ITT: Things people personally think are scammy, but not actual legally-defined scams.

World's smallest skyscraper, the product of a remarkable con.

Capitalism

Interest and Rent.

Passiv income in general ,as it obviously constituts itself from other Peoples Active Income , its per definition a scam...

*"Because you once where in need and i lended you some coin , you now have to pay me back a expotentially rising amount of Coin ! its rate of rising is not messured on your harvest or the amount of offspring of your Herd but on Time going forward ! Because it surely will ! , If you Cant you will fall in Debt-Slavery to me. I am a Risktaker . you take the Risk . I Take . Always ." *

they sold you for absolute Fools , Folks !

(PS: Muslims not included)

in general.

When some talking head talks about why today or today, the real reason is "insiders traded it that way" with a mix of "this is how rich assholes feel."

The US dollar with no backing value

The Democratic Party of the USA

Phoebus Cartel, essentially the few oligopolistic light bulb companies got together and colluded and intentionally reduced the lifespan of light bulbs.

Neither are scams but the UK is fond of permanently doing temporary things. Income tax in the UK was first imposed as a temporary measure to fund the Napoleonic Wars but after Waterloo it was never repealed since it brought in so much. Same sort of deal for the 70 mph national speed limit, it was a temporary measure in the 1960s apparently in response to someone caning it down the motorway in an AC Cobra and as we know, there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

Religions

I'm going to go with the great wine fraud

Bitcoin

Religion. The absolute first.

Neoliberalism!

The second is financialization.

Both are huge scams still running.

Battle Passes

But in history it took forever for people in Holland to realize that Tulips are not worth entire plots of land

Enron, perhaps. I think it qualifies.

A good documentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room

Are we allowed to mention capitalism and brexit?

Banks.

Lottery's the expected value is always lower than the prize of a ticket. And even if you win it is on the back of other poor desparete people who lost. An then there is the fact winning often leads to a lot of other problems.