Right now, the bank that issued my credit card has just under $2000 worth of accumulated rewards that I haven't gone to push the buttons to convert to cash in my account.

If I'd consistently used a debit card instead to make those purchases, there wouldn't be any such balance, but I also wouldn't have any more money either.

I don't quite see this as being something where I should change my behavior in order to avoid this "scam".

One good thing that came from this thread is I went to my bank's website, clicked a few buttons, and $1990 is being converted from rewards points to cash that will hit my account next week. They really got me on that scam and I hope they'll get me again every couple of years.