10 May 2026 - AJ
So, this week’s scam is an oldie but goodie.
High pressure sales tactics are not new. People have learned over the years that a sweepstakes entry at a local mall often turns into a timeshare presentation. This kind of scammer is using a similar tactic of exploiting the sunk cost falacy - that is, where people will stick around because they’ve already spent the time getting there.
As I’ve said many times before, scammers - whether in-person or over the internet - like to manipulate your emotions. The poster that inspired this week’s article mentioned that the speaker used insults and negative language to push his audience’s buttons.
Those are not the only emotions that scammers like to manipulate, however. YouTube recently decided to show me shorts about this young black man that was being made fun of because he knit. Now, I recognized that as a dropship scam - that is, the goods aren’t being handmade by a local, they’re cheap Chinese goods that are dropshipped off AliExpress and Temu. To confirm, I looked at other shorts by the same channel, and they’re all essentially “I’m sad because someone insulted my knitting” by various AI-generated people. These are common on TikTok, but have made their way to other streaming platforms.