Scams in 2026 You Should Be Aware Of and be very careful of

Well, I used to think just like that until I got scammed myself. I swear to God I still can’t sleep at night just by thinking about it. It’s painful, a pain that just won’t go away. It will force you to think about how dumb and naive you are.

I still question my intelligence, if there is any. I definitely doubt myself more than ever. That’s why I don’t want anyone else to suffer the same fate as mine and preserve their self-confidence while they still have time.

First Contact:

They normally contact people who are actively searching for employment. Yeah, that’s right, they somehow can gather the data and contact the guinea pig when they are in the most desperate of situations, and it definitely works. I pity myself.

1st step:

• They can contact you literally through any medium you can possibly imagine. Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, WhatsApp—you name it. For context, I got scammed on Telegram. I don’t want to remember these things. It’s like a childhood trauma that won’t ever leave your shadow.

• They offer pretty simple tasks, like liking YouTube videos, giving reviews in Google, adding products to wishlists, or something similar, or downloading some apps or something else.

• In exchange you get some easy money, which seriously seems enticing and hard to deny when you are dumb and naive, just like me, and desperate like a kid who just broke his mom's favorite jar and now he must do something or prepare for a scolding.

2nd step:

• Everything will be smoother at first; you will receive your payments immediately. But there's a catch! You will receive your payments from different accounts every single time. But your dumbass brain would be so invested in the easy money you won't even bother to question it. (Just like me)

• Then comes a twist. They will introduce you to a paid task.

Oh, I almost forgot about the apparently real people or a group that functions very normally, and they add you to the group, but there’s also a catch! They won’t allow you to message in the group for seven days because you are new. My sorry ass mind didn’t question it either.

Let me talk about those people in the group and suffer more by doing so.

They all have suits and boots and have professional profile pictures. As if everyone is a CEO of a company. They will talk very normally and about the latest matches and how they are happy to join the group, etc.

Normally you won't have any reason to doubt them. But as you can see, these all were but a facade. To fool me and thousands of other desperate souls who just wanted to earn some money.

Well, let's move on to the next step.

3rd step:

• After one or two days, they will announce a new term, a paid task, and everyone is apparently waiting for paid tasks as they provide more money. The rules were simple: you will earn more, but you have to pay real money to participate.

• I hope you are getting the picture now. I earned more money by playing, which was simple, and they earned my trust as well.

• The group was lively, and everyone celebrated and expressed their goodwill for others, and I was fairly happy.

It felt very surreal. There was no reason for me to doubt anything. I was getting the easy money. Why would I question it? I just wanted to earn more and more.

One more thing that is very funny and laughable is that the accounts that were handling the whole thing were named some random name, and their profile picture had "receptionist" and "manager" written on it.

I was so involved in it that I never even tried to search the Telegram numbers on Truecaller. I still regret that. My senses betrayed me, or should I say I played right into their fake reality like a puppet?

The final step:

• They told me I would earn some huge amount if I completed my first 12 tasks without missing any.

• As far as I remember, I completed the first paid task because I needed to complete every task.

• Now finally I was on the verge of getting a huge amount. The only thing between me and the amount was a paid task. Ahhh, I wanna die.

• As you can see, they twisted the rule, and I already trusted them. So I did not bother using my brain again.

• They told me it's a gamble-type game, and it's not in their control how it plays out. They would get a number 1, 2 or 3, and based on it, I would need to play the rounds and pay in each time, and if I can’t pay, I won’t get any refund.

• I asked the manager guy, Please make it 2 rounds; I don’t have enough money to play more. He told me he would help me if needed.

Then came the rounds, and I saw my soul crushed and humiliated and disgraced, a dark spot in my life I would never forget and a scar that would stay with me forever to disgrace me, and I can’t fight myself forever.

I begged and begged and begged, but they didn’t have any hearts, and I lacked my brain.

The first round was around 25 dollars, which I paid, and I hoped that it wouldn't go further and I would earn some more. But they said I have to play another round, and it's unlikely that a third round would happen, as it’s very rare, and I believed everything.

Then they told me the amount, and it was more than $200. I was in shock, but I trusted them. I still believed that if I paid them $200, I would earn more, as they did pay me earlier. There was no doubt in my heart at that moment.

The only thing I cared about at that moment was how I could gather $200. I collected $200 by merging my mom's and my own money. I still clearly remember my Mom telling me how this is a scam and I, foolishly, telling my family how this is legit. Can you ever imagine how I must have appeared at that moment to my family? A madman? A helpless brat? A pathetic loser? Nothing seems enough.

Anyway, after paying $200, they said I must play the 3rd round or lose the $225. I begged everyone from that group. And to no surprise, they ignored my existence, and in the 3rd round, they asked me to pay $800.

I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I was seemingly happy a few moments ago, and now I was on the verge of breaking into pieces, or perhaps I was experiencing betrayal and sadness of such caliber that I had never experienced before. It’s really difficult to put into words how I felt at that moment.

Regret:

You know, I did everything I possibly could after the scam. But there was nothing for me to get back but regret. The moment I think about it, I despise myself. I can't stand myself. I can’t trust myself. Not only that, but I used to think I was intelligent and brilliant, and I could do anything. No one can scam me, and I would never be in a place like this.

But as you can see, I have accepted that I'm not as smart as I thought I was. I’m Assmart instead.

Later I did search the numbers in Truecaller and found out the manager guy was from Bihar, India. And he looked like a beggar, but who am I to judge? I, myself, am a certified loser.

If you read this far, thank you. I’m not a good writer yet. But I hope I have conveyed the topic at the very least. Be careful. Nothing is easy in this world, and I learned it the hard way.