Scam of the Day
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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Scam of the day – September 14, 2026 – Apartment Rental Scams Getting Worse
In a hot real estate market, apartment rental scams are increasing dramatically. According to the FBI, last year victims of apartment rental scams lost 275 million dollars, a substantial increase over the previous year. In addition to conventional real estate agents, many people look for homes on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and now these rental scams have migrated to Tik Tok where a recent study found 68% of the apartment ads appeared to be scams. Tik Tok is a favorite site for younger people and the Federal Trade Commission has reported that people between the ages of 18 and 29 are three times more likely to lose money to a rental scam.
Scammers often go to Craigslist, Tik Tok and other similar sites to post their phony apartment listings. The scam usually starts with a listing that looks quite legitimate and there is a good reason for that. The listing is often a real on-line listing that has been copied by the scammer who merely puts in his or her name and contact information. The price is usually very low which attracts a lot of potential renters. The potential renters are sometimes told that the owner is out of the country and that there are many people interested in the property so if the tenant wants to be considered for renting it, the tenant has to wire money to the landlord somewhere outside of the country immediately. As I have warned you many times, wiring money is a scammer’s first choice because it is all but impossible to retrieve once you learn that you have been scammed. Too often, unwary potential tenants wire the money and never hear anything further from the scam landlord. As for the money, it is gone forever.
TIPS
There are a number of red flags to look for in home rental scams. First, as always, if the price looks too good to be true, it usually is just that – not true. Also be wary of landlords who are out of the country. Never send your payment by a wire transfer or a cashier’s check. Use a credit card, PayPal or any other payment system from which you can retrieve your funds if the transaction is fraudulent. It is usually best to deal with websites that specialize in home rentals but you must remember that they cannot possibly successfully monitor every listing to ensure that it is legitimate.
A great and easy way to determine if the listing is a scam is to check out who really is the owner of the home or apartment by going on line to the tax assessor’s office of the city or town where the property is located and look up who the real owner is. If it doesn’t match the name of the person attempting to rent you the home, you should not go through with the rental.
You also can search the address online to see if the property is listed for sale by a different real estate agent or owner or if other listings show different contact information elsewhere. This is an indication that the listing is a scam. Finally, search online the name of the owner with the word “scam” next to his or her name and see if anything comes up to make you concerned.
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Scam of the day – September 13, 2026 – Celebrity Deepfake Scams Getting Worse
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. However, 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. Back in 2023 I told you about a scam where a deepfake image of Chef Gordon Ramsey was used to trick people into a scam involving Hexclad cookware. Videos also appeared on social media such as TikTok and Facebook that appeared to show Taylor Swift endorsing and giving away Le Crueset cookware. If you click on the link provided you are sent to counterfeit websites of popular cooking websites where you see further phony testimonials. You are then asked to provide credit or debit card information to cover the cost of the shipping of the free cookware. Unfortunately, just as there was no free Hexclad cookware being given away by Gordon Ramsay, there is no free Le Crueset cookware being given away by Taylor Swift and all you succeed in doing is giving your credit card or debit card information to a scammer.
More recently Deepfakes of Taylor Swift have appeared in TikTok ads promoting a fake “TikTok Pay” program. However the most frequent celebrity deepfake scams involve Elon Musk endorsing various cryptocurrency platforms and investments that are all scams.
TIPS
Of course, anything too good to be true is generally not true and the offer of expensive cookware for free should immediately arouse skepticism. In cases such as this, if you had any thought that the offer might be legitimate you should confirm the offer by going to the official website of both Taylor Swift and of LeCrueset. If the offer was in any way legitimate, it would appear on both of those websites.
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.
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Scam of the day – September 12, 2026 – MyChart Phishing Scams Increasing
The email shown below is a very convincing phishing email. It contained the first name of the Scamicide reader who forwarded it to me. I have blocked out the name to protect the reader’s privacy. I also have disarmed the links contained in the email which, if clicked on, would have taken you to an official appearing site where you would have been prompted to provide your username and password. Providing this information to a scammer would result in identity theft.
Here is a copy of the MyChart phishing email presently being circulated
Hello XXXX,
You have a new message in MyChart! Please sign in to read your message.
Thanks for using MyChart
Sign In to MyChart
MyChart is available on the go!
To change what notifications you receive and how you receive them,
log in to MyChart and choose Notifications from the Preferences menuTIPS
This is a particularly insidious phishing email because the email address from which it was sent could appear to be legitimate and is not one that is obviously the email address of someone whose email account was hacked and made a part of a botnet of computers used to send out such phishing emails. Also, the targeted victim’s name was included in the email.
As with all phishing emails, two things can happen if you click on the links provided. Either you will be sent to a legitimate looking, but phony website where you will be prompted to input personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you may download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer or cell phone and use it to make you a victim of identity theft. One way to recognize a MyChart phishing email or text message is that the real MyChart never asks you to click on links.
If you receive an email like this and think it may possibly be legitimate, merely call your health care provider where you can confirm that it is a scam, but make sure that you dial the telephone number correctly because scammers have been known to buy phone numbers that are just a digit off of legitimate numbers to trap you if you make a mistake in dialing the real number.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – September 11, 2026 – Can Your Voice Mail Message Put You in Danger?
AI voice cloning is simple and easily accomplished at little cost. Scammers clone voices of people they are targeting with a variety of scams including the grandparent or family emergency scam where the family member gets a phone call from someone posing as a family member dealing with an emergency needing immediate funds. This scam was bad enough in the past, but now with voice cloning technology, the voice you hear sounds exactly the same as the voice of the real person. Voice cloning is also used in fake kidnapping scams and even cloning someone’s voice that is used as authentication to access a bank account (a very bad idea despite what some banks tell you).
So how do scammers get sufficient audio to clone someone’s voice? Audio can be obtained from social media posts or even the voice mail message greeting you make and have on your phone. The readily available voice cloning technology has gotten so sophisticated that only a few seconds of audio recordings are required to clone that person’s voice.
TIPS
To start off, my advice is to not use voice verification for your bank account and just as we all should be protective of personal information we post on social media that can be leveraged against us for scams and identity theft purposes, we should consider whether we also wish to take the risk of posting audio. As for the voice message on your phone, you would be wise to refrain from recording your own message and use a generic greeting provided by your phone carrier. It may seem paranoid, but even paranoids have enemies.
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Scam of the day – September 10, 2026 – FTC Warns About Automobile Dealership Cloning
The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a warning about an increase in car dealer cloning. Car dealer cloning occurs when a scammer sets up a website or social media profile 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 – September 9, 2026 – Disney Email Scam
The popularity of Disney makes it a preferred subject for phishing emails sent to people appearing to come from Disney in which you are told you need to update your credit card information or asking for other personal information. Reproduced below is a copy of an email recently received by a Scamicide reader. The email may look legitimate, but it is important to note that nowhere does your name or account number appear and it is sent from an email address that has nothing to do with Disney. The Disney logo appeared at the top of the email although not reproduced below, but it is easy to counterfeit the Disney logo and make the email appear to be legitimate when it is not.
Two things can happen if you click on the links in the email. Either you will be directed to a phony but legitimate looking website where you will be prompted to input your credit card information and thereby turn it over to an identity thief or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you will download keystroke logging malware that can steal all of the information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft. I have removed the links in the email below. I have disarmed the “Correct Billing Details” link in the email copied below. I also removed the email address of the Scamicide reader who was sent this email.
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TIPS
As I always say, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” You can never be truly sure when you receive an email seeking personal information such as your credit card number whether or not the email is a scam. The risk of clicking on a link or providing the requested information is just too high. Instead, if you think that the email might be legitimate, you should contact the company at a telephone number or email address that you know is legitimate and find out whether or not the email was a scam.
The biggest red flag that this is a scam is that the email address from which it was sent has nothing to do with Disney.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – September 8, 2026 – Skimmers at Gas Pumps Continue to be a Problem
Skimmers at gas pumps continue to be a major problem. Skimmers are small electronic devices that are easily installed by an identity thief on gas pumps, ATMs and other card reading devices. The skimmer steals all of the information from old style magnetic strip credit card or debit cards which then enables the identity thief to use that information to access the victim’s credit card or bank account when the skimmer is used on a debit card. Each skimmer can hold information on as many as 2,400 cards. In November of 2025, the Department of Justice broke up a multi-state crime ring that installed skimmers inside gas pumps in ten states stealing data from thousands of cards.
MasterCard and Visa announced in December of 2016 that the deadline for the installation of EMV chip card readers on gas pumps was being delayed three years to October 1, 2020. This deadline was further delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic to April 17, 2021 at which time less than half of the gas pumps in the United States complied with the requirement to install EMV chip card readers. And although that deadline has long since passed, due to the cost involved, many gas pumps still are not enabled for your chip credit card. It has been estimated that about 25% of gas pumps still have not been updated with EMV chip card readers, leaving them susceptible to skimmers.
Using tap-to-pay and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay allow you to bypass the card reader and avoid the problem, however some scammers drill holes in the contactless payment screens on gas pumps where you can merely scan your credit card with its RFID chip or use your mobile wallet rather than insert your card into the card reader. By damaging the contactless payment screen, it becomes inoperable thereby requiring the customer to use the credit card reader on the gas pump where the identity thief had already installed a skimmer to steal your credit card or debit card information.
TIPS
Always look for signs of tampering on any machine you use to swipe your credit card or debit card although the more advanced forms of skimmers are installed in the gas pump’s interior and cannot be detected from an inspection of the outside of the pump. Keys to open the gas pumps to allow the installation of the skimmer are readily available online. If the card inserting mechanism appears loose or in any other way tampered, don’t use it. In regard to the contactless payment screen, if it is not working, there is a high likelihood that it may have been tampered with so in that instance pay for your gas inside the gas station office.
Debit cards, when compromised through a skimmer put the customers at risk of having the bank accounts tied to their cards entirely emptied if the theft is not promptly reported and even if the victim reports the theft immediately, the victim loses access to his or her bank account while the matter is investigated by the bank. Debit cards should not be used for purchases at gas pumps. Instead use your credit card and monitor your account regularly to find out early if you have become a victim of this scam. With a credit card, your liability for fraudulent purchases is limited by law to no more than $50 and I am not aware of any credit card companies that hold their customers responsible for any fraudulent purchases. However, fraudulent debit purchases do not come with the same federal legal protection.
When choosing a particular gas pump, you may wish to pick the pump closest to the building and within the sight line of the attendant. Criminals are less likely to install skimmers in pumps where they could be observed making the illegal installation of a skimmer.
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Scam of the day – September 7, 2026 – Scammers Hacking Computers Through Fake CAPTCHA Tests
We are all familiar with CAPTCHA tests which appear on many websites that we use and are intended to confirm that you are not a robot, but a real person. CAPTCHA is an acronym for “completely automated public Turing Test to tell computers and humans apart.” The name Turing refers to early British computer scientist Alan Turing. CAPTCHA tests generally take the form of having to recognize scrambled letters or numbers or to recognize patterns in a number of photographs such as which photographs have traffic lights. People are familiar with CAPTCHA tests and although many people find them mildly annoying, people trust them and there is the problem. Scammer are setting up legitimate appearing websites with fake CAPTCHA tests, but instead of clicking on images in boxes or typing in scrambled letters you are instructed to press Windows +R and then press Ctrl + V and Press Enter. However if you do so, you will have instructed your computer to open a hidden Run window on your computer and download malware without doing anything further. This malware will steal your passwords and other sensitive data from your computer and lead to identity theft.
It should be noted that even “legitimate” CAPTCHA tests sometime are used by the websites to collect data from you such as your IP address and browser history without telling you that your information is being gathered This information is then sold to companies looking to use that information.
TIPS
Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. Particularly when going to unfamiliar websites you should be wary of CAPTCHA tests that appear there. Additionally, you should make sure that you have good security software on all of your electronic devices that you update whenever security patches are issued to protect you from known malware threats.
A key way to distinguish a real CAPTCHA test from a fake one is that a real CAPTCHA test will never ask you to open a command window or ask you to use keyboard shortcuts such as Windows+R.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to free receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address where it states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – September 6, 2026 – Veterans Savings Program Scam
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. Each year veterans and military families are scammed out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the FTC veterans and military families lost $685 million in 2025. With so many scams online, it is unusual that the newest scam targeted veterans is done through an old school postcard. The post card informs the targeted scam victim that he or she may qualify for additional monthly veterans benefits through the “Veterans Savings Program.” The postcard provides a phone number to call where the scammers lure the unsuspecting veteran to provide personal information such as their Social Security number or bank account information that will lead to identity theft.
TIPS
The truth is that there is no such program as the “Veterans Savings Program.” The real VA will never ask for sensitive personal information over the phone.
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. If you have questions about benefits for which you might be eligible, you can call the real VA Benefits Hotline at 1-800-827-1000
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