true. In the case of this scammer, it certainly was. That didn’t stop them from trying to convince someone that they had a fortune.

We don’t know who would fall for something like this. A bank would not ask a stranger to be the lucky receiver of a fortune! Also, there are so many spelling errors in the scammer’s message. This is such an obvious fake.

Source: oksu1204 (Reddit)

You better watch out…

Paypal is so standard now that almost everyone has an account. Unfortunately, they are a source of many scams. However, it’s almost laughable at how obvious this one is. Hopefully, nobody received any coal in their bank account for Christmas.

PayPal seems to have confused their holidays! It makes no sense for them to advertise a New Year’s gift with a Christmas advertisement on New Year’s Day. The scammer couldn’t even spell the company’s name right. They put no thought into this.

Source: TheNextWeb

Losing on the Lottery

Most scams often promise a great fortune to their potential victims without asking for anything in return. This hooks a lot of people. Unfortunately, things are never that simple in life. That doesn’t stop scammers like this one from trying!

It’s pretty sad that they put so little effort into this scam. There’s no reason for the UK National Lottery to award money so freely, especially not in the wrong currency! Are there any text scammers that do any research?

Source: Online Scam Aware

“Please verification”

Like PayPal, Amazon is another big company that scammers try to impersonate. You should always be careful of emails demanding you give your payment information. But, looking at this example, not all of them seem to copy Jeff Bezos that well.

Where do we start with this one? The “please verification”? The misspelling of “immediately”? The profile picture of the email account? There are too many errors to make this scam even remotely believable! Hopefully, nobody fell for this obvious dupe.

Source: tired-mars (Reddit)

Messages From Beyond

All scammers are shameful. Unfortunately, some of them will stop at nothing to get their payout. This one went as far as pretending to be a dead relative to cheat some money. We can only hope that the victim wasn’t too hurt.

It’s clear that this woman is furious about this. We can understand their frustration about getting a message from “the other side.” Hopefully, the scammer learned the error of their ways and stopped playing with people’s feelings. We can only hope.

Source: TheOneFreeMan002 (Reddit)

An Illuminati-ng Email

If it is too good to be true, then it probably is. It has been said before, but it is essential to remember. This one is a bit too fake. We don’t think the Illuminati do their recruiting through email.

Even if the Illuminati are real, they are probably not looking for everyday people to join their group for free. The antivirus message at the bottom is pretty fake as well. This scammer gets an F for their weak effort.

Source: thunderdungeon.com

Dodgy Dave

This shady scammer needs to take a few lessons on how to talk to people. They are fishing for information, but wow, they were failing miserably here. Luckily, the victim was smart enough to call them out on it. Dave is most likely not a darling!

Most scammers try to choose victims without any common sense. Unfortunately for this scammer, this person was not so easy to fool. Any diplomatic agent worth their job wouldn’t be so careless that they’d forget or lose the name of the person they need to contact.

Source: DeaDra17 (Reddit)

Pet Patrol

We have already seen how some scammers will stop at nothing, including impersonating relatives who have passed away. For this scammer, even that wasn’t enough. This pet owner was hoping for an end to their misery but instead got this cruel message.

Anyone who preys on pet owners like this is just plain heartless. It’s horrible enough losing your pet but finding someone trying to make money off your pain is even worse. A jail sentence wouldn’t be enough for this person!

Source: houseofLEAVEPLEASE (Reddit)

Tinder Terrors

Tinder is another site that is full of people looking for victims. There are many accounts on there of attractive people who are sadly just bots. Luckily, this guy caught on pretty quick, stopping him from a lot of potential heartbreak.

This guy was smart to double-check this bot by using a key phrase. Sadly, he has to keep looking for love, as this user was a fake — just another bot aiming to cheat Tinder users out of their money.

Source: [deleted user] (Reddit)

Double Trouble

Getting scammed once is bad enough. But getting scammed twice is unreal. Especially by the same number! This person made things a little too evident by sending fake messages from the same number. At least grab another throw-away phone, dude.

If only the DMV were this kind! This scammer tried a scare tactic, which didn’t work. They then tried to use a reward. This ended up being just as unsuccessful. It’s amazing how lazy some of these scammers can be.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Celebrity Cheaters

Not only is Cristiano Ronaldo a millionaire, but he is also one of the most famous soccer players on the planet. This makes this whole message seem a little fishy. It’s just one of many fake celebrity messages going around.

Anyone this rich surely doesn’t need to message random strangers asking for money. Cristiano Ronaldo has enough money to buy Sports Direct themselves, let alone buy himself some new football shoes! Any celebrity asking for money is an obvious fake.

Source: YamikazeUwUr (Reddit)

The room of your dreams

Anyone who has been to IKEA has wanted to live there. But not for real! They just want some decorating ideas. That didn’t stop this scammer, who tried to rent out a room where the address matched an IKEA store. Some quick googling would have helped.

They didn’t even try to photoshop out the IKEA signs in the photograph! This is so obviously a scam that it’s laughable. Although, if they were renting out a room at IKEA, they didn’t lie about it being a studio…

Source: ScammerC (Reddit)

A scam that’s out of this world

The first red flag on this scam is that they say they will give double the asking price. The second one is that they’re asking for the victim’s bank details! The scammer put no real effort into this attempt. We know no one would fall for this.

We can’t think of any reasons why a buyer would need all of the seller’s bank details. The scammer seemed to know this, as he used the word “friend” to try and make things more believable. As the Brits say – “tough one, mate!”

Source: Economicr

Faking Facebook

This is another celebrity scam, where the scammer didn’t seem to try at all. The victim was contacted by “Mr. Mark Zuckerberg” because he wanted to buy his iPhone. When they asked for ID verification, this is what they sent!

We don’t believe that Mark Zuckerberg is ever going to need to buy a used iPhone. If that wasn’t obvious enough, his address of “1 Hacker Way” is a sure giveaway to Mark’s real identity. Try a little harder next time!

Source: coff33break (Reddit)

Liars in Los Angeles

The positives of this one? At least this guy admitted he was a scammer. Not every scammer is so willing to admit defeat, but this one did. His poor spelling was what gave him away. Spelling issues seem to be a common factor with these people.

It’s pretty funny how willing this person was just to tell the truth about their scam. If only all scammers were this honest. We doubt that they’re even from “Los Angelo’s,” or that they work as a nurse. They’re just a newbie scammer.

Source: ForgottenLoreInAutum (Reddit)

Trust Me, Please!

This scammer tried a little harder with their presentation, which makes this email a little more believable. Their email is also pretty straightforward and doesn’t have any mistakes, unlike the others. But it’s pretty hard to ignore the email address.

What’s even stranger about this email is that they’re trying to charge the other cards on the Amazon account. If they can do this, there would be no need for Amazon to email about it. There’s no way that “trustmeee-support” is real.

Source: jesweksy (Reddit)

Totally Not Photoshopped!

One pretty clear thing is that many of these scammers don’t even try to make things seem believable for those they are trying to scam. This scammer told this user that they would give them a small fortune to exchange personal details.

Well, they say that a picture is worth a million words; perhaps that’s what they meant? They could have at least cropped these Google Image photos to make this a little more believable. This whole picture is just an eyesore.

Source: Orflek (Reddit)

No, it’s not a scam

Here’s a tip to any potential scammers out there – even if you say it’s not a scam, it’s still a scam. We’re not sure what the end goal would have been for this, but it’s sure not to have been a good one.

This user’s blunt “ok” response is right on the money. Anyone who says something is “not a scam” just makes it seem even more like one! Even if there wasn’t any malicious intent, most timeshares con you out of your money anyway.

Source: sparkysmokesweed (Reddit)

Preying in the Pandemic

Scammers are always quick to adapt to the times, making the best of a bad situation. Trying to guilt-trip or scare people into sharing their money is never going to work, though. People have enough to worry about in these times.

The only thing contagious about this email is the laughter that it inspires. We think that most people wouldn’t give up their hard-earned cash to such an apparent and poor attempt at a scam. Every hour, we hate scammers more and more.

Source: st1f1 (Reddit)

Happy Birthday, Walmart!

Just a bit more research would have helped this scammer out. This isn’t the worst scam idea we’ve seen. Walmart is much older than 40 and is probably not giving out free cash to celebrate this fact. This user was brave enough to call this scammer out.

One simple Google search would have told this scammer all they needed to know to make them successful. Fortunately, many of them are too lazy to do even that! 0.84 seconds is all it takes to verify a scam these days.

Source: Flojoe420 (Reddit)

App.le. Cust.om.er. Sup.po.r.t

Either this is a scam, or Apple needs to sort out their keyboards. Apple is known for its simple design, which makes this email even stranger. They would never let so many typos get past quality control. Did they use Google Translate? How did it turn out this way?

A common trick scammers try to pull is trying to convince their victims that their account needs to be verified. The only thing that needs verification here is why they’ve put so many periods in each word. Nobody writes like this.

Source: Economicr

Another Apple Scam

This “lucky” user found out they managed to buy the entire Apple App Store with his Apple ID! It’s a mystery to us how he did that. We don’t know about the rest of the message, but we’re confident it had a suspicious link inside.

The random capitals of words in this message help to show off how fake it is. “Apple” couldn’t even get the name of the customer correct or the actual Apple ID. We’re shaking our heads and remember the messages we’ve gotten that were just like this one.

Source: kylie1946 (Reddit)

Lying Larry

This user was sent a message from a supposed FBI Agent, who claimed to be “wiretapping the internet.” What does that even involve? Either way, they didn’t try hard enough, so the user quickly called them out for their actions.

This ID is just a prop from the movie Shooter, starring Michael Peña. This scammer tried to make things seem a little more real by taking a photo of the ID against an American flag. Luckily, the user saw right through them!

Source: BeliyNegir (Reddit)

 Phone a Friend

Thanks to modern technology, we can now see a scam from a mile away. Caller ID is a great invention that we recommend to everyone to stop those nuisance callers. It certainly worked out well for this user. They didn’t even have to answer.

This phone number is one to avoid unless you fancy losing a lot of time or you like messing with people. The only question we have about this phone call is the name of the telephone number. Are there such things as legal scams…?

Source: OkBobcat (Reddit)

 Straight to the Point

If we have learned anything so far, it is that scammers make things way too obvious sometimes. We are rolling our eyes and laughing at this user’s direct reply to this pesky professional. At least the scammer was honest about things!

We all appreciate a little bit of honesty, and this is for sure one of those moments. We hope that this user didn’t open this link, although he seems smart enough to ignore it and probably blocked the other person altogether.

Source: TheMan5560 (Reddit)

 The Scammed Can’t Scam

The logic of this message is the funniest part of this. This scammer seems to think that if he can convince people he got scammed, there’s no way that he could scam someone else. If only things were that simple.

By this same thinking, someone who has been punched couldn’t possibly punch someone else! We all know that makes no sense. But nobody seems to have told this guy. To answer his question – no, we do not trust him.

Source: intergalactic_em (Reddit)

 Call Me Never, Maybe

This message seems to have been sent by a bot instead of a real person. Surely anyone genuine would have noticed that February 30th is not an actual date! And 2099 is way too far in the future for a meeting.

Even if he is a bot, “Chris” is at least kind and polite in his replies. He doesn’t seem to have sent any further messages, either. We wonder if he is just waiting for the impossible date to roll around.

Source: TheOGcheese(Reddit)

Bill Who?

We all know about Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire, but did you know about Bill Gates? There’s a reason why – he’s a fake. This user received this ticket in their email, although it doesn’t seem to be for anything good.

Bill Gates – with an ‘s’ – is known as being a pretty generous guy. But we doubt that he’s as helpful as this ticket seems to suggest. This ticket doesn’t appear to be asking for anything, which is a little odd.

Source: Raicuparta(Reddit)

Telstra? I hardly knew her…

Back in the olden days, writing letters was the most common way that scammers could communicate. Today, most of them use technology to do this. That didn’t stop this old-timer, though! The number of grammatical mistakes makes this laughable.

The Sheriff must be on a slow horse since they sent this letter a few days before its arrival. Interestingly, the “Telstra Accounts Recoverable Team” is incorrectly labeled as “TERT” instead of “TART.” Do you think this was too obvious?

Source: DrittsySingh(Reddit)

 A Kind Samaritan

Not everybody out there is evil. This person took it upon themselves to warn others about the scams that some people use during Christmas. Hopefully, this poster helped someone to keep their hard-earned cash. There are good people out there!

Gift cards are used quite often by scammers, so this is an important message to remember. You should never try to use gift cards as payment, as they’re primarily used instead of cash by scammers because they’re less suspicious.

Source: Economicr

Barclays Bank Blunder

Not only did this scammer spell the word “please” incorrectly, but they also seem to have gotten their name wrong, too! There’s no way a bank would ask for private information over text, especially not this way. We see you, simon/Simin.

What makes this even funnier is the persistent messages. They’re trying to pretend to know English, but their “Ello” makes it pretty clear that they’re just a scammer. We hope this user got as much of a laugh out of it as we did!

Source: Unknockable (Reddit)

Cropping is your friend

This one is just too funny. This user was trying to sell a product when this person contacted them with a scam. After arranging to meet, they offered the user $300, who asked to see the money. This was their reply!

A simple crop is all it takes to make this seem more legit. But it’s important to remember that a photo alone is not enough. If you’re selling something, remember you might encounter a scammer. Maybe try having fun with them as this person did!

Source: iluvmyswamp (Reddit)

Site Manager Scammer

The person who received this message got it from someone who claimed to be the site manager at their office. After a bit of chatting, the “site manager” asked the user to buy some gift cards for a client. Red flag alert!

The user quickly caught on and did some research. It turns out that the IP address of the ‘site manager’ was actually in Nigeria! Unless they were working remotely, they were most likely not the actual manager. Clever investigating work!

Source: Folkin_Giant (Reddit)

 Finding Scammers

There was something fishy going on with this buyer…have you figured out what it was yet? This user certainly did, which is why they gave the scammer the address from Finding Nemo instead! We wonder if the scammer tried the address.

It’s always a red flag when the buyer tries to pay more than the selling price for the product. They do this to try and encourage the seller to give them cash or a product. Fortunately, this user was savvy, and their response was priceless.

Source: Coolwhip341 (Reddit)

Fresh Prince of Nigeria

Everyone has gotten an email from a “Nigerian Prince” at some point in their lives. It usually involves them giving away free cash in exchange for personal details. It’s an obvious scam…or is it? This user makes a hilarious point.

Whoever this fortune belongs to, they’re probably very annoyed that someone found it. We doubt that any Nigerian prince had this secret stash. Even if they did, they’re not going to be giving it away to people in other countries through email.

Source: Jane4Doe (Reddit)

 “Grandma” Strikes Again

Once wasn’t enough, as yet another scammer pretended to be someone’s grandma to cheat some money out of their family. It is truly awful. Once again, this just proves how low and insensitive these scammers can be. And how bad they are at their “jobs.”

We can’t even imagine how annoying it must have been for this user to receive a message like this, which is a scam. They clearly hacked into the account and are “using Messenger without Facebook,” would anyone fall for that?

Source: KellyFromMcDanks (Reddit)

 Hackers with a heart

It’s important to remember that not all scammers bring doom and gloom. Some of them can even bring some comfort to those who have lost a loved one. Take this user, who was grateful to be messaged by her “dad.”

We are glad that the bot gave this user a little closure, even if it was just a fake account. Scammers usually give people many heartaches, but it seems that this one helped a user’s heart to mend instead. Or her sarcasm skills are at level 100.

Source: Here-For-The-Comment (Reddit)

Going for the easy route

Some hackers just can’t be bothered to pretend. This one seems to have just given up, as they didn’t even use the word “please.” There’s no way that anyone would be stupid enough to send their password to a stranger.

What is even funnier is that Facebook is already free, so there’s no reason for them even to give help setting things up. Clearly, this user already understood that as their emojis are the perfect response. We applaud this user!

Source: [deleted user] Reddit

 Federal Agent Faker

This message is just plain insulting because of its stupidity. It makes no sense for LinkedIn to be offering free money to its members for no reason. There’s also the fact that they would already have access to the user’s ID.

LinkedIn is a company, not a country, so why they would even have federal agents is beyond us. Rumor has it scammers include spelling mistakes as a test to see if their victims will fall for their tricks. Consider this lesson learned.

Source: dungeonpancake (Reddit)

 Sudden realization

The pandemic has been pretty tough on everyone, with people losing jobs left and right. That includes scammers, too! Have you noticed how many fewer scam calls there seem to be? Every cloud does have a silver lining, after all.

Of course, the pandemic has led to the rise of robocalls instead. These automated voices call you or leave a message on your answer phone to try to get you to call them back. Unfortunately, scammers cheated their way to another day.

Source:poggee (Reddit)

The one thing they don’t do

We’re not sure if this is the same person as before, but if it is, then this is pretty funny. This one swore “on God” that they’re not a scammer. Something tells us that this is most likely not the truth.

It’s crazy that scammers think that claiming they are not a scammer will work. “Vbucks” is the virtual currency used for the video game Fortnite. Maybe this was just a silly kid trying to get some free cash to play.

Image Credits: JobCapital (Reddit)

Honesty is the best policy

Sometimes, you just have to cut to the chase – and that’s certainly what this person did. Instead of lying, they immediately told the truth about being a scam caller. The victim was probably grateful to hear the truth for once.

We wonder how tired of their job they must be to give up and now even give their poorly scripted pitch. But luckily for the person who posted this funny encounter, they didn’t have to waste more than a minute on the phone with them.

Source: TechnicolorTypeA (Reddit)

A little research is all it takes

Getting a random message from an old co-worker can be annoying, but it’s even worse when they turn out to be a scammer. This user was one smart cookie and made sure to Google everything. Spoiler alert: it’s a scam.

What is most concerning is the fact that Lions Club International Foundation has an FAQ page about scammers. There must be lots of fake accounts trying to promote this phony grant. Hopefully, the FAQ has stopped them in their tracks.

Source: ShadowsWandering (Reddit)

 Another celebrity faker

It seems that pretending to be a celebrity on a second account is a common scam, as this is another one. This time, they tried to be Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock. The Rock surely has better English skills than this guy.

“Trust me” is the golden phrase since anyone who says this makes you do the opposite. It’s not that hard to check someone’s follower account, and there’s no way that the real Rock would have no followers. What a joke!

Source: Mildturtle434 (Reddit)