Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – May 22, 2026 – Memorial Day Scams
As we honor our veterans on Memorial Day, May 25th it is important to remember that scammers take Memorial Day as just another opportunity to scam veterans and others. In the case of Memorial Day, you can expect to be solicited by scammers by phone (remember legitimate charities can call you by phone even if you have enrolled in the Do Not Call List because charities are exempt from the Do Not Call List), email or letters asking for your money for various veterans causes or charitable ventures tied to Memorial Day.
Another common scam targets veterans and starts with a telephone call in which the veteran is told that in order to continue to receive various benefits, it is necessary to verify personal information such as the veteran’s birth date, Social Security number or bank account information. Of course, the call is not from the Veterans Administration and the call is not to verify information, but rather to gain information to be used to make the veteran a victim of identity theft.
TIPS
You never know who is on the other line of a telemarketing call, so never trust them. Remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” If you are at all interested in what the caller appears to be selling or soliciting, ask them to send you written materials that you can then check out to see if it is legitimate. When it comes to charities, a good place to go is www.charitynavigator.org where you can see if a charity is legitimate or a scam as well as actually how much of the money they collect goes toward their charitable purposes and how much towards salaries and administrative costs.
As for calls purporting to be from the Veterans Administration, they do not call you on the phone to verify information. If you receive such a call, you can never be sure who is really calling because clever identity thieves are able to use a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear on your Caller ID as if the call from the identity thief is coming from the VA.
Since you cannot be sure who is calling you when you receive a call asking for personal information, you should never give that information out in response to a phone call, text message or email. Instead if you have the slightest thought that the communication may be legitimate, you should contact the real entity, in this case, the VA at a phone number that you know is accurate to inquire where you will learn that the initial contact was a scam.
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Scam of the day – May 21, 2026 – Tennessee Becomes Second State to Ban Cryptocurrency ATMs
A report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates a 1,000 % increase in money lost to scammers through cryptocurrency ATMs in the last three years. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency ATMs look just like traditional ATMs, but instead of distributing cash, they take cash in exchange for cryptocurrency and enable the transfer of the deposited cash turned into cryptocurrencies into crypto wallets. Due to the anonymity and immediacy of the cryptocurrency transfers done through a cryptocurrency ATM, it is a favorite method of payment for scammers.
Most of the scams using cryptocurrency ATMs involve imposter scams where the scammer poses as either a law enforcement officer, government official or someone providing tech support for a non-existent problem. What all of these imposter scams have in common is that they scare the targeted victim with a story about an emergency that requires them to take cash from their bank account and use a QR code provided by the scammer to deposit the money into the account of the scammer at a cryptocurrency ATM under the guise of protecting the funds. According to the FTC, people over 60 years old were more than three times more likely to report losing money to a cryptocurrency ATM scam with an average loss of $10,000.
Earlier this year, Massachusetts became the latest state to sue a crypto ATM operator, in this case Bitcoin Depot for enabling criminals to use their machines to scam people. According to the lawsuit, more than half of the money that went through Bitcoin Depot ATMs between August 2023 and January 2025 was related to scams. Indiana was the first state to outright ban cryptocurrency ATMs. Now Tennessee has joined the parade as the second state to ban cryptocurrency ATMs after their legislature unanimously voted to do so. The ban will take effect July 1st. Tennessee was prompted to do so after its citizens lost $142 million to cryptocurrency scams. Overall, Americans lost $11.3 billion last year to cryptocurrency ATM scams.
TIPS
Protecting yourself from these imposter scams starts with recognizing that you can never be sure who is actually contacting you when you are contacted by phone, email or text message so you should never click on a link, download an attachment or provide personal information in response to any of those communications unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication was legitimate. Further there is no circumstance where you will be asked by anyone legitimate to withdraw funds from your bank, deposit them into a cryptocurrency ATM and transfer the funds to them. Only scammers make those requests.
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Scam of the day – May 20, 2026 – Ohio Woman Loses $500 to Gift Card Scam
Recently a Bellefontaine, Ohio woman received a call that appeared to come from Apple informing her that there was a problem with her iPhone. He then gave her a case number and transferred her call to a scammer posing as a bank representative who told her that illegal content was discovered on her phone. He then transferred her call to a third scammer purportedly an employee of the Federal Trade Commission who told her that in order to resolve this serious matter she needed to get $500 in Apple gift cards and provide the numbers to the phony FTC employee which she did, thereby losing the $500.
TIPS
While calls like this seem to be emergencies and thereby trigger the part of our brain called the amygdala which is where we make quick, emotional decisions in emergency situations without logically considering the circumstances, there are a number of red flags that indicate that the entire matter was a scam. The call itself may appear to be legitimate because scammers can “spoof’ the numbers of legitimate companies such as Apple or governmental agencies, such as the FTC to manipulate your Caller ID to make the call appear to be from Apple or the FTC. However, it is important to note that Apple is not going to call you to inform you of illegal content on your phone and no legitimate company or government agency requires payments to be made by gift cards. Scammers love gift cards because they are easy to keep anonymous and impossible to trace. So anytime you are asked to pay for anything by way of a gift card, it is a scam.
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Scam of the day – Mary 19, 2026 – Amazon Prime Day Scams
Amazon Prime Day is a global promotion of Amazon featuring sales on a variety of items available solely to Amazon Prime members. Although it is called Amazon Prime Day, it actually goes on for multiple days twice a year. This year Amazon has indicated that it is moving up the date of the next Amazon Prime Day to June rather than July which is when it was held in previous years. The actual date for the event is generally provided about a month in advance so we can expect Amazon to announce the dates for the June event quite soon. There is always great interest in Amazon Prime Day and as with everything else that attracts great interest by the public, it also attracts great interest by scammers who are eager to take advantage of people participating in Amazon Prime Day.
Scammers, posing as Amazon send phishing emails and text messages in which they attempt to lure their victims into either providing account information that will give the scammer access to the victim’s Amazon account or to make a payment under some pretext or click on a link that will download dangerous malware such as keystroke logging malware or ransomware. They do so by representing to the targeted victim that their account has expired or that a recent order needs to be confirmed or some other emergency related to their account.
TIPS
Much malware including ransomware comes as links in phishing emails. text messages or tainted attachments. Generally, you should never click on links or download attachments that come in emails or text messages unless you have absolutely verified that the email is legitimate. You also should never provide personal information in response to an email, text message or phone call unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate.
Phishing emails and more specifically tailored spear phishing emails can often appear quite legitimate initially, so it is important to be skeptical. Because Amazon Prime Day will be going on soon, many people expect emails from Amazon which is even more reason for you to be skeptical. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. Check the email address of any communication that appears to have come from anyone to make sure that it is the real email address. All Amazon emails end in @amazon.com. Many phishing emails come from email addresses that have no relation to the real email address of the company they purport to be while others look very legitimate unless you carefully examine the email.
Through spoofing, text messages may appear to come from a legitimate Amazon phone number, so you can’t trust your Caller ID.
As always, it is a good idea to set up dual factor authentication for your Amazon account so that even in the event that you are tricked into providing your username and password, no one will be able to access your account. Here is a link that provides information about how to set up dual factor authentication for your Amazon account. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3PWZPU52FKN7PW4
When going to what purports to be an Amazon page, the URL should end with “Amazon.com.” To be sure that you are actually on the real Amazon website, you can check the domain name to make sure that it is not a counterfeit by going to the website https://www.whois.com/whois/ where you can type in the domain name and learn who actually owns it. If your Amazon website appears to be owned by someone in Nigeria, for example, you know you have a problem. The security company Check Point recently identified 1,500 counterfeit Amazon websites.
It is also important to remember that you should not use your debit card for anything other than as an ATM card. Use your credit card for online and offline purchases because the law protects you much more from fraudulent purchases than a debit card does. If you do not promptly report misuse of your debit card, you could potentially lose the entire bank account tied to your debit card while the maximum liability for misuse of your credit card is only fifty dollars and most credit card companies don’t even charge you that amount.
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Scam of the day – May 18, 2026 – At Home Job May be Money Laundering
Laundering money derived from a scam is an essential element of many scams. Scammers can be extremely clever at distancing themselves from their scams in order to avoid detection. The people they enlist either as willing or unknowing participants in the laundering of the proceeds of a scam are called money mules. Scams in which innocent people are lured into being unknowing money mules are numerous. One of the more common of these involves work at home scams where your job is to receive goods, often electronics that have been shipped to you, inspect them and then reship them to an address provided to you by your new employer.
The problem is that these goods have been purchased with stolen credit cards and you have just become an accomplice to the crime when you ship them to someone else who will then sell them to turn the merchandise into cash. Other times the scammers will say that your job is to receive funds sent to you by the scammer, deposit the funds in your own bank account and wire the funds to people who the scammers tell you are either clients or suppliers of the scammers’ phony company. Finally, money mules are also used is in a variation of the romance scam where you are asked by your romantic partner to wire funds to someone on behalf of the scammer under a variety of pretenses.
Many times the scammers will use the names of legitimate businesses when attempting to lure people into the reshipping scam.
TIP
As always, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Check out work at home scams with the big two – your local attorney general and the FTC. And, as always, you can Google the name of the particular company offering you the work at home program with the word “scam” next to it and see what turns up.
As for reshipping goods as a work at home job, it is important to remember that there are no such legal jobs for reshippers. They are always a scam and you should steer clear of them. You also should never use your own bank account to transfer funds for an employer. Finally, you should always be skeptical of someone with whom you have recently established an online romantic relationship who either asks you for money (the most common scam) or asks you to pass on money to a third party as directed by the scammer.
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Scam of the day – May 17, 2026 – Student Loan Scams
We are in the midst of the college graduation season and along with their diplomas, many graduates will also be taking with them substantial student loans. I have written often about phony student loan debt relief companies and with good reason. More than thirty-eight million Americans have student loans with an outstanding balance of more than 1.4 trillion dollars so it is no surprise that scammers are focusing their attention on these students and former students through scams that falsely promise to provide debt relief. Now, after a five year pause during the pandemic on penalizing student loan borrowers for not making payments, in January of 2025, the Department of Education instructed loan servicers to start reporting late payers to credit bureaus which is resulting in millions of student loan borrowers having their important credit scores drop dramatically. Government figures indicate that two thirds of student loan borrowers are late or behind in their payments and this presents a dire situation to which scammers can be expected to respond by offering phony debt relief to desperate borrowers.
Scammers like Arete Financial Group who charged illegal upfront fees for their services can be expected to flourish in this new environment. Arete would change their clients’ Federal Student Aid (FSA) login ID, password and contact information with their clients’ loan servicer which effectively eliminated contact between the borrowers and their loan servicers. This enabled Arete, according to the FTC, to place the borrower’s loans into temporary forbearance or deferment status without the borrower even being aware of this. Thus when the borrowers sent their payments to Arete that they were told would be credited toward their loans, the money actually was kept by Arete. Some of Arete’s clients saw their loans become delinquent and their income tax refunds garnished to pay for overdue loan payments. The victims of the scam also lost the money they paid to Arete that was intended to be applied toward their loans. Ultimately, Arete settled a lawsuit brought against it by the FTC and funds obtained from Arete through the settlement of the lawsuit was returned to victims of the scam.
TIPS
The old adage still is true. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Many of these student loan debt relief scammers promise quick loan forgiveness, which is unrealistic. In addition, you should never pay any upfront fees for student loan debt relief assistance. Those fees are illegal and are a sure indication that you are being scammed. Also, remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” Don’t trust scammers merely because they use names that sound like they are affiliated with the government. You also should never share your FSA ID with anyone.
For information you can trust about federal student loan repayment option, go to https://studentaid.gov/articles/student-loan-forgiveness/ . There you can learn about loan deferments, forbearance, repayment and loan forgiveness programs and there is never an application fee. If you owe private student loans, contact your loan servicer directly. You can also look into student loan refinancing rather than consolidating the loans. Refinancing student loans can result in a lower interest rate. Also, this site is helpful https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-opens-revised-income-driven-repayment-plan-and-loan-consolidation-applications-borrowers
Here is a link to an FTC video that explains student loan scams and what you can do to protect yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TjSI4Q6ztQ
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Scam of the day – May 16, 2026 – Jamaica Lottery Scammer Sentenced to 54 Months in Prison
I have been reporting to you since 2012 about the infamous Jamaican lottery scam through which many Americans, mostly elderly, have been scammed out of money after being told that they have won the non-existent Jamaican lottery. The scam begins when the victim receives a telephone call informing them that they have won this non-existent lottery that they never entered and are then pressured to pay “fees” and “taxes” before their winnings can be sent to them. This scam has been going on since the 1990s.
Earlier this week Jamaican citizen Tajay Singh was sentenced to 54 months in prison for his role in a Jamaica lottery scam that targeted elderly Americans between January 2021 and October 2023 that scammed approximately 30 victims out of more than $4.5 million. Eleven other scammers who participated in this particular lottery scam have also been charged.
TIPS
As I have often told you, it is difficult to win a lottery you have entered. It is impossible to win one that you have not even entered. You should always be skeptical about being told that you have won a lottery you never entered. It is also important to note that it is illegal to play foreign lotteries except when you are actually present in the other country.
While it is true that income taxes are owed on lottery winnings, legitimate lotteries never collect tax money from winners. They either deduct the taxes from the winnings or leave it up to the winners to pay their taxes directly to the IRS. You also should never pay a fee to collect a legal lottery prize.
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Scam of the day – May 15, 2026 – Meta Sued Again Over Scam Advertising
A year ago I told you that the Wall Street Journal did a scathing story that said that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram had become the “cornerstone of the internet fraud economy.” According to the story Meta accounted for nearly half of all reported scams involving Zelle at major banks. The story also reported that 70% of new advertisers on Meta’s platforms promote scams or low quality products. Many of the scammers placing these ads, according to the Journal, were Southeast Asian crime networks. The article went on to say that Meta did a poor job of taking down fraudulent ads because it prioritized its 16 billion dollar profit from scam ads over protecting its users from being scammed. For its part, Meta says that according to federal law it is not responsible for scam ads on their sites.
In the Scam of the day for May 1, 2026 I told you that the Consumer Federation of America sued Meta alleging “Meta has adopted policies and practices that it knows allow scam advertisements to proliferate on its platforms while simultaneously profiting off those ads at is users’ expense.” The complaint also accuses Meta of downplaying the scale of fraud on Facebook and Instagram and creating a false impression of safety. Now Meta has been sued on similar grounds by the Santa Clara County government. The lawsuit alleges that Meta used a combination of AI and algorithms to specifically target vulnerable users of Facebook and Instagram with scam advertising.
TIPS
So how do you protect yourself from these phony ads?
You can start off by checking the profile page of the poster to see if it has many followers. Also, legitimate businesses will have websites. Check out these websites to see if they are legitimate.
Asking for payments to be made by wired funds, gift cards, Venmo or Zelle is also a good indication that it is a scam. Venmo and Zelle should never be used for commercial transactions and gift cards are not an accepted method of payment for goods to anyone other than scammers.
Finally, look for customer feedback and review sites such as Trustpilot.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – May 14, 2026 – Michigan Attorney General Warns About Cryptocurrency ATM Scams
A report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates a 1,000 % increase in money lost to scammers through Bitcoin ATMs in the last three years with consumers reporting losses of around $333 million between January and November of 2025. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency ATMs look just like traditional ATMs, but instead of distributing cash, they take cash in exchange for cryptocurrency and enable the transfer of the deposited cash turned into cryptocurrencies into crypto wallets. Due to the anonymity and immediacy of the cryptocurrency transfers done through a cryptocurrency ATM, it is a favorite method of payment for scammers.
Most of the scams using cryptocurrency ATMs involve imposter scams where the scammer poses as either a law enforcement officer, government official or someone providing tech support for a non-existent problem. What all of these imposter scams have in common is that they scare the targeted victim with a story about an emergency that requires them to take cash from their bank account and use a QR code provided by the scammer to deposit the money into the account of the scammer at a cryptocurrency ATM under the guise of protecting the funds. According to the FTC, people over 60 years old were more than three times more likely to report losing money to a cryptocurrency ATM scam with an average loss of $10,000.
Recently, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a warning about scams involving cryptocurrency ATMs saying, “If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from an agency or company who demands you use a Bitcoin ATM to pay a fine or bill, it is most certainly a scam.”
Earlier this year, Massachusetts became the latest state to sue a crypto ATM operator, in this case Bitcoin Depot for enabling criminals to use their machines to scam people. According to the lawsuit, more than half of the money that went through Bitcoin Depot ATMs between August 2023 and January 2025 was related to scams. Indiana has gone so far as to ban cryptocurrency ATMs.
TIPS
Protecting yourself from these imposter scams starts with recognizing that you can never be sure who is actually contacting you when you are contacted by phone, email or text message so you should never click on a link, download an attachment or provide personal information in response to any of those communications unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication was legitimate. Further there is no circumstance where you will be asked by anyone legitimate to withdraw funds from your bank, deposit them into a cryptocurrency ATM and transfer the funds to them. Only scammers make those requests.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – May 13, 2026 – Canvas Data Breach Update
In the Scam of the day for May 9, 2026 I told you about the data breach at the educational technology company Instructure which makes the hugely popular learning management system Canvas. Canvas is used by school districts and universities around the world. As many as 275 million records of its users were compromised. The notorious ransomware gang ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the data breach and publicly shared a list of 8,809 school districts, universities and online education platforms from which they claimed to have information. Fortunately, the data breach did not appear to have included passwords, dates of birth or financial information such as credit card data.
ShinyHunters is known for using the psychological tactic of social engineering to gain entry to its target companies’ computers rather than hacking into their computers. They then demand a ransom or threaten to disclose all of the information stolen to other criminals to use. In this case, ShinyHunters even did a second data breach to pressure Instructure to pay the demanded ransom, which the company has now confirmed that it has done. In return for the ransom payment, ShinyHunters has indicated that it has returned the stolen data and destroyed their copies of it. ShinyHunters has also promised not to use the data for further extortion. Whether they can be trusted not to do so is an open question. Certainly it would hurt their future ransomware attacks if they are found not to adhere to their bargains. However, in a similar type of data breach in 2024 of PowerSchool, the data from the breach was later used by other cybercriminals after a ransom had been paid.
TIPS
Even though it appears that passwords were not compromised, it would be prudent for anyone affected by the data breach to change their password. You should make sure that you have a unique password for each of your online accounts so that if one of your passwords is compromised in a data breach, all of your accounts will not be in danger. Dual factor authentication should also be set up if it is not already being used.
If you have not already done so, set up dual factor authentication for each of your accounts where it is available. This will protect you from having those accounts stolen by someone who may have access to your password.
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