By Fred Flamer
I know it can't just be me.
Does anyone else feel as though we are living in the Golden Age of Scammery?
Think about it. What percentage of the unsolicited emails, text messages, phone calls, social-media messages, and even old-fashioned letters you receive require you to stop and ask yourself:
“Is this legitimate—or is somebody trying to scam me?”
The fact that we even have to ask that question so frequently says something about the world we are living in.
And when I use the word scammery, I'm not talking exclusively about criminal fraud. I'm also talking about that broader feeling of being nickel-and-dimed, manipulated, misled, upsold, downsized, data-mined, and squeezed from seemingly every direction.
Everything Costs More—But Are We Getting More?
Fuel costs more. Energy costs more. Insurance costs more. Automobiles cost more. Maintaining those automobiles costs more. Housing costs more. Home repairs cost more. Healthcare costs more.
Then there are groceries.
Eating at a sit-down restaurant has become expensive, but even grabbing a quick fast-food meal can leave you staring at the receipt wondering:
“When did THAT start costing this much?”
Businesses certainly face legitimate increases in labor, materials, energy, transportation, insurance, rent, and other expenses. I understand that.
But consumers are also justified in asking whether every price increase they encounter reflects an unavoidable increase in cost—or whether sometimes businesses simply recognize that consumers have become accustomed to hearing the words “inflation” and “rising costs.”
At some point you start wondering:
How much of this is necessity—and how much is opportunity?
The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Store
Then we have one of my personal favorites: shrinkflation.
You buy a bag of chips and discover you've essentially purchased a handheld airbag with a few chips rattling around at the bottom.
You buy something that used to contain twelve pieces.
Now there are ten.
Same-looking package. Similar price.
Apparently 10 is the new dozen.
And have you noticed products you've eaten for years suddenly don't taste quite the way you remember?
Sometimes manufacturers reformulate products, change suppliers, alter portion sizes, or substitute ingredients. There can be legitimate reasons for doing so, but from the consumer's perspective the experience can be frustratingly simple:
I'm paying more—and somehow getting less.
Everybody Wants a Piece of Your Paycheck
Then consider how many directions your money travels before you ever get the opportunity to enjoy it.
Income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, registration fees, insurance premiums, service charges, subscription fees, convenience fees, delivery fees, processing fees, tolls—and sometimes a mysterious little charge that makes you ask:
“What exactly am I paying THIS fee for?”
I'm not arguing that taxes, tolls, or fees are inherently scams. Governments need revenue and businesses have expenses.
I'm talking about the cumulative experience.
You work for your money, taxes and deductions come out, and then seemingly everyone you encounter afterward wants another little piece of what's left.
Sometimes you have to wonder:
How much of the money we earn do we actually get to keep?
The Gig-Economy Squeeze
My heart particularly goes out to gig-economy workers.
Many people perform this work because they need the flexibility or additional income. But look at the equation from the worker's perspective:
Fuel.
Vehicle maintenance.
Tires.
Oil changes.
Depreciation.
Registration.
Insurance.
Taxes.
Competition from other drivers.
Unpredictable demand.
Low-paying offers.
And customers who may leave little—or nothing—as a tip.
The number displayed on an app isn't necessarily what that worker actually earns after expenses.
Technology has also given platforms enormous power to determine which jobs workers see, how work is distributed, how incentives are structured, and ultimately how profitable an hour of someone's labor becomes.
The algorithm never needs a lunch break—but the person trying to make a living certainly does.
When the Price Starts Watching YOU
Then we enter the world of dynamic pricing.
Prices can change based on demand, timing, inventory, location, market conditions, and other factors.
Dynamic pricing isn't automatically fraudulent. Airlines, hotels, rideshare companies, entertainment venues, and other businesses have used variations of it for years.
But as more commerce becomes digital, consumers should pay attention to how far this concept eventually goes.
Because there's a significant difference between:
“The market price changed.”
and
“The price changed because a system determined exactly how much YOU might be willing to pay.”
That is a conversation consumers should absolutely be having.
Welcome to the Internet's School of Scammery
And then we arrive at the internet.
Good grief.
Fake gurus.
Fake investment experts.
Fake giveaways.
Fake reviews.
Fake influencers.
Fake customer-service representatives.
Fake cryptocurrency opportunities.
Fake romantic interests.
Fake employment recruiters.
Fake job postings.
Fake businesses.
Fake websites.
Fake social-media profiles.
And increasingly, AI-generated voices, photographs, videos, and identities that can make the fake appear remarkably real.
Some people online will happily sell you the secret to becoming wealthy—usually by purchasing the course explaining how they supposedly became wealthy.
That's quite a business model.
Dating apps have their own ecosystem of deception: stolen photographs, embellished biographies, romance scammers, catfishing, financial manipulation, and people presenting carefully manufactured versions of themselves.
Even employment deserves scrutiny. Job seekers now have to distinguish legitimate openings from outdated listings, recruiting pipelines, data-collection efforts, and outright fraudulent job advertisements designed to steal personal information.
Imagine that.
You're simply trying to find employment—and even THAT requires cybersecurity awareness.
So What Happened?
Technology has made legitimate commerce faster, easier, and more convenient than anything previous generations could have imagined.
Unfortunately, technology gave scammers those exact same advantages.
A criminal once had to physically approach potential victims.
Today, one person sitting thousands of miles away can potentially contact thousands of people before lunch.
Email scales.
Text messaging scales.
Social media scales.
Automation scales.
Artificial intelligence scales.
And deception scales right along with them.
That may be the defining characteristic of today's Golden Age of Scammery:
The scammer no longer needs to find you individually. Technology allows the scammer to find everybody simultaneously.
Keep Your Head Up
I don't know exactly where all of this ends.
But I do know this:
We cannot walk around frightened of everything.
We can't assume every business is dishonest, every stranger is a criminal, or every technological advancement is designed to exploit us.
What we can do is become harder to manipulate.
Slow down.
Ask questions.
Read before agreeing.
Inspect before paying.
Question unexpected requests.
Protect your personal information.
And when something doesn't feel right, verify it independently.
Remember:
Emotion Up = Decision Making Down.
Pressure Up = Inspection Down.
And perhaps most importantly:
When in Doubt = Verify Out-of-Band.
We may indeed be living in the Golden Age of Scammery.
But that doesn't mean we have to make ourselves easy targets.
Keep your collective heads up, my friends.
Stay informed. Stay skeptical. Stay safe.
Godspeed to us all.
-Fin-
#SeniorSecured #GoldenAgeOfScammery #ScamAwareness #FraudPrevention #StayAlert
© 2026 Fred Flamer. All Rights Reserved.