jucelc,

DLCs: Games are expected to have DLCs nowadays, so game devs purposefully hold back some ideas for potential DLCs, often crippling the main game as a result.

Subscription services: For pretty much anything, but especially those automated monthly payments, which you won’t bother cancelling, even if you feel like you’re not using the service to its fullest.

aaronstc,

It’s got to the point some people complain when there isn’t DLC. They just want to play the same game forever. Also, paid games with free to play style bullshit. At least as scummy as these free to play games can be you can at least try them out.

Also, DLC is almost a complete misnomer nowadays. Everything is content and is downloadable.

Posh,

Tax

MariaTacobellina,

Chiropractic.

I’d wager fewer than 25% of Americans know that it’s quackery invented in the 1890s.

TheHalc,

Even fewer will know that osteopathy is exactly the same type of nonsense. No, an osteopath is not (necessarily) a “bone doctor”.

The main confusion is that, in the US, schools of osteopathic medicine picked up enough real science that US Doctors of Osteopathy are real physicians… Even if the osteopathy part of their training is still pseudoscience.

obinice,
@obinice@lemmy.world avatar

Capitalism and religion, easily the top two scams.

drq,
@drq@mastodon.ml avatar

@mastermind Software as a service

nik282000,
@nik282000@lemmy.ml avatar

God damn Adobe and Office 365.

abraxas,

Herbalife, fucking herbalife.

This weekend, I went into what looked like an indie smoothie shop and dropped an ungodly amount of money on a delicious sounding shake… only to watch the lady drop a scoops of powder and ONE freeze-dried strawberry into a cup with ice. Tasted like ass.

Yet they do have regulars to that shit, and nobody is taking them out of business. I want my fucking $11 back. So anyone reading this doing a class action against Herbalife, I want in…

But I doubt it, since it’s a scam that’s so normalized we don’t realize it’s a scam anymore.

Trainguyrom,

First time I tried one they mixed it wrong and it just tasted like chalk. All I knew was it was some kind of smoothie shop my wife took me to that a family friend of hers owned. Then I saw the price after tasting the chalk and pretending to like it. Never wanted it since

SouthEndSunset,

Some people jusrt like to be seen carrying these cups. I read about someone who put their Starbucks coffee in a generic travel mug, and their friend said to them “how will everyone know youre drinking Starbucks?”

abraxas,

Except, isn’t Herbalife something that’s never branded? My cup had some smallbiz-seeming name on it. Definitely not Herbalife.

I subbed to an anti-MLM subreddit in the past, and that’s the exact shifty behavior they removeded about Herbalife having. I just hadn’t seen it.

SouthEndSunset,

Im gonna be honest, I know of Herbal Life in name only, we dont have it here.

abraxas,

Their Schtick is that people start Herbalife “franchises” under another name, but then serve Herbalife. I believe they are generally not supposed to use the word “Herbalife” anywhere on their merchandising.

SouthEndSunset,

Thanks.

Nollij,

If it wasn’t Herbalife, it would be some other food service-grade ingredients. I’m not sure it would be any better, but I’m also not sure it would be any worse.

abraxas,

Last I saw, Tropical Smoothie Cafe (national chain) does fresh or frozen fruit exclusively for $5-6, and Herbalife does cheap flavored soy powders for $11

There is a massive quality difference. They don’t even advertise readily that there’s soy in in them; I had to look it up. Thankfully I’m not allergic. And that’s the thing. They sell fake shit and intentionally hide that fact.

Nollij,

There’s certainly good smoothie places that are no comparison. But that’s not what these places would be. If you’re setting up a smoothie shop and decide to use Herbalife, it probably wouldn’t otherwise be replaced by fresh fruit. Instead it would be replaced by some other protein powder, which will typically make shit smoothies.

Fully agree with you though on the allergy warnings

abraxas,

I’ve never in my life been to a smoothie place or shake that primarily used powders.

It’s always:

  1. ice cream, ice, flavoring sauces, some real like chocolate/coffee (pretty much every local diner)
  2. fresh fruit, yogurt/banana (smoothie places like Tropical Smoothie)
  3. Packaged liquid flavors plus frozen fruit (a couple smaller restaurants)
Nollij,

Smoothie King is a large chain that uses protein powders. But while they don’t use Herbalife, they are at least adjacent to it.

abraxas,

I’ve never heard of them. Looks like the nearest one is 4 hours away from me, and there are zero in my home state or any state I like to visit.

Actually, a quick google seems to suggest Smoothie King primarily uses frozen fruit for their smoothies. They offer “nutritional add ins” that are protein powders. This is like Tropical Smoothie.

Maybe I wasn’t clear about Herbalife. The ENTIRE smoothie is protein powder. Here is a typical herbalife smoothie. The entire smoothie. Others are the same with artificial flavors. Then one freeze-dried strawberry dropped in lets them say there’s real fruit in it.

Here is a (genuinely random) sample from Smoothie King. A little protein added at the end, but primarily frozen fruit. This is reinforced by the fact that they sell fruit “smoothie bowls” for a comparable price. Herbalife has no fruit on hand to sell.

rodbiren,

Would be far easier to name things that are not a scam and assume the rest is just a scam in waiting.

Libraries, Pets, Sunrises/sets, Nigerian princes needing loans, Mr. Rogers

Everything else is probably looking to take money from you in some fashion.

rgb3x3,

What’s that about Nigerian princes being legit?

AngryCommieKender,

Dolly Parton! The woman is a living, classy, saint!

MtnPoo,

Wait, what did Mr. Rogers do?

PolandIsAStateOfMind,
@PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml avatar

Capitalism

ButtBidet,
@ButtBidet@hexbear.net avatar

Capitalism seems to be going great in 2023, I don’t know where you’re getting this from.

https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/a4143fd0-16e9-4c3c-b005-6b2849813a6e.jpeg

duderium,

That’s not REAL capitalism, that’s crony capitalism. Real capitalism is when I get rich. Crony capitalism is when I don’t.

icepuncher69,

Too easy, but true.

MesaShrike,

Printers

k5nn,

Which part the ink cartridges?

faintwhenfree,

Diamond Scarcity

SeaJ,

Is that still a thing? I thought they moved on to marketing that natural ones are somehow better because they are flawed compared to perfect lab ones.

faintwhenfree,

The otherway around actually lab grown ones are too perfect. Natural ones have some impurities that make them precious and one of a kind

TheWoozy,

Block chain - there’s still no legitimate practical use for it

lunicoDee,

I wouldn’t agree, but I have no example in mind, so I agree (?)

comfisofa,

A legitimate practical use is anonymised online transactions using cryptocurrencies designed for such purposes (like Monero)

icepuncher69,

To buy drugs, guns and hitmen right? Otherwise stick to paypal m8.

crab,

Might as well use reddit if you cant see a little (if not a lot) of benefit to using something decentralized over its centralized counterpart.

The anonymous aspect and lack of fees/operation should be self explanatory.

icepuncher69,

The problem is that is used for illegal shit moslty. Be it the aformentioned or scams. And the problem is that money as a concept is centraliced and controled by whatever entity holds the most of whatever is based on, be it gold or whatever. It shouldnt but it is. And the whole " you better use reddit since you suck centraliced feet" thing, tho that i say to you grow up.

icepuncher69,

Well there is if you are looking for illegal goods like drugs, guns and others.

Waraugh,

We use it for asset tracking and document control

tastysnacks,

When you buy real estate, they have to do a title search to ensure you own the property. Block chain could be the replacement.

TheWoozy,

Fashion

nickiam2,

Cars=freedom

Gestrid,

Cars = getting a job to pay for the gas, the taxes, the repairs, the taxes, the annual state inspection, the taxes, the (usually) annual registration fees, and the taxes!

(Although, you are still able to go places further away without having to get a ride from someone else. In that sense, you are still more free.)

pseudo,
@pseudo@jlai.lu avatar

(You still need a road, large, firm and plane enough. These don’t build themselves.)

MomoTimeToDie,

I mean if enough people drive the same path, they almost entirely do build themselves, depending on the ground.

pseudo,
@pseudo@jlai.lu avatar

Not sure that there is many ground types that turn onto proper, flat and wild road when hundreds of kilos of vehicules roll over two small tire-large paths. But who knows ? Maybe that’s just that my region soil that’s not car-friendly compared to other places.

timetraveller,

It is now a minimum of, $1,000 in gas, $1,200 in insurance, and maintenance for a single year. At $2,200 a year, and I road a bus for 3 years at $28/mo or $336/year. I saved that $6,600 and purchased a car. Now I’m fucked with $2,200 year in expenses again. BUT I can drive to the beach if I wanna at a moments notice, so I guess I have that going for me.

mobyduck648,
@mobyduck648@beehaw.org avatar

The other half of this scam is the piss-poor public transport in a lot of countries, here in the UK if you’re not a Londoner the government could not care any less about carrots only sticks to get people out of cars.

icepuncher69,

Cars= people soon to be death

TheObserver,
@TheObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Car insurance Health insurance Dental insurance

All insurance really

Also renewing license plates/licenses

Basically if you need to make a yearly or monthly payment to keep using something it’s a scam in my eyes.

corsicanguppy,

I can tell you’ve never needed insurance or some kind of licensing system.

This changes.

TheObserver,
@TheObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Quite the contrary

I have all of these things. I just wish i didn’t need them in the first place. Not sure how my comment made you think that.

HerrLewakaas,

So by saying you need them you are saying they’re not a scam

MayonnaiseArch,
@MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org avatar

Maybe they think the american vesrion is a scam. I think most of these work in other parts of the world

TheObserver,
@TheObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I need them because if I don’t have car insurance for example i get a fine. I need health insurance otherwise i have to pay out the ass. 2 stupid things made by some money hungry old fuckers that just want to collect even more money. This is just 2 examples of all kinds of insurance. The whole system is in place to make the rich richer for something meaningless.

lemillionsocks,
@lemillionsocks@beehaw.org avatar

I will say insurance companies can be very quick to fight you when it comes to giving out money. Keep at it and you’ll get something, but considering how long you can pay them month to month without using it, it’s obnoxious.

Except health insurance. Health insurance is a fucking racket, the medical industrial complex it ties into is a racket, and the United States would be a better place if it gutted this system

TheWoozy,

I don’t think you are using the same definition of scam

TheCraiggers,
@TheCraiggers@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Also renewing license plates/licenses. Basically if you need to make a yearly or monthly payment to keep using something it’s a scam in my eyes.

Not sure about where you live, but where I live, that money goes towards road upkeep. That money has to come from somewhere.

SmokinStalin,
@SmokinStalin@hexbear.net avatar

Car bad.

blindsight,

Exactly; it’s a targeted tax.

corm,

“Pay money into this big pool, and if you have an emergency then we miiiight pay you some back. We keep any extra btw”

It makes a lot more sense to me to just keep an emergency fund and a few close friends.

infuziSporg,
@infuziSporg@hexbear.net avatar

The Ur-Scam.

LarkinDePark,

Liberalism.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • [email protected]
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • oklahoma
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • SuperSentai
  • feritale
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines