10 CRAZY Scams People Actually Fell For

Did you ever think that you won a free cruise to the Bahamas after getting a random call

Were you ever tricked into a marriage with a Russian woman who ended up being a hacker

Have you ever been called about your car warranty without even owning a car

Here are 10 of the craziest scams people actually fell for. Snap, crackle, pop-up ads

Many pop-up advertisements exist on the internet just to infuriate you, infect your computer, or scam you out of money

And that is what happened to poor Richard Magnani. 68-year-old Magnani was pleasantly surprised when he received a pop-up ad

that appeared to be from Microsoft offering him support to clean up his computer

The fake Microsoft ad claimed that it would clean up and speed up his computer for only $400

Richard forked over the money via credit card. Shortly after making the payment, he realized it was fake and nothing got fixed on his computer

I've been there moving! Guess we all have to think twice before trusting the flashy advertisement that pops up on our screen

Craigslist is about as reliable and truthful as meeting a guy on the street named Craig

who tells you he's got a list of items for sale that are worth your while

Craigslist has everything from rocking chairs to job opportunities, but really it should be called Time to Get Scammed list

Although maybe that's too lengthy. In one Craigslist story that was a tale as old as the internet

someone tried to sell their mattress on the site. The buyer told the seller that he was on his honeymoon and that his assistant would mail a check

And surprise, surprise, the check bounced. The classic check scam. Luckily, no people or mattresses were harmed in this transaction

The mattress ended up getting donated and this guy may very well still be on his honeymoon

In 2018, the FBI sent out a warning to beware of car buying scams that had fooled almost 60,000 people out of almost 55 million dollars

Pay close attention if you want to hold on to your Benjamin Franklins

Here's how the scam goes. A criminal posts an online ad to sell a vehicle with a low price to get the attention of a potential buyer

including photos of the car and contact information to reach the seller. When you reach out to the seller, he or she sends more photos and a seemingly logical explanation for why the price tag is so cheap

and says that they have to sell the car really quickly. The seller comes up with reasons as to why the car has to sell like a relative died or they moving or getting a divorce The thief may even claim to have a partnership with legitimate companies like eBay This scam is so sophisticated that oftentimes the scammer will send an email with a toll number that impersonates another company

The criminal then instructs you to purchase prepaid gift cards in the amount of the sale and share the prepaid codes

You're then told the car is on its way. But guess what

Much like waiting for Santa to come down the chimney on Christmas, the car never arrives

Hopefully, you won't get taken for a ride with this legendary scam

Nothing is more heartbreaking than hearing the sad tale of a grandmother getting duped into giving her life savings to a scammer

In October 2020, a grandmother living in Troy, Michigan, received a phone call from someone pretending to be her grandson

The grandson claimed to have been in a car accident and had lost his phone and wallet

The criminal then told her that her grandson was working with an attorney named Mark Sanford, who was going to help him

The scammers told the grandmother not to tell the grandson's parents for fear of embarrassing the boy

Being the kind grandmother that she is, she spoke with the supposed attorney and sent him $10,258 from her bank to a bank in Mexico

About five days later, the victim received a similar call asking for more money

Then she transferred another $5,000 to a bank in Mexico. Grandma only realized that she had been scammed when her real grandson called her over for the holidays and told her he hadn't been in a car accident

Poor grandma. Also, can we talk about how nice this grandma is to give all that money

Most grandkids get, I don't know, $25 and a wet kiss on the cheek and she forked over more than $15,000

If that ain't grandma, love, we don't know what is. Pack your passport as it's time to take our adventures all the way to Russia

For some time now, Russian bride scams have been all the rage. In far too many instances, unsuspecting men were just trying to find their one true love online

But unlike 90 Day Fiance, their trips to a foreign land weren't successful

In 2017, a man in Australia shared details of a three-month dialogue with scammers

who assumed the alias of a Russian woman named Alexandra on a popular Australian dating website

Alexandra claimed to be 32 years old and her email started out innocently enough

But shortly after, their innocent online talks turned more serious. Alexandra started to call the duped Australian man husband

and asked him to transfer money for her travel When the man headed to the bank to transfer the bank teller let the poor man know he was likely being scammed He wrote Alexandra and said if you serious about coming here you can pay it yourself He never heard from Alexandra again He might have wasted

three months of his dating life, but hey, the good news is he saved 400 bucks. Dating is difficult

but it's especially difficult when you don't even realize you're dating. Sound confusing

It sure was for Kristen Shotwell, who in 2014 was told by a friend that her profile popped up on Tinder while visiting the University of Georgia in Athens

This shocked Shotwell because she was actually a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Turns out someone used her photo and called themselves Kim on Tinder

Fake profiles online have become more and more popular, so just make sure the person you're talking to is the real deal

Otherwise, it might just be a robot or a sad person wishing their name was Kim

A call in the middle of the night that claims your social security number is suspended due to criminal activity

is worse than getting a call about your car being towed. Newsflash, your social security number will never be suspended

However, if someone were to get your social security number, they could pretty much make your life a living nightmare

Kendra Flishman was one woman who lost everything she had in her bank account

to the Social Security scam in the amount of $4,000. The agent told her to avoid arrest, she would need to prove her identity

The fake agent said she needed to temporarily transfer the money to the government

after which the Social Security Administration would reimburse her. He then instructed her to purchase $4,000 worth of Target gift cards

sending her to two different grocery stores to make the transactions. And so she bought the Target gift cards, and the agent asked her to read off the numbers

And just like that, her $4,000 was gone. Bernie Madoff may be the king of the Ponzi schemes

but three men out of Colorado gave Bernie a run for his money by pulling off a $722 million cryptocurrency fraud scheme

The men operated BitClub Network for over five years. The scheme solicited money from investors in exchange for shares of cryptocurrency mining pools

It also supposedly rewarded investors for recruiting new investors. However, there were no actual crypto mining pools or any real cryptocurrency

Rather the men just kept most of the money and would pay new investors with old investors money The classic Ponzi scheme The FBI finally arrested the three men in December 2019 Just remember if someone offers you free

Bitcoin on the internet, it is too good to be true. You really think someone would do that

Just go on the internet and tell lies? It's iceberg straight ahead! When it comes to this

next cruise scam, a group of Arkansans were taken for a ride and lost hundreds of thousands of

dollars after a woman named Tracy Graff from Texas scammed them with bogus cruise deals on Facebook

Tracy reached out to various people on Facebook, offering them a great deal on a cruise. After

taking their money to set up the cruise, Tracy created a Facebook page of a group of over 200

people allegedly all going on the cruise. She even put together a list of who would be staying

in which rooms on the cruise and various activities that they would all participate in

once the cruise began. Tracy promised that she would send them their booking numbers by the end

of the month. But surprise, surprise, they never got any official booking information and Tracy

disappeared. The victims then put together their own Facebook page in an effort to track down

Tracy. And it worked. They were able to locate Tracy's home address and informed the police

and Tracy was arrested for felony theft. Facebook giveth and Facebook taketh away

And in the number one spot for the 10 scams that people actually fell for

is this 22-year-old Instagram influencer and YouTuber Kayla Massa, who was arrested in 2020 for orchestrating

a $1.5 million fraud scheme. Kayla Massa has a huge social media presence

with more than 300,000 Instagram followers and tens of thousands of YouTube fans

Instead of seeking out likes and comments from her followers, she went after their hard-earned cash

Kayla would post on her page claiming she had lucrative opportunities for her followers to make money

One post read, If you're from South Jersey, have a bank account, and are trying to make some quick, easy money, direct message me

She would then get her followers' bank account information under the guise of saying she would pay them for their help

in selling luxury items for her. Kayla would deposit the bogus checks to her own accounts

allegedly from the victim's bank accounts, and then block them on social media

Well, the only one getting blocked nowadays is Kayla, as she awaits a trial in her million-dollar social media fraud scheme