Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – June 30, 2025 – How to Recognize a Scam
Scam artists, the only criminals we refer to as artists have a knowledge of psychology that Freud would have envied. They know how to appeal to every human emotion to lure us into becoming a scam victim. Scam artists can adapt their art to paint whatever picture they sense will make us vulnerable to their con. They know how to appeal to our own particular weaknesses and psychological makeup.
They appeal to whatever works. They construct a network of “people like us” whom we trust; they trumpet legitimate and impressive-sounding business connections; they appeal to our fears; they appeal to our friendship; they appeal to our optimism; they appeal to our desire for quick and easy solutions to life’s problems; they appeal to our generosity; and they appeal to our greed.
Some scams can be so sophisticated that they can be hard to recognize, so how can you identify a scam before it is too late?
TIPS
One of the best ways of determining if you are involved with a scam is how the scammer requests payment.
If they ask for payment through a gift card, it is definitely a scam. No legitimate business transaction asks for payment by gift cards. No governmental agency accepts gift cards as payments.
If they send you a check for more than what is owed you and ask you under a variety of different pretexts to deposit the check and wire the excess money back to them, it is a scam. The overpayment check scam is used in many different scams, but it always ends up with the victim depositing the legitimate appearing check, getting provisional credit in the victim’s account, wiring money from the account and then having the counterfeit check bounce, the provisional credit rescinded and the money wired from the victim’s own funds in the account gone forever.
If they require payment by a wire from your bank, Western Union or other similar companies it is also a red flag that you are dealing with a scam. Wired payments are quick and easy for the scammer to maintain his or her anonymity.
If they ask you to go to a Cryptocurrency ATM and buy cryptocurrency and use a QR code to send it to the scammer’s account, it is a scam.
If they demand Zelle or Venmo for a business transaction, it is a scam.
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Scam of the day – June 29, 2025 – Phony Bitdefender Website Downloads Malware
Bitdefender is a trusted cybersecurity and anti-virus software company that provides a variety of products to protect your computer and digital devices from malware and other online threats which is why it is particularly disturbing when scammers were recently discovered to have set up a phony Bitdefender website where if you go to download on the website what you think is protective security software, you actually are downloading malware that can steal your passwords and sensitive personal information from your computer or cell phone that will result in your becoming a victim of identity theft and your accounts, such as online bank accounts hacked.
Making this story even more disturbing is that the malware used as a part of this scam is readily available for sale on the Dark Web, that part of the Internet where criminals buy and sell goods and services so that even relatively unsophisticated scammers are able to access this malware. AI also makes the creation of phony websites such as done here simple for less sophisticated criminals as well.
Criminals are often able to get their phony websites listed high in a search engine search by either paying for a high position in a search or manipulating the algorithm used to place a website in a seach engine search to get a high position.
TIPS
There are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from this type of scam.
First of all, this scam points out the importance of having dual factor authentication on all of your important accounts so that even if someone managed to steal your username and password, they would be unable to access the account.
Trust me, you can’t trust anyone and with the ease that criminals using AI can create phony websites that appear to be websites of companies that you trust, it is more important than ever to make sure that you are on the legitimate websites you seek rather than a criminal’s counterfeit website. If you are sure of the URL of a website, make sure you type the URL in carefully to avoid going to a criminals’ website.
You can also confirm a website’s legitimacy by going to whois.com to see who actually owns the website and how long it has been in existence. The Google Transparency Report accessed at transparencyreport.google.com can also indicate whether a website is legitimate or not. Another very good tool is virustotal.com which is a free online service where you provide the URL of the website you are checking on and virustotal will send the file to dozens of antivirus companies including Bitdefender, Avast and Kaspersky to see if it is legitimate. Also Google Chrome has its AI powered Enhanced Safe Browsing mode which will allow you to check on the legitimacy of a particular URL and will warn you if it is a scam.
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Scam of the day – June 28, 2025 – Wall Street Journal Reports 70% of Ads on Facebook are Scams
The Wall Street Journal recently did a scathing story that said that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram is becoming the “cornerstone of the internet fraud economy.” According to the story Meta accounted for nearly half of all reported scams on Zelle at major banks. The story also reported that 70% of new advertisers on Meta’s platforms promote scams or low quality products. Many of the scammers placing these ads, according to the Journal, were Southeast Asian crime networks. The article went on to say that Meta did a poor job of taking down fraudulent ads because it prioritized its 160 billion dollar profit from ads over protecting its users from being scammed. For its part, Meta says that according to federal law it is not responsible for scam ads on their sites. Lately, I have gotten many emails from Scamicide readers complaining about scams on Facebook marketplace.
TIPS
So how do you protect yourself from these phony ads?
You can start off by checking the profile page of the poster to see if it has many followers. Also, legitimate businesses will have websites. Check out these websites to see if they are legitimate.
Ads that ask for payments to be made by wired funds, gift cards, Venmo or Zelle is also a good indication that it is a scam. Venmo and Zelle should never be used for commercial transactions and gift cards are not an accepted method of payment for goods to anyone other than scammers.
Look for customer feedback and review sites such as Trustpilot.
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 on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – June 27, 2025 – Phony Coupon Scams
Everyone loves coupons and like many things in our lives, coupons which used to be found commonly in newspapers and magazines have migrated online. In recent years scammers have been perpetrating phony coupon scams on social media. Among the companies affected by these phony coupons were Bath and Body Works, Costco, Aldi, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s. As I have warned you many times in the past, Facebook has become a hotbed for phony online coupons. The phony coupons looks quite legitimate which means nothing because it is very easy to copy the company logos and make the coupons appear to be genuine.
The way that many phony coupon scams work is that in order to qualify for the coupon, you must complete a survey in which you are required to provide much personal information that is used to make you a victim of identity theft. In other versions of the scam, the scammer actually asks for your credit card numbers. In yet another version of the scam you are required to buy many costly items in order to claim your “free” coupon. Many of the coupon scams also require you to forward the coupon to friends which make the phony coupons appear more trustworthy when they are received by your friends. Ultimately, in all of these scams, the coupons are worthless and you get nothing but the opportunity to become a victim of identity theft. Here is a copy of a phony coupon appearing online. It was provided by the Identity Theft Resource Center.
TIPS
If the coupon appears too good to be true, it usually is a scam. No company could cover the cost of giving away vast numbers of $75 coupons although sometimes, participants in legitimate surveys are promised a chance to win a prize in a drawing. Facebook is a favorite venue for scammers perpetrating this type of scam because often unwary victims will unwittingly share the scam with their friends. One way to determine if a coupon is legitimate is to look for the expiration date found on most coupons. The phony Costco coupon shown above like most phony coupons does not carry an expiration date. The best place to go to find out if a coupon is legitimate is to go to the company’s website to see what real coupons are being offered.
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Scam of the day – June 26, 2025 – How to Keep Your Cryptocurrency Wallet Safe
I have been writing about cryptocurrency scams for years. There a variety of scams that attempt to steal your cryptocurrencies from you. One of the most important decisions anyone should make when deciding whether to invest in cryptocurrencies is what kind of a wallet they will hold their investment in. Many cryptocurrency scams involve people being tricked into turning over access to their cryptocurrency wallets and losing all of their funds.
Your digital wallet is where the key that allows you to access your cryptocurrency account is found. If your key falls into the hands of a hacker, you can easily lose all of your cryptocurrency account so it is of paramount importance to secure your digital wallet. Digital wallets can either be hot wallets or cold wallets. Hot wallets are connected to the Internet which makes them more susceptible to being hacked which is why a cold wallet which is not connected to the Internet, but rather is is kept in a portable hard drive is your best bet.
TIPS
When doing cryptocurrency transactions online, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to provide encryption for your communications which will make the transactions more secure and refrain from using public WIFI for cryptocurrency transactions. Use a strong, complex password for your account and consider using a password manager or store your password on a portable hard drive that you keep in a secure spot.
Use dual factor authentication for your account for additional security, however, it is important to note that many cryptocurrency thefts have occurred when hackers were able to defeat dual factor authentication through SIM swapping whereby they contact the cell phone service provider of their victim, answer a security question and manage to get the cell phone service provider to switch the phone number of the victim to a phone controlled by the criminal thus defeating the dual factor authentication.
The best thing you can do to protect your SIM card from being swapped is to set up a PIN or password to be used for access to your mobile service provider account. This will help prevent a criminal from calling your carrier posing as you and convincing your mobile carrier to swap your SIM card to the criminal’s phone merely by providing personal identifying information or answering a security question.
Finally, I strongly urge anyone considering investing in cryptocurrencies as well as any investment to research the investment thoroughly before investing. No one should ever invest in anything they do not fully understand.
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Scam of the day – June 25, 2025 – Watch Out For “Juice Jacking”
The colorful term “juice jacking” was first used in 2011 to describe the danger of data theft when you use a public charging station to recharge your phone or other mobile device. In 2019, the Los Angeles District Attorney issued a warning about the dangers of charging your phone at the USB chargers commonly found at airports, hotels and other public locations. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have issued warnings about juice jacking as well. The problem with juice jacking is the fact that information is transferred between your cell phone and the charger as soon as you plug your cell phone into the charging station you are using to recharge your cell phone.
Among the information that is transferred is the name of your device, the manufacturer and model, serial number, firmware information, file system and electronic chip ID which would all be shared with a computer that you may be using to recharge your phone. And while this information may seem to be innocuous, this information is sufficient for a sophisticated hacker to use to gain much further information from your cell phone that could be used to your detriment. As for the charging stations at airports and elsewhere, they can be either infected with malware or be a fake charging station with the sole purpose of infecting your cell phone. Once you plug your phone into one of those already infected charging stations or a totally phony charging station, it can install and delete applications, including stealing your data or installing malware such as ransomware. Fortunately, however, the risk of having your information stolen through a malware infected public charger is not as bad as it used to be because cell phone manufacturers have improved the security of their phones. Unfortunately, the technology used by criminals to hack public charging stations is easy to obtain and at little cost.
TIPS
So what can you do? Obviously, you should never use a strange computer to recharge your phone. The risk is too great. As for charging stations, it is better to be safe than sorry, so I advise that you avoid public charging stations and instead bring your own USB charger that you merely have to plug into an AC outlet rather than use any public charging station. This simple solution will solve any problems involved with juice jacking.
Make sure that your cell phone is secured with a password, fingerprint or iris scanner and do not unlock the cell phone while it is charging. Always protect the data on your cell phone with encryption programs and finally, use security software programs for your cell phone and make sure that it is updated with the latest security patches.
If you do decide to use a USB charger such as found at airports and other sites, watch your screen when you plug in your phone because phone makers have updated their technology such that you will immediately see a prompt asking if you want to trust the charger. The answer to that question is a resounding NO.
Scam of the day – June 24, 2025 – Extended Car Warranty Scams
Recently, there has been an increase in extended car warranty scams. These scams often start with a robocall. Other times the scam begins with a postcard. Often the caller even knows the make, model and year of your car. They will tell you that your car’s warranty is about to expire, but that you can purchase an extended warranty that will provide tremendous benefits. Unfortunately, the tremendous benefits are limited to the scammer that sells you a worthless contract.
Extended warranty scams have been with us for years. Actually, they are not “extended” warranties at all because if you read the fine print you will notice that although the notice you may receive, often by postcard, looks official it is not from either the car manufacturer who issued your original warranty or the car dealer who sold you the car. The warranties themselves vary from scammer to scammer with some of the “extended” warranties being relatively worthless, but with all of them based on misrepresentations. In 2016 the FTC sent out more than four million dollars in refunds to thousands of victims of an extended warranty scam perpetrated by Fereidoun “Fred” Khalilian and his company The Dolce Group Worldwide, LLC. Using the name My Car Solutions, victims received robocalls luring them into paying for extended automobile warranties that, in truth, provided no coverage. In the case of Khalililian, his extended warranty scams were sold through illegal robocalls. Whenever someone tries to sell you something through a robocall, you can be sure it is a scam because commercial calls initiated through robocalls are illegal.
If you are registered for the Do Not Call list and you do receive a call from a telemarketer, you can be confident that the call is a scam because no legitimate telemarketer would call you if you are enrolled in the Do Not Call list. It is also important to note that while telemarketing is not, in and of itself, illegal, commercial telemarketing through robocalls is always illegal.
TIPS
In regard to car warranties, it is always a good idea to check with your local auto dealer as to what warranties cover your car. Never trust anything that comes to you by way of an illegal robocall or telemarketing call if you have enrolled in the federal Do Not Call List. Never feel pressured to act immediately when someone calls you on the phone with an unsolicited offer and never give any personal information including your credit card over the phone to someone who calls you because you can never be sure who is actually calling.
Registering for the Do Not Call List is easy and free. Merely go to http://www.donotcall.gov to register your phone number.
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Scam of the day – June 23, 2025 – How Scammers Hack Your Bank Account
Two years ago I told you about a scam where scammers lured people into providing their bank account number and bank’s routing number to the scammer under the pretense of needing the information in order to send you a reward for finding a stolen car that, in fact, had not been stolen. A bank routing number is the number used by your bank for wiring funds.
While it may not seem like your bank account number and the routing number of your bank would be very important information to protect, armed with this information a scammer can steal your money in a variety of ways. They can use that information to purchase goods online. They can set up recurring payments, such as for utilities. They can create counterfeit checks to access your bank account and make checks payable to themselves.
While some scammers trick people into providing their bank account number and bank’s routing number as was done in the Scam of the day for May 9, 2023, they also may get this information from stealing your checks.
TIPS
In order to protect your checks from being stolen, you should not mail checks and put the letters in your home mailbox. Scammers scout neighborhoods looking for mailboxes with the red flag up indicating that there is outgoing mail and then steal it. You can’t even trust mailing checks in the blue U.S. Postal Service mailboxes because, as I have written in the past, those mailboxes are broken into and mail stolen from them by scammers. If you must mail checks, do so at the Post Office.
If you do become a victim of this type of scam, freeze your account immediately and notify the police and the fraud department of your bank. Change your online banking password and make sure you are using dual factor authentication. Fortunately, if you notify your bank within sixty days of receiving your monthly statement indicating that your bank account has been accessed you are not liable for the money taken from your account.
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Scam of the day – June 22, 2025 – Aflac Data Breach
When you hear the name Aflac, you probably like me hear the quacking duck from their commercials. Unfortunately, however the recently announced data breach at Aflac is no quacking matter. Aflac disclosed on June 20th that it had suffered a data breach that may have compromised sensitive personal information held by the company, which offers a range of insurance products to millions of people. According to Aflac, it noticed suspicious activity on its networks on June 12th and is now in the early stages of investigating the extent of the data breach. Aflac’s press release states that it had not been infected with ransomware, but doesn’t yet know the extent of the data breach which may include social security numbers and other sensitive information.
It is believed that this data breach was the work of the infamous hacking group called Scattered Spider which focuses its efforts on one specific industry at a time, often using ransomware. In the past it had focused onthe retail sector and now, according to the Google Threat Intelligence Group is targeting the insurance industry. Earlier this month Erie Insurance suffered a data breach attributed to Scattered Spider.
TIPS
Alfac is offering free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance to its customers for two years. If you are an Aflac customer and wish to get those free benefits, you should call Aflac’s Call Center at 1-855-0305.
Potential 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 – June 21, 2025 – Mavis Wanczyk Lottery Scams Continue to Claim Victims
She’s back! I have been writing about scams related to Mavis Wanczyk for eight years but recently I have received many emails from Scamicide readers telling me about various new incarnations of a variety of scams that share the same hook which is that Mavis Wanczyk is giving money away to lucky people. Many of you may not remember the name of Mavis Wanczyk, but she was the lucky winner of a 758 million dollar Powerball drawing in 2017. Not long after she claimed her prize, a scam started appearing in which many people received emails with the message line referring to the Mavis Wanczyk Cash Grant. The email indicated that you were chosen to receive a large cash grant from Mavis Wanczyk. All the lucky strangers receiving the emails had to do was provide personal information in order to qualify for the grant. In addition, phony social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were also set up in Ms. Wanczyk’s name through which people were contacted with the same phony offer of free money informing them that in order to qualify for the grant they merely needed to provide personal information.
Phony Mavis Wanczyk Instagram accounts continue to pop up as quick as Instagram learns about them and takes them down.
Another version of the Mavis Wanczyk lottery scam that victimized a Scamicide reader started with a text message purportedly from Mavis Wanczyk informing the targeted victim that she would give $15,000 to the targeted victim. All the victim had to do was pay some fees. After paying $3,786.68 through untraceable Bitcoin cryptocurrency, the victim still had not received anything who was then prompted to send an additional $300 for expedited delivery of his check. After paying that amount, the scammers still had not sent anything, but did demand access to the victim’s Facebook account. Finally, the greedy scammers even threatened to turn in the victim to the FBI unless they were paid $500. It does take quite a bit of gall for criminals to threaten victims with reporting them to law enforcement, but gall does not appear to be in short supply when it comes to scammers.
TIPS
It is difficult to win a lottery you have entered. It is impossible to win one that you have never entered and neither lottery winners, nor anyone else is sending out messages through the Internet offering free money to anyone who responds with personal information. Never give out personal information that can make you vulnerable to identity theft unless you have absolutely verified that the party requesting the personal information is legitimate and has a legitimate need for the information. Also never pay anything to a lottery claiming you owe fees in order to claim your prize. This is a telltale sign of a scam. No legitimate lottery requires the payment of a fee to collect your winnings or requires you to pay the lottery income taxes on the prize. While income taxes are due on lottery winnings, those taxes are either deducted by the lottery sponsor before giving you your prize or the prize is given to you in full and you are responsible for the payment of any taxes. No lottery collects taxes on behalf of the IRS.
You should never give anyone access to your social media accounts because scammers use your account to scam others who trust you and fall for scams that appear to come from you.
Finally and most importantly, remember neither Mavis Wanczyk nor any other lottery winner is giving away money to strangers.
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