13 Things That Seem Like Scams But Are Actually Really Great

People are always on the lookout for scams. You kind of have to be, these days.

While a website may assure you you're that millionth visitor, you probably don't want to risk it for an iPod. Believe it or not, male performance enhancements are probably just playing into people's own self-doubts. And most infomercial products won't revolutionize your life. 

The issue with this, of course, is that sometimes awesome products that actually work get written off because people's spam filters just think of them as a scam. These days, how exactly do you sell something that really is "too good to be true?"

Luckily, Reddit recently had a thread where people mentioned things that seem like scams but are actually legitimate. 

Here are the 13 most interesting of them:

13. GetScreening.com

The site lets you know when movie screenings are happening so you can score free tickets.

LA's Totally Awesome

12. Sketchy Dollar Store Cleaning Supplies

The yellow cleaning spray named "Awesome" from the dollar store evidently lives up to its name. The guy who recommended it said that it really should be priced higher and he's never used it without gloves. 

The dollar store toilet bowl cleaner named The Works is so strong it can etch concrete. 

Straight Talk

11. StraightTalk 

The cellphone company is designed to save you a bunch of money on your plan if you switch away from a major carrier. This guy loves it:

I seriously only pay $45 a month for unlimited everything for my Google Nexus 4 and also get great service since I have a AT&T compatible SIM card with them. Basically my service runs off of AT&T towers just without me having to pay $100 a month. It is cheap, and in the long run saves you a lot of money.

10. Detergent pods

These seem like a clever ploy by Big Detergent to force you to spend more on rebranded soap. 

Well, as it turns out they actually really work out well. Almost everyone uses a little too much detergent in their wash, but these little pods actually do the trick. 

Junk My Car.com

9. JunkMyCar.Com

When one guy's friend hit a deer and had to unload his totaled car, JunkMyCar.com offered nearly six times as much for the Camry than local junkyards:

Submitted the request online, guy came out (to him) a day or two later with a truck, looked the car over to make sure everything checked out with the specs he submitted, handed him a check, and left with the car. Check cleared with no issues.

My guess is that they can give such a higher premium because they scrap the car and sell the parts online, so they'll have a much higher turnaround. Either that or it's some really eccentric millionaire finding new ways to pass the time.

Ubuntu

8. Linux

I can personally confirm that Linux is awesome. Here's why:

"You mean I can get a fully-functional operating system for free, just download it off the website, and it's faster, more secure and easier than Windows? And it has thousands of free programs with it? And they're offering more and more games that often play better on Linux than Windows? Sure , whatever...."  

But it's true!

7. The Thundershirt

It's a neoprene jacket you put on animals to reduce anxiety. It accomplishes this by gently squeezing them all over. 

Got it for my frenchie who was going through anxiety after we moved, and it totally works on the short term and on the long term. 

Furminator

6. The Furminator

This pet comb really works:

Furminator brush, a metal comb with tapered grooves that removes undercoat and reduces shedding. It's not a surprise it works, but how well it works. The ad photo with the husky surrounded by a giant pile of fur is exactly what happens.

Another endorsement:

Bought a furminator yesterday and felt like a dumbass for spending $45 on a damn cat brush. Then I had a pile of fur twice the size of my cat.

5. The Magic Bullet

Several people swear by this blender. The issue is that it's sold through infomercials which instantly sets off everyone's B.S. alarm. 

4. AnnualCreditReport.com

AnnualCreditReport.com

You know those ads on television for sites offering free credit reports? Don't use those websites.

Congress made the credit report companies provide people with one free credit report per year, so they did that with AnnualCreditReport.com, but then made several easily confusable clones that charged money.

Here's the explanation:

Annualcreditreport.com is run by the U.S. government and is designed to comply with the law requiring credit bureaus to give you your reports for free every so often.

Freecreditreport.com and sites like it are businesses who charge you money for these same services (or require that you bundle pay services with the free service of getting your report) [...] they're preying on the people who were trying to get their free report and just went to the wrong web address.

It's 100% Congressionally-mandated legitimacy. Check it out. 

Webstaurant store

3. Melamine foam cleaning products 

We're talking about Mr. Clean Magic Eraser kind of products. It perfectly breaks down any kind of material from very fine cracks and textures.

People use these on white sneakers to wild success, and one Redditor cleaned a horrifying tub in a new apartment to the point it looked like new. One guy used a similar product, Barkeeper's Friend, to get a sharpie'd genital off of his fridge. 

Rain X

2. RainX

RainX is the stuff you spread apply to your windshield that repels rain, meaning that you don't actually have to use your windshield wipers. Here's one Redditor's endorsement:

First, it will last a lot longer than a few days if you follow the directions to a tee. If it's at all cool air temps when you apply it, turn on your defroster for a while to heat up the window. Helps a lot. When you get up to speeds that make the rain "skitter" off the windshield, stop using the wipers; this speed will vary depending on the angle of your window. [...]

Lastly, I've heard Aquapel makes Rain‑X appear as though a drunken monkey had smeared feces over your window in comparison. I can't personally speak to this, as I cannot afford Aquapel.

 Sounds fun. 

YouTube Screenshot

1. Oxi Clean

Sold by the late but legendary pitchman Billy Mays, the sodium percarbonate cleaning product is actually really, really good at cleaning anything. 

Granted, you can get the same chemical off-brand at a pool supply store for a fifth of the price, but the stuff just annihilates stains. 

Walt Hickey

Deputy Editor, Data and Analysis, Insider

Walt was Business Insider's Deputy Editor for Data and Analysis.Hickey is the author of You Are What You Watch, and also writes Numlock News, a daily morning newsletter. He came from FiveThirtyEight where he was chief culture writer. Walt previously worked at Business Insider from 2012 to 2013, and  graduated from The College of William and Mary with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In additon to his work on elections and data journalism, he also edits comics at Business Insider.In 2022, Hickey won the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting for his work on Business Insider's I Escaped A Chinese Internment Camp documenting the plight of Uyghurs in China. 

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