Scams

Facebook has ads for products that are obviously too good to be true. What happens if you actually try to buy them?

Will an egg turn gelatinous if soaked in toothpaste overnight?

Conspiracy theories about the pandemic have gained more traction than mainstream online events. Here's how.

Habbo Hotel is an online community for teens to make friends and buy virtual goods. It also has been a haven for widespread virtual crime.

The Secret Service has warned that scammers have already bilked state governments for millions of dollars.

A renowned scholar claimed that he discovered a first-century gospel fragment whose text closely matched modern Bibles. Now he's facing allegations of antiquities theft, cover-up and fraud.

A viral COVID-19 conspiracy video features an interview with a researcher described as "one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation." But a closer look reveals a professional history mired in scientific controversies and spurious claims.

SoftRAM claimed to double the available Random-access memory on your computer for $79.95. Here's what happens when you run it on your computer.

5-Minute Crafts purports to show an amazing salt reaction when adding vinegar. The King of Random finds out if it's real.

One business is booming during the pandemic: dog and cat scams.

Despite my experience as a security professional, I didn't realize this was a scam until about the third email.

An emerging black market offers Amazon sellers pricey ways to cheat the marketplace and mislead customers, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Flight Club is really running quite the racket with these obscenely inflated sneaker prices.

Believing in online hoaxes can be dangerous now. Here's how we can all help.

Canada Goose has announced that it will stop buying new coyote fur starting in 2022 — but did you know in the first place that Canada Goose is not, in fact, just goose?

The IRS enlisted TurboTax's help to deliver stimulus checks. It could cost you.

Regulators have given banks the green light to use stimulus funds to pay off debts that individuals owe them.

They just sued a Kansas-based healthcare recruitment company.

Scammers are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic by sending emails claiming to be from the WHO. How are they doing this?

Some people just hang up on these scammers. While some, like this woman, opt for a more colorful way of rejection.

Coquin restaurant in Charleston is facing criticism for allegedly selling $2 frozen pizzas to customers for $18 and passing them off as homemade.

What Elizabeth Swaney lacked in talent she made up for in raw determination and craftiness.

"I wondered myself, 'Why would they rehire her?'" said Michael Beard, a former executive director of the school who retired in 2012. "I was completely shocked."

Months of testing confirm earlier suspicions that the fragments were made in modern times. What happens next?

An embattled veterans charity had the chance to make a "fresh start." It's still struggling.

While many wellness companies co-opt shaky science into a beauty trend, some are framing lymphatic drainage massage as a fundamental part of cancer treatment.

A classic grift has evolved over time.

Shoppers scouring the internet and Main Street for these critical supplies say they are being hit with eye-popping prices. Shipping costs have also skyrocketed, with one shopper being quoted $500 for ground and $5,000 for next-day air.

A collection of online stores offer murder for pay. Researchers say they are scams, but people who want someone dead aren't listening.

Airbnb suspended scores of shady property listings in London. And then things got really messy.

Jim Browning discovered when a scammer connected to his PC, he was able to watch his would-be thief attempt to trick him over a closed-circuit television connection.

There are some stories that a writer just can't quit. There are also stories that themselves won't quit. For me, "Not Fuzz" became both.

Former food company executive Michelle Janavs was sentenced to five months in prison Tuesday for paying bribes in the college admissions scam, the US Attorney's Office in Massachusetts said.

So-called "kitchen hacks" rack up billions of views showing supposed instructions on making quick desserts that turn out to be bunk. BBC Click's Chris Fox follows the recipes step-by-step to expose the scam.

What a website that generates infinite fake humans tells us about modern life.

Lawsuits, mountains of unsold leggings, and families drowning in debt: the tumultuous story behind a multilevel marketing brand that promised millennial women a pathway to financial freedom.

Accused of orchestrating a literary Ponzi scheme, Gérard Lhéritier prepares his defense as his breathtaking collection is auctioned off.

The Houston Astros cheated their way to a World Series title — and mostly got away with it.

Instagram influencer Kayla Massa of New Jersey has been accused of scamming $1.5 million out of her social media followers and businesses.

The pink princess philodendron is the ultimate Instagram plant, with three-digit price tags to match. The following it cultivated was also ripe for deception.

Intuit has amped up its misleading digital advertising in the wake of a new IRS agreement that bars tax prep companies from burying the agency's Free File program.

Derek Murphy investigates runners whose times seem suspicious, which is what brought him to a 70-year-old doctor named Frank Meza.

I don't mind spending money, but I hate getting scammed. The idea that I need to get a new phone every year or two just because Apple makes one or my carrier offers an "upgrade" is a scam.

When "American Ninja Warrior" producer Johnathan  Walton began to suspect his best friend — whom he'd loaned nearly $70,000 — was not the royal she claimed, he launched an investigation that uncovered dozens of alleged victims.

How Cheech and Chong's Facebook timeline unwittingly exposed a network of niche dating websites tied to Firefly Aerospace.

The curious tale of a man called Christian, the Catholic church, David Schwimmer's wife, a secret hotel and an Airbnb scam running riot on the streets of London

Wanna know tomorrow's temperature? Don't visit weather.com to find out, especially if you're on a mobile device: the website has been compromised by a malicious advertising (malvertising) attack that is scraping personal information from its mobile users.

Todd Hitt is a son of the Hitt construction dynasty, the family who built landmarks all over DC. And he made sure everyone knew it.

"It is outrageous that Goop continues to exploit health issues in order to make money."

Robert Peters was such an inveterate liar that it was impossible to believe a single word that he wrote or said: even the most mundane facts would need to be verified independently.

Nearly 1,000 people flooded our inbox with their stories. We found some patterns.

In the age of the great grifters, I'm not sure why I was still so shocked to learn that there is actually no real evidence that stem cell treatments do any good — maybe because I'm surprised more people don't know this. I came away from this article feeling both more knowledgeable and more jaded.

A burglary takes place every three minutes in India. Criminals dish on what they look for.

Every once in a while something pops up that is extraordinary. The deck presented here is one of those things.

The band Panicland thought it would be fun to create a phony Green Day album entitled "Magnum Opus of the Inglorious Kind" to fool fans — but then it actually started sounding really good.

"We pulled off a serious cinematic sting, maybe even a whole new genre."

Author Gary Indiana would probably note that most years in America have been years of the grifter.

Although he took bids from all interested parties, as with most scams the patsy was picked out well in advance.

Social media influencer Tavo Betancourt gets exposed for cheating on a Super Mario Bros. speed run.

VICE also found that 29 of the 30 photos that currently illustrate FlexPro's menu options are either stock photos or were pulled from other websites.