Search Scams
Scam of the day – September 13, 2025 – AI Makes Customer Service Number Scams Worse
Now scammers are manipulating AI to have their phony customer service numbers appear in Google’s AI Overviews and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. People unfortunately believe that AI is totally trusfworthy and call those numbers only to be scammed. AI harvests its information from the Internet and savvy scammers will insert their phony customer service number on online review sites, message boards and numerous websites. The more places the phony numbers appear, the more likely AI will pick them up and suggest them to you when you do an AI search.
Scam of the day – September 12, 2025 – New Twist on QR Code Scams
However, in the new QR code version of brushing, the targeted victim receives a package containing unordered merchandise without any sender information, but with a QR code that unwary victims will scan and either unwittingly download malware that can steal sensitive information from your cell phone or take you to a website where you are prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identiyt theft.
Scam of the day – September 11, 2025 – “Kind” Can be a Dangerous Word
when the word “kindly” appears in an email or text message that you receive, it can be a tip off that you are being contacted by a scammer or identity thief based in a country other than the United States, particularly countries that were once part of the British Empire where they have adopted the use of British speech patterns. According to Tim Bajarin, the chairman of the market research company Creative Strategies in an interview with Reader’s Digest, ‘You’ll often hear it used in countries with British influence, perhaps once a colonial country, where English isn’t their mother tongue.” Nigeria, for instance, a hub of international scams was a British colony from 1900 until 1960 and the British influence is still strong there.
Scam of the day – September 10, 2025 – Not All Nigerian Email Scams Come From Nigeria
Today’s Scam of the day comes from a regular Scamicide reader and is another version of the Nigerian email scam that continues to plague the online community. In the most common versions of this scam circulating on the Internet today, you are promised great sums of money if you assist a Nigerian or someone elsewhere in his effort to transfer money out of his country. While we refer to this type of scam as the Nigerian Email Scam, as indicated in the email below, not all versions of this scam have a connection to Nigeria.
Scam of the day – September 9, 2025 – 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 Thing 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 – September 8, 2025 – Comcast 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 Xfinity logo, however it is a simple matter to counterfeit a company logo. Comcast uses the Xfinity name for its consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services. There are a number of telltale flaws in this particular phishing email. The email address from which it is sent has no relation to Comcast. In addition, the email contains grammatical errors in the second sentence. Poor grammar is often found in phishing emails, many of which originate in country’s where English is not the primary language although more sophisticated non-English speaking scammers are able to use AI to make their grammar correct.
Scam of the day – September 7, 2025 – Mavis Wanczyk Scams Continue to Claim Victims
Many of you may not remember the name of Mavis Wanczyk, but she was the lucky winner of a 758 million dollar Powerball drawing in 2017. Not long after she claimed her prize, a scam started appearing in which many people received emails with the message line referring to the Mavis Wanczyk Cash Grant. The email indicated that you were chosen to receive a large cash grant from Mavis Wanczyk. All the lucky strangers receiving the emails had to do was provide personal information in order to qualify for the grant. In addition, phony social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were also set up in Ms. Wanczyk’s name through which people were contacted with the same phony offer of free money informing them that in order to qualify for the grant they merely needed to provide personal information.
Scam of the day – September 6, 2025 – The Danger of E-Skimming
Chip card technology, however, offers no protection when credit and debit cards are used for online purchases. The FBI has warned about what it calls E-Skimming which occurs when criminals infect the websites of businesses and government agencies with malware that allows the criminal to steal credit card and debit card information and then use it to make charges using the victim’s credit card or debit card.
Scam of the day – September 5, 2025 – Covid-19 Scam Targeting College Students
The Fall college semester has just started and scammers are revisiting a scam first seen during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in which the scammers send out emails similar to the one shown below to college students claiming to come from the Financial Aid office of the targeted student’s college or university telling them that they are eligible for an economic stimulus check. The targeted victims are instructed to click on a link which then prompts them to log in to their college or university account in order to initiate the process to receive the check that will never come. The problem is that when a student logs in, he or she is not logging into their college or university account, but merely providing their log in credentials to scammers who can use that information to make the student a victim or identity theft or to perpetrate other scams.
Scam of the day – September 4, 2025 – Federal Express Phishing Scam
If you receive on any email from a company that asks you to click on a link, you should hesitate to do so, particularly if it appears bogus as this one does. Never click on any link in an email or text message until you have confirmed that it is legitimate. Also, although it is important to have security software on all of your electronic devices, you can’t totally rely on your security software to protect you from the latest forms of zero-day defect malware for which there has not yet been issued a security update. If you have the slightest thought an email or text message asking you to click on a link may be legitimate, rather than click on the link, go to the website of the company, which in this case is http://www.fedex.com or call them directly at 1-800-463-3339.
Scam of the day – September 3, 2025 – Scammer Posing as General Hospital Star Scams Woman in Romance Scam
Recently Abigail Ruvalcaba of Los Angeles was scammed out of her life savings by a scammer who used deepfake technology to pose as General Hospital actor Steve Burton and professed his love for her through the deepfaked videos and then lured her into sending him funds through Zelle, Bitcoin and gift cards. She met the scammer and communicated with him on Facebook. Scammers often will set up phony accounts on Facebook and other social media where they pose as celebrities.
Scam of the day – September 2, 2025 – Police Officer Thwarts Tech Support Scam
The most common tech support scams start with popups on your computer that provide notices of security problems that contain telephone numbers for you to call to fix the problem, Whenever you get a pop-up, email, or text message that appears to tell you that you have a security problem with your computer, you should never click on any links contained in the message or call the telephone number provided. Tech support scams also are perpetrated through phone calls in which you are told that there is a problem with your computer and you need to make a payment to remedy the problem. This is exactly what happened to a man in Waltham, Massachusetts who received such a phone call purportedly from Apple Customer Support telling him that his computer was infected with a virus and he needed to send $12,000 through a cryptocurrency ATM to pay for the cost of remedying the problem.
Scam of the day – September 1, 2025 – Scammer Poses as Country Music Rapper Jelly Roll on Facebook
Recently, Ronnie Flint of Springfield, Ohio got a message on the Messenger App of Facebook that appeared to come from country music rapper Jelly Roll informing Flint that he had won a new car in a lottery. He then received a video which appeared to show Jelly Roll informing him that to claim his prize he needed to send money to pay for shipping costs for the car. This was followed up another video in which Jelly Roll told Flint by name that he needed to send the money through Apple gift cards. Flint who is on disability was convinced and sent the money. Unfortunately, this was an AI created video sent from a phony Jelly Roll Facebook acount and the money was lost forever. This scam is being done throughout the country including in Morrisville, Pennsylvania earlier this summer.
Scam of the day – August 31, 2025 – Back to School Shopping Scams
The new school year is just around the corner and school shopping is in high gear for many parents and students. Much of back to school shopping, like other shopping, is done online and people are constantly looking for bargains from trusted companies such as Walmart...
Steve Weisman Forbes Column on Tech Support Scams
Here is a link to an important column I wrote about tech support scams which I urge you to read.
Scam of the day – August 30, 2025 – Credit Reporting Bureau TransUnion Data Breach Affects 13 Million People
Credit reporting agency TransUnion is the latest company to be a victim of a data breach in which sensitive personal information including names, addresses, email addresses phone numbers birth dates and, most troubling, Social Security numbers of more than 13 million people was compromised. Similar to recent data breaches at Google, Farmers Insurance, Allianz Life, Woprkday, Pandora, Cisco, Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Qantas,the data was stolen not from TransUnion’s computer networks, but rather from Salesforce, a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) company used by TransUnion and many other companies to manage their customer data. The ransomware gang ShinyHunters managed to do this not by hacking Salesforce, but rather by using social engineering to trick TransUnion employees to enable access to the company’s Salesforce account containing its customer data.
Scam of the day – August 29, 2025 – Georgia Woman Loses $2,650 to Mystery Shopper Scam
Recently a Georgia woman lost $2,650 when she responded to a letter sending her a check for $2,650 with an offer to become a mystery shopper. All she had to do was purchase $2,000 worth of gift cards and provide the numbers to the phony mystery shopper company, keeping $650 as her fee for acting as a mystery shopper. Of course, it was a scam and she learned too late that the check sent her was a counterfeit and her own money that she used to purchase the gift cards was gone forever. These scams continue to be effective and are increasing in number so it is important to remind you about them again. Mystery shoppers are people hired to shop at a particular store and report on the shopping experience for purposes of quality control. Unlike many scams, there actually are legitimate mystery shopper companies, but they never advertise or recruit through emails, text messages or letters.
Scam of the day – August 28, 2025 – Australian Bank Launches New App to Prevent Text Message Scams
Phony text messaging, called smishing, which purport to be from your bank is a scam about which I have been warning you for years, but is a scam that has dramatically increased recently. Scammers pose as your bank and send text messages informing you of an emergency such as a major charge has been made to your account and providing you with a link to click on to dispute the charge. If you click on the link you will be taken to a website that appears to be a legitimate website of TD Bank which prompts you to provide your user name and passwword. Unfortunately, if you do so you will be providing the scammer with full access to your bank account. Now Australia’s Commowealth Banks has launched a new app powered by AI that allows you to send a screenshot of the message to the app which will then inform you if it is a scam.
Scam of the day – August 27, 2025 – Scammers Love WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal
One way to recognize a scam is when you start communication with someone on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram or even through email and they want to move your discussions to WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal which are all legitimate encrypted messaging platforms, but are favorites of scammers because they are encrypted and not monitored as well a other social media where the platforms may be using AI for scam detection.
Scam of the day – August 26, 2025 – Embarrasingly Bad Nigerian Email Scam
Today’s Scam of the day comes from a regular Scamicide reader and is another version of the Nigerian email scam that continues to plague the online community. In the most common versions of this scam circulating on the Internet today, you are promised great sums of money if you assist a Nigerian or someone elsewhere in his effort to transfer money out of his country. While we refer to this type of scam as the Nigerian Email Scam, as indicated in the email below, not all versions of this scam have a connection to Nigeria as indicated in the email copied below.
Scam of the day – August 25, 2025 – Scattered Spider Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison
Regular readers of Scamicide are familiar with Scattered Spider which is the name of a hacking group largely made up of teens and young men in their twentys in the United States and the UK who have managed, primarily through social engineering rather than sophisticated technologically based hacking to perpetrate massive ransomware attacks against companies such as Caesars Entertainment and MGM resorts. Last week, Noah Michael Urban, a 20 year old Floridian became the first member of Scattered Spider to be convicted and sentenced for his crimes related to a variety of crimes including, most notably stealing more than $13 million of crytocurrencies from at least 59 victims. Along with financial penalties, he was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison, which is most notable since the prosecutors had only requested an 8 year prison sentence.
Scam of the day – August 24, 2025 – The Hidden Danger of Drive By Downloads
We all generally know to avoid sketchy websites that may be infected with malware that can lead to serious problems if you unwittingly download the malware such as ransomware, keystroke logging malware that can lead to identity theft or other types of malware. However, even if you make a concerted effort to avoid websites that may be likely to contain malware, you still may find yourself in danger. According to a study by Menlo Security 42% of the most visited websites on the Internet were vulnerable to malware being planted on these thought-to-be safe websites.
Scam of the day – August 23, 2025 – Google Forms Scam
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, acciesible 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 y 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 22, 2025 – Magazine Interview Scam
A new scam presently circulating starts wiwth an email with a subject line of “Formal Interview Invitation” with the email being a request for an interview from a writer purportedly doing a story about a mentor of the person receiving the email. The email indicated that the mentor had suggested the person getting the email as a good source for the article. The email contained many questions that were to be included in the proposed interview for which the person receiving the email would get a $1,200 “honorarium” for participating in the interview either by phone or Zoom.
Scam of the day – August 21, 2025 – AI Investment Scams
And this leads us to Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s capabilities are constantly being touted in news stories and online posts. Scammers are always alert to whatever is capturing the interest of the public and, in this case, scammers are contacting people falsely claiming they have developed AI programs that can make investment decisions guaranteed to make large profits. In particular, the scammers are tying their AI claims to investments involving cryptocurrencies which many people invest in, but don’t fully understand which is a dangerous combination.
Scam of the day – August 20, 2025 – Bogus DeepNude Generator Scam
The Russian cybercrime gang FIN7 which has also been known as Carbanak has created seven websites that advertise what they refer to as a “DeepNude Generator” which provides artificial intelligence deepfake technology to enable anyone using their site to create deepfake nude photos and videos. People either downloading the software of signing up for a free trial end up downloading various forms of malware including ransomware. FIN7 has also used their technical expertise to manipulate the algorithms used by search engines to enable them to get a prominent listing in searches for porn sites.
Scam of the day – August 19, 2025 – Phony Norton Invoice Scam
Recently, a loyal Scamicide reader sent me a phony Norton invoice she received similar to many I have seen in the past. Norton is a company that provides a wide range of digital security services and identity theft protection services. As always, the purpose of a phishing email is to lure you into clicking on links contained within the email or providing personal information, in this case by phone if you call to dispute the phony bill . If you click on links in phishing emails, you end up downloading malware and if you provide the requested information, it ends up being used to make you a victim of identity theft. This particular phishing email provides a phone number to call if you wish to dispute the obviously phony invoice. If you call the number in the phishing email you will be asked for personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft. The phone number is not that of Norton customer service The real phone number of Norton customer service is the toll free number 1 (855) 815-2726. The number in the phony invoice is not a toll free number.
Scam of the day – August 18, 2025 – New Twist on the Jury Duty Scam
Now in a new twist on this scam the caller directs you to a phony website that appears to be a legitimate government website (you can thank AI for that) where you are prompted to insert your birthdate and Social Security number for identification purposes. The website then prompts you to either pay the fine on the site or sends you to a cryptocurrency ATM to make the payment.
Scam of the day – August 17, 2025 – Landline Identity Theft
A new scam that takes advantage of old technology is landline identity theft which has rececently been used by scammers to hack into someone’s bank account without knowing the password for the account. Many people no longer use landlines, but may not have ntoiced that an old landline number of theirs is still tied for security purposes to their bank account. Scammers will contact the phone company posing as the consumer to have their landline number moved to the cell phone of the scammer. The scammer then asks the bank to change his password whereupon the bank using its security protocol sends a verification code to the old landline phone number now controlled by the scammer which enables the scammer to then change the password and access the victim’s bank account.
Scam of the day – August 16, 2025 – New York AG Sues Zelle For Enabling Fraud
New York Attorney General Letitia James is not afraid of bringing legal actions against powerful corporations that put profit over the security of their customers. In the Scam of the day for February 4, 2024 I told you about the lawsuit she brought against Citibank for failing to protect its customers from scams. Now she is taking on Zelle, the sevice created by major banks in 2017 that enables people to quickly and easily send money from their bank accounts to other Zelle platform users. Unfortunately, as I have often reported to you, Zelle has been a favorite method for scammers to lure their victims into paying them through a variety of scams. According to Attorney General James, Zelle lacks important verification steps that would help prevent fraud such that scammers cn sign up for Zelle using misleading email addresses that make them appear to be legitimate businesses or government agencies. In the lawsuit, James points out the exmple of someone posing as a Con Edison employee threatening to turn off electricity unless money was sent by Zelle to the scammer who was able to use the name “Coned Billing” for the account.
Scam of the day – August 15, 2025 – Thirteen Men Charged With Transnational Grandparent Scam
This week Oscar Manuel Castanos Garcia of the Dominican Republic was charged with masterminding a sophisticated call center operation in the Dominican Republic that would target elderly people in the United States through the grandparent scam. Twelve other participants in the scam were also charged. The scammers working through a call center in the Dominican Republic would call elderly people in the United States posing as their grandchild who had gotten arrested and needed bail money. The scammers would first call posing as the grandchild and then a follow up call would be made by another scammer posing as the grandchild’s lawyer demanding money to pay for bail and legal expenses. The scammers then sent Uber drivers to the homes of the elderly victims to pick up the cash. None of the Uber driver were aware that they were being used for the scam, however, a suspicious Uber driver recognized it was a scam and reported it to the FBI which led to the arrests. According to prosecutors, the scammer stole more than $5 million from 400 victims.
Scam of the day – August 14, 2025 – Vikings Linebacker Loses $240,000 to Bank 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. Last month, Minnesota Vikings linebacker Dallas Turner fell prey to an imposter scam where he received a phone all from a scammer posing as an employee of Chase, his bank informing him that someone had tried to access his bank account and that in order to protect his money he needed to wire it to two different accounts at two different Chase banks, which Turner did before he realized after speaking with a family member that he had been scammed.
Scam of the day – August 13, 2025 – Massive Data Breach at Kidney Dialysis Company DaVita
The healthcare industry has long been a prime target for hackers and ransomware gangs due to a combination of factors including the vast amounts of valuable personal information healthcare companies hold and their increased vulnerability to attack due to so many companies including doctors, insurance companies and labs sharing data and access with each other making major health care providers as vulnerable as the third parties with the weakest security with which they share access and data. The latest data breach was of DaVita, one of the country’s largest providers of kidney dialysis. Names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers and more of 900,000 patients of DaVita was stolen leaving these people in serious danger of identity theft.
Scam of the day – August 12, 2025 – Columbia University Data Breach Exposes Security Flaws
Columbia University recently disclosed that it had suffered a data breach in May that was only discovered in June, but not disclosed until last week. According to public filings 868,969 people had their personal information compromised. The compromised information included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and much more information that can readily lead to identity theft. If the number of people affected seems high considering the fact that Columbia only employs approximately 20,000 people and has an enrollment of approximately 35,000 students, this discrepancy is due to the fact that Columbia kept such personal information on both current and former students as well as applicants including people who never got accepted or attended Columbia.
Scam of the day – August 11, 2025 – Amazon Refund Scam
The most recent Amazon phishing scam involves an email or a text message that appears to come from Amazon telling you that a product you recently bought has failed a routine quality inspection and therefore it is being recalled. You are further told that you do not have to even return the item and that you are eligible for a full refund. In order to claim your refund, you are instructed to click on a link in the email or text message which takes you to a phony Amazon login or refund page that asks for you Amazon credentials, payment information and personal details. Of course, there is no refund and if you supply the information you will enable the scammer to take over your Amazon account as well as make you a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – August 10, 2025 – Pandora Data Breach Part of Bigger Problem
Danish jewelry chain Pandora which has 2,700 locations worldwide announced recently that it had suffered a data breach in which personal information of approximately 30,000 people was compromised. The compromised information included names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses and birth dates which although troubling is not as bad as data breaches where financial information or passwords are compromised. The data was stolen not from Pandora’s computer networks, but rather from Salesforce, a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) company used by Pandora and many other companies to manage their customer data. The cybercriminals managed to do this not by hacking Salesforce, but rather by using social engineering to trick Pandora employees to enabling access to the company’s Salesforce account containing its customer data. The cybercriminals in this case is a ransomware gang known as ShinyHunters who have used similar socially engineered attacks to gain access to the data of Alianz , Qantas, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany among other companies.
Scam of the day – August 9, 2025 – FBI Warns About Cryptocurrency Recovery Scams
According to the FBI, Americans lost more than 9.3 billion dollars to cryptocurrency investment scams in 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 8, 2025 – How Big a Problem is Property Title Theft?
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...
Scam of the day – August 7, 2025 – Prudential Settles Class Action Over Data Breach
Prudential Financial which is a major financial services company has settled a class action brought against it by its customers whose personal information was compromised in a data breach that occurred on February 4, 2024. The data breach affected 2.5 million of Prudential Financial’s customers. The compromised sensitive personal information included names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers and physical addresses which put the victims of the data breach in serious danger of identity theft. The class action claimed that Prudntial Financial could have prevented the data breach by using reasonable cybersecurity measures and this claim seems understandable when you consider that Prudential Financial had suffered a similar major data breach less than a year earlier.
Scam of the Day – August 6, 2025 – Romance Scammer Accused of Stealing Millions
Recently Christopher Earl Lloyd of Whittier, California was arrested and charged with crimes related to using the dating apps Tinder, Hinge and Bumble as well as other websites for romance scam purposes through which federal prosecutors say he stole 2 million dollars from his victims after falsely telling his victims that he was a successful financial manager and that he could provide substantial returns on money they would invest with him. All of it, prosecutors say, was a lie and that he merely used the money for his own personal expenses.
Scam of the day – August 5, 2025 – FBI Issues Warning About Imposter Scams
Recently the FBI field Office for South Carolina isued a warning about scammers posing as FBI agents calling their intended victims on the phone and telling them that they have missed federal jury duty or have an outstanding arrest warrant against them. The victim of the scam is told to expect a second phone call from another purported federal agent. In the second call, the vicitm is told to withdraw large sums of money and convert it to cryptocurrency at a cryptocurrency ATM and to send it through the ATM to the supposed account of the FBI. In another variation of this scam, the victims receive phony text messages purportedly from the FBI with links to documents that appear to come from the FBI, the federal district court or even the United States Supreme Court making the demands for payment.
Scam of the day – August 4, 2025 – TRAPS ACT Legislation Proposed to Combat Scams
It is rare in today’s political climate to find something that Republicans and Democrats agree upon so it is heartening to see the recent introduction in the U.S. Senate of the TRAPS Act, which is an acronym for Taskforce for Recognizing and Averting Payment scams. The legislation was sponsored by Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho. and co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas and Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. If enacted into law the Act would create a new federal task force led by the Treasury Department and including members from eight other federal agencies and departments including the Consumer Financial Protectioin Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.
Scam of the day – August 3, 2025 – Frequent Flier Miles Theft Increasing
Recently there has been a dramatic increase in the stealing of frequent flier miles from the accounts of unsuspecting airline customers who participate in the various airline frequent flier programs. The reasons for this is because this kind of theft is easy to accomplish, easy to avoid detection and quite profitable. Hackers often take advantage of the fact that many people use the same username and password for many accounts. With so many usernames and passwords available to identity thieves due to the many data breaches that have become common occurrences,
Scam of the day – August 2, 2025 – AI as a Tool to Combat Scams
For the last few years I have told you about numerous instances where artificial intelligence (AI) has been used by scammers to make their scams more believeable. Romance scams, celebrity imposter scams, phishing email scams, business email compromise scams and...
Scam of the day – August 1, 2025 – New Louisiana Law Protects Victims From Cryptocurrency ATM Scams
Meanwhile, beginning today, Louisiana has a new law that regulates cryptocurrency ATMs in that state limiting the daily transaction abmount to $3,000 and requiring a 72 hour hold on all transfers with the ability to cancel transactions. This is particularly helpful for people acting quickly and emotionally to the threat posed by a scammer and then realizing they had been scammed. The Louisiana law also requies the posting at all aTMS of a warning that no governmen official will ever request a payment through a cryptocurrency ATM.
Scam of the day – July 31, 2025 – Denver Pastor Indicted on Cryptocurrency Scam
In the Scam of the day for February 4, 2024 I told you about fraud charges brought by the Colorado Division of Securities against Colorado Pastor Eli Regalado and his wife who created a cryptocurrency called INDXcoin and sold it to members of his church and other churchgoers in the Denver area through a cryptocurrency marketplace that he created and controlled. He announced he was selling the cryptocurrency on YouTube telling people that God told him to do this and that God said it was a safe and profitable investment. It wasn’t. More than a million dollars of investors money went to fund the pastor’s and his wife’s extravagant lifestyle and, according to the Colorado Division of Securities, INDXcoin is worthless. Eligio Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn Regalado were tried in a bench trial before a judge in May, however, the judge has not yet issued a ruling on the civil charges. Meanwhile, the two Realados were indicted this week on forty criminal charges related to the same scam.
Scam of the day – July 30, 2025 – Real Estate Influencer Indicted for Ponzi Scheme
New Jersey real estate influencer and investor Cesar Humberto Pina, also known as “Flipping NJ” was recently charged with wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme in which he promised investors returns of 20% to 45% in five months for investing in his purported real estate flipping business. As anyone who watches HGTV knows, flipping houses involves buying houses, quickly updating them and then reselling them at a substantial profit. According to US Attorney Alina Habba, Pina used his social media influence and seminars throughout the country to promote the scam in which rather than use the money invested to purchase, renovate and resell the properties, he is accused of using the funds for his own personal purposes and paying earlier investors with money from later investors, the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. According to US Attorney Habba, Pina stole millions from unwary investors
Scam of the day – July 29, 2025 – Target Sued Over Gift Card Scams Part 2
In yesterday's Scam of the Day I told you about a lawsuit filed against Target by four victims of the impersonator scam where scammers posed as government agents such as IRS agents and convinced their victims to purchase Target gift cards to send to them to resolve...
Scam of the day – July 28, 2025 – Target Sued Over Gift Card Scams Part 1
In an interesting development, the FTC noted that Target gift cards were the most popular choice for scammers with scammers asking specifically for Target gift cards in twice as many instances as the next most popular gift card and even when the gift card requested by the scammers was not a Target gift card, the scammers asked their victims to purchase the particular gift cards at a Target store. Recently four victims of the impersonator scam In Pennsylvania sued Target alleging that Target failed to use its own security algorithms and real-time tracking software to prevent these scams. The plaintiffs further allege that Target benefited financially from these scams and did not take proper steps to stop it.
Scam of the day – July 27, 2025 – Massive Data Breach at Allianz Life
The most recent data breach involves Allianz Life, a major insurance company. Yesterday they confirmed that they suffered a data breach on July 16th due to a supply chain attack, which is when the cybercriminals target a company used by their real target to steal information. In this case the cybercriminals were able to access a database of personal information of a majority its customers, financial professionals and Allianz employees. In the United States alone, Alianz Life has 1.4 million customers. Like many recent data breaches, this was not a result of a sophisticated computer hacking, but rather done through social engineering which occurs when the cybercriminals contact a targeted company and pose as employees and convince helpdesks at targeted companies to provide computer access to the cybercriminals. The massive data breaches done by the group Scattered Spider in recent years have been effectively done through social engineering.