Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – September 24, 2026 – Dual Factor Authentication Scam
The headline of this Scam of the day may be a bit confusing because dual factor authentication is not itself a scam, but rather a tool to avoid being scammed.
It is not unusual for passwords to be compromised, particularly if you use the same password for all of your accounts, which you should not do. Using the same password puts all of your accounts in jeopardy if a data breach at one account results in your password being stolen. Here is a link to a Scam of the day in which I describe how to choose strong, unique passwords that are easy to remember. https://scamicide.com/2021/12/29/scam-of-the-day-december-30-2021-millions-of-passwords-stolen-how-does-that-affect-you/
However, regardless of how careful you are to protect your passwords, it is inevitable that your passwords will become compromised which is why I always suggest that people use dual factor authentication which protects your accounts even if your password is stolen. In the most common form of dual factor authentication, when you go to an online account and put in your password, a text message with a one-time code is sent to your cell phone for you to provide in addition to your password to gain access to your account. This system works well, but nothing is foolproof. Never underestimate the power of a fool.
Recently scammers have been sending text messages that appear to come from a company with which you do business informing you that there has been suspicious activity on your account and that you need to confirm your identity or else your account will be locked. You are then told that in order to do so, you will receive a text message with a code that you should, in turn, text back as a reply to the scammer. Unfortunately, what is actually happening is that the scammer has already managed to obtain your password and has just tried to log in to your account which is protected by dual factor authentication, so if you do send the code to the scammer, you will have defeated dual factor authentication and enabled the scammer to access your account.
TIPS
This is an easy scam to avoid. First of all, as I have said many times, whenever you receive an email, phone call or text message, you cannot be sure as to who is really contacting you so you should never provide personal information of any kind or click on a link provided unless you have absolutely confirmed that the text message was legitimate. You can do this by contacting the real company that the text message purports to be from. However, if you receive a text message such as the one described above, you can be sure that it is a scam because no company will ever ask for your dual factor authentication code through an email or text message.
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Scam of the day – September 23, 2026 – Hotel Reservation Hijacking Scam
Scammers are using social engineering, which is just the fashionable way to say psychology, and contacting hotels and convincing the hotel IT workers to give access to their computer networks. Social engineering has been used effectively by cybercrime groups such as Shiny Hunters to gain access to the computer networks of many companies. Shiny Hunters uses social engineering to gain access to their targeted companies to install ransomware. The scammers gaining access to hotel computer networks use the access to harvest information about legitimate upcoming hotel reservations of the hotel’s customers. They then pose as the hotel and contact the customers with requests for payments that may seem legitimate, particularly since the email may not only appear to come from the hotel, but provide details of the actual reservations of their customers.
TIPS
As always, you can never be sure when you get an email, text message or phone call as to who is really contacting you so you should never click on a link, make a payment or provide personal information in response to any communication unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is legitimate. In response to an email that appears to come from your hotel asking for a payment or credit card information, merely confirm by calling the actual hotel at a telephone number you have confirmed is legitimate. Don’t call the phone number provided in the email. Also, as I often advise you, don’t make any payments using your debit card because the protection you get from fraudulent payments is not as good as you get when you pay with your credit card.
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Scam of the day – September 22, 2026 – Amazon Prime Day is Coming and so are the Scams
Amazon Prime Day is coming October 6th and 7th. Recently there has been an increase in the number of scams related to Amazon Prime which is not surprising since there are approximately 220 million Amazon Prime members. Scammers attempt to lure people into providing their credit card information or Amazon user name and password to the scammer posing as an Amazon employee. Typically, these scams start with an email, text message or phone call either informing the targeted victim that their membership needs to be renewed. In some instances the scammers indicate that the credit card tied to the account is no longer able to be used, threatening to suspend the Amazon Prime account unless a new credit card is provided.
TIPS
Some of these phishing emails and text messages, which in the past had poor grammar and spelling having been sent from scammers in a country where English is not their native language are now, through AI able to appear entirely legitimate. Phone calls coming from a foreign country can be “spoofed” to appear as if the call is coming from Amazon and through AI voice cloning the scammer can appear to speak perfect English without a foreign accent.
Never click on a link in an email or text message or provide personal information unless you have confirmed that the email, phone call or text message is legitimate. The telephone number to call if you suspect Amazon related fraud is 866-216-1075 or you can call their real customer service number 888-280-4331 Never call the numbers that appears in phishing emails.
Also, because any of us can be scammed, it is a good idea to use dual factor authentication whenever possible to protect your various accounts so that even if someone actually had your password they would not be able to access your account. In order to set up dual factor authentication for your Amazon account use this link. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3PWZPU52FKN7PW4
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Scam of the day – September 21, 2026 – FBI Announces 35 More Victims of Fake 49er Football Player
In the Scam of the day for August 30, 2026 I first told you about criminal charges being brought against Daejon Love who the FBI said posed as a San Francisco 49er football player while scamming 26 women through an investment scam with his co-conspirator Taylor Jamie Chan. At the time, the FBI indicated that they believed there were many more victims and now the FBI announced that they have identified 35 more women scammed by Love and Chan.
Daejon Love and Taylor Jamie Chan were originally arrested and charged with operating an unusual version of a romance-investment scam in which they are alleged to have stolen $1.3 million from 26 women in California, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Romance scams used to follow the pattern of scammers meeting people online and pretending to quickly fall deeply in love with them and then convince their victims to send the scammers money for various fake emergencies. The scam has evolved, however to where now the scammers still feign love, but instead of asking for a gift of money, they tell their victims that they have a great investment that is making the scammer massive amounts of money and they want to offer that investment to their targeted victim. Of course, there is no investment and the victims lose everything they “invested” with their new found love.
What is unusual in this case is that Daejon Love is alleged to have claimed that he was a wealthy professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers and even provided videos and photos that appeared to support his claim. In fact, some Google searches and AI even supported this false claim. False information provided by AI and in search engine searches is called “hallucinations” and the reason that this occurs is that both AI and more common search engines harvest their information from the Internet and if a scammer is able to place enough false information in enough places, it can be reported as accurate.
TIPS
No one should ever invest in anything that they don’t understand and with someone whom they have not researched. Rather than trusting social media posts and search engine searches, if the victims of Love had checked the roster for the San Francisco 49ers they would have learned he was scamming them. Further, Chan was presented by Love as his successful financial advisor, but if anyone had researched Chan, they would have learned that he had utterly no licenses. financial credentials or affiliations that a financial advisor must have.
As for the investments provided by Love and Chan, according to the FBI there were no investments. Love just kept the money “invested” with him. The only evidence of investments were phony investment records provided by Love and Chan. If the victims had done proper research into the investments they would have found that the investments were not registered anywhere and there was no independent documentation for the investments.
It is easy for someone to be emotionally manipulated by a romance scammer so it is very important if a romantic partner offers investment advice to be particularly skeptical. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.
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Scam of the day – September 20, 2026 – Pump and Dump Scams Continue to Snare Victims
Pump and dump scams have been with us for hundreds of years, however recently they have evolved to keep pace with today’s world of finance. A Pump and dump scheme is most often done with low priced stocks referred to as “penny stocks.” The scammers buy low priced stocks and then artificially inflate the price of the stocks by using text messages, faxes, Internet chat rooms and other means of communication posing as people with inside information that indicates that a stock is about to rise. This prompts victims of the scam to buy the stock and temporarily inflate the value of the stock. Meanwhile, the scammers sell their stock when the stock price gets bumped up and are long gone when the stock deflates and reverts back to its true value.
Scammers have increased their use of AI to enhance their pump and dump scams with phony social media accounts and AI generated deepfake videos of celebrities and real SEC registered advisors to make their scams more attractive.
Recently Julius Czurgo was sentenced to 27 months in prison for committing nineteen pump and dump scams between 2015 and 2019 that resulted in $100 million in profits.
TIPS
Remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” You should never invest in anything unless you have carefully investigated the investment and understand it fully. It is highly unlikely that a cold caller about whom you know nothing is going to be providing you with a great investment opportunity.
Before investing with anyone, you should investigate the person offering to sell you the investment with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Central Registration Depository. This will tell you if the broker is licensed and if there have been disciplinary procedures against him or her. You can also check with your own state’s securities regulation office for similar information. Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the SEC, but are required to register with your individual state’s securities regulators. You can find your state’s agency by going to the website of the North American Securities Administrators Association. You should also check with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for information about the particular investment adviser.
It is also important to remember that you should never invest in something that you do not completely understand. This was a mistake that many of Bernie Madoff’s victims made. You also may want to check out the SEC’s investor education website at www.investor.gov. Scammers can be very convincing and it may sound like there is a great opportunity for someone to make some money, but you must be careful that the person making money is not the scam artist taking yours.
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Scam of the day – September 19, 2026 – Scammers Posing as Airline Customer Service
Airline travel is not always pleasant and it is not unusual for flights to be delayed or cancelled. Delays and cancellations occur for a number of reasons including bad weather and air traffic control issues. Scammers capitalize on these delays and cancellations by posing as airline customer service representatives. Weary travelers are always looking for help and assistance from their airline. Often the inconvenienced travelers will turn to social media for help and scammers who monitor social media for posts from disgruntled travelers respond posing as airline customer service representatives. The scammers lure their targeted victims into clicking on links to go to AI created phony airline websites where they are manipulated into providing personal information such as credit card information that can be used to make them victims of identity theft. In other instances they may ask for a fee to rebook a flight or change the itinerary.
In addition, sophisticated scammers create phony airline customer service websites that get a high position in a search engine search by either manipulating the algorithms of the search engines or by merely buying a high placement. You are better off using your airline’s app to get customer service.
TIPS
Never click on a link in any email, text message or social media post that purports to take you to a company with which you do business. The risk of it being a scam or downloading dangerous malware is too great. Instead, go directly to the website of the company through a URL that you know is legitimate. In the case of an airline, contact customer service through the airline’s official website, app or phone number you have confirmed is legitimate.
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Scam of the day – September 18, 2026 – iPhone 18 Pro Scams
There is a lot of excitement about the release of the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple opened pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on September 12, 2026. As always, however, whenever the public is enthusiastic about something, so are the scam artists who are ready to exploit the public’s interest. Scammers have registered hundreds of phony Apple websites and other websites offering sales of the phones at significantly lower prices than Apple’s official starting price of $1,199. Some of these phony websites are also offering sales of the new folding iPhone Duo which will not even be available for pre-orders until October 16th. Anyone buying a phone from one of these phony websites will truly be getting a wrong number and lose the money they pay for a non-existent phone. Many of the bogus websites offering the phone require payment through wired funds, payment apps or cryptocurrencies rather than by credit cards which is a strong indication of a scam.
TIPS
The best way to avoid this scam is to buy your phone either directly from apple.com or from an authorized reseller of Apple products.
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Scam of the day – September 17, 2026 – Deed Fraud Increasing
Deed fraud, which is also referred to as “property title theft” occurs when a criminal files a counterfeit deed to property owned by someone else and then either lives in the property or even sells the property to an unwary buyer. Deed fraud most commonly occurs after a homeowner dies. Enterprising criminals monitor the obituaries looking for homes owned by people recently deceased and then forge a deed to the property and record it in the local Registry of Deeds.
Indications that a home you may own has been subject to deed fraud often comes when you receive notices for unpaid real estate tax, water or mortgage bills. Ironically, another indication of deed fraud is when you own a home and don’t receive your real estate tax bill because the scammer has changed the address to which the real estate tax bill is sent to cover his or her tracks. Receiving a foreclosure notice when you don’t even have a mortgage is another indication that you have become a victim of deed fraud after the criminal has mortgaged your home by forging your signature.
On July 23rd, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced charges against three men accused of participating in schemes involving vacant, unencumbered properties in Massachusetts, Georgia, Indiana, and Tennessee. Prosecutors alleged the defendants impersonated out-of-state property owners and deceived real estate professionals into selling properties to unsuspecting buyers.
Resolving deed fraud can be a timely process, but it is one that you will eventually be able to do successfully. A counterfeit deed is totally invalid.
The media is filled with advertisements for companies that will monitor your local Registry of Deeds for fraudulent transfers of your property, but you can get the same service for free from most local Registries of Deeds.
TIPS
In order to protect yourself from deed fraud you should regularly monitor your credit reports at each of the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and be on the lookout for bills related to your property. Monitoring your credit report is something we all should do regularly anyway. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax offer all U.S. consumers free weekly credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com.
It also is helpful to regularly check with your local Registry of Deeds to confirm that no one has filed a forged deed to your property. Most people can access their local Registry of Deeds online for free and in recent years most Registries of Deeds offer free services to notify you if a deed is recorded in your name so you really don’t need to pay any company for this service.
Finally, when you purchase your home, you are offered the option of buying an owner’s title insurance policy which will cover the cost of remedying deed fraud. An owner’s title insurance policy is a good choice for any homeowner for a variety of reasons. Lately I have seen and heard advertisements for special insurance that only covers deed fraud although generally all these policies offer is monitoring the Registry of Deeds for filings that relate to your home, which is something that you can do on your own quite simply for free and is not worth the cost.
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Scam of the day – September 16, 2026 – Albuquerque Becomes the Latest Muncipality to Ban Crypto 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 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.
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, Tennessee and Minnesota have gone so far as to ban cryptocurrency ATMs and Hawaii’s law banning crypto ATMs will go into effect on October 1st. Now Albuquerque has become the latest municipality to ban cryptocurrency ATMs joining a number of other cities including Stillwater, Minnesota and Spokane Washington.
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 – September 15, 2026 – High School Sports Streaming Scams
We are early in the Fall high school sports season and more and more people are choosing to watch the games streaming online rather than attend the games in person. Streaming of high school sports increased dramatically during the pandemic and even now that the pandemic has ended, many people still enjoy watching the games streamed. Unfortunately, anything that many people enjoy will always be something that scammers take note of and scammers are going on social media posing as a streaming service and posting links through which people can sign up for streaming of their local high school’s games. People clicking on these links are prompted for personal information including their credit card to sign up for the service that they never receive. Instead all they end up doing is becoming victims of identity theft and credit card fraud.
High school sports organizations in North Carolina, Indiana, Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Illinois and New Mexico have warned about this scam, but the scam is not just limited to those states. It is going on everywhere.
TIPS
The simplest way to avoid this scam is to ignore any posts on social media or through emails, text messages or phone calls that offer to provide streaming of high school sports because it is pretty much impossible to know if they are legitimate or not. The best way to find out where you can stream your high school’s games is to contact your local high school’s athletic department and ask if they stream their games and if they do, where do you sign up.
Also, as I constantly remind you, never use your debit card for any purchase because you do not get the same protection from fraudulent use of your debit card that you do with your credit card. With your debit card, potentially your entire bank account tied to your debit card is in jeopardy in the event of fraudulent use of it.
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