Grifts, Frauds, and Obvious Bullshit
A place for the fake gurus, scam artists, miracle claims, and lazy cons that deserve sunlight.
If it smells like a grift, sounds like a grift, and is obviously insulting people’s intelligence, it belongs here.
ScamSpotter is a strong reference point, but the bigger mission is calling out the full ecosystem of obvious modern grifts.
No, your boss does not need you to buy gift cards, and scammers know you panic fast
One of the dumber modern scam formats is still one of the most effective: somebody impersonates your boss, creates fake urgency, and tells you to go buy gift cards right now. It sounds ridiculous when you say it slowly. That is why scammers do not want you to say it slowly.
The FTC has been warning about this exact play because it works by short-circuiting common sense. The scammer wants the target moving before the target is thinking. They lean on fake authority, fake pressure, and the hope that embarrassment will keep the victim from stopping to verify the request.
This is a perfect Scam Watch item because it is both obvious and dangerous. Nobody legitimate, whether it is your boss, your bank, or a government agency, should be telling you to solve a problem with gift cards. That is not a payment system. That is a giant flashing scam sign.
Source: FTC Consumer Advice, “No, that’s not your boss asking you to buy gift cards”
Fake package texts are still one of the laziest scams on earth, and people still click them
The fake delivery text scam survives because it is cheap, broad, and built around a very normal human impulse: you are waiting on something, your phone buzzes, and your brain wants to clear the problem fast. That is all the scammer needs.
The FTC keeps warning people not to click links in these messages or trust the contact information inside them. If you think a package notice might be real, you check through the retailer or carrier directly, not by stepping into the trap the text just laid in front of you.
It is low-effort scammer behavior, but it works because it preys on convenience. That alone earns it a place here.
Source: FTC Consumer Advice, “How to Recognize and Report Spam Text Messages”