Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – July 31, 2026 – FTC Warns About Reloading Scam
Years ago there was a famous movie entitled “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” However, today it is not your postal carrier contacting you twice, it often is the person that scammed you or someone who got your name from a scammer. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been warning people about this particular scam, sometimes called “reloading,” since 2016. I have been warning people about this since 2012. Scammers often compile lists of their victims with information including their names, addresses and contact information. They sell this information to other scammers who contact the victims and tell them that they are with a consumer group or government agency and that they are available to help the victim regain the money lost to the previous scam. The new scammer then asks for processing fees or other personal information, such as a Social Security number in order to proceed with the recovery effort. Of course, the recovery effort never occurs. In fact, the victim is merely victimized again, either by paying for services the victim never receives or by giving away personal information that leads to identity theft.
TIPS
Government agencies and consumer agencies do not generally contact you about recovering money you have lost to a scam and they never ask for upfront fees for their services or your Social Security number. If you want to get help from the FTC or some other agency in regard to being victimized by a scam, it is up to you to contact them. Only the scammers know you have been scammed so if you are contacted by someone seeking to help you, just say no and never give your personal information to anyone whom you have not contacted unless you are absolutely sure that they are legitimate and need the information.
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Scam of the day – July 30, 2026 – Shopify Phishing Email
Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the email which download malware or trick you into providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, are nothing new. They are a staple of identity thieves and scammers and with good reason because they work.
Reproduced below is an email that I recently received that is not particularly convincing. It starts with the fact that the email address has nothing to do with Shopify. but rather appears to be that of an unfortunate individual whose email account had been hacked and made a part of a botnet of infected computers used by scammers to send out phishing emails such as this. I blocked out the section of the email with personal identifying information. As with many phishing emails, this one prompts you to act quickly to remedy a phony emergency or your account will be disabled.
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| 151 O’Connor Street, Ground floor, Ottawa, ON, K2P 2L8 |
TIPS
As I often advise you, regardless of how legitimate such an email may appear, you should never provide personal information or click on a link in an email or text message until you have confirmed that it is legitimate. In a case such as this, calling or emailing the real Shopify would have confirmed that this email was a scam. General indications that emails such as this are a scam include the sender’s email address not matching that of the company or a generic greeting that doesn’t include your name or account number. However, it is easy for a scammer to create an email address that might appear to be legitimate and AI has made it easy for scammers to include your name if not your account number in their emails. Also don’t count on your security software to protect you from downloading malware because often these types of phishing emails contain malware that takes advantage of zero day defects which are vulnerabilities that have not yet been recognized by security software companies. It usually takes about a month before security software companies are able to take steps to protect you from newly discovered malware.
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Scam of the day – July 29, 2026 – Facetime Scam Leading to Compromised Bank Accounts
Apple is warning people about a new scam involving its popular FaceTime app that starts with the targeted victim receiving either a text message or phone call from a scammer that purports to be from the targeted victim’s bank. Making the call or text appear more legitimate is the fact that the call appears on your Caller ID as coming from a phone number of your bank. The call or text message indicates that the targeted victim’s bank account has been accessed by scammers and is in jeopardy. The victim is then instructed to switch to FaceTime to continue the conversation to remedy the situation. Once on FaceTime, the scammer, posing as a bank official, instructs the targeted victim to share their computer screen with the scammers while they log into their bank account. The scammer then is able to not only see the password for the account, but also the code used for dual factor authentication when entered by the victim. The scammer then is able to immediately access the victim’s bank account.
TIPS
It is a simple matter for scammers to get information as to the bank used by their targeted victims so merely because you appear to get a call or text from a bank with which you do business does not mean the communication is legitimate. Further complicating the matter is the use of spoofing by scammers to make their calls appear to come from your bank’s actual phone number.
Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. You should never provide your password or dual factor authentication code to anyone who contacts you. Your bank will never ask for your password, your one time code used for dual factor authentication or to share your screen. If you receive such a call or text and believe it might be legitimate, merely call the bank at a phone number you know is accurate where you can confirm that it is a scam.
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Scam of the day – July 28, 2026 – Your Airline Boarding Pass Can Lead to Identity Theft
Identity theft dangers are everywhere, but particularly at busy airports. People are quick to dispose of their boarding passes after they have landed by merely tossing them into a trash receptacle, but your boarding pass barcode can be easily decoded by an identity thief who retrieves your discarded boarding pass from which he can gain much information including information about your frequent flier account which can be used to make you a victim of identity theft. All an identity thief needs is a barcode scanner, which can easily be obtained online, to access a wide range of information that the airline has about you on your boarding pass including, for some airlines, your email address, phone number and more. In addition, a clever identity thief can leverage this information by posing as the airline in calling you, providing your account number and then tricking you into providing more personal information that can be used against you.
TIPS
As for your boarding pass, the best protection is to shred the boarding pass once you no longer need it rather than merely toss it into a waste basket. Even better is to not even use a paper boarding pass, but rather get your boarding pass digitally sent to you on your phone.
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Scam of the day – July 27, 2026 – Phony Delivery Phishing Email
I have reported to you about delivery scams for years. Today’s version of a delivery scam involves a phishing email sent by a Scamicide reader, reproduced below made to look like a tracking order which are sent in large numbers to people with the hope and expectation that people expecting a delivery will fall for the scam. If you click on the “Track my order,” “Click to review,” or “Click to view” links you will either be lured into providing personal information that will lead to identity theft or even worse, merely by clicking on the links you will download dangerous malware. I have disabled the links in the email below. If you had hovered your mouse over the links you would see that the address it would be taking you to a site that had nothing to do with any of the major delivery companies such as Federal Express or UPS.
Your Order is on the Move! 🚚 Hello xxxxxxx@aol.com, We’ve got great news — your order has shipped and is on its way to you! Click below to follow your package in real-time: Track my order Order Number: Click to review Estimated Delivery Date: Click to view Questions or need help? Our support team is here 24/7. Contact us Thanks for shopping with us. We hope you love your purchase!
TIPS
This particular phony delivery tracking email is easy to spot as a scam. The email address of the sender does not indicate the name of any particular delivery company nor does any company name appear in the email. Even if it did, however, it is a simple matter for a scammer to insert the name and logo of a legitimate delivery company into such an email
If you are expecting a delivery, merely use the app or go to the website of the delivery company being used where you will be able to track packages.
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Scam of the day – July 26, 2026 – Car Dealer Cloning Scams
Car dealer cloning is a rapidly expanding scam. It occurs when a scammer sets up a website or social media profile in which they pose as a legitimate car dealer. The website and social media posts use images and photographs of legitimate car dealers to make them look legitimate and, with the increased availability of AI to assist the scammers in setting up their phony car dealer websites and social media presence, they appear quite legitimate. On these phony sites the scammers offer tremendous discounts on cars. Generally, the scammers require the purchase price for the non-existent cars to be wired to them. Wiring funds is a favorite choice of payment of scammers because it can be difficult to reverse and is easy for the scammers to disguise their identity.
TIPS
Research any car dealer you are considering to confirm their actual phone number, email address and other contact information to make sure you are communicating with the real dealer and not a scammer posing as the legitimate dealer. Confirm with your state Department of Transportation that the dealer with whom you are dealing is a properly registered. Never buy a car without actually seeing and inspecting it. Before wiring money. confirm with the seller’s bank the identity of the company you are sending the funds to. You can tell the bank that you want to verify the company’s identity before wiring funds.
Scam of the day – July 25, 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 – July 24, 2026 – Chick-fil-A Credential Stuffing Data Breach
Data breaches have become an all-too-common feature of life today and they pose a significant threat to all of us because regardless of how careful we are at protecting our personal data, we are only as secure as the companies and governmental agencies that hold our information. Last year there were 3,352 major data breaches affecting more than 278 million people in the United States. It is not a matter of if you will become a victim of a data breach, but when. Recently the popular restaurant chain Chick-fil-A alerted customers in ten states that it’s loyalty accounts were victimized by a data breach that compromised customers’ names, email addresses, the last four digits of payment card numbers and other personal information. This information can readily be leveraged by criminals for scams and identity theft.
It is important to note that Chick -fil-A itself did not have its systems breached. Instead this data breach was caused by what is referred to as credential stuffing which occurs when hackers use passwords that have been compromised in previous data breaches and sold on the Dark Web, that part of the Internet where criminals buy and sell goods and services. In this case the victims of the data breach bear much of the responsibility for their own plight because they used the same passwords for multiple accounts and neglected to use dual factor authentication.
TIPS
The lesson of this particular data breach is clear. Never use the same password for multiple accounts because as illustrated through this data breach, if your password is compromised in a data breach at one account, it puts all of your accounts into jeopardy. Additionally, since passwords are often compromised, it is always a good idea to use dual factor authentication on all of your accounts whenever available
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Scam of the day – July 23, 2026 – How to Keep Your Cryptocurrency Wallet Safe
I have been writing about cryptocurrency scams for years. There a variety of scams that attempt to steal your cryptocurrencies from you. One of the most important decisions anyone should make when deciding whether to invest in cryptocurrencies is what kind of a wallet they will hold their investment in. Many cryptocurrency scams involve people being tricked into turning over access to their cryptocurrency wallets and losing all of their funds.
Your digital wallet is where the key that allows you to access your cryptocurrency account is found. If your key falls into the hands of a hacker, you can easily lose all of your cryptocurrency account so it is of paramount importance to secure your digital wallet. Digital wallets can either be hot wallets or cold wallets. Hot wallets are connected to the Internet which makes them more susceptible to being hacked which is why a cold wallet which is not connected to the Internet, but rather is is kept in a portable hard drive is your best bet.
TIPS
When doing cryptocurrency transactions online, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to provide encryption for your communications which will make the transactions more secure and refrain from using public WIFI for cryptocurrency transactions. Use a strong, complex password for your account and consider using a password manager or store your password on a portable hard drive that you keep in a secure spot.
Use dual factor authentication for your account for additional security, however, it is important to note that many cryptocurrency thefts have occurred when hackers were able to defeat dual factor authentication through SIM swapping whereby they contact the cell phone service provider of their victim, answer a security question and manage to get the cell phone service provider to switch the phone number of the victim to a phone controlled by the criminal thus defeating the dual factor authentication.
The best thing you can do to protect your SIM card from being swapped is to set up a PIN or password to be used for access to your mobile service provider account. This will help prevent a criminal from calling your carrier posing as you and convincing your mobile carrier to swap your SIM card to the criminal’s phone merely by providing personal identifying information or answering a security question.
Finally, I strongly urge anyone considering investing in cryptocurrencies as well as any investment to research the investment thoroughly before investing. No one should ever invest in anything they do not fully understand.
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Scam of the day – July 22, 2026 – Summer Car Rental Scams
Despite high gas prices, many people are taking to the roads this summer. The bad news is that due to so many people wanting to rent cars there is both a shortage of cars to rent and the cost of renting a car has increased in many cases dramatically. However, your friendly neighborhood scammer is more than willing to help you out. They are using AI to set up convincing phony car rental company websites and websites that appear to be those of legitimate car rental companies such as Avis or Hertz.
Often these phony websites appear high on a Google or other search engine search because the more sophisticated scammers are able to manipulate the algorithms used by search engines to position a website high in a search result. In other instances, the scammers take out ads for their phony websites that place them at the top of the first page in a Google or other search engine search. Victims of this scam are finding themselves without a car and losing the money they paid for the non-existent car rental.
TIPS
The phony websites can look quite legitimate and be hard to distinguish from the websites of real car rental companies. Always check the URL of the website you use carefully before responding to an offer for a car rental. You also may want to go the extra step and actually do a search to determine who owns the website you are on. There are a number of ways of doing this. One of the easiest is to go to ICANN and enter the domain name and click on “lookup.” This will enable you to find out who actually owns the website. So for instance, if you think you are renting from Hertz and the website you are on is owned by someone in Nigeria, you can be pretty confident it is a scam. Here is the link to ICANN https://lookup.icann.org/
One of the primary ways of knowing that you are dealing with a scammer is that often they ask for payment through gift cards. Gift cards are a favorite means of payment for scammers because once you give the scammer the gift card numbers over the phone or the Internet, the money is gone and cannot be easily traced or recovered. Some scammers tell you that you will get a special low rate on your car rental if you use a gift card. Legitimate companies never ask for payment by way of gift cards so anytime you are asked for payment through a gift card, you can be sure it is a scam.
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