Check the Facts
There are plenty of chances to buy concert tickets on social media. After all, not everyone can make it to every event they plan on going to.
Then again, there are plenty of scammers out there who want to take advantage of fans, so you’ll want to be vigilant while you’re shopping online. In this case, there was a problem. If you didn’t notice, that’s the artist himself pointing out that they aren’t even on sale yet.
Okay, Sure
If you get arrested, you don’t really expect the threat to get to you via a text. Especially from someone who can’t even spell the word “arrest.”
Sure, there are certain cases in which you might pay a fine for a crime instead of going to jail. Then again, it’s not like the government only accepts iTunes gift cards. In fact, we’re willing to bet that they won’t accept that as a form of payment for a legal fine.
Sorry, Too Late
Scammers often reach out in the hopes of getting confidential information or money from you through means of deception. What if you turned the tables, though?
That was the approach that this Reddit user took when they received a message from a scammer. It seems like they were pretty convincing because it didn’t take long for this scammer to panic a bit. You know what they say — don’t dish out what you can’t take.
Sounds About Right
There are a lot of scammers that don’t have any problem lying to relate to you. In fact, it’s often a part of the script to do so.
As for this person, they weren’t afraid to lie back. Apparently, the script didn’t include bothering to double-check what the would-be victim said. After all, as this person points out, you’d have to have a crazy address to live 15 minutes away from Cassiopeia.
Get on With It
Once you’ve been online long enough, you can start to see a scam coming a mile away. As for this person, they weren’t going to wait around for more messages to pour in.
They weren’t even here for revenge — they just called the scammer out and asked them to get on with it. Believe it or not, these scammers weren’t afraid to drop the act and work a bit more efficiently when asked.
Thanks for Signing Up
As we’ve seen, sometimes turning the table on scammers is the best way to get them to just leave you alone. Plus, it’s a bit of payback.
This person really gave this scammer a subscription to a service that sounds like it could be a lot of fun. But, it’s enough just to see this scam blow up in their face, even if it’s a non-combative response.
Trust Me
One scam that we have to wonder if it’s ever worked is scammers impersonating celebrities. It must have some success rate if they keep doing it. In this case, it was a text from none other than “Dwayne Johnson.”
Then again, we also remember The Rock having a few followers, at the very least. However, he did say “Trust me,” so maybe he really is actor and WWE superstar Dwayne Johnson, desperately trying to steal your card information.
Ah, I Fell for It
There’s always someone who falls for a scam, unfortunately. They really depend on things like manipulation and an unfamiliarity with technology to trick people.
However, you usually only get people who don’t know that what they’re looking at is a scam. Maybe this was a lazy attempt to try and drum up attention on the post — but it looks like the only person this scammer caught was himself.
Giving a Backstory
Like we said, scammers do a lot to try and fish for your personal information. We can only guess this was an attempt to start a conversation or fishing for this person’s address.
This person said they get these texts all the time, too, and they aren’t really sure what the end goal is here. So, they had to make it fun somehow. This little creative writing exercise surely stopped Melissa from trying this one again today.
Oh, He’s Back
Do you remember how we said those scams where the scammer is pretending to be a celebrity can get pretty weird? This is the perfect example of that.
There’s a lot to take in right away — not only does “Michael Jackson” need this person’s help, but it seems like the singer was resurrected for a bit two years ago. If you didn’t believe him before, how can you not change your mind after he signed off with his classic catchphrase?!
You’re Fired
If you had a diplomatic agent, for some reason, don’t you think you’d hear about it before you got a text from a random number asking if you could come pick up cash?
This person wasn’t buying it for a second. However, they were particularly caught by the fact that their “diplomatic agent” in question didn’t know their name. You know, if she was real and did lose their information, it wouldn’t be super professional.
Something’s Off
There’s already something unsettling about someone you don’t know messaging you that “you look beautiful” with a picture of themselves because, again, you’ve never met.
This one really fell apart when he tried to actually introduce himself, though, and this person wasn’t afraid to let him know that they noticed. At one point, they just asked them to drop the act and tell them the scam. Shockingly, they complied without any hesitation.
Malicious Compliance
There are a few things that scammers often ask for. For instance, they tend to really like to ask for money in the form of gift cards.
This person wasn’t going to deny them. In fact, they were going to comply in the most malicious way they could, filling the rest of the package with messy food waste. We have to say — we do feel bad for the mailman that has to smell this package along the way.
Oh, Both of You?
Well, would you look at that! We have another famous celebrity in need. As a matter of fact, there are two in this conversation.
For one, we’re not sure that Kelly would need our help if she lost a credit card. Plus, if Beyoncé is right there, surely there’s someone nearby that definitely has the money to help her out. Is “Kelly” sending this out to every fan in the city to see who will answer?
Okay, Jelly
Even if this was a regular conversation, Jelly started out here in a way most of us wouldn’t. It boils down to, “I found your number, you did not make an impression on me, who are you?”
Instead of just saying no or ignoring it, this was once again a chance to test out this person’s creative writing might. We have to give them points for really throwing this scammer off their game. We don’t think Jelly will be texting this person anymore.
Sure Hope So
To start off, we’ll say that this email was marked as spam. We can see why the email host would notice with ease and sort it out of your way.
There are a few key clues here, including a misspelling of the word “account.” The funniest part of this, though, is the warning that comes with this is that the customer recently has passwords. Yeah, that’s one of the most basic rules of cybersecurity.
Might be Scripted
We’ve talked a lot about scammers here like they’re another person. Some of them are, but some of the messages you get are preprogrammed, and you may not be talking to a real person in real-time.
We’re guessing whoever programmed this conversation didn’t expect this person to answer so aggressively. Yet, it does make it pretty hilarious to see the response thanking them for being so kind and brushing off the insult like nothing ever happened.
On the Books
There are plenty of services that can help you get your finances in order when you need some professional help. You’ll want to watch out for fake or predatory institutions, though.
This person wasn’t too convinced by this person, but they gave them a date and time to meet anyway. Apparently, though, putting this in his calendar didn’t show “Chris” here that there’s no such date as “February 30th.” Plus, where did he get a calendar for 2099?
Sounds Familiar
Internet Safety 101 says that you shouldn’t hand out personal information like your full legal name and address to strangers online. The same principle goes for texts from random numbers.
Also, you usually don’t mail a check if someone’s made a post to sell something online. It’s a callback to some of our favorite movies and a great way to dodge the situation. They were never going to get that check, so they just need to hold onto their laptop!
Yeah, I Believe You
If you want to pretend to have money, there are a few ways to do it. This is about the last way that any scammer is going to find success.
Without even bothering to crop the photo, this oh-so-convincing picture left the search bar for money in view. You know, after receiving something like this, we might just call off whatever deal was being negotiated here. We have to wonder whether this method has ever worked for this person.