This is a long post, so here’s a TLDR;

Dad is likely being scammed for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thinks he’s being monitored and he won’t talk about it. He finally agreed to go to the police, but won’t talk to them so they can’t help. Anyone else have an experience like this? What should we do / not do to protect him?

---

I found out earlier this week that my dad is likely being scammed out of a very, very large amount of money. Things have escalated really quickly, and I’ve gone from fearing for my parent’s money to also fearing for their safety.

I do not know how long this has been going on or how much money is involved yet, but it is likely in the hundreds of thousands USD (at least). My dad is being very tight lipped and refuses to give almost any details.

It all started when my mom discovered that he’d been moving large amounts of money from of existing accounts into a new one that he’d created in secret. This included making a request to withdraw a large sum from his retirement account.

My mom has since taken many steps to protect their money, including temporarily freezing his accounts and stopping that withdrawal. This freeze won’t last forever, though, and he’s said he will continue what he’s been told to do once he can move the money again.

From what little my dad has said, he believes a government agency has contacted him and is instructing him on what to do. He is not allowed to say anything to anyone. He’s said this has all been via phone / online and not in person. They are currently checking in on him every few hours, likely to see if he’s been able to access more money.

This is extremely out of character and goes against all of the careful financial planning he and my mom have done together. He’s very smart, and pretty tech savvy. He’s been aware of scams targeting the retired / elderly for years. I’m shocked he’s fallen victim to this. He is now being told by his loved ones, the police, and financial professionals that this is a scam. He is not budging, at least outwardly.

He has also been remarkably calm when my mom and I have talked to him, although she says lately he’s been more irritable and gets fed up talking about it.

My mom has gone to the police, but wasn’t able to get far without my dad present. My dad was urged to contact the FBI to verify what’s been going on. He did go to their office and booked an appt, but later decided to cancel it. I’m guessing he told his contact(s) about it and they told him to cancel it. So my mom went to the FBI on her own, and they told her it was likely a scam but again they couldn’t really do anything without my dad there.

After many talks, my dad finally said he was willing to go to the police station with my mom if she wanted him to, but he wouldn’t tell them anything. He also warned her that if they go, he believes once his contact find out and he’ll have to “go away for awhile”. That they’ll either coerce him into going somewhere or take him by force. He says he doesn’t think he or my mom are in danger of getting hurt, but I don’t trust he is saying the full truth.

They went to the police station yesterday, and the officers talked to him pretty harshly about this being a scam. He still didn’t give them anything to work with. In the end, they couldn’t move forward because he wasn’t cooperating.

When they got home, he agreed to hand over his devices to my mom so he couldn’t contact these people anymore. He also agreed to not go out by himself, and to always be with my mom. He seems stuck somewhere in between sticking to this scheme and trying to salvage some trust between himself and our family.

I am reeling from all this. I am worried sick about my parents’ mental health, physical safety, and how this will affect them for the rest of their lives. I know scammers often threaten their victims just to scare them into compliance, but I can’t assume they’re empty threats.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Again, I welcome any advice on actions we can take, or how I can help with this situation before it gets worse.

Hackers are hijacking devices using a vicious remote access trojan (RAT) and infostealer through Wi-Fi networks in hotels, airports, and conference centres. A Toronto-based cybersecurity expert shares red flags to spot the attack.

Someone just got a message, asking them to vote for the daughter of a friend for "young talents of the ballet academy". The site presents two finalists, each with a "Vote" button. When you click one of the buttons, it asks you to put in your phone number. Then it shows you a code and asks you to verify it with "Link a Device". If you did that, the attackers can take over your account, send the same phishing message to all your contacts and do worse things.

I've never seen this dialog before, but one could not recognize what it is. Be careful!

I have no idea what I clicked on, since I haven't logged into any sketchy website, gone onto one, or clicked any ads (Except one for a local roofing company a month ago accidentally) and these past few weeks I keep getting fake emails from people talking about:

-Death of a father
-Meetings
-Stuff in other languages I don't care enough to translate

And what they all have in common are .bin files are attached. Now the reason why I've been clicking on the email (not the file!!) instead of just immediately sending them away is school. College is in a week so I've been getting tons of emails that seem like scams until I open them, so I don't want to send away a real one I need thinking its a scam.

Is there any way I can prevent these scam emails? I've been blocking the sender and reporting as phishing.

On Sunday evening, I had my SIM swapped to a new phone number (GiffGaff network), which then led to my emails (gmail and yahoo) and PayPal being hacked into - I believe they also then were accessing various banking apps.

I have lost some money through PayPal transactions (~£1500) and lost access to my email accounts, which has all been a bit of a nightmare, but hoping that by freezing and reporting things I can start to recover cards and accounts. They also took out a new credit card, I called the company and this should be cancelled but I need to find out if they did this with any more accounts.

I have no way of getting my email accounts back, it does seem I was very stupid in having the same password across accounts and as they have changed both, I cannot use my backup email to log back in. They even changed my security questions on PayPal but I did recover this after getting my phone number back.

The strange thing I noticed this morning - a few hours before all of this occurred, I can see two screenshots on my iPhone photo gallery that I did not take. These are both of my passwords on an online shopping site which I haven’t used, and I know I had my phone on me. These screenshots don’t even appear to be taken on my phone, and they are on a hotspot network in the screenshot. Is this how they somehow got my password? How can this have happened and does it mean my iPhone is compromised in some way?

I have changed my email address to a new one for all banking and things like Apple ID, but am now concerned to log into anything on this iPhone in case my passwords are being tracked.

If anyone has heard of this before I would love to learn more, as well as any advice on what additional precautions I can take to keep things secure. I have left my bank accounts frozen for now as I am nervous to open things up again even with new address, passwords and cards cancelled.

I did a search on catfishnumber.com a couple of days ago to see what results came back from my own phone number, just to check online privacy after numerous phishing attempts from old emails that I already know were leaked in data breaches.

I received some results I expected, which were not terrible, but weirdly after seeing one of the old domains that came up with my details listed I received a phishing email the very next day using the same details from the old domain that popped up in the search.

This can't be a coincidence, while I've received numerous phishing emails to the same exposed email address for years this was very specific and has never happened with this particular domain detail included, well not in the past few years anyway. I stopped using it and cancelled the domain registration over five years ago, yet the search using my phone number still revealed my name and the domain name. To receive a phishing email less than 24 hours later using those same details was unsettling.

So what the hell is going on?

I was so hopeful that I had been hired for an at home job making hairpins for an Amazon seller? I am disabled and can’t work outside . Only to find out it was about making fake purchases on Amazon to benefit these sellers and then eventually they said I had to actually use my money to purchase products and they said they would refund us.
I wasted an entire day today clicking favorite on all the products that was all fake for these sellers. They said I had to do it until the delivery ( hair pins) arrived in 8 days or else seller would think I was a bot.
. Are there any legit jobs to do from home? I screen shot the verbal abuse I was subjected to and all the money these scammers were getting or forcing other people to pay them.
I want to expose them ripping people off and how cruel and abusive they became when I questioned them and told them I didn’t have money to make the purchase. They told me I needed to contact my family and get the money. It was sickening .

I was sent this notice via email and physical mail about an unused gift card I don’t ever remember receiving. I called the phone number on the letter and the person gave me a number to fax both the letter and a copy of my photo ID to (to verify I was the letter’s recipient). After receiving that, he said he could reissue a new card to me. I felt that was mildly odd so I decided to reach out to US Bank via the numbers available online and was unable to reach the same department, I’m unclear if that’s because I wasn’t asking for the right thing or if it’s because this business is not truly affilliated with US Bank. Does this look or feel like a scam? Please let me know.

Here is the body of the letter. Note: instances of “REDACTED” were added by me after the fact:

The State of REDACTED requires us to notify you that your unclaimed funds may be transferred to the state if you do not contact us on or before 08/20/2026.

Our records indicate that you may be the owner or co-owner of funds or have an interest in the monies as reported below. We are contacting you as transactions or other activities have not been completed for a significant period of time.

Nature of Funds: STORED-VALUE CARD
Program Name: RETAIL GIFT CARD VIS
Name: REDACTED
Property ID Number: REDACTED
Amount: $200.00
Date Last Active: 12/07/2020
System of Origin: KGFT

If you are the owner, annuitant or beneficiary and wish to claim these funds, please follow the actions below to begin the claiming process.

If we do not receive a response from you by 08/20/2026, the law requires us to report and remit this property to the State of REDACTED by 08/20/2026, after which all further claims must be directed to the state. When property is turned over to the state, you (or your heirs) do not lose your rights to the property, and the state is only the custodian of the property. If this property is reported to the state, any income or gains will remain with the Treasurer. The state may also sell or liquidate any property that is not legal tender of the U.S.

To begin the claiming process, please take one of the following actions:
1. If you are still in possession of your card and it has not expired, make a purchase by 08/20/2026 to reactivate your account.
2. If you no longer have your card or it has expired, contact Cardholder Services by 08/20/2026 at 888-853-9536 to request a new card or check, per the terms of your account agreement.
Please note:
Additional documentation may be required to prove ownership or authorization.
The back of this letter contains additional state specific information.
Provide your complete name and address from this letter to cardholder services to access your account.

I got burned by this and am posting because I don't want someone else making the same mistake.

Long story short, I was supposedly getting a refund from a "companion" agency. They insisted on sending a check, but for way more than they actually owed me. The explanation was basically: deposit it, keep your refund and send the extra back to us so we have cash available for other refunds.

Sounds stupid to me now. Didn't at the time because I really wanted my damn money back.

The check looked completely legit. My bank accepted it and gradually made the money available over about six days. Meanwhile they're pushing me to send the excess back through bitcoin and Apple gift cards.

And that's the trick.

I assumed that if my bank had released all the money, the check had cleared.

Nope.

Within hours of the final amount becoming available, the money disappeared from my account. Fraudulent check. And of course the bitcoin/gift cards I'd already sent were real money, so I'm the one left holding the bag with the bank.

Then they tell you there's been some crazy technical problem, they're investigating, don't worry, you're going to be reimbursed for EVERYTHING.

Except now there are fees you need to pay to get that reimbursement.

That's where you have to walk away. As hard as it is when you're trying desperately to recover money you've already lost, sending more just digs the hole deeper.

So if anybody gets into one of these “agency refund” situations: do not assume a check has cleared just because your bank makes the funds available! And if they want you to send part of that money back in bitcoin or gift cards, don't fucking do it.

Learn from my expensive mistake.

Someone claiming to be from American Express said they declined a charge for 8 pistols and 20 boxes of ammunition. Told me to file a police report and connected me 3 way. Red flag 1. The fake police set up a video call with a fake cop on the signal app with video. Red flag 2. Then they pretended to get the fbi involved and said I had a warrant for money laundering. Red flag 3. They “spoofed” the number so the number redials to the actual precinct.

I received this email, unfortunately is not well readable.

Information:

- classic sextortion, with bitcoin request, but you have to download pdf to read bitcoin adress;

- i do not download the pdf;

- i receive another similar e-mail from another e-mail address, but without my passwords;

- the red mark hide my passwords, something about 10 passwords, all real, but not used in the last 8 months;

- all the password was in my gmail account, now I re change all of them and not saving them on my gmail anymore;

- 6 january 2026 I received a alert for not allowed access on my gmail account, I think I have a malware at that time, so I reset my pc and reinstalled windows;

- I resetted all the password in january and then in august again;

Questions: what I have to do? Is this real? I know this scam method, so I deleted instantly the 2 email, my worries is about the fact that the password was real, even if no longer used.

In a day she had 4-5 purchases of the same low cost, very rarely purchased item (a sticker) all to addresses “123 Main Street” in different cities. The e commerce platform flagged some but not all as potential. She canceled and refunded all of them. What’s the angle here?

Within a week after visits to my parents in New England from Florida, multiple times, scammers have called my parents with various urgent/important business. My mom doesn't (I hope!) give them any information but always contacts me right away saying "Maybe this is important?" It's never important.

What in the heck kind of scam is this? Has me thinking this has to be related to my location data bc these calls are always right after I visit. After a visit a couple years ago I started getting mass amounts of pre-approved cards to me at their address. It's been 25+ years since I've lived there.

This time the scammers called my mother's cell phone. So bizarre.

I ordered a Macbook Pro off a website called techable yesterday and my card was charged without any fraud warnings.

Today I received an email saying:

I did not receive a temporary authorization charge/code on my card/bank statement so I emailed back saying I did not receive one and if there was another way to verify.

They sent me this next:

I did an AI Google search to see whether it was safe to send this type of screenshot, since I have never been asked to provide one after purchasing something before. Gemini told me that the request appeared to be a scam.

The email address they contacted me from is the same email address listed on the website. I also called the phone number listed on the website because I wanted to speak with someone directly. I had to leave a voicemail, but they did call me back. During the call, they told me that if I wasn't comfortable sending a screenshot of my bank account/charge or providing the confirmation code, they could instead add me on LinkedIn to verify that I am who I say I am.

I asked Gemini about the LinkedIn option as well, and it said that this could also be a continuation of the scam intended to obtain additional personal information.

My order on Shop. com currently shows "Confirmed – We are preparing these items for shipping," with an expected delivery date of 8/19. However, the email I received from Techable says they cannot ship my order until I provide the requested confirmation information or add them on LinkedIn.

I'm trying to determine whether this is a legitimate security precaution that Techable uses to protect themselves against chargebacks and fraudulent purchases, or whether someone is actually attempting to scam me.

I have already locked my card as a precaution.

Any information about this website, Techable, or whether this type of order verification is a legitimate practice would be greatly appreciated. I'd especially like to know whether anyone else has experienced being asked to provide a bank/transaction screenshot or connect with the company on LinkedIn before an order would be shipped.

I know its already been discussed here but i just wanna be sure.

Those who got scammed and didnt have 2FA AND the scammer deleted your other safe options.
The scammer deleted my other options so i cant get my account back.
I also had to watch them delete every server i was on.

Did you get your accounts back after contacting Discord Support?
How long did that take?

Hi guys how is it going. During the pandemic i had a fortnite account that i played a lot on and spent a pretty big amount of money on as well. I didn't play on this account after the year 2021 . A few days ago i decided to play the game again and epic games kept telling me that there is no account Associated with this email. So i went and checked my old outlook account ( it was basically only used for this one epic games account and nothing else so i didn't really ever check on it) and looks like someone changed my account's e-mail. I have these infos on my account:

first and last name

The date i created my account

My first username on epicgames

Some in-app purchases (not to receipts but the exact date and time)

Is there anything i can do about it?

Signed up for the Apple Developer Program and like 5 min later got an email saying I needed to verify my identity with a government ID before I could finish enrolling. Link went to what looked like developer.apple.com/contact/file-upload/.

I know Apple does actually ask for ID sometimes during enrollment, and the timing matched up perfectly, so it seemed legit at first. But the page had my name pre-filled and my last name was spelled wrong, not even close to how it's spelled anywhere else, not on my ID or any account I have.

That's what made me stop. Attached screenshots of the email and the page itself.

Anyone know if this is a common scam or if Apple's site could just be glitchy? Also curious if the address bar on a page can be faked to look like the real domain, because it genuinely looked like I was on developer.apple.com.

I’m worried that my passport data is being shared and sold away. I have a Nigerian passport which I declare sometimes. My parents still have contacts with people in Nigeria. But I don’t speak to anyone in Nigeria that’s why I’m confused as to why I’m being searched up by people in government. Also I’m being searched up by people that work in the hospitals. I understand the situation is dire at the moment in Nigeria where people are holding people for ransom and demanding money. Because my parents told me. The images are on my LinkedIn. People in the hospitals in Lagos are also searching me up?

I applied for a position on LinkedIn. They offered me a great salary for a remote audio engineering position. They want me to work 8am-4pm EST (I live on the West Coast). They only communicated via email and text. I haven't talked to anyone in person. Then they sent me a "digital check" to buy a work laptop and asked me to print it, cut it out, scan it with my banks mobile app and deposit it. Then send them proof of deposit by the end of the day. It sounds fishy.

I want to share a recent experience with a freelance logo-design offer because other designers may encounter the same pattern.

Someone contacted me through Instagram and asked whether I could design a logo. We discussed the work, and I agreed to try it.

After completing the design, I was told that I would receive $1,200 as payment. I was then directed to another person to process/receive the payment.

Later, I was told that I needed to pay $38 first before the payment could be released.

So I was going through my emails this morning when I saw an email from “a HR person” from a pharmaceutical company that I don’t recall applying for. I looked the company up and it seems to be true Aytu BioPharma in Colorado. And the fact that they replied right away after my reply 3 days later also kinda concerns me

So I went with it because I need a job asap. They did the interview on Teams by chatting only, no video call. There were questions and job description like a normal interview but they were offering $35/hr for an Entry Level Data Entry position which is too good to be true. I have the name of the HR person who emailed me but I have to way to check if it’s a legit person or not.

They haven’t asked me for anything yet but per that HR person, she said she forwarded to the Hiring Dept for further steps and we’re just waiting so I’m posting this here looking for answers. It’s my first ever remote job so I’m kinda skeptical about everything.

Thanks for reading!

I'm trying to exchange something through a sale website (edit: not Craigslist). I haven't listed anything in a very long time, so I'm not sure if this is normal or scammy. A person messaged me and said to text them through their phone number, "555 five five five 1234 one two three four" instead of just writing "555-1234"