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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.
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.