Ever heard those stories about people turning the tables on scammers? You know, giving them a taste of their own medicine. Well, get ready, because in this article, we’re diving into some wild tales of folks who decided they had enough of the scamming nonsense and decided to fight back. But here’s the twist: They maybe took things a SMIDGE too far. Get ready to explore the gray area between justice and revenge in the world of scammer takedowns. All content has been edited for clarity purposes.
Table of contents
1. The Repair Shop Racket
“Earlier this year, I took my car to an auto repair shop. Unfortunately, the repairman wanted to scam me. He wanted to fix nonexistent problems and wanted to massively overcharge me for the proposed repairs. I knew a thing or two about cars, so I refused their repairs and reluctantly paid a couple hundred bucks for the labor they spent to ‘diagnose’ the car.
Afterward, I left the repair shop scathing reviews online. I detailed exactly how they tried to scam me, including photo evidence of their sham diagnostic. My reviews got pretty highly voted, and they were the first thing you’d see when you looked up reviews for the shop.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from the shop. They noticed my reviews, said they were affecting their business negatively, and offered me $10,000 to take them down. Who WOULDN’T take $10,000 in times like this?
So, naturally, I took them up on their offer, and my wallet was 10k heavier. My husband said I did the wrong thing, since I was ‘technically,’ helping the shop cover up their scam. I think $10,000 was more than a fair punishment for what they did, so the shop and I were now square. There was no point in continuing to punish the shop by leaving the reviews up, mainly because they may have since improved.
Was I in the wrong for taking my scammer’s money?”
2. “It Was Straight From A Discount Store”
“I had a friend whose daughter was always creating a new ‘business’ idea. The friend always asked for money from our group for ‘seed money,’ or an initial purchase. The first business her daughter made was a jewelry brand. I bought a necklace to show support, and it wound up being $120. When I got the necklace a few months later, it ended up being straight out of a discount store.
Afterward, the daughter kept creating new ideas, but I never partook. Her next business venture was selling personalized dog food. She asked customers to fill out a survey about their dogs, and then she created ‘tailor-made’ dog food for them. The asking price per bag of food was ridiculous.
When I visited my friend’s house, I noticed stacks of dog food from a discount brand. It was ALL the same type of food. The daughter had claimed everything was personalized and homemade, but she was running a scam. Not to mention, a dog’s health and diet aren’t something to mess with. If she gave a dog harmful ingredients, it could have been detrimental.
After I noticed the bags of food, I told my friend and her daughter, ‘You need to refund every customer who’d purchased anything from you for the last two years. If you don’t, I’ll call the police. I don’t know how you keep getting away with scamming people!’
In my eyes, what she was doing was outright fraud, if not extremely dishonest.
I continued, ‘I’ll post on social media about how I’ve found evidence of the dog food not being tailor-made. Customers will be demanding refunds if you don’t just give them one!’
My friend’s daughter became extremely upset. She replied, ‘But I still have costs to cover. It would be unfair to refund everything I’ve ever received.’
‘Well, what are your costs? Do you keep records? You can’t have too many expenses since you are selling people cheap dog food, anyway,’ I replied.
‘I don’t keep records. I have no idea.’ the daughter claimed.
‘Not having records isn’t a good excuse for refunding people, though!’ I exclaimed.
I knew countless family members and friends who had been ripped off by her various business ventures, and I was prepared to escalate the situation if I needed to. Would I have been in the wrong for reporting my friend and her daughter to the police?”
3. “I Snitched On My Friend”
“I had a ‘friend’ who was a serial scammer and shoplifter. She always wanted to scam someone. She stole everything from wine glasses, knives from restaurants, sheets and towels from hotels, and pens from the bank. It was normal for her to eat food while walking around grocery stores without paying for it. Plus, she always bought clothes for events and trips and returned them immediately after wearing them. When she would take clothes back for a refund, she would often return the ‘wrong’ item, usually some of her old clothes.
The weirdest part was, it wasn’t like she NEEDED to steal things. This friend was an emergency room surgeon, and she made 10 times more money than a normal person.
My last straw with this friend happened a while back. She stayed at my place for the week, and the air mattress she was sleeping on got a hole in it. It was a fancy Aerobed. She had the bright idea to go buy a new Serta air bed at Target, use it, put the old broken one in a box, and then return it for a refund.
The thing was, I wasn’t the only person who lived at my house. The Aerobed belonged to my roommate, ‘Adam.’
Adam liked his Aerobed and thought he could patch it up. He didn’t want to get rid of it but was also too scared to stand up for himself. So, he stayed quiet and complained to me in private.
Here’s where I didn’t know if I was in the wrong or not.
When my friend told us about her scheme, I joked, ‘This is how stores go out of business. I’m not bailing you out as a shoplifter!’
My friend just rolled her eyes. She didn’t care.
The same day, my friend went out and purchased the new air bed. She put the broken one in the box and took it to Target for a full refund. Target got screwed over by the scam queen, and Adam got to keep the new bed.
At this point, we had a stolen air bed in the house, and I was embarrassed to call this person a friend. Adam told me he felt bullied because the new air bed wasn’t as high quality as his old one. However, he didn’t stand up for himself, so why should I have cared, right?
Well, I cared because my friend did this type of stuff over and over again. She was ‘proud’ of her scam. I knew she was going to keep doing stuff like this if someone didn’t stop her. At a macro level, stealing from stores made goods more expensive, so they would have to keep hiking up prices to make up for losses. It was wrong.
So, I called Target and snitched on her.
The manager thanked me and explained, ‘Our employees are always supposed to verify the contents of the products when they are dealing with a high-value return.’
It seemed serious, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to my friend. I just wanted the manager to call attention to the problem and stop it from happening again.
The manager thanked me and said, ‘I’ll take this from here. I’ll be contacting our loss prevention department. Thank you.’
Immediately after hanging up, I felt terrible for ratting out my friend. I started to think it wasn’t any of my business to snitch on her, but at the same time, I wanted my friend to learn her lesson. Was I in the wrong?”
4. The Scamming Mother
“My mom made a multi-level marketing scheme her entire life.
She was invested in a pyramid scheme called, ‘Asea.’ Their main product was a ‘super-drink’ that was supposed to cure ANY ailment someone had. Muscle pain? Gone. Heartburn? Distinguished. Cancer? Shrunk. There were only three ingredients: water, chloride, and salt. It tasted like pool water. The whole thing was a total scam.
I was the type of person who didn’t judge something before trying it, so at my mother’s request, I tried it. Twice. For a month, I took the super-drink to the instructions daily. Nothing. Not a single change.
The worst thing was, that my mom believed every lie the company told her. She bought their drinks, lotions, and powders. She attended classes, went to conferences, and local area groups, and put bumper stickers on her car. She even donated a large amount of money to put up a billboard in our small country town.
I wouldn’t care if she kept me out of it, but it was every other day with her. I told her I was sore from the gym, she’d hand me an Asea cream. Headache? Super-drink. I once broke out into hives due to an allergy. Her solution? Don’t go to the doctor, throw some Asea cream on it.
My breaking point? The other day, I came home to an Asea package with my name on it. Whatever, my mom did this all of the time. However, when I picked up the box, I noticed it was a lot heavier than normal. I walked in with the box, and my mom made me open it. Guess what was inside?
A starter kit for new sellers.
She was SERIOUSLY trying to recruit me to sell for the MLM. I flipped my lid as soon as I saw it.
I slid the box toward her and shouted, ‘I don’t want to sell your miracle juice! You need to stop pushing your scam onto me! I want nothing to do with the company, and I’ve said it several times already.’
My mom started crying as I stormed out of the house. It was understandable, I never shouted at her before. I just snapped. I clearly expressed my disinterest in Asea many times, but she blatantly ignored me. I understood she wanted to include me in her hobby and ‘job,’ but the whole thing was a scam. In my eyes, she was just being toxic.
As a result, I felt terrible about the whole thing. Was I in the wrong for not joining my mom’s MLM?”
