50 Scam Quotes For Seeing Through Swindlers

By Clifton Sankofa | Published July 15, 2023

Learn to spot a scam artist and never let anything get past you with these scam quotes!

Scammers are more popular today than ever before.

What is a scam?

Is a scam the same thing as a fraud?

Find out more with our scam quotes below.

What is a scam?

A scam is a fraudulent scheme generally involving money or business transactions.

Check out these interesting scam facts below:

Fraud reports have increased by more than thirty percent from 2021.
Investment scams lead the pack with over 3.8 billion in losses reported.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported losing almost 9 billion to fraud in 2022.

Why are there so many scammers out there?

Why does it seem like there are so many scammers today?

You have everything from fake IRS emails, romance schemes, and zombie debt to tech support investment offers making their way to your inbox.

For as advanced as we may feel as a global collective, we live in uncertain times.

Economies crash left and right, and raw materials and resources remain in high demand.

Will Mendez is the managing director of the New York City-based cybersecurity firm CyZen.

He notes, “In social engineering, fear is one of the most effective psychological factors out there.”

He continues, “If people are afraid they can’t make any money or will lose their job, scammers take advantage of the fear.”

Scammers love to take advantage of this fear.

And according to Mendez, “There’s a little bit of greed, but people are looking to make money, and this opportunity comes, and they’re more susceptible.”

The FTC notes that almost 9 billion dollars in fraud cases were reported last year.

With all this potential money up for grabs, scammers gain more courage to try their hand at stealing it.

What is the difference between a scam and a fraud?

Scams come in various forms.

A few weeks ago, I received a call, and the person on the other end of the line said, “Hello, can you confirm your social security number with me so I can inform you of the enormous debt you have accrued so you can pay and avoid getting arrested?

The caller did not identify themselves, and they asked me for private personal information.

The scammer is depending on catching me off guard by explaining that I have accrued a large debt and risk criminal charges.

Since I know I do not have any overdue charges anywhere and am aware of the importance of safeguarding my social security number, I either hang up the phone or inform the caller I cannot help them.

However, if a person is unsure if they have an outstanding bill or feel the pressure of being asked for personal information, they might share personal information that can harm them.

Scammers look for information to take advantage of.

The line between scam and fraud is thin.

Fraud implies deception and a breach of trust.

Fraud is a broader category of wrongdoing than a scam. Scams can belong to the more general type of fraud.

A scam is generally a more minor offense than fraud which is considered very serious.

To learn more, check out our scam quotes below.

Short scam quotes about ripping people off

Check out this list of short scam quotes.

1. “Wow, were there a lot of scammers.” — Ben Stein

2. “Curiosity pulls people into the scam.” — Frank Stallone

3. “Wind is one of the greatest scams of the modern age.” — Robert Bryce

4. “The money’s the same, whether you earn it or scam it.” — Bobby Heenan

5. “Our identity in the world must change from Scam India to Skill India.” — Narendra Modi

6. “It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled, and highly offended by it.” — John Coleman

7. “The real sin with Social Security is that it’s a long-term rip-off and a short-term scam.” — Tony Snow

8. “The value of money is a scam perpetrated by those who have it over those who don’t” — Karen Joy Fowler

9. “Cats have a scam going you buy the food, they eat the food, they go away; that’s the deal.” — Eddie Izzard

10. “They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.” — Joseph Addison

The top scam quotes about the power of fraud

Fraud has become a more significant threat in the digital age.

11. “Hollywood is largely about scammers and con men.” — Ben Stein

12. “Donald Trump is pulling off a world-class scam here.” — Marco Rubio

13. “The American Dream never really existed. It was a marketing scam.” — James Altucher

14. “We need a Skilled India, but Congress has created a Scam India in the last ten years.” — Narendra Modi

15. “If cryonics were a scam, it would have far better marketing and be far more popular.” — Eliezer Yudkowsky

16. “A lot of hackers set up scam sites. They can impersonate a site like PayPal, for instance.” — Michael Demon Calce

17. “I can see through almost any scam, especially one perpetrated by the federal government.” — Gary Coleman

18. “Herbalife: the customers are fictitious, the business opportunity is a scam, the university degree is a fraud.” — Bill Ackman

19. “When I got old enough to date, I realized that Valentine’s Day is just a commercial marketing scam to make men feel bad.” — Evangeline Lilly

20. “I saw a limit to what I was giving as kind of a scam I was running on the KGB, by giving them people that I knew were their double agents fed to us.” — Aldrich Ames

The best scam quotes for seeing through lies

It is essential to train ourselves on how to see through scams.

21. “I was a scam artist in high school for a while.” — Scott Caan

22. “Being an artist is supposed to be a scam, not a career.” — Wade Guyton

23. “As I’ve said before, free money scams are a problem.” — Matthew Lesko

24. “Wall Street’s favorite scam is pretending that luck is skill.” — Ronald Ross

25. “I think one of the biggest scams in law enforcement is the monitor.” — Raymond Kelly

26. “There’s people trying to tell me what to do, but I’m not like some marketing scam.” — Sky Ferreira

27. “My little scam in April ’85 went like this: Give me $50,000; here’s some names of some people we’ve recruited.” — Aldrich Ames

28. “It was the heart of any scam or fiddle keep the punter uncertain, or, if he is certain, make him certain of the wrong thing.” — Terry Pratchett

29. “However, a man who was honest and clever was always, always more difficult to scam than someone who was both dishonest and clever.” — Brandon Sanderson

30. “The government doesn’t really prosecute for polygamy anymore, but a lot of the arrests are of groups supporting themselves through welfare scams or for child abuse.” — Jeanne Tripplehorn

Famous scam quotes for staying safe

Fraudsters and scammers are everywhere these days.

31. “[Hollywood] was my main livelihood for about 25 years, and the scams were beautiful and ugly, cheap and expensive.” — Ben Stein

32. “Global Warming: It is a hoax. It is bad science. It is high-jacking public policy. It is the greatest scam in history.” — John Coleman

33. “Religion is a group of scam artists that sell the calming idea that your body is a temple of God, while your mind belongs to them.” — Jose Antonio Carrillo

34. “Cake baking has to be, however innocently, one of the great culinary scams: it implies effort, it implies domestic prowess; but believe me, it’s easy.” — Nigella Lawson

35. “I committed to directing ‘Catch Me If You Can’ not because of the divorce component, but principally because Frank Abagnale did things that were the most astonishing scams I had ever heard.” — Steven Spielberg

36. “Donald Trump is trying to pull off the biggest scam in American political history, basically, a con job, where he’s trying to take over the Republican Party by telling people he’s someone who he is not.” — Marco Rubio

37. “The Roman Catholic Church is an institution for whose gains the phrase “ill-gotten” might have been specially invented. And of all its money-making rip-offs, the selling of indulgences must surely rank among the greatest con tricks in history, the medieval equivalent of the Nigerian Internet scam but far more successful.” — Richard Dawkins

38. “The war on drugs was never meant to be won. Instead, it will be prolonged as long as possible in order to allow various intelligence operations to wring the last few hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits from the global drug scam.” — Terence McKenna

39. “Through it all, this wildlife on and off the road, through Jordanian deserts, Spanish islands, German prisons, Caribbean tax scams, halls of fame, wine, women, and all the drugs under the sun, one constant companion has never abandoned me. My first true love: singing.” — Eric Burdon

40. “We were gonna have a show of new, fresh, good acts. But we couldn’t find any; they were all lousy. So rather than throw away the idea, I said, “Let’s reverse it. Let’s do lousy acts.” Now, is that a scam? I’m telling you.” — Chuck Barris

Scam quotes and sayings about education and knowledge

Today everyone seems to have an opinion on what the newest scam is.

41. “Climate change is a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money.” — Donald Trump

42. “I’m gay; it’s all a big scam. My kids don’t even know who their mother is.” — Harry Connick, Jr.

43. “The basic scam in the Internet age is pretty easy even for the financially illiterate to grasp.” — Matt Taibbi

44. “But if everybody can have a pipeline to deity, why then the whole priest scam is put out of business.” — Terence McKenna

45. “So one of the scams I have going now is I want to learn sports photography so I can get better seats at a sporting event.” — Drew Carey

46. “The State reaped many millions with its driver’s license scam, and began issuing heavy fines for not having a State license.” — Eustace Mullins

47. “I tried the religion scam in Miami, so I know how hard that gig is. But, if you can get it to work, starting your own religion is a license to print money.” — Lenny Bruce

48. “I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow and to the Republicrats for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice, and jugs of wine for owls.” — Matt Groening

49. “I believe that as little as a decade from now, global warming will be recognized as one of the greatest swindles in world history.” — Doug Casey

50. “My view on global warming is that it’s a gigantic financial scam to funnel money to these countries that think they ostensibly are going to use to improve conditions in their country, environmentally and so on, but officials use.” — Don Imus