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Scam of the day – July 26, 2025 – The Danger of Synthetic Identity Theft
Synthetic identity theft poses a significant threat to many people particularly children. Synthetic identity theft occurs when a criminal takes information from a variety of sources to create a new identity to take out loans, purchase goods and services, or fraudulently obtain credit cards. Synthetic identity thieves combine real and fake information to form a new fictional person. They may use your Social Security number and combine it with the name, address and phone number of someone else. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said that synthetic identity theft is the fastest growing type of identity theft. Children are the most common victims of synthetic identity theft and it is often many years before the problem is discovered.
Scam of the day – July 25, 2025 – Amazon Phishing Email
This particular phishing email is very sophisticated, having a legitimate appearing Amazon logo, however, it is very simple to counterfeit a legitimate appearing logo. Often a telltale sign that the email is a part of a scam is that the email address of the sender has absolutely nothing to do with Amazon and that was the situation in this case. The email address from which it was sent appears to be a part of a botnet of hacked email addresses used to send phishing emails. All legitimate Amazon emails end in amazon.com. In addition, if you hovered your mouse over the link provided you would see that where it would send you had no relation to Amazon. Additionally, the email is not addressed to me by name, but rather just my email address which is another indication that this is a scam.
Scam of the day – July 24, 2025 – Overpayment Scam
An example of the overpayment scam occurred when a British Columbia wedding photographer was scammed out of $4,600 through this scam. The scam began when the photographer was contacted by someone seeking to hire the photographer to take pictures at his daughter’s wedding. The photographer, Esther Moerman asked for a $700 deposit, but ended up receiving a check in the amount of $5,500. When Moerman reported to the scammer that the amount sent was incorrect, the scammer told Moerman that it was an accounting error and that the excess funds were supposed to pay for catering. The scammer then asked Moerman to wire the money to the caterer, which Moerman did. As you can guess, the scammers check was counterfeit and bounced even though Moerman’s bank initially gave her provisional credit which led her to believe that the check was valid. Once the check was found to be counterfeit, the provisional credit was removed from Moerman’s account, however, the money she wired to the phony caterer from her account was lost forever.
Scam of the day – July 23, 2025 – Justice Department Charges Two With Forex Trading Pyramid and Ponzi Scheme
Many people are probably not familiar with forex trading. Forex trading is the name for the very speculative investing in trading foreign currencies. It definitely is not an investment for inexperienced investors and while it certainly is legal, there have been many scammers who use forex trading as a hook to scam people. Recently, Michael Shannon Sims and Juan Carlos Reynoso were charged with wire fraud and money laundering related to the activities of theri company OmegaPro. According to their indictment, Sims and Reynoso operated OmegaPro between 2019 and 2023 posing as a legitimate investment platform in which they promised their investors returns of up to 300% in 16 months through forex trading done by “elite traders” according to Sims and Reynoso. Ultimately, according to the Justice Department, Sims and Reynoso swindled their victims out of more than 650 million dollars.
Scam of the day – July 22, 2025 – VA Imposter Scams
Recently the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning about scammers posing as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contacting veterans and telling them that they owe money due to an overpayment of benefits. The emails and letters used by the scammers often appear to be legitiamte with official seals and logos, but these are easy to counterfeit.
Scam of the day – July 21, 2025 – HR Department Vacation Scam
One new scam involves your getting an email that appears to come from your employer’s HR Department luring you to click on a link to submit your request for vacation time. Clicking on the link can either cause you to download dangerous malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft or luring you into providing your online credentials at work in order to get access to your company’s computers and data.
Scam of the day – July 20, 2025 – George Strait Fundraiser Scam
Among the people stepping up to help the victims of the floods in Texas is country music legend George Strait who is putting on a concert on July 27th to benefit the victims of the floods. However, scammers have posted phony advertising for the concert on Facebook with an email address extremely close to the real email address for obtaining tickets which tricked a couple into sending $10,000 for four tickets to the concert to the scammers. For information about tickets to the real concert use this link. https://www.georgestrait.com/news/
Scam of the day – July 19, 2025 – What to do if Your Email is Hacked
As I often tell you, you can never be sure who is actually calling you on the phone, sending you a text message or sending you an email. Therefore you should never give personal information, credit card information, gift card information or wire money in response to such a communication unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate. Gift cards and wiring money are two of the favorite ways that people are scammed so when you are asked to provide either of those, you should always be skeptical. Nor, as I always advise you, should you click on a link in an email or text message unless you have confirmed that the communication is legitimate. The risk of downloading malware by clicking on an infected link is too great.
Scam of the day – July 18, 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 – July 17, 2025 – Free Piano Scam
Cybersecurity company Proofpoint discovered a scam in which people are receiving emails offering a free piano which is available often purportedly due to a death in the family. The scam has largely targeted students and professors at colleges and universities. Often in the email, the scammer poses a someone from the same college or university as that of the targeted victim. According to Proofpoint they have identified about 125,000 of these emails sent since the beginning of the year. In order to receive the free piano, all the targeted victim has to do is contact the moving company that presently has the piano to arrange for delivery. Delivery options in some of the emails have ranged from two day delivery for $915 to ten day delivery for $595. However, in order to have the delivery made, the targeted scam victim is required to pay the moving company in full for the cost of delivery.
Scam of the day – July 16, 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 are eligible to receive a tax refund of $825.71.” The email has a pdf attachment that appears to be on IRS stationary and, unlike many of these types of emails in the past, is grammatically correct, most likely due to the use of AI in creating the phony letter. It provides a link for you to copmplete in order to receive your refund, but if you click on the link you risk downloading malware or providing personal information that will lead to identity theft.
Scam of the day – July 15, 2025 – Car Wrap Scam
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report about the prevalence of scams that are initiated through text messages and among the top five in the FTC’s list was car wrap scams. In a previous Scam of the day, I told you about Caitlin Driscoll of Pennsylvania who received a text message offering her $400 a week to wrap her car with a decal for Cadbury the candy maker. It was a scam, but because Ms. Driscoll works for the Better Business Bureau she recognized it as a scam immediately. In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning about scammers posing as employees of Marlboro or Purell in emails and on social media seeking people to advertise their company through car wraps.
Scam of the day – July 14, 2025 – FTC “Agents” Aren’t Calling You
Recently the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning about an imposter scam that starts with a phone call that appears to come from your bank, Amazon or a tech company telling you about an urgent problem with your account and that your money is in jeopardy. They then transfer you to someone they refer to as an FTC “agent” to help resolve the non-existent problem. The phony FTC agent even ha a fake ID with a fake badge to confirm that they are legitimate. They then convince you that unless you temporarily transfer money out of your bank account, you are in danger of losing your entire account. They then provide you with an account to which you need to immediately transfer your funds. Unfortunately, if you do transfer the funds as directed, you lose your entire bank account.
Scam of the day – July 13, 2025 – Geek Squad Renewal Invoice Scam
Geek Squad is a subsidiary of big box store chain Best Buy and it offers excellent tech support for electronic devices including televisions and computers. They are a popular company used by many people. Lately, scammers have been sending phishing emails that appear to be Geek Squad invoices.These types of phishing emails are intended to lure you into contacting the scammers where you will be prompted to provide information that will lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – July 12, 2025 – Scammers Exploiting YouTube
Scammers send phishing emails to YouTube creators proposing phony collaboration opportunities and then send malware infected links to them. Scammers also lure people into clicking on video descriptions that have been infected with malicious links and trick them into downloading the malware. In other instances the scammers even hack entire YouTube channels and use them to spread a wide variety of scams, such as cryptocurrency scams which appear on YouTube in large number.
Scam of the day – July 11, 2025 – Injured Pet Scam
The Federal Trade Commission is warning people about a new scam in which pet owners are receiving calls or text messages purportedly from the local SPCA or another animal shelter telling them that their car or dog was hit by a car and that an immediate payment of $500 is needed to pay for immediate emergency care. This is an easy scam to recognize if you are home when you receive the call or text and your pet is healthy and with you. However, a loving pet owner who is away from his or her pet may fall prey to the emotional appeal and make the payment which the scammers often demand be by gift card, Zelle, Venmo or cryptocurrency.
Scam of the day – July 10, 2025 – Texas Flood Charity 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 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, social media or text message you cannot be sure as to whether the person contacting you is legitimate or not.
Scam of the day – July 9, 2025 – Qantas Data Breach
The most recent data breach involve Australian airline Qantas which recently disclosed that it had suffered a data breach through a third-party platrform it uses for customer service. According to a press release released by Qantas on July 2nd, the hackers obrained access to personal information of six million of its customers. The compromised personal information included names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flier numbers. I tdid not include credit card information.
Scam of the day – July 8, 2025 – Pennsylvania AG Issues Warning About Storm Damaged Used Car Scams
The recent storms that ravaged parts of central Pennsylvania have opened the door to a scam that often follows storm damage through extensive rain or hurricanes, namely the sale of storm damaged cars. In the past, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles and other state RMVs have issued warnings to consumers to be on the lookout for used cars with phony title papers that indicate that the particular used car in which you are interested is from a state such as Oregon when in fact, these cars are cars that were from rain ravaged areas with many of them containing hidden water damage that could present serious safety problems. Recently the Pennsylvania Attorney General issued a warning about this scam.
Scam of the day – July 7, 2025 – Eleven Class Actions Filed Regarding Aflac Data Breach
Recently eleven separate class actions seeking to represent all of the victims of the Aflac data breach have been filed around the country by individiual victims of the data breach. In situations like this the courts generally consolidate the cases into a Multidistrict Litigation proceeding to decide whether to centralize the cases and what court should hear the case.
Scam of the day – July 6, 2025 – Booking.com Scam Continues to Snare Victims
Scams involving the popular travel website Booking.com have increased dramatically over the last two years worldwide with one hundred hotels in Japan among the hotels targeted last year. The scam starts with a phishing email to a hotel that uses social engineering to lure the unsuspecting hotel employee into clicking on a link and downloading malware that enables the scammer to access the hotel’s Booking.com account and obtain a list of upcoming reservations along with the email addresses of the future travelers. The scammers then use the hacked Booking.com management portal of the hotel to send an email to the future visitor in which they demand a credit card payment for the future stay.
Scam of the day – July 5, 2025 – Amazon Prime Day Scams
Scammers, posing as Amazon are sending phishing emails and text messages in which they attempt to lure their victims into either providing account information that will give the scammer access to the victim’s Amazon account or to make a payment under some pretext or click on a link that will download dangerous malware such as keystroke logging malware or ransomware. They do so by representing to the targeted victim that their account has expired or that a recent order needs to be confirmed or some other emergency related to their account.
Scam of the day – July 4, 2025 – Delivery Tracking Email Scam
Online purchases which already were sizable grew tremendously during the Coronavirus pandemic and now are extremely commonplace 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...
Scam of the day – July 3, 2025 – Dangerous Docusign-Paypal Phishing Scam
What makes this phishing email particular insidious is that it actaully comes from a PayPal account. Scammers set up accounts posing as legitimate companies so that the email address will appear legitmate. This also enables them to avoid spam filters used by your email provider.
Scam of the day – July 2, 2025 – Watch Out For Fourth of July Scams
Many scammers send out emails or text messages purportedly from the IRS or any of a number of state and federal agencies in which they require you to provide personal information under the guise of some emergency. They do this because if they can frighten you enough to act during the holiday in some instances you will be unable to confirm with the real entity as to whether the communication is legitimate because all of these entities will be closed on the Fourth of July. If you provide the requested information, it will be used against you to make you a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – July 1, 2025 – Police Issue Warning About the Danger of Spoofing
The New York State Police have issued a warning about the danger of spoofing. https://troopers.ny.gov/news/new-york-state-police-warn-public-phone-number-spoofing-scam-targeting-personal-information Spoofing is a funny sounding word, but there is nothing funny about spoofing, which is the name for the scam tactic used by scammers by which they are able to fool your caller ID such that when you receive a call, it appears to come from a legitimate company, governmental agency, such as the IRS or even your own telephone number. The New York State Police warning specifically warned people about scammers and identity thieves posing as law enforcement officials demanding personal information including Social Security numbers and threatening legal action if the targeted victim doesn’t provide it.
Scam of the day – June 30, 2025 – How to Recognize a Scam
If they send you a check for more than what is owed you and ask you under a variety of different pretexts to deposit the check and wire the excess money back to them, it is a scam. The overpayment check scam is used in many different scams, but it always ends up with the victim depositing the legitimate appearing check, getting provisional credit in the victim’s account, wiring money from the account and then having the counterfeit check bounce, the provisional credit rescinded and the money wired from the victim’s own funds in the account gone forever.
Scam of the day – June 29, 2025 – Phony Bitdefender Website Downloads Malware
Bitdefender is a trusted cybersecurity and anti-virus software company that provides a variety of products to protect your computer and digital devices from malware and other online threats which is why it is particularly disturbing when scammers were recently discovered to have set up a phony Bitdefender website where if you go to download on the website what you think is protective security software, you actually are downloading malware that can steal your passwords and sensitive personal information from your computer or cell phone that will result in your becoming a victim of identity theft and your accounts, such as online bank accounts hacked.
Scam of the day – June 28, 2025 – Wall Street Journal Reports 70% of Ads on Facebook are Scams
The Wall Street Journal recently did a scathing story that said that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagrm is becoming the “cornerstone fo the internet fraud economy.” According tot he story Meta accounted for nearly half of all reported scams on Zelle at major banks. The story also reported that 70% of new advertisers on Meta’s platforms promote scams or low quality products. Many of the scammers placing these ads, according to the Journal were Sutheast Asian crime networks. The article went on to say that Meta did poor job of taking down fraudulent ads because it prioritized its 160 billion dollar profit from ads over protecting its users from being scammed. For its part, Meta says that according to federal law it is not responsible for scam ads on their sites. Lately, I have gotten many emails from Scamicide readers complaining about scams on Facebook marketplace.
Scam of the day – June 27, 2025 – Phony Coupon Scams
Everyone loves coupons and like many things in our lives, coupons which used to be found commonly in newspapers and magazines have migrated online. In recent years scammers have been perpetrating phony coupon scams on social media. Among the companies affected by these phony coupons were Bath and Body Works, Costco, Aldi, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s. As I have warned you many times in the past, Facebook has become a hotbed for phony online coupons. The phony coupons looks quite legitimate which means nothing because it is very easy to copy the company logos and make the coupons appear to be genuine.
Scam of the day – June 26, 2025 – How to Keep Your Cryptocurrency Wallet Safe
There a variety of scams that attempt to steal your cryptocurrencies from you. One of the most important decisions anyone should make when deciding whether to invest in cryptocurrencies is what kind of a wallet they will hold their investment in. Many cryptocurrency scams involve people being tricked into turning over access to their cryptocurrency wallets and losing all of their funds.
Scam of the day – June 25, 2025 – Watch Out For “Juice Jacking”
The colorful term “juice jacking” was first used in 2011 to describe the danger of data theft when you use a public charging station to recharge your phone or other mobile device. In 2019, the Los Angeles District Attorney issued a warning about the dangers of charging your phone at the USB chargers commonly found at airports, hotels and other public locations. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have issued warnings about juice jacking as well. The problem with juice jacking is the fact that information is transferred between your cell phone and the charger as soon as you plug your cell phone into the charging station you are using to recharge your cell phone.
Scam of the day – June 24, 2025 – Extended Car Warranty Scams
Extended warranty scams have been with us for years. Actually, they are not “extended” warranties at all because if you read the fine print you will notice that although the notice you may receive, often by postcard, looks official it is not from either the car manufacturer who issued your original warranty or the car dealer who sold you the car. The warranties themselves vary from scammer to scammer with some of the “extended” warranties being relatively worthless, but with all of them based on misrepresentations.
Scam of the day – June 23, 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 – June 22, 2025 – Aflac Data Breach
flac disclosed on June 20th that it had suffered a data breach that may have compromised sensitive personal information held by the company, which offers a range of insurance products to millions of people. According to Aflac, it noticed suscipicous activity on its networks on June 12th and is now in the early stages of investigating the extent of the data breach. Aflac’s press release states that it had not been infected with ransomware, but doesn’t yet know the extent of the data breach which may include social security numbers and other sensitive information.
Scam of the day – June 21, 2025 – Mavis Wanczyk Lottery 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 – June 20, 2025 – At Home Job May Be Money Laundering
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 – June 19, 2025 – Scammers Are Busy Taking Vacations – Yours
One new scam involves your getting an email that appears to come from your employer’s HR Department luring you to click on a link to submit your request for vacation time. Clicking on the link can either cause you to download dangerous malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft or luring you into providing your online credentials at work in order to get access to your company’s computers and data.
Scam of the day – June 18, 2025 – Google Voice Code Scam
The scam involves the Google Voice/Google Phone service which is a free phone number provided to you by Google. Calls to that number are forwarded to your cell phone. In order to set up a Google Phone number you need to provide your phone number for verification purposes. Google then texts or calls you with a 6 digit code that you must enter online to finish the process. The good news is that if you fall for the scam and send the 6 digit code to the scammer, you won’t lose any money, however, you can be sure that a scammer will be using your phone number to perpetrate scams and hide his or her tracks.
Scam of the day – June 17, 2025 – Is Voice Authentication of Bank Accounts Safe?
Many banks, such as Bank of America, Capital One, HSBC and Barclays offer voice verification whereby your voice on the phone acts as your password allowing you access to your account. Banks using this technology say that it is a safe and secure option. Banks saying this are wrong. British reporter Shari Vahl of the BBC used a clone of her voice to access accounts at Santander and Halifax with both banks accepting the AI generated voice to grant her access to the accounts.
Scam of the day – June 16, 2025 – Apple Text Message Scam
Recently a Scamicide reader reported receiving a text message that read “Your Apple#ID has been locked, tap here to_unlOcked” By the way, the last two words are not typographical errors by me in writing today’s Scam of the day although they certainly are a good indication that the scammer sending the text message doesn’t do a very good job of proof reading. Your Apple ID is the account you use to access a wide variety of Apple services such as the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, iMessage, Facetime, Apple Pay, Apple TV+ and many more. Anyone who clicked on the link would be sent to a fake, but legitimate appearing Apple website where, if you provided your Apple ID you would be turning it over to a scammer who could take control of your account as well as lock you out of it.
Scam of the day – June 15, 2025 – Social Media “Hot Bed” For Scams
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more scams in the United States are started on social media than on any other platform at a cost of 1.9 billion dollars in 2024 and that figure is probably low because many victims, often out of embarrassment, do not report being victimized. A study done by the Fin Tech company Revolut found that 60% of all scams in the UK originated on the Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with investment scams being the most common form of scam. Revolut referred to social media as a “hotbed” for scams.
Scam of the day – June 14, 2025 – The Danger of Facebook Farming
We have all seen Facebook postings urging us to click that we “like” them. Sometimes it is an emotional appeal to show support for a sick child. Sometimes it is to show support for a political message. Often it is a post related to a missing child. Curiously enough, many times the description of the lost child is the same, namely the child is wearing black Converse with red and purpose shoestrings and a zip-up hoodie. Sometimes these appeals are legitimate, but unfortunately sometimes they are not. Often they are done to take advantage of Facebook’s algorithms that value the popularity measured by likes and shares which then appear on the Facebook pages of more people. Although the original content liked or shared may appear sincere or entertaining, the scammers who use this technique, which is called “farming,” then are able to change the content to something entirely different from what was originally shared or liked. This can be done for purposes of sending advertising or gathering marketing information, but, at its worst, it can be used to send malware infected content that can steal personal information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – June 13, 2025 – Father’s Day Scams
Identity thieves send emails purporting to contain a link to an electronic Father’s Day card, but instead of an electronic greeting card, what they actually are sending is malware that becomes downloaded when the victim clicks on the link. A common type of malware sent by criminals is keystroke logging malware enables an identity thief to steal personal information from the victim’s computer that can be used for purposes of identity theft. In other instances, the malware is ransomware which will encrypt all of your data which the hacker threatens to destroy unless you pay a cryptocurrency ransom.
Scam of the day – June 12, 2025 – Bitcoin ATM Scams Surging
Most of the scams using Bitcoin 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 all 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 Bitcoin ATM under the guise of protecting the funds. According to the FTC, people over 60 years old were more than three times more likely to report losing money to a Bitcoin ATM scam with an average loss of $10,000.
Scam of the day – June 11, 2025 – The Credit Freeze Most People Miss
While many people are aware of the desirability of freezing your credit at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, most people are not aware of the National Consumer Telecommunications and Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) which is the credit reporting agency used by the major phone service companies. More and more scammers are opening cell phone accounts in the names of their unwary victims who may have actually frozen their credit with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, but not with NCTUE.
Scam of the Day – June 10, 2025 – Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Data Breach Class Action Settled
In the Scam of the day for June 14, 2023 I told you that health insurance company Harvard Pilgrim disclosed that it had suffered a major data breach and ransomware attack affecting more than 2.5 million people. This particular data breach is quite serious because among the records compromised were Social Security numbers and medical histories. Now a class action on behalf of the victims of the data breach has been settled and people affected by the data breach can claim up to $2,500 for out of pocket costs related to the data breach or, instead of instead of filing a claim for out of pocket losses, may file a claim for a cash payment of $150. All class members can also receive three years of free credit monitoring including dark web scanning. A hearing to obtain court approval of the settlement is scheduled for July 28, 2025 and the deadline for filng a claim is August 25, 2025. Here is a link to the class action website where you can file a claim if you were a victim of the data breach. https://www.harvardpilgrimdataincidentsettlement.com/
Scam of the day – June 9, 2025 – FTC Warns About Robocalls Offering Bogus Discount Services
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning people about scammers making robocalls offering discounts of 40 to 50% on phone, television or Internet services, often posing as AT&T, Spectrum or Comcast Xfinity. In order to get the discount, you are told that you need to get gift cards and provide the numbers to the scammers to pay for the greatly discounted services. Often the scammers may also ask for your present account information for the companies on whose behalf they say they are offering the discount in order to apply the discount, but the truth is that, in that situation, they will take that information to hack into your account.
Scam of the day – June 8, 2025 – Virtual Kidnapping Getting Worse With AI
This scam has evolved to be even more convincing through the use of AI voice cloning technology to clone the voice of the person the scammers say they have kidnapped. They get the audio through social media posts to make the call from the kidnapper appear to be more believable. With voice cloning becoming so easy to do, even technologically unsophisticated scammers are able to utilize it to make their scam seem legitimate.
Scam of the day – June 7, 2025 – Bogus Cryptocurrency Scam Refund Companies
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 an up-front payment, the scammers claim they can recover all of the funds lost to a cryptocurrency scam. Of course, this is false and anyone who pays the fee loses that money.