Seeing Is Disbelieving: 45 Servings Of Food Scams That Have Us Asking For Refunds

Can you name something worse than a scam? Unfortunately, you may have a limited list. Food scams can leave you devastated and full of betrayal. Over the past decades, food scammers have grown bolder, and it’s become more common to find yourself paying for 1% food, 9% plastic, and 90%. Among the foodie generation, food scams sting us more, yet they never make it to the top of our list of heartbreaks. But don’t give up hope yet; if we work together, perhaps we can put an end to this food injustice. At the very least, we can help out our fellow consumers and share the food scams we’ve fallen victim to. One group on Reddit, FoodScam, is all about sharing, well, food scams. We’ve compiled a list of 45 of the worst food scams that make us question everything in the store.

1. Beef Box

If you aren’t vegetarian, you may fall victim to this scam. Most consumers agree that food scammers go out of line with beef boxes. From a glance, one may argue that responsible scammers argue for the box more than the beef jerky while leading clients to think otherwise.

If you’re clever, you may learn to spot the scam before losing any money. You may begin by looking from under the box instead of the sides. Food scammers take advantage of what you want to see from the sides. Fortunately, a peak from the bottom can save you disappointment.

2. Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

At some point, every person is guilty of lying. In Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith Grey claims that lying isn’t good, but we choose to lie most times. Unfortunately, food scammers take lying too seriously, especially lies of omission. Take this box of chocolates, for example…

Forrest Gump may have a few words to say about this box of chocolates. One may wonder about the humanity of food scammers taking advantage of us chocolate lovers. There should be repercussions for food scammers pulling tricks like this!

3. Air For The Chips To Breathe

Pringles stands out among other chips companies for not charging folks for air. Their advert speaks more about the bigger bag with more content to share with friends and family. And when packaged in a can, there’s it’s harder to hide massive pockets of air.

Doritos isn’t the only offender guilty of this. We can all agree that we don’t care about how big the bag is…we just want more chips in the bag! We can only assume that guilty food scammers are aware of their deception while preparing and packaging the product. Plus, the bigger bags means more plastic that pollutes the environment!

4. Styrofoam Suprise

Birthdays are arguably the most celebrated event around the world, given that 7.8 billion people have one! As your birthday approaches, you may dig into your savings to ensure that you cover various expenses for the celebration. Especially the cake, which is the centerpiece for any birthday party.

The best feeling involves cutting the cake while friends and family sing happy birthday in the background. Unfortunately, this Redditor could only cut halfway in the cake above before reaching a roadblock. We hope that they got their money back from the bakery for playing dirty.

5. Ore-oh No

Scammers take advantage of your perspective. When you purchase an elegant tin for your knitting and sewing with tasty Oreo as the free bonus snacks, it’s best to harbor fewer expectations. With the right approach, you are prone to minimal rage and heartbreak.

Despite various expectations, we’re doing food scammers a favor. Various folks have been subjected to the disappointment of missing Oreos. Instead of seeking compensation for the absent cookies, most folks find a way to calm down and move past the unfair trade.

6. Filling Or Fluke?

Not everyone likes filling in their pastries, but those who do expect to get a decent serving of the filling with their treat. The snack pictured below is a snack popular in Central Europe; a pastry filled with poppy seeds. Of course, homemade is always better, but when you have a craving, store-bought will do…

But there should at least be some of what’s promised on the package. There is so little filling it almost looks like it was an accident in the bakery rather than intentional filling. Who knows why they tried to trick their buyers? Was it for the product weight, or simply cheap manufacturing?

7. Literally on the Side

In some cases, the dishonor of food scammers surpasses their reputation. In most cases, producers scam you on purpose instead of giving you the best quality. Hundreds of folks go through the unfortunate experience of getting extra toppings on the side from various producers.

Food scammers should use better strategies to avoid losing potential clients. In this case, the man’s spouse requested extra filing that they didn’t deliver. Going forth, one wouldn’t blame her for having trust issues concerning the extra sour cream on the side.

8. Half-Empty or Half-Full

Most producers take into account the size of containers in order to lure consumers into buying their products. They use the size to hide excess air and plastic, leaving you with little of the desired product. This image shows an individual buying a container that appears full when standing on the shelf.

A food scammer is likely to manipulate the wrapping to fool shoppers that don’t consider the specifics of the container. After the first shopping trip, one may point out the packaging secret of food scammers. We hope that each container at least contains the indicated weight of the product.

9. Ham and cheese?

Who doesn’t love a good sandwich? Recent studies show that most people love sandwiches to death and aren’t afraid to share their undivided love till death do they part! Unfortunately, you may have come across food scammers that may change your mind.

In the case of a “Scam-wich,” you will find a product with sandwich fillings layered generously, but only for display. Unfortunately, when eating, you find only a tiny bit of filling on the bread. One way to avoid this scam is to refrain from ordering sandwiches in cheap markets.

10. Deli Lies…Delies?

A while back, delis were the go-to fast food choice for many people. Unfortunately, food scammers have ruined the joy of each bite. Knowing that their customers will pay whatever they charge, producers have fallen to the temptation to up the price and reduce the content.

The first step to avoid these tricks is to question the displayed foods and other mouth-watering pictures. This photo shows a slice of tomato, cucumber, and lettuce stacked on only for display. If you order at a deli, make sure you can see them preparing it.

11. Wrap-filled Wrap

Only the evil and insane folks should take pride in implementing this next scam. Breakfast is essential and provides the energy you need to get through your daily tasks. No one should take advantage of this morning ritual, like this vendor did.

Imagine grabbing your breakfast on the way to school or work only to find your order short of food, as the image shows. We can imagine the disappointment of the one who ordered the breakfast above, hoping for a quality meal only to meet the sight above.

12. Floret Failure

Besides the unique taste, broccoli is popular for its rich nutritional benefits. When buying packaged broccoli, it’s possible to get thorns instead of roses. For this scam, tread lightly, considering that the packet has inscriptions of “delicate roses.” In place of broccoli flowers, you’ll get a surprise inside.

After seeing the “delicate roses,” we couldn’t conceal our disappointment. We wonder whether the food scammers ate the roses to leave a nice green stalk. Instead of abstaining from broccoli, we would like to smack the parties responsible with the stalk across their faces.

13. Empty Cannoli

For crimes against humanity, perpetrators and other involved parties should be brought to book within the shortest time possible. Our next illustration is a grotesque sight of one that should fall under crimes against humanity. We wonder if it could even be considered food, at this point.

The cannoli is innocent and deserves much better, depending on the recipe provided. Preparing cannoli without its respect, dignity, and filing is a wrong move for the scammers. We hate to say it, but the filling looks more like bird poop than anything else. We hope that the taste is better than how it looks.

14. One Lone Chip

“Chocolate chips” is never a singular term; there are always multiple — ideally, a handful. This bakery clearly didn’t know that because their definition of chocolate chip muffin is way off. Unfortunately, customers can’t tell what they’re getting until they bite into it.

They weren’t lying when they offered a chocolate chip muffin, rather than the option of a plain one. But we’re not sure they understand what a chocolate chip muffin is supposed to look like. Applying DIY skills to make chocolate chips from home can save you from disappointments like the one highlighted above.

15. Ba-conned

It’s disgusting when food scammers try funny games with esteemed clients. Imagine the disappointment of getting a shameful product only after you’ve paid the full price. As a staple of the traditional breakfast spread, if the movies are anything to go by, scammers shouldn’t mess with bacon.

This shows that the growing boldness of food scammers needs to be stopped before they cause further damage. The picture shows an infuriating order of the “side of bacon” a client ordered at the cost of six dollars. We hope that its taste may have compensated for its size.

16. Screaming at Ice Cream

Every person has at least one favorite flavor of ice cream — don’t judge us for having three different favorites. Ice cream is the ultimate snack, with its ability to cool you down on a summer’s day, and also to get you through tough times. Ice cream is also a global icon of joy received through food.

Can you spot a trace of the Oreo? Coming across this can make your day worse, not better. For the love of Oreos, food scammers should find different areas to pursue the mischiefs elsewhere. Messing with those who depend on Oreo ice cream to get through the day should be illegal.

17. Movie Night Disappointment

We wonder how the responsible parties can live with themselves after scamming food lovers. For this evil plan, we argue that torturing folks in this fashion is pointless. Instead of delivering the desired products, scammers feed their nasty sides and greed for more profits.

Why would one waste lots of plastic and cardboard for a product like this if not with the sole aim to defraud the innocent? This scam will ruin your mood for movie night, considering that your popcorn runs out faster. We recommend microwave or stove-top popcorn to avoid experiences like this.

18. The Lone Raisin

Choice of words is important in every field, but none more so than food scammers. The label says “raisin bagel” instead of a “bagel with raisins.” When your order arrives, you will be reminded of the singular aspect giving them an upper hand in this transaction.

Our consolation is that if you ordered it, you could try to return it. Most scammers take advantage of clients, knowing that they can get away easily without repercussions. Exposure to fraud through the internet will ensure that responsible parties answer for various actions.

19. Taco Bell Letdown

Scamming the passionate tacos lovers can attract dire consequences and the untamed wrath of those conned. In most cases, scammers use beautiful images that attract clients only to deliver products far from what you would expect. This is certain to ruin anyone’s day.

It’s so sad that producers may take advantage of our love for tacos and put zero effort towards perfection. We can imagine the disappointment of those opening this box. They may refrain from ordering nachos or avoid that Taco Bell next time they want that snack.

20. Missing Third of a Burrito

Fraudulent actions involving the burrito should be classified as parts of international fraud. Evidence shows that food cons are intentional and tactical, taking specific actions to increase their profit while eluding the wrath of customers. Hopefully, this Reddit group will put an end to it.

The scammers responsible for this heinous act put two-thirds of a burrito at extreme edges, leaving the middle third empty. And, of course, the opaque packaging makes it impossible for hungry customers to see what they’re getting. Shame on you, unknown food manufacturer!

21. Incomplete Nigiri

What’s the price someone should pay if they don’t take someone’s order right? Below is an example of an order that leaves us questioning the sanity of the person who took the order, or possibly the chef, because it’s only avocados. In a sushi restaurant, the nigiri is delivered alongside avocados.

The person taking the order may be innocent if the establishment insists on selling avocados and the nigiri separately. This scam is plain for everyone to see, considering that we wouldn’t order plain avocados while the menu indicates avocado nigiri as a dish.

22. Wrong Cookie?

Disparities between expectations and reality can leave you devastated, especially when it comes to food. For example, this picture shows vast differences that make you want to hit your head on the wall. Differences that are only visible once the package is opened…

How did they get it this wrong? Not only is it severely lacking in the promised chocolate chips, but the dough isn’t even right! We understand that the pictured foods are always photographed in the best light, but this is just crazy.

23. Muffin Top

Blueberry pastries are a sweet treat for most folks. Unfortunately, getting the best blueberry muffin may be harder than it seems. It doesn’t take a keen eye to spot the scam here. While we have to admit that it is a blueberry muffin…

Once again, the scammers used a game of words to achieve the singular-plural scam. As the name indicates, you are served one blueberry and one muffin. While making the next order, you should pay attention to the names and wording to ensure you get exactly what you want.

24. Picture Enlarged For Texture…And Color

As mentioned before, advertisements and packaging tactics are carefully crafted to mislead hordes of customers. For instance, this package shows sweet, spicy, golden, crispy, large chunks of garlic bread. As this customer discovered, inside, you’ll find tiny pieces of garlic bread different from those promised in the picture.

We fear that whoever created this garlic bread could be using similar tricks with different producers. The unscrupulous producers should feel shame for taking advantage of innocent shoppers who are just looking to buy some snacks. We know junk food isn’t top quality, but there should at least be some quality to it.

25. Cone of Shame

We’re sick of these lies, and we can’t emphasize how rampant they are among food scammers worldwide. We wonder when they will put an end to this and allow us to enjoy the delicious cornetto ice cream without fear of unscrupulous producers.

Once more, we call upon food scammers to steer clear of precious snacks like ice cream. Given that ice cream is among everyone’s favorite, especially during the summer, producers shouldn’t be quick to break our hearts. We may seek comfort elsewhere as this ice cream just makes us want to cry.

26. Flavored Ice

We believe that food scammers had no right to implement the ridiculous thought of conning us like this unless we specifically order “ice with a trace of root beer.” People are quick to notice things, especially when they are spending hard-earned money. Thanks to food scammers, one can’t even enjoy a root beer peacefully.

We were disappointed to discover that food scammers employ this trick all around the globe. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to stop this one any time soon. Next time, try a chilled soft drink, instead of a room temperature drink that needs ice to cool it down.

27. Be Mine?

Candy hearts are a controversial topic — are they candy, or are they chalk? Some people like the taste, while others simply like the cute phrases written on them. Regardless of what is written on the sweet, candy hearts must have text on them in order to count as a Valentine’s Day treat.

In our opinion, this may be the best defense for food scammers when paraded before the jury. We can’t compromise on this, considering that they made our sweethearts look and taste bad. After the punishment of guilty parties, we hope others will do better.

28. Nightmare Clown

Who’s your favorite clown? The image below features a creepy duo that could give you chills before you even take a bite. We can’t fully blame scammers for this one since both the pictured treat and the real one are equally a bit disturbing. Which one would you prefer to see under the wrapper?

We’re still short of words to describe how these unscrupulous manufacturers took advantage of an esteemed client eager to eat a chocolate-covered marshmallow clown. Nonetheless, we admit that the clown’s eyes look yummy. We wish that they could save us at least an eyeball.

29. Shrimp Sold Separately

Packaging and branding can be used to scam a first-time buyer before they take a look inside. If you order jumbo shrimp, you should ensure they aren’t cut in two halves strategically placed on the extreme ends of the package. Such stickers may hide the truth of your impending scam.

We wonder about the malice driving the person responsible for cutting the shrimps in half. It’s best to give the customers whole shrimps instead of employing such tricks. We’re sure the shrimps could air their discontent and questions about the division if they could.

30. Tomato Salad

What would you call this dish? While looking at the image below, we see something different from salad, given that they are just awkwardly shaped tomato slices on a plate covered with onions. We’d call this “tomatoes a la plate”…at best.

To make their fraudulent actions worse, they dared to charge five pounds. We hope the victim took legal measures to ensure the establishment didn’t scam future clients with impunity. This is utter contempt, and we hope that scammers will cease such behaviors.

31. Can Do or Can Don’t?

When thinking of 12 ounces of tomato paste, each person conjures up a slightly different image. For most of us, we believe that it should be filled to the brim with no extra space inside. It’s hard to imagine that responsible scammers would be so horrible.

Opening a sealed can find the sight highlighted above can devastate most people. You may quickly get enraged upon discovering that you have been fooled. Not that we encourage violence, but this feels more suitable to be thrown at the manufacturing plant rather than on a plate of pasta.

32. Floret Failure, Take Two

We would like to extend a warning to manufacturers about the dangers of messing with our broccoli. We wouldn’t call this steam-fresh any more than we would say stem-fresh. At this point, we’d be better off buying broccoli and steaming it ourselves (sans microwavable packages).

We can’t make sense of the thoughts in the minds of freaky food scammers. We believe that if such scammers intended for us to pay for the steam-fresh broccoli florets, they would have taken relevant measures. We may have to do most things ourselves to avoid these mistakes.

33. Sour Surprise

We may never forgive food scammers that mess with our childhood treats. Below is an example of sentimental packaging, but the sticks have gone through tremendous evolution to reduce quality and quantity. We won’t entertain any excuses for the change in size.

A single look at the hideous sour stick scam is enough to leave a sour taste in your mouth. One may argue that scammers are looking for newer ways to stir the sour part of life and make days worse as they see fit. Today’s children won’t discover the secret power of original sour sticks.

34. More Sauce Please

Even if you don’t eat burgers, we’re sure you can sympathize with Redditor. Consider this person that had waited eagerly all week to order the Burger King’s rodeo cheeseburger. Unfortunately, they were disappointed when Burger King delivered something different from the advertised piece.

Burger lovers will concur that no burger is complete without the sauces. Speaking of this, what is a rodeo burger without a trace of barbecue sauce. The lack of condiments in your rodeo burger may prompt us to take relevant actions towards bringing Burger King down.

35. Cup of Candy

While it may not be the first candy on anyone’s mind, if you ask around, you’ll find that most people are guilty of loving Jolly Ranchers. Unfortunately, we don’t know whom to trust when buying our candies nowadays. Mugs stuffed with candy used to be an easy store-bought gift, but now…

Adding Styrofoam in the mug in place of candy is a depressing and deceptive food scam. We don’t intend to sit back and let the scammers take advantage of clients so easily. The scammers will need more than colorful ribbons and pretty mugs to make up for this one.

36. Cardboard Stuffing

It’s honestly surprising how far food scammers will go in order to short-change customers and provide less food than they thought they bought. Lindor really outdid themselves here. Can you spot the scam? We’ll give you a hint: look at the top of the box.

Instead of the original five chocolate balls, you are served four with an extra paper ball as a bonus. This is taking things too far, given how much we love chocolate. If it were us, we’d be looking on the floor, thinking we dropped the fifth piece.

37. Wafer Straws

Before this, we never knew that it was possible for chocolate wafer sticks to be made without chocolate. In this case, we almost feel the need to buy melted chocolate from a different seller to pour down the chocolate-less wafer stick. It’s the most reasonable and practical solution we can come up with for this scam.

We could not find other solutions to solve the misleading packaging of chocolate wafer sticks. Most folks speak of wafer sticks being filled with melted chocolate that you add based on your preferences. Unfortunately, this is quite far from reality.

38. Thinnest Layer of Chocolate

Be on the lookout for the chocolate tidal wave in the amazing Pepperidge Farm Milano molten chocolate-filled cookies. You may never recover from a chocolate rush given by these cookies. In truth, it’s more like a single piece of chocolate planted in a cookie.

We need some soap to wash our mouths after the sarcastic comments we just hurled at the deceitful creators. They promised us one thing and delivered only a fraction of it. This is vile, considering that it’s not difficult to add some more chocolate.

39. Tomato Patty

We all know the feeling of hungrily and impatiently waiting for our meal. Can you imagine the surprise one would get upon receiving this as their order? We may argue that this person is a tomato lover that needed extra tomatoes for the burger. Let’s hope they weren’t too sensible to let the fraudsters get off scot-free.

As much as we love tomatoes, we can’t tolerate having tomatoes larger than burger slices. Like us, it’s possible that the client received the shock of their life after discovering the sandwiched tomato. Food scammers must have a lot of courage to serve a client this meal.

40. Oat With One Blueberry

The following image shows the plight of an individual denied their rights to the blueberry granola. This time, we won’t fall for the singular-plural scam, given that the ingredient list declares blueberries. The scammers may have to match the ingredients and packet labels in convincing us.

The scammers only have a limited number of options to avoid losing more clients. First, they should give the consumers what they claim to sell on adverts and the package. Second, they may choose to shut down the scamming business. We really hope they go for that second one.

41. Doughnut Let Us Down

Dunkin’ Donuts (or just Dunkin’ now) is the second most popular coffee shop in the US. While it is expected that every shop has doughnuts and coffee, this picture proves that they don’t all have the same quality. This certainly isn’t what we’d expect if we ordered a sprinkle doughnut…

Management teams should focus on standardization to ensure that each location delivers the best quality because the mistake of a single location can change how a customer thinks of all of the branches. At least we got two sprinkles; it’s a step up from the single chocolate chip in the muffin earlier.

42. Half Cheesecake, Half Disappointment

Cheesecakes are delicious and can sweep one off their feet from the first bite, so we can understand if it gets a bit pricey. Nonetheless, we still have to ask why this person’s cheesecake cost ten dollars. You can see that it barely fills half of the container.

Besides wasting the packaging container, we can’t understand what the scammers are up to with this one. We can tell from the picture that the package is transparent, with no paper or cardboard hiding the sweet treat. Why even bother selling half a slice like this?

43. Fruit By The Foot or Feet?

The food scammers are at it again, messing with our childhood candies. We all remember Fruit By The Foot, the chewy candy that we could play with to make it look like we had a long tongue, or reenact that scene from Lady and the Tramp.

How are we supposed to play with our food if it isn’t a single piece rolled out along the table? What were the food scammers trying to do by serving two separate slices? We are willing to bet that the roll isn’t close to a foot long. We would be cautious in future purchases to avoid disappointments.

44. More Onion Than Fish

There seems to be no end to the tricks manufacturers play with perception and packaging. This carefully packaged product has silverfish on the outside of the box, while the inside — which is blocked by the cardboard label — is filled with onions.

As far as we know, these scammers are still in business after conning thousands of people. Considering recent trends, food scamming has been more common and regular that most folks prefer not to speak up. Some consumers prefer buying alternative products from less deceptive producers.

45. Elsa Icing Disaster

Compared to the other items on this list, we’re not sure this can entirely count as a scam — at least, not like we’d expect. From what we can tell, no quantity was sacrificed…just quality. Decorated cakes can be more expensive, so we’d hope that when we custom order cakes, the design looks like what it’s supposed to.

Whoever decorated this cake really needs to work on their ability to draw details. The hair is admittedly phenomenal, but it’s not enough to distract us from whatever is going on with her eyes. The mild scam is less painful, but they can do a better job in the future.