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Scam of the day – February 28, 2021 – How Serious a Problem is Deed Fraud?
Recently the New York Attorney General announced a grant of $800,000 to a program to help protect homeowners from a variety of scams threatening them including deed fraud. Deed fraud, which is also referred to as "property title theft" occurs when a criminal files a...
Scam of the day – February 27, 2021 – Free Netflix Scam
For a long time I have warned you that the popularity of Netflix, particularly during the Coronavirus pandemic, makes it a preferred subject for phishing emails and phishing text messages, which are referred to as smishing. Smishing is the name given to text...
Scam of the day – February 26, 2021 – Insights in New Phishing Study
Google recently released a new study that it did in conjunction with researchers at Stanford University in which it studied more than a billion malicious emails targeting gmail users. The study has a number of interesting points that can help us all protect ourselves...
Scam of the day – February 25, 2021 – Clubhouse App Hacked
Clubhouse is a social networking app used by millions of people, including Tesla founder Elon Muska and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, providing chat rooms to discuss a wide variety of topics. Unlike some other social media, Clubhouse only involves audio with no text,...
Scam of the day – February 24, 2021 – Coronavirus Vaccine Scams
While the rate of infections have recently gone down somewhat, the Coronavirus continues to ravage the United States, where fatalities have reached 500,000, as well as the rest of the world. Fortunately, vaccinations are happening although getting an appointment for...
Scam of the day – February 23, 2021 – Kroger Suffers Data Breach
We learned a few days ago that the grocery and pharmacy chain Kroger had suffered a data breach of which it first became aware on January 23rd, but did not notify its customers of the breach until a few days ago. In a statement released on February 19th, Kroger...
Scam of the day – Feberuary 22, 2021 – Winter Storm Scams
Natural disasters, such as the recent snow and ice storms in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Missouri have caused severe hardship to many people. Natural disasters such as this bring out the best in people who want to donate to charities to help...
Scam of the day – February 21, 2021 – College Students’ Nude Photos Posted by Hackers
Two graduates of the State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh, Nicholas Faber and Michael Patrick Fish have pleaded guilty to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft charges related to their their hacking into online accounts of 79 students at SUNY...
Scam of the day – February 20, 2021 – Keeping Your Cryptocurrency Wallet Secure
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have been in the news a lot lately due to significant rises in the value of a number of different cryptocurrencies. However, they were also newsworthy due to a prominent story last month about a Bitcoin owner, Stefan Thomas who had...
Scam of the day – February 19, 2021 – Facebook Messenger Scam
Today's Scam of the day starts when you receive a message on Facebook Messenger that looks like this: (image: Sophos) The message will have a link and what appears to be a video, which many people would be tempted to click on out of a concern that the video may be...
Scam of the day – February 18, 2021 – Increase in Real Estate Closing Scams
I have been reporting to you about this particular scam preying upon home buyers for five years, however due to the current Coronavirus pandemic this scam has gotten worse. Scammers have been quick to take advantage of so much of home buying and selling during this...
Scam of the day – February 17, 2021 – Romance Scams Are a Major Problem
Although Valentine's Day has come and gone, romance scams continue to be with us in great numbers. In fact, these scams have increased dramatically during the Coronavirus pandemic. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Americans lost more money to romance...
Scam of the day – February 16, 2021 – More Victims of Student Loan Scams Receiving Refunds from the FTC
It was just a week ago in the Scam of the day for February 9th that I told you about the Fedeal Trade Commission (FTC) settling charges it had brought against a student loan debt relief scammer A1 DocPrep. As a result of the settlement, the FTC received funds from...
Scam of the day – February 15, 2021 – Why You Should Keep Your Cell Phone Number Private
A week ago in my Scam of the day for February 8th, I wrote about why it was unwise for people to post photos of their vaccination cards on social media because it would let the world know their birhdate. Your birthdate is a signficiant piece of information that, in...
Scam of the day – February 14, 2021 – Valentine’s Day Scams
Today is Valentine's Day. This is a very important day to many people including scammers and identity thieves who always manage to find an opportunity in whatever is current or popular to scam you out of your money. There are many Valentine's day scams, but the...
Scam of the day – February 13, 2021 – Gygabyte Phishing Email
Today's Scam of the day is about a phishing email that is particularly poorly done. If scams are done by scam artists, this scam was done by a finger painter. It purports to be an invoice from "Gygabyte," however, there is no such company. There is a legitimate...
Scam of the day – February 12, 2021 – Publisher Settles Charges That it Targeted Seniors with Phony Medical Cures and Phony Money Making Schemes
In October of 2019 I told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had sued Agora Financial, LLC alleging it scammed seniors into buying books, newsletters and other publications that falsely claimed a cure for type 2 diabetes and also perpetrating a scam related...
Scam of the day – February 11, 2021 – More Bad News for Victims of Unemployment Compensation Identity Theft
Even before the Coronavirus pandemic, unemployment benefit scams were already a major problem costing the states and federal government billions of dollars each year. Part of the problem is that the federal government requires the states to pay claims within a few...
Scam of the day – February 10, 2021 – 16 Year Old Charged with Sim Swapping
SIM card swapping is a major problem. A Subscriber Identity Module, more commonly known as a SIM card, is an integrated circuit that stores information used to authenticate subscribers on mobile devices, such as a cell phone. The SIM card is able to be transferred...
Scam of the day – February 9, 2021 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Student Loan Scam
I have written many times over the last ten years about student loan scams because scammers have successfully targeted college students and their parents for a variety of scams related to these extensive loans. In October of 2017 the Federal Trade Commission, working...
Scam of the day – February 8, 2021 – Is it Dangerous to Post Your Vaccine Card on Social Media?
With the Coronavirus pandemic still a major threat and vaccines presently in short supply, many people who are able to get vaccinated are posting photos of their vaccination cards on social media such as Facebook. The question then arises as to whether or not this...
Scam of the day – February 7, 2021 – FTC Settles Claim Against Health Insurance Scammer
In November of 2018 I first told you about the Federal Trade Commission suing a Florida based company, Simple Health Plans LLC, its owner, Steven J. Dorfman and officers on charges that Simple Health Plans scammed unwary consumers out of more than a hundred million...
Scam of the day – February 6, 2021 – FTC Refunding 4.7 Million Dollars to Victims of Business Coaching Scheme
Business coaches are people that advise and guide business owners in the operating and growing of their businesses. They can be quite helpful, particularly to entrepreneurs. However, scammers posing as business coaches take advantage of trusting business owners by...
Scam of the day – February 5, 2021 – New AOL Phishing Scam
Today's Scam of the day is about a phishing email presently circulating that attempts to lure you into clicking on a link in order to continue using your AOL account. Millions of people still use AOL. One reason is that you get greater email privacy when compared to...
Scam of the day – February 4, 2021 – MeetMindful Dating Site Suffers Massive Data Breach
Personal information including names, email addresses, city, state and zip codes, dating preferences, birth dates, marital status, dating preferences and body details of 2.28 million users of the dating site MeetMindful have recently been discovered to have been made...
Scam of the day – February 3, 2021 – Identity Theft Awareness Week
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has designated February 1-5th as Identity Theft Awareness Week. The Coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a dramatic increase in identity theft with the the FTC reporting that it received approximately 1.4 million complaints of...
Scam of the day – February 2, 2021 – FTC Settles Complaint Against Scammers Providing Deceptive Financing for Training Programs
The Federal Trade Commission recently settled claims against Seed Consulting LLC after the FTC had filed a complaint against the company for charging consumers between $3,000 and $4,000 merely to apply on their behalf for multiple credit cards with total credit lines...
Scam of the day – February 1, 2021 – FTC Refunded 483 Million Dollars to Scam Victims in 2020
As regular readers of Scamicide are aware, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is the primary federal agency which protects consumers from scams, is sometimes able to obtain payments from scammers convicted in court following FTC lawsuits or, more commonly,...
Scam of the day – January 31, 2021 – Rent Relief Scams
The Coronavirus pandemic has brought financial strain to many people and difficulty paying monthly rent is high on the list of problems for a lot of people. Initially Congress enacted an eviction moratorium that was to end this month, but fortunately, President Biden...
Scam of the day – January 30, 2021 – Phone Scams
A recent survey done by Harris Poll on behalf of Truecaller, a company that provides phone security services concludes that during the last twelve months approximately 56 million Americans were victims of various phone scams at a cost of almost 20 billion dollars. ...
Scam of the day – January 29, 2021 – US Trading Commission Scam
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently reported about a phony website that is popping up on people's computers as a YouTube link with several different URL names that appears to be from the US Trading Commission. The website even uses the FTC's seal at the top...
Scam of the day – January 28, 2021 – Criminals Using Skimmers at Gas Pumps Sentenced
Last summer the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning about the dangers presented by skimmers on gas pumps. I have warned you about the dangers of skimmers for many years. Skimmers are small electronic devices that are easily installed by an identity...
Scam of the day – January 27, 2021 – Weight Loss Scams Increasing
Weight loss scams are among the most common scams and with good reason. Many people want to lose weight and most of the scam products promise to do that for you easily without diet or exercise. The unfortunate truth is that there is no magic formula for quick and easy...
Scam of the day – January 26, 2021 – Delayed Delivery Reimbursement Scams
Believe it or not, some people are still waiting for holiday packages ordered well before Christmas. The Coronavirus pandemic resulted in an tremendous amount of online gift orders and while Federal Express, UPS and the United States Postal Service did a very good...
Scam of the day – January 25, 2021 – Two People Charged with Stealing Mail for Identity Theft
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 ten years I have warned you about the danger of having your mail, such as...
Scam of the day – January 24, 3021 – Chase Quick Pay Phishing Scam
Today's Scam of the day actually combines two areas of current scams, namely phishing emails and Peer to Peer Payment Service such as Zelle. Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the...
Scam of the day – January 23, 2021 – Online Employment Scams
I have been warning you about employment related scams for years and today's scam represents the most recent incarnation of employment scams. Searching for a job online has become the norm for many job seekers and there are many legitimate online employment websites...
Scam of the day – January 22, 2021 – Another AOL Phishing Email
Today's Scam of the day is about a phishing email presently circulating that attempts to lure you into clicking on a link in order to continue using your AOL account. Millions of people still use AOL. One reason is that you get greater email privacy when compared to...
Scam of the day – January 21, 2021 – Student Loan Scams on the Rise
I have written many times over the last ten years about student loan scams because scammers have successfully targeted college students and their parents for a variety of scams related to these extensive loans. In October of 2017 the Federal Trade Commission, working...
Scam of the day – January 20, 2021 – New Netflix Smishing Scam
For a long time I have warned you that the popularity of Netflix makes it a preferred subject for phishing emails and phishing text messages, which are referred to as smishing. Smishing is the name given to text messages that lure you into clicking on links or...
Scam of the day – January 19, 2021 – Important New Protection Against Income Tax Identity Theft
Income tax identity theft, by which identity thieves file phony income tax returns with counterfeit W-2s using the Social Security number and name of their victim is still a major problem for the IRS and taxpayers costing us all billions of dollars each year....
Scam of the day – January 18, 2021 – New Delivery Scam
Online purchases which already were sizable have grown tremendously during the Coronavirus pandemic so it is not surprising that scammers are attempting to use that fact to create scams. I have reported to you about delivery scams for years. Today's version of a...
Scam of the day – January 17, 2021 – “Brushing” Continues to be a Problem
It was just last August that I first told you about "brushing" after many people in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom reported receiving unordered packages of seeds sent from China. A wide variety of conspiracy theories quickly sufaced to explain what...
Scam of the day – January 16, 2021 – J.P. Morgan Hacker Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison
Earlier this week, Andrei Tyurin, a Russian hacker was sentenced in federal court to twelve years in prison on charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. The charges stemmed from a number of large data breaches done by Tyurin...
Scam of the day – January 15, 2021 – Small Business Coronavirus Loan Scam
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reporting about a new Coronavirus related scam that is targeting the owners of small businesses who are receiving an email that purports to come from the "Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Relief." The email...
Scam of the day – January 14, 2021 – Publishers Clearing House Scams Continue
Publishers Clearing House, the sponsor of some of the most popular legitimate lotteries in the country no longer limits its contests to one or two a year, but has numerous lotteries each month. Recently there has been an increase in reports of scammers calling people...
Scam of the day – January 13, 2021 – Smishing Attacks Increasing
Although the name may not be as familiar as "phishing" which is the name for emails that lure you into clicking on malware infected links or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, "smishing" is the name given to text...
Scam of the day – January 12, 2021 – Nursing Homes Wrongfully Taking Stimulus Payments
Last May I told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had issued an alert informing people that some nursing homes and assisted living facilities around the country had been requiring their residents who are on Medicaid to turn over their CARES Act stimulus...
Scam of the day – January 11, 2021 – Another Coronavirus Grant Scam
The second round of stimulus payments referred to officially as Economic Impact Payments started being sent to eligible individuals on December 30, 2020. The payments are being sent by direct deposit to bank accounts, mailed paper checks and mailed debit cards...
Scam of the day – January 10, 2021 – American Express Phishing Email
Today's Scam of the day is about a phishing email I received that purports to be from American Express. The graphics, grammar and overall appearance of the email is not very convincing and the lettering is quite odd.. In addition, it does not even carry the American...