25 Popular Scams Millennials Tend To Fall For

As a generation that grew up alongside the technology boom, millennials believe they are savvier than previous generations. They aren’t as gullible when it comes to social media scams that have boomers falling for Nigerian princes in distress and investing in timeshare companies that tie up one’s money. However, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t being duped in their own way, just that the scams are more subtle and devious. 

#1

Image source: x_tacocat_x, Any Lane

“Toxins” in your body, and associated grifty products to detox you.

#2

Image source: Logical-Ad3341, Nikita Kachanovsky

Maybe not an out and out scam per se, but monthly subscriptions. Hell I went through a car wash yesterday with my son to get the cheapest wash ($10!) and 3 employees were there trying to hard sell me on a monthly pass.

#3

Image source: redefine_bravery, Anna Shvets

People falling for people’s go fund me’s and videos of people asking for money to be sent to their venmo/cashapp.

#4

Image source: EngineerDirector, Mak

Ordering Uber eats. Literally double++ for cold fast food.

#5

Image source: Alpine_Exchange_36, Albert Hu

Apparently random QR codes. It’s becoming a common scam where a nefarious person will place a QR code on parking meters or something random and people scan it.

And we’re still very bad with phishing attacks. Oh hey sorry I sent you this random email with this super intersting sounding link….

#6

Image source: thr0ughtheghost, Nick Chong

According to my friend who works in the fraud department at a large bank, crypto/bitcoin/nfc scams are very popular. People give up their whole life savings to people who promise them that they will be the next billionaire, and never see a single cent ever again.

#7

Image source: Ok-Abbreviations9936, fxquadro

I feel like we (myself included) fall for rage bait easily. We are decent at spotting scams, phishing, and AI, but rage bait is something we can’t resist.

#8

Image source: Quiet_Stomach_7897, Berke Citak

Ugh, apparently a lot of people are falling for ChatGPT and generative AI being the answer to all their questions — and I mean ALL THEIR QUESTIONS. I refuse.

#9

Image source: kdani17, Amit Lahav

Online sports betting. I’ve seen it destroy a handful of couples in their 30s and 40s.

#10

Image source: nico-72, Artem Podrez

Influencer culture. Buying s****y, poor quality products from social media that you regret buying as soon as it arrives.

And also those guru MLM type “courses” teaching you how to start your own 6-figure drop shipping business or how to turn your side hustle into a booming business, etc.

#11

Image source: nounanvowel, DaryaDarya LiveJournal

My firend tried to tell me you can pay a company to “get your information off the internet”. I laughed and asked if there was a company that can get just my pee out of the ocean.

#12

Image source: NorthernCanadaEh, Tobias Dziuba

AI videos on Facebook advertisements

I’ve got my father on strict instructions to run any/all online purchases past me after he ordered some “crystal/mineral coffee cups”. The advertisements showed lovely quartz crystal coffee mugs with pink and purple colors and he thought cool!

Never showed up, BBB rating for the company is a F and the comments for the video are loaded with complaints about never receiving their cups.

I took one 1-2 second glance at the advertisement and immediately knew it was AI.

Another situation was my cousin loved putting his face and likeness on silly facebook reels, things like him and his buddys doing the night at the roxbury head bobbing.

Then a few months after he stopped doing it my uncle got a video of my “cousin” facetiming him from a unknown number explaining that he hit a women in a car accident and that a lawyer witnessed the crash and agreed to represent him but he needed 4000$ immediately to secure the lawyer.

Now I never seen the actual facetime video but my uncle (who’s 71) swears up and down that it looked EXACTLY like my cousin, he said the only indication that it was fake was my cousins voice was flat and monotone but my uncle thought he was in shock from the “crash”

So he sent 4000$ to this person, only for my cousin to walk in the front door less then an hour later, confused as all hell as to why his dad was raging at him for causing a crash.

#13

Image source: Massive-Ride204, Antoni Shkraba Studio

I’ve noticed that we’re prone to having mental health weaponized against us. I’ve heard ppl talking about how buying c**p like Funkos, Lububu dolls etc, helps them heal their inner child that was neglected. Some marketer or influencer convinced them that buying=mental health.

#14

Image source: Jmish87, Christina @ wocintechchat.com

I work for a bank and can confirm there are a ton of large-scale financial scams that are active. Some common ones are:

Convincing customers that their computer is compromised, need to pay to clean/unlock it

Posing as their bank to phish for financial account info

Hacking email posing as a known correspondent to change a billing address/account for a payment

Contacting customers saying they owe money to the IRS/DMV/Town of Residence and are at risk of arrest.

#15

Image source: Itchy-Philosophy556, cottonbro studio

Fake job postings. Everyone is so d**n desperate.

#16

Image source: maroontiefling, Cj

A lot of these comments aren’t scams, just trends people don’t like (labubu, funko pops, etc). ACTUAL scams millennials are falling for include:

* **MLMs/pyramid schemes** – I thought we knew better but so many of my peers are into “wellness” MLMs, it’s embarrassing
* **crypto** – crypto is, at best, a bad investment vehicle, and often just an outright rug pull scam
* **following investment gurus** – people are spending money on scam courses from these “influencers” claiming they’ll become multi millionaire investors
* **sports betting** – this one is iffy as to whether it’s a scam or just it’s own thing as gambling a*******n, but the number of millennials blowing THOUSANDS of dollars on sports betting is insane. Apps have made gambling frighteningly easy and I really think there’s a gambling a*******n epidemic happening.
* **micro transactions** – similar to above, this might fall under gambling a*******n, but millennials seem REALLY easy to suck into apps like Monopoly Go where you’re essentially just spending money ($1-$2 at a time, but it really adds up) to make lights and colors flash on their phone screen. Those “games” are designed to psychologically manipulate you into spending money without thinking, hence why I think it counts as a scam.
* **tiktok shop, shein, temu, fast fashion in general** – these shopping platforms are so obviously scammy that I can’t understand why anyone uses them. Yes, they’re cheap. Yes, sometimes you get the thing you paid for. But a lot of the time you’re getting something completely different than what was shown in the product photos. Even if you get an item you can use/wear, the quality is so poor it’s going to fall apart pretty fast and need to be replaced and end up costing more in the long run…..plus they’re made with questionable materials that can be hazardous. Fast fashion is definitely the thing I’m becoming a grump old person about. The late, great author Terry Pratchett explained it best with the Sam Vimes boots theory: “A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. … But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and *would still have wet feet*.”

#17

Image source: Death0fRats, Scott Graham

Health Insurance that doesn’t actually cover anything.

#18

Image source: cobra_mist, Evgeniya Kuzmina

Nostalgia.

yup. sell me that album/game/movie again.

remaster the album, remake the game as a remaster, and toss the entire cutting room floor into the movie.

f**k it.

just start making stuff that looks like it came from back then and we’ll still eat it up.

#19

Image source: Late-Payment1594, Getty Images

Ugh please don’t make fun of me but I fell for a fake joann fabrics website, put my credit card in and everything and the only thing that tipped me off was the email they sent me confirming my order had a bunch of errors in it. I ended up canceling my credit card and ordering a new one smh.

#20

Image source: BasicBesic, Bruno Curly

My elder dog walked off one afternoon after I forgot to close my fence gate. We spent hours looking for him, also posted it on Ring and Nextdoor apps. Someone responded on one of the posts with a recommendation for a local pet recovery team that used a drone and linked the Facebook business page. Page seemed legit, so I contacted them. They had a fee of $130, I expected some sort of fee anyway so I Zelle’d them the cash. 5 min later neighbor shows up with my dog. Contacted the business and requested money back since they never came out and my dog came back. Assured me they would send it…and after multiple messages a week later they are leaving me on read. F*****g taking advantage of people in their desperate times, hope they have a special place in hell reserved for them.

#21

Image source: BirdLawOnly, Centre for Ageing Better

There’s a popular one right now. I first heard of it on the Crime Junkies podcast, but then it actually happened to me! Funny how that works. Here it goes:

A man calls your cell and tells you he is with such and such police department and you have an outstanding warrant. It’s fairly elaborate and convincing, and because of the shock value of hearing you having a warrant, it immediately gives you panic and alters your rationality. That person will give you the option to venmo the department to remove the warrant. If it happens to you, tell the person that you will wait to be served in person by a process server….or just f**k with the guy. Up to you.

#22

Image source: RoughCute7016, John Matychuk

I was in downtown Tulsa. I needed to pay for parking. There was a sign with a website, saying to download the app, something like park tulsa. I googled it. I clicked one of the top links, which was word for word what the sign had said. i sleepily entered my payment info and clicked submit. Thats when i realized my error. I had clicked on a sponsored link and purchased a subscription to some chinese scam site.

#23

Image source: jedispaghetti420, Oladimeji Ajegbile

My pal got his identity stolen after he thought he found a discount site for a brand that almost never does sales. Poor guy was just trying to get his fiancé a surprise gift.

#24

Image source: lengthandhonor, Marques Thomas

Bought a book on Amazon that was self-published AI slop instead of the book i was trying to buy.

#25

Image source: d_rek, Ahmed

I’ll add one because I have recently seen it pop up in some subreddits I frequent…

The whole Steve Jobs “do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” platitude is making the rounds again. Not a scam per se, but this single thing pushed thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of eager college bound student to pursue worthless degrees in areas of ‘passion’ rather than going into pragmatic well paying careers where they may also excel at but not necessarily ‘love’.