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Scam of the day – October 14, 2019 – Indiana Woman Victim of Criminal Identity Theft
Criminal identity theft occurs when someone steals your identity and then commits crimes using your name and Social Security number. The problems encountered by someone whose identity has been stolen by a criminal who then commits crimes in the name of the identity...
read moreScam of the day – October 13, 2019 – New Instagram Feature Fights Phishing
Time and time again, the way in which major online attacks on government agencies, companies and all of us as individuals begin is through a spear phishing email. Phishing emails are emails that are sent to lure you into providing information or clicking on links in...
read moreScam of the day – October 12, 2019 – FTC Sending Refunds to Business Coaching Scam
Business coaches, who are people that advise and guide business owners in the operating and growing of their businesses, can be quite helpful, particularly to entrepreneurs. However, scammers posing as business coaches have been taking advantage of trusting business...
read moreScam of the day – October 11, 2019 – Alabama Hospitals Attacked by Ransomware
I have written many times about ransomware because it continues to be a major problem for businesses, governments and individuals alike. Ransomware is the name for malware that once installed on a computer, often unwittingly through clicking on links in spear...
read moreScam of the day – October 10, 2019 – FTC Sues House Flipping Seminar Company
At the request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Zurixx, LLC, a company that puts on real estate seminars in which attendees are supposedly told how to...
read moreScam of the day – October 9, 2019 – Medicare Open Enrollment Scams
The annual open enrollment period for Medicare will begin on October 15th and continue until December 7th. This is the only time during the year that people enrolled in Medicare can change their Medicare health plans, Medigap plans and their prescription drug plans. ...
read moreScam of the day – October 8, 2019 – Phoenix Police Arrest Telemarketers
I first told you about the Wyze Money scam three years ago when, at the request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a temporary restraining order was issued by a judge in the Federal District Court for Arizona temporarily shutting down the operation of a...
read moreScam of the day – October 7, 2019 – 218 Million People Affected by Words With Friends Data Breach
Once again we have an announcement of a major data breach. This time it is the popular mobile word game "Words with Friends" which according to a hacker named Gnosticplayers was hacked by him or her, stealing personal information including names, email addresses,...
read moreScam of the day – October 6, 2019 – Another Pyramid Scheme Settlement
It was just a few days ago that I told you about the Federal Trade Commission's legal action against Vemma Nutrition Company, which the FTC described in its court complaint as an illegal pyramid scheme that preyed primarily upon college students and other young...
read moreScam of the day – October 5, 2019 – Overpayment Scam
The overpayment scam is the basis for many scams including phony mystery shopper scams about which I have written many times. Another example of the overpayment scam occurred recently when a British Columbia wedding photographer was scammed out of $4,600 through this...
read moreScam of the day – October 4, 2019 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Pyramid Scheme
All good things come to those who wait. In my Scam of the Day for September 4, 2015 I told you about the Federal Trade Commission's legal action against Vemma Nutrition Company, which the FTC described in its court complaint as an illegal pyramid scheme that preyed...
read moreScam of the day – October 3, 2019 – Utility Phone Scam
Scams involving utility bills for electric, water or gas services have long been popular with scammers. Often scammers make robocalls posing as their targeted victims' electric utility company threatening to turn off the customer's power if payment is not paid...
read moreScam of the day – October 2, 2019 – Refunds Being Sent to Student Loan Debt Relief Scam Victims
More than forty-two million Americans have student loans with an outstanding balance of more than 1.4 trillion dollars so it is no surprise that scammers are focusing their attention on these students and former students through scams that falsely promise to provide...
read moreScam of the day – October 1, 2019 – Medicare Gene Testing Scammers Arrested
DNA testing has become very popular for helping to determine your ancestry. They also can be used to identify your genetic risk of certain diseases. Scammers, however are taking advantage of people's interest in these tests that are done for medical purposes to...
read moreScam of the day – September 30, 2019 – FTC Warning the Public About Social Security Scam
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued another warning about phony robocalls that are made to appear as if they are coming from the Social Security Administration. In the call, you are told that your Social Security benefits are being suspended and then...
read moreScam of the day – September 29, 2019 – DoorDash Becomes Victim of Massive Data Breach
In Shakespeare's play Henry V, the king utters the phrase, "once more unto the breach, dear friends," and so it is, because once more we have learned of a massive data breach. This time it is DoorDash, the food delivery service. While the data breach was only...
read moreScam of the day – September 28, 2019 – Match.com Sued by FTC
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued online dating service Match Group, Inc. which owns and operates not just Match.com, but also Tinder, OK Cupid, PlentyOfFish and other dating sites. While the FTC alleges a wide variety of improper actions by Match, the one...
read moreScam of the day – September 27, 2019 – Mail Stealing Identity Thieves Arrested
Identity theft can be high tech, low tech or no tech. Stealing mail from mailboxes for purposes of identity theft has been done by identity thieves for years. Numerous times over the last few years I have warned you about the danger of having your mail, such as...
read moreScam of the day – September 26, 2019 – Russian Pleads Guilty to Massive Data Breach
Earlier this week, Andrei Tyurin, a Russian hacker pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. The charges stemmed from a number of large data breaches done by Tyurin including, most notably the 2014 data...
read moreScam of the day – September 25, 2019 – Amish Affinity Fraud
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...
read moreScam of the day – September 24, 2019 – FTC Shuts Down “Free Trial” Offer Scam
While not all offers of a "free" trial of a product from a company are scams, this is the basis of many sams. The scams begin with ads that appear to offer a free trial of a product with the consumer only being required to pay a small shipping and handling charge....
read moreScam of the day – September 23, 2019 – New Sextortion Email
It was just a few weeks ago that I warned you again about extortion emails in which the intended victim is told in the email that his computer and web cam have been hacked and that the scammers have video of him watching porn online. A Scamicide reader recently...
read moreScam of the day – September 22, 2019 – New Chase Phishing Email
Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the email which download malware or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, are nothing new. ...
read moreScam of the day – September 21, 2019 – Apple iPhone Tech Support Scam
Tech support scams are among the most common of scams and they cost consumers millions of dollars each year. I have been warning you about these scams for years. In the most common variations of this scam, the victim is scammed into responding to a pop-up on his or...
read moreScam of the day – September 20, 2019 – Venmo Phishing Scam
Peer to Peer Payment Payment Services (P2P) such as Zelle, Venmo, ApplePay PayPal, Square Cash and PopMoney are popular ways to quickly and conveniently send money electronically from your credit card or bank account. They also are easy ways to be scammed and unlike...
read moreScam of the day – September 19, 2019 – New Adobe Flash Security Update
Adobe has just issued new security updates for the popular, but intensely flawed Adobe Flash software. Last year Adobe confirmed that it will stop updating and distributing Adobe Flash at the end of 2020 although frankly, it would be wise for you to migrate away from...
read moreScam of the day – September 18, 2019 – Income Tax Identity Theft Update
A recent report of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had some good news in regard to what it estimated was the amount of income tax identity theft that the IRS had been able to stop prior to paying money to the income tax identity thieves. Unfortunately, the...
read moreScam of the day – September 17, 2019 – NY Investigating Student Loan Debt Relief Services
More than forty-two million Americans have student loans with an outstanding balance of more than 1.4 trillion dollars so it is no surprise that scammers are focusing their attention on these students and former students through scams that falsely promise to provide...
read moreScam of the day – September 16, 2019 – What to do if Your Email is Hacked
Recently I received the following email "Hi Steve I'm sorry for bothering you with this mail, I need to get an iTunes Gift Card for my Niece, Its her birthday but I can't do this now because I'm on a sickbed and I tried purchasing online but unfortunately no luck with...
read moreScam of the day – September 15, 2019 – FTC Sues over “Free Trial” Offers.
Two years ago, I told you about Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill warning people about "free trial" scams. These scams begin with ads that appear to offer a free trial of a product with the consumer only being required to pay a small shipping and handling charge....
read moreScam of the day – September 14, 2019 – Phony Equifax Settlement Websites
I have been telling you for a couple of months now about the Equifax settlement of claims brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and all but two of the states' Attorneys General related to the avoidable Equifax...
read moreScam of the day – September 13, 2019 – Timeshare Exit Scams
Timeshares are a legitimate vacation option for many people with about 9.6 million Americans owning timeshares. However, resales have often been difficult for timeshare owners and scammers have been preying upon timeshare owners trying to sell their interests with...
read moreScam of the day – September 12, 2019 – New Jersey Man Charged in 2 Million Dollar Romance Scam
It was just a few days ago that I last warned you about romance scams, however, they are worth discussing again because of a recent arrest. A few days ago Rubbin Sarpong of New Jersey was charged with scamming more than thirty women out of more than two million...
read moreScam of the day – September 11, 2019 – Instagram Accounts Being Hacked
With over a billion users, Instagram is extremely popular and once again, anything popular with the public is popular with scammers. Recently there have been reports that many Instagram users have had their accounts hacked and taken over. In many instances the...
read moreScam of the day – September 10, 2019 – Mavis Wanczyk Lottery Scam Resurfaces
Many people may not remember the name of Mavis L. 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 an email with the message line...
read moreScam of the day – September 9, 2019 – Pastor Text Message Scam
Another scam that continues to plague unwary people is the Pastor Text Message Scam about which I first warned you in June of 2017. Recently Pastor Randy Ott became aware that someone wasusing contact information from the Church's newsletter to send out text messages...
read moreScam of the day – September 8, 2019 – Romance Scam Update
I have warned you many times over the years about romance scams, but they continue to be used by scammers to steal money from lonely people. Last week an Ohio woman reported being scammed out of more than $50,000 through a romance scam that began on Match.com. ...
read moreScam of the day – September 7, 2019 – Increase in Sextortion Emails
I have been warning you for a couple of years about extortion emails in which the intended victim is told in the email that his computer and web cam have been hacked and that the scammers have video of him watching porn online. They threaten to send the videos to...
read moreScam of the day – September 6, 2019 – Hurricane Dorian Charity Scams
Today's Scam of the day is one that I have had to write about a number of times in the years that I have been writing Scamicide.com, but unfortunately, it is still necessary to warn people repeatedly about this type of scam. Natural disasters bring out the best in...
read moreScam of the day – September 5, 2019 – Google Calendar Phishing Scam
Google Calendar is a convenient service that helps you organize your schedule. However, many people are not aware that if they do not adjust their settings, Google Calendar will post meetings or events that are not real, but are just phishing attempts by scammers to...
read moreScam of the day – September 4, 2019 – Square Up Phishing Scam
Square Up is a company that offers a payment processing system for small businesses that is an easy and simple way for businesses to accept credit cards. The CEO of "Square Up" or "Square" as it is sometimes referred to, is Jack Dorsey, the same CEO of Twitter. As...
read moreScam of the day – September 3, 2019 – Twitter Account of Twitter CEO Hacked
Last week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's own Twitter account was hacked. The hacker posted numerous racist tweets. It obviously is shocking when the CEO of Twitter has his account hacked. I have reported to you in the past about numerous celebrities whose Twitter...
read moreScam of the day – September 2, 2019 – The Problem of Legitimate Robocalls
Over the years I have written numerous times about the problems presented by robocalls and with good reason. Automated robocalls which, for commercial purposes, are illegal, are the number one consumer complaint reported by the public to the Federal Trade Commission...
read moreScam of the day – September 1, 2019 – Xfinity Phishing Email
Reproduced below is a copy of an Xfinity phishing email, sent to me by a Scamicide reader that uses the common ploy of indicating that there is a situation that requires your immediate attention. The version sent to the Scamicide reader contained the Comcast Xfinity...
read moreScam of the day – August 31, 2019 – You Can’t Always Trust Alexa
Alexa is tremendously helpful for so many things. If you need to know the score of last night's baseball game, if you want to know what the weather will be today or even to turn down your thermostat. And it is not just Alexa, Siri or Google Home will do the same...
read moreScam of the day – August 30, 2019 – Tech Refund Scam Update
Tech support scams are among the most common of scams and they cost consumers millions of dollars each year. In the most common variations of this scam, the victim is scammed into responding to a pop-up on his or her computer or a telephone call purportedly from one...
read moreScam of the day – August 29, 2019 – Class Action Filed Over StockX Data Breach
It was just a few weeks ago that I told you about the StockX data breach. StockX is an online seller of sneakers, streetwear, handbags and luxury watches. As a result of the data breach, personal information of 6.8 million of its users including customer names,...
read moreScam of the day – August 28, 2019 – LinkedIn Blocks 21.6 Million Phony Accounts
LinkedIn is a popular social media website used by business professionals to network with other professionals. According to LinkedIn, it has more than 645 million users. LinkedIn is used by these people to get ideas, explore opportunities and even to list job...
read moreScam of the day – August 27, 2019 – AT&T Phishing Email
Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the email which download malware or trick you into providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft...
read moreScam of the day – August 26, 2019 – New Malware Threat
NanoCore RAT is the name of malware that has been around since 2013. Security researchers at LMNTRIX Labs have discovered a new version of this malware that, when downloaded, enables the hacker utilizing the malware to steal your passwords and personal information...
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