Thanks in part to The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna, scam culture is pop culture online in 2022 — including the rip offs we experience day-to-day. Understandably, complaining about getting cheated never goes out of style, especially on TikTok. #Scam has 5.8 billion views on the app, encompassing everything from users sharing the cons they’ve fallen victim to, exposing companies with shady business practices, or sharing general tips on how to avoid getting ripped off. Now, a new trend that discusses scams and their prevalence in our daily lives is taking over the app.
TikTok user @debtcollective asked the platform a question on June 14 that has since gone viral: “What’s a scam that’s become so normalized that we don’t even realize it’s a scam anymore?” The answer? Seemingly, everything. Following her post, users are responding in stitch style videos to share their answers in detail — and turns out basically everything can be considered a scam if you really think about it.
With over 15,600 comments on the original video — which calls out student loan debt — it’s clear that people have some thoughts. Users under the video were quick to share their ideas of normalized swindles, from “the fact that hot dogs come in packages of 10 but buns come in packages of 8” to “‘service fee’ paying online.”
One user, @couponing_coffee_target, garnered over 10.9M views and 1.9M likes for talking about the misconception that using “fabric softeners,…
