Story 1:
A week ago, an agitated woman got into my taxi, she hysterically said, “Get me home fast, my husband is che:a:ting!” When we arrived, she was shivering and kept begging me to come up for support. I reluctantly agreed. Once we got inside, her face changed — she turned to me and started to laugh, even though moments earlier her face had been covered in tears.
Then, she vanished. I was terrified to find three huge, muscular men with menacing expressions standing in front of me. One demanded my wallet, while another took my car keys. Terrified and realizing I couldn’t fight back alone, I stayed silent and did as they asked. They took my car and money and left.
Later, I went to the police. They checked the address, and it turned out the apartment was an Airbnb rented with fake names, making them impossible to trace. That day, I was robbed—but I learned a big lesson: never to trust anyone blindly, even a seemingly helpless woman in tears.

Story 2:

My mother told me I had to pay $75 a month for my phone since it wasn’t paid off. A year later, I realized it was paid off. I told her it was paid off, and she says, “Oh no, you’re paying for your service!” Seems legit.
Two months later, I find out we’re on a family plan, and she’s just taking the money. © walphin45 / Reddit

Story 3:

Story 4:
In Rome, a man selling flowers starts offering me and my friends one. He tells us all how we’re pretty, etc., and says he’ll give us roses for free. We take them, and he offers to take our picture. He takes one of our phones, snaps a picture, and we start to leave.
Then he starts saying that this is how he makes his living, and really he’s losing money, so we should pay him for the roses. We feel bad and give him a little money. Right after, some guy marches over, starts yelling at the man for giving his wife a flower, and shoves it back at him. © harleymeenen / Reddit

Story 5:
I was playing hide and seek at my best friend’s house and found an awesome spot under his parents’ bed. When I looked to the side, I saw a human foot, with a calf attached, wearing a shoe and everything. I felt my soul leave my body, made up some excuse, and ran home. Turns out his mom wore a prosthetic leg—I didn’t know until my parents mentioned it a while later. © harleycurnow / Reddit

Story 6:

Story 7:
After work, my boyfriend was on his way back home when it was raining hard. A guy stopped him, showed him a picture of a man, and told my boyfriend that this guy had recently passed away, and they were collecting money for his funeral.
My boyfriend felt bad, obviously, and gave him about $20. Five years later, I was with him when a guy stopped him again (he wasn’t sure if it was the same guy because he’d forgotten what he looked like), showed him the same picture of the “de:a:d” guy, and told the same story. My boyfriend had the betrayed look on his face. © Unknown author / Reddit

Story 8:

Story 9:
I posted about my missing cat on Craigslist. A day later, I got a text from a number saying they found my cat. I was so, so happy. I asked for a location, a pic, anything. But they claimed their phone was “acting weird” and the camera was broken.
I called the number and got a Google Voice message. I looked it up, and the number was from five states away. They never tried to contact me again.
I didn’t lose any money, so I guess I wasn’t really scammed, but for an hour, I was filled with false hope. I never found my cat. © Triangle_Graph / Reddit

Story 10:

I bought some jewelry from a store on Instagram. I had DM’d customers who had received their products before, and they graciously sent me photos and proof of them getting their packages. I purchased after doing as much research as possible as well.
It’s been a year and a half, and the package still hasn’t arrived. They stopped replying to my emails after about the fourth month and would delete all comments on their page related to “missing packages.” © Unknown author / Reddit

Story 11:

Story 12:
I was trying to renew my car registration online and was in a hurry. I clicked through everything really fast, and since my name, address, credit card number, etc., were saved in my browser, it autofilled most items, so I didn’t really need to read any of it.
After I paid, I got a strange confirmation email saying I could download the PDF guide about car registration that I bought. I retraced my steps, and it turns out I clicked an ad on the car registration page that redirected me to a site that looked exactly like the one I was on, but was actually just a page to buy this PDF guide.
It was obviously preying on people like me who didn’t carefully read the whole page and blindly clicked on the “renew now” icon. © Unknown author / Reddit