Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – August 9, 2025 – FBI Warns About Cryptocurrency Recovery Scams
In recent years, I have written many times about the myriad of cryptocurrency scams that have cost people billions of dollars. According to the FBI, Americans lost more than 9.3 billion dollars to cryptocurrency investment scams in 2024. In some instances, law enforcement has been able to recover some of those lost funds, but in many other instances, the money is lost forever. According to the FBI, scammers, posing as representatives of companies that falsely claim to be able to recover funds lost to cryptocurrency scams, are luring in victims through social media, messaging platforms or advertisements. Often the scammers claim affiliation with law enforcement, federal agencies or legitimate legal services providers, but it is all a lie. In return for a substantial up-front payment, the scammers claim they can recover all of the funds lost to a cryptocurrency scam. Of course, this is a lie and anyone who pays the fee loses that money.
TIPS
No private company can issue a seizure order to a cryptocurrency exchange. This is only done by internal processes of the exchanges or in response to court ordered legal process as has been done by the Justice Department. If you are contacted by any of these companies offering assistance in getting back your lost money, do not give personal information to them as this information can be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
Legitimate law enforcement agencies such as the FBI which works extensively in the area of cryptocurrency scams do not charge any fees for investigating cryptocurrency crimes or for efforts to return funds to people who have been scammed. If you are a victim of a cryptocurrency scam, you should contact the local office of the FBI for assistance.
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Scam of the day – August 8, 2025 – How Big a Problem is Property Title Theft?
Deed fraud, which is also referred to as “property title theft” occurs when a criminal files a counterfeit deed to property owned by someone else and then either lives in the property or even sells the property to an unwary buyer. Deed fraud most commonly occurs after a homeowner dies. Enterprising criminals monitor the obituaries looking for homes owned by people recently deceased and then forge a deed to the property and record it in the local Registry of Deeds.
Recently, Tim Lefman of Kansas City became aware that he had become a victim of property title theft regarding a piece of undeveloped land he owned when he learned that someone was trying to sell his land. Ultimately, the story has a happy ending as the scammer was not able to sell the land and Lefman found some interested buyers for his property.
Indications that a home you may own has been subject to deed fraud often comes when you receive notices for unpaid real estate tax, water or mortgage bills. Ironically, another indication of deed fraud is when you own a home and don’t receive your real estate tax bill because the scammer has changed the address to which the real estate tax bill is sent to cover his or her tracks. Receiving a foreclosure notice when you don’t even have a mortgage is another indication that you have become a victim of deed fraud after the criminal has mortgaged your home by forging your signature.
Resolving deed fraud can be a timely process, but it is one that you will eventually be able to do successfully. A counterfeit deed is totally invalid.
TIPS
In order to protect yourself from deed fraud you should regularly monitor your credit reports at each of the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and be on the lookout for bills related to your property. Monitoring your credit report is something we all should do regularly anyway. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax offer all U.S. consumers free weekly credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com.
It also is helpful to regularly check with your local Registry of Deeds to confirm that no one has filed a forged deed to your property. Most people can access their local Registry of Deeds online for free.
Finally, when you purchase your home, you are offered the option of buying an owner’s title insurance policy which will cover the cost of remedying deed fraud. An owner’s title insurance policy is a good choice for any homeowner for a variety of reasons. Lately I have seen and heard advertisements for special insurance that only covers deed fraud although generally all these policies offer is monitoring the Registry of Deeds for filings that relate to your home, which is something that you can do on your own quite simply for free and is not worth the cost.
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Scam of the day – August 7, 2025 – Prudential Settles Class Action Over Data Breach
Prudential Financial which is a major financial services company has settled a class action brought against it by its customers whose personal information was compromised in a data breach that occurred on February 4, 2024. The data breach affected 2.5 million of Prudential Financial’s customers. The compromised sensitive personal information included names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers and physical addresses which put the victims of the data breach in serious danger of identity theft. The class action claimed that Prudntial Financial could have prevented the data breach by using reasonable cybersecurity measures and this claim seems understandable when you consider that Prudential Financial had suffered a similar major data breach less than a year earlier.
Under the terms of the settlement, which still must be approved by the judge overseeing the case in October, provides for various cash payments to the victims of the data breach. Victims can receive payments of up to $5,000 for documented expenses related to the data breach such as replacement of IDs, credit monitoring and other related expenses. In addition, victims can receive payments of between $200 and $599 for having their Social Security numbers compromised.
October 3rd is the deadline for making a claim under the class action settlement which can be done here using this link. https://www.prudentialfinancialdatabreach.com/faq/
TIPS
Victims of this data breach should freeze their credit if they have not already done so. Freezing your credit is actually something everyone should do. It is free and easy to do. In addition, it protects you from someone using your identity to obtain loans or make large purchases even if they have your Social Security number. If you have not already done so, put a credit freeze on your credit reports at all of the major credit reporting agencies. Here are links to each of them with instructions about how to get a credit freeze:
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
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Scam of the Day – August 6, 2025 – Romance Scammer Accused of Stealing Millions
I have been warning you about romance scams for many years. Romance scams generally follow a familiar pattern with the scammers establishing relationships with people, generally women, online through various legitimate dating websites and social media using fake names, locations and images. Most romance scams are online and originally involved some variation of the person you meet through an online dating site or social media quickly falling in love with you and then, under a wide variety of pretenses, asking for money. However in recent years the scam has evolved to where the scammer tells his victim that he or she has inside knowledge about investing through the scammer in non-existent investments which often have involved cryptocurrencies.
Recently Christopher Earl Lloyd of Whittier, California was arrested and charged with crimes related to using the dating apps Tinder, Hinge and Bumble as well as other websites for romance scam purposes through which federal prosecutors say he stole 2 million dollars from his victims after falsely telling his victims that he was a successful financial manager and that he could provide substantial returns on money they would invest with him. All of it, prosecutors say, was a lie and that he merely used the money for his own personal expenses.
While anyone can be the victim of a romance scam, according to the FBI, the elderly, women and people who have been widowed are particular vulnerable. Most romance scams are online and involve some variation of the person you meet through an online dating site or social media quickly falling in love with you and then, under a wide variety of pretenses, asking for money. Since 2019 approximately half of the reported instances of the romance scam have started on social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram rather than on dating sites or dating apps according to the FTC.
TIPS
There are various red flags to help you identify romance scams. I describe many of them in detail in my book “The Truth About Avoiding Scams.” The most important thing to remember is to always be skeptical of anyone who falls in love with you quickly online without ever meeting you and early into the relationship who then asks you to send money to assist them with a wide range of phony emergencies.
Here are a few other things to look for to help identify an online romance scam. Often their profile picture is stolen from a modeling website on the Internet. If the picture looks too professional and the person looks too much like a model, you should be wary. You also can check on the legitimacy of photographs or video images by seeing if they have been used elsewhere by doing a reverse image search using google.images.com or websites such as tineye.com.
Before investing with anyone, you should investigate the person offering to sell you the investment with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Central Registration Depository. This will tell you if the broker is licensed and if there have been disciplinary procedures against him or her. You can also check with your own state’s securities regulation office for similar information. Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the SEC, but are required to register with your individual state’s securities regulators. You can find your state’s agency by going to the website of the North American Securities Administrators Association. https://www.nasaa.org/investor-education/how-to-check-your-broker-or-investment-adviser/ Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the SEC, but are required to register with your individual state securities regulators. You should also check with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for information about the particular investment adviser. https://www.finra.org/investors/protect-your-money/ask-and-check
It is also important to remember that you should never invest in something that you do not completely understand. This was a mistake that many of Bernie Madoff’s victims made. You also may want to check out the SEC’s investor education website at www.investor.gov. Scammers can be very convincing and it may sound like there is a great opportunity for someone to make some money, but you must be careful that the person making money is not the scam artist taking yours.
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Scam of the day – August 5, 2025 – FBI Issues Warning About Imposter Scams
Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. While there are many variations of this scam, the most common variations have involved scammers emailing their victims posing as a popular company with which we all do business or calling their intended victims on the telephone posing as some governmental agency such as the IRS or the Social Security Administration. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses, demands an immediate payment by cryptocurrencies, gift cards, credit card or wired funds. Being asked to pay by gift cards or cryptocurrencies is a definite indication that the call is a scam since no company or governmental agency requests or accepts payments by gift cards or cryptocurrencies.
Recently the FBI field Office for South Carolina isued a warning about scammers posing as FBI agents calling their intended victims on the phone and telling them that they have missed federal jury duty or have an outstanding arrest warrant against them. The victim of the scam is told to expect a second phone call from another purported federal agent. In the second call, the vicitm is told to withdraw large sums of money and convert it to cryptocurrency at a cryptocurrency ATM and to send it through the ATM to the supposed account of the FBI. In another variation of this scam, the victims receive phony text messages purportedly from the FBI with links to documents that appear to come from the FBI, the federal district court or even the United States Supreme Court making the demands for payment.
TIPS
As I have often reminded you, whenever you are contacted by phone call, email or a text message you can never be sure who is actually contacting you. B.S. Be skeptical. Through the simple technique of “spoofing” it is very easy for a scammer to manipulate your Caller ID to make a call coming to you appear legitimate when it is not. Therefore you can never truly trust your Caller ID. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. Email addresses can also be made to appear legitimate as can text messages when they are actually coming from a scammer.
Never click on a link, download an attachment, provide personal information or make a payment in response to an email, text message or phone call unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate.
As for this particular scam, it is important to remember that the FBI will never demand payment through gift cards, cryptocurrencies, wire transfers or cash deposits at cryptocurrency ATMs.
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Scam of the day – August 4, 2025 – TRAPS ACT Legislation Proposed to Combat Scams
It is rare in today’s political climate to find something that Republicans and Democrats agree upon so it is heartening to see the recent introduction in the U.S. Senate of the TRAPS Act, which is an acronym for Taskforce for Recognizing and Averting Payment scams. The legislation was sponsored by Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho. and co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. If enacted into law the Act would create a new federal task force led by the Treasury Department and including members from eight other federal agencies and departments including the Consumer Financial Protectioin Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.
The purpose of the task force would be to analyze trends in various payment scams including spoofed calls, text message scams and more as well as identify effective methods of preventing such scams, The task force would also review the current mehtods used to scam consumers through various payment platforms such as bank accounts and gift cards. It would also work to develop educational programs for the public to arm everyone against scams.
TIPS
Informing people about scams is what we do every day at Scamicide.com and we applaud the efforts of Senator Crapo and the other sponsors of the legislation to take action to protect people from being scammed. I urge you to contact your Senator and ask them to support this important legislation.
Meanwhile the best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm so keep following Scamicide and suggest to your friends and family to follow Scamicide so you can be alerted to the latest scams and how to avoid them and protect yourself. We are all in this together.
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Scam of the day – August 3, 2025 – Frequent Flier Miles Theft Increasing
I have written numerous times in the past about the theft of frequent flier miles from the accounts of unwary customers. Recently there has been a dramatic increase in the stealing of frequent flier miles from the accounts of unsuspecting airline customers who participate in the various airline frequent flier programs. The reasons for this is because this kind of theft is easy to accomplish, easy to avoid detection and quite profitable. Hackers often take advantage of the fact that many people use the same username and password for many accounts. With so many usernames and passwords available to identity thieves due to the many data breaches that have become common occurrences, identity thieves are able to use usernames and passwords that they buy on the Dark Web, that part of the Internet where hackers buy and sell such information, to easily access the frequent flier accounts from people who use the same username and passwords for multiple accounts. In other instances, identity thieves will use socially engineered spear phishing emails to pose as the airlines and lure the victims into providing their usernames and passwords to the identity thief, often under the guise of confirming information for the airline. Because people so rarely monitor their frequent flier accounts, criminals who steal frequent flier miles often go undetected for long periods of time.
Even travel experts such as Clint Henderson, the managing editor of the travel site The Points Guy can fall prey to this scam. He lost more than 400,000 miles from his American Airlines account when it was hacked.
Once the criminal gains access to the account, they can profit from the information in many ways including redeeming the points for merchandise from retailers participating in the frequent flier program, transferring the points to another clean account from which they can use the points for themselves or redeeming the points for travel vouchers which they then sell posing as legitimate travel websites.
TIPS
In order to protect yourself you should have a unique username and password for each of your online accounts including your frequent flier accounts. This is a basic tenet of online security that you should be following. In addition sign up for dual factor authentication for all of your accounts. Also, monitor your frequent flier miles accounts regularly to recognize any hacking as early as possible.Finally, in regard to your frequent flier miles, you should always shred your boarding passes. Don’t merely thrown them away in trash receptacles at the airport. The bar code on your boarding pass contains important information including your frequent flier account number that can be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
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Scam of the day – August 2, 2025 – AI as a Tool to Combat Scams
For the last few years I have told you about numerous instances where artificial intelligence (AI) has been used by scammers to make their scams more believeable. Romance scams, celebrity imposter scams, phishing email scams, business email compromise scams and counterfeit websites are just a few of the scams that have been made far worse through scammers use of AI technology including voice cloning and deepfakes. Fortunately, however, AI is a double edged sword and more and more it is being used by legitimate companies to recognize and even predict scam trends to help avoid being scammed.
Recently, Paypal has introduced new AI powered scam alerts for its Payal and Venmo Friends and Family Payments. The peer to peer payment system Venmo is owned by PayPal. Its Friends and Family payment option is intended to be used only to send money to friends and family and not for commercial purposes, however this has not stopped scammers from tricking people into using PayPal and Venmo to unwittingly pay scammers.
The new dynamic scam detection system monitors payments and will issue an alert when it detects a potential scam. The alerts reflect the risk level of the payment and become stronger when the risk is determined to be greater. It will even automatically block payments in very high risk situations. The AI system used by PayPal utilizes machine learning to adapt to newer scams that haven’t even been previously identified.
Visa and Mastercard are also increasingly using AI to detect scams by monitoring transactions and recognizing potential scams as well as constantly learning about and even predicting new scams.
TIPS
While PayPal offers significant protection from fraudulent transactions, Venmo does not offer such protection, which is why it should never be used for commercial transactions, but only to transfer small amounts of money to people you know. It is important to remember that the new AI powered scam alerts for Venmo only apply to its Friends and Family Payments.
As for your credit card, the major credit card companies do a good job at protecting you from scams. In addition, under federal law your liability for unauthorized use of a credit card is limited to no more than $50 and most credit card companies will not even hold you responsible for even that amount However, your liability for unauthorized use of your debit card can potentially be unlimited if you do not promptly notice and report the fraudulent use of your card thereby putting your entire bank account tied to your debit card in jeopardy so when choosing whether to use your credit card or debit card for retail transactions, you should always pick your credit card In addition, even if you notice and report the unauthorized use of your debit card immediately, your bank account is frozen while the bank investigates the matter thereby temporarily taking away your own access to your bank account. Limit your debit card use to ATMs.
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Scam of the day – August 1, 2025 – New Louisiana Law Protects Victims From Cryptocurrency ATM Scams
A report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates a 1,000 % increase in money lost to scammers through cryptocurrency ATMs in the last three years. 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 cyptocurrency 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 many 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. In other versions of the scams, victims are told they must make a payment through a cryptocurrency ATM to avoid prosecution for missing jury duty or some othe pretense.
In the Scam of the day for March 4, 2025 I told you about a bill presently before Congress entitled the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act would prevent new users of the cryptocurrency ATMs from spending more than $2,000 in a single day or $10,000 over a two week period to purchase cryptocurrency at cryptocurrency ATMs. The proposed law would also require cryptocurrency ATM companies to speak directly with new customers attempting to perform transactions of more than $500 and require full refunds when those customers file police reports and alert companies operating cryptocurrency ATMs within 30 days of their transactions. This bill is, however, far from passage.
Meanwhile, beginning today, Louisiana has a new law that regulates cryptocurrency ATMs in that state limiting the daily transaction abmount to $3,000 and requiring a 72 hour hold on all transfers with the ability to cancel transactions. This is particularly helpful for people acting quickly and emotionally to the threat posed by a scammer and then realizing they had been scammed. The Louisiana law also requies the posting at all ATMs of a warning that no government official will ever request a payment through a cryptocurrency ATM.
TIPS
Protecting yourself from these imposter scams that form the basis of cryptocurrency ATM scams starts with recognizing that you can never be sure who is actually contacting you when you are contacted by phone, email or text message so you should never click on a link, download an attachment or provide personal information in response to any of those communications unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication was legitimate. Further there is no circumstance where you will be asked by anyone legitimate to withdraw funds from your bank, deposit them into a cryptocurrency ATM and transfer the funds to them. Only scammers make those requests.
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Scam of the day – July 31, 2025 – Denver Pastor Indicted on Cryptocurrency Scam
Affinity fraud is the name for the type of fraud where people put undeserved trust in someone offering an investment opportunity because that person is “someone like me.” Affinity fraud works because people trust other people who may share a common bond, such as family, religion or some other group affiliation. The list goes on and on. Over the years I have reported on many instances of affinity fraud perpetrated against a wide variety of people. Scammers take advantage of every connection they can make with their victims to gain their trust and then steal their money.
In the Scam of the day for February 4, 2024 I told you about fraud charges brought by the Colorado Division of Securities against Colorado Pastor Eli Regalado and his wife who created a cryptocurrency called INDXcoin and sold it to members of his church and other churchgoers in the Denver area through a cryptocurrency marketplace that he created and controlled. He announced he was selling the cryptocurrency on YouTube telling people that God told him to do this and that God said it was a safe and profitable investment. It wasn’t. More than a million dollars of investors money went to fund the pastor’s and his wife’s extravagant lifestyle and, according to the Colorado Division of Securities, INDXcoin is worthless. Eligio Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn Regalado were tried in a bench trial before a judge in May, however, the judge has not yet issued a ruling on the civil charges. Meanwhile, the two Realados were indicted this week on forty criminal charges related to the same scam.
TIPS
Before investing with anyone, you should investigate the person offering to sell you the investment with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Central Registration Depository. This will tell you if the broker is licensed and if there have been disciplinary procedures against him or her. You can also check with your own state’s securities regulation office for similar information. Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the SEC, but are required to register with your individual state’s securities regulators. You can find your state’s agency by going to the website of the North American Securities Administrators Association. Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the SEC, but are required to register with your individual state securities regulators. You can find your state’s agency by going to the website of the North American Securities Administrators Association. You should also check with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for information about the particular investment adviser.
As for Cryptocurrency investing, it is important to remember that you should never invest in something that you do not completely understand. This was a mistake that many of Bernie Madoff’s victims made. Cryptocurrency scams quite often involve complicated language and investment terms that are purposefully unclear in an effort to confuse potential investors from understanding the real facts. You also may want to check out the SEC’s investor education website at www.investor.gov. Scammers can be very convincing and it may sound like there is a great opportunity for someone to make some money, but you must be careful that the person making money is not the scam artist taking yours. Additionally, investing with someone merely because you share the same heritage, nationality, religion or any other affinity is something you should avoid.
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 to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”