Search Scams
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.
Scam of the day – June 6, 2025 – 23andMe Data Breach Settlement
In the Scam of the day for October 10, 2023 I told you that the genetic testing company 23andMe had suffered a data breach that compromised genetic and ancestry data of 6.9 million of its users and the apparent hackers had already offered for sale what they say is the stolen information on the Dark Web, that part of the Internet where criminals buy and sell goods and services. A class action related to the data breach has been settled and victims of the data breach who suffered hardships as a result of their information being stolen can file for benefits as high as $10,000. Residents of Alaska,California, Illinois and Oregon whose information was compromised can apply for cash payments of around $100 pursuant to those states’ genetic privcy laws. Others whose personal health information was compromised can also appky for benefits. The settlement also provides for security monitoring services including dark web monitoring.
Scam of the day – June 5, 2025 – Golden Sunrise Refund Update
In the Scam of the day for July 17, 2021 I told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled a lawsuit against Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical, Inc and Dr. Stephen Meis who marketed its Emergency -D-Virus plan as a treatment for COVID-19 through advertising on billboards, websites and social media, falsely claiming that it’s product would cause COVID-19 symptoms to disappear in two to four days. Additionally, Golden Sunrise claimed it could cure cancer and Parkinson’s disease as well as other serious health conditions. In accordance with the terms of the settlement, the defendants were ordered to provide refunds to scammed customers. The deadline for making a claim for a refund was April 6, 2025 and the FTC has announced that it will be making payments to victims of the scam in 2026. As more details emerge, I will let you know about them
Scam of the day – June 4, 2025 – Pennsylvania Woman Victim of Car Dealer Clone Scam
Recently Adrianna Parsons found a Lexus SUV listed for sale on CARFAX by what appeared to be a legitimate car dealership called Specialty Auto in Nebraska. After going to what she thought was the dealership’s website and talking with the owner, Jim Woods she wired $45,000 to who she thought was Jim Woods, but the car was never delivered. The truth is that the real Jim Woods is indeed the owner of Specialty Auto, but his dealership does not have a website and he does not sell cars online. Unfortunately, the scammers have used Woods’ name and a phony Specialty Auto website to scam others as well.
Scam of the day – June 3, 2025 – Scammers Posing As Airline Customer Service Representatives
Looking ahead to a busy summer air travel season in which we can expect delays and cancellations due to a variety of reasons, scammers will be taking advantage of the situation. Delays and cancellations occur for a number of reasons including bad weather and air traffic control issues. Weary travelers are always looking for help and assistance from their airline. Often the inconvenienced travelers will turn to social media for help and scammers who monitor social media for posts from disgruntled travelers respond posing as airline customer service representatives. The scammers lure their targeted victims into clicking on links to go to phony airline websites where they are manipulated into providing personal information that can be used to make them victims of identity theft. Scammers are using AI to make these phony websites appear very legitimate and convincing.
Scam of the day – June 2, 2025 – Sextortion Email Scam
In a more recent version of this scam, people around the country are receiving such sextortion emails with some new twists. First, the email contains a photograph of your home with a threat to contact you at your home, referring to your home’s address if you don’t pay the demanded Bitcoin ransom. Second, the email refers to a type of Spyware called Pegasus that can steal information from you computer without being discovered. In fact, Pegasus spyware does exist, but it is used only by government agencies.
Scam of the day – June 1, 2025 – FBI Chasing Funds of Pig Butchering Scammers
Feng Chen and his wife Tianqiong Xu were living in Frisco Texas and operating a pig butchering cryptocurrency scam from 2021 through 2024 according to the FBI. The FBI had been investigating the couple since 2021, but by the time they got an indictment for wire fraud...
Scam of the day – May 31, 2025 – Another Supply Chain Data Breach
This week the victim is LexisNexis Risk Solutions which is a data broker that gathers consumers’ personl data and provides it to its corporate clients for purposes of risk management. This particular data breach resulted in the names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and Social Security numbers of 364,000 being stolen by hackers. This information can be used by criminals for identity theft. This particular data breach wasn’t of the computers of LexisNexis, but rather of a third party company it used for software development. This is part of a trend where hackers target companies with less security who have access to the data of the company that is the real target of the criminals. Often it takes the form of infecting software developed by companies that is later used by other companies or government agencies that allows the criminals access to their targeted victims’ data.
Scam of the day – May 30, 2025 – Joann Fabrics Bankruptcy Sale Scams
In the Scam of the day for March 5, 2025 I informed you that crafts supply store Joann Fabrics has filed for bankruptcy and would be closing all of its stores. Scammers were quick to take advantage of this by setting up phony Joann Fabrics websites offering tremendous discounts, but once you provide your credit card or debit card to make a purchase, you end up turning over your credit card or debit card to a scammer. The phony Joann Fabric websites are being touted on social media and the phony websites look quite legitimate, most likely due to the scammers using artificial intelligence to construct the websites. The only real Joann Fabric website is joann.com. The last 440 Joann Fabrics stores closed this week and online sales actaully ended on March 5th so any websites you may see offering discounted sales of Joann Fabrics merchandise are phony.
Scam of the day – May 29, 2025 – Customer Service Number Scam
USA Today recently did a story about scammers using phony customer service numbers to scam people. Regular readers of Scamicide might remember I have been warning you about this scam since 2017. Scammers are increasingly setting up phony websites that appear to provide a telephone number for customer service or tech support of many of the companies with which we do business. Often the scammers either purchase an ad to appear at the top of a search engine search or they manipulate the algorithms used by Google and other search engines to make their phony customer service number appear high on a search. Through the use of AI, these phony websites look very believeable.
Scam of the day – May 28, 2025 – FTC Shuts Down Student Loan Scammers
Now a final judgement has been issued in the case permanently banning Panda Benefit Services and its affiliates and operators from the debt relief industry and ordering them to turn over assets to the FTC to be used to compensate the victims of the scam. As more details emerge regarding the payment of those funds to victims of the scam, I will report them to you.
Scam of the day – May 27, 2025 – Facebook Marketplace Scam
Then the fun begins (for the scammer). You next receive an email that purports to have been sent by Zelle indicating that the buyer paid you through a Zelle “business account” and that you need to upgrade your personal Zelle account to a business account in order to receive the payment from the scammer posing as the buyer. You are then told that in order to upgrade your account, the amount sent to you needs to be increased by $300. The scammer then tells you that he or she will gladly send you an additional $300 through Zelle in order to enable the transaction if you merely refund the excess payment to them through Zelle. Of course, soon after refunding the $300, which was never paid by the scammer to begin with, the scam victim realizes he or she has just been scammed out of $300.
Scam of the day – May 26, 2025 – New Online Shopping Credit Card Scam
In the past, the scammers would lure you into providing your credit card or debit card (which you should never use for purchases because the law does not protect you as much from fraudulent use) and then use your card to make purchases or if you provided your debit card, they will then access your bank account. Now, however, the scammer are getting greedy. When you attempt to use your credit card on their phony website you will be told that your card has been declined and so you need to use a second card. Once you do, you have now turned over two credit cards to the scammer to use for fraudulent purchases in your name.
Scam of the day – May 25, 2025 – Massive Data Breach of 184 Million Accounts Discovered
In keeping with my motto of “things aren’t as bad as you think, they are far worse” security researcher Jeremiah Fowler recently discovered a publicly available, unencrypted database containing 184 million unque account credentials including usernames, passwords, and URLs for many apps and websites including Google, Miocrosoft, Apple, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat including credentials for bank and financial accounts. One particular problem, Fowler noted is that many people use their email accounts to store years of sensitive documnts such as tax returns which if their email accounts are accessed can quickly lead to identity theft.
Scam of the day – May 24, 2025 – 19 Year Old College Student Pleads Guilty to Hacking PowerSchool
I first told you about the massive data breach at PowerSchool a major education technology software company used by 16,000 educational institutions with 50 million students in January. The hacker claimed to have harvested sensitive personal information of 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers. The compromised information included the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and medical information along with much additional personal informaion of students and teachers. Now Matthew Lane, a 19 year old college student from Massachusetts has entered into a plea deal and admitted that he hacked PowerSchool. He potentially faces a two year prison sentence.
Scam of the day – May 23, 2025 – Memorial Day Scams
Another common scam targets veterans and starts with a telephone call in which the veteran is told that in order to continue to receive various benefits, it is necessary to verify personal information such as the veteran’s birth date, Social Security number or bank account information. Of course, the call is not from the Veterans Administration and the call is not to verify information, but rather to gain information to be used to make the veteran a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – May 22, 2025 – Celebrity Imposter Scams Increasing
For years I have told you about scammers posing as various popular celebrities luring unsuspecting people into scams However, with the increased of Artificial Intelligence these imposter scams, generally perpetrated through emails, text messages and social media have become both more believable looking and more frequent as the deepfake and other AI technology becomes readily available to less technologically savvy scammers. Scammers pose as celebrities in a variety of scams including phony celebrity endorsed products, cryptocurrency investment scams, romance scams and videos in which the scammers lure unsuspecting victims into downloading malware that can lead to identity theft.
Scam of the day – May 21, 2025 – Watch Out For VIN Cloning When Buying a Used Car
Every car has a Vehicle Identification Number or VIN that is unique for each car. Scammers are taking photos of the VIN number which can be found just below the windshield on the driver’s side of a car that is the same make, model and year of a car that the scammers have stolen and then make a new metallic VIN plate with the cloned number and swap it out for the VIN number of the car the stolen car. They then offer their stolen car for sale.