this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
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Unrelated, but what’s the difference between grift vs. scam? Internet search seems to give me the same definitions.
Is it just that grifts are personal, while scams are impersonal (like phone/internet scams)?
Not sure of an official difference, but my take is a grift is something that everyone's kind of doing on the DL, but nobody is admitting that it's a scam.
Think like a cult. Everyone's a part of the cult, but nobody actually wants to believe they're getting scammed or scamming others, so it's more of a grift. People assume what they're doing can't last/sustain, but they do it anyway because the benefits are good.
A scam is straight up the party knowing it's illegitimate and going out of their way to execute the scam so they can benefit at the expense of others.
Basically, I've always taken it as one is self aware (scam) and one is only self-aware at the top levels (grift).
But this is all just in my head.
That's a good question actually. Could it be it's a "lie vs. untruth" situation where grift is just a nicer word for what's obviously a huge scam? In that case we should probably use "scammer" a lot more than "grifter".
When I think of a scam, I think a one-off, obviously amateur attempt. An email with awful grammar saying the government will fine me a bajillion dollars if I don’t download a file is a scam. A scam will also leave you alone.
A grift is done by career slimeballs. Used car salesmen, big C-suites and corrupt politicians are grifters. It’s more offensive and more aggressive. You can’t escape a grift.
Hmm, yeah that’s helpful! So maybe if I think of grifting as more of a lifestyle, as in done by con artists.