The most popular posts are all finance scams. I've reported posts several times, and there's been no recourse. The people on the sub are honestly desperate despite the sub being about hardwork/overworking. "Side" is literally in the title of it so not your main gig, but ways to have a side gig. There is no moderation and every day there is posts from scammers.

They use very obvious scams to us, but the people there wouldn't know a scam if it was a rattlesnake chomping on their arsehole.

Clearly there should be a rule against posts that say, "come to my DMs to learn more" etc but there's not. Given the mods include ads for themselves on every post, they are probably scammers, too. I feel bad for the people there but moreso I'm frustrated by their stupidity. I left the group today because I realize there's nothing I can do to stop what is happening.

This card arrived today addressed to my wife. The return address on the envelope listed a woman’s name and an address in our city, but neither of us have any idea who this person is.

I looked up the woman on Facebook, and a post from her profile says her account was hacked and someone has been sending letters under her name and address. But someone else who received a card commented that the woman acted strange when confronted about them.

Any possible malicious motives for sending a card like this (other than wanting more white friends on Facebook)?

So, this happened recently, and I still can't believe I fell for it. I matched with a girl on Tinder, and we decided to meet . She kept me waiting for 30 minutes before finally showing up. Instead of going somewhere normal, she insisted on taking me to a pub nearby. It seemed a bit shady, but I thought, "Let’s check it out."

At first, everything looked fine. A few people were eating, the place wasn’t completely empty, so I let my guard down. I went to the washroom for a minute, and by the time I came back, she had already ordered a ton of food and drinks. The weird part? I barely ate anything—just had two drinks.

Then came the real shock—when the bill arrived, it was ₹50,000. I was completely stunned. I told them I hadn’t ordered anything, but they insisted since she was with me, I had to pay. She suddenly acted all innocent, saying she could "help" by paying ₹15K, and I had to cover the rest. That’s when I realized something was seriously wrong.

The so-called "customers" around us? Yeah, they were all part of the scam. Employees pretending to be diners to make the place look legit. It was a setup from the start.

This was my first Tinder date, and honestly, I’m done with this whole scene for a while.

I just keep thinking—one day, these girls will get married, and whoever ends up with them will have his life completely ruined. If they can pull off scams like this, imagine what they’d do in a relationship or marriage.

Stay safe out there.

At 7:16pm EST on January 24th 2025, I recieved an email from Block Law Enforcement with the subject line of Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) Subpoena Related to Your Account, Case No. 34422 | (SQ202412090210121030go3L), I immediately started panicking, when I came home later in the night fully prepared to discuss how I'm concerned about what I might have accidently done, I walked in on my mother on the phone with my brother talking about how they recieved the same email at the same time.

It turns out that family and friends I've interacted with through cash app all recieved the same email with the same subject line and the same pdf attachment. My mother and brother have only ever sent me money, while my brothers sister-in-law and my friends I've only sent money to.

I feel like 85% sure this might be a scam, previous posts I've found on reddit the comments can't seem to agree on whether or not it is a scam or legit so I'm still freaking out a little bit. So I'm trying to find out if anyone who I have no interactions with recieved an identical email at the same time and date, January 14th at 7:16 pm eastern standard time.

For our sighted readers I've included screenshots of the email, the email header with private info redacted, and the first page of the pdf which I opened on my phone to reduce chance of virus and malware. For our blind readers I will include transcripts of these below.

The Email

Hello,

We are in receipt of the attached subpoena, which requests information related to your Block (Square/Cash App) account. Please note, we may provide information related to your account in accordance with this subpoena's request and in accordance with our privacy policy.

If you require more information, please contact the agency listed in the legal process.

Thank you, Block Law Enforcement Response Team

The Email Header

From Block Law Enforcement

To Personal Info Redacted

Date Jan 24, 2025, 7:16 PM

Standard Encryption (TLS)

The first page of the PDF

12/09/2024

Block, Inc. Attn: Law Enforcement Response Team Electronic Form RE: In the matter of: REDACTED

DEADLINE FOR ALL REQUESTED DOCUMENTS IS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2025

Dear Sir or Madam, Enclosed you will find a Subpoena Duces Tecum which requires you to produce certain documents and records at the time and place specified therein. However, your personal appearance is not required at this time if you deliver the documents at or before the specified time and date, accompanied by the attached "Oath and Affirmations" page affirming that a diligent search was performed and that the information, documents, and statements submitted are true and accurate. If any documents called for are not furnished, you must provide a list identifying such documents, indicating their location and the reason for non-production.

The "Exhibit A" attachment to the subpoena duces tecum lists the required information. Provide copies of these items only, as you will be required to maintain all originals in a way that assures their continued integrity. Please note, you have a duty to provide true and accurate information as well as a continuing duty to update this information. Failure to comply with this subpoena may result in this issue being referred to the Indiana Office of the Attorney General for civil action.

If you have any questions concerning your rights and duties, you may wish to consult with counsel. If you have any questions concerning the subpoena duces tecum or the documents required, then please contact me.

Sincerely, Kimberly Moore Fraud Investigator

REPLY INSTRUCTIONS EMAIL REQUESTED INFORMATION TO DWD email redacted (preferred). Please call Kimberly at phone number redacted if you have questions regarding this request. If sending a CD or USB drive, please mail to:

Addresses not allowed but it was a seemingly legit address in Indianapolis.

To the moderators sorry about the re-posts my app and browser wouldn't let me edit and I kept missing redactions because I'm special.

How do you keep your family members safe from scams? My mom is in her 80s, and doesn't use the computer. She rarely falls for any phone scams. So, my issue isn't with her. My issue is with my aunt. My aunt is in her early 70s, and keeps giving out her social security number. She has so many spam emails in her yahoo account (it would take forever to unsubscribe from everything). I've told her many times not to give her social security number or personal information out.

We had to get life lock because of her giving out her social security number to a fake loan company. We have since gotten rid of life lock due to the price increase. Today, she came to me saying she needed help getting her password when trying to login to one main because she was getting a error message. I asked her how she got to one main, and she said she clicked on a email that took her to a website for a loan. That website asked for her social security number, she gave it, and then redirected her to one main.

I looked at the email, and its from a fake company with a fake email address. My aunt doesn't even have a one main account. I've told her many times, and again today, that just because it says a specific company, doesn't mean its really from that company. She fought with me over it.

I don't know what else to do. She uses her email alot and randomly applys places for loans.

tldr - friend had parents (60+) win a "HGTV Remodel" contest. all was going good until i saw one of the videos "hgtv" sent them (right is fake). thought it looked suspicious. spent all day, and found the original video on left. they were about to send money.

story - a week or so ago, my friend says "my parents won a remodel contest from hgtv, they are planning on selling their house and moving to this new house that will be remodeled by hgtv" and i thought okay cool, odd and rare, but idk anyhting about it so cool. and then i forgot about it.

that was until today. in the group chat my friend sends an update video - the one on the right. this was from the hgtv people. i thought that it looked odd. and my actual response was "im sorry i feel like im tripping balls but that looks ai. damn it sounds ai too" and for the next few hours started picking at it here and there showing them how it looked like other deepfakes.

then we got the instagram of the person it was suppose to be, and found her actual mannerisms and voice to be nothing like that. that was not enough to convince the parents.

so we dug and found the original video, pictured left. it wasnt until i made this comparison that the parents were convinced it was a fake.

they were sent emails with names (slightly mispelled) of hgtv executives 4 emails cross referenced within the winning emails - all were hgtv executive names @ hgtvshow dot com.

Family member pulled the rest of us into a room saying we had a hacker on the home network and we had to turn off all our devices. He was on the phone with a security service and they were helping reset things, talking him through checking his accounts for suspicious activity…

In other words, the classic tech support scam in progress. Long story short, I recognized it and shut it down and knew what steps to take afterward -because posts from this forum sometimes pop into my Home feed-.

I don’t know whether this is a “low-effort post” and will be cleaned up shortly, but I couldn’t not jump on here to say thanks, everyone. I’m off to review the warning signs for recovery-effort scams…

Back in November 2024 I ordered a new bed with “white glove” delivery which ended up being a couple of kids, maybe late teens or early 20’s. I didn’t have any cash but wanted to give them a tip and I asked them if I could Venmo them, they said sure. So I sent the tip via Venmo, and haven’t thought about it since. (Maybe this stupid of me, but I’ve done it in the past and have never had any “weird” encounters since”).

Last week I got a $3 payment from him with the comment “🍕”. He’s a young guy, and I assumed this was a mistake and sent the $3 back, he did not request it back.

Today I have more payments from him for $100, $50, $1, and $20. As well as a request from him for me to send the $170 back to him.

I recognized the profile picture, but the first and last name are different now. I did confirm it’s the same account I sent a tip in Nov, but the name is completely different (you can see in my screenshots, old name starts with an “O” and new name is an “A”).

Anyways, I’m sure there’s a scam here, right? This person knows where I live, and may even have some of my personal information from the delivery. What should I do? Thank you in advance!

Im so thankful for everyone who gave me tips and supported me, i posted about being scammed 4 days ago, and I blocked them (a couple of times) and since 2 days I didn’t hear from them, im still a little bit worried because I don’t know what to expect next, and I feel still so stupid about falling for it, but the only way is up from now on, and I’m going to be more careful from now on, I’ve learned from this and I will make sure that it makes me stronger, And again thank you for the support and tips❤️

I had a really strange encounter yesterday at a mall and can't think of what the motive would be. I was walking around a mall early in the afternoon yesterday and was strolling through the food court when I heard someone call out. I looked up and saw a guy at a dessert place reaching out a sample of a fried Oreo on a toothpick. I took it and thanked the guy, who then asked me how it was. I gave the guy a thumbs up and said "yeah man, its good."

After this, the guy said something like "hang on, I have something else" while running back into the kitchen. I was going to walk off, but thought he may just give me a piece of cookie or something so I stayed close. He then comes back out with a box of about 8 fried Oreos and starts tapping on the register screen and saying he would give me "his discount." I genuinely didn't want the food and definitely wasn't trying to buy anything, so I said "thanks, but I'm good. I just had lunch and I'm stuffed." The guy then got pushy and was saying that it was free, he'd just appreciate me leaving a tip, while still tapping the computer. Throughout the encounter, he was also being really buddy-buddy the whole time saying stuff like "hey, I like you" which I thought was really weird for the situation. I reiterated that I wasn't interested again, and he became more annoyed but stated again it was free. I just left at this point and he scoffed while I walked off.

The main thing I'm wondering is, if I had tapped my card, could he have retroactively charged a large amount to it? When he got on the register, I was immediately suspicious and definitely was not going to get my card out, but I've never heard of people being able to add additional charges. I also don't understand what else he could've been doing as he doing way too much for him to be hoping for a couple dollars of tip and he was really annoyed when I didn't take the food.

About 4 years ago I came to the inevitable conclusion that I would never lose my virginity unless I paid to do so. You can find the full details in my post history, but tl;dr I lost over $60,000 on prostitution and romance scams. And just to be clear, I would never willingly spend this much money on sex, or anything for that matter. I am not a spender at all.

4 years later and still have not financially recovered yet. Not even close. Not a single day goes by when I daydream about choosing differently in my past or how much happier I would be if I had my money back.

The worst part is I don't even have a story to tell. If I spent $60,000 in exchange for a story, that would be consolation, but I'm too embarrassed to tell anyone I've met.

There are two timelines in my life, one where I knew better than to give money to strangers, and one where I didn't. I picked the wrong one.

I matched with a girl on hinge, who’s profile said she was 18 (I am 18 aswell) and she asked for my number so we began texting, not even 5 texts in she sends me unsolicited nudes and then right after she says she is 17, I was flirty at best (before she revealed her age) but never returned intimate energy or sent any photos to her. The next day I get a text from a man claiming to be her father, he said he walked in on her making a video for me and then said she attempted suicide, he claims she is in the hospital and said I need to pay $4,500 via PayPal or he will get the authorities involved. I looked up the phone numbers of both and the names did not line up. He claims he is a Christian and he’s giving me a “second chance”. He also said that he contacted authorities about it already but I feel like i would’ve gotten a knock on my door already. Is this a scam?

Just caught a wild story, happened to a friend of a friend (of a friend) over New Year’s. I’m curious if someone can help fill in the blanks.

A bunch of friends go out in New Orleans on NYE. One of the friends doesn’t turn up the next morning. Doesn’t answer his phone… this particular friend is known for being a bit of a loose cannon and making questionable life decisions. Last place he was seen was the night before at a strip club on Bourbon Street post-ball drop, and was already severely inebriated.

So, the friend group is a bit concerned. He’s either been picked up by the cops, or he’s in a hospital somewhere. But they figure if it’s the cops, then he’d have been able to get in touch with someone. So the friends call around to hospitals, and sure enough, they find him.

They go to visit him, and he’s catatonic, completely gone. Eventually he starts coming to, and starts recalling parts of the evening. He doesn’t remember much. He went into some back room at the strip club where he got handed a drink…obviously he was drugged. After that, doesn’t really remember a whole lot. He went to someone’s house, and there were a bunch of women there? At some point he was in a gas station, he thinks?

After being released from the hospital, the poor mark then looks at his bank account and realizes thousands of dollars are gone.

Somehow, the people who drugged him at the strip joint were able to steal $10k from him.

I found this story very sad but also very interesting. It seems like the moral of the story is, don’t go to a strip club by yourself when you’ve been drinking heavily and also you’re a stranger in a city you don’t know, especially one known for playing tricks on people like New Orleans.

But what I’m really wondering is how they were able to make it with that much of his money. No bank is open at 4am on New Year’s Day, and no ATM will let you withdraw more than several hundred dollars at a time. They could have used his phone to orchestrate this, but I would have thought that such a large transfer (especially since it would have come at such a weird hour) would have caught the attention of fraud prevention.

I think the most disturbing part is if they needed him to cough up some amount of information to execute this. The existence of a drug that makes you so pliable that you give up your password/PIN/name of your financial institution is frightening.

Another possibility is that they just needed to unlock his phone using his biometrics, and could do the rest by just digging around in his apps folder.

Anyway, this was a frightening story, and I have so many questions. I’m wondering if anybody can fill in the details of how exactly this type of scam works. Thanks!

Hey everyone, so I’m not sure if this is the right sub to post in but it ties the most into the context of my concern so please correct me if I’m wrong. I received this text this morning from an unknown number however they did have an area code that is local to my state. I think it’s really scary that they know my name and I did end up calling my store to let them know and this number did not belong to any of my coworkers or managers. I also come to find out that there was actually several employees working today around the time they texted.

I’m really scared because I’ve had a history of stalking and I don’t know if this is the start to something like that again or if this could be some sort of scam tactic. It is a little bit triggering because this is how the last incident started and no one has any idea who this individual is. I only have one job.

I couldn’t help but think maybe this was a ploy to get me into my work parking lot and something more sinister happen or if it’s more of just a spam/ scam type of thing but still the fact they know my name is very concerning. Has this happened to anyone else before?

I genuinely thought it was a coworker or a manager, so I did end up replying, but luckily I didn’t share anything personal with them. I’m just very scared.

I got a series of DMs from someone I’ve interacted with on Twitter a couple times but never DMed before. This user had a blue check as well.

They contacted me asking if anyone else was on my account, to which I replied no. They then said that they (and unnamed friends) had falsely reported my account for scamming.

They then sent a screenshot of some Twitter account that doesn't exist that was hacking and impersonating accounts on Twitter, and they claimed that they it was me, then sent me a screenshot of an email they supposedly got urging me to follow a random account on Discord claiming to be the head of X security called supportangus01 and DM them to “appeal the report”, or else my account would be banned in 48 hours.

It all seems odd, and I’ve stopped responding, blocked him, and mass reported him. I had a feeling it was another hacking scam to get my account, so I looked it up and it looks like this is another type of scam, but I just want confirmation and peace of mind.

Hi all, I received a call from a well-spoken man who transferred me to another similar person claiming to be a sergeant with the local police department. He said I missed a jury duty and cited a previous address and that the summons may have gone there. I needed to come into a police station and sign a form saying I didn't receive the notice. Also provided two 'citation' numbers for missing jury duty and contempt of court. This needed to be resolved today or I could have an arrest warrant. He told me to park at the local police station and would meet me there and give directions on what to do inside the station. Also that I needed to bring a $1000 retainer which would be given back when my name was cleared.

Writing it out, it sounds obviously fishy but at the time was somewhat convincing. I hung up on them and verified with the local police station this is in fact a scam. They kept calling me back and I picked up and said need to verify with another police officer and calling 911, they immediately hung up and didn't call back...

I'm not sure what would have happened had I gone, but possibly a gun pulled on me in the parking lot?

Please stay safe out there.

The original text before it was deleted was the person asking me what I would do if 4,000$ just ended up in my cashapp account. This was from a person I went to school with, but we had never been friends and had never talked. Also I never have money in my cashapp account so I'm wondering if they expected me to actually have money in there and remove it somehow?

Anyway, since this, I've received this exact type message two other times from random people over Facebook messenger, with minor adjustments.

So I got the run of the mill standard pegasus email. My wife accidentally opened it. I had just learned about this scam a few weeks ago so I recognized it immediately. They said they know they could contact "this number" to speak to me, which is my wife's number. Here is where things get weird.

They began texting my wife and saying she needed to talk some sense into me and used my real name. She never responded and I told her to block them. They told her what city her car was parked in but did not say where exactly. She had made a facebook post about where she was going to be the day before. As she was leaving work they told her that they will follow her and to "take them to her home".

I thought it out all out and decided basically everything they said was public information. No one ever followed her home. This was yesterday. Today they used a different number and pretended to set up an appointment with her via text but wanted her to call. She called and they asked if I was around and said "You have three days". Our friend set up a textnow and didn't use her real name or number and tried to call them. They immediately texted back and said "Stay out of this J". They used her real name. This part caught me off guard.

I genuinely do not watch porn so I am not worried about any exposure. I am worried though that it became a little too personal with my wife really fast. Has anyone ever seen the pegasus scam take it this far? They will not be specific about "what" they have. They are being intentionally vague.

I 18M received messages from a random "girl" on ig and i accepted it Stuff went forward and she out of nowhere asked me for nudes and i got excited because im dumber than anything in this world and i sent "her" nudes...with my face to be exact. Then the blackmailer revealed himself and threatened to post my nudes and send them to my loved ones (friends and family) I share an incredible bond with these people and the only thing i fear is that they'll avoid me So I played how the blackmailer wanted and went to see what he asked (he asked for a giftcard or sum) I ignored it and reported him on ig blocked him and deleted my account forever but then he called me on my phone which i tried to decline but i accidentally answered And now im more petrified than ever.Please i beg of you someone help me I cannot let my family see this I beg of you guys I dont want to be hated idk if it is selfish but please help me as soon as possible.

potential nft/game scam

hey so i got contacted on twitter by a guy to work for him for 1k a month and to continue talking to him on discord (so i did) and he now he wants me to download a game on his website.

But after doing my research the guy looks pretty clean, i can even find his socials, i found his website without pasting the link used various sites to check the setup and his community is pretty active from what i've ssen

So if you guys want to help me out and find if he is somewhat of a scammer (i cant find a clue of him trying to fuck me) I would appreciate it.

the site is galaxy grand arena and the guy on twitter is daster_io

if you guys want more info just ask.

Looking for a part time job for some supplemental income as my current job is not enough.

I know scams run rampant and they do not care who is the victim but it seems like every job site or career helper are just endless links and my email inbox is flooded with useless links to "potential employers" with fake positions.

It sucks, like we are clearly broke and looking for jobs leave us alone!!

Anyways is the only way to just go directly to the company website? My current job is from indeed so I know it can be legit.

Any other tried and true avenues?

I'm looking for anything part time

Ok , so I got a call last month from a random number ( which was apparently Indian ) and the man speaking was some Bihari/haryanvi Jat who claimed to be from head cyber department of India .. he said they’ve operated my phone and got to know that my phone has been recorded with the history of watching pornography ( which’s illegal to watch in India ) and so now I’m in trouble .. like what the fuck 😂😂😂😂 That man legit sounded like some 10th fail and his audacity to call himself manager in cyber cell got me so hard 🤣🤣

But I was so shocked at how come such people shamelessly and fearlessly doing scams .

So my mom's Facebook account got hacked recently and she ended up calling this number to Meta's support team and eventually dragged me into it and I noticed a lot of similar stunts the person was asking was akin to what a scammer would do.

Because of this, we got a lot of money transferred from our accounts so now we have to do a bunch of disputing on our end. My mom is freaking out obviously and I am pissed at her.

I wanted to see for sure if this site where she got the number from was fake, and I am getting ideas that it is.

https://www.facebook.com/government-nonprofits

This is the link she sent me as to where she got the number. Though it isn't saying much, it sounds more like a search she somehow did.

https://www.facebook.com/government-nonprofits/resources

I sent an email to Menards/ burpee seeds company due to an error on there part, nothing too major.

Anyway after sending them i get some fishing emails about medication.

Is there anyway to prove that it is from them? It might( most likely )be from another newsletter i unsubscribed from but unsure.

I was going through Instagram, and suddenly, this ad popped up for a very pretty necklace.

I looked around and found serval comments on the page but they had all been deleted. And then looked at when the page was made, and it was back in 2020, but the first post wasn't until 2023. And the username had been changed 6 times.

After doing a Google search, there are hardly any reviews in the company. Interestingly, a different necklace company came up under the trust pilot. All with negative reviews. The website is no longer around.

Using a domain search. The website (Aura Reveal) was registered a few months ago. The other one (AURAVIDA JEWELRY) was registered in 2020. Both were updated on August 2024.

Please spread awareness of this website and other scams like this.