Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – August 3, 2026 – FTC Warns Veterans About VA Scams
Veterans are frequently targeted by scammers posing as VA employees offering help for a fee in obtaining VA benefits, securing 100% disability rating and expediting claims, all of which are scams. There is no charge to apply for VA benefits, and the scammers cannot provide the services they claim. A recent study by the VA found that scammers contacted 39% of all veterans and more than 25% were scammed out of more than $500. Using a technique called “spoofing” scammers can manipulate the Caller ID of their targeted victims to appear as if their call is actually coming from the VA.
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Veterans should recognize that they are a frequent target of scammers and also should remember that there is no fee for applying for benefits. Whenever you get a call, email or text message, you can never be sure who is actually contacting you, but particularly if the caller represents that he or she is a VA representative and asks for a fee for providing services it is a scam.
Fortunately, the VA has set up a very helpful website VSAFE.gov which contains much helpful information for veterans applying for benefits. In addition, the VA has a special hotline 1-833-38V-SAFE which veterans can call if they have any questions about possible scams.
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Scam of the day – August 2, 2026 – Maine Police Warn About Increased Grandparent Scam
I am sure by now all of you are familiar with the grandparent scam where a grandparent receives a telephone call from someone purporting to be their grandchild who has gotten into some trouble, most commonly a traffic accident, legal trouble or medical problems in a far away place. The caller pleads for the grandparent to send money immediately to help resolve the problem. However the caller also begs the grandparent not to tell mom and dad. One would think that no one would be gullible enough to fall for this scam, but don’t be so hard on the victims of this scam. Scam artists have a knowledge of psychology of which Freud would have been envious and are able to use that knowledge to persuade their victims to send money right away. While this scam has been going on for approximately sixteen years, it continues to victimize people.
Recently, the Kennebunk, Maine Police Department issued a warning about an increase in the grandparent scam in which the targeted victims are receiving phone calls from scammers posing as the grandchild saying that they have been involved in a serious automobile accident and have been arrested and need money for bail.
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Scammers often use the nicknames of the grandchildren when speaking to their intended victims. Sometimes they get this information from social media while in other instances they get this information from reading obituaries which may contain the names of grandchildren so merely because the correct name is used in the call is no reason to believe the call. Recently, scammers are able to use AI to harvest personal information about their intended victims to make their calls appear more legitimate.
Don’t respond immediately to such a call without calling the real grandchild on his or her cell phone or call the parents and confirm the whereabouts of the grandchild. If a medical problem is the ruse used, you can call the real hospital. If legal problems are the hook you can call the real police. You can also test the caller with a question that could be answered only by the real grandchild, but make sure that it really is a question that only the real grandchild could answer and not just anyone who might read the real grandchild’ s social media postings. Prudent families can also come up with a code word to use in an emergency which a scammer will never know.
Due to AI voice cloning the scam has gotten worse with unsophisticated scammers able to use voice cloning technology to disguise their voices to sound like that of the grandchild. The scammers are able to obtain audio of the grandchild they are impersonating through social media posts to use to clone their voice.
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Scam of the day – August 1, 2026 – Minnesota Bans Crypto ATMs
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.
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 and Tennessee previously banned cryptocurrency ATMs and today Minnesota’s total ban on cryptocurrency ATMs went into effect.
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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, and most importantly, 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 – 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.
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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 |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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