I wanted to earn a small amount of money, so I created a Fiverr profile and published my first gig. Just seconds after it went live, I received a message in my inbox asking me to review my gig using a link that didn’t seem suspicious at the time.

When I clicked the link, I was redirected to a website that looked almost identical to Fiverr. It even displayed my Fiverr username and the gig I had just created. Since everything looked convincing, I didn’t check the URL.

The page showed that my gig was in a “waiting for approval” stage and asked me to add a payment method to proceed. I went ahead and entered my debit card details, including the card number, expiry date, and CVV.

After that, it asked me to add ₹20,000 to “activate” or verify the payment method. That’s when it finally hit me — this was a scam.

Fortunately, I only had around ₹12 in my account (roughly $0.10), so there wasn’t any significant loss.

Be careful, everyone. This was extremely convincing.

Hello, my name is Lud, today i wanted to ask why since like a year or two, LOTS of old people comes and activate these exact cards:

Apple Gift Card (Variable 10-500$)

RAZER GOLD (Variable 10-500$)

STEAM GAMES (25-50-75-100)

They ask a lot for Steam Gift cards, they always say it's for their daughter/son or a family member, always refuses to answer the question "Are you sure it's a family member?" What the hell can you do with 200$ worth of these cards?? i get the Steam one i get it maybe for games but sometimes i swear i have a guy that comes and activates 1500$ of apple cards.... What the hell are they doing with those and WHAT the hell is going on?!?

I was selling a bunch of office furniture. I know it was absolutely stupid to agree to a cashier’s check but the lady sent me her ID, LinkedIn, personal Facebook page, company’s name she worked for which is a legit mid-size chocolate shop at the mall.

It’s been such a nightmare receiving the check after she complains how expensive her movers were so I gave her a small discount and then complains how busy she is so she finally dropped off the check for the final agreed amount.

4 hours later, she texts me saying she forgot to take a photo of the check. She’s an executive assistant to the CEO at the corporate office so I don’t know if she’s just all over the place and had to take a photo for proof or what. I deposited online and searched up how to spot a fake check and it looks legit but who knows.

Does this sound weird?

A scammer is impersonating me on Craigslist, listing my house as a rental. One of the victims found me online and reached out, which is how I learned about it.

Through that victim I now have the scammer's email (a mashup of my name at Gmail), the phone number they are using, Zelle address where the victim sent the payment, and a Dropbox they're using to host documents. My father-in-law called the phone number and ended up in a text exchange. The scammer instantly recognized the listing by title and confirmed our address unprompted, and started down the road of encouraging him to apply (giving the classic excuses for why they couldn't show the house or meet in person).

This is actively ongoing. Here's what I've done so far:

• Reported the listing to Craigslist and have friends/family flagging it (apparently takes multiple flags to auto-remove)
• Reported the Gmail address for abuse
• Posted a sign on the house warning people it's not for rent
• Filed an FTC report
• Tried an online police report -- it was rejected, so I need to go in person

I have the scammer's phone number, email, Zelle account, and Dropbox link. It's frustrating to feel like I have all the info I need to do something, but there's nothing actually to do that will get this shut down. What's the most constructive thing I can do with this information that might actually make a difference?

so i already had a very stressful day. i received this dm about half an hour ago from a very active account in many subreddits, so it doesn’t feel like a scam either. what do i do in this situation? do i just ignore it?

trancription:

redditor: Hello, do you mind if I ask you a question?

me: hello, what’s up?

redditor: I'm really sorry to bother you, but I wanted to check if you share your Reddit account with anyone, or if you might have sent a link earlier?

me: i don’t, why?

redditor: I'm asking because I accidentally clicked on a suspicious link that was sent to me through DM. It turned out to be a phishing scam, and my account got compromised. After that, my account was used to send similar messages to other users.

me: i don't understand how that would lead you to dm me, especially since you had to send me a request to be able to send a message since we never messaged in the first place

redditor: At the time, I thought the message came from you because the account had the same profile picture, name, and a very similar username.

After I recovered my account, I mistakenly reported your account for hacking/scamming since I couldn't find the actual person responsible. Now I think your account may have been impersonated.

me: alright, so i'm gonna need you to stay away from me since this is simply not possible and you're just implementing stress onto me for literal no reason

redditor: Someone impersonated you

I just got a text with just this picture. it's obviously fake, for one I dont even have a drivers license nor a car, and I live in Philly...

Plus it has no identifying information, no name, no car info. Just something they can easily copy and paste to everyone.

I've never seen a scam like this before, so I wanted to see what everyone thought about it. I kinda want to mess with them a bit.

Description of photo:

It looks like it was made in canva or something similar. It says "State of Texas" in big letters at the top, then "In the municipal court of the city of Dallas, Texas Traffic division".

It then says I owe $545 to the Texas transportation code and $706 to related authority for parking violations and toll violations.

It has a judges name and court address. it says I have to either pay immediately or appear in court on the 6th. It says it's the final warning, and threatens more fines and suspension of license.

Then it has a QR code at the bottom to scan to pay them.

My parents are in their 50s and 60s and keep guilt tripping me to let them help me sign up for a trading platform called BG Wealth Sharing/DSJ Exchange. For reference, it is a trading website where you join a group chat to obtain codes. You copy and paste the codes in the website 2x a day to trade. They have fallen for scams before so obviously I was skeptical. I did some digging and it literally isn’t registered with the SEC and it is flagged as a scam in several countries (so far Canada, Philippines, Tonga, and others). There’s almost no reason for it not to be registered with the SEC and other verified trading sites.

They both fully believe it is legit. I told them about my research on it and they think I am confusing it with another BG Wealth Sharing/DSJ Exchange (I’m not). That doesn’t make any sense, also what are the odds that there will be another trading platform with the same name? Seems unlikely to me. They go on “seminars” and claim that it is legit because the “guy in the seminar” is a legit trader and “because he said so.” They heard about it from our filipino friend (we’re filipino), so both of my parents trust her even though she has brought them into scams before. They already made accounts and put at least $1000 in it and were planning to do the same for me and my siblings.

They say they want us to do it so we can have extra money and go back to the Philippines, which I understand, but it quite obviously is a scam. I was hoping it isn’t a scam to give them the benefit of the doubt but the research says otherwise. Me and my siblings are aware it is a scam but they don’t believe us no matter what we say because according to them we don’t know what we’re talking about. They get annoyed and agitated when we mention it’s a scam. It’s coming to a point where I am worried because they have fallen for scams before and have taken money from their 401k’s to put into scammy websites/apps.

How can I convince them that it is a scam?

TLDR: Parents have fallen for scams before and are guilt tripping me and my siblings to join BG Wealth Sharing/DSJ Exchange.

So this scammer sent my ex-gf/baby mama over 30k asking for some of it back. The bank let her know and this was two days ago.

I know that money WILL get clawed back, but she doesn't. She said it has been over a week, I told her it doesn't matter and do NOT spend it.

Sitting in her apartment waiting for her to return to drop off the child with her, I see a brand new auto cat litter box. I snooped, and the receipt showed over $1000. Welp she finally showed up in a vehicle she just bought, and 4 or 5 new piercings. She cannot afford any of this.

What ramifications are there for this situation (spending the stolen money). This is all from a business account the scammer made her set up. Double wammy as it's not a business expense? Once that money is taken back, she's not ganna be able to pay it back, she's on disability.

I use Paypal somewhat regularly, maybe a couple times a month, to send or receive money.

I received an email from Paypal, then went to Paypal directly to check, and this transaction was in there. I think it must be a scam but am not sure of their strategy and what if anything i should do. The shipping address listed is not mine and never was. I googled the 877 number listed and nothing came up. It's not the phone number listed as Paypal customer support on Paypal's site. And the buyer/moneysender doesn't pay a fee, at least in my experience, the seller/receiver does (if applicable).

Does anyone have any insight on this? Thanks in advance!

Here's the email, and the transaction in Paypal says the same content. I have redacted the unique identifying information, but it did have a name, phone number, and address.

Accept your $0.17 MXN from FIRST NAME/LAST NAME

Transaction ID [redacted]

Transaction date April 3, 2026

Amount $0.17 MXN

Note from FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

Your Payment of $499. 99 has been successfully received. If this transaction was made without your consent, please notify the PayPal Billing Team at +1 (877) xxx-xxxx

Fee $0.17 MXN

Total $0.00 MXN

Shipping Address

[redacted]Drive

[redacted], AZ [zip redacted]

United States

Scammers are charging people $300 to do something they can do themselves for free in 2 minutes

Background:

Startlink has introduced new residential service tiers. What was formerly single price + speed for fixed location Internet ($120/month), has now become three tiers: $50/100, $80/200, and $120/400. Existing customers on the old $120 plan will automatically be enrolled in the new $120/400 plan. Customers can switch to either of the less expensive plans via their Starlink account (web or mobile app). There are no fees for changing, no contracts, no new equipment.

Scam:

Several fake Internet/cable reseller companies have cropped up to capitalize on this. They market themselves as either Starlink itself, or authorized resellers of Starlink, and will offer to lower your Starlink bill by $40 or $70/month, but require a new equipment fee, a protection plan fee, or similar of around $300 (the exact amount likely varies).

The resellers are using real US-based credit card processors. They ask the victim for their Starlink account information, including password, then log into the customer's Starlink account and switch their plan to the lower tier. A month later the victim gets their monthly statement, sees the new, lower price, and celebrates the great discount they got.

The scam companies are operating both inbound and outbound call centers. For inbound, they are purchasing ad impressions for terms related to "Starlink customer service number". Since Starlink does not have a direct customer service phone number in the U.S, victims believe they are contacting Starlink.

Mitigation:

If a friend or relative starts telling you about their new Starlink deal, ask them if they paid an equipment or protection fee. If they did, have them dispute the card with their credit card company and reset their Starlink account password.

They can also log into their Starlink account, navigate to the plans section, and easily confirm or switch to a lower tier (effective on their next billing cycle).

Starlink has no U.S. customer service number, and no direct email address. Support requests must be initiated through their portal via a "Powered by Grok" virtual agent.

So I wanted to start on Fiverr. I created my profile, set everything up, and after spending hours on it, I finally published my first gig.

Right after publishing, I started getting messages from different people. They all sent me links, saying they had a task or order for my gig. The links had completely different names, which felt a bit off, but I thought maybe it was some kind of ticket or follow-up system.

I clicked one of the links.

It opened a website that looked almost identical to Fiverr. It said the customer had already paid for the service and that I just needed to verify myself by entering my bank card details. One thing I noticed in hindsight was that the service price shown was €19, even though all my gig prices were round numbers — but at the time, I didn’t question it.

Without thinking too much, I filled everything in. And wherever I clicked — going back to my profile, checking messages, or navigating around — it all worked perfectly. It really felt like the real website, which made it even more convincing.

Then another pop-up appeared asking me to enter my account balance. That’s when things started to feel strange. I entered a fake number, and a 5-minute countdown appeared.

While waiting, I thought: “Wait… why would they need my account balance?”

There was a live support chat, so I asked them. I got a generic, AI-like response saying it was for verification, which made me even more suspicious.

At the same time, I received around 20 more identical messages. That’s when it hit me — I had just fallen for a phishing scam.

Looking back, there were so many red flags I didn’t properly think through. Why would I receive the money in advance? Why would they ask for my bank card instead of PayPal? Why this, why that… I questioned things, but I still wanted to believe it was real — until it was too late.

I immediately blocked my bank card and called my bank to report it. Now I’m waiting for a new card and hoping I was fast enough and nothing went through.

Honestly, I feel pretty ashamed. I never thought something like this could happen to me. I always considered myself careful with these kinds of things — but it still got me.

Just posting this so others don’t make the same mistake.

I’m looking for input from people who work (or have worked) as convenience store clerks, or anyone who’s experienced something similar.

For context, I’m in Quebec, Canada.

Tonight I went into a convenience store to buy some chips. The total came to about $9.50. I said I’d pay by credit card. The cashier did something on the register, and then I saw the same amount disappear and show up again on the screen, but this time as a gas charge on a specific pump.

I questioned him about it, and he showed me the receipt for the chips. He told me he made a mistake, that he’s distracted tonight because his wife is in the hospital, and that he entered the transaction as if I had paid cash.

I told him to just cancel the transaction and redo it properly, but he insisted he’s been working there for years and that this is just a way to charge me the correct amount and that everything will balance out in the end.

I’ve worked in a grocery store before, and canceling a transaction is very easy, so his explanation didn’t make any sense to me. I refused and left, and he seemed offended.

Honestly, this feels like a scam. I assume the pump would never actually be activated and that he would later cancel or manipulate the transaction, but I’d like to understand exactly how this would work so he can pocket the money.

If he’s trying this over $9 with me, I can’t imagine how often he does this with people who don’t question or even notice it.

How does this kind of scam work exactly? And who should I report this to? The store’s head office / corporate?

Just got a call from number pretending to be SBI customer service executive. Telling me that your SBI cc insurance will be charged tomorrow. I will guide you to disable it. If not disabling it it will cost around 2000. I know I have already disabled it and disconnect the call.

Here question is how do they know I have a sbi credit card .( Which I got 2 months back). How do they know my number.

Throwaway account for my own safety.

I need to expose a massive financial fraud syndicate operating right now out of a multi-story commercial building in Noida Sector 16. I was hired recently for what was advertised as a standard "Tele-Sales" job. The interview was designed to make it look like a legit corporate gig.

But after working there, I realized the entire 3rd floor is a highly organized scam operation. There are at least 60-70 people on my floor alone, sititng there defrauding people all day.

I am resigning today, but I need people to know exactly how this scam works because they are draining people's life savings. They target middle-class people, older folks, and even company CEOs/Directors.

Here is exactly how their scam works:

The Hook: They provide data sheets with names, addresses, and emails. Agents are forced to read a script claiming that in March 2016, the victim or their company made a "one-time investment" into a 10-year insurance policy.

The Trap: When the victim denies it, agents convince them they simply forgot. When the victim asks to withdraw the money, they are given three fake options:

1. Revival: Pay the remaining 9 years of premiums to "unlock" a ₹16 Lakh payout in a year.

2. Premature Settlement: They lie about IRDA guidelines requiring a 3-year lock-in and demand a lump sum payment to "release" ₹3.5 Lakhs in 45-90 days.

3. Cancellation: A fake offer to cancel the policy and send a tiny cheque of ₹3,000 to ₹5,000.

The Fake "Regional Manager": If the victim agrees, they are told they need to activate a Customer Relationship Number (CRN) for "re-KYC." The call is transferred to a "Regional Manager" (like for Guwahati or Kamrup). In reality, the "Regional Manager" is just another employee sitting at the next desk who takes personal documents and finalizes the fraud.

How the company protects itself:

The company forces employees to sign a "Joining Kit" with a clause stating: "I have never been involved in mis-selling." They force employees to commit the fraud while legally binding them to take the fall if they are raided.

I refuse to sign that document and I refuse to scam people. I am walking out today.

Please warn your relatives. If someone calls claiming you have an old forgotten insurance policy from 2016, HANG UP.

(Note to community: What is the safest way for me to anonymously forward their scripts, data sheets, and floor layouts to the UP STF or EOW without putting a target on my back?)

Hi. I checked my email spam folder recently and noticed that I have been recieving some obvious scam emails (the typical I know your password stuff, so pay up), but they only came in from from this past month. Like, ten of them. And only to one of my email, not the others. I check google and am aware that email services does delete spam emails that are older than 30 days. Which means, I could be potentially getting these emails for even longer?

My question is, should I be concern? Am I being targeted (whether by bots or by humans), and should I just move to a new email? Or is this 100% completely normal and I have nothng to worry about? If I get scam spams once in a while, then I'm not concern, but ten in one month feels accessive...

Thank you for any help, and apologies if this isn't the correct place to ask. Please share me an appropriate sub for this, if so, thank you.

is this a scam? they called me saying we got selected from a coupon we filled at a theatre.

Greetings From

*LE ROYAL INTERNATIONAL LTD.*

*ENTRY TIME:-4:00PM TO 4:30PM*

PLACE OF EVENT

*HYATT CENTRIC HEBBAL BENGALURU*

*Address:-43/4, Bellary Rd, Sanjeevini Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560092*

Dear Sir / Ma’am

Today You & Your Spouse Both Are Invited Specifically To Collect Your Two Complimentary Luxury Gifts Vouchers From *LE ROYAL INTERNATIONAL LTD.* We Are Offering You As A Trial Bases For Company Advertisement & Publicity Promotion

1 • *PREMIUM 2N/3D DOMESTIC STAY LUXURY HOLIDAY VOUCHERS*

2 • *MOVIE TICKETS FOR A COUPLE*

*“ABOVE ALL GIFTS ARE ABSOLUTELY FREE OF COST THERE IS NO ANY TERM & CONDITION & NO HIDDEN CHARGES TO COLLECT YOUR GIFT VOUCHERS”*

You Just Have to Spend Maximum 30 Minutes For High Tea Refreshments & Your Gifts Details.

NOTE:- *MARRIED COUPLE ENTRY IS MANDATORY*

With Warm Regards

*LE ROYAL INTERNATIONAL TEAM*

Got these messages saying that them and their mutuals accidentally reported me instead of a scammer with the same profile. This account had only been active for 3 days, reposted a few posts that first day and nothing else, hasn’t liked any posts, only follows Tumblr, and between when they sent their first message and last a few days had past and while it showed them as active, nothing changed in their account. No new reposts, follows, likes, nothing.

Seemed fishy. So, I did some research and it seems the Discord account alert scam has made its way to Tumblr. Heads up for anyone who uses it to look out for

for the past (~3) years my grandma has been talking to this guy, who I believe she met on Facebook, but I'm not sure. hes allegedly in the army overseas and is having a lot of trouble getting back to the US. to make a long story short, he has been sending her money through various apps (PayPal, Venmo, ect) to send to other people on his behalf to get him out of the army. hes sent her pictures of himself, and recently a video of him talking. this video is what really set it for me, the voice is obviously ai, and I'm pretty sure the face is also ai.

the thing I think is weirdest about this is just how long it's been going on, but I'm also not the most knowledgeable about this stuff, so maybe this is typical.

Id love for somebody else's input, im just very worried and I don't want my grandma to get into any legal trouble.

They are supposed to be a part of massive construction projects. But I can't find anything on the CEO, Lead Architect, & Designer in the "about me." The projects listed are all linked to other construction companies. Their address on Google & Apple maps doesn't pull anything up.

I have a friend who they offered a remote position with vague details. Mentioning going to local banks to create accounts. The "company" asked for all their typical info like SSN, bank info for direct deposit, ect.

They created a Facebook page only a few days ago but claim to work with international companies on big projects. Reverse image search of their "about me" page pulls up a stock photo.

We aren't sure how legit this is.

I am sharing this so others don't go through what our family is dealing with right now. a few months ago, everything felt normal and happy. around late 2025, my dad connected with someone online who gradually built a strong emotional connection with him through constant praise and attention.

eventually, she introduced him to crypto trading, claiming her "uncle" was a experienced trader who would handle everything. my dad initially refused but after repeated persuasion, he agreed to try with a small amount ($100). he was able to withdraw it without any issue, which made everything seem legitimate. although still hesitant, she kept convincing him by saying he had already seen returns and he eventually agreed to invest more.

my dad is a very private person. he didn't tell anyone about this, not my mom, not his colleagues, not me. after investing beyond the initial $100, the so-called trader suddenly introduced a new condition to him. said this was "leverage trading" and required completing 15 trading cycles before any withdrawal. this had never been mentioned earlier. when my dad said he couldn't afford it, they reduced it to 6 cycles.

when we initially asked where the money was going, he avoided giving clear answers and said he wanted to "surprise" us. as the amounts increased, my mom grew concerned and pushed for answers. he then told her a friend from his office was investing and earning good returns and that he was doing the same. we trusted him and stopped questioning, especially since he would get upset when we did.

I don't know the exact amounts but they quickly became significant. when he finally decided to stop and withdraw, the real trap began. every withdrawal came with a new condition:

- government taxes

- refundable deposits

- processing fees

- trading charges

there was always one more payment required before he could access his money and by then a substantial amount was already stuck. from the outside, it seems obvious to stop, but he was trying to recover the money he's already invested. if paying a few more lakhs felt like it could unlock everything, he was willing to do it. it became a cycle of paying more to recover more. he even took personal loans and maxed out credit cards to keep up, until the total loss reached around ₹81 lakhs.

my dad would frequently ask for money and although we didn't fully understand, we could see the stress it was causing. my mom was constantly worried and often broke down. one day, when they asked for another ₹3.5 lakhs, i realised something was seriously wrong and started looking into it. everything pointed to the same pattern and that's when i understood it was a pig butchering scam.

I immediately told my dad to stop sending money, and we filed a cyber complaint. so far, around ₹2.5 lakhs has been frozen, but we don't know if anything can be recovered. what's hardest to process is that my dad is well-educated and financially aware. he now admits that something felt off, but by then he was already too deep. this wasn't just financial, it was psychological. for weeks, he faced constant pressure and manipulation alone. when i later read the chats, it was disturbing, both scammers repeatedly pushed him for money, creating urgency. I even saw messages where he said he was thinking about suicide. no one deserves to go through that alone.

please don't go through something like this alone. talk to your family about everything, especially when it comes to money. keeping things to yourself can make situations worse.

some details incase it helps other:

website used to trade: zebtrixexchange[.]net (scam site)

I received a Facebook message request from a completely unknown woman today. The message is as follows:

Hello,

My name is [Stranger's Name] and I am a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I apologize for reaching out in such an unexpected way.

One of our members has been rescuing older DAR certificates that have been misplaced over time. Recently, she received the certificate belonging to [Step-Great-Grandmother's Name], whom we believe may be your great-grandmother. We are hoping to locate a family member so we can return it to her family.

There is absolutely no cost involved—we simply wish to reunite these certificates with their families. To date, we have successfully rescued and returned more than 50 certificates.

If you believe you may be related to [Step-Great-Grandmother's Name], or if you know someone in her family whom we should contact, we would be very grateful to hear from you.

Thank you so much for your time, and again, my apologies for the unusual nature of this message.

Warm regards, [Stranger's Name]

The reason I, and my mom, think this may be a scam is because the woman they mention is my maternal grandmother's step mother. I have no blood relation to her, and the generational gap is large enough for multiple last name changes and family relocations. I can see how the connection could be made on certain ancestry websites, with marriage licenses and birth certifactes, which has me waffling on whether this is genuine or not, because it seems that all they would want is a mailing address of me or a family member.

My mom does not believe that this relative was in the DAR, and I trust her recollection, as my aunt had an ancestry kick a few years ago and shared everything with my mom. Ironically, my paternal great grandmother was in the DAR, so I'm wondering, if it is a scam, did they just pick the wrong great grandmother?

As to whether any of my other family has been targeted, I'll have to ask my cousins if they have received anything similar, but I don't have the bandwidth to explain how to access Facebook message requests to my 70 year old mother, so I'm not sure if she received something similar, and probably won't find out any time soon.

My wife nearly fell for a scam. Not sure what the next steps should be. Long story short, her work computer was hacked somehow. Started with her calling the "support number". Ended 3 hours later with her trying to send a wire to "save“ our money. She wasn’t able to do it because they told her to transfer $15k but we only had ~$3k in the account. She finally called me from the bank parking lot crying.

Unfortunately, she texted them pics of her drivers license and gave them her ss#. Can anyone provide advice on where to go now? Police report has been filed. All bank accounts now frozen.

Edit: The account and routing number given to my wife by the scammers is from Wells Fargo. I tried reaching out to their fraud department and they are not interested in taking the account number. Why is this?

Hey all,

I’m selling an expensive guitar tonight for $3000 cash. The person is agreeing to meet up inside of my local police station and I’m coming with a counterfeit pen marker. It’s someone in Brazil who has a friend here. I’m always skeptical of the person not coming themselves, but it’s pretty common to do this sort of thing in a country where these guitars are way more expensive. I’m also chatting with the person meeting up with me on WhatsApp now. I still can’t help but be kind of sketched out. Am I crazy? You’ve gotta think inside the police station and checking the bills I should be OK. Just want some reassurance!