The IRS agent, the Microsoft technician, the grandson in jail, the boss who’s stuck in a meeting. They all sound different on the phone. They all end at the same place: the gift card rack at a drugstore, with someone on the line telling you which cards to buy and how much to put on…
If you just sent money to someone who turned out to be a scammer, you want one answer, and you want it fast: can I get it back? That question is what this guide answers. Here is how to get money back from a scammer when it’s possible, and how to tell when it isn’t….
There’s a meeting on your calendar Thursday at 2pm. You don’t remember agreeing to it. The title says something about an invoice, or a crypto purchase, or a payment that’s about to go through, and there’s a phone number underneath. A reminder already went off. Start here, because it’s the question everyone actually has. Nobody…
The invitation looks right. It has the layout you’ve seen a hundred times, the RSVP button in the usual place, and at the top, the name of someone you actually know. Then you tap it and a login box appears asking for your email address and password before it will show you the party details….
There’s a scam running in a lot of cities right now that costs about eleven cents to pull off. A criminal prints a QR code on a sticker sheet, walks up to a parking meter, and slaps their code on top of the real one. That’s the whole operation. The meter still looks official. The…
Most people who search for help with payment app scams are searching for it at the worst possible moment. They sent the money on Zelle, Venmo, or Cash App an hour ago, something feels wrong, and they want to know one thing: can I get it back? I’ll give you the honest answer up front,…
For years, the standard advice on the grandparent scam had a comforting flaw built right into it. The reassurance was always some version of “I would know my own grandchild’s voice.” That used to be true enough to lean on. It isn’t anymore. The grandparent scam is the call where someone claims a loved one…
You almost tapped it. That’s the part worth thinking about. A text lands while you’re in the middle of something else. A package can’t be delivered. A toll went unpaid. Your bank flagged a charge. Your thumb is already drifting toward the link before the rest of your brain has caught up. Most people stop…
Most warnings about job offer scams stop at the fake check. You get “hired,” a check shows up, you’re told to deposit it and wire part of it back, the check bounces a week later, and you’re on the hook for the money. That con is real and it still works. But it’s not the…
If you’re reading this right after clicking something you wish you hadn’t, take a breath. The click itself is rarely the disaster. I spent more than twenty years building the products that are supposed to catch this kind of thing, and one of the more useful things I can tell you is that a phishing…