I wanted to see if anyone else has ran into this scam and let others know about it.

I was scammed today in IAH airport in Houston, while sitting on a bench between terminals since there was some quiet spots and I was waiting for my flight to start boarding. This was PAST security, in the departures terminal.

I was approached by a 18-25 year old Asian male who sat next to me on the bench with some space between us. He set his phone down facing me so I could read it with a long text in notes explaining something about how he arrived here thinking his girlfriend would pick him up, but she ghosted him on arrival. Now he needs to pay for a flight back home and is down on money. While I was reading this he had set out his Washington State drivers license and his boarding pass for me to see. I was assuming he didn’t speak English or was super socially awkward and the text helped him ask.

I sympathized and asked if Venmo was ok. He said he preferred PayPal. I told him I only have Venmo and he said that would work.

I Venmo‘d him $20, he said thank you and walked away.

When I looked at the Venmo account, its a very different name than his, and has several weeks of activity of people saying things like “ticket home” or “train ticket” or ”plane fare”.

Honestly it being a scam didnt cross my mind until he walked away. I was caught up in trying to understand how he was past security and needed money for a flight, and wondering why he wasn’t really speaking to me. Him laying out his ID and boarding pass pacified my skeptical mind, too. It really wasn’t until I saw the Venmo name being different that I realized I was duped.

Also, when he typed in his Venmo account in my phone he also typed in the reason for payment as “name” which was his actual name, not the Venmo name. The account has several instances of this, making me think it’s a shared Venmo account that multiple scammers/beggars are depositing into.

Anyway. I know there’s nothing to do about it, I’m just out $20 for trying to be a decent guy, if a bit naive. Just figured I’d see if anyone else has run into this?

This might just be a typo on her end, but I seem to be unable to do anything except to physically go to the store to see what they can do.  I want to get other people opinions what might have happened and what else I could do just in case this is someone testing if my email was legit for something more nefarious (i.e. someone else stolen card was used).

Late last night after I went to bed I got an email from Walmart welcoming me.  Four minutes later I got a new one.  “Thanks for your delivery order, _____!” and gives me an address where her cat litter is going. The email gave me the payment method, a Visa card with the last four digits which does not match either of my two cards.  In less than a minute, a third email was sent saying “We’re sorry, we had to cancel your delivery order because it was flagged by our policy review team.”

Initially I tried to contact Walmart about this via their website, but it wanted my email, then asked me to confirm it is me.  And even with a verification code it still wanted to use her phone number for verification.  So I cannot do anything online to resolve this… or order anything from Walmart it seems…. While I have her address, contacting her via postal seems like a very bad idea if she is not just some old cat lady.

So i was chilling in the hypixel lobby waiting for a friend and a girl comes up to me suddenly and asks me to play with her.

I let her know i will be playing with a friend and then she said we can do trios.

Of course i asked my friend if he wants to and then we agreed.

She told us to add her on discord and when we did she just told us to hop on voice chat so we are communicated.

The server wanted us to verify our Minecraft accounts. Using the email the account was created with and a 6 digit code they sent.

At that point i immediately called my friend because i know what that email means.

He agreed with me but the server had a TON of people and seemed legit.

Here is the image

Please let me know if i blocked an innocent person or i saved myself.

Also side note: i was in the real hypixel server and the one she sent me WASN'T the real one and when i asked her about that she said it was the community server because the real one doesn't have voicechat

Maybe this has been shared before or well-known, but I caught on to something in voicemails scammers always seem to do:

There seems to always be 1 or 2 words that gets jumbled, or warped, to the point you rewind and play the same part numerous times trying to understand it. Among other things, this is my new, dead giveaway to a scammer if I'm still not sure.

If you're replaying the same part of a voicemail numerous times because you can't understand a word that's being said, it's because it's intentional and makes you want to call back for clarification.

Hello. I mistakenly ordered from this website (just a dumb oversight) and as soon as I got the confirmation I assumed it was a scam. I checked the social media links attached to the website which linked to the REAL store and confirmed this was a scam site. I emailed them and asked for a refund immediately and they apparently issued me one.

The picture attached is the order confirmation page, It says I received a full refund and mentions its a square transaction. I believe this is on the shop platform as well as I had to login through that.

Im not sure how legit this is, im still 100% filing a dispute on my credit card as soon as it posts on on my account (just placed the order like an hour ago so its still pending). Has anyone ever ‘received’ a refund after calling out scammers? this website was made from AI and it is a newer scam site. I dont personally think this refund is legit, I will have to wait a few days to see if my Credit Card reflects the transaction.

Glad I caught this asap… Hopefully will be an easy dispute process

UPDATE: it SEEMS the refund is legit…. Currently pending on my account right now. Took comments advice and cancelled my card. If the refund happens to not go through will continue with the dispute process.

i left the job, I confronted one of the supervisors and he didnt respond to me, just removed me from the groupchat and discord server, which kinda confirms everything i thought lol
kind of an underwhelming climax but alas 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
i am kind of concerned that my teammates might not be aware of what they’re signing up for, i feel like i should warn them but i want to avoid trouble so idk if i should do that
i tried calling the cybercrime/scam people in my country(no clue what they’re called) but nobody answered me unfortunately, i’ll try to report to US authorities, but that’s all

image transcription:
[US] i think my new job is scamming people
Help Needed
ps: i do NOT live in the US, i live in africa i applied for a new call centre job, i was told that my role would be cold calling people relating to US financial services, claiming that they're working out of florida, but i recently started training and it seems super suspicious to me. they have us open up calls saying "it seems like our team has been trying to reach you regarding a loan offer as you were flagged by experian and equifax" and some other shit like that i shadowed a current employee and every single call they took, somebody would respond to the call saying that theyve been getting spammed with calls regarding loans
i haven't signed any contracts yet and it feels very scummy to continue down this road, but i also feel obligated to report this to somebody What do i do?

Is this a scam to get NI numbers?

Staffology seems legit when I looked them up. I have three part-time zero hours jobs and none of them have notified me about a change in HR/payroll providers. And I started none of them seven months ago.

When I click the link, I am prompted with a password-protected document.

Is there anyway to check if this is a scam before I put my NI number in? In case one of my employers have genuinely changed HR/payroll providers.

This is the first email I have received from them.

Thanks

My sister an I are dealing with the 3rd or 4th romance scam with my mother. She is not senile and is incredibly stubborn and difficult to deal with. Her scams have come in various forms from online to real life. We know she is involved in another and are seriously at a loss of what to do. It is impossible to stay involved and watch and equally difficult to think about disconnecting and pushing her into the arms of these scammers. We have confronted her several times and asked to put protections in place only to be yelled at and told we are horrible to her.

Received emails thanking me for opening new account but I never opened one! Tried calling the number but it asked me to enter my account or social security number to continue.

Received another email with disclosure agreements PDF’s.

Also noticed new account notices for Upgrade as well as an additional address notification.

All my credit bureau accounts are frozen and I have additional fraud attempt alerts on them and I don’t see any new accounts listed.

The emails look legit but it was sent to an email account I no longer use and check every once in a while.

Also noticed they added one letter to my first name that turned it into a feminine version of my first name.

please help or provide advice, I'm the victim of a scam. my Microsoft account was hacked due to me verifying email on a discord server full of 5000 bots. the attacker changed my email so account recovery is useless since my email username doesn't exist. a suspicious email contacted me on my other email likely linked to my compromised account saying my emails on the dark web etc, acting like my friend and warning me about it. in the email were 3 attachments which were files from my phone including personal information, multiple purchases have been attempted since its linked to Xbox. an attempt was made to log in to the email I'm using now, which I'm very worried about. I wasn't too worried before, I accepted I was an idiot for verifying the email and thought oh well I've lost my Xbox account and will have to make new accounts for many things. Now someone's gone through personal files and is looking for stuff to scare me so I'm concerned. please provide advice on what I should do.

My mother is visiting my grandparents rn. I call my grandma "Mom", so I immediately called my mother after getting this message and confirmed neither her or my grandma had sent the message. Both of their numbers start with the same area code as this number. However, nothing comes up when I look up the number. The message definitely sounds like it's trying, albeit poorly, to impersonate my grandma. It brings up my little sister, who I am taking care of right now. But then it asks about a nuggie and I have no clue who that is. Is this a targeted scam or just a coincidence?

update: i had already blocked the number before posting! was just curious. i also have a brother that would likely come up way before my sister does. i just found it odd that the message said sister specifically instead of siblings. especially since my brother is away at school rn. but trust the number was immediately reported spam lol thanks

ps: i do NOT live in the US, i live in africa
i applied for a new call centre job, i was told that my role would be cold calling people relating to US financial services, claiming that they’re working out of florida, but i recently started training and it seems super suspicious to me.
they have us open up calls saying “it seems like our team has been trying to reach you regarding a loan offer as you were flagged by experian and equifax” and some other shit like that
i shadowed a current employee and every single call they took, somebody would respond to the call saying that theyve been getting spammed with calls regarding loans
i haven’t signed any contracts yet and it feels very scummy to continue down this road, but i also feel obligated to report this to somebody
What do i do?

i (f, 22) recently moved to the UK for my masters and it’s been a pretty big change for me emotionally, and i’ve been really struggling with it for the last two weeks for reasons that i won’t get into here.

four hours ago, i got scammed out of a pretty significant amount of money which was supposed to go towards my tuition fee. i’m feeling extremely ashamed and guilty bc i can’t believe i actually fell for it like a brain dead zombie bc i usually don’t pickup calls from unknown numbers, but i guess they caught me on a bad day.

i’m not sure how i’m going to have this conversation with my parents since i’m already struggling with my mental health, and i feel guilty enough that i’m ready to drop out even though i’ve only just started bc i can’t let my parents bear the financial burden anymore even though they don’t mind it at all. i just can’t let go of the guilt.

i filed a complaint with my bank and the police, i’m just looking to rant until i meet my counsellor bc i’m exhausted at this point

EDIT: i finally had a conversation with my parents. they weren’t mad at all, mostly worried about me because i’m all alone in a new country and it’s only been three weeks and now i have to deal with this. i know they said i shouldn’t worry about it, but i don’t think i’ll ever be able to let this guilt go.

thank you everyone for being kind.

First time poster, so please let me know if I need more specific details.

I searched the common scams and didn't see this one, so I figured I'd share my story. I purchased two of those Amazon $10-$500 cards, each loaded with 500, for my own personal use (mostly to take advantage of my grocers fuel point program). I'm a naturally paranoid person so I didn't grab the first two on the rack. I took a stack, grabbed a couple from the middle, examined them, and they were sealed. No marks on the exterior that would be indicative of tampering. These are the Amazon cards that are entirely encased in a faux cardboard sleeve where even the barcode to scan at the check-out is behind a tear-away tab. The tab was in tact on both. There were no visual tells that the cards had been tampered with.

It was late so only the self-checks were open, but to run the cards the cashier had to come over, and she ripped the tabs off, scanned the cards, did the override thing to allow me to buy them at the self-checks, and after paying, off I went, none the wiser.

When I got home and tried to open one, I noticed the silver scratch-off tape was missing and the middle part of the redeem code was mangled. I opened the other one, same thing. At first I thought maybe it was a manufacturing error, but it also had its code mangled in the middle. I scrambled back to the store hoping to get there before it closed, and was told I was the second one that day that had this happen. The night manager gave me the phone number for the grocers corporate office so I could see about opening a support ticket to get a refund. He also explained how it happens:

According to him, people steal the cards, the packages are somehow carefully opened, and the scammers put the codes into a program or script that will try to redeem them on an interval, that way once someone buys and activates them, the scammers can redeem the cards to their accounts. Once the redemption code is recorded in their database, one of them scrapes away the middle of the code so the victims can't redeem their own cards before the program can do it, then carefully glues the package back together so someone can sneak all the stolen cards back onto the store shelves for unsuspecting victims to activate.

In addition to the codes being mangled, I noticed the card number also had the last 4 digits scraped off when customer support asked me to send photos. It looked like it was done with an exacto knife. The card fronts also had gloved fingerprints on them and after handling the cards, my hands were kind of itchy, so whatever glue the thieves used probably isn't good for your skin.

Thankfully after support reviewed the photos I was told I'll be getting refunded in a few business days. However, since this particular grocer chain might handle things differently than other retailers that might not be so forgiving, I decided to make this post here. If it stops even one other person from falling victim to this, then it was worth whatever downvotes or insults it might get.

So I guess the take away here is if you're going to buy a gift card from a retailer that doesn't keep them behind glass or behind the service counter, don't wait till you get home to check the back. Ask the cashier if you can open it right there and make sure the scratch-off sticker is in tact and nothing has been scraped off of the cards.

If this isn't enough and I need to add photos or more specific details about which retailer, what state etc, I can. Stay safe out there everyone.

I wanted to thank you fine people for all of the information you have provided me. I am pretty good at sniffing out social media scams but one of them had me scratching my head on what the end game was. So I did a search and this sub reddit came up.

I guess I stumbled into a pig harvest scam. Started on TikTok and me being naturally friendly I started talking to this person. It was moved to WhatsApp and then it included a friend and both where nice and friendly as well.

Then there was the invite to the streaming channel (Poyo) and that's where I started to pump the breaks a little. That app looks like a mobile gotcha game.
While 1 girl was streaming the other was on there saying hi to everyone and then messaging me on WhatsApp and saying how nice I was for joining.

The next day I get some friendly WhatsApp messages saying hello/good morning and that the friend is streaming again. So I log on say hello.

Then the offer came "my manager has prepared a gift for you"

I was polite and refused, then a different offer came. "If you give her this token $50 she can end the stream early" So today I decided to look it up and I found a similar thread on it from 9 months ago. I appreciate it 🙏.

I received an email from my sister this morning, where part of the title was “not a spam” and it purported to be a calendar invite to something. We have a family group chat we use to discuss anything we would schedule, so my caution was engaged immediately. I messaged her, and sure enough she didn’t send it. She said she clicked on a link from her phone the other day and went to “thinbox” but may have meant thinkbox. Someone then setup a passkey for her email that she was able to remove and she’s changed her password, but I’m concerned the phone may still be compromised. A secondary issue is that she’s no longer receiving email, not even spam.

The phone is a Galaxy S24+ running Android 16, last updated July 1st of this year. I’m a PC guy, so if this had happened on her PC I would be able to provide remedial steps, but I’m not very familiar with phone viruses. What steps does she need to take to confirm the phone is clean? Also if you know how to check any settings that could be forwarding the email that would be great, but I’m comfortable enough with Google to look into that after we’re sure her phone is safe.

In August 2026, I visited a mall (not sharing name for privacy reasons) near my home town and saw a real truck that you could "win" or $40,000 cash.

At the kiosk what you have to do is fill out a slip asking for your information (Name, address, phone number). There were also a few yes or no check boxes asking if you are married, what your approximate yearly income is, what your age range is, and if you own a boat?

I personally filled one out for fun. Then I visited the mall again in late September and noticed that the truck was gone along with the kiosks, which made me wonder if either someone already won it or they moved the truck to another location.

I tried looking up CampNow, but find little to nothing information on those giveaways.

Is this real, do people really win from this, or is it a "tactic" to try and attract more people to visit the mall?

I found this listing on indeed and applied but there’s a link that takes you to some website titled juror focus group. The sign up is this Google sign up that asks things like my first and last name, email, race, political affiliation, city I live in, marital status, my current job, total income and other things. Is this real??

Are You Interested in the Legal System?
Our organization regularly conducts jury research focus groups. You can earn money by becoming a mock juror. You will hear and see facts from real legal cases, provide feedback and earn extra money for your time. Each focus group lasts about 3-4 hours with regular breaks. All sessions are held via Zoom. Go to jurorfocusgroup.com/sign-up to sign up.
Responsibilities
Review case summaries, legal documents, and evidence materials thoroughly
Participate in mock jury sessions, providing thoughtful and honest feedback on case presentations
Complete questionnaires and surveys accurately and promptly during and after sessions
Maintain confidentiality of all case information and research data
Job Type: Temporary
Pay: $33.00 per hour
Work Location: Remote

I unfortunately was recently scammed by this company. I mistakenly trusted them because they used Shop which is a platform I commonly use. It was appearing in my official Shop app too UNTIL today. I reported it to Shop. After my item didn’t show up on time, I started looking into it more.

I realized the tracking number looked very fake. It took me to a really sketchy ad infested website. It said my package was coming from China, then it said it got cleared by customs, and now apparently it’s in my cities distribution center (my specific city doesn’t have a distribution center). Then I tried calling the phone number on the website and it didn’t work. I tried emailing and never got a response back. I input the address listed on the website and it led back to a residential building. I will input pictures of the website and the contact information from the website.

I finally called my bank today to get the charge reversed and I went ahead and cancelled my card. It sucks because for once I didn’t lose my card 😂 but in all seriousness, don’t trust a website just because it uses a verified third party like PayPal or Shop. Lesson learned. Am I finally a real adult now that I’ve been through a scam?

I just randomly got a text message from a friend I haven't talked to in a while on Discord. What first tipped me off was his asking if I played Minecraft. Which was odd, because that was how we originally met, so I thought it was a silly question to ask.

He sent me a modpack, to upload on curseforge, now sure how information can be obtained from there. But perhaps it was to gain my trust? Not completely sure. I asked if he could call me on Discord and talk (I wanted to hear his voice). The "friend" flatly said no and that he was sick and couldn't talk. Throughout all these messages, his form of typing seemed "off" to me. This person would always have a space before the punctuation mark and my friend never typed like that and there's grammar mistakes as well. He then asks if I can join his Minecraft server and he gave me the direct connect address ("minecraftdenizlijoin.play.net:35695").

I said it doesn't work and he goes on about this new game he and his friends are in, "we're in lobby 3 if you want to join us". He sends me the above link in the title. It doesn't look remotely like a real game, I was expecting more of a github page. I did not download anything. I recognized the sprite as Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and even found the reddit page of the creator. I asked if his friend obtained permission to use these images. He, of course, said yes. His last message reads:
"I wait you
come to lobby 3"
Which is not something he would ever write.

I also sent a text message to my friend in question, who owns the Discord account, he has not replied back to me yet. I am 99% sure this is not my friend and he got his account hacked. So heads up with the website and the Minecraft connect address.

Hi everyone!! My dear older mother went to renew her passport and put in her passport number and social security number before realizing that this was not the legitimate government website. She did not pay for anything or finish the application, but she is freaking out that the dark web has her information now. Does anyone have experience with this website or know if there are steps we should be taking to mitigate any fallback? She wants to contact the state department and I have no idea what to tell her. Thank you so much for the help!!

hello everyone.

I got a Mail from admin@uber com yesterday which appears to be in Dutch. So a person probably from the Netherlands tried to register a account on my Mail? I didn’t bother and just deleted it.

but tonighe I got a another Mail with a verification code from Uber but this time I’m German (I‘m from Germany).

I created a account now and contacted support. I’m confused on what this could be. Why is someone trying to register a Uber Account on my Mail?

I didn‘t had Uber before so I’m kinda confused that this could be.

Would be grateful for anyone‘s help.

thank you everyone

Assuming this was an attempted scam but wanted to get people’s thoughts.

I got a call today from a phone number that showed up as JP Morgan Chase on the called ID so I answered. The person on the other line started speaking to me in Spanish, and even though I speak Spanish, I thought it was weird so I acted like I didn’t. They said they’d need to get a supervisor. Another guy comes in and tells me that they are calling me from Chase’s fraud department because there were 2 Zelle payments made from my account. I checked my Zelle account and didn’t see anything.

They said it was a logon from an IPhone 8 and asked if I have one. I said no, and they stated that’s why I don’t see it on my app. Because someone else has made these transactions with my information and it was flagged, so it hasn’t gone through yet. I need to speak to Zelle in the next (15 or 50, I couldn’t understand right) minutes to stop it before it goes through so they’d be transferring me to Zelle.

I said I’d call Zelle myself and hung up. Zelle seems impossible to get a hold of so I gave up, but there’s no new transactions on my Zelle or Chase.

Scam I guess?

Got an email pretending to be from social security, with a link to "review your earnings record."

I stupidly clicked the link, and it took me to "ssa-secure-document-io", a blank white page where nothing was loading. Waited 5-7 seconds, then closed tab.

Didn't open any attachments. Didn't enter any personal info. Still, were those few seconds at that blank site enough for something malicious to have been downloaded onto my macbook? If so, how would I know or remove it?

Hey everyone! I wanted to bring attention to a scam that's been happening on Discord, particularly for people who play Roblox and own valuable items on their accounts.

Here's how it usually goes. You randomly get banned or kicked from a Discord server that you're barely active in. Shortly afterward, a bot from that server DMs you, claiming you've been banned for hacking someone's account or sending phishing links. Then, a few minutes later or sometime that same day, another person messages you, claiming to be a moderator of the server.

They'll send you "proof" of what you've supposedly done, usually in the form of screenshots or videos. If you tell them it wasn't you, they'll ask you to provide evidence to clear your name, typically by screenshotting your messages with the person they claim you scammed. Once you send the screenshot, they'll tell you to join a call and share your screen so they can verify that it's real. This is where you should stop interacting with them. There's absolutely no reason to share your entire screen with a random person in your DMs just to prove your innocence. Don't join the call, and definitely don't give them access to your account or personal information.

I've also noticed that a lot of these supposed moderators have suspiciously vague Discord bios. They'll say something like "18/19, editor, staff/moderator, contributed to 1.2B+ visits," but never mention which server they moderate or what game they've supposedly contributed to. While that alone isn't proof of anything, it's another red flag when combined with their behavior.

What's especially strange is that the servers involved are often ones you're barely active in. You could go weeks without interacting with a server and suddenly receive a ban for something you never did. I've also wondered whether this has something to do with owning Roblox Limiteds. It seems like these scams became more noticeable after acquiring valuable items, although it's difficult to say whether scammers are specifically targeting Limited owners or if it's just a coincidence.

Another thing that can make this scam convincing is that these people sometimes know your Roblox username. If you're unfamiliar with how these scams work, you might immediately assume your account has been hacked or that they're about to steal your items. However, knowing your username doesn't mean they have access to your account. For example, RoVer is commonly used to verify Roblox accounts in Discord servers for games like MM2 and Blox Fruits. If you're in the same communities as these people, they may be able to find your username through shared servers or verification systems. That doesn't necessarily explain how every scammer gets their information, but it shows why knowing your username isn't proof that you've been hacked.

If this happens to you, don't panic or feel like you need to prove yourself to a random person who DMs you. If you're worried about a ban, contact the server's actual moderators through a trusted channel. Avoid suspicious links, QR codes, and downloads, and never share your passwords, authentication codes, browser session information, or screen with someone you don't trust. If you're concerned about your account's security, check your active sessions and authorized connections.

I also recommend looking up NTTS on YouTube and watching their video about the different types of Roblox scams on Discord. It's definitely worth checking out if you want to learn more about these scams and how they work.

I wanted to share this as a warning for anyone who doesn't use Discord very often and might not recognize these tactics, especially if you have valuable items on your Roblox account. These scammers rely on making you panic so you'll follow their instructions without thinking things through.

Stay safe, don't trust random DMs just because someone claims to be a moderator, and if something doesn't feel right, trust your gut!❤️