There will always be thieves who think they’re smarter than everyone else and try to rob us of our money. Thanks to the internet and social media, they can even do it remotely while the whole world is locked down, going through a pandemic.

And while we try to calm ourselves down by saying that sooner or later they will get caught and punished, as one Reddit post shows, some won’t. Because we’re not even chasing them!

Сreated by user u/F1yff, it asked people the question: “What is a legal scam that is still happening in 2022?” and has received plenty of real-life examples that are still thriving. Here are some of them.

#1

Churches not paying taxes. It’s completely unacceptable and really disgusting. I cannot imagine tithing to a church with a pastor who has big houses and a private jet and luxury cars.

Image credits: youretheweird1

#2

American restaurants forcing the burden of employee wages onto their customers.

Image credits: Ky200028

#3

Charging for parking in Hospitals and Clinics.

Image credits: P13r15

#4

Televangelists like Joel Osteen.

Image credits: i_tune_to_dropD

#5

Charging people money to withdraw money or because they have small (positive) balances in their bank accounts.

Image credits: P13r15

#6

Private prisons. You’re telling me that they charge the government for the beds and the taxpayers still gotta foot the bill if those beds are empty so the company running it “doesn’t lose money”? F*ck you.

Image credits: Silverback_Vanilla

#7

Civil forfeiture. You’re going to tell me that a cop thinks that my property might be used for illegal activity, and that cop is going to steal it from me and pad their departments bottom line? What the actual f.

Image credits: MYule90

#8

Having to file your own taxes then being fined if you don’t do it right.

Image credits: DestroyingAwesome

#9

Insider trading within Congress.

But if WE do it, we end up in prison.

Image credits: vabeach23451

#10

“News” which isn’t useful or objectively true, and therefore not news, but propaganda.

Image credits: Dude_With_A_Truck

#11

MLMs (multi-level marketing companies). ‘I’m my own CEO.’ No, you aren’t. You literally have a company telling you what you can and can’t do.

Image credits: Ok-Act-6869

#12

Cable company making you “rent” a router for 10$ a month.

Image credits: xmuskorx

#13

Software as a service.

Once I buy a piece of software that works, it doesn’t cost the company more money to make it if I use it for longer. It makes no sense to pay a monthly fee for the permission to use Adobe Photoshop, it’s ridiculous.

People say “oh, but you get updates” — if I want to get the new version of Photoshop, I can pay for a new license.

Any update that fixes bugs should come free, because actually I’m not paying for a buggy product am I?

Video games, as sh*tty as the industry is, are doing this right. You pay once, up front. Then you get patches and security updates for free. Of course there are still problems, but at least buying a video game isn’t as much of a scam as subscribing to Adobe’s Creative Cloud plans. Total ripoffs.

#14

“Printing” fee for digital tickets.

Image credits: eastherbunni

#15

Sadly overplayed, but health insurance. Just yesterday there was a post about a guy who had medically necessary surgery and the insurance didn’t want to pay the hospital.

Image credits: ForkShirtUp

#16

Insane rent prices for houses even squatters wouldn’t stay at.

Image credits: highangler

#17

Education prices.

Image credits: seth_dlewis

#18

Printer ink.

Image credits: NoGameNoLifeOfficial

#19

Super-high interest, predatory rent-to-own furniture rental/loan things — where you end up paying, like, $3,000 in the end for a $500 laptop.

Image credits: codenameZora

#20

Lobbying.

#21

All televangelists

#22

Ticket master. WTF is a handling fee when I am the one handling my own phone?

#23

The troubled teen industry. It doesn’t work. It traumatizes children. It’s legal kidnapping.

I hope more attention comes to it and something happens. They’re a business and the goal is to make money, not help troubled teenagers. Ffs, half the time the kids aren’t even troubled!

E.T.A.: The “Troubled teen industry” refers to for-profit organizations aimed at steering rebellious and at-risk youth onto a better path through reform camps. But their methods are “tough love”, negative/positive punishments and physical labor.

Because it’s a business meant to make money, a lot of corner-cutting happens. They hire young and untrained staff for less pay rather than therapists and certified nurses & teachers. It’s also not regulated at all so they can effectively do whatever they want with little recourse.

They use “scared straight” tactics and beat kids into obedience. They claim the best way to send a kid there is by surprise “so they don’t try and run beforehand” – AKA burst into their room at 2AM and drag them into a van with very few belongings.

Look up “Elan School” for a notorious one.

Paris Hilton was kidnapped at 2AM and sent to Provo Canyon when she was 16. Look at how well that worked.

Go through this thread for some horror stories.

Image credits: st0dad

#24

Charging patients in hospitals for TV service. Their bills are high enough, but you want to add $8/day to not have to sit in silence for 23 hours a day?

Image credits: angryguido69

#25

Medication Costs

my dog had hookworm and so my doctor recommended i get treated as well just to be safe – pharmacy called me warning that it would cost me $2,995… asked my doctor if there was an alternative; was able to get an equally effective treatment for $45

#26

Modern art collecting as a easy route to evade taxes. Wealthy person buys painting of black line for $20k, have art appraiser friend appraise for $1.2mm, donate painting to museum or non-profit, write off over a million in losses, zero taxes, celebrate black line like it’s an amazing and deeply moving piece.

#27

Why insurance goes up after an incident.

The fact that you give regular monthly installments is the intent that they will save you the hassle in case of a problem.

#28

Usa tax paying system.

Paraphrasing: We know how much you owe, but we want you to calculate it and you have to get it correct under pain of prison or paying too much. Oh and the whole process is more complicated than it needs to be because of private interests.

#29

Congress officials being allowed to trade stocks

#30

That news in America is entertainment. Can get away with saying pretty much anything and still call it “news”.

#31

Extended warranties, so many promises made, but when time comes for a claim, almost all are denied.

Image credits: ggs_golf

#32

College textbooks. “We updated a figure in chapter 8 and changed the page numbers for three Third Edition. It costs $180.”

#33

If you’re a personal business owner, you may receive what looks to be a bill in your mail from the US Domain Authority. At first glance, you’re under the impression that you need to pay 289 dollars to renew your website domain name… HOWEVER. There is very fine print stating that you are not legally required to pay the listed amount. It’s actually an ad requesting you pay that amount in order to have your website listed on the US Domain Authority site. I can’t imagine how many people have been tricked by this. READ YOUR MAIL CAREFULLY.

Image credits: RecentLingonberry821

#34

if debt collectors can trick a grieving person into uttering words that imply you take responsibility for your dead relatives’ debts, that can be treated as a binding oral contract and allow them to collect from you

#35

that cookies still exists on websites. sometimes i don’t have an option but just to give them goddamn cookies! cancel cookies!

#36

$4.95 ATM service charge.

#37

Paying convenience charges when booking tickets online.

#38

Taxes on taxes

#39

My kid’s school charges a $3 “internet fee” if you want to refill their cafeteria cards via the website. If you do it in person there’s no fee.

If they feel they have to charge a fee shouldn’t it be the other way around since if you use their website you aren’t taking up anyone’s time?

Image credits: akeoGaming

#40

University fees. I have to not only pay for my classes and admin fees, I have to pay for two separate student Union fees, a technology fee, an online processing fee, and a “recreation and athletic” fee, despite the Fieldhouse being entirely closed due to covid.

#41

politicians and their families investing in the stock market.

#42

Funeral homes. Or to specify for the dunces among us, unethical funeral homes chasing profit at the expense of bereaved people…

The amount of Leeching done to grieving people just boils my blood.

#43

Charging huge fees for parking permits without spending any of that money on the maintenance of those parking spots.

#44

Working for the current minimum wage. I just want it to have kept up with inflation. That is probably around 22.5/hr iirc. The hardest jobs I’ve ever had was my lowest paying job.

Healthcare in the USA. When you work at a hospital and see the f*ckery that happens you get even more mad.

Student debt in its current state. I know physicians who can’t pay those loans off because the interest is just too high. They’ve been paying for 10 years and still have their original principal loan amount.

Those are just three things that make me the most mad right now.

#45

Insurance companies stating they’ll cover 100% of the cost. But when you get the bill, it’s 200% and you gotta cover the difference. Who the hell reads 100% as literally anything other than fully covered?

Image credits: DTF_Truck

Source: boredpanda.com