Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – April 6, 2025 – Arizona Advances Bill to Regulate Bitcoin 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 more than 111 million dollars last year. 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 Bitcoin into crypto wallets. Due to the anonymity and immediacy of the Bitcoin transfers done through a Bitcoin ATM, it is a favorite method of payment for scammers.
Most of the scams using Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin 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 Bitcoin ATM scam with an average loss of $10,000.
Arizona state representative David Marshall has filed House Bill 2387 which would provide needed regulations for these cryptocurrency ATMs to help prevent people from being scammed. If passed into law, the bill would require warnings on the ATMs before the user could do a transaction. The warnings would also provide information about cryptocurrency scams. Additionally, the bill would require the ATMs to provide printed receipts that would include information useful to law enforcement in the event of a scam. The law would also limit the amount of funds someone could deposit into a new account or send in a 72 hour period. Scammers often require their victims to send repeated deposits. Finally, the law would require greater transparency in the operation of the ATMs. The bill passed unanimously out of committee and now goes to the Senate for consideration and eventually if passed by the House and Senate will become law when signed by the governor.
TIPS
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 there is no circumstance where you will be asked by anyone legitimate to withdraw funds from your bank, deposit them into a Bitcoin ATM and transfer the funds to them. Only scammers make those requests.
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Scam of the day – April 5, 2025 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Weight Loss Scam
For more than seven years I have written about various scammers selling green coffee bean extracts as a weight loss product through the use of false and misleading advertising. Some of the scammers have claimed green coffee bean extracts would enable users to lose 17 pounds and 16% of their body fat in 12 weeks without diet or exercise. In 2016 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled its claim against NPB Advertising, Inc and a number of other companies it used to deceptively market its weight loss supplement Pure Green Coffee through phony news websites with fake testimonials. Pursuant to the settlement NPB was ordered to pay $30 million to the FTC to be returned to victims of the scam. Now nine years later that money is being returned to victims of the scam.
For more information about the refund go to the “FTC Scam Refunds” section on the opening page of http://www.scamicide.com.
TIPS
The truth is that there are no quick fixes when it comes to weight loss and you should be wary of any product that promises you can lose tremendous amounts of weight quickly without dieting or exercise. You should also be wary of any weight loss product that is sold exclusively either over the Internet or through mail-order advertisements. It is also important to remember that no cream that you rub in your skin can help you lose substantial weight and no product can block the absorption of fat or calories. The best course of action is to ask your physician about the effectiveness of a particular weight loss product or program before you reduce your wallet in an effort to reduce your waistline.
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Scam of the day – April 4, 2025 – Troubling Development in Sextortion
I have been warning you about sextortion scams for nine years. Some sextortion scams begin with an email in which you are told that your computer and web cam have been hacked and that the scammers have video of you watching porn online. In the email, the scammer threatens to send the videos to people on his contact list unless you pay a ransom in Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. In addition, adult predators, often posing as young girls, contact teenage boys on a variety of online platforms such as games or social media and then convince the teenage boys to engage in explicit sexual activity while unbeknownst to the teenaged boy, the predator is recording it. The scammer then reveals to the teenager that the scammer has the recording and threatens to post it online unless a substantial payment is made. According to the FBI there has been a significant increase in the instances of his scam. Many of these scams are organized and based outside the United States, primarily in West African countries such as Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
Making the problem worse is the upsurge in sextortion assistance companies which charge thousands of dollars for their help in stopping and removing the photos and videos from appearing online. According to the FBI these companies provide no better assistance than you can get for free and, in some instances, actually are the same criminals perpetrating the sextotion scams themselves. Some offer to send cease and desits orders which sound good, but are totally unenforceable. Ads for sextortion assistance companies appear throughout social media and even in posts on victim support forums.
TIPS
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a free service entitled Take It Down, which has been approved by the FBI, that can remove images from cooperating social media platforms, but not from text messaging platforms. Victims of sextortion who are over 18 can use a similar free platform StopHCII.org which uses similar technology to that used by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to remove videos and photos from social media platforms.
The FBI advises parents to tell their children to be very careful as to what they share online. Social media accounts which are open to everyone provide predators and scammers with a lot of information that the scammers can use to lure people into scams. Discuss the appropriate privacy settings with your children for all of their accounts.
The FBI also tells parents to remind their children that they can never be sure as to who they are communicating with online and they should be particularly skeptical if they meet someone on a game or app who then asks to communicate with them on a different platform.
In regard to your web cam being hacked, while often this is merely a threat and the scammer has not hacked your web cam, web cams can be hacked. One thing you can do to protect your webcam from being hacked is to make sure that you change the default password on your webcam when you first install it. Another simple thing I do and you can, as well, is to merely put a post-it note over your webcam when it is not in use.
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Scam of the day – April 3, 2025 – Medicare Card Scams
For many years Medicare used a person’s Social Security number as his or her Medicare number which put Medicare recipients in serious danger of identity theft, Medicare resisted changing the Medicare number to a safer random number for many years. Finally, in April 2018, new cards began being sent by regular mail to all 60 million Americans enrolled in Medicare and since 2020 the switch over to new more secure Medicare card numbers was complete.
But this has not stopped identity thieves. Recently, many older Americans are receiving phone calls purporting to be from Medicare either offering new plastic cards to replace their paper cards or new Medicare cards with microchips. All the targeted victim has to do is merely verify their Medicare number. And while your Medicare number is no longer your Social Security number, giving it to an identity thief can cause you substantial problems when you try to access Medicare as well as cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars.
In other instances, the scammers posing on the phone as Medicare employees tell their targeted victims that they need to update or verify their personal information in order to maintain their Medicaid eligibilty. Often the scammes ask for Medicare card numbers, Social Security numbers and even bank account numbers.
TIPS
It is easy to determine when you receive a phone call, email or text message from Medicare. They don’t contact you by email, text message or by phone so anytime you are contacted in this manner, you can be confident it is a scam. You should never provide your Medicare number, Social Security number, credit card number or any other personal information to anyone who calls you on the phone because you can never be sure they are legitimate. Even if your Caller ID indicates the call is from Medicare, the IRS or some other legitimate organization, through a technique called “spoofing” your Caller ID can be tricked into making it appear that the call is legitimate.
The real Medicare also will not contact you and ask you to verify your Medicare number and there are no new plastic cards or Medicare cards with microchips.
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Scam of the day – April 2, 2025 – Watch Out For Scammers Posing as Turbo Tax
With the due date for filing you federal income tax return rapidly approaching, many people are filing their taxes at this time with almost 94% of individual income tax returns being filed electronically. TurboTax is a popular online tax preparation service and so identity thieves will take advantage of that popularity and call people posing as TurboTax employees informing the targeted victim that his or her electronically filed income tax return has been rejected by the IRS. The identity thief then attempts to lure you into providing personal information including your Social Security number that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
In order to make their call appear legitimate, the identity thieves will use a technique called “spoofing” to manipulate your Caller ID so that the call looks like it has come from TurboTax.
TIPS
As I often say, trust me, you can’t trust anyone, particularly someone who asking for you to provide sensitive personal information. In this case it is important to note that TurboTax will not call you if your tax return has been rejected unless you have specifically requested a call. If you do receive such a call and think that it might be legitimate, merely hang up and call TurboTax at its customer service number of 1-800-446-8848..
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Scam of the day – April 1, 2025 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Beauty Products Scam
In 2016 the FTC settled a lawsuit it brought against NutraClick LLC a company that lured consumers with “free” samples of health and beauty products and then charged them a recurring monthly fee without their consent. In 2020, the FTC sued NutraClick again for misleading consumers when they tried to cancel their “free” trial memberships to avoid monthly charges. In 2023 I informed you that the FTC was returning $973,000 to 17,064 people who were victimized by NutraClick. The funds for the refund were obtained from payments made by NutraClick pursuant to its settlement agreements with the FTC. The FTC is now sending additional payments to people who were charged for unwanted memberships, but did not get a refund in 2023.
TIPS
For more information about this refund program go to the tab in the middle of the Scamicide home page entitled “FTC Scam Refunds.” It is important to note that there is never a charge for obtaining a refund through the FTC or any of its refund administrators. Anyone who asks for such a payment is just another scammer.
As for health care products in general, the truth is that there are no quick fixes when it comes to remedying a wide variety of health issues and you should be wary of any product that promises to do so. You should also be wary of any health care product that is sold exclusively either over the Internet or through mail-order advertisements. The best course of action is to ask your physician about the effectiveness of a particular product or program before you consider buying it.
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Scam of the day – March 31, 2025 – Puppy Scams
Scams involving sales of non-existent puppies have increased dramatically in the last few years. People buy dogs or other pets online and, although they think they are taking proper precautions, they often end up getting nothing in return for the money that they wire to the scammer who may have a website or some other way of marketing their non-existent pets with photographs and false information.
Often the scammers hook their victims for more and more money, such as when even after the victims has paid for the non-existent dog, the victim is asked for additional payments for a special crate to transport the dog along with additional transportation company fees.
TIPS
It is simple for a scammer to construct a website that appears to be legitimate and scammers can readily steal the name of a legitimate animal breeder. Always check into the reputation of the breeder with your state’s attorney general. You can also Google the name of the breeder with the word “scam” to see if a legitimate breeder’s name that is being used has been stolen for scams previously. Another good source for determining if a puppy website is legitimate is https://petscams.com/ which keeps an updated list of phony puppy sale websites.
Be wary of anyone who asks you to wire money because that is a telltale sign that a scam is going on because once the money is wired, it is impossible to get it back. If you are told that a courier company is being used to transport the animal, check out the company to make sure it is legitimate and actually shipping the dog.
There also are a number of ways such as using the website http://www.tineye.com to search the photos sent to you of the dog to see if they appear elsewhere other than the website attempting to sell you a puppy. If so, this is a good indication that you are being scammed. Also, always get a veterinarian report on any animal before you consider buying it. Finally, you are always going to be better off buying a pet that you can see in person prior to buying the pet.
Some phony breeders claim they are certified by the American Kennel Club (AKC) however, the AKC doesn’t certify breeders. Legitimate breeders will however, register their litters with the AKC and you can find out by calling the AKC’s customer service line 919-233-9767 if a particular litter has been registered.
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Scam of the day – March 30, 2025 – 23andMe Bankruptcy Leaves Customers Vulnerable to Identity Theft and Scams
- Consumers can delete their account and personal information by taking the following steps:
- Log into your 23andMe account on their website.
- Go to the “Settings” section of your profile.
- Scroll to a section labeled “23andMe Data” at the bottom of the page.
- Click “View” next to “23andMe Data”
- Download your data: If you want a copy of your genetic data for personal storage, choose the option to download it to your device before proceeding.
- Scroll to the “Delete Data” section.
- Click “Permanently Delete Data.”
- Confirm your request: You’ll receive an email from 23andMe; follow the link in the email to confirm your deletion request.
Scam of the day – March 29, 2025 – Another Celebrity Romance Scam
Romance scams where scammers convince people that they are in love with them and once they have gained their trust and an emotional connection ask under a variety of pretenses for money has only gotten worse with AI being able to be used for scammers to appear as anyone they wish in videos or change their voice through AI voice cloning to appear legitimate. I also have written many times about scammers posing as celebrities to scam people out of their money and this type of scam too has gotten worse with AI. Now we have a scam that combines both of these scams in the recent case of a 34 year old Texas woman who received an AI video message that appeared to come from country singer Morgan Wallen that started an online romance culminating with the woman being asked to send the scammer $18,000 worth of gift cards.
Last year a scam group called the “Yahoo Boys” based in Nigeria began using artificial intelligence to change their facial features in Zoom videos to appear to be the person they are posing as in the romance scam. They also can use AI to change their voice and accent to sound legitimate and while doing a video conference with a romance scammer in the past was a good way to see if the person was actually who they claimed to be, now scammers using this technology will be very difficult to recognize as scammers.
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.
Recently, the dating sites Match, Tinder, Hinge and Plenty of Fish started a new public awareness program to help people recognize romance scams. One tip they give is to use the verification check on your matches to help confirm they are the person who appears in the profile photo.
As for celebrity based romance scam, it is important to recognize that celebrities aren’t reaching out online to people they have never met to start romantic relationships.
Finally, anytime you are asked to send large amounts of gift cards it is a scam. Scammers love gift cards because they are impossible to trace back to the scammer.
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Scam of the day – March 28, 2025 – Publishers Clearing House Scams Increasing
In the last few years there has been an increase in reports of scammers calling people on the telephone and telling them that they have won one of the Publishers Clearing House lotteries, but that they have to pay fees or taxes before being able to claim their prize. In addition there are reports of targeted victims receiving phony notifications by regular mail that they have won a Publishers Clearing House lottery, but that again they must pay fees or taxes before being able to receive their prize.
It is hard to win any lottery. It is impossible to win one that you have not even entered and yet scam artists have found that it is extremely lucrative to scam people by convincing them that they have won various lotteries. With so many people entered into the Publishers Clearing House lotteries, it is easier for scammers to convince people that they have won. Earlier this year Manny Guerrero of Las Vegas lost $180,000 to scammers posing as Publishers Clear House who called him on the telephone and convinced him that he had won a multi-million dollar prize, but that he needed to pay $180,000 to the scammers for tax owed on the winnings before he could claim his prize.
Most lottery scams involve the victim being told that they need to pay taxes or administrative fees directly to the lottery sponsor; however no legitimate lottery requires you to do so.
As with many effective scams, the pitch of the scammer may seem legitimate. Income taxes are due on lottery winnings, but with legitimate lotteries they are either deducted from the lottery winnings before you receive your prize or you are responsible for paying the taxes directly to the IRS. No legitimate lottery collects taxes on behalf of the IRS from lottery winners. Other times, the scammer tell the “winners” that in order to collect their prizes, they need to pay administrative fees. Often, the victims are told to send the fees back to the scammer by gift cards. Gift cards are a favorite of scammers because they are the equivalent of sending cash. They are impossible to stop or trace. Again, no legitimate lottery requires you to pay administrative fees in order to claim your prize.
TIPS
Fortunately, there is an easy way to know, when you are contacted by Publishers Clearing House by phone, email or text message informing you that you have won one of its major multi-million dollar prizes, whether you have been contacted by the real Publishers Clearing House. Publishers Clearing House only contacts major prize winners in person or by regular mail. They do not contact winners by phone, email or text message so if you do receive a notification of your winning one of their major multi-million dollar prizes by those means of communication you know it is a scam.
Even if the Caller ID on your phone indicates the call is from Publishers Clearing House, it is very easy for a scammer to use a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear that the call is coming from Publishers Clearing House rather than the scammer who is really making the call. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.
In addition, no winners of the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes are ever required to make a payment of any kind to claim their prize so if you are told that you have won, but are required to make any kind of payment before you can claim your prize, you can be sure that it is a scam. As for other lotteries, remember, you can’t win a lottery you haven’t entered and no legitimate lottery asks you to pay them administrative fees or taxes.
Also, as I often tell you, it is always a red flag that you are involved with a scam when you are asked to pay for anything with gift cards. Gift cards are a favorite method of payment for scammers because they are easy to convert into cash and impossible to trace.
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