If you’re a phone, email, or average internet user (and you probably are), there’s a good chance you’ve been the target of a scam before. They’re annoying at best, and potentially dangerous at worst.
But once you’ve figured out what’s a scam versus a confused wrong number or strangely cryptic relative, you can start to have a little fun with the people trying to steal your information. Much like the would-be scam victims in this list, who decided to give these scammers a little taste of their own medicine.
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“Sorry, Shalley. Not today.”
To be honest, there’s nothing the recipient could’ve said that would’ve made this message any funnier. The obvious grammatical errors are enough to point it into scam territory, but starting a text with “Thank you, Shally Fritz is my name,” is the power move I didn’t even know existed.
“I asked a ‘crypto expert’ who friended me on Insta a basic question, turns out they’re not an expert at all.”
Either this is a true scammer, or it’s just confirming that so-called “crypto experts” actually have no idea what they’re talking about.
“This is pure comedy.”
Ah yes, because nothing screams “totally legit” like someone asking you to add their email to your account.
Instagram takeover scams are pretty legit and can be hard to detect at first, but this is a pretty lazy way to gain access to someone’s account.
“From Instagram lol.”
I wonder if this is an actual example of an Instagram takeover scam in action, or if it’s just another random dude trying their best to fool an unsuspecting crowd. Either way, I can’t believe anyone would fall for this.
“My neighbor’s cuzin needs groceries.”
One commenter pointed out that midnight in the US would be morning in Nigeria, which tracks to be honest. Beware of scammers pretending to be people you know!
And beware of someone asking for money and promising to pay you back with a slightly higher sum of money.
“I posted about a scam on REDDIT and a Reddit user referred me to an Instagram scammer for help.”
Is this considered trying to fight fire with fire? Or is it just trying to fight stupidity with more stupidity?
“Instagram scammer didn’t have much compassion for my dog dying.”
Don’t worry, OP confirmed that their dog did not, in fact, die, but the scammer didn’t even care about that bait message. Talk about a heartless scammer over here.
Also the “sorry” immediately followed by more questions is killing me.
“About to be scammed.”
I wonder if this person considered just not falling for the scam? Maybe they lived up to their username a little too much, and were feeling lonely that day. If so, that’s kind of sad.
“Had to be reminded.”
I don’t know what’s worse, being targeted by a surprisingly convincing scam, or being targeted by a scammer who clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing. I can’t believe they didn’t even add the suspicious link in the first text.
“Bot.”
Well, at the very least, we know the bot isn’t intelligent enough to be aware of the fact that it’s a bot. Even if it means that this exact exchange could be repeated for the rest of time, probably.
“I’m on the books guys. I cannot wait for my appointment.”
We may laugh now, but if they decide to add a February 30th sometime in the next 77 years, it’s game over for this person (assuming they’re still alive by then).
“Sounds tempting.”
Sam Raimi? More like Scam Raimi (low-hanging fruit, I know). Though to be honest, the fact that he mentions a Kevin Fiegey (instead of Kevin Feige) and Tony Maguire (instead of Tobey Maguire) makes me think this guys from an alternate universe.
“Deflecting with Why tho.”
I mean, out of all the ways I’ve seen people scare scammers away, this is probably the most… unique. But it did its job; it confused and scared that scammer straight out of the DMs.
“Why bother making a bot to message THIS?”
This is so hilariously bad, I’m convinced it isn’t a real scam. Like, who would introduce themselves as the UK government, ask for money in iTunes cards, and then tell you you’re “under the rest?”
“I just caught this in the wild.”
There are some scammers out there who have you wondering if their line of work is actually worth it for them, because they’re literally so bad at their jobs and all. Like, this can’t be real.
She just had to say meatball.
![Image credit: reddit | [deleted]](https://static.diply.com/08e3d1e2-3efd-4ab1-89f5-092942d19a75.jpg)
Man, a bot response, and they couldn’t even get the grammar right. Then again, perfect grammar might’ve made it a little too obvious.
I mean, not saying “meatball” pretty much gave it away, but still.
“Scam text message. Tricking them with cat facts!”
I mean, getting someone to text you random cat facts seems pretty ideal (not for that subscription fee, though). It’s also the perfect way to get a scammer off your back.
Not everyone’s an Apple user.
This scammer totally forgot the fact that some people use phones that aren’t iPhones. But I guess if the goal is to send the same scam message to a bunch of people and hope some of them bother to respond, it doesn’t matter that much.
“At least he was honest.”
Welp, that’s one way to figure out if someone’s trying to scam you. On the other hand, though, it must be exhausting to go around and try to trick people into giving out their personal data, so I get why the scammer probably decided to come clean.
“Got a message from a scammer, decided to play with em a little.”
I think the funniest thing about this is the fact that the scammer fell for the counter-scam so easily. It just goes to show you that scammers really aren’t that smart.
