Fraud & Scams
Financial fraud, phishing, identity theft, scam alerts, data breaches, and how to protect yourself and your accounts.
Latest in Fraud & Scams
So-called task scams show fake earnings for liking videos, then demand a crypto deposit to withdraw
People searching for easy side income are being drawn into a fraud scheme that mimics gig work, shows them fabricated earnings for tasks like liking...
Fake toll-payment texts are the fastest-growing government-imposter scam, part of $3.5 billion in losses
Fake toll-payment texts claiming drivers owe money to programs like E-ZPass, SunPass, FasTrak, and TxTag have become the fastest-growing category of government imposter fraud in...
Anyone caught in the DATS data breach can claim up to $5,000 for losses by September 24
People whose personal information was exposed in the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services Inc. data breach can file claims for up to $5,000 in documented...
Eleven people have pleaded guilty in a $65 million ring that used overseas call centers to swindle thousands of older Americans
Eleven people have now admitted their roles in a $65 million fraud operation that used call centers based in India to steal from thousands of...
AI voice-cloning scams that fake a grandchild’s voice have drained $2.3 billion from older Americans this year, and calling the family back is the one reliable check
Older Americans have lost roughly $2.3 billion to fraud so far this year, with AI-powered voice-cloning scams that imitate a grandchild in distress accounting for...
Dohman data-breach victims can claim $50 in cash or up to $5,000 in losses by September 10
People whose protected health information was exposed in the Dohman, Akerlund and Eddy data breach face a September 10 deadline to file claims for a...
An 83-year-old wired $44,000 to a caller posing as his bank’s fraud team, money a wire transfer generally can’t claw back
An 83-year-old man wired $44,000 to a caller who claimed to be part of his bank’s fraud team, following instructions he believed would protect his...
Six people are under arrest in a $2.8 million “gold bar” scam that pushed elderly Texans to hand their savings to couriers at the door
Six people face arrest in connection with a scheme that allegedly drained $2.8 million from elderly Texans by convincing them to convert their savings into...
A retired journalist lost $270,000 after an online romance turned into a fake gold-investment pitch that drained his life savings
A retired journalist watched $270,000 disappear after an online romance gradually shifted into what appeared to be a gold-investment opportunity. The scheme followed a pattern...
Federal prosecutors charged a man in a $149 million scam built on Bitcoin ATMs and bulk gold, the same playbook draining older Americans’ savings
A retiree lost $1.49 million in life savings after being tricked into feeding cash into Bitcoin ATMs and wiring funds to buy gold bars, according...
A Connecticut man drew nine years in federal prison for a romance scam that drained victims nationwide, part of a widening crackdown
Naabanyin Aniagyei-Cobbold, a 30-year-old Connecticut man, was sentenced on March 5, 2026, to nine years in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering tied...
No $2,000 tariff-dividend check has been approved, and officials warn the texts promising one are a scam
Scammers are blasting text messages to phones across the country claiming that recipients qualify for $2,000 tariff rebate checks, and state and federal officials are...
Federal prosecutors say a romance-scam ring drained up to $1.1 million each from more than 100 older Americans, then splurged on Lamborghinis and Cybertrucks
A Ghanaian national was extradited to the United States to face charges that he helped run a romance-fraud network responsible for stealing more than $8...
An elderly Hawaii woman handed a courier nine gold bars worth $137,000 before scammers pushed her to drain $429,000 more, and one arrest followed
An elderly Hawaii woman handed nine gold bars worth $137,000 to a courier in Kaneohe after scammers posing as government officials directed her to liquidate...
People swept into the Alta Resources data breach can claim up to $2,000, or $50 without proof, by August 17
People affected by the Alta Resources Corp. data breach have a narrow window to file claims worth up to $2,000 with documented losses or $50...
Esse Health patients caught in a data breach can claim a $50 payment plus two years of credit monitoring by August 4
Patients of Esse Health, a primary care network based in the St. Louis metropolitan area, have until August 4 to file claims for a $50...
No government agency will ever tell you to move your money into a “safe account” to protect it, the FTC warns
Scammers posing as federal employees are draining bank accounts by telling people to move their money into a “safe account,” and the Federal Trade Commission...
An FBI program has warned nearly 9,000 cryptocurrency-fraud victims mid-scam, heading off about $562 million in losses
Nearly 9,000 people across the United States were contacted by the FBI while they were actively losing money to cryptocurrency-investment fraud, and roughly three out...
People 60 and older lost $4.35 billion to cryptocurrency scams last year, more than a third of all such losses reported nationwide
Americans 60 and older lost $4.35 billion to cryptocurrency scams last year, accounting for more than a third of all such losses reported nationwide. Three...
Freezing a late parent’s credit stops thieves from opening accounts in a dead relative’s name, a fraud called ghosting
Criminals who steal the identities of the recently deceased can open credit cards, take out loans, and rack up debt before anyone notices. New York’s...