/r/Scams

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/CBoy636 on 2025-07-12 00:09:36+00:00.

So this just happened to my wife. She got a phone call with the caller ID saying Maricopa Sheriff's Department (where she use to live), guy gave name and badge number and a case number and more to sound legit. She was told she missed court and that she now has a warrant out for her arrest. The person then went to say that she needs to head to the local sheriff's to get things straightened out.

Well heres where the real scams started, she was told she needed to stay on the phone with them while she went there and while she was on her way to the sheriff's department the guy said hold on before you step onto government property you need to pay fine or you will be arrested immediately and things will be more complicated. Well the guy told her to buy MoneyPak cards to pay the fine over the phone. Not trying to blame my wife but this is when she should have realized it was a scam. But no she gets really nervous with law enforcement due to past trauma and with the threat of being arrested she wasn't thinking straight. Well she emptied her personal checking out buying the MoneyPak cards to pay the "fines" but wait that wasn't enough to cover them!

She comes home to grab her credit card and this is when I get involved. She ask me to grab her credit card from the safe and I'm like ok??? And try to get info from her. Well she says she can't talk about it or else she could receive another charge and I could be charged as well. Warning bells start going off!

I immediately call the local sheriff's department and explain what I know. They confirmed it's a scam and tell me how there are programs that can spoofs numbers so they look like they are coming from a legit number. I immediately tell the wife it's a scam and she hangs up and starts crying that she already sent them 750 through the moneypak card.

I'm angry and upset that these scammers have so many ways to sound legit and scary people so much that they can't think straight. I hope this helps others so that they don't fall to the same scam or similar ones. My sheriff's office says that the common one for our country is saying missed jury duty but my wife was told she received subpoena and missed the court date

TL;DR scammers took 750 using scare tactics to tell my wife she and a warrant for her arrest unless she paid fines. The caller ID said sheriff's department and they gave enough information to sound legit

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Any-Improvement8256 on 2025-07-11 23:36:04+00:00.

Started getting emails and texts after talking to a woman online who turned out to be "underage". I was sus from the very beginning so it never really went anywhere because they refused to video chat, etc. nothing but some texts. they've been trying to extort me on and off over the last year asking for $200 here and there, etc. I have never engaged. But in the last month, they have started to send flyers with my information saying that I'm a womanizer that I chase underage girls, etc., etc.. to all of the agents at my real estate office as their phone numbers and emails are public. I've reported it to the local police sent into the Internet crimes and no one seems to be able to do anything. My livelihood is being ruined. My reputation is being ruined, and I never even really engaged in the first place - no pics, nothing. Anyone have any advice other than 'don't engage?'

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/BenGrahamButler on 2025-07-11 19:24:14+00:00.

We just bought a house, she posted pics on FB.. She gets a message from a friend (she has hundreds as a realtor so doesn't know all her "friends") that was giving away a baby grand piano because her dad died and she saw my wife's posts about pianos (true!) and wanted the piano to go to someone that loved it as much as she does. Sounded totally legit as my wife has several very well off realtor contacts in her company.

She was texting and I did ask a couple questions like "who is this woman giving you a piano, another realtor?" and "wow that's worth at least $7k". My wife was so excited about getting the piano and this was a stressful week, having bought a house and all..

Long story short there was something weird in the email that tipped her off and she had to call the bank and cancel the wire she had already sent, and was able to do so successfully. Wow.

As scams go this was a pretty decent one I thought. My wife is very intelligent, just a very busy person with a ton going on today. I'm not surprised it almost worked for the scammer.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Rolly2k15 on 2025-07-11 08:13:48+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Most_Panda283 on 2025-07-11 05:45:51+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Reaper72244 on 2025-07-11 02:35:13+00:00.

So today I got a call on the store phone from some Indian guy claiming to be the company boss. Obviously he wasn't, but kept persisting that he had ordered a package that would arrive to our store. He told me to 'count the money in the register to pay for the delivery', I did not. He got increasingly annoyed when I asked my co-worker to call our manager (they had already left for the day). So the manager arrive to assess the situation. I gave them the cameras number and to explain exactly what information I gave them. I told them everything and they said that our boss and any upper management don't call the store phone. I'm a fairly new employee, can anyone figure out what the scammer tried to get from the interaction?

PS: the number was from Florida.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/glitterfineapple on 2025-07-10 23:16:39+00:00.

My father met a woman on Hinge from China when she was here in America in winter. They spent so much time together, it really seemed genuine. They’ve talked all the time, he’s gone there to visit her a few months ago. It seems legit, but then money got involved, and I’m very confused by this.

Numerous times, she’s asked him to get him esim cards for her because they “work better than here”. Also, now twice he’s had to go to banks for her. Apparently, there’s no issue to him, because he’s not putting his name on anything, but he is being a middle man. He’s gone to the bank in NY, a teller has came out, and she has talked to them, I believe the teller talks in Chinese to her.

She is a judge in China, and apparently has so much money, but there’s a lot of details missing, like a child she cannot see, and parents he was not able to meet suddenly on his visit to China.

Next week he’s going to a Citi bank and he will video call her from the bank so she can speak with a teller. Supposedly, she has received a letter when she tried to do internationally banking that she just has too much money over there in China, she is worried someone will take it, and because of that, she put money in US banks she cannot access, and she cannot call here about it.

It really makes no sense to me, and I don’t understand his involvement. I’m worried this is the beginning of some pig butchering scam or something suspicious. I don’t want him to be tied to her in this way, I don’t know if she is doing something and scamming multiple people. I’ve just never heard of something like this. He is insistent it has to be Citibank for some reason and in NY because it’s easier for her. I am very confused why he’s involved and the go between, and I think it’s something sketchy. He believes because his name isn’t on it he’s just helping her. But I’m worried somethings going on behind the scenes. He claims he’s not moving money, I’m just not sure what’s happening, and I feel like there’s something scam-ish, but maybe I’m paranoid. Thanks.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Houndsofhowl on 2025-07-10 22:31:50+00:00.

A man claiming to be in the military, stationed in Poland, sent money and gold bars, now the package is held up in customs, and they’re asking me to pay 4K in Bitcoin to have it released for tax & certificates. Is this a scam?

She says, “he’s real because she’s face timed him, and he’s sent her pizza from papa johns for lunch”

We’ve told her that the bitcoin is the major red flag, as well as the rest, but absolutely can’t convince her.

Any tips here?

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Based-Grizzly81 on 2025-07-10 22:02:17+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Underrated_Dinker on 2025-07-10 21:46:40+00:00.

I was at work this morning (racquet sports facility) when a man called in. He had a heavy Indian accent. He said he has a friend staying in the hotel next door that he's been calling and won't answer. He asked if I would go to his friend's room to knock on the door. I said "I don't think I want to do that", then he flatly replied "I will pay you $100". I said "No" and hung up.

Very strange right? Or maybe this is a common scam. I tried to google "hotel friend scam" but didn't see anything that matches.

I thought at first that his "friend" might try to rob me, but that seems like complete overkill if you just wanted to mug a random person.

Or maybe he wanted to just get my bank details when "paying" me? But then why make me go to a specific room? Why not just ask me to go to the hotel front desk or something less suspicious?

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/brilaforte on 2025-07-10 03:06:20+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/andrurogerz on 2025-07-10 00:32:47+00:00.

I am really not sure if this is actually a scam, but I'd love some opinions from the community.

I parked my truck across the street from my house in the suburbs today, and when I was getting in to leave this afternoon, a man in a white pickup truck with two beat-up chest freezers in the bed slowed down to talk to me. He said something about having "extra steaks" from a delivery, and asked "you like steak, don't you?" I replied "I don't eat meat" and he drove away without a word. It sure felt sketchy, but what is the angle here? My wife thinks he meant to kidnap me and stuff me in one of the chest freezers, but I think he was trying to offload some low quality horse meat. Anyone have other ideas? Should I report this to the police?

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/No_Investigator_7199 on 2025-07-09 23:55:28+00:00.

Very early morning, my young son comes running into my room waking me up, someone is knocking at the door. I was expecting a package, so I figured it was the mail service and ignored it.

Few minutes later, its much more aggressive now. Very loud banging. I get up and look out the window, there's a truck and some individuals. I dont recognize any of them. No markings of a company on the truck. The knocking is getting VERY aggressive now. Like theyre trying to knock down the door. Now Im starting to freak out.

Immediately called the police, they show up a few minutes later. The police talked to the people outside, and then came inside the house. The police told me they were hired by the owners of the property to clean the house for selling. (I am the outright owner, and I did not hire anybody nor selling the house.) I told the police this, they went back outside.

The police came back with a key the individuals had, the key had a tag on it with my address and the name of a realty company. They were trying to use the key to get into my house. The police said the people tried to contact who hired them but nobody answered. Eventually everybody left and that was it.

Ive never heard of any sort of scam like this. I cant even imagine what the scam possibly would be. Maybe it was just an honest mistake. I'm hoping maybe somebody on here can recognize this and maybe give some insight.

Thanks!

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/AWB-Sounds on 2025-07-09 15:57:18+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Koreatown_Amigo on 2025-07-09 03:20:28+00:00.

I was on the pier over the weekend, stopped to see if a girl could dead hang off a bar for over 45 seconds to win a prize. She actually ended up holding on for 90 seconds, winning the biggest prize.

I put my camera away after taking a pic and I felt something on my right hand. I turned and saw that a man (I think hispanic male, around 30 yo?, stocky) was poking my hand with a folded up piece of paper. He appeared to be doing this deliberately. I looked at him, he looked back at me. His face was kind of blank. I noticed he was with a woman around the same age. They were both dressed very casual, t shirts and shorts.

I didn't say anything, he poked my hand again, as if he wanted me to grab the paper out of his hand, but I didn't so it just fell on the ground. He didn't say anything. My friend and I walked away.

My friend asked me what that was all about, I said no idea but I felt like it was some kind of scam. The piece of paper was folded up in such a way that I could imagine maybe a message was written inside of it? As I was walking away, I turned to look at them. They were kind of talking to each other, then started kind of looking around. I checked my pockets and my backpack. Nothing was missing.

About 25 minutes later, coming back from the end, I told my friend I wanted to see if the paper was still on the ground. It was. I didn't pick it up.

Anybody have any idea what happened? The hand pokes IMO were completely intentional. Did they think I had dropped the paper? I doubt it.

In case it's useful info, no, I didn't look like a tourist. Because of the way I dress, I could be mistaken for a certain type of "rich" LA person, not sure. I was wearing sweat pants and a hat.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Odd-Chapter-8576 on 2025-07-09 01:39:23+00:00.

My 80 year old grandma has become a victim of a scammer. She thought she was dating this guy and for 7 years she was sending him money because she believed he was real. Now fast forward to February on 2025, she was kicked out of her home because she gave away all her money because she thought this person is real.

They are still trying to contact her and now they’re trying to make her a Money Mule for them.

She still believes this guy is real and is coming to save her no matter how many times we have showed her he is fake.

If anyone knows what my family and i could do please help.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/amelia420_ on 2025-07-08 18:57:18+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/illbp on 2025-07-08 15:54:21+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/lovingbearzzz on 2025-07-08 21:07:14+00:00.

Hey guys! I've been working my new job for 2 months, I work as a cashier at a grocery store. Today left me a little shaken because I don't know what this customer's intention was. The interaction was odd. Maybe I'm over thinking it?

So this guy in medical scrubs comes to my lane with 2 items, a $50 gift card (which was partially already torn from it's packaging) to a gas station and a package of beef jerky. I greet him and ring up his items.

It's time for him to pay and he tries to pay for his stuff with apple pay (which, yes, my store takes). But his debit card thats attached to his apple pay keeps declining. He starts to get frustrated, fiddling with his phone and is complaining that this never happens to him, that he has over $4k in his bank account (he showed the cashier next to me the balance of his bank account, i didn't see it because his phone brightness was dim)

He's distraught his stuff keeps declining and desperately pleads that me and the cashier next to me can help him pay for it and he could venmo us the exact amount. He claims he's stranded and that the gas station gift card is for gas and he's essentially stranded here with no gas in his car and he's here on his lunch break and he's gonna be late for work. I keep apologizing that there is nothing I can do but to void the transaction.

He starts to get frustrated with me and claims he needs these items. And he gets on a phone call with presumably his wife and is asking her desperately to send over money or place on online order (which my grocery store does) for the items he needs. And that he needs it desperately. I couldn't hear anyone on that phone call, maybe the volume was loud enough. But the call ended with her not being able to help him.

And that's where i started to get more suspicious because, if he desperately needed to go back to work, why wouldn't the person on the other line drive over to drop him off? He then starts to get aggressive with me and my other coworker next to me, out raged that nobody could simply take his venmo for "helping him out" and he storms off.

I voided the transaction and destroyed the gift card, as that is protocol at my job to do when we have to cancel a transaction. Don't worry, the gift card was not activated or anything. So there was no money lost, from my awareness.

I can't help but feel bad for this guy if he was really in that much desperate need of help. But there was truly no way I could help this guy. Or if he was out to scam me. Was he trying to scam me? What kind of scam would you even call this? And how can I make sure that I don't get taken advantage of working the register?

Thank you to anyone who reads this and any helpful advice anyone gives me.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Ok_Literature2548 on 2025-07-08 19:41:41+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Ok-Philosophy9516 on 2025-07-08 13:53:13+00:00.

I met this person through a message on Reddit. I’m a gay male. He claimed to be in the military and gay as well. It started out as friendly chat between us. This person claimed he was a staff sargeant stationed in Syria. He insisted on using google chat early on. I agreed. Things were fine. His command of the English language was incredible. No weird sentence structures or odd words. Soon into our friendship, he started love bombing me. Promising to be with me when he returned home. I fell for this whole thing hook line and sinker. He was interesting, encouraging me in life and generally intelligent. We video chatted once. It had to be AI. I saw his face. But he had a thick French accent. I questioned that but he explained it away. This daily chat went on for almost a year. Me, being super trustful and naive fell for this guy. He sent photos of himself. I’m sure they were lifted from the internet.

Eventually, he would throw hints in his messages about how he needed money for a phone, food, etc. I complied. I knew in my heart this was not real but I needed something to fill a void in my life. Finally, he said he needed money for a plane ticket home. I did a stupid thing and sent him increments of money through PayPal to cover his ticket. Once that was done, he ghosted me. I feel so embarrassed and like a complete idiot. I knew this was a scam yet I played along. I lost about three grand in the course of a year.

I consider myself intelligent and of good judgement. My brain went haywire. But he was so convincing and said the right things to make me want a relationship with him. He promised me the best life ever and we made plans for our future. My emotional mind took over and blocked out my logical mind. I’m not a lonely guy. I have plenty of friends and can get dates. My question is, why did I do this? I feel like such an idiot and I knew better. I know there are tons of scams and I know the signs. Why on Earth did I fall for this, knowing it didn’t pass the smell test. I do suffer from treatment resistant depression so I’m thinking this was a diversion for me as I deal with my emotional issues. I’m so pissed at myself and could use some advice to get past this. Thanks for reading and any advice you can offer me.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/StrawberrySwirl123 on 2025-07-08 02:43:29+00:00.

Need some advice. My father (in his 60s) has been in a relationship with a Thai woman (she’s in her 30s or 40s) for a couple years. They met on VK. She claims she is from Russia, but recently moved to Thailand. They met in person for the first time last year. So far, my father says she has not asked for money.

They are in the process of filing a visa, having her move over to America, etc. She also has a young son, who is Russian, and has a Russian name. He is a model, but doesn’t appear to have an active or real-looking catalog/portfolio. He started modeling last year, and has been using my father’s last name. He appears to have conducted a fake interview with a fake magazine, has not modeled for any reputable brands/companies, etc.

In addition, this woman and her son have a joint Instagram account in which they post their daily activities, perhaps to show the government that they are an active family. She has two different Instagram accounts, both with barely any followers. In one, her profile picture is a picture of her wearing sunglasses and you can’t make out any details of her face. In the other Instagram account, her profile picture is a very old, grainy picture from her 20s.

This woman only uses an English translation of her name, and is using my father’s last name. The son goes by two different first names.. on some social media accounts, he uses the one, and on other social media accounts, he uses the other. His modeling catalog started last year; all of his modeling photos are using my dad’s last name. On his Facebook account, he doesn’t have any family or friends added; same goes for the Thai woman.

My dad and the Thai woman have met in person once (I have seen photos of them together). Before they met in person, she only sent one or two photos of herself to him. In those pics, it was either her in sunglasses or a very very old picture of her.

Is this a romance scam? They have big plans to move to America, live in a big house, etc. These plans seem to be moving fast for someone he has only met in person one time.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Motor_Property_7777 on 2025-07-07 23:02:54+00:00.

So I signed up for a freelancing network, and a company sent me an offer, and we did an interview in Microsoft Teams. The weird part was that it was messaging only; they had claimed it was for time zone purposes, after that, they sent me a contract to sign digitally. After that, I started another conversation with my new supervisor, and she told me that I need some stuff for work and sent me a list: Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch, HP LaserJet Printer, Microsoft Office Professional, and our Enterprise Software Time Tracker. They had told me that they were gonna have that stuff shipped to me, and they were gonna pay for it. Now they have sent me a check for almost 3,000 dollars and an invoice for the purchase. They want me to print out the check and sign it, and deposit it with my mobile banking app. I'm pretty sure I have heard of this type of scam before, but I'm not so sure.

Edited- Yeah, I figured it was when I was in the interview, my only question now is what to do. I didn't deposit the check or anything, so I could just block them.

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/Zealousideal_Soft887 on 2025-07-08 02:18:33+00:00.

My sister and I own a samll business making blankets. We recently received an email asking if we can make 2000 blankets for a company. The name of the company is KCA consultants ltd, and they want us to ship the order to Dubai. This is a very large order compared to what we usually do. Im very weary of going any further with this because I dont really know how to even check if this is a legit company. If anyone knows how we can can fine out if this is a scam please give us some tips and feedback. Thank you in advance!

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The original was posted on /r/scams by /u/USMC0317 on 2025-07-08 01:03:31+00:00.

So my wife and I are both busy professionals, and we pay my mother (72F) to essentially nanny for us during the week. She comes over in the morning before we head off to work, takes the kids to school during the school year, picks them up if we’re not off work yet, and on days they don’t have school, she stays at our house with our kids. We pay her because my mom and dad basically live off social security and retirement, so we wanted to help support them, not ask her to do full time nannying for free. That’s just the background for informational purposes.

Because she is at our house alone with our kids all the time, my 11 year old started telling us probably 6-8 months ago that grandma was talking on the phone to some man, and telling this person loads of private information about herself, my wife and I, our kids, where we live, what we do for work, etc. essentially vastly over sharing tons of information that is no one’s business. We confronted her about it immediately and insisted she not share any information about us or our family with anyone, she agreed and according to our kids it seems to have stopped. However, our kids (being kids) have snooped over grandmas shoulder and read some of her text messages. They told us small bits that sounded fishy, so the other day we managed to snag grandmas phone when she was distracted and looked through her messages.

This is where shit gets weird. She thinks she is in a romantic relationship with Kevin Costner… Kevin Costner the famous movie and TV star… and apparently Kevin Costner is down on his luck right now and has been “borrowing” money from my mother for god knows how long, with promises that “his manager” is going to pay her back. We have no idea how much money she has sent this person. There were also multiple instances of this person asking for security codes that were sent to my mother’s phone, and she immediately gives him the code. So we have no idea how much money she’s given him, or what accounts she has given him access to. We do not have access to her bank accounts to check if he has been stealing money directly from her accounts.

Now here’s our problem: not only do we want to help her and break her from this very obvious and ridiculous scam, but how do we even bring it up, considering we obtained all this information essentially from our kids snooping, and then us going through her personal phone without her knowledge or permission. I understand we didn’t do the right thing by snooping through her phone, but she is clearly getting scammed super hard core and we just want to put an end to it.

Edited to add: All of these messages were on some app called Zangi.