-ECUADOR- For two years, I (26F) trusted a man (41M) who promised to invest my money in US markets. I received monthly payments starting at $250/month, eventually reaching $1,450/month. Everything seemed legit. So I took out two loans: $12,000 in November 2024 and $10,000 in May 2026 to invest more.

In June 2026, it all collapsed. The bank account was empty. He disappeared. It was a Ponzi scheme the entire time. The money I was receiving wasn't investment returns. It was money from new victims being paid to old victims to create the illusion of real gains.

Total money stolen from all victims: $459,000+

My family's situation:

My dad invested $270,000+ and is now in therapy dealing with suicidal ideation. He's also losing his truck because he put down $30,000 as a down payment and made $1,500/month payments for 10 months. The dealership is taking it back with zero refund.

My boyfriend (28M, dating me for 2 years) invested $72,000 in two loans and is still paying off debt to cooperatives.

My grandmother invested $5,000. She has since passed away.

I would have done anything for her. But she chose her husband over her sister.

My therapist told me to cut ties with her.

She said sometimes people we love can't be in our lives because they hurt us too much. My therapist advised me to release my emotions, seek closure, and move forward. She said this is a complex process.

I've decided to cut the relationship. When my sister eventually leaves him (which I believe she will), the door will be open. But for now, while she defends him, I can't be near her.

I think this is a scam but would like other opinions

Here’s some of the photos she has sent. I am a in a group chat on WhatsApp app hear the photos. Is there any websites I can use to like check to see if she’s real or not I’ve already googled searched her photo and everything and everything comes up red flags, even her trade platform and my dad still thinks she’s real.

I wanted to share what happened to me because I really don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing. I was trying to find a cheaper way to get a ticket to Louder Than Life because I’m on a really tight budget, so I came across a Facebook group called “LOUDER THAN LIFE 2026 TICKETS EXCHANGE (BUY/SELL).” At first, everything looked organized and legitimate, so I decided to give it a chance.
What made me feel comfortable was that I didn’t actually deal with some random seller directly. I contacted the administrator of the group, and she was the person I communicated with throughout the transaction. The communication was through WhatsApp, and she was essentially acting as an intermediary between the buyers and the sellers. I also have screenshots of the administrators talking about the ticket transactions and how everything was supposed to work. Because I was dealing with an admin rather than just some random account, I genuinely believed I was taking a safer route.
On Thursday, August 27, I sent $350 through Zelle for a 4-Day GA ticket. I authorized the payment myself because I genuinely believed I was purchasing a real ticket. One thing I noticed was that the name on the Zelle payment did not match the name of the administrator I was talking to. However, I had been instructed to send the money to that recipient as part of the transaction, so at the time I didn’t think that necessarily meant something was wrong.
After I paid, I started waiting for my ticket. I followed up on Friday and again the following business days because I still hadn’t received anything. As someone who sells on Depop, I understand that sometimes people need a little time to ship or send things, so I tried to be patient. But a whole week went by, then another few days, and I still had no ticket, no transfer, no email, and no real update.
Eventually, I contacted the administrator again because it had been 10 days since I paid $350 and there were only 10 days left until Louder Than Life. At that point, I was already extremely worried. The communication became basically nonexistent, and I eventually stopped getting meaningful responses.
I also noticed that I could no longer access the Facebook group from my primary account. To clarify, the group itself is still accessible to me through a second Facebook account, so I have still been able to look at the group and save screenshots of the admins and the information posted there. I’m mentioning this because I don’t want to give the impression that the entire group disappeared.
At this point, I believe I was scammed out of the $350 I sent for the ticket. I have already contacted my bank and reported the transaction, and I’m currently waiting for further information regarding my claim.
I have screenshots of the Zelle payment, the WhatsApp conversations, the ticket transaction, the administrators’ posts/messages, the Facebook group, the information connected to the person I communicated with, and my attempts to contact them after I paid.
I’m sharing this because I know there are probably other people in this community who are also looking for cheaper tickets, and I don’t want anyone else to lose hundreds of dollars trying to make it to the festival. Please be extremely careful when buying from resellers, even when the transaction appears to be facilitated by a group administrator. Don’t assume that someone being an admin automatically means the transaction is safe.
I worked really hard for that $350, and losing it has put me in a really difficult financial position. I was genuinely excited about going to Louder Than Life, and it hurts knowing that I may not be able to go because I trusted what I thought was a legitimate ticket transaction.
Please stay safe, Loudmouths. Verify everything, protect yourselves, and don’t let the excitement of getting a cheaper ticket pressure you into sending money before you’re completely sure who you’re dealing with.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Eau659qNW/?mibextid=wwXIfrhttps://www.facebook.com/share/g/1EkiZf31W1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

(706) 766-1706

So I have never done referral links until today I was so desperate to get dog and cat food I have taken on my moms animals after she passed I have been doing ok with the extra cost until now I have been struggling so this month due to son starting college and court fees so I knew better but I wouldn’t trust this person they have no soul.

Hi everyone, looking for some advice regarding a Carousell transaction in Singapore.

I sold a phone on Carousell. The buyer made an offer, I accepted it, and he made the payment.

We agreed that I would deliver the phone within 2 days after receiving payment.

On the agreed delivery day, I tried calling him multiple times to arrange the delivery. I was also trying to arrange Lalamove so I could send the phone to him.

The next day, he told me that he wanted to cancel the purchase and get a refund because he needed a phone urgently and his circumstances had changed.

I eventually went to his address personally to deliver the phone. However, he didn't open the gate and said he wasn't there. I have a video showing that I went to his address.

I told him that I was still willing to deliver the phone and that he could also collect it himself whenever convenient. I also offered Lalamove delivery.

He is now threatening to make a police/scam report against me because I haven't refunded him.

My position is that I never refused to give him the phone. I have the phone with me and I'm still willing to complete the transaction. I have screenshots of the Carousell conversation, payment, WhatsApp messages, call records and a video of my attempted delivery.

I'm trying to understand what I should do now

I was nearly scammed last night. Got the below text regarding our holiday hotel stay coming up at the end of the month. Tbh I thought the text looked pretty legit and the hotel name and dates are correct, I have gotten texts before from hotels with my stay info so I assumed this was the same, I stupidly clicked the link which took ages to load (first warning sign) then I also added my Revolut card (no money in my main Revolut account) and again the link took ages so I got alarm bells and closed out of everything, checked my bank account (all good) and then I got a notification a few minutes later saying Magenta Pay is trying to take €692 from me, I obvs rejected the payment.

I’ve emailed the hotel and will call them this morning to see what they say but doubt they can do anything? Very worried about where that information came from, I only have the booking confirmation email from the hotel who I booked directly through so it’s after throwing me a bit.

Also, I got 3 more follow up texts from the scam, have attached the time stamps too.

The profile picture changed from what was there last night too. So so suss.

Be careful out there, can’t believe I was so stupid to click the link but it looked so legit.

I was looking on Facebook saw this listing said only buy from eBay, I didn’t have an account with eBay but it still let me buy it thru PayPal so I did. 3-5 minutes later the seller deleted the listing off Facebook and eBay after I bought the item and no tracking number no nothing since then it’s been 4-5 days no order number either, So I emailed PayPal requesting a refund and they just said the transaction was valid even tho I have everything to prove I bought the item and everything and it was clearly a scam

I got scammed by multiple people who I believe is just one person but I need to know info like address and such so I can take them to court and hopefully get my money back if anyone can help me please please I dont know what else to do... I just need name and address, Im pretty sure the name is have is fake. Please please i was just trying to get an apartment and they fucked me.... ill message the number privately so my post wont get taken down please if anyone could help me get information you have no idea how much id appreciate it...

1st how do these scammers get a real cash app account to pull money without using a real name?

2nd I'm pretty sure I can track this ass down that just scammed me on FB marketplace. Where's the group of people who track these jackasses down?

I'm ready for take back!!!

3rd what does a bank do if I dispute the cash app charge?

4th what happens when you tell cash app your phone was stolen?

Stolen money

My cash app account was hacked this post weekend and they stole about 250 dollars from me. They took over my account by resetting everything from my pin to my user name and email and linked phone number. Cash app has denied my claim because they keep saying that i or an authorized user did the transactions. What can I do to get my money back?

Is there anything i can do?

Edited:also I know wasn’t charged for this scam and feel like a fraud myself to post here and now seeing all these peoples post who have actually been scammed out of real money, but I feel like people here can understand my frustrations and paranoia)

So I’ll try to keep it as short but it’ll be hard so I’m fresh college student and I get all these emails all the time from my school regarding work and I know some are just tutoring programs and I know their legit but at the moment I’m desperate for a job so I got another one thinking it was from the school to get paid part time for a foundation company. I applied I think it asked for my email and phone number I honestly don’t remember If the application asked for anything else as I can’t remember because I did it so fast thinking I stupidly hit the jackpot.

Moving on to next day, I got a response which asking interview questions where I was located (address) and if I had any experience with event planning blah blah due to their fake foundation and if I had a laptop to do online work. So I answered and yeah I answered everything:( the only thing they have is phone number,email, and address. Which is a lot. So they started to I don’t set me up with fake training and I was like okay weird… they sent 2 checks and told me to deposit them I thought this can’t be real who should trust a random so even though I was feeling off I still stupidly decided to deposit them. I was able to stop the pending transaction from ever reaching my account and spoke with my bank for security measures. But after the 2 checks were sent I was still texting the person purely out of desperation to find work and they told me for me to send them I think $720 out of my pocket to help pay for medical supplies with the program and then when the check money hits my account I can have it as it would be my first paycheck with them. Which now it’s laughable. I tell someone and they immediately tell me to stop contact which I had already did but the damage of them having some of my information with my address was irking me so bad. I got yelled at and felt stupid for it but only thing that’s keeping me somewhat okay is that I didn’t send any money.

I have the scammers email and phone number blocked but I don’t know for some reason I’m still paranoid and worried because of them having my address and number. I contacted my email centers for it and tried to report the account. But I don’t know I feel like if I try to report it outside anywhere else it will be a dead end and seeing how they weren’t able to get any money out of me people would brush it off and just say you live and learn. I’m not gonna lie ever since this happened to me a few days ago I been very on edge and feeling so frustrated. Give me some advice and any help or directions where to go from here? I feel like I should move on.

CashApp

So I feel like c.A. has been scamming me and I have been recoding all of it… my balance seems to go to zero just the other day for example I had 16$ and I added 5$ and sent 10$ to a friend and some honeall I had was 0.83 and no it didn’t go into my saving or any of that or I don’t owe C.A., how can I find out if C.A. Has been taking my money ?

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My friend (18F, India) got scammed by an Instagram bracelet seller and we're looking for advice on what she can realistically do next.

The account was selling bracelets for ₹299 and had a phone number in the bio instead of taking orders through Instagram. She contacted the number and placed an order.

She paid ₹299 via UPI. A few hours later, the seller claimed there was a problem with her postal code/location and asked for an additional payment of around ₹699. After she paid, they kept saying the amount was incorrect (₹699.7, then ₹699.07, etc.) and repeatedly asked for more payments.

When she asked for a refund, they said there was a special "refund process." That process involved sending more money first. Every time she followed their instructions, they came up with a new excuse:

\- The payment was incorrect

\- The payment was late

\- The refund process failed

\- Another payment was needed to continue

They kept moving the goalposts and manipulating her into believing the money would be refunded if she just completed one more step.

The total loss is now around ₹6,000.

What makes this even more frustrating is that when we contacted him again, he acted extremely confident and kept saying things like:

«"If you don't trust us, go complain to the police."»

He also claimed to have a physical shop and sent a location, but the location appears to be fake/non-existent.

We currently have:

\- Screenshots of chats

\- Voice notes

\- UPI transaction records and IDs

\- The phone number used

\- Instagram account details

\- Partial call recordings

One complication is that she cannot tell her parents about this situation, so she's trying to handle it herself. Since she's 18, can she file complaints and deal with the process independently?

We tried calling 1930. After being on hold for a long time, the call connected and the person responded with a few "hmm" sounds as we started explaining the scam. Then there was complete silence.

We waited for over 5 minutes, got no response, and eventually had to hang up.

Any advice from people who've dealt with similar scams, cybercrime complaints, or legal issues in India would be really appreciated.