Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – October 26, 2026 – The Danger of Trojan Subscribers
In Homer’s Odyssey, the Trojan horse with hidden soldiers inside was brought through the gates and into the city of Troy leading to the fall of Troy. Trojan subscribers are malware hidden within legitimate apps that while they won’t lead to the downfall of a city can cost the victims of a Trojan subscriber a lot of money.
Trojan subscribers are malicious code that cybercriminals add to legitimate apps and then upload them to app stores under a different name. The apps can be for a variety of purposes, such as monitoring blood pressure or scanning documents. When someone downloads one of these infected apps, he or she doesn’t realize that the Trojan subscriber will automatically subscribe to a paid service without the person who downloaded the app being aware of it.
Generally, the cybercriminals who create and use Trojan subscribers get paid a commission on each new subscription to a paid service.
There have been a number of different Trojan subscribers found during the past few years including the Jocker Trojan subscriber, the MobOk Trojan subscriber, the Vesub Trojan subscriber and the GriftHorse.ae Trojan subscribers. While they all work slightly differently they all manage to effectively sign up their victims to unwanted and costly subscription services.
Google Play and other app stores try to identify apps with Trojan subscribers, but as soon as they take one down, another pops up. In other instances, Trojan subscribers are found in apps that are not allowed on the regular official app stores.
TIPS
So what can you do to protect yourself from Trojan subscribers?
First and foremost, don’t install apps from unofficial sources. The risk is far too great that you will be downloading malware. However, even if you stick to legitimate sources for your apps such as Google Play, you must recognize that getting your app from a legitimate source does not guarantee that the app is malware-free.
Always check out the reviews and ratings of particular apps before you download them. Also, the longer an app has appeared on a legitimate source such as Google Play, the better the chance that it has been properly vetted and does not contain any malware. Therefore be a bit wary of apps that have only recently appeared on a legitimate app store.
Another good policy to follow when you download apps is to give the apps only the minimal access to your device that is needed to perform properly.
Finally, make sure that you have installed strong security software on your cellphone and keep it updated with the latest security updates and patches as they become available to protect you from not only Trojan subscribers, but also other threats as well.
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Scam of the day – October 25, 2026 – FBI Issues Warning About Imposter Scam
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.
The Newark office of the FBI issued a warning about scammers posting as FBI, DEA and Secret Service agents calling their targeted victims and under a variety of pretenses including, but not limited to, missing federal jury duty, having an outstanding arrest warrant or that their identity has been used to traffic in illegal drugs convince the targeted victim that they need to move their money through crypto ATMs to a “safe” account provided by the FBI or by git card or wiring money to the scammers to resolve the problem. Making the problem worse is that through spoofing of phone numbers, the call received by the scam victim appears to be that of the FBI. The scammers also use the names of real FBI agents and some have even had Zoom meetings where it appears that scammer is calling from FBI headquarters.
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 or ask people to move money to safe accounts.
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Scam of the day – October 24, 2026 – Election Scams (Part 3)
Today’s Scam of the day is the third in a series of Scams of the day dealing with election related scams.
A common election time scam involves a call purportedly from your city or town clerk informing you that you need to re-register or you will be removed from the voting lists. You are then told that you can re-register over the phone merely by providing some personal information, such as your Social Security number. The truth is that you will not be called by your city or town clerk and told that you need to re-register and voter registration is not done by phone.
Another common election related scam deals with political polls. Political polls have been a major part of our election process for many years. Generally, people are contacted by telephone to answer questions about the candidates and their policies. Because it is so common at this time of year to be called by a political pollster, scammers call posing as pollsters in an effort to trick their victims into providing information that can be used for purposes of identity theft. Often they will dangle the reward of a gift card or other prize to lure people into participating in the scam poll. Again spoofing can be used to make the call appear legitimate.
TIPS
In regard to the first scam, as I indicated above, you will not be called by your city or town clerk and told that you need to re-register and voter registration is not done by phone. Sometimes scammers will even ask for a payment for registering by phone. The truth is that there is no charge for registering to vote.
As for political poll scams, legitimate pollsters do not offer prizes or other compensation for participating in their polls. They also will never ask for personal information such as your Social Security number, credit card number or banking information. Anyone posing as a pollster asking for such information is a scammer and you should hang up immediately.
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Scam of the day – October 23, 2026 – Election Scams (Part 2)
Scammers are taking advantage of the public’s interest in the upcoming midterm elections to make robocalls in which they pose as candidates asking for donations. This particular scam can easily seem legitimate. Caller ID can be tricked through a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear to your Caller ID as if the call is coming from a candidate or some political organization and recordings of the candidate can also be incorporated into the call to make the call appear more legitimate. And now through the use of AI the voice of the particular candidate can be cloned and used by scammers posing as the candidate.
Even more significantly, calls from political candidates and other political calls are exempt from the federal Do-Not-Call List, so it would be legal for you to get a call from a politician or political group seeking donations even if you are enrolled in the Do-Not-Call List.
So how do you protect yourself from being scammed?
TIPS
Whenever you receive a telephone call, you can never be sure as to who is really contacting you, so you should never give personal or financial information to anyone over the phone whom you have not called.
If you do wish to contribute to a political campaign, the best way to do this is by going to the candidate’s official website and make your contribution. Even then, make sure that when you are giving your donation online that the website address begins with https instead of just http. Https indicates that your communication is being encrypted for better security.
Finally, when making a donation, you should use a credit card rather than a debit card because if you are scammed it is easier to get your money refunded with a credit card than a debit card.
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Scam of the day – October 22, 2026 – Election Scams (Part One)
The much anticipated November elections are coming soon and there is heightened interest in these midterm elections and, of course, when people are interested in something, scammers take advantage of that interest to formulate scams related to that interest. Today and for the succeeding two days I will be describing some election scams about which you should be aware.
Political Action Committees (PACs) are busy raising money to funnel to candidates and organizations trying to influence legislation. Unfortunately, for the last twelve years scammers have been setting up phony PACs that promise to use your money on behalf of your favored candidate or cause, but instead keep the money for their own use. Scammers are calling, emailing and texting people posing as legitimate PACS seeking contributions and even if you are on the federal Do Not Call List, you still are allowed by law to be contacted by phone call or text message by PACs.
TIPS
Legitimate PACs are required to file with the Federal Election Commission so before giving to any PAC you should check with the FEC to determine if the PAC has filed the necessary documents. If it isn’t registered it is a scam. Unfortunately, even if you find the PAC soliciting your donation is registered, scammers have registered phony PACs and falsify the financial documentation of their spending which they are required to file so merely because a PAC is registered does not mean that it is legitimate. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) maintains a public database of registered PACs, including their treasurer, address, and financial reports. You can confirm with the FEC’s records the proper address and other information for a particular PAC you may be considering, however, the FEC’s records can be difficult to decipher. A better alternative is to confirm PAC information through OpenSecrets which provides independent information on PACs, including donors, expenditures, and political activities. It is often easier to understand than raw FEC filings. [opensecrets.org]
Use only the website listed in official PAC materials or FEC filings. Avoid links received through unsolicited texts, emails, or social media ads unless you independently verify the committee first.
Limiting your donations to well established PACs is a good policy to avoid being scammed. Contributions requested through gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, or peer-to-peer payment apps are good indications that the PAC is a scam.
Also, if a PAC doesn’t ask for your employment information and citizenship status it is a scam because legitimate PACs are barred from taking donations from federal contractors or foreign nationals, which is why legitimate PACs will always inquire about your job status and citizenship.
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Scam of the day – October 21, 2026 – Cryptocurrency Investment Recovery Scam
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 7.28 billion dollars to cryptocurrency investment scams last year. 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. Sensing an opportunity, according to the FBI, scammers, posing as law firms and 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 an 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, 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 – October 20, 2026 – PayPal Resolution Center Scam
PayPal is a popular payment service used successfully by many people particularly when making purchases through eBay. However, because it is so popular with the public, it is also popular with scammers who over the years have created numerous PayPal based scams about which I have reported to you in the past. Many of the scams involve phony invoices that lure you into clicking on malware infected links or providing personal information that is used to make you a victim of identity theft.
Today’s Scam of the day is one that has been around since 2018, but is resurfacing, as many scams do. It starts with a phony email purporting to be from PayPal that indicates that PayPal is investigating a payment reversal due to your receiving an unauthorized payment due to a transaction error. You are directed in the email to click on a link to login and access your PayPal Resolution Center. Don’t do it! Clicking on the link will take you to a phony PayPal website that will lure you into providing your password and other personal information that will lead to identity theft.
TIPS
Fortunately, this particular scam is easy to avoid. You should start out by being aware that this scam is active and remembering my motto, “BS – Be skeptical.” The easy way to avoid this scam is to never log into your PayPal account through a link in an email because to do so may merely take you to fake email account. Always access your PayPal account independently through your browser.
Legitimate emails from a company with which you do business would include the last four digits of your account and include your name rather than just your email address. Often these emails have neither.
Other telltale signs that this is a scam is that the email address of the sender often has no relation to PayPal, but is merely the email address of someone whose email account was hacked and made a part of a botnet to send out these phishing emails. Also, merely because the email may contain a PayPal logo does not mean that the email is legitimate. It is easy to counterfeit a PayPal logo.
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Scam of the day – October 19, 2026 – City and Town Permit 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 gift cards, credit card, cryptocurrency or wired funds. Being asked to pay by gift cards or cryptocurrency is a definite indication that the call is a scam since no company or governmental agency requests or accepts payments by gift cards or cryptocurrency.
Earlier this year the FBI issued a warning about a new version of the imposter scam in which the scammers are sending emails to businesses and individuals applying for city and county building and zoning permits in which the scammers impersonate city or county planning officials or zoning officials. The emails instruct the targeted victims to send payments for permit-required fees through wire transfers, peer to peer payment apps such as Zelle or Venmo of cryptocurrencies. The emails are very convincing. The scammers target people with pending permits and use the actual case numbers, property addresses and other information of real pending permit applications to appear legitimate. All of this information is readily available online, but it can make the email appear to be trustworthy.
Recently the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts issued a warning about scammers sending emails posing as town officials telling the targeted victim that the permit they have applied for is approved but an additional payments is required to be wired to the account provided in the email. Scammers are able to make the scam persuasive by gathering publicly available information about pending permit applications enabling the scammers to make their emails appear legitimate.
TIPS
Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. Whenever you get an email in which a payment is requested you should always independently confirm that it is legitimate before making a payment. In the case of this scam, the first thing to do is to carefully check the email address of the sender. Often the email address is part of a botnet of compromised computers used to send out these emails and the address of the sender doesn’t resemble that of a local or county government email address. In other instances, the email may appear at first blush to be legitimate so even in those instances, you should always confirm with a phone call to the real zoning or building department as to the legitimacy of the email.
The biggest indication that this is a scam is in the method of payment requested. Only scammers demand immediate payment by wired funds, gift cards, cryptocurrency or peer to peer payment apps. Scammers love these methods of payment because they are the easiest to hide and payments can’t effectively be stopped once initiated.
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Scam of the day – October 18, 2026 – New Wave of Mavis Wanczyk Scams: How Fake Cash Grants and Social Media Impersonators Target Victims
She’s back! Actually, she has never left. I have been writing about scams related to Mavis Wanczyk for nine years but recently I have received 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.
But not all Mavis Wanczyk scams involve Mavis Wanczyk. Recently a Scamicide reader told me about receiving a message purportedly from someone who identified himself as George Linda Dokken who said he was a philanthropist who would send a “grant” of $50,000 to the lucky Scamicide reader, but required a payment of a few hundred dollars in gift cards before sending the grant money. After paying the requested amount demands for additional payments kept coming, but no grant money was ever paid.
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 or payments to receive a supposedly free gift.
Another red flag that this was a scam was the request for payment using gift cards. A request for a gift card payment is always a scam.
Finally and most importantly, remember neither Mavis Wanczyk nor any other lottery winner or philanthropist is giving away free money to strangers.
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Scam of the day – October 17, 2026 – PayPal Invoice Scam
The phony invoice scam is a common scam popular with scammers because it is quite effective. It starts when you receive an email that purports to be from a popular company with which many of us do business that indicates that you owe them a significant payment. The scammers count on people being concerned that they are being wrongfully charged for a product they did not order. You are provided a telephone number to call if you dispute the bill. If you call the number, you will be prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
This email appears to come from PayPal. As always, the purpose of a phishing email is to lure you into clicking on links contained within the email or providing personal information, in this case by phone if you call to dispute the phony bill . If you click on links in phishing emails, you end up downloading malware and if you provide the requested information, it ends up being used to make you a victim of identity theft. This particular phishing email provides a phone number to call if you wish to dispute the obviously phony invoice. If you call the number in the phishing email you will be asked for personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
There are a number of red flags that indicate that this is a scam. Your name does not appear anywhere in the invoice. Also, the email was sent from an email address that appears to have nothing to do with PayPal. One of the biggest red flags is the request for a W-9 tax form which you only provide to someone who is paying you money and not a part of any invoice for money you would owe.
Here is a copy of the invoice being circulated.
Hi, We are reaching out from PayPal Team regarding an order 524AX for 499 USD. If Not you Contact Undersigned. This email is to request a Form W-9 for tax reporting purposes.
Please complete and sign the attached Form W-9, then reply to this email.
If you have questions, reply all so someone from our team can help. SERVICE & BILLING INVOICE – A41Z451-XX
Transaction Date: October 7, 2026
Support Number: 📞 +1 (201) 483-0632 Thank you for choosing our protection services. Please retain this invoice for your records. The information below summarizes the three-year device protection arrangement.
SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS
Protection Service: McAfee Total Protection
Start Date: October 7, 2026
Subscription Duration: Three Years
Covered Equipment: Laptop, Mobile, Tablet, or Chromebook
Service Cost: $499.99 USD
TRANSACTION NOTICE The service cost shown above is $499.99 USD. If you believe this transaction is incorrect or was not authorized, please contact our support team. Requests concerning cancellation or refunds can also be reviewed through customer support.
Support: 📞 +1 (201) 483-0632
Respectfully,
Billing Services Department
TIPS
Once, I received a large invoice from a company with which I do business for goods I did not order, but rather than click on the link provided in the email, I went directly to the company’s website to question the invoice. When the website came up, the first thing I saw was a large announcement that the invoice was a scam and that many people had received these phony invoices. If you ever receive a phony invoice such as this and you think that it may possibly be true, don’t click on links or call phone numbers provided in the email. Rather contact the real company directly at a phone number or website that you know is legitimate where you can confirm that the phishing invoice was a scam.
Never click on links or download attachments in emails or text messages unless you have absolutely confirmed that they are legitimate and don’t call companies at telephone numbers that appear in the email such as this one. Instead, if the email appears to come from a legitimate company, you can call them at a telephone number you confirm is legitimate . Don’t call the number that appears in the email. In the case of PayPal, the real telephone number to call for customer service is 888-221-1161. You can also contact PayPal customer service through this link https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us
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