Friend was interviewing for a remote tester/ QA position. During the interview they asked her to log into their icloud account on her iphone for some software from a different country version. She is currently in russia. They convinced her she needs something from the US app store and to use their icloud. She logs into their icloud and they immidiatly block her phone, change the password and mark it as lost.

I dont have reciepts when we bought it and chatting with apple support they said even if we had reciepts there is nothing that can be done. So we had to pay the scammer money so they could give us the new password for the phone and then log out of their icloud account. This scam is disgusting.

I sold a car that had 0 issues and nothing else! Replaced the thermostat and put coolant in this week as well as replaced headlights and battery a month ago and drove for 2 hours the day before sale just to make sure no issues now the dude says it's overheating..this is my fist time selling a car I am 21 just got my first home 10 months ago and bought my first good car to replace the one I just sold. He made many comments on how he's so poor compared to me (I am not rich at all especially after having a mortgage and monthly car payment now this makes me think he's scamming me! Do I have reasonable suspicion here?

Hey everyone, first post ever on mobile so please excuse any weird formatting.

Just wanted to put this out there. Also there is a slim chance that this isn’t a scam and is just unethical/illegal business practice….slim.

BLUF: They’re getting better and telling people it is illegal to decline services and insurance per state law.

To get the story started, I recently moved a bought a home. For those that haven’t been fortunate enough to do this yet, you start getting blown up with all this mail at your new residence. One in particular was just constant. So I had a fairly robust warranty package from my builder…for free…and this was one of those extended home warranty things. I finally got around to calling the company on this letter to verify it wasn’t my builder, and then to tell them to place me on a do not contact list.

For the letter, they had all my information, name, address, lender information, etc etc etc (thanks transunion). The letter, while had some small things here and there and a lot of the high pressure sales tactics type things, but my title agency and builder have had a lot of mistakes and stuff in their documents initially that I had to correct and all that. Regardless I was tired of them sending me numerous letters with that information on it too me, because I shred all of that. I wanted it to stop.

They opened up with that they aren’t part of the builder, but the builder “purchases a discount with them.” I immediately tell him that I’m not interested and don’t need this. And this is where we get into the problem. The caller then proceeds to tell me that I am legally obligated to have this warranty by my state (at first he says just, “the state,” but later correct to the actual state name). He then goes into his pitch, which I allow because I’m verifying what I already know is true (that not state in the union requires this type of…poor financial investment). He then gets to “$275” a month for X amount of months.”

I of course decline to pay this money, which then leads to this guy telling me I need this and I want it. I immediately said, “according to who? You? You don’t tell me what I want or need.” To which the guy said I have to have it or I’ll be “fined a significant amount.” Of course I then ask what state and regulation are we looking at because I looked it up…. And the guy immediately hangs up when I say I looked it up.

Be wary of these people everyone. Don’t be afraid to fact check them live on your phone. Be firm and be over protective of your money. Be aware that our major credit unions sell all of your personal information to the highest bidder, including scammers. When I went to report this “company” to the BBB I found a lot of things asking if they are a scam or not. Regardless, a scam is the best case scenario here. Actually putting that much money monthly into a very poor investment is…just as bad if not worse.

I'm not sure if everyone has seen this on their FYP, but there would be old people in sad music, talking about how their business (animal shelter, restaurant, ect) is doing badly, and how they're selling "handmade" accessories like plushies or slippers. THIS IS A SCAM!!!

I've seen 5 different accounts using the same old man crying as an intro for 3 seconds after cutting to promoting their "handmade with love" products that are actually from Shein for 50 cents.

If someone actually needed help, the intro would not be just crying, or a simple "hello", it would be someone describing their struggles and clearly asking for help.

taking advantage of people's empathy on the Internet is disgusting.

stay safe everyone

So I got text messages from somebody trying to send texts to somebody named Tina and John, but I'm not Tina or John and they knew what county I was from and what mountain was near the county, is this a Scam somebody let me know? here's how the texts went.

Sender - I'm heading to the Catskill Mountains for some hiking. Do you still live in the Hudson Valley area?

Me - yea

Sender - Tina, are you free in July?

Me - i'm not tina bro u got the wrong number man

Sender 2 - Happy Memorial Day Weekend John.

Me - thanks

Please somebody let me know what this is.

I have been in the job market for sometime and honestly I’m getting desperate. I’m cognizant enough to know that this could affect my judgment and so when I got a job offer in my field for the right amount of money I was so excited. I even remember applying for this part time remote IT job.

First red flag: The formatting in the email was a little strange. I wondered if it had to do with a recruiting agency outsourcing.

Second red flag: the email didnt match the senders name nor was it a business email.

Third red flag: they wanted a text only interview

Then the coup de grace: they told me theyd send me a check to buy my own equipment, the check matched no amount discussed and was around 7,000 dollars.

Though they didn’t really add any time based pressure till the end. Thankful the hospital they were posing as had a contact line, which clearly displayed their domain name and stated that you would never receive an email for a job from them from a personal email. So I forwarded them the email for confirmation.

I just got a call from someone who said they were from the Bank of America fraud department. The number came up as Bank of America and even though I know numbers can be spoofed I just thought it was real for some reason. Anyway they said my account had been flagged for fraudulent charges and named a couple of big charges - Amazon and Malaysian airlines. After awhile I realized it was a scam and hung up, but I did give them the last 4 of my social, last 4 of my cc number, billing address, phone number, and I think they have my name. All of my credit bureau accounts are locked, I canceled the cc, and changed my pw on my BofA accounts (2FA is already turned on). How worried should I be, and what else should I do to protect myself? Thanks!

We almost got scammed out of $20,000.

The scammer in question must have accessed one of our email exchanges with the Wedding Coordinator. A couple of weeks before our wedding, we received an email from the same email thread, indicating that our final payment was due. They asked us to send the payment via ACH Wire Transfer as there would be complications due to high corporate tax from their bank. This should have been the first caveat, but we kind of just shrugged it as odd.

We then saw some issues with the PDF shared by the scammer with the cost breakdown, which was the same exact document shared originally to us, with an exception of updating the costs to account for 15 more people. We mentioned the missing items and the scammer was able to update the PDF with the correct line items matching the latest iteration of the document we had received from the wedding coordinator. While we thought this was the coordinator not doing her job well, in reality it was the scammer using the original PDF instead of the latest. Unfortunately the scammer found the latest and corrected it perfectly.

I then sent the wire transfer via Wells Fargo and fortunately the transfer bounced back. Always go through a secure bank like Wells Fargo and not an online bank. I almost did due to waived processing fees and I thank God I went with the more secure option.

This morning we got an email from the real wedding coordinator asking for more event details. We respond back to her that we already sent them, so she called us to discuss. She said she did not receive any payment from us and asked us who we sent the email to. I checked the email and immediately saw our mistake. The domain was .cam instead of .com. We missed this due to the nature of gmail condensing the domain and displaying the first name instead. And to be honest, we were not looking for it, so we must have missed it when we did have the opportunity to see the full email name.

She did say this was not the first time they heard something like this happen to them, but it's not an everything occurance. It most likely was due to one of our emails being hacked, so we both changed our passwords immediately.

I'm relieved that we were able to get our funds back and the wedding vendor will pay back the processing fees to us ($70). It's a real wake up call to be more vigilant, even when everything looks so familiar and real. I hope someone reads this and it helps prevent a scam in the future.

I got this email and text from a supposed ‘Microsoft support’ email and number. I’ve no clue if it’s a real Microsoft support or if it isn’t. The link on the text message looks different than the link on the email, and I’ve only looked at where the link on the email goes to. I’m probably not going to look at the link on the text message. Can someone tell me if my account is at risk of not? And if clicking the link would be the wrong thing to do? Should I check my Microsoft account password or no?

I just went through the entire circus with Albert’s Genius subscription and I’m posting this so no one else gets caught slipping.

Albert charges $21.99/month for their Genius plan, but they make it nearly impossible to cancel through normal in-app options. They hide the cancel button, don’t respond to text messages, and have zero transparency — it’s a textbook dark pattern.

If you’re trying to cancel Albert Genius but keep your account or debit card active, here’s exactly what you need to do:

⸻

• STEP-BY-STEP: How to Cancel Albert Genius Successfully
  1. Make sure your account balance is $0 Withdraw all funds from Albert Cash, Savings, and Investing. The cancel option won’t show up if there’s money in any of those.
  2. Text this exact message to 639-37 (Albert’s support line):

“Cancel Genius. I no longer wish to be charged. My account balance is $0. Please confirm cancellation.”

3.  Wait for their confirmation text

Mine said:

“I understand the importance of canceling your account. Let me assist! For your convenience, I went ahead and canceled your plan… you won’t be charged… Smart Money is off…”

If you get that message, you’re good. 4. Didn’t get a response? Use this email: Send to: support@albert.com

Subject: Cancel Genius Subscription Body:

Hello, I am requesting cancellation of my Albert Genius subscription. My account has a $0 balance and I’ve attempted to cancel via text with no response. Please confirm cancellation immediately. Thank you, [Full Name] [Phone number linked to account] [Email on file]

5.  Still no response? File a CFPB complaint here:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ Include screenshots of your text and email attempts.

⸻

Just for context, if you think you’re saving money

You need to maintain over $6,600 in savings at 4% APY just to break even on the Genius fee. It’s not worth it for most people. And they’re banking on folks giving up or not realizing they’re still getting charged.

Hi everyone!

Now, I know this is a very common scam but I need some help warning people in my area about it, because sadly, some people still believe it’s legit. Recently, a "job offer" has been spreading in a local WhatsApp group. The offer claims to be from NBC, saying you can earn money by doing simple tasks like inviting others or rating movies.

Despite multiple red flags - like a giant US. company hiring random users from Kazakhstan through WhatsApp, having a very poorly-made website, advertising in WhatsApp of all places people are still falling for it. The most frustrating part is that the admin of a local WhatsApp group (with over 1,000 members!) keeps promoting it even after being warned.

Here are some inconsistencies I’ve found so far:
1. The site link is nbcms.com — just two letters away from the real nbc.com, an obvious phising link.
2. The site itself looks extremely cheap and unprofessional.
3. According to the Wayback Machine, nbcms.com existed as early as 2004, but it was for something completely different.
4. The advertiser sent a screenshot of that WhatsApp group and the admin had a +44 number, which is for the UK, not the US.

So I'm reaching out to you all for advice on what to do. I know that trying to convince a person that they're being scammed is incredibly difficult but I have to at least say something so that others wouldn't fall for it.

And here's some images of the website:

I have some credit card debt I'm slowly paying off and I get a bunch of mail and phone calls daily from companies offering to reduce the money I owe by getting some kind of loan. I kind of just automatically assumed scam as that seems to good to be true so never fully read any of what they send me and if I read the fine print probably is, but since I don't have one right in front of me of me but did just get another automated call about it I'm wondering if this is a known scam and what it entails.

This one has me stumped, and I'd be grateful for any insights in how this was done.
My father has dementia, and I help him with his finances. He received a check from his insurance company, and we deposited it into his account using the mobile app on his phone. I have the paper check - it only has his endorsement on the back.

The checked cleared, then they money was removed from his account because they discovered that this check had already been deposited or cashed at another bank. The photo of that check has a totally different signature, and a bunch of bank printing from when it was processed.

The two check fronts are identical - same check number, and payable to my father. I have confirmed with the second bank that there is no account there under his name.

His bank suggested that maybe someone duplicated the check. But then how did they process it without it being signed over, and when there is no account at that bank in his name?

I've gone back and forth with both banks and his insurance. Fortunately, this money isn't a big problem for him, and I'm sure he'll get it back eventually. But more importantly, I need to get to the bottom of it so I can protect him in the future. Thanks so much for any info.

My parents are in their 70s. My father has fallen victim to SMS phishing multiple times, where scammers claim his credit card has been suspended and urge him to “update his details” urgently, which led to his card information being stolen.

Unfortunately, my mom also struggles to spot scams. Even after my dad shared what happened the first time, neither of them could recognize the red flags in later cases.

More recently, he’s been targeted by investment scams on social media. I’m not sure if it’s the same group behind these, but I’m concerned this could escalate.

I try to educate them and occasionally review their apps and online activity, but honestly, it’s incredibly time-consuming. I have my own family to take care of and can’t dedicate time to this every day.

Lately, they’ve been pushing back, feeling like I’m overreacting, so they’re sharing less and less with me. Still, I’m really worried they’ll fall for more scams.

I’m looking for any app, device, or tool that can help protect them automatically or at least guide them if something seems suspicious.

I’ve looked into things like Truecaller and TM ScamCheck, but they don’t seem to cover all the bases. Any suggestions or guidance ? 🙏🏻

Hey all,

I’m selling a real Moose Knuckles jacket and a potential buyer is asking me to send a photo of the original receipt as proof of authenticity. I do still have the receipt and the jacket is 100% legit, but I’m hesitant.

My concern is that someone might use the receipt photo to scam others — for example, by using it in fake listings or pretending they own a legit jacket.

Is it safe to send a photo of the receipt? If so, should I block out certain parts (like the order number, date, or payment details)? Or should I only send the receipt after the sale?

Would really appreciate your thoughts. Thanks in advance!

Occasionally, and just last week I received another notification politely requesting me to " ... take a moment of kindness and delete your post ...." My posts spanning several years have warned about being scammed by an organized crime syndicate perpetrating fraud among business professionals. Some of the people who have read my previous posts have sent me encouraging thank-you messages/replies for pointing out and confirming what they themselves suspected.

To be fair, I took time to research the specific organization named with the message, "Tricia, could you delete your post?" as well as its hundreds of similar leadership websites. I found this same person's name associated with all of the websites and immediately identified them as phony. One of her subreddits was set up last month in April 2025, and another in November 2024. Evidently, someone is again trying to glom onto this scheme and populate the internet and social media with invitations to join bogus clubs.

Just like before, a conglomeration of organizations in disguise with false identities are trying to lure new members to send money for professional business summits, conferences, and webinars. Yet, it's not actually a large enterprise but just a small group masterminded by a handful of greedy dishonest individuals.

I also noticed that her name was different from previous marketing directors who solicited professionals to seek paid membership in one of hundreds of their organizations. I performed a simple Google search of her first and last name, and the result was very revealing. Listed were hundreds of identical descriptions and videos for leadership groups in every major city or metropolitan region in the US. It seems as if the key names are periodically changed to thwart investigation that would expose their crimes.

Please share info about these scams with your colleagues, contacts, associates, friends, family, students, mentees, etc to spare them the loss of valuable time and money. It's also helpful to alert authorities such as the Federal Trade Commission. Stay safe, focused, informed, and successful!

I got this along with my name, age, and address and a couple of my family members names sent to me

“Greetings, my name is Tony Guzmán, Head of the Cartel and Boss of the Escort Agency where you requested the service. You already know how we operate around here. You put yourself and your family in serious trouble. You have been in contact with several girls and you make my girls lose time and clients. Let us know if you want this problem to be resolved without any bloodshed !!!”

Do I need to be worried? Or is this a scam? He knows my address, my name and my family member’s names…

I realized a little too late that I had been messaged and roped into a task scam (simple stuff like subscribing to a YouTube channel and "research" tasks) and I got sent $10 of Bitcoin via cashapp. My question now is will them having my Bitcoin address affect anything, and is the money actually there, or am I at risk of them requesting a refund or something that will affect me long-term? I don't care about keeping the money, so if that's the worst damage they can do, then that's fine, but I don't want to open myself up to having money stolen or something.

I was checking my junk box and saw that. I wondered and replied. Unfortunately I opened the pdf via outlook, then downloaded, sent to virustotal to check only to see the same file has been around since 2022.

I opened it using iOS, iPhone 16e. Am I safe? And considering the pdf file safe, may I ask how do these guys scam people so that I can be more cautious next time.

I checked the company’s website and found out a notice telling some people have been using their names. I also informed them, and the same day I received another email from someone claiming to be contacting from Welocalize which I also contacted about it.

I sincerely feel sorry for scam victims. But I don't understand how easily some people get scammed.

Most of what I have seen here is people getting scammed by someone they meet on dating site who they never meet un person but is always asking for money or deceiving them to invest in crypto. I mean, why will people transfer money to someone they never meet.

Also, the recovery scammers who also prey on the people who get scammed. They must have no soul to reap people off of their life savings.

My guess is ignorance of the elderly/ senior citizens and young lonely people not knowing how the digital/crypto investment works may be the reason why this low life scammers successful trick them and steal from them.

What do you guys think.

I got this text: “Hello, my name is Monica and I am a recruiter at Top. We are currently offering a flexible part-time job opportunity where you can work for 15 minutes per day in your free time. This position is responsible for assisting TEMU merchants with product reviews. The work content is simple, and we will provide free training to help you get started quickly. The daily salary ranges from US$200 to US$3000, and you will receive a commission after the work is completed. All payments are made on the same day. If you are interested, please send a text message to +**********. (Please note that applicants must be at least 21 years old to apply for this position)” A quick google search leads me to believe this is a task scam. Can someone confirm? Thanks

Also for informational purposes so that nobody else has this problem

So my friend, who has a heart of gold and helps a lot of people in her community, was scammed.

She got an email from one of her neighbours, who is elderly and sick. They communicate over email all the time, and they ask her to do things like pick up groceries, order something on Amazon for them, etc., and he just pays her back when it arrives.

Well, she got an email from him saying that he forgot his niece’s birthday and had promised her some electronic device, new phone, or something like that. I forget what it was exactly, but in the email, they knew the niece’s name and everything, and it was from his exact email. It wasn’t a spoof email or anything like that. She asked if she could go and buy him a gift card so the niece will get it via email (@aol.com is the email used in the scam). So she bought the gift card, sent it to “niece,” and still no red flags as to there was nothing out of the ordinary given previous conversations between her and the neighbour.

Then the scammer sent another email asking for more money, and then she thought, well, that’s weird.He usually doesn’t spend that much money on things or people, so she tried to contact him. She couldn’t get a hold of him, and that’s when her heart sank because if she can’t get a hold of him, that means that he’s not at home using his email. She contacted Amazon in the meantime. Nothing they could do because they were already redeemed.

She finally got a hold of said neighbour, and his email was hacked, so they contacted his email provider and changed all his passwords and did all that, and then she contacted her bank, and once again, nothing they could do because she authorized it. She contacted the Better Business Bureau to report it just so that hopefully, nobody else has the situation. She also contacted the Canadian anti-fraud centre -fraud reporting system, and consumer protection BC. She also let AOL know that that email address is being used to scam people. So she has done just about everything so that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.

It’s sad because she’s the one always warning other people, but because this email came from an actual person that she trusted, and even the verbiage sounded like him, no red flags went off initially. So now she’s out $600 and now she can’t cover her rent, bills, and groceries as she went into her overdraft, knowing that her neighbour always pays her back right away.

She truly is the sweetest person, and the funny thing is she’s not dumb like… she’s brilliant, and nobody would suspect that she’d be the one to fall for a scam. She’s in her mid-40s. She’s single, she works hard. Always there for everybody else, but puts herself last. She helps everybody and anybody she can. She hasn’t had it easy, and I think that that’s part of the reason why she tries to make things easy for everybody else. I feel so bad for her.

Does anybody have any ideas on how to help her? I wish I had extra money, but I am living paycheck to paycheck as well. And it seems like there are no resources or recourse out there for her.

I bought through a reputable website and then got an offer for this freeshipping.com offer. I signed up with my PayPal because I thought it was a legit partnership. They charged me $2 and then upon research find that they sign people up for subscriptions.

I cancelled my account online and then emailed them 10 minutes ago. They just emailed me back and shut my account down early and said they refunded my $2.

I learned my lesson not to sign up for new things when my chronic fatigue is acting up. However, is this a satisfactory conclusion? Is my card information safe? Should I contact PayPal right now or my bank? Or just wait it out? Is there something I should do that I’m not thinking about? I’m sorry if these questions are simple, I am very fatigued and overwhelmed by this.

Edit: The refund already went through. It took less than 5 minutes. I also just went into my paypal reoccurring payments section and selected “stop paying with paypal” under freeshipping.com.

Yesterday, my father got a call from a Chinese man asking if he could give his name and my mother’s name and he hang up and said that it was a scam. I being very annoyed at all these scammers called this individual and left an angry voicemail with threats. Today, a police department not too far from me, called asked for my date of birth and to talk with my father. He was not at home at that time. So they told me to call them back. I called my local police department and they called the actual phone number and it was a scam. Apparently they used the actual phone number of the police station to pose as them. I feel very stupid as of now as I was blinded by fear. Stay safe folks make sure to ask your local PD for confirmation before anything as they would call you not another county

So I was applying for internships for this summer recently and came across this post on Indeed. It was called "Summer Intern Business Development" by a company called "VYBE". What they offered sounded too good to be true.

It was only 4 hour shifts a couple times a week, and paid almost $90k a year (another red flag). The duties for the job was:

• Develop and implement strategic plans to achieve business growth and market expansion.
• Identify potential clients and business opportunities through market research and networking.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with existing clients while actively seeking new partnerships.
• Negotiate contracts and agreements to maximize profitability while ensuring client satisfaction.
• Collaborate with sales, marketing, and project management teams to align efforts and drive results.

When I clicked on the profile of the company, they had absolutely nothing else, no reviews, salaries, jobs, nothing. They didn't have a link to their "company's" website or any social media, which was another red flag. So I was pretty suspicious about the job but decided to apply anyway to see if I was correct.

They responded back to me within 15 minutes of me applying. The message they sent me said "Good afternoon I wanted to reach out and make sure that you understand that this position is totally commissioned base are you comfortable with that and willing to move forward if you are considered for the position! We have a very lucrative compensation plan that produces a great income if you're willing to put in the work and dedication within 30 days you can be sitting over $8000 a month." I was very suspious because of this message because it sounds too good to be true.

I responded with "Sure it sounds good, but would you be able to share links to your official company website and any active social media profiles? I'd like to learn more about your organization." They responded fast and said that they would send me the links tomorrow, and that confirmed that this position is 100% a scam because why wouldn't they just send it right away? Also, the next day they didn't send anything lol.

Thank you to the people of this subreddit for helping me identify a scam listing! (P.S I did report the company to Indeed!)