Fraud & Scams
Financial fraud, phishing, identity theft, scam alerts, data breaches, and how to protect yourself and your accounts.
Latest in Fraud & Scams
The FBI’s “phantom hacker” scam uses three fake callers: tech support, then your bank, then the government
Older adults across the United States are losing entire retirement accounts to a scam that deploys not one, but three successive impersonators, each building on...
Americans over 60 lost a record $7.7 billion to scammers last year
Americans over 60 lost approximately $7.7 billion to fraud in 2024, the highest annual total ever recorded for that age group. The FBI logged more...
A Minnesota man drained $1.6 million from an elderly neighbor with dementia and got four years
A Minnesota man who systematically drained $1.6 million from an elderly neighbor living with dementia received a four-year federal prison sentence, a punishment that has...
A retiree handed $25,000 in cash to a fake police officer after scammers gave him a secret code phrase
An 80-year-old retiree in Irvine, California, withdrew $25,000 from his bank, packed the bills into a shoebox wrapped in duct tape, and handed the package...
No real agency will ever tell you to pull out cash and hand it to an “officer” for safekeeping
Scammers posing as federal agents are convincing Americans to withdraw cash, buy gold bars, and hand the assets to couriers who claim to be keeping...
A Washington man stole more than $500,000 from his grandmother, who has dementia
A Washington state man drained more than $500,000 from his grandmother’s accounts while she suffered from dementia, according to criminal filings in King County Superior...
No real government agency will ever tell you to move your money into a Bitcoin ATM
A retiree lost an entire lifetime of savings after scammers posing as government and bank employees directed cash deposits into Bitcoin ATMs and bulk gold...
$333 million vanished into Bitcoin ATMs last year, mostly seniors’ savings
Older Americans lost hundreds of millions of dollars through cryptocurrency kiosks last year, fed by a scam playbook that turns corner-store Bitcoin ATMs into one-way...
A retired teacher lost $16,000 to a fake Social Security agent who sent her to a Bitcoin ATM
A retired teacher lost $16,000 after a caller claiming to be a Social Security agent told her that her benefits would be suspended unless she...
A family code word can stop AI voice-cloning scams that fake a grandchild’s emergency call
Americans lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, and a growing share of those losses trace back to a simple trick: a phone call...
Check washing is surging again, and thieves who fish checks from the mail can rewrite the payee, so pay bills online or use gel-ink pens
Thieves armed with household chemicals and homemade fishing tools are stealing checks straight from U.S. mailboxes, erasing the original payee and dollar amount, and rewriting...
Fidelity will pay data-breach victims up to $5,000, with claims due July 27
Fidelity Investments is preparing to pay eligible data-breach victims up to $5,000 each, with a claims deadline of July 27 fast approaching. The breach itself...
Fake unpaid-toll texts are now the fastest-growing government scam
Fake texts claiming drivers owe unpaid tolls have become the single fastest-growing category of government imposter fraud in the United States. Reports of government imposter...
A 97-year-old San Diego widow lost her entire life savings to a $65 million senior-scam ring — the man who laundered it is sentenced June 23
A 97-year-old San Diego widow who survived the Holocaust through her late husband lost every dollar she had saved over a lifetime. The money flowed...
A real bank will never tell you to move your money to a “safe account” — that one sentence is the costliest scam in America right now
Americans lost $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, and one of the fastest-growing tactics behind those losses starts with a single instruction: move your money...
Comcast will pay data-breach victims $50, or up to $10,000 with proof, if they file by August 14
Nearly 36 million people affected by a Comcast data breach in late 2023 can file for a flat $50 payment or claim up to $10,000...
Americans reported losing billions to scams that started on social media, the FTC says
Americans reported losing $2.1 billion to scams that started on social media in 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Nearly 30% of people who...
AIC will pay data-breach victims about $50, or up to $5,000 with proof, by July 22
People whose personal data was exposed in the American International College breach can expect payments by July 22, with most receiving roughly $50 and those...
Turning on account alerts for every transaction can catch fraud the same day it happens
Reported fraud losses in the United States hit $12.5 billion in 2024, and federal regulators are now telling consumers that a single settings change on...
Scammers are impersonating the FTC’s own chairman to talk people into emptying their savings
Scammers are calling Americans and claiming to be FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, pressuring targets to drain their bank accounts, 401(k) plans, and savings under the...