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Scam of the day – December 14, 2025 – DoorDash Data Breach: Class Action Lawsuit and Cybersecurity Lessons for Consumers
DoorDash suffered another major data breach. Learn about the class action lawsuit, risks of spear phishing, and essential steps to protect your identity.
Scam of the day – December 13, 2025 – Identity Theft of the Deceased: How Scammers Exploit Obituaries and Social Security Numbers
Identity theft doesn’t stop at death. Scammers use obituaries and Social Security numbers to commit fraud, file fake tax returns, and steal assets. Learn how to protect estates and prevent post-mortem identity theft.
Scam of the day – December 12, 2025 – FBI Warns of Rising Virtual Kidnapping Scams Using AI Voice Cloning and Deepfakes
Virtual kidnapping scams are on the rise, now using AI voice cloning and deepfake videos to trick victims. Learn FBI tips to protect your family, secure social media, and avoid costly wire transfer fraud.
Scam of the day – December 11, 2025 – Synthetic Identity Theft: How It Works and How to Protect Yourself and Your Children
Synthetic identity theft is the fastest-growing type of fraud, often targeting children. Learn how criminals create fake identities, signs of synthetic identity theft, and steps to protect yourself and freeze your child’s credit report for free.
Scam of the day – December 10, 2025 – VIN Cloning Scam: How Car Buyers Can Avoid This Costly Fraud
Learn how VIN cloning scams trick car buyers into purchasing stolen vehicles. Discover practical tips to verify VIN authenticity, spot tampered plates, and protect yourself when buying a used car online or through marketplaces like Facebook.
Scam of the day – December 9, 2025 – 700Credit Ransomware Attack: 8 Million Identities at Risk
It is my unfortunate duty to report to you another major data breach. This time the company is 700Credit which is a major credit reporting and identity verification company used by the automobile industry for automobile financing applications. Certainly data breaches have become increasingly common with 1,732 reported data breaches in just the first six months of this year which is an 11% increase over 2024 according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. It appears that 700Credit was the victim of a ransomware attack and when negotiations between the hackers and 700Credit faltered, the hackers offered the stolen information on the dark web to other criminals. The compromised information included consumers’ names, addresses and Social Security numbers of as many as 8 million people who had submitted automobile financing applications between May and October of 2025.
Scam of the day – December 8, 2025 – AI Voice Scam Targets Walmart Customers with Fake $919 PlayStation Charges
Scammers using AI-generated voices pose as Walmart employees in robocalls claiming fake $919 PlayStation charges. Learn how to spot and stop these identity theft scams.
Scam of the day – December 7, 2025 – Secret Sister Scam Returns for the Holidays: Why This Gift Exchange Is Illegal and Risky
“The Secret Sister gift exchange scam is back this holiday season. Learn why it’s illegal, how it works, and tips to protect yourself from pyramid schemes.
Scam of the day – December 6, 2025 – Utility Bill Scams Surge: Dominion Energy Issues Warning Amid Cold Weather
Cold weather brings a surge in utility bill scams. Dominion Energy warns customers about phone, email, and payment fraud schemes demanding gift cards or Zelle. Learn how to spot and avoid these scams
Scam of the day – December 5, 2025 – FBI Warns of Gold Bar Scams and Rising Fraud Cases
Now two men in Wisconsin have been charged with operating a similar scam in which they convinced an elderly woman that her bank account had been hacked and used for criminal purposes and that she needed to cash in her life savings, use it to purchase gold and turn it over to the scammers who posed as federal agents.
Scam of the day – December 4, 2025 – Holiday Toy Scams: How to Avoid Fake Online Deals and Protect Your Money
The holiday shopping season is in full swing and every year there are a few toys that are in especially high demand. Often it is difficult to find these toys and the prices when you do manage to find them can be pretty expensive which is why so many people are susceptible to being scammed by criminals offering to sell these desirable toys on line at bargain prices. People falling for this scam end up both not getting the toy that they thought they ordered and losing their money in the process. This year’s most sought after toys include Po the AI Story Bear an AI powered plush toy that tells stories. Scammers are setting up phony retail websites and social media ads to lure people into this scam. Often scammers target people by using AI to track their search behavior to find vulnerable scam victims.
Scam of the day – December 3, 2025 – Smishing Scams: How Text Message Fraud Works and How to Protect Yourself
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 – December 2, 2025 – Holiday Job Scams: How to Spot Fake Job Ads and Protect Your Identity
Phony advertisements for non-existent jobs that lure people into either giving the scammer money or personal information that can be used for purposes of identity theft have been a common scam for many years, but particularly during the holiday season when many companies are looking for seasonal workers, the scam gets worse. Scammers use ads on job sites, social media, newspapers and even television and radio, the same platforms used by legitimate employers to attract their victims. Sometimes the scammers use the names of legitimate companies and sometimes they make up phony companies just for the purpose of offering phony jobs through these companies.
Scam of the day – December 1, 2025 – Porch Pirates and Package Theft: How to Protect Your Deliveries This Holiday Season
The popularity of online shopping has brought a dramatic increase in the number of packages delivered by companies such as UPS and Federal Express. The popularity of online shopping has also resulted in a new term entering the lexicon in recent years, namely, “porch pirate,” which is the name given to criminals who cruise through neighborhoods looking for packages to steal that have been left on the doorsteps of homes by delivery services. It has been estimated that more than 104 million packages will be stolen from their front doorsteps this year Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to protect yourself from becoming a victim of this crime.
Scam of the day – November 30, 2025 – Holiday Charity Scams: How to Spot Fake Police and Fire Department Solicitations
This is a time when many people give to charities. In particular, you will most likely be contacted by numerous people soliciting charitable contributions on behalf of organizations purporting to support the brave men and women who make up our police and fire departments. Unfortunately, many of those solicitations will be from scammers merely looking to steal money under false pretenses. Whenever you are solicited by email or phone, you can never be sure who is really contacting you. In addition, even if you are on the Federal Do No Call List, the law permits charities to call you, however, unfortunately you can never be sure when you receive a call that purports to be from a charity whether the call is legitimate or not. Similarly when you receive a text message or email solicitation for a charity, you have no way of knowing if the solicitation is from a scammer or a legitimate charity.
Scam of the day – November 29, 2025 – Beware Holiday Delivery Scam Emails: How to Spot Fake Refund Offers
The holiday shopping season is in full swing and many people are doing their shopping online which means that their packages will be delivered by the United States Postal Service, Federal Express, UPS or Amazon. With so many packages being delivered at this time of year, it is inevitable that some packages will be delayed. In this case, scammers, posing as the United States Postal Service, Federal Express and UPS and Amazon are contacting people apologizing for the delay in receiving their orders and offering a refund of their money. The emails contain a link for you to click on to process your claim for a refund, but unfortunately, if you click on the link either you will automatically download harmful malware or you will be prompted to provide information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – November 28, 2025 – How to Protect Your Cryptocurrency Wallet from Scams: Essential Security Tips
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 – November 27, 2025 – Does the Social Security Administration Suspend Your SSN? The Truth About SSA Scams
The Social Security Administration has issued a warning about an imposter scam presently circulating in which scammers receive an email with the subject line of “Alert: Social Security Account Issues Detected” with an attachment such as the one appearing below which purports to inform the targeted victim that his or her Social Security number will be suspended within 24 hours and their case referred for criminal prosecution. The letter provides a phone number to call to remedy the situation. If you call the number, a scammer posing as a Social Security representative will answer and require you to provide personal information and make a payment to resolve the situation.
Scam of the day – November 26, 2025 – Online Shopping Safety Tips: How to Avoid Scams and Protect Your Data
Every year, the number of people shopping online and the money spent through online shopping grows significantly. And why not? The convenience alone of being able to shop from the comfort and privacy of your home is reason enough for many of us to shop online. But how safe is it? According to the FTC, online shopping scams were the second most common scams following imposter scams. However, following some basic precautions can go a long way in protecting you from being scammed when shopping online
Scam of the day – November 25, 2025 – Holiday Coupon Scams: How Fake Deals on Social Media Steal Your Data
The way that many phony coupon scams work is that in order to qualify for the coupon, you must complete a survey in which you are required to provide much personal information that is used to make you a victim of identity theft. In other versions of the scam, the scammer actually asks for your credit card numbers. In yet another version of the scam you are required to buy many costly items in order to claim your “free” coupon. Many of the coupon scams also require you to forward the coupon to friends which make the phony coupons appear more trustworthy when they are received by your friends. Ultimately, in all of these scams, the coupons are worthless and you get nothing but the opportunity to become a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – November 24, 2025 – Black Friday Scams: How to Shop Safely and Avoid Skimmers
If you are shopping in a brick and mortar store Friday or any other day throughout the year, you should use a credit card rather than a debit card because of the possibility of skimmers which are small devices being used by criminals working as sales clerks that will capture your credit card number which will then be used to make fraudulent purchases. As for using your credit card rather than your debit card, it is important to remember that while your liability for fraudulent use of your credit card is limited by federal law to no more than $50, your liability for fraudulent use of your debit card which is tied to your bank account is unlimited if you do not promptly discover and report the fraud which is why you should always use your credit card for shopping rather than your debit card.
Scam of the day – November 23, 2025 – Gift Card Scams: How Hackers Trick You Through Fake Emails
In a current gift card related scam, people are reporting receiving emails from friends who for one reason or another need you to send them gift cards to cover some necessary expenses. Unfortunately, the email is sent to people on the contact list of a person whose email account was hacked so even though the email is coming from your friend’s email address, it was not sent by your friend, but by a scammer. Anyone providing the gift card numbers to the scammer, as requested, soon becomes aware that he or she has been scammed and lost the gift card funds forever.
Scam of the day – November 22, 2025 – Thanksgiving Scam Alert: Beware of Fake E-Greeting Cards and Malware
Electronic greeting cards have become very popular and with good reason. Even if you don’t remember a birthday or delay sending a holiday card until the last minute, you can send an electronic greeting card, often for free, and have it delivered immediately. Many electronic greeting cards are quite creative with videos and music Unfortunately, you can always count on scam artists and identity thieves to try to spoil anything and electronic greeting cards are no exception. The scam starts when you get a phony electronic greeting card that requires you to click on a link to read the card. If you click on one of these phony greeting cards, you may end up downloading a keystroke logging malware program that will steal all of the information from your computer and end up with you becoming a victim of identity theft or alternatively you may download dangerous malware such as ransomware.
Scam of the day – November 21, 2025 – Most Dangerous Celebrities Online: How Hackers Exploit Taylor Swift and Others
Each year, computer security company, McAfee releases a list of the most dangerous celebrities on the Internet. These are people whose popularity is exploited by identity thieves and hackers who lure unsuspecting people through links in emails, social media, deepfakes and text messages relating to these celebrities to malware filled websites where their victims unknowingly download ransomware or keystroke logging malware that enables the identity thieves to steal all of the personal information from the victim’s computer, laptop, smartphone or other electronic device and use that information to make the person a victim of identity theft. This year’s list not surprisingly is led by Taylor Swift followed by Scarlett Johansson, Jenna Ortega, Sydney Sweeney, Tom Cruise, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Sabrina Carpenter, Lebron James, Kim Kardashian and Zendaya.
Scam of the day – November 20, 2025 – DoorDash Data Breach October 2025: What Happened, Risks, and How to Protect Yourself
Doordash suffered a major data breach on October 25th, but took 19 days before it notified by email millions of its customers that personal information of theirs had been compromised. The information consisted of names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses and while this information is not as sensitive as Social Security numbers or credit card numbers, it still puts victims of the data breach in danger of spear phishing emails that can lure them into becoming scam victims. The data breach was not the result of a computer hacking, but rather social engineering in which a psychologically skilled scammer convinced a DoorDash employee into giving him access to the company’s data.
Scam of the day – November 19, 2025 – FTC Amazon Prime Settlement: $1.5 Billion Refund Program Explained and How to Avoid Scams
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently settled a lawsuit it brought against Amazon in 2023 related to Amazon enrolling millions of customers as Amazon Prime members and then making it difficult for those customers to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions. As a result of the settlement, Amazon is required to pay a $1 billion civil penalty to the FTC and pay an addition $1.5 billion in refunds to affected customers. Anyone in the United States who enrolled in Prime between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2015 through what the FTC referred to as “challenged enrollment flows” or who tried unsuccessfully to cancel their Prime membership during that time will be eligible for a refund capped at $51. No action need be taken by affected customers to receive their refund. Eligible Prime customers will receive an email between November 12th and December 24th informing the customers of the choice to get their refund by PayPal or Venmo. Customers who would prefer a check can merely ignore the email and a check will be sent to the default shipping address on their Prime subscription.
Scam of the day – November 18, 2025 – Money Mule Scams: How Criminals Launder Funds Through Work-at-Home and Romance Schemes
Learn how scammers recruit money mules through fake jobs and romance scams, and discover tips to protect yourself from becoming an unwitting accomplice
Scam of the day – November 17, 2025 – Publishers Clearing House Scam Alert: How to Spot Fake Prize Calls and Letters
Scammers impersonate Publishers Clearing House with fake calls, emails, and letters demanding fees or taxes. Learn how to identify these scams and protect yourself.
Scam of the day – November 16, 2025 – Timeshare Resale Scams: How Mexican Cartels Target Owners
But now, as I often say, “things aren’t as bad as you think, they are far worse” because the Mexican drug cartels Jalisco New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel have gotten in the timeshare resale scam business. According to federal officials, they have scammed Americans and Canadians owning timeshares in Mexico whom they call by phone offering to sell their timeshare out of hundreds of millions of dollars over the last ten years. Most often they target elderly timeshare owners. Making the matter even worse, after the cartel scammers have scammed their victims out of money for sales that never occur, the scammers contact their victims posing as government agents who have become aware of the scams and offer to help get their money back. Of course, before doing so they require a payment which just adds to the losses of the scam victims.
Scam of the day – November 15, 2025 – Mystery Shopper Scams Continue to Snare Victims
In a Walmart themed mystery shopper scam, the targeted victim was sent a legitimate appearing, but counterfeit check for $2,940 and told to keep $540 as payment and then go to the nearest Walmart and use the remainder of the check to buy six $400 Kroger gift cards and provide the numbers to the scammer. The scam victim was then told to keep the gift cards for their next assignment although there never is another assignment and the scammers use the numbers on the Kroger gift cards to make purchases, making the actual cards worthless. The victim of the scam loses the $2,400 used to purchase the gift cards from the victim’s own bank account when the check bounces.
Scam of the day – November 14, 2025 – VA Scam Alert: How Veterans Can Spot Overpayment Fraud
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is warning veterans about scams in which veterans are being contacted by phone, email or text messages from scammers posing as VA representatives who tell the veterans that they were overpaid benefits and must return the funds immediately. The emails may contain the VA logo and phone calls and text messages may appear to come from the VA, but it is important to remember that the VA will never call, text or email a veteran if there had actually been an overpayment. Instead the veteran would get a formal letter from the VA explaining the amount claimed to be owed and the right of the veteran to appeal the determination or set up a payment plan.
Scam of the day – November 13, 2025 – IRS Phishing Email
Today’s Scam of the day is about a phishing email presently circulating that appears to come from the IRS informing you that you that there are issues with your income tax return that require you to download software to review your return to avoid penalties. Like so many scams, it attempts to convince you that there is an emergency that requires your immediate attention. However, if you click on the link, you will either download dangerous malware or be prompted to provide personal information that will lead to identity theft.
Scam of the day – November 12, 2025 – Fraud Recovery Scams
Scammers are targeting people who have already been the victim of scams posing as either investigators, government agencies or law firms telling the scam victims that they can can recover the funds lost in the original scam. They demand an upfront fee and then disappear. Scammers often keep detailed records of their victims and sell these lists, often referred to as “sucker lists” to other scammers on the Dark Web, that part of the Internet where scammers sell their goods and services. Scammers also get the names of scam victims through monitoring consumer complaint websites or social media. Some of these recovery scammers use AI to create believable websites or call centers.
Scam of the day – November 11, 2025 – Google Releases Emergency Chrome Update
Google recently issued an emergency Chrome update to respond to five critical security vulnerabilities. Chrome usually updates itself automatically, however Android updates depend on he device manufacturers and carriers so not all devices receive updates immediately or automatically so it is a good idea to check for the update and install if if it has not been done automatically. Here is how to do it:
Scam of the day – November 10, 2025 – Phony McAfee Invoice Phishing 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...
Scam of the day – November 9, 2025 – Small Business Data Breaches
While we are all familiar with the rash of data breaches at major companies such as Stellantis, TransUnion, Allianz Life, Workday, Pandora, Cisco, Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Farmers Insurance and Qantas. a recent study by the tech company Proton found that small businesses are primary targets of hackers. Companies with between 10 and 249 employees have accounted for 48% of data breaches so far in 2025 and companies with fewer than ten workers account for 23% of the data breaches this year. It is not surprising that small companies are largely targeted by hackers because these small companies have much sensitive data on their customers, but have smaller budgets to deal with cybersecurity and generally use fewer data protection resources.
Scam of the day – November 8, 2025 – How Scammers Hack Your Bank Account
While it may not seem like your bank account number and the routing number of your bank would be very important information to protect, armed with this information a scammer can steal your money in a variety of ways. They can use that information to purchase goods online. They can set up recurring payments, such as for utilities. They can create counterfeit checks to access your bank account and make checks payable to themselves.
Scam of the day – November 7, 2025 – Jury Duty Scams Continue to Snare Victims
Recently, the Kanawha County West Virginia Sheriff’s office issued a warning about an increase in jury duty scams in their area. In their warning they reminded the public that “no law enforcement office will ever request or accept payment over the phone to resolve a warrant or avoid arrest.”
Scam of the day – November 6, 2025 – Clever PayPal Phony Invoice Scam
However, in this new scam, you get a phony invoice that not only appears to come from PayPal, but actually does come from PayPal and a link in the email to “View and Pay Invoice” that actually would take you to PayPal and an active invoice. The email has a phone number for you to call if you have a question about the invoice and if you do call the phone number, a scammer will promptly answer the phone where you will be advised to download a remote administration tool that gives the scammer remote access to your computer purportedly to help find the problem, but in actuality what you will have done is give the scammer access to your computer and all of the passwords to all of your accounts.
Scam of the day – November 5, 2025 – Scammers Use AI to Pose as Police
The Salt Lake City Utah Police Department reported that scammers were sending out emails to people with a deepfake video that appeared to show Police Chief Mike Brown telling the person receiving the email that they “owed the federal government nearly $100,000” and extorted the targeted victim to make a payment to the scammer. Video and audio of the police chief was readily available for the scammers to create the deepfake. A similar deepfake voice cloning audio was done by scammers posing as Tulsa, Oklahoma police officer Eric Spradlin
Scam of the day – November 4, 2025 – Massive Email Data Breaches Disclosed
Recently the media has been filled with reports of millions of Gmail email addresses and passwords being compromised, however, compromise of this information was not, as some assumed, a result of lax security at Google. Rather the data breach relates to the cybersecurity company Synthient disclosing a dataset of 183 unique email addresses, passwords and the websites where those passwords were used including Gmail accounts that Synthient gathered from various dark web sites where cybercriminals buy and sell goods and services. This data was not the result of a single data breach, but a compilation of data from numerous data breaches made available on the dark web . Synthient has given the data to the website Have I Been Pwned which is a terrific, free website where you can go, put in your email address and learn about data breaches affecting you.
Scam of the day – November 3, 2025 – Washington DC Sues Bitcoin ATM Company
A report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates a 1,000 % increase in money lost to scammers through cryptocurrency ATMs in the last three years. Cryptocurrency ATMs look just like traditional ATMs, but instead of distributing cash, they take cash in exchange for cryptocurrency and enable the transfer of the deposited cash turned into cyptocurrency into crypto wallets. Due to the anonymity and immediacy of the cryptocurrency transfers done through a cryptocurrency ATM, it is a favorite method of payment for scammers.
Most of the scams using cryptocurrency ATMs involve imposter scams where the scammer poses as either a law enforcement officer, government official or someone providing tech support for a non-existent problem. What many of these imposter scams have in common is that they scare the targeted victim with a story about an emergency that requires them to take cash from their bank account and use a QR code provided by the scammer to deposit the money into the account of the scammer at a cryptocurrency ATM under the guise of protecting the funds. In other versions of the scams, victims are told they must make a payment through a cryptocurrency ATM to avoid prosecution for missing jury duty or some other pretense.
Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has recently filed a lawsuit against Athena Bitcoin which operates more than 4,000 Bitcoin ATMs in the United States. In the lawsuit, Schwab alleges that most of the deposits into Athena ATMs in Washington D.C. are done as part of a scam and that Athena profits considerably from these fraudulent deposits through fees of as much as 26% on each transaction.. Schwab further alleges that when fraud is discovered, Athena tells scam victims that none of the money they lost is recoverable even though Athena has kept 26% of those funds. Athena denies the allegations.
TIPS
Protecting yourself from these imposter scams that form the basis of cryptocurrency ATM scams starts with recognizing that you can never be sure who is actually contacting you when you are contacted by phone, email or text message so you should never click on a link, download an attachment or provide personal information in response to any of those communications unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication was legitimate. Further there is no circumstance where you will be asked by anyone legitimate to withdraw funds from your bank, deposit them into a cryptocurrency ATM and transfer the funds to them. Only scammers make those requests.
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Scam of the day – November 2, 2025 – Is the American Community Survey a Scam?
So how can you tell if you are being contacted and solicited for information by a legitimate census worker or by a scammer merely using the American Community Survey as a ruse to gather personal information from you in order to make you a victim of identity theft? First of all, the real American Community Survey does not ask for your Social Security number or credit card information. If you are asked for that information, it is a scam.
Scam of the day – November 1, 2025 – Hurricane Melissa Scams
Charities are not subject to the federal Do Not Call List so even if you are signed up for the federal Do Not Call List, legitimate charities are able to contact you by phone. The problem is that whenever you are get a phone call, you can never be sure as to who is really calling you so you may be contacted either by a fake charity or a scammer posing as a legitimate charity. Using a technique called spoofing, the scammers can manipulate your Caller ID to make it appear that the call is coming from a legitimate charity when it is not. Similarly, when you are solicited for a charitable contribution by email or text message you cannot be sure as to whether the person contacting you is legitimate or not.
Scam of the day – October 31, 2025 – 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 – October 30, 2025 – Copy of Your Deed Scam
Having an actual copy of your deed is not very important once it has been recorded in the local Registry of Deeds, however it is still a good record to keep. However, obtaining a copy of your deed on your own from your local Registry of Deeds is both simple and rarely costs more than a few dollars at the most. The problem with this particular scam is that technically, it may be legal in the sense that they are offering to obtain a copy of your deed for you for a fee and there is nothing illegal about that. However, the emails and letters you receive offering this service are usually confusing and misleading which is why I consider them to be a scam.
Scam of the day – October 29, 2025 – New Sophisticated PayPal Scam
This new scam starts with an email, reproduced below that apears to come from a legitimate PayPal email address. Often scammers use botnets of infected computers to send out such phishing emails so that the email address of the sender clearly shows it is not coming from the real company the scammer is posing as. However, in this instance the scammers use special software programs that allow them to “spoof” a legitimate PayPal email address even though the phishing email is not coming from PayPal. The subject line indicates “Set up your account Profile” while the email itself refers to a charge that you have not made. Often PayPal phishing scams provide fake links and telephone numbers to use to dispute phony claims with the intention of gathring information from you to facilitate access to your account.
Scam of the day – October 28, 2025 – Another Major Health Care Data Breach
An analysis of the health care breach data base maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services done by Security Week indicated that in 2024 there were 720 data breaches affecting as many as 186 million people. And just this week we learned of a data breach at medcial imaging provider Simon Med Imaging that compromised the data of 1.2 million people. While the data breach was only disclosed this past week, the hacking occured between January 21st and February 5th of this year. SimonMed has not indicated precisely what information was taken other than the names of its patients, but it is thought to have included much sensitive informaiton that could result in identity theft. The Medusa ransomware gang announced on its Dark Web portal in February that it had hacked SimonMed Imaging and leaked some of hte stolen data as proof of their claim. At that time Medusa demanded a million dollar ransom payment. While the company has not confirmed any payment, the fact that Medusa no longer lists the data breach on its site is a good indication that the ransom was paid.
Scam of the day – October 27, 2025 – Phony Sirius XM Invoice Scam
The copied email below was provided by a longtime Scamicide reader attempts to lure you into clicking on a link in order to renew an expired satellite radio Sirius XM account for free which right away should be a red flag that this is a scam. As always, the purpose of a phishing email is to lure you into clicking on links contained within the email or providing personal information. If you click on links in phishing emails, you end up either downloading malware or providing information used to make you a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – October 26, 2025 – Gas Pump Skimmers Continue to be a Problem
MasterCard and Visa announced in December of 2016 that the deadline for the installation of EMV chip card readers on gas pumps was being delayed three years to October 1, 2020. This deadline was further delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic to April 17, 2021 at which time less than half of the gas pumps in the United States complied with the requirement to install EMV chip card readers. And although that deadline has long since passed, due to the cost involved, many gas pumps still are not enabled for your chip credit card. It has been estimated that about 40% of gas pumps still have not been updated with EMV chip card readers, leaving them susceptible to skimmers.