Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – June 20, 2026 – Celebrity Deepfake Scams
For years I have told you about scammers posing as various popular celebrities in ads and on social media luring people into making payments for worthless products. Scammers also pose as celebrities on social media through which they contact fans of the impersonated celebrity and scam them through romance scams and a variety of other scams. Unfortunately, with the increased of Artificial Intelligence these phony ads and scams have become both more believable looking and more frequent as the deepfake and other AI technology becomes readily available to less technologically savvy scammers.
Earlier this year Reese Witherspoon posted an Instagram story and TikTok video warning fans about scammers posing as her on both of those platforms, contacting unwary fans who think they are having a real relationship with her that just leads to their being scammed. Despite efforts of Instagram and TikTok to take down phony Reese Witherspoon accounts there are presently dozens of such accounts including @reesewitherspoon private. Making the problem worse, these phony accounts will actually post actual videos of Reese Witherspoon to make the accounts appear legitimate and make fans who are likely to engage when they are contacted through the account by the scammer posing as Witherspoon.
More recently, scammers are using Deepfake videos of Oprah Winfrey to sell keto gummies for weight loss. Oprah has for years warned her fans about scammers using her likeness to sell phony wight loss products. the No Fakes Act, a bipartisan bill has been filed in Congress to give people greater power to take action against anyone who uses their AI generated likeness without permission.
TIPS
As for any celebrity endorsement, you should not take it at face value. Confirm on the celebrity’s website to see if they really do endorse a particular product. As for celebrity based romance scam, it is important to recognize that celebrities aren’t reaching out online to people they have never met to start romantic relationships. Any DM you get from a celebrity asking for money, donations, help with a private matter, inviting you to join a secret fan club, or do anything with cryptocurrencies is a scam. Any message that indicates they need help with a legal issue, are stuck while traveling, want to reward you if you cover a small fee, or need gift cards is also a scam.
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Scam of the day – June 19, 2026 – Phony Restaurant Delivery Service Scam
Ordering food online for delivery was somewhat popular prior to the pandemic, but really took off during the pandemic when people wanted restaurant food without having to go to a restaurant. Many restaurants took advantage of this interest and set up websites to facilitate ordering food deliveries and companies such as DoorDash and GrubHub also take online orders for food deliveries from multiple restaurants. As could be expected scammers have also gotten into the food delivery business although it would be more accurate to say that they got in the business of taking your online orders for food delivery, but deliver nothing except charges on your credit card.
Scammers create websites for phony delivery services using names such as “Order Hero” and “Order Ventures” or they mimic websites of legitimate restaurants or delivery services and through manipulating algorithms used by search engines to rank websites may appear at the top of a Google Chrome or other search engine search. Some sophisticated scammers have even managed to place their phony delivery sites in so many chat rooms and other places on the Internet that they get picked up as a legitimate site by AI so you can’t trust your query to AI for a legitimate delivery service. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.
TIPS
When you order online food from either a restaurant or a delivery service it is important to confirm that you are actually ordering from a legitimate restaurant or delivery service. Take the time to confirm the URL before placing your order and don’t trust a search engine search or AI to be reliable merely because a website appears high on your search. An easy way to confirm that you have the correct URL is to call the restaurant or delivery service to make sure that you are using the correct URL.
As I often remind you, don’t use your debit card for anything other than an ATM card. Only use your credit card for your financial transactions because the protection you have from liability for fraudulent charges is much greater when using your credit card than it is when using your debit card.
Scam of the day – June 18, 2026 – Father’s Day Scams
Sunday is Father’s Day which for many people is an opportunity to show our fathers how much we love and appreciate them. For scam artists, it is yet another opportunity to scam people. One of the most common Father’s Day scams involves e-cards which are great, particularly for those of us who forget to send a Father’s Day card until the last minute.
Identity thieves send emails purporting to contain a link to an electronic Father’s Day card, but instead of an electronic greeting card, what they actually are sending is malware that becomes downloaded when the victim clicks on the link. A common type of malware sent by criminals is keystroke logging malware enables an identity thief to steal personal information from the victim’s computer that can be used for purposes of identity theft. In other instances, the malware is ransomware which will encrypt all of your data which the hacker threatens to destroy unless you pay a cryptocurrency ransom.
Another common Father’s Day scam involves an email or text message that you get offering Father’s Day gifts at tremendously discounted prices. All you need to do is to click on a link to order online. The problem is that many of these offers are indeed scams. If you click on the link, one of two things can happen and both are bad. Sometimes the link will take you to an order form where you provide your credit card information, but never get anything in return. Instead, your credit card information is used to make you a victim of identity theft. Even worse is the other possibility which is by clicking on the link, you will unwittingly download a keystroke logging malware program that will steal all of the personal information stored on your computer and use that information to make you a victim of identity theft.
Be careful when making online purchases. Merely because a website offering great prices may be highly listed on Google or other search engines does not mean that it is legitimate. All it means is that the scammers know how to manipulate the positioning of their website in a Google search. Other times the scammers will merely pay for an advertisement for their website to appear at the top of a search engine search.
TIPS
Never click on a link to open an electronic greeting card unless the e card specifically indicates who sent the card. Phony e cards will not indicate the name of the sender. Even if the sender is someone you recognize, you should independently confirm with that person that they indeed sent you an e card before clicking on the link. Don’t depend upon your security software to protect your phone, computer or tablet because even the most up to date security software will always be behind the latest zero day defect malware.
It is always dangerous to buy anything online from any store or company with which you are not familiar. Check out the company with your state’s Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission or just do a Google search to see if the company is legitimate. Even then, you are better off going directly to the company’s website rather than dealing with a company through an email that may just be a forgery of an email from a legitimate company. As always, if the offer you receive sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
You also can use the Google Safe Browsing Tool to see if a particular website you are considering for a Father’s Day purchase is legitimate. https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search
Never click on a link in an email or text message until you have independently confirmed that it is legitimate. The risk of downloading malware is too great. Even if your computer or other electronic device is protected with anti-virus and anti-malware security software, the best security software is always at least thirty days behind the latest malware. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone when it comes to clicking on links. Even if the link is contained in a communication that appears to come from a person or company you trust, you should always verify that it is legitimate before clicking on the link. In the case of companies offering free gifts or great deals, you should go to the company’s legitimate website where you can find any real promotion or gift being offered.
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Scam of the day – June 17, 2026 – Evolution of the Brushing Scam
I first told you about “brushing” in August of 2020 after many people in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom reported receiving unordered packages of seeds sent from China. A wide variety of conspiracy theories quickly surfaced to explain what was happening, but the truth was that it was an example of a scam called “brushing.” Brushing was the name given to using false orders for products to boost the prominence of an online vendor.
Vendors pay brushers to make large orders of their product and ship them to strangers to make the sales appear to be legitimate. The brushers follow up on these purchases by posting glowing reviews of the vendor’s product. This combination of increased sales volume and positive reviews will, in turn, result in the increased prominence of the vendor in online marketplaces and result in increased sales. Brushing is illegal in the United States and China, however, it is quite commonly used by Chinese companies.
Now we are seeing a resurgence of this scam, but in a more threatening manner. While in the original brushing scam, people receiving the unordered items did not suffer any financial harm, now scammers are sending unordered goods, most often through Amazon, to people with a QR code and instructions to scan the QR code in order to see who sent the goods. If you scan the QR code either you will be taken to a phony, but legitimate appearing website where you will be prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by scanning the QR code you may download malware that will steal personal information from your phone that can lead to identity theft.
TIPS
If you get unordered goods with instructions to scan a QR code, report the package to Amazon using the form found at https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G33XVXQPUV79Z2ZC Do not scan the QR code, As with the initial instances of the brushing scam, you are legally entitled to keep any unordered goods sent to you.
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Scam of the day – June 16, 2026 – Bogus DeepNude Deepfake App Scam
Deepfake porn by which someone is able to use deepfake software to take the photo of someone they know or a celebrity to create what appear to be nude photos or videos of the unwary victim has been a problem for a few years as the technology becomes easier to use and more available. In particular high school boys have abused deepfake technology to make and circulate deepfake nude photos and videos of their female classmates. Now in apparent poetic justice some of those deepfake purveyors are downloading malware when the try to use deepfake porn sites.
The Russian cybercrime gang FIN7 which has also been known as Carbanak has created seven websites that advertise what they refer to as a “DeepNude Generator” which provides artificial intelligence deepfake technology to enable anyone using their site to create deepfake nude photos and videos. People either downloading the software of signing up for a free trial end up downloading various forms of malware including ransomware. FIN7 has also used their technical expertise to manipulate the algorithms used by search engines to enable them to get a prominent listing in searches for porn sites.
TIPS
The easy piece of advice to avoid the problem of downloading malware in this manner is to merely avoid doing deepfake porn which is illegal under recent federal law. The problem is that the temptation for some people is just too great. Compounding the problem is that the probable target of FIN7 which has used cybercrime to steal more than 1.2 billion dollars is not individual users, but large companies where they hope to lure employees into downloading the malware at work and enable FIN7 to use their malware against large companies that can be profitable targets for ransomware and other malware.
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Scam of the day – June 15, 2026 – Costco Members Targeted by Scammers
Big box wholesaler Costco is extremely popular with more than 63 million members and anything popular with the public is also going to be popular with scammers. Imposter scams where scammers generate massive numbers of emails posing as Costco informing the targeted victim that his or her Costco membership requires renewal. Generally, the emails contain a link that takes the targeted victim to a counterfeit AI created Costco website where they are prompted to provide their log in credentials and credit card information. The email appears legitimate and carries the Costco logo and the language, which also may be AI created, appears legitimate with perfect grammar. Providing the requested information will lead to identity theft and credit card fraud. Because so many people are members of Costco, scammers merely send out their phishing emails in large numbers without knowing whether or not each person receiving the email is actually a Costco member confident that many Costco members will be among the people receiving the email.
TIPS
Fortunately, there are a number of red flags that can help you recognize this scam. In many instances if you look closely at the email address of the sender, it will not have anything to do with Costco, however, other times the email address may look like a legitimate Costco email so that is not a hard and fast rule. Costco never asks for sensitive information in unsolicited emails and never provides links to renew memberships, but will instruct members to navigate directly to the Costco.com website. If you do receive such an email and think that it might be legitimate, merely go to Costco.com directly rather than click on a link and you will be able to determine if the email is a scam.
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Scam of the day – June 14, 2026 – Comcast Data Breach Class Action Settlement Update
In the Scam of the day for December 22, 2023 I first told you about the data breach affecting all thirty-six million customers of Internet service provider Comcast Cable Communications which occurred between October 16, 2023 and October 19, 2023 in which usernames, hashed (encrypted) passwords, birth dates, security questions and answers as well as the last four digits of the Social Security numbers of its customers were compromised. Some people might mistakenly believe that having only the last four digits of their Social Security number in the possession of scammers does not put them in jeopardy. It most certainly does. The first three digits of your Social Security number relate to where you live and is easily determined; the second two digits are group numbers that until 2011 were based on when you obtained your Social Security number and are even available on the Social Security website for years up till 2011, but even for numbers issued after that date, there are only 99 possibilities so it is not particularly difficult for an identity thief to determine your Social Security number with just the last four digits. Armed with your Social Security number, a criminal can make you a victim of costly identity theft quite readily.
A class action against Comcast alleging negligence in protecting the personal information of its customers was filed shortly after the data breach and the case has now settled with Comcast agreeing to pay $117.5 million. As is common in such settlements, Comcast did not admit liability. Class members can receive reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses and lost time. Alternatively, class members can choose a cash payment of $50. In addition to the cash payments, Comcast is also offering class members three years of credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, authentication alerts, high-risk transaction monitoring, identity theft insurance and monthly credit score tracking. A final court hearing at which the settlement will be approved is scheduled for July 7th. The deadline for filing a claim is August 14, 2026. Here is the link to where you can file a claim. https://forms.ksacms.com/efiling/fr/eform/comcastbreachsettlement_claimform/new?form-version=1&fr-wizard-page=section-1
Regardless of whether you were affected by this particular data breach, we are all likely to be victims of future data breaches. So what can you do to protect yourself from data breaches that will be occurring?
TIPS
One important lesson is to limit the amount of personal information that you provide to companies and websites whenever possible. For example, your doctor doesn’t need your Social Security number for his or her records.
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. If your information is compromised in a data breach, you should immediately change the password for that account.
If you have not already done so, set up dual factor authentication for each of you accounts where it is available. This will protect you from having those accounts stolen by someone who may have access to your password. However it should be noted that the malware responsible for this particular data breach is able to bypass password requirements and dual factor authentication.
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
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Scam of the day – June 13, 2026 – Overpayment Scam
The overpayment scam is the basis for many scams including phony mystery shopper scams about which I have written many times. An example of the overpayment scam occurred when a British Columbia wedding photographer was scammed out of $4,600 through this scam. The scam began when the photographer was contacted by someone seeking to hire the photographer to take pictures at his daughter’s wedding. The photographer, Esther Moerman asked for a $700 deposit, but ended up receiving a check in the amount of $5,500. When Moerman reported to the scammer that the amount sent was incorrect, the scammer told Moerman that it was an accounting error and that the excess funds were supposed to pay for catering. The scammer then asked Moerman to wire the money to the caterer, which Moerman did. As you can guess, the scammers check was counterfeit and bounced even though Moerman’s bank initially gave her provisional credit which led her to believe that the check was valid. Once the check was found to be counterfeit, the provisional credit was removed from Moerman’s account, however, the money she wired to the phony caterer from her account was lost forever.
TIPS
This is just another variation on the scam whereby the victim, for whatever purposes receives a check in excess of the amount owed to the victim and asks the victim to send back the difference. There are a number of tell tale signs to look for and steps to take to avoid this type of scam. First, you need to remember that although a check may appear to have been cleared by your bank after a few days, all you are really getting is “provisional credit” and when the counterfeit check eventually bounces, the credit is taken back from your account and you are left having sent your own money to the scammer. The prudent thing to do when being paid by a check is to wait until the check has fully cleared before you can feel confident that the funds actually are in your account. This may take a few weeks. Most importantly, never accept a check for more than what is owed you and send the difference back. It is always a scam. Asking you to wire money from your account is also something about which you should be skeptical because once money is wired, it is impossible to get it back.
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Scam of the day – June 12, 2026 – Why You Should Have Unique Passwords for All Your Accounts
Identity theft is a serious crime that can result in financial harm and tremendous disruption of the lives of its victims. We are presently in an era of constant major data breaches so no matter how careful you are about protecting your personal information, you are only as safe as the security at the companies and government agencies that have your personal information. While often people are less concerned when data breaches do not result in the theft of their Social Security number or credit card number, a data breach in which merely your email address and password were compromised can result in major problems. If, as many people you use your email address as your user name for all of your accounts and you also use the same password for all of your accounts, you are in serious jeopardy if a data breach occurs which results in that information becoming known to criminals. Criminals use “checking” software which will search the Internet to find companies, banks and other institutions where you have used your email address as your username. Once they find these companies, they will try to log in using the password that was obtained through a data breach. If that other account is an account such as your bank account, you are in serious trouble. It is for this reason that it is important to use unique passwords for each of your online accounts.
TIPS
You should have a unique, strong password for each of your online accounts so that in the event that there is a data breach and the password for one of your accounts becomes compromised, all of your accounts will not become vulnerable to being hacked. Creating and remembering strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts is not as difficult as it may appear. You can start with a strong base password constructed from a phrase, such as IDon’tLikePasswords. Add a few symbols like !!! and then adapt it for each account you have so that you will have a secure and easy to remember password for each of your online accounts. Thus, your Amazon password could be IDon’tLikePasswords!!!AMA.
Whenever possible use dual factor authentication for your accounts so that when you attempt to log in, a one-time code will be sent to your cell phone to insert in order to get access to your account. For convenience sake you can set up dual factor authentication so that it is only required if you are logging in from a different computer or device than you normally use.
An easy solution to the problem of the answers to knowledge based authentication security questions being too readily available on the Internet is to make the answer to your security question nonsensical. For instance, if your security question is what is your mother’s maiden name, you can pick something ridiculous, such as “firetruck” as the answer. No hacker will ever be able to find the answer to this security question online and it is so silly that you will remember it.
Also, with your email address commonly known by many scammers, you can expect to receive more phishing and even more dangerous, specifically targeted spear phishing emails that attempt to lure you into clicking on links containing malware or try to convince you to provide personal information that can be used to make you a victim of identity theft. Never click on links or provide personal information in response to an email or text message unless you are absolutely sure that the email or text message is legitimate.
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Scam of the day – June 12, 2026 – Docusign Phishing Scam
DocuSign is a company that provides technology for the transmission of contracts and other documents with features for electronic signatures and is used by many businesses. There has been an increasing number of scams in which phony DocuSign messages are being used to send malware infected links luring people into providing personal information that is used for identity theft purposes.
Copied below is an email I received that purports to be sent related to an unspecified business transaction This phishing email prompts me to click on a link to open a document that needed my signature. The phishing email looked very professional and contained the DocuSign logo and appeared legitimate. However, the email address of the sender was one totally unrelated to either DocuSign or anyone with whom I do business.
This phishing email was designed to lure the person receiving the email to click on the link and either provide personal information that could be used for identity theft, or, as more likely in this particular phishing attempt, merely by clicking on the link would have downloaded malware such as ransomware or keystroke logging malware into the computer of the person clicking on the link. Keystroke logging malware would have enabled the cybercriminal to steal all of the personal information from the computer and make that person a victim of identity theft. I removed the link from the email displayed below.
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Good Day, All executed documents are now available for download. The vendor release forms and contract waivers marked for approval have been finalized and are ready for your review. Please download the complete documentation package, which includes all signed agreements, updated W-9 forms, and current Certificates of Insurance (COI). All files have been compiled into a single file for your convenience. Should you require any clarification regarding these documents, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Thank you. |
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| Do Not Share This Email This email contains a secure DocuSign link. Do not share it.Alternate Signing Method Visit docusign.com and enter code: EC58F45534624BA28B6853A8C0A05FE73About DocuSign Secure, legally binding electronic signatures in minutes. |
TIPS
In this case, I actually followed my own advice as to never click on a link regardless of how legitimate the email or text message may appear until confirming that the message is legitimate. In this case I didn’t even need to confirm that it was not legitimate because of the telltale evidence of the email address of the sender.
The lesson here is clear. You can never be sure when you receive an email as to who is really contacting you. Although sometimes it is obvious when the email address of the sender does not correspond to who is represented as sending the email, other times the email account of someone or some company you trust could have been hacked and used to send you the malware. Therefore you should never click on a link or download an attachment in an email until you have absolutely and independently confirmed that it is legitimate.
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