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Scam of the day – August 30, 2026 – Charges Brought in Unusual Romance-Investment Scam
Daejon Love and Taylor Jamie Chan were recently arrested and charged with operating an unusual version of a romance-investment scam in which they are alleged to have stolen $1.3 million from 26 women in California, Idaho, Washington and Oregon and the FBI believes that the true number of people scammed by them is much higher. Romance scams used to follow the pattern of scammers meeting people online and pretending to quickly fall deeply in love with them and then convince their victims to send the scammers money for various fake emergencies. The scam has evolved, however to where now the scammers still feign love, but instead of asking for a gift of money, they tell their victims that they have a great investment that is making the scammer massive amounts of money and they want to offer that investment to their targeted victim. Of course, there is no investment and the victims lose everything they “invested” with their new found love.
Scam of the day – August 29, 2026 – Vacation Photos Lead to Identity Theft
Phony text messaging, called smishing, which purport to be from your credit card company is a scam about which I have been warning you for years, but is a scam that has dramatically increased recently due to AI. Scammers are harvesting vacation photos from social media and using AI to analyze the photos even if there was no attached metadata to identify where the photo was taken or directly indicated in your social media. They then send text messages to their targeted victims posing as the victims’ credit card company informing them that unusual activity was detected while they were traveling to wherever they actually were. Having the name of the city or country where the targeted victim was traveling included in the text message makes it much more believable. They then provide either a phone number or a link that will take you to an AI created counterfeit website of the credit card company where you will be prompted to provide credit card information that will lead to identity theft.
Scam of the day – August 28, 2026 – FTC Settles Investment Training Scam Lawsuit Against IM Mastery Academy
In 2025, the FTC and the state of Nevada filed a civil lawsuit against IM Mastery Academy and its principals in which they accused them of operating a deceptive investment training and multi-level marketing scheme that scammed consumers of more than $1.2 billion. IM Mastery Academy lured its victims through misleading marketing on social media including Instagram, YouTube and TikTok that featured false and deceptive income claims and the depiction of luxury lifestyles. At the heart of the scam were subscriptions to foreign currency trading tools and educational content, however, the real profits came from recruiting new members into the scam rather than successful foreign currency trading. The overwhelming majority of participants lost money or earned little through their participation in the program.
Scam of the day – August 27, 2026 – FTC Warns About Law Firm Inheritance Letter Scam
The Federal Trade Commission is warning people about a scam which begins when you get a letter from a law firm informing you that they are probating an estate in which they have not been able to locate an heir, however, they then inform you that you are the heir to the million dollar estate. The letter then offers to split the value of the estate with you, some charities and their law firm. If you respond to the letter, you will be asked to provide personal and financial information including your Social Security number and to pay a fee. If this sounds vaguely familiar it is because it is just a variation of the Nigerian email scam that continues to plague the online community.
Scam of the day – August 26, 2026 – Texas Sheriff Warns About Used Car VIN Cloning
Recently, the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office in Texas issued a warning about organized criminal gangs including some linked to the Sinaloa cartel were stealing cars, and cloning VIN numbers to make the cars they then sold on social media appear legitimate.
Scam of the day – August 25, 2025 – Why You Should Keep Your Cell Phone Number Private
When a criminal knows your cell phone number, he or she can leverage that number through commonly available legal databases such as White Pages Premium and learn information such as your current address, past addresses, the names of your family members and more. Many services allow password resets through text messages enabling criminals to spoof your number and reset passwords to many of your accounts. The criminal can also use the number to gain access to your social media accounts and can most significantly use the information gained to answer security questions that would allow the criminal to do a SIM swap whereby your cell phone number would be transferred to a phone of the criminal and thereby defeat dual factor authentication where you get a text message or a code sent to your phone when you go to access your bank account online or any other account that requires significant security.
Scam of the day – August 24, 2026 – FBI Warns About Cryptocurrency Recovery Scams
In recent years, I have written many times about the myriad of cryptocurrency scams that have cost people billions of dollars. According to the FBI, Americans lost more than 11.36 billion dollars to cryptocurrency investment scams in 2025 which represents a 22% increase from 2024.. In some instances, law enforcement has been able to recover some of those lost funds, but in many other instances, the money is lost forever. According to the FBI, scammers, posing as representatives of companies that falsely claim to be able to recover funds lost to cryptocurrency scams, are luring in victims through social media, messaging platforms or advertisements. Often the scammers claim affiliation with law enforcement, federal agencies or legitimate legal services providers, but it is all a lie. In return for a substantial up-front payment, the scammers claim they can recover all of the funds lost to a cryptocurrency scam. Of course, this is a lie and anyone who pays the fee loses that money.
Scam of the day – August 23, 2026 – Hacking Your Computer Through Your Smoke Detector
Cybercriminals hack into your devices that are a part of the Internet of Things to enable them to enlist your devices as a part of a botnet by which they can distribute malware while maintaining their anonymity. They also can hack into your Internet of Things devices to access your home computers or cell phones to steal information for purposes of identity theft or to implant malware on your home computers and cell phones. Any device you have in your home that is connected to the Internet poses a threat. One device that people hardly give any thought to is your smoke detector. Newer, sophisticated smoke detectors have the capability to send data to your phone or the manufacturer which they do through your router and this make them vulnerable to being hacked.
Scam of the day – August 22, 2026 – Amazon and Apple Unauthorized Charge Scam
Scammers are creating popup warnings that appear when you are browsing on a search engine such as Google Chrome that appears to be an official notification from Amazon or Apple that your account was just charged for a $149.99 purchase and providing a phone number to call if you did not make the charge. Interestingly, although the scammers use separate popups for purported unauthorized purchases from Amazon and Apple, the phone number to call for Amazon support and Apple support is the same phone number. If you call the number provided you will be prompted to provide personal account and credit card information that will lead to identity theft.
Scam of the day – August 21, 2026 – Do You Need Property Title Theft Insurance?
Deed fraud, which is also referred to as “property title theft” occurs when a criminal files a counterfeit deed to property owned by someone else and then either lives in the property or even sells the property to an unwary buyer. Deed fraud most commonly occurs after a homeowner dies. Enterprising criminals monitor the obituaries looking for homes owned by people recently deceased and then forge a deed to the property and record it in the local Registry of Deeds.
Scam of the day – August 20, 2026 – Chase Credit Card Scam
Today’s scam of the day comes from a Scamicide subscriber who received a phone call from a scammer posing as a Chase bank employee working in its fraud department. The scammer told the targeted victim that someone had used her credit card in another city. The scammer then asked for information about her Chase accounts. She was then passed on to a “supervisor” who told her that the bank needed to examine the magnetic stripes on her credit cards and told her that a courier would come to pick up her card so that they could be examined. The Scamicide subscriber then asked the scammer if she called Chase’s fraud department would they confirm the two scammers worked for the bank. The scammer responded that they would not because he worked for FDIC. This contradiction of what she was told convinced the Scamicide subscriber that they were scammers and she hung up the phone.
Scam of the day – August 19, 2026 – NY Attorney General Warns About Gold Bar Scams
Recently New York Attorney General Letitia James warned consumers about gold bar scams which primarily have targeted older Americans in which under a variety of excuses scammers posing as law enforcement convince their targeted victims that their savings are in jeopardy and that in order to protect their funds, they must withdraw them from their bank accounts, purchase gold bars and then turn them over to other scammers posing as legitimate law enforcement personnel for temporary safekeeping.
Scam of the day – August 18, 2026 – Odyssey and Spiderman Streaming Scams
The recent blockbuster movie “The Odyssey” is attracting record crowds back to movie theaters as is the new Spiderman movie, “Spiderman – Brand New Day.” Both of these movies are only available in theaters and not at any legitimate streaming service. However, this never stops scammers from taking advantage of the demand for the movie and offering phony pirate streaming websites promising access to the movie. There are two versions of scams related to viewing these movies on pirate websites. In one version of the scam, a fake browser warning appears claiming your browser is missing a required component. If you click on the “Fit It Now” tab, you end up downloading harmful malware. The other version of the occurs when you try to download the movie, but instead only manage to download malware directly.
Scam of the day – August 17, 2026 – Hawaii Hurricane and Indiana Flood Charity Scams
Natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes are common occurrences. The devastating floods recently in Indiana and the intense hurricane in Hawaii have caused serious damage, loss of property and life in those states. It has also displaced many people whose homes were ruined. Natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and earthquakes bring out the best in people who want to donate to charities to help the victims. Unfortunately natural disasters also bring out the worst in scammers who are quick to take advantage of the generosity of people by contacting them posing as charities, but instead of collecting funds to help the victims of these natural disasters, these scam artists steal the money for themselves under false pretenses.
Scam of the day – August 16, 2026 – Zoll Medical Data Breach Class Action Settlement
Zoll Medical Corp. is a medical technology company that provides emergency care solutions including critical care devices. In January of 2023 it suffered a data breach that compromised sensitive information of its customers. following which, as is now often the case a class action was filed by victims of the data breach in which they alleged that Zoll had failed to implement reasonable security measures to protect their data. A settlement has been reached in the Zoll agrees to pay $3.5 million to class members. Eligible members of the class can receive up to $5,000 for out of pocket expenses incurred as a result of the data breach. Class members can also receive payments of $100 if their Social Security number was compromised while class members whose Social Security numbers were not compromised are eligible to receive a payment of $50.
Scam of the day – August 15, 2026 – Amazon Recall Scam
Whatever is popular with the public is popular with scammers which is why it is not surprising that scammers are sending out text messages that appear to come from Amazon informing their targeted victims that there is a recall of a product that the targeted victim purchased through Amazon Prime. The text message looks legitimate and may even appear to come from a legitimate Amazon telephone number, but it is a simple matter for a scammer to “spoof” a legitimate number to make it appear that the call is originating from Amazon while actually coming from the scammer. The bogus text message informing you of the product recall provides a link that will take you to what appears to be the Amazon website and prompts you to provide your account information and your password. Using AI it is simple for a scammer to create a very legitimate appearing counterfeit Amazon website.
Scam of the day – August 14, 2026 – New Variation on Sextortion Scam
In a recent version of this scam, people around the country are receiving such sextortion emails with some new twists. First, the email contains a photograph of your home with a threat to contact you at your home, referring to your home’s address if you don’t pay the demanded Bitcoin ransom. Second, the email refers to a type of Spyware called Pegasus that can steal information from you computer without being discovered. In fact, Pegasus spyware does exist, but it is used only by government agencies.
Scam of the day – August 13, 2026 – 15 Million Patients Affected by Biggest Healthcare Data Breach of 2026
DentaQuest, the second largest dental insurance company in the country suffered a data breach in May that was only confirmed in July when the company sent notices to the 15 million of its customers affected by the data breach which appears to have been done by the ransomware gang ShinyHunters. Among the stolen information was names, addresses and other personal information, most notably Social Security numbers which can be used for criminals for purposes of identity theft. In its notice to affected patients the company offered free identity theft protection services and credit monitoring. For more information, you can call DentaQuest at 844-959-7163
Scam of the day – August 12, 2026 – Google Forms Scams
Google Forms is a terrific free tool that lets you create surveys, quizzes and forms for gathering data. It is widely used in education, business and in people’s personal affairs. It is easy to use, accessible through a shareable link and secure. Unfortunately, however, scammers take advantage of its acceptance as a legitimate tool to use it to perpetrate a variety of scams including scams by which it is used to create fake login pages that appear to be those of banks or colleges as well as to create phony surveys with promises of prizes in exchange for providing personal data. Scams using Google Forms increased by 63% last year and appear to be happening with even more frequency in 2025. Scams using Google Forms are sent through Google’s own mail servers so they can avoid email security filters making them appear more legitimate. Unfortunately, if you provide the asked for personal information, you set yourself up to become a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – August 11, 2026 – Elderly Navy Veteran Loses $100,000 to Lottery Scam
Eighty-one year old Navy veteran Riley Williams who has both Parkinson’s disease and dementia received a call from a scammer seven months ago telling him that he had won a lottery he had not entered, but he needed to pay taxes and fees before he could collect his winnings. For seven months the scammers convinced him time and time again to pay these phony fees and taxes by way of gift cards before he became aware that he had been scammed. Ultimately he lost $100,000.
Scam of the day – August 10, 2026 – USAA Customer Loses $15,000 to Imposter Scam
Imposter scams where the scammers pose as a government employee, such as with the IRS or a company with which you do business such as your bank are unfortunately often very successful in stealing your money. They generally convince you that there is an emergency that requires you to pay them money directly or, as is often the case, send money to designated accounts that you are told would be held for you to protect your funds. Recently Arsiln Chaudhry, a 21 years customer of USAA took a phone call that his Caller ID indicated was from USAA’s customer service department, however, the truth is that the call was from a scammer using a simple technique called “spoofing” to manipulate Chaudhry’s Caller ID to make the call appear to come from USAA. The scammer, posing as a bank employee told Chaudhry that someone was attempting to take $8,500 from his account and told him that he needed to transfer the money from his account to another account provided by the bank in order to protect his funds. Unfortunately, Chaudhry moved $15,000 before recognizing that he had been scammed.
Scam of the day – August 9, 2026 – OPM Data Breach Update
Now people who enrolled in the free coverage when first offered are receiving notices that their free credit monitoring services will be terminating in September and Senators Mark Warner and Eleanor Holmes Norton have introduced legislation which, if passed will extend the identity protection services for the lifetimes of those affected by the data breach. According to Warner, “We have a responsibility to stand by the federal workers who were put at risk through no fault of their own. This legislation will ensure those affected continue to receive the identity protection they need, while helping better safeguard personal information from future exploitation.”
Scam of the day – August 8, 2026 – Student Loan Scams Increasing
Now, after a five year pause during the pandemic on penalizing student loan borrowers for not making payments, in January of 2025, the Department of Education instructed loan servicers to start reporting late payers to credit bureaus which is resulting in millions of student loan borrowers having their important credit scores drop dramatically. Then in May of 2025, the Department of Education restarted collections on defaulted student loans after a pause commenced in 2020. This has resulted in scammers increasing their efforts regarding phony student loan scams. Government figures indicate that two thirds of student loan borrowers are late or behind in their payments and this presents a dire situation to which scammers can be expected to respond by offering phony debt relief to desperate borrowers.
Scam of the day – August 7, 2026 – Florida Sheriff Warns About Jury Duty Scams
I have been warning you about the jury duty scam for thirteen years, but it continues to snare many unwary victims. Recently the Broward County, Florida Sheriff’s Office issued a warning about jury duty scams after an incident in which a local resident was contacted by a scammer posing as a court official telling the targeted victim that they had missed federal jury duty and an arrest warrant had been issued. The targeted victim was then told to deposit $15,000 into a cryptocurrency ATM as bail to avoid being arrested.
Scam of the day – August 6, 2026 – Scammers Posing as Popular Car Parking App
Paying for a parking spot using an app on your phone has become very popular. Apps such as ParkMobile and PayByPhone are particularly popular in the United States. RingGo is a popular parking app in the UK although it is not available for use in the United States. Recently people in the UK have been receiving text messages from scammer posing as RingGo indicating that a billing review or routine review found a bill for outstanding parking. The text message goes on to direct the targeted scam victim to click on a link that takes them to a phony RingGo website where they are prompted to provide their user name, password and credit card details to pay the phony outstanding parking charge. Of course, anyone doing so will end up providing their credit card information to a scammer.
Scam of the Day – August 5, 2026 – Justice Department Taking Action Against Money Mules
Laundering money derived from a scam is an essential element of many scams. Scammers can be extremely clever at distancing themselves from their scams in order to avoid detection. The people they enlist either as willing or unknowing participants in the laundering of the proceeds of a scam are called money mules. Scams in which innocent people are lured into being unknowing money mules are numerous. One of the more common of these involves work at home scams where your job is to receive goods, often electronics that have been shipped to you, inspect them and then reship them to an address provided to you by your new employer.
Scam of the day – August 4, 2026 – Microsoft Warns About Hotel Wi-Fi
Microsoft has just issued a warning about an international cyberattack campaign being done by Russian hackers targeting hotels and conference center Wi-Fi networks. The hackers have compromised the legitimate hotel and conference center networks and are able to redirect network traffic to phony Microsoft sign-in pages, fraudulent verification checks and phony browser or operating system updates. The hackers can then steal sensitive personal information from the infected computers and laptops.
Scam of the day – August 3, 2026 – FTC Warns Veterans About VA Scams
Veterans should recognize that they are a frequent target of scammers and also should remember that there is no fee for applying for benefits. Whenever you get a call, email or text message, you can never be sure who is actually contacting you, but particularly if the caller represents that he or she is a VA representative and asks for a fee for providing services it is a scam.
Scam of the day – August 2, 2026 – Maine Police Warn About Increased Grandparent Scam
Recently, the Kennebunk, Maine Police Department issued a warning about an increase in the grandparent scam in which the targeted victims are receiving phone calls from scammers posing as the grandchild saying that they have been involved in a serious automobile accident and have been arrested and need money for bail.
Scam of the day – August 1, 2026 – Minnesota Bans Crypto ATMs
Earlier this year, Massachusetts became the latest state to sue a crypto ATM operator, in this case Bitcoin Depot for enabling criminals to use their machines to scam people. According to the lawsuit, more than half of the money that went through Bitcoin Depot ATMs between August 2023 and January 2025 was related to scams. Indiana and Tennessee previously banned cryptocurrency ATMs and today Minnesota’s total ban on cryptocurrency ATMs went into effect.
Scam of the day – July 31, 2026 – FTC Warns About Reloading Scam
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been warning people about this particular scam, sometimes called “reloading,” since 2016. I have been warning people about this since 2012. Scammers often compile lists of their victims with information including their names, addresses and contact information. They sell this information to other scammers who contact the victims and tell them that they are with a consumer group or government agency and that they are available to help the victim regain the money lost to the previous scam. The new scammer then asks for processing fees or other personal information, such as a Social Security number in order to proceed with the recovery effort. Of course, the recovery effort never occurs. In fact, the victim is merely victimized again, either by paying for services the victim never receives or by giving away personal information that leads to identity theft.
Scam of the day – July 30, 2026 – Shopify Phishing Email
Copied below is an email that I recently received that purports to be from Shopify, a company that helps people operate online stores, informing me that my email address (which I have removed from the notice below) was compromised. The email then instructs me to click on a link, which I have disarmed, to review my account. As typical in scams like this, they create the impression of an emergency and dire circumstances if I don’t follow through. In this case, it was easy to recognize that it is a scam since I don’t have an account with Shopify and the email address of the sender was not a Spotify email address. If I had clicked on the link, either I would have been prompted to provide personal information that would lead to identity theft or in a worst case scenario, merely clicking on the link would download dangerous malware such as keystroke logging malware or ransomware.
Scam of the day – July 29, 2026 – Facetime Scam Leading to Compromised Bank Accounts
Apple is warning people about a new scam involving its popular FaceTime app that starts with the targeted victim receiving either a text message or phone call from a scammer that purports to be from the targeted victim’s bank. Making the call or text appear more legitimate is the fact that the call appears on your Caller ID as coming from a phone number of your bank. The call or text message indicates that the targeted victim’s bank account has been accessed by scammers and is in jeopardy. The victim is then instructed to switch to FaceTime to continue the conversation to remedy the situation. Once on FaceTime, the scammer, posing as a bank official instructs the targeted victim to share their computer screen with the scammers while they log into their bank account. The scammer then is able to not only see the password for the account, but also the code used for dual factor authentication when entered by the victim. The scammer then is able to immediately access the victim’s bank account.
Scam of the day – July 28, 2026 – Your Airline Boarding Pass Can Lead to Identity Theft
Identity theft dangers are everywhere, but particularly at busy airports. People are quick to dispose of their boarding passes after they have landed by merely tossing them into a trash receptacle, but your boarding pass barcode can be easily decoded by an identity thief who retrieves your discarded boarding pass from which he can gain much information including information about your frequent flier account which can be used to make you a victim of identity theft. All an identity thief needs is a barcode scanner, which can easily be obtained online, to access a wide range of information that the airline has about you on your boarding pass including, for some airlines, your email address, phone number and more. In addition, a clever identity thief can leverage this information by posing as the airline in calling you, providing your account number and then tricking you into providing more personal information that can be used against you.
Scam of the day – July 27, 2026 – Phony Delivery Phishing Email
Today’s version of a delivery scam involves a phishing email sent by a Scamicide reader, reproduced below made to look like a tracking order which are sent in large numbers to people with the hope and expectation that people expecting a delivery will fall for the scam. If you click on the “Track my order,” “Click to review,” or “Click to view” links you will either be lured into providing personal information that will lead to identity theft or even worse, merely by clicking on the links you will download dangerous malware. I have disabled the links in the email below. If you had hovered your mouse over the links you would see that the address it would be taking you to a site that had nothing to do with any of the major delivery companies such as Federal Express or UPS.
Scam of the day – July 26, 2026 – Car Dealer Cloning Scams
Car dealer cloning is a rapidly expanding scam. It occurs when a scammer sets up a website or social media profile in which they pose as a legitimate car dealer. The website and social media posts use images and photographs of legitimate car dealers to make them look legitimate and, with the increased availability of AI to assist the scammers in setting up their phony car dealer websites and social media presence, they appear quite legitimate. On these phony sites the scammers offer tremendous discounts on cars. Generally, the scammers require the purchase price for the non-existent cars to be wired to them. Wiring funds is a favorite choice of payment of scammers because it can be difficult to reverse and is easy for the scammers to disguise their identity.
Scam of the day – July 25, 2026 – Dual Factor Authentication Scam
Recently scammers have been sending text messages that appear to come from a company with which you do business informing you that there has been suspicious activity on your account and that you need to confirm your identity or else your account will be locked. You are then told that in order to do so, you will receive a text message with a code that you should, in turn, text back as a reply to the scammer. Unfortunately, what is actually happening is that the scammer has already managed to obtain your password and has just tried to log in to your account which is protected by dual factor authentication, so if you do send the code to the scammer, you will have defeated dual factor authentication and enabled the scammer to access your account.
Scam of the day – July 24, 2026 – Chick-fil-A Credential Stuffing Data Breach
Data breaches have become an all-too-common feature of life today and they pose a significant threat to all of us because regardless of how careful we are at protecting our personal data, we are only as secure as the companies and governmental agencies that hold our information. Last year there were 3,352 major data breaches affecting more than 278 million people in the United States. It is not a matter of if you will become a victim of a data breach, but when. Recently the popular restaurant chain Chick-fil-A alerted customers in ten states that it’s loyalty accounts were victimized by a data breach that compromised customers’ names, email addresses, the last four digits of payment card numbers and other personal information. This information can readily be leveraged by criminals for scams and identity theft.
Scam of the day – July 23, 2026 – How to Keep Your Cryptocurrency Wallet Safe
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.
Scam of the day – July 22, 2026 – Summer Car Rental Scams
Despite high gas prices, many people are taking to the roads this summer. The bad news is that due to so many people wanting to rent cars there is both a shortage of cars to rent and the cost of renting a car has increased in many cases dramatically. However, your friendly neighborhood scammer is more than willing to help you out. They are using AI to set up convincing phony car rental company websites and websites that appear to be those of legitimate car rental companies such as Avis or Hertz.
Scam of the day – July 21, 2026 – Look Who Died Facebook Scam
A variation on an old Facebook scam has recently resurfaced. In the new scam you receive a Facebook Message that merely says “Look Who Died?” and is followed by a link that leads you to a website where you are prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft. Alternatively, merely clicking on the link, in some instances, has downloaded destructive malware to your phone, computer or tablet.
Scam of the day – July 20, 2026 – Veterans Affairs 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, are nothing new. They are a staple of identity thieves and scammers and with good reason because they work.
Scam of the day – July 19, 2026 – Phony McAfee 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.
Scam of the day – July 18, 2026 – Devastating Income Tax Consequences of Being Scammed
It is bad enough to be scammed, but to have to pay income taxes on money you have been scammed out of certainly adds insult to injury. Prior to 2017 if a scammer convinced you to take money out of your retirement accounts and send the funds to the scammer, you could get a theft and loss deduction to ease the sting just a bit. However, with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, the rules were changed such that you can only take a deduction under Internal Revenue Code Section 165 for your scam losses if the transaction was entered into for a profit such as when you are a victim of an investment scam. However, for imposter scams, romance scams, tech support scams and more, you are not able to deduct your losses and if you took the money out of your retirement account to pay the scammer, the results are even worse because the full amount of your withdrawal unless it was from a tax-free Roth IRA will be fully subject to income tax and if you are under the age of 59 1/2 the IRS makes it worse by adding its standard early withdrawal penalty.
Scam of the day – July 17, 2026 – Netflix Phishing Scam
The popularity of Netflix makes it a preferred subject for phishing emails sent to people appearing to come from Netflix in which you are told you need to update your credit card information or asking for other personal information. Reproduced below is a copy of an email I recently received. The email may look legitimate, but it is important to note that nowhere does your name or account number appear and it is sent from an email address that has nothing to do with Netflix. The Netflix logo appears on the email, but it is easy to counterfeit the Netflix logo and make the email appear to be legitimate when it is not. Making the scam even more laughable is that the subject line in the email read “Subcription.” Apparently the scammer is either a very bad speller or bad editor.
Scam of the day – July 16, 2026 – Apple Phishing Emails Getting Worse
Recently there has been a flood of Apple phishing emails where the subject line reads “Your Apple Account Information Has Been Updated” which is certainly an attention grabber for an Apple customer who has not done so. The email looks like a legitimate email from Apple and it informs you that your account has been used to purchase a new iPhone and provides a customer service phone number for you to call to cancel the purchase. If you call the number provided in the email a scammer posing as an Apple customer service representative will answer immediately who will ask you to confirm your account number and provide other personal information under the guise of needing to confirm your identity. The truth is that scammers want your Apple ID because it can give them access to your iCloud account, Apple Pay and stored credit cards and other services of Apple.
Free Webinar on Avoiding Scams with Steve Weisman
As many of you may know, I frequently give seminars and webinars regarding scams and how to avoid becoming a victim. Fairway SAFE is sponsoring a one hour webinar I will be giving on July 29th and I urge everyone to consider attending. Attendees will receive...
Scam of the day – July 15, 2026 – Task Job Scams Increasing
Task scams are scams in which you are solicited to do simple tasks such as liking videos or rating product images online and get paid for your efforts. Too bad it is a scam. The scammers promise that you will earn a commission on each click. The scam starts with a text message offering online work by “product boosting” or doing “optimization tasks” in an app or online platform the scammer provides. As you complete each task, the app will appear to show that you have accumulated commission earnings, but it is all a lie. After a while the scammer then asks you to deposit your own money, generally by way of cryptocurrency to complete your next set of tasks and to get your commission earnings out of the app. However, there are no earnings and once you make the payment, it is gone forever.
Scam of the day – July 14, 2026 – Netflix Phishing Email
The popularity of Netflix makes it a preferred subject for phishing emails sent to people appearing to come from Netflix in which you are told you need to update your credit card information or asking for other personal information. Reproduced below is a copy of an...
Scam of the day – July 13, 2026 – How to Tell if a Website is Legitimate
The pandemic increased the trend toward online purchases of just about everything and even after the pandemic subsided, many of us continue to make large amounts of our consumer purchases online. Scammers, of course, see this as an opportunity to scam people with phony websites that steal your money and provide you with nothing in return. Some of these phony websites are for totally made up companies that you have never heard of, but which are offering tremendous discounts on popular goods while other phony websites are counterfeit websites of legitimate online retailers.