# Scam Atlas

> A plain-English field guide to how online and phone scams actually work: the mechanics stage by stage, the documented cases, the red flags, and the loss data from official sources. Every factual claim carries a source URL and an access date.

Scam Atlas is written to be quoted and cited. Attribution to Scam Atlas with a link to the page is all we ask. Statistics reproduced here belong to the agencies that collected them — cite them alongside us.

Two things worth knowing before quoting any number from this site:
- Every loss figure is a REPORTED loss and is a floor, not a total. Agencies on every continent say most fraud is never reported to them.
- No agency publishes a line item for most individual schemes. Charts on a scheme page show the broader official category that contains it, labelled with that agency's own category name. See /methodology/.

## Scam schemes

- [Advance fee and 419 scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/advance-fee-419/): A large sum that is nearly yours, held up by one more payment that is always the last one.
- [Auto warranty robocalls](https://howscamswork.com/scams/auto-warranty-robocall/): The most recognisable sentence in telephone fraud, and eight billion calls anyway.
- [Bank impersonation and the safe account](https://howscamswork.com/scams/bank-impersonation-safe-account/): A call from your bank's real number, telling you your money is at risk and must be moved somewhere safe.
- [Card skimming](https://howscamswork.com/scams/card-skimming/): No call, no text, no click — a hidden device copies your card the moment you use it normally.
- [Celebrity endorsement and deepfake ads](https://howscamswork.com/scams/celebrity-endorsement-deepfake-ads/): The advert is not the fraud. It is the door, and it is bought with a stolen face.
- [Business email compromise](https://howscamswork.com/scams/ceo-fraud-bec/): Someone reads a real payment conversation from inside a real mailbox, then joins it with different bank details.
- [Charity and disaster scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/charity-and-disaster/): A disaster used as a collection tin — and, at the other end of the same spectrum, a real charity where almost nothing reaches the cause.
- [Check washing](https://howscamswork.com/scams/check-washing/): A signed check taken from a mailbox, its ink chemically erased, and cashed under a new payee and a new amount before the original bill is ever paid.
- [Contractor and storm chaser scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/contractor-and-storm-chaser/): A knock at the door days after the storm, and every useful defence already out of reach.
- [Credit repair scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/credit-repair-scam/): A federal law already made the fee illegal before the service even started — the shortest test there is for whether the promise is real.
- [Bitcoin ATM and crypto kiosk scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/crypto-atm/): Cash into a machine in a petrol station, gone before you have driven home.
- [Recovery scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/crypto-recovery-scam/): The second scam, aimed at the people the first one already took — and it arrives knowing exactly what you lost.
- [NFT and crypto token rug pulls](https://howscamswork.com/scams/crypto-rug-pull/): A project that looks real until the liquidity — and the people who built it — vanish in the same transaction.
- [Debt settlement scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/debt-settlement-scam/): A federal rule already bans charging you before a single debt is settled — most of these operators charge you anyway.
- [Deepfake voice and video scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/deepfake-voice-and-video/): A familiar voice, or a face on a video call, that belongs to nobody — and the checks people were taught no longer apply.
- [Digital arrest](https://howscamswork.com/scams/digital-arrest/): A police officer on a video call who will not let you hang up, in a police station that was built for the camera.
- [E-commerce automation and business opportunity schemes](https://howscamswork.com/scams/ecommerce-automation/): A real service, a plausible business, and a promise the platform itself will not allow.
- [Fake online pharmacies](https://howscamswork.com/scams/fake-online-pharmacy/): The product is not undelivered and it is not worthless. It arrives, and it can contain fentanyl.
- [Fake tech support](https://howscamswork.com/scams/fake-tech-support/): A fake problem with your computer, solved by giving a stranger control of it — and then of your bank.
- [Gift card draining](https://howscamswork.com/scams/gift-card-draining/): Nobody is contacted, nobody is persuaded, and the loss lands on a gift.
- [Government grant scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/government-grant-scam/): You already qualify for free government money — a small fee is all that stands between you and it.
- [Government impersonation](https://howscamswork.com/scams/government-impersonation/): A call from someone you are trained to obey, about a problem only immediate payment can fix.
- [Grandparent and family emergency scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/grandparent-family-emergency/): A frightened voice claiming to be your grandchild, an arrest, and a courier on the way for the bail money.
- ["Hi Mum" and family impersonation texts](https://howscamswork.com/scams/hi-mum-whatsapp/): A message from your child's new number, explaining in advance why it does not sound like them.
- [Home title fraud](https://howscamswork.com/scams/home-title-fraud/): A forged signature at a county recorder's office, and the homeowner is often the last person to find out.
- [Immigration and visa scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/immigration-and-visa/): The fee is the smallest thing that gets taken.
- [Fake investment platforms](https://howscamswork.com/scams/investment-crypto-platform/): A trading dashboard that shows everything except the one thing that matters — that no trade ever happened.
- [Invoice and vendor fraud](https://howscamswork.com/scams/invoice-and-vendor-fraud/): A real invoice, for real work, from a real supplier — with eleven digits changed.
- [Job and task scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/job-and-task-scams/): Work that costs money instead of paying it — and sometimes makes you a money mule without telling you.
- [Prize, lottery and sweepstakes scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/lottery-prize/): You have won something you never entered, and there is one fee left before it can be released.
- [Mass-mailing and psychic letter fraud](https://howscamswork.com/scams/mass-mailing-fraud/): Nobody moderates an envelope, which is why one of these ran for twenty years.
- [Medicare and health insurance scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/medicare-health-insurance/): A call that asks for nothing but a number, which is then billed for years.
- [MLM pyramid schemes](https://howscamswork.com/scams/mlm-pyramid-scheme/): A real product for sale, and a compensation plan that pays for recruiting people rather than for anyone buying it.
- [Money mule recruitment](https://howscamswork.com/scams/money-mule-recruitment/): The job pays you first — with money stolen from someone else, and your name on the account when it gets traced.
- [Mortgage relief and foreclosure rescue scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/mortgage-relief-and-foreclosure/): The fee is paid out of the very thing it was supposed to protect.
- [Moving company scams and hostage loads](https://howscamswork.com/scams/moving-company/): It feels like a negotiation. It is a regulatory violation.
- [Ore-ore sagi and Japan's special fraud](https://howscamswork.com/scams/ore-ore-sagi/): "It's me" — a scheme named for a grandson's voice that now mostly uses a police officer's.
- [Overpayment and fake cheque scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/overpayment-and-fake-cheque/): You are paid too much, asked to return the difference, and then the original payment reverses.
- [Phantom debt collection](https://howscamswork.com/scams/phantom-debt-collection/): Nothing is offered, so there is nothing to be sceptical about.
- [Phishing and smishing](https://howscamswork.com/scams/phishing-smishing/): A small, cheap problem and a link that fixes it — on a screen where you cannot see where the link goes.
- [Pig butchering](https://howscamswork.com/scams/pig-butchering/): A months-long relationship built for one purpose: to get you onto a fake trading platform and keep you paying in.
- [Ponzi schemes and high-yield investment programmes](https://howscamswork.com/scams/ponzi-and-hyip/): A rate of return that fails arithmetic, paid from the deposits of the people who joined after you.
- [Power of attorney and caregiver financial abuse](https://howscamswork.com/scams/power-of-attorney-abuse/): A signature that makes someone else the only person your bank will still listen to — and no stranger, no phone call, no urgency required.
- [Pump and dump, and finfluencer manipulation](https://howscamswork.com/scams/pump-and-dump-and-finfluencer/): Real shares, bought through your own broker, from people who needed a buyer.
- [Puppy and pet scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/puppy-and-pet/): A dog that does not exist, and a sequence of fees that only ends when you do.
- [QR code scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/qr-code-quishing/): A QR code is a link you cannot read — which is why a sticker over a real one works so well.
- [Refund and remote access scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/refund-and-remote-access/): A refund you never asked for, paid in too generously, and a screen you no longer control while you send the difference back.
- [Rental and real estate scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/rental-and-real-estate/): A deposit for a home nobody owns — or a completion payment redirected from inside the conveyancer's own email thread.
- [Romance scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/romance/): A relationship built to be spent — where the first request for money is small, urgent, and framed as a crisis.
- [Sextortion](https://howscamswork.com/scams/sextortion/): A threat to publish intimate images unless you pay — very often when no images exist at all.
- [SIM swap](https://howscamswork.com/scams/sim-swap/): Someone convinces your mobile carrier to move your number to their SIM, and every code you rely on starts arriving on their phone.
- [Student loan forgiveness scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/student-loan-forgiveness/): It sells you a free government programme, while claiming to be the government.
- [Subscription traps and free trials](https://howscamswork.com/scams/subscription-trap-and-free-trial/): Signing up takes one click. Everything after that is designed to take more.
- [Synthetic identity fraud](https://howscamswork.com/scams/synthetic-identity-fraud/): A stolen Social Security number, given a name and a birthday that were never real, aged for years until a bank finally believes it.
- [Fraudulent tax preparers](https://howscamswork.com/scams/tax-preparer-fraud/): A paid preparer can inflate your refund, skim part of it, and hand you a return that isn't the one the IRS actually received.
- [Ticket and marketplace scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/ticket-and-marketplace/): Goods that were never there — and a seller whose only real skill is getting you off a payment rail that protects you.
- [Timeshare exit and resale scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/timeshare-exit/): A buyer who does not exist, or an escape that was never blocked — and fees before either.
- [Toll and delivery texts](https://howscamswork.com/scams/toll-and-delivery-text/): A tiny amount you probably do owe someone, and a link that takes your card details instead.
- [Unemployment insurance fraud](https://howscamswork.com/scams/unemployment-insurance-fraud/): A stranger claims benefits in your name, and the first sign you get is a tax form for money you were never paid.
- [Utility shut-off scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/utility-shutoff/): A regulated process, compressed into thirty minutes that do not exist.
- [Online vehicle purchase scams](https://howscamswork.com/scams/vehicle-purchase/): Your caution is not overcome. It is answered, with a fake version of the protection you asked for.
- [Wrong number texts](https://howscamswork.com/scams/wrong-number-text/): A text that wants nothing, from someone who has all the time in the world.

## Documented cases

- ["Hi Mum": Australia names the WhatsApp version and counts it](https://howscamswork.com/cases/accc-hi-mum-alert/): The ACCC issued a formal alert on 23 August 2022 after more than 1,150 Australians lost A$2.6 million to family impersonation messages in seven months, most of them in Ju
- [FTC halts a $100 million debt-relief operation accused of impersonating banks to target veterans](https://howscamswork.com/cases/accelerated-debt-settlement-veterans/): On 14 July 2025 the FTC sued seven companies and three individuals behind "Accelerated Debt," alleging the operation took in roughly $100 million from consumers, mostly o
- [Amazon pays $2.5bn over Prime enrolment and cancellation](https://howscamswork.com/cases/amazon-prime-subscription-trap/): On 25 September 2025 the FTC announced a $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon over allegations that it enrolled millions of people in Prime without consent and made cancel
- [Shell companies built years of fake credit history for identities that didn't exist](https://howscamswork.com/cases/arena-suffolk-synthetic-identity-bustout/): A Suffolk County, New York, investigation unravelled a 13-person, three-corporation ring that created more than 20 synthetic identities using the Social Security numbers 
- [Eight traders with a Discord, and $114m in alleged profits](https://howscamswork.com/cases/atlas-trading-finfluencers/): In December 2022 the SEC and the Justice Department charged eight men who ran the Atlas Trading community on Discord and Twitter, alleging they bought stocks, urged hundr
- ["Passive investment income" from AI storefronts, and a $21.7m judgment](https://howscamswork.com/cases/automators-ai-ban/): The FTC banned the owners of Automators AI in February 2024 over promises of passive investment income from AI-powered Amazon and Walmart storefronts. The vast majority o
- [Laundering $3.1m of scam proceeds through salvaged cars shipped to West Africa](https://howscamswork.com/cases/baiyewu-car-shipping-laundering/): In August 2026 a Nigerian national living in Houston was sentenced to 95 months in prison for leading a conspiracy that laundered more than $3.1 million in proceeds from 
- [Baller Ape Club: a $2.6 million rug pull, and a defendant the US has not caught](https://howscamswork.com/cases/baller-ape-club-rug-pull/): Le Anh Tuan, a 26-year-old Vietnamese national, and unnamed co-conspirators sold "Baller Ape Club" NFTs in October 2021, then deleted the project's website and disappeare
- [Puppy scams: a $600 median, and 4.8% of victims reporting](https://howscamswork.com/cases/bbb-puppy-scam-study/): The Better Business Bureau's 2025 puppy scam study update recorded 1,632 reports through September 2025 with a median loss of $600, following 2,278 reports in 2024 and 2,
- [A Florida woman convicted of exploiting a widowed neighbor for $350,000](https://howscamswork.com/cases/bitting-leesburg-power-of-attorney/): Kimberly Ruth Bitting, 58, of Leesburg, Florida, obtained power of attorney over an elderly neighbor shortly after the victim's husband died in August 2021, then spent ro
- [Six company names, one script, and debts that never existed](https://howscamswork.com/cases/blackstone-legal-phantom-debt/): A federal court froze the assets of Blackstone Legal and its affiliates in March 2025 after the FTC alleged they collected on debts that never existed, threatening lawsui
- ["Dada Joe Remix": a decade of romance and inheritance fraud, and an extradition request](https://howscamswork.com/cases/boateng-gold-and-jewels-romance/): A grand jury indictment unsealed in Arizona in May 2025 charged Joseph Kwadwo Badu Boateng, a Ghanaian citizen known as "Dada Joe Remix", with conspiracy to commit wire f
- [Fewer victims, four times the loss: Canada's bank investigator scam](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cafc-bank-investigator-divergence/): The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre files the safe-account scam under "Bank Investigator", and its open dataset shows two lines moving in opposite directions. Reports fell fro
- [Canada's emergency scam moved from the phone to the text message](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cafc-emergency-channel-shift/): Between 2021 and 2025 the share of Canadian emergency scam reports arriving by text message rose from 1.2% to 17.7%, while the telephone's share fell from a peak of 71% t
- [Canada's emergency scam: a spike, then a collapse](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cafc-emergency-scam-rise-and-fall/): The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre files grandparent scams under "Emergency (Jail, Accident, Hospital, Help)", and its open dataset shows a category that rose fast and then f
- [Canada's recovery-pitch reports: from C$1.7m to C$21.9m in four years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cafc-recovery-pitch-trend/): The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre publishes its full reporting database, and it files second-wave recovery approaches under their own category. That category shows one of th
- [Ten times fewer reports, ten times the loss each](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cafc-vendor-fraud-concentration/): Canadian vendor fraud reports fell from 4,120 in 2021 to 426 in the first nine months of 2025 — a fall of about 90% — while loss per victim rose from roughly C$3,200 to r
- [A fake driver's licence, a rented alias, and a mail drop for stolen credit](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cato-atlanta-synthetic-identity-ring/): Corey Cato, 41, of Atlanta, was sentenced in September 2022 to more than seven years in federal prison for his role in a nationwide fraud ring that used stolen Social Sec
- [Bail money at the door: a courier for Dominican Republic call centres](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cepeda-bail-courier/): In May 2025 a grand jury in the District of New Jersey indicted Jhonny Cepeda of New York with wire fraud conspiracy. Prosecutors allege he worked as a courier in a "gran
- [Chegg charged 200,000 people after they cancelled](https://howscamswork.com/cases/chegg-cancellation-charges/): The FTC announced on 15 September 2025 that the education company Chegg would pay $7.5 million over allegations that it hid its cancellation route and then kept charging 
- [A cartel ran call centres selling Americans their own timeshares back](https://howscamswork.com/cases/cjng-timeshare-fraud/): The Justice Department indicted a senior member of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion in September 2025 over an advance fee scheme, run from call centres in Mexico si
- [20% of the stores earned nothing, and 95% were shut down](https://howscamswork.com/cases/click-profit-ecommerce-automation/): The FTC halted Click Profit in March 2025, alleging it sold managed Amazon storefronts as guaranteed passive income while claiming AI technology and partnerships with Nik
- [The US "click to cancel" rule was made, then vacated](https://howscamswork.com/cases/click-to-cancel-vacated/): The FTC finalised a rule in October 2024 requiring cancellation to be as easy as sign-up. On 8 July 2025 the Eighth Circuit vacated it on procedural grounds, without ruli
- [A family skimming ring across seven states, 15,000 cards compromised](https://howscamswork.com/cases/codreanu-family-multistate-skimming-ring/): Four members of an extended family — Nicolas Longin Codreanu, Armando Ion Codreanu, Isabela Ignat Codreanu and Robby Vicson Codreanu, all in their early twenties and livi
- [A SIM swap that moved the price of bitcoin](https://howscamswork.com/cases/council-sec-x-sim-swap/): In May 2025 an Alabama man was sentenced to 14 months in prison for his part in taking over the US Securities and Exchange Commission's account on X. He obtained control 
- [A $200 million credit repair network halted by a federal court](https://howscamswork.com/cases/credit-glory-200-million/): In August 2026 the FTC sued a network of 17 companies operating under names including Credit Glory, Credit Sage and Credit Cop, plus five named principals, alleging the o
- [Fake pharmacies in three countries, and pills in every US state](https://howscamswork.com/cases/dea-counterfeit-pill-network/): The DEA's October 2024 warning records an increase in illegal online pharmacies shipping counterfeit pills made with fentanyl and methamphetamine to people who believed t
- [200 pharmacy websites seized, and six people dead](https://howscamswork.com/cases/dea-operation-meltdown/): On 4 February 2026 the DEA announced the seizure of more than 200 website domains tied to an India-based criminal organisation it says is responsible for at least six fat
- [A 79-year-old mule ordered to repay $1.97 million she never kept](https://howscamswork.com/cases/dolisi-lottery-scam-mule/): Sharon Dolisi, 79, of Phelps County, Missouri, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud after depositing more than $2 million from 28 lottery scam victi
- [A Boise couple sentenced for defrauding an elderly rancher out of her home](https://howscamswork.com/cases/dougherty-boise-ranch-fraud/): James Dougherty, 44, and his wife Jessica Dougherty, 43, of Boise, Idaho, moved onto a retired schoolteacher's 46-acre ranch in 2015 to help with horses and ranch work in
- [Fake cheque reports fell by two thirds — but the mechanism did not go away](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fake-cheque-decline-us/): US fake cheque scam reports to the FTC fell from 38,451 in 2022 to 13,616 in 2024, and FBI overpayment complaints fell from 4,144 in 2023 to 2,194 in 2025. Losses did not
- [Eight billion robocalls from one operation, cut off in a week](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fcc-auto-warranty-cutoff/): On 7 July 2022 the FCC ordered every US voice provider to stop carrying auto warranty robocall traffic from a single operation it believed had generated upwards of eight 
- [5,187,677,000 calls in three months, and a $300m fine](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fcc-auto-warranty-fine/): In December 2022 the FCC proposed a $299,997,000 penalty — the largest in its history — against the auto warranty robocall operation, having found it placed approximately
- [The FDA's three questions, and why one of them is the buying method](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fda-counterfeit-medicine-signs/): The FDA's counterfeit medicine guidance asks three questions to spot a fake, and the third is not about the pill at all — it is "did you buy the drug from an online pharm
- [A credit repair pyramid scheme, $12 million clawed back, 443,000 people refunded](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fes-credit-repair-pyramid/): The FTC sued Financial Education Services and related entities in May 2022, alleging the company lured consumers with low credit scores by promising to clean up their cre
- [37,342 crypto kiosks, and a third of one state's operators unregistered](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fincen-cvc-kiosk-notice/): FinCEN's notice of 4 August 2025 records 10,956 IC3 complaints involving crypto kiosks in 2024 with about $246.7 million lost — complaints up 99% in a year. It also recor
- [The US told its banks what timeshare fraud looks like from the inside](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fincen-timeshare-fraud-notice/): On 16 July 2024 the Treasury sanctioned three Mexican accountants and four Mexican companies over CJNG timeshare fraud, and FinCEN issued a notice — jointly with OFAC and
- [The rule that makes a hostage load illegal, and almost nobody knows it](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fmcsa-110-percent-rule/): Under a non-binding estimate, an interstate mover cannot require more than 110% of the estimate at the time of delivery. Under a binding estimate, it is 100%. A crew dema
- [Federal investigators went looking for movers holding people's belongings](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fmcsa-hostage-load-operations/): FMCSA ran Operation Protect Your Move in 2023 and again in 2024 in response to a significant increase in complaints of movers holding household possessions hostage to ext
- [The company that quoted you may not own a truck](https://howscamswork.com/cases/fmcsa-movers-vs-brokers/): FMCSA distinguishes between a moving company, which owns trucks and takes responsibility for your goods, and a broker, which owns nothing and arranges for someone else to
- [$25m in illegal advance fees, and $6,000 to lose a house](https://howscamswork.com/cases/foreclosure-relief-sweep-2014/): A joint sweep by the CFPB, the FTC and 15 states in July 2014 brought 41 actions against foreclosure relief operations that had collected more than $25 million in illegal
- [Forever Living ordered to stop earnings claims after 77% of its distributors made nothing](https://howscamswork.com/cases/forever-living-fbo-earnings/): The FTC sued multilevel marketing company Forever Living Products International LLC, its CEO Gregg Maughan and President Aidan O'Hare, alleging they used deceptive earnin
- [Frosties: $1.1 million gone within hours of the mint finishing](https://howscamswork.com/cases/frosties-nft-rug-pull/): Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna, both 20, created "Frosties," an 8,888-piece Ethereum NFT collection that promised buyers a themed video game and ongoing community rewards
- [Losses at Bitcoin ATMs rose nearly tenfold in three years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-bitcoin-atm-spotlight/): The FTC's September 2024 analysis found reported losses at Bitcoin ATMs rising nearly tenfold from 2020 to over $110 million in 2023, and topping $65 million in the first
- [Four sentences a storm chaser will not say](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-contractor-post-disaster-rules/): The FTC's post-disaster contractor guidance lists four things scammers say — that they do not need a licence, that the discount expires today, that you should sign over y
- [AI-cloned dealership websites, down to the last photograph](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-dealership-website-spoofing/): On 1 September 2026 the FTC warned that scammers are cloning real car dealers' websites — often using AI — copying logos, vehicle listings and photographs in detail, then
- [Three federal agencies issued one warning as a hurricane approached](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-doj-cfpb-disaster-warning/): On 9 October 2024, with hurricanes making landfall, the FTC, the Justice Department and the CFPB issued a joint warning about disaster scams and price gouging. It names f
- [The US banned AI-generated testimonials, and then sued a company selling them](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-fake-testimonials-rule/): In August 2024 the FTC finalised a rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-generated ones, and requiring disclosure of material connections behind celebr
- [$212m on gift cards, and the reason that number is small](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-gift-card-losses-2024/): US consumers reported losing $212 million on gift or reload cards across 41,120 reports in 2024 — the sixth-largest payment method by losses, well behind bank transfers a
- [The FTC's "Grant$ For You Now": $1.99 for a government grant list that never was](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-grant-for-you-now/): The FTC sued In Deep Services, Inc. and its principals Ryan Champion and Joseph C. Fleming IV, who did business as "Grant$ For You Now," alleging their websites deceived 
- [Health care fraud costs consumers $283 at a time and Medicare billions](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-health-care-reports-small-losses/): In 2024 US consumers filed 78,763 health care fraud reports with the FTC, losing about $80 million with a median of $283 each. The same year's federal takedown alleged $1
- [Home repair fraud reports track the storms, not the calendar](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-home-improvement-reports/): US reports in the FTC's Home Improvement, Repair, and Solar category ran at 10,573 in 2022, 12,313 in 2023 and 11,408 in 2024 — flat, not rising, and unlike almost every 
- [US immigration services fraud reports nearly tripled in two years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-immigration-reports-tripled/): Reports to the FTC in its Immigration Services category rose from 478 in 2022 to 1,291 in 2024 — a 170% increase, and the sharpest proportional rise in any category we tr
- [$2.95bn lost to impersonation, and a rule with a $53,088 price tag](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-impersonation-rule/): The FTC's Impersonation Rule took effect in April 2024 and makes it illegal to falsely pose as a business or a government body, or to misrepresent an endorsement, with ci
- ["Real Medicare cards are free and mailed to you automatically"](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-medicare-open-enrollment-alert/): The FTC publishes a Medicare Open Enrollment warning every autumn, and the 30 September 2025 edition contains the single most useful sentence in the whole category: real 
- [$49,000 returned to 198 people, and what that ratio means](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-mortgage-relief-refunds/): In January 2025 the FTC sent more than $49,000 to 198 consumers harmed by a mortgage relief scheme — about $250 each, against upfront fees this industry charges in the th
- [Older adults losing six figures to impersonation scams rose eightfold](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-older-adults-six-figure-losses/): The FTC reported in August 2025 that combined losses from older adults who lost more than $100,000 to impersonation scams rose eightfold, from $55 million in 2020 to $445
- [A sticker over the parking meter's QR code](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-parking-meter-qr/): On 3 September 2026 the FTC warned consumers that people have reported scammers covering up legitimate QR codes on parking meters with codes of their own. Scanning the su
- [Four pet scams, all using AI-generated animals](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-pet-scam-variants/): In June 2026 the FTC described several distinct pet-related scams running at once: fraudsters posing as veterinarians or law enforcement claiming to have your lost pet, c
- [141,902 telemarketing complaints, and what they cannot tell you](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-unwanted-telemarketing-volume/): US consumers filed 141,902 unwanted telemarketing complaints with the FTC in 2024, alongside 200,331 about unsolicited email and 164,634 about unsolicited texts. None of 
- ["Real utilities won't demand payment to avoid same-day disconnection"](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-utility-imposter-advice/): The FTC's standing guidance on utility impersonation contains the one fact that resolves the whole scheme: a real utility company does not demand immediate payment to pre
- [US utility scam reports rose 28% in two years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-utility-reports-rising/): Reports to the FTC in its Utilities category rose from 6,040 in 2022 to 7,729 in 2024. The count is small next to phishing or investment fraud, and it is measuring someth
- [The FTC ranks "wrong number" texts among the five biggest text scams](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ftc-wrong-number-spotlight/): In April 2025 the FTC published its analysis of 2024 text-message fraud reports and placed the "wrong number" opener fifth among the top five text scams — the only one of
- [The engineer hired to secure a token's liquidity rug-pulls it himself](https://howscamswork.com/cases/game-coin-sec-settlement/): Eric Zhu, a New York-based blockchain engineer hired to work on the "Game Coin" (GME) token, kept exclusive, undisclosed control of the liquidity provider tokens the proj
- [Ninety per cent to the fundraiser, less than two to the cause](https://howscamswork.com/cases/gelvan-telefunding-ban/): In September 2020 the FTC and four states permanently banned Mark Gelvan and three associates from all charity fundraising. Their telefunding operation raised money for s
- [$7.6m collected with threats of jail, and calls to the family](https://howscamswork.com/cases/global-circulation-bogus-debt/): The FTC sued Global Circulation, Inc. and its owner in November 2024 over allegations that it collected more than $7.6 million in bogus debt by threatening consumers with
- [Stolen identities, VPNs and proxy servers, and $2.3 million in unemployment claims](https://howscamswork.com/cases/godin-miami-multistate-unemployment-fraud/): David Godin, of Miami, Florida — who also used the aliases "James St Patrick," "David Wetty" and "Vic Pro" — was sentenced in June 2025 to 78 months in federal prison for
- [$60,000 in back taxes, a signature, and a house sold within a month](https://howscamswork.com/cases/goodnough-schoharie-elderly-deed-theft/): Joseph Goodnough, 42, of Rensselaer County, New York, was sentenced in October 2025 after deceiving an elderly Schoharie County homeowner — who had fallen more than $60,0
- [A 'credit repair' front that built fake credit files instead](https://howscamswork.com/cases/griffin-raleigh-synthetic-identity-ring/): Michael Griffin ran a purported credit repair business out of Raleigh and Knightdale, North Carolina, that in reality created fictitious credit profiles for clients using
- [Ten sham entities, filed with the SEC to look registered](https://howscamswork.com/cases/guanhua-su-sham-advisers/): A federal grand jury in Washington DC indicted a Hong Kong businessman in November 2025 over an alleged conspiracy to file false investment adviser forms with the SEC for
- [79 fraudulent claims, debit cards by mail, and an ATM withdrawal trail](https://howscamswork.com/cases/gulley-sacramento-edd-unemployment-fraud/): Roosevelt Gulley, 42, of Sacramento, California, was sentenced in June 2026 to four years and six months in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. O
- [One million Americans' Medicare numbers, and a $10.6bn catheter claim](https://howscamswork.com/cases/health-care-fraud-takedown-2025/): The Justice Department's June 2025 health care fraud takedown charged 324 defendants over more than $14.6 billion in alleged fraud — the largest in its history. Two of it
- [The tell is the packaging, and it is meant not to be](https://howscamswork.com/cases/hsi-retail-gift-card-response/): Homeland Security Investigations' guidance to retailers describes the core problem with card draining: the packaging is opened, the card data taken, and the card re-packa
- [HyperFund: 1% a day, $1.89bn, and no mining operation](https://howscamswork.com/cases/hyperfund-pyramid/): HyperFund sold "membership" packages promising 0.5% to 1% a day in passive rewards, said to come from large-scale crypto mining. The SEC and the Justice Department allege
- [83,668 WhatsApp accounts blocked, and still no case count](https://howscamswork.com/cases/i4c-digital-arrest-blocking/): Across three parliamentary answers between December 2024 and December 2025, the Indian government reported blocking Skype IDs, WhatsApp accounts, SIM cards and handsets u
- [$893 million in AI-involved fraud, and where it actually shows up](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-ai-fraud-2025/): The FBI received more than 22,000 complaints reporting AI-related information in 2025, with adjusted losses of $893,346,472. Its breakdown is more useful than the headlin
- [Ten years of business email compromise: $55.5 billion in global exposed losses](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-bec-global-exposure/): In September 2024 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center published a decade of business email compromise figures: $55.5 billion in global exposed losses across complai
- [The FBI started counting charity fraud, and found $7.9 million](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-charity-new-category/): Charity appeared for the first time as its own crime type in the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report: 662 complaints and $7,907,609 in reported losses. The category did not 
- [Consent phishing: access that a password change does not revoke](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-consent-phishing/): In September 2026 the FBI warned about OAuth consent phishing — a technique that obtains lasting access to an account without ever taking a password. The victim is sent a
- [Extortion complaints nearly doubled while losses did not](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-extortion-category-growth/): FBI extortion complaints rose from 48,223 in 2023 to 89,129 in 2025 — an 85% increase — while reported losses went from $74.8 million to $122.5 million and then fell back
- [Fictitious law firms: the recovery scam that borrows the FBI's name](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-fictitious-law-firms/): The FBI has issued three escalating public warnings about a scheme that targets people who have already lost money to cryptocurrency fraud. Operators posing as lawyers at
- [26,967 complaints for cars that were never in anyone's possession](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-fraudulent-vehicle-sales/): The FBI's IC3 recorded approximately 26,967 complaints and $54,032,396 in adjusted losses from fraudulent online vehicle sales between May 2014 and December 2017. The mec
- [The FBI's catalogue of how generative AI gets used in fraud](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-generative-ai-advisory/): In December 2024 the FBI published an itemised account of how criminals use generative AI across text, images, audio and video. The most consequential entries are the mun
- [Scammers impersonating the FBI's own fraud-reporting centre](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-impersonation-2026/): In July 2026 the FBI updated a warning first issued in April 2025 about an ongoing scheme in which criminals impersonate FBI personnel and the Internet Crime Complaint Ce
- [Prize scam losses nearly doubled in a year while Canada's halved](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-lottery-losses-2025/): US reported losses to lottery, sweepstakes and inheritance fraud rose from $102.2 million in 2024 to $194.1 million in 2025, a 90% increase, on 5,623 complaints. Canada m
- [$503m of undelivered purchases, with no way to see the cars inside it](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-non-delivery-hides-vehicles/): IC3 recorded 56,478 Non-Payment/Non-Delivery complaints and $503,373,587 in losses in 2025 — a category that holds concert tickets, puppies, construction materials and ca
- [The FBI records a 300% rise in ramp-and-dump complaints](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-ramp-and-dump-psa/): On 3 July 2025 the FBI issued a public service announcement warning that criminals were recruiting US stock investors into fake "investment clubs" on social media and mes
- [Property fraud losses rose 58% in a year](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-real-estate-2025/): US real estate fraud complaints rose from 9,359 in 2024 to 12,368 in 2025, and losses rose from $173.6 million to $275.1 million — a 58% increase in a single year, after 
- [75,000 sextortion reports, and where the money actually is](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-sextortion-2025/): The FBI received more than 75,000 sextortion submissions in 2025 and referred over 5,700 involving minors to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Its age
- [SIM swap complaints halved, and so did the losses](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-sim-swap-decline/): US SIM swap complaints fell from 2,026 in 2022 to 971 in 2025, and reported losses fell from $72.7 million to $17.4 million over the same period — a 76% drop. It is one o
- [Stolen, not given: accounts broken into for explicit content](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-stolen-explicit-content/): In August 2026 the FBI warned that sexual exploitation actors are illegally accessing victims' social media and personal accounts to steal explicit content and sell it on
- [US tech support losses more than doubled in two years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ic3-tech-support-growth/): FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data shows tech support fraud losses in the United States rising from $924.5 million in 2023 to $1.46 billion in 2024 and $2.13 billio
- [A $1.2 billion trading-education MLM settles for nearly $90 million in assets](https://howscamswork.com/cases/im-mastery-academy-795-million/): The FTC and the Nevada Attorney General sued IM Mastery Academy — operating most recently as IYOVIA, and previously as iMarketsLive and IM Academy — alleging the company 
- [Reported cyber fraud losses in India rose tenfold in two years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/india-cyber-fraud-losses-growth/): A parliamentary answer of 2 December 2025 records cyber fraud losses reported in India rising from ₹2,290 crore in 2022 to ₹22,846 crore in 2024 — a tenfold increase in t
- [23 skimmers, 12 grocery stores, two states](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ionescu-stanciu-alabama-grocery-skimming/): Denis Adelin Ionescu, 24, and Ioan Victor Stanciu, 33 — both Romanian nationals unlawfully present in the US — were sentenced on 26 March 2026 to 46 and 24 months in fede
- [One victim, $400,000: Jamaican lottery fraud in Arizona](https://howscamswork.com/cases/jackson-lottery-arizona/): In May 2025 the US Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona announced an indictment charging Deeno Jackson, 27, a citizen of Jamaica, with wire fraud and conspiracy 
- [Job scams: five times the losses in Canada, double the reports in Australia](https://howscamswork.com/cases/job-scam-surge-canada-australia/): Canadian job-scam losses rose from C$9.5 million in 2021 to C$48.9 million in 2024 — more than five times — while report counts fell. In Australia, Scamwatch job-scam rep
- [Texas preparer sentenced after filing 610 false returns worth $1.2 million in bogus refunds](https://howscamswork.com/cases/karistha-johnson-tyler-texas/): Karistha Johnson, a paid tax preparer in Tyler, Texas, prepared and filed 610 false federal tax returns between 2017 and 2019, fabricating deductions and business expense
- [A court-appointed guardian convicted of stealing from her own incapacitated grandmother](https://howscamswork.com/cases/laird-dc-guardian-fraud/): Linda Laird, 62, of Cordova, Maryland, was appointed a co-guardian and co-conservator of her own 81-year-old grandmother by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
- [The two biggest credit repair brands, a $2.7 billion judgment](https://howscamswork.com/cases/lexington-law-creditrepair-telemarketing/): The CFPB sued PGX Holdings, Progrexion Marketing and the law firm behind Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com — the two largest brands in the industry, with combined 2022 r
- [Three forged quitclaim deeds, one seller already dead a year](https://howscamswork.com/cases/love-has-homes-ohio-quitclaim-fraud/): Rosalyn M. Johnson, 40, and Diamond D. Washington, 39, both of Huber Heights, Ohio, ran a company called Love Has Homes LLC that filed forged quitclaim deeds on three Mon
- [A romance scam victim who then became the mule](https://howscamswork.com/cases/marcus-dod-money-mule/): Samuel D. Marcus, 33, of Oreland, Pennsylvania, lost money to a romance scam in late 2022 and early 2023 — then, prosecutors say, knowingly kept working with the same Nig
- [The most common scam, and the least discussed](https://howscamswork.com/cases/marketplace-losses-three-countries/): Purchase scams are the highest-volume fraud in every national dataset that separates them, and they attract the least attention. UK Finance recorded purchase scams as 71%
- [A Georgia mail carrier stole $1 million in checks and gift cards from her own route](https://howscamswork.com/cases/mcafee-smyrna-mail-carrier-checks/): Melissa McAfee, a US Postal Service mail carrier in the Smyrna area of metro Atlanta, stole checks and gift cards from customers on her own delivery route between August 
- [Mission Settlement Agency's owner sentenced to 9 years for a $6.6 million scheme](https://howscamswork.com/cases/mission-settlement-agency-levitis/): Michael Levitis and his company, Mission Settlement Agency, pleaded guilty in April 2014 to mail and wire fraud after taking $6.6 million in fees from more than 1,200 fin
- [Selling the list: seven million elderly Americans, sold to lottery scammers](https://howscamswork.com/cases/murray-lead-lists/): In June 2025 the Justice Department's Consumer Protection Branch charged Troy Murray, also known as "Steve Dixson", with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for selling a lea
- [A pandemic relief programme, invoked six years later](https://howscamswork.com/cases/naa-cares-act-mortgage-relief/): In June 2026 a federal court in California halted an operation trading as National Amendment Assistance, which the FTC alleges falsely represented that its mortgage relie
- [Pop-ups, live agents and 300 victims across 37 states](https://howscamswork.com/cases/nanjun-song-popup-scheme/): In May 2025 the US Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island indicted eight people over a transnational fraud and money laundering scheme aimed at elderly people
- [Payment redirection: the only major Australian scam category still growing](https://howscamswork.com/cases/nasc-payment-redirection-2025/): Australia's National Anti-Scam Centre reported combined losses of A$166.8 million to payment redirection scams in 2025, up 9.3% on 2024. Every other category in the count
- [Rebate scams: half the reports, nearly three times the losses](https://howscamswork.com/cases/nasc-rebate-scam-surge/): Australia's National Anti-Scam Centre recorded a 49.1% fall in rebate-scam reports to Scamwatch in 2025 while losses to the same category rose 170%, from A$1.7 million to
- [Florida tax-shop chain sentenced for training staff to fabricate client deductions](https://howscamswork.com/cases/neighborhood-advance-tax-florida-scheme/): Jonathan Carrillo and Franklin Carter Jr. ran Neighborhood Advance Tax, a chain of roughly a dozen Florida tax-prep offices, from 2016 to 2020, then reopened in the same 
- [A student loan operation stopped mid-flight, in April 2026](https://howscamswork.com/cases/nerd-solutions-tro/): On 16 April 2026 the FTC announced it had obtained a temporary restraining order against NERD Solutions and ED REF, alleging they cold-called borrowers — thousands of the
- [One word means "lawyer" in Mexico and "not a lawyer" in the US](https://howscamswork.com/cases/notario-publico-fraud/): In much of Latin America a notario público is a qualified lawyer. In the United States a notary public is neither, and cannot represent anybody in an immigration case. Th
- [Japan counts the ads that use a famous face, and names the faces](https://howscamswork.com/cases/npa-celebrity-banner-ads/): Japan's National Police Agency counts SNS-type investment fraud by how the victim was first reached, and the largest single route is a banner advertisement using a celebr
- [Japan's "fake police" fraud took 69% of all special-fraud losses](https://howscamswork.com/cases/npa-fake-police-fraud-2025/): Japan's National Police Agency began counting ニセ警察詐欺 — police impersonation fraud — as a separate category in January 2025. By the end of November it accounted for 9,642 
- [The scam for grandparents now takes a third of its victims from people in their twenties and thirties](https://howscamswork.com/cases/npa-ore-ore-age-shift/): Japanese ore-ore fraud nearly tripled in the first half of 2025 — 6,278 cases against 2,140 a year earlier — and the growth came almost entirely from young adults. Cases 
- [Crypto handovers in Japanese fraud rose 1,446% in a year](https://howscamswork.com/cases/npa-special-fraud-channels-2025/): Japan's special fraud reached 13,213 cases and ¥59.73 billion in the first half of 2025, up 47.5% and 162.1%. Underneath the totals the delivery channel is moving: bank t
- [50 fraudulent accounts, $9.5 million, and a 25-year sentence](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ogiekpolor-romance-scam-laundering/): Elvis Eghosa Ogiekpolor, 46, of Norcross, Georgia, was sentenced in October 2022 to 25 years in federal prison for opening and directing others to open at least 50 fraudu
- [The Ohio–Ghana romance conspiracies: eleven defendants, seven years](https://howscamswork.com/cases/ohio-ghana-romance-conspiracies/): Between May and June 2025 the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio unsealed charges against eleven people over wire fraud and money laundering conspirac
- [Five operations, one template, eighteen months](https://howscamswork.com/cases/operation-ai-comply-storefronts/): Operation AI Comply, announced in September 2024, brought five FTC actions against businesses selling AI-boosted promises. Three were storefront schemes — Ascend Ecom, FB
- [Fifty enforcement actions, and nearly half of complaints about debts not owed](https://howscamswork.com/cases/operation-corrupt-collector/): Operation Corrupt Collector, announced in September 2020, brought more than 50 enforcement actions across the FTC, three federal partners and 16 states. Its supporting fi
- [Posing as federal agents: $2.1 million from people told they were under investigation](https://howscamswork.com/cases/patel-federal-agent-impersonation/): In May 2025 the US Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware announced that Rakeshkumar Patel, an Indian national, had pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud cons
- [Twenty years of letters from psychics who were not writing them](https://howscamswork.com/cases/patrice-runner-psychic-mailings/): Patrice Runner ran a mass-mailing scheme from 1994 to November 2014, sending millions of letters that purported to be personal messages from the psychics Maria Duval and 
- [PGI Global: $198m in memberships, and Lamborghinis](https://howscamswork.com/cases/pgi-global-palafox/): The SEC charged Ramil Palafox on 22 April 2025 over PGI Global, a purported crypto and foreign exchange trading company that allegedly raised about $198 million on guaran
- [Phishing reports fell while losses rose elevenfold](https://howscamswork.com/cases/phishing-losses-diverge/): US phishing and spoofing complaints fell from 298,878 in 2023 to 191,561 in 2025, while reported losses rose from $18.7 million to $215.8 million — roughly eleven times. 
- [India's government describes the fake police station on the screen](https://howscamswork.com/cases/pib-digital-arrest-alert/): On 14 May 2024 India's Ministry of Home Affairs published an alert describing a scheme it calls "digital arrest": callers posing as police, CBI, the narcotics department,
- [Prince Group: the $15 billion forfeiture and the Cambodian compounds](https://howscamswork.com/cases/prince-group-cambodia/): In October 2025 US prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment charging Chen Zhi, founder and chairman of the Cambodian conglomerate Prince Holding Group, with running
- [Millions of notices telling people they had been specially chosen](https://howscamswork.com/cases/priolo-prize-notice-mailings/): A federal jury convicted Phillip Priolo in March 2025 over a scheme that mailed millions of prize notices falsely telling recipients they had been specifically chosen for
- [Project Red Hook: gift cards as a laundering rail](https://howscamswork.com/cases/project-red-hook/): Homeland Security Investigations runs a dedicated initiative against Chinese organised crime groups exploiting gift cards. Its account is the clearest available: three te
- [Bronx tax preparer known as "the Magician" sentenced over a $145 million refund fraud scheme](https://howscamswork.com/cases/rafael-alvarez-atax-magician/): Rafael Alvarez, owner of ATAX New York, LLC in the Bronx, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to conspiracy and preparing false tax returns after filing roughly 90,000 federa
- [A 70-year-old Las Vegas grant scammer, sentenced alongside a separate Medicare fraud](https://howscamswork.com/cases/riddiough-small-business-grants/): Lorraine Riddiough, 70, of Las Vegas — also known as Lorraine Ann Mader — pleaded guilty to running a telemarketing scheme from October 2009 to spring 2013 that falsely t
- [Gold couriers: collecting precious metals from the door](https://howscamswork.com/cases/sathawane-gold-courier/): In May 2025 a grand jury in the Northern District of Florida charged Atharva "Andy" Sathawane with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money launderi
- [The 276-arrest scam-centre takedown and the San Diego charges](https://howscamswork.com/cases/scam-centre-takedown-2026/): On 29 April 2026 the US Justice Department announced a coordinated international takedown of cryptocurrency scam centres that produced at least 276 arrests across several
- [A state labour department's own laptop, used to hijack $3.5 million in claims](https://howscamswork.com/cases/smith-maryland-dol-contractor-claim-hijacking/): Kiara Smith, 28, of Prince George's County, Maryland, worked as a contractor for the Maryland Department of Labor and gave her state-issued laptop to co-conspirators, who
- [$140m against a timeshare exit operation that took $90m from older adults](https://howscamswork.com/cases/square-one-timeshare-exit/): A federal court granted summary judgment in April 2026 against Christopher Carroll, president and CEO of Square One Group, ordering $140 million and permanently banning h
- [A top MLM recruiter settles over "no less than six figures" claims across two companies](https://howscamswork.com/cases/stormy-wellington-tlc-farmasi/): The FTC sued Stormy Wellington, a high-level participant in the multilevel marketing companies Total Life Changes (TLC) and Farmasi, alleging she used false or baseless e
- [CFPB and seven states sue a debt-relief network over $100 million in illegal fees](https://howscamswork.com/cases/stratfs-debt-relief-lawsuit/): On 10 January 2024 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the attorneys general of seven states sued StratFS, LLC (formerly Strategic Financial Solutions) and rough
- [$45.9m taken from borrowers by a fake Department of Education](https://howscamswork.com/cases/superior-servicing-student-loan/): The FTC settled with the operators of Nevada-based Superior Servicing in September 2025 over allegations that they posed as the Department of Education or its loan servic
- [A pinhole camera at the ATM, and $177,280 gone](https://howscamswork.com/cases/tarta-atm-skimming-chicago-nj/): Florin Nicolae Tarta, a 40-year-old Romanian national, was sentenced on 10 September 2025 to six years and nine months in federal prison for installing skimming devices a
- [679,981 Tether: a forfeiture that starts on LinkedIn and a dating app](https://howscamswork.com/cases/tether-forfeiture-romance-investment/): On 3 June 2025 the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio filed a civil forfeiture complaint against 679,981.22 in Tether cryptocurrency suspected of comi
- [Text scam reports collapsed 62% while losses went up](https://howscamswork.com/cases/text-scam-volume-collapse/): Australian text-message scam reports fell from 77,365 in 2024 to 29,058 in 2025 — a 62.4% collapse that the National Anti-Scam Centre attributes to disruption across the 
- [Maine barbershop tax preparer charged with diverting clients' refunds to himself](https://howscamswork.com/cases/thierry-musese-maine-barbershop/): Thierry Musese, 35, ran a tax preparation side business out of FreshCutz, the barbershop he owned in Auburn, Maine. A federal grand jury indicted him in February 2025 on 
- [Treasury sanctions nineteen targets across Burma and Cambodia](https://howscamswork.com/cases/treasury-sanctions-scam-compounds-2025/): On 8 September 2025 the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated nineteen targets — nine in Burma and ten in Cambodia — over their role in scam compounds
- [The Justice Department prosecuted the printer](https://howscamswork.com/cases/trickle-printer-mailer/): In April 2025 the owner of a Las Vegas printing and mailing business pleaded guilty to conspiracy over her part in producing millions of fraudulent prize notices between 
- [£576 million and 248,070 cases: the UK's authorised push payment problem](https://howscamswork.com/cases/uk-app-fraud-2025/): UK Finance recorded £1.28 billion in total payment fraud losses in 2025, of which £576.4 million was authorised push payment fraud — money victims sent themselves after b
- [An active-duty airman and a co-developer rug pull $400,000 in Solana NFTs](https://howscamswork.com/cases/undeadapes-rug-pull/): Devin Alan Rhoden, an active-duty US Air Force member stationed at MacDill Air Force Base, and Berman Jerry Nowlin Jr. minted three Solana NFT collections — UndeadApes, U
- ["USA Student Debt Relief", run from Colombia, and the Do Not Call list](https://howscamswork.com/cases/usa-student-debt-relief-ban/): In May 2025 the FTC banned the operators of Start Connecting LLC and its Colombian affiliate, trading as USA Student Debt Relief, from the debt relief industry. They alle
- [USCIS lists fifteen scams, and says what it will never do](https://howscamswork.com/cases/uscis-common-immigration-scams/): USCIS maintains a standing catalogue of immigration scams — impersonators, fake websites, visa lottery fraud, job offers, "jumping the line" schemes — and pairs it with a
- [The shut-off threat arrives when the weather makes it credible](https://howscamswork.com/cases/utility-scam-seasonal-timing/): The FTC's utility scam alerts cluster around cold snaps and high-bill seasons — February 2021, September 2022, and a heating-cost warning tied to winter. That timing is t
- [$91m on a bond-trading business that did not exist](https://howscamswork.com/cases/vhg-bond-trading-ponzi/): The SEC charged three Dallas–Fort Worth men on 29 April 2025 over a scheme that allegedly raised at least $91 million from more than 200 investors, promising 3% to 6% a m
- [78 months, $5.9 million restitution: the Las Vegas operator who ran grant fraud under a dozen names](https://howscamswork.com/cases/villegas-usa-grant-team/): Gregory Villegas, 37, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty in March 2017 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud over a scheme that defrauded at least 390 small-business owners of mor
- [Extradited from Malaysia: romance victims used as unwitting money mules](https://howscamswork.com/cases/wamuigah-unwitting-mules/): On 22 May 2025 Malaysia extradited Kenyan national John Muriuku Wamuigah to stand trial in the District of Connecticut on a wire fraud charge. Prosecutors allege he and o
- [Two postal employees, a rapper, and $63 million in checks sold on Telegram](https://howscamswork.com/cases/williams-detroit-63-million-check-ring/): Vanessa Hargrove and Crystal Jenkins, both then-current or former US Postal Service employees in Detroit, diverted and stole checks — including US Treasury tax refund che
- [$18 million raised, $194,809 to patients](https://howscamswork.com/cases/womens-cancer-fund/): In March 2024 the FTC and ten states sued Cancer Recovery Foundation International, trading as Women's Cancer Fund, and its operator Gregory B. Anderson. Between 2017 and
- [A stolen postal master key and $1.86 million in washed checks in rural Indiana](https://howscamswork.com/cases/wright-young-princeton-mail-theft/): Michael Jerome Wright and Cortney Lashea Young of Princeton, Indiana used a stolen USPS "arrow" master key to open collection boxes across Evansville, stealing mail and c
- [A forged deed, a fake notary stamp, and an elderly owner's home in LeDroit Park](https://howscamswork.com/cases/young-bey-ledroit-park-deed-fraud/): Jeffrey M. Young-Bey, 67, of Washington, D.C., was found guilty by a federal jury on 12 February 2024 on 12 charges after prosecutors showed he forged the signatures of a

## Where to report, by country

- [Australia](https://howscamswork.com/report/australia/): Scamwatch (National Anti-Scam Centre)
- [Brazil](https://howscamswork.com/report/brazil/): Polícia Civil — delegacia eletrônica of your state
- [Canada](https://howscamswork.com/report/canada/): Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) — 1-888-495-8501
- [France](https://howscamswork.com/report/france/): Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr
- [Germany](https://howscamswork.com/report/germany/): Polizei — Online-Wache (your state force)
- [Hong Kong](https://howscamswork.com/report/hong-kong/): Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) — 18222
- [India](https://howscamswork.com/report/india/): National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal — 1930
- [Ireland](https://howscamswork.com/report/ireland/): An Garda Síochána — your local station
- [Japan](https://howscamswork.com/report/japan/): Consumer Hotline (消費者ホットライン) — 188
- [Mexico](https://howscamswork.com/report/mexico/): CONDUSEF
- [Netherlands](https://howscamswork.com/report/netherlands/): Fraudehelpdesk — 088 786 7372
- [New Zealand](https://howscamswork.com/report/new-zealand/): CERT NZ
- [Nigeria](https://howscamswork.com/report/nigeria/): Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
- [Philippines](https://howscamswork.com/report/philippines/): PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group
- [Singapore](https://howscamswork.com/report/singapore/): ScamShield / Singapore Police Force — 1799
- [South Africa](https://howscamswork.com/report/south-africa/): South African Police Service
- [South Korea](https://howscamswork.com/report/south-korea/): Korean National Police Agency — 112
- [United Arab Emirates](https://howscamswork.com/report/united-arab-emirates/): eCrime — UAE cybercrime reporting
- [United Kingdom](https://howscamswork.com/report/united-kingdom/): Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) — 0300 123 2040
- [United States](https://howscamswork.com/report/united-states/): FTC — ReportFraud.ftc.gov

## Glossary

- [Advance fee](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/advance-fee/): A payment demanded before a promised benefit is released — a prize, an inheritance, a loan, a job, or your own money.
- [Authorised push payment fraud](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/app-fraud/): Fraud in which the victim makes the payment themselves, having been deceived — as opposed to unauthorised fraud, where the criminal takes the money directly.
- [Business email compromise](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/bec/): Fraud that redirects a legitimate business payment by impersonating an executive, a supplier or a lawyer, usually from inside a compromised mailbox.
- [Chargeback](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/chargeback/): A card payment reversed by the issuer at the cardholder's request. It is the strongest consumer protection in retail payments, and it is exactly what fraud schemes are designed to avoid.
- [Deepfake](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/deepfake/): Audio or video generated to imitate a specific real person, used to make an impersonation scam survive a phone or video call.
- [Money mule](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/money-mule/): A person whose bank account is used to receive and move criminal proceeds, whether knowingly, unwittingly, or under coercion.
- [One-time passcode](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/one-time-passcode/): A short code sent by text or generated by an app to confirm a login or payment. Reading one out to a caller hands over the account.
- [OTC broker](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/otc-broker/): A trader who exchanges cryptocurrency for cash or bank funds off-exchange, privately, and often without the checks a regulated exchange would apply.
- [Pig butchering](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/pig-butchering/): A long-con investment scam in which a stranger spends weeks or months building a relationship before introducing a fake trading platform.
- [Quishing](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/quishing/): Phishing using a QR code, which hides the destination URL behind an image that no security filter reads as a link.
- [Recovery scam](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/recovery-scam/): A follow-up fraud targeting people who have already lost money, offering to get it back for an up-front fee.
- [Remote access tool](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/remote-access-tool/): Software that lets someone else see and control your device. Legitimate in IT support; the core of tech support and refund scams.
- [Safe account scam](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/safe-account-scam/): A caller posing as your bank, the police or a fraud team persuades you to move your own money into a "safe" account they control.
- [Sextortion](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/sextortion/): A threat to publish intimate images or messages unless the victim pays — frequently where no such images exist.
- [Shell company](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/shell-company/): A registered company with no meaningful operations, used to hold a bank or payment-processing account, receive funds, or put a legitimate-looking name between an operation and the people it takes money from.
- [SIM swap](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/sim-swap/): Taking over a victim's phone number by persuading or bribing a mobile carrier to move it to a SIM the attacker controls.
- [Smishing](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/smishing/): Phishing delivered by text message — a delivery notice, a toll charge, a bank alert — designed to get you onto a fake login page.
- [Social engineering](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/social-engineering/): Manipulating a person into doing something — sending money, sharing a code, granting access — rather than attacking a system.
- [Spoofing](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/spoofing/): Making a call, message or email appear to come from a number, name or domain that belongs to someone else.
- [Task scam](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/task-scam/): A fake online job in which the worker completes trivial "tasks" and must deposit their own money to unlock earnings.
- [Underreporting](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/underreporting/): The gap between fraud that happens and fraud that gets reported. Every statistic on this site sits on the reported side of it.
- [Wire recall](https://howscamswork.com/glossary/wire-recall/): A bank-to-bank request to reverse a wire transfer before the receiving bank releases the funds. It works only within a short window.

## Reference

- [Data and charts](https://howscamswork.com/data/): every chart, the cleaned datasets behind them, downloadable CSVs, and when each source was pulled.
- [Methodology](https://howscamswork.com/methodology/): where the numbers come from, how agency categories map to scheme pages, and what the figures cannot tell you.
- [Am I being scammed?](https://howscamswork.com/check/): a sixteen-question self-check that runs entirely in the browser.
- [Where scams run from](https://howscamswork.com/map/): documented operational hubs, each with the public document that places it there.
- [Learn](https://howscamswork.com/learn/): the taxonomy, the five psychological levers, how compounds and mule networks work, payment rails ranked by recoverability.
- [About and editorial policy](https://howscamswork.com/about/): sourcing rules, how named individuals are handled, corrections.

Full text of every scheme page: https://howscamswork.com/llms-full.txt