Every scam type
62 schemes, each written the same way: what it is, how it actually works stage by stage, why it works on people who are not stupid, where it runs from, documented cases, the red flags, what to do, and where the money goes.
62 schemes
Investment
Fake returns on a real-looking platform. The highest losses per victim, by a wide margin.
Pig butchering
A months-long relationship built for one purpose: to get you onto a fake trading platform and keep you paying in.
sha zhu pan · 杀猪盘 · crypto romance investment scam
Fake investment platforms
A trading dashboard that shows everything except the one thing that matters — that no trade ever happened.
crypto investment scam · fake trading platform · forex scam
Ponzi schemes and high-yield investment programmes
A rate of return that fails arithmetic, paid from the deposits of the people who joined after you.
HYIP · pyramid scheme · passive income programme
Pump and dump, and finfluencer manipulation
Real shares, bought through your own broker, from people who needed a buyer.
ramp and dump · stock manipulation · investment club scam
Celebrity endorsement and deepfake ads
The advert is not the fraud. It is the door, and it is bought with a stolen face.
fake celebrity endorsement · deepfake investment ad · celeb-bait
NFT and crypto token rug pulls
A project that looks real until the liquidity — and the people who built it — vanish in the same transaction.
rug pull · NFT rug pull · crypto exit scam
Romance & relationship
A relationship built to be spent. Trust first, money second.
Romance scams
A relationship built to be spent — where the first request for money is small, urgent, and framed as a crisis.
confidence fraud · romance fraud · dating scam
Wrong number texts
A text that wants nothing, from someone who has all the time in the world.
misdirected text · hi how are you scam · smishing opener
Impersonation
Someone you are trained to obey: the tax office, the police, your bank, your child.
Grandparent and family emergency scams
A frightened voice claiming to be your grandchild, an arrest, and a courier on the way for the bail money.
grandparent scam · family in need of bail · emergency scam
Bank impersonation and the safe account
A call from your bank's real number, telling you your money is at risk and must be moved somewhere safe.
safe account scam · bank investigator scam · courier fraud
Government impersonation
A call from someone you are trained to obey, about a problem only immediate payment can fix.
IRS scam · CRA scam · HMRC scam
Deepfake voice and video scams
A familiar voice, or a face on a video call, that belongs to nobody — and the checks people were taught no longer apply.
voice cloning · AI voice scam · synthetic media fraud
"Hi Mum" and family impersonation texts
A message from your child's new number, explaining in advance why it does not sound like them.
hi mum scam · hi dad scam · friend in need scam
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.
digital house arrest · virtual arrest · parcel scam
Ore-ore sagi and Japan's special fraud
"It's me" — a scheme named for a grandson's voice that now mostly uses a police officer's.
オレオレ詐欺 · it's me fraud · tokushu sagi
Medicare and health insurance scams
A call that asks for nothing but a number, which is then billed for years.
Medicare impersonation · health insurance scam · durable medical equipment fraud
Student loan forgiveness scams
It sells you a free government programme, while claiming to be the government.
student debt relief scam · loan consolidation scam · Biden loan forgiveness scam
Utility shut-off scams
A regulated process, compressed into thirty minutes that do not exist.
utility imposter · disconnection scam · power shut-off call
Immigration and visa scams
The fee is the smallest thing that gets taken.
notario fraud · notario público · immigration consultant fraud
Bitcoin ATM and crypto kiosk scams
Cash into a machine in a petrol station, gone before you have driven home.
Bitcoin ATM scam · crypto kiosk · CVC kiosk
Phantom debt collection
Nothing is offered, so there is nothing to be sceptical about.
phantom debt · fake debt collector · bogus debt
Mortgage relief and foreclosure rescue scams
The fee is paid out of the very thing it was supposed to protect.
foreclosure rescue · loan modification scam · forensic loan audit
Business & payments
Payment redirection aimed at the person who signs the cheques.
Business email compromise
Someone reads a real payment conversation from inside a real mailbox, then joins it with different bank details.
BEC · CEO fraud · payment redirection
Invoice and vendor fraud
A real invoice, for real work, from a real supplier — with eleven digits changed.
mandate fraud · false billing · supplier fraud
Fraudulent tax preparers
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.
tax preparer fraud · ghost preparer scam · fraudulent tax return preparer
Identity theft
Your details reused to open, empty, or take over an account.
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.
SIM swapping · SIM hijacking · port-out fraud
Phishing and smishing
A small, cheap problem and a link that fixes it — on a screen where you cannot see where the link goes.
smishing · vishing · text scam
QR code scams
A QR code is a link you cannot read — which is why a sticker over a real one works so well.
quishing · QR phishing · malicious QR code
Toll and delivery texts
A tiny amount you probably do owe someone, and a link that takes your card details instead.
toll scam text · unpaid toll scam · parcel scam
Card skimming
No call, no text, no click — a hidden device copies your card the moment you use it normally.
ATM skimming · gas pump skimming · card cloning
Home title fraud
A forged signature at a county recorder's office, and the homeowner is often the last person to find out.
deed fraud · home title theft · quitclaim deed fraud
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.
UI fraud · unemployment identity theft · pandemic unemployment fraud
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.
Frankenstein fraud · synthetic ID fraud · credit privacy number scam
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.
mail theft check fraud · check alteration fraud · arrow key mail theft
Tech support & remote access
A fake problem with your computer, fixed by giving away control of it.
Fake tech support
A fake problem with your computer, solved by giving a stranger control of it — and then of your bank.
tech support scam · pop-up scam · Microsoft scam
Refund and remote access scams
A refund you never asked for, paid in too generously, and a screen you no longer control while you send the difference back.
refund scam · overpayment refund · rebate scam
Purchase & marketplace
Goods, tickets, rentals, or pets that were never there.
Overpayment and fake cheque scams
You are paid too much, asked to return the difference, and then the original payment reverses.
fake check scam · overpayment scam · cheque overpayment
Ticket and marketplace scams
Goods that were never there — and a seller whose only real skill is getting you off a payment rail that protects you.
purchase scam · online shopping scam · ticket scam
Rental and real estate scams
A deposit for a home nobody owns — or a completion payment redirected from inside the conveyancer's own email thread.
rental scam · conveyancing fraud · completion fraud
Puppy and pet scams
A dog that does not exist, and a sequence of fees that only ends when you do.
pet scam · puppy fraud · fake breeder
Subscription traps and free trials
Signing up takes one click. Everything after that is designed to take more.
negative option · free trial scam · continuity plan
Timeshare exit and resale scams
A buyer who does not exist, or an escape that was never blocked — and fees before either.
timeshare resale scam · timeshare cancellation · re-rent scam
Contractor and storm chaser scams
A knock at the door days after the storm, and every useful defence already out of reach.
storm chaser · roofing scam · disaster repair fraud
Moving company scams and hostage loads
It feels like a negotiation. It is a regulatory violation.
hostage load · rogue mover · moving broker scam
Auto warranty robocalls
The most recognisable sentence in telephone fraud, and eight billion calls anyway.
extended warranty scam · vehicle service contract · car warranty robocall
Gift card draining
Nobody is contacted, nobody is persuaded, and the loss lands on a gift.
card tampering · gift card fraud · Project Red Hook
Online vehicle purchase scams
Your caution is not overcome. It is answered, with a fake version of the protection you asked for.
car buying scam · fake escrow · vehicle shipping scam
Fake online pharmacies
The product is not undelivered and it is not worthless. It arrives, and it can contain fentanyl.
illegal online pharmacy · no-prescription pharmacy · counterfeit medicine
Job & task
Work that costs money instead of paying it.
Job and task scams
Work that costs money instead of paying it — and sometimes makes you a money mule without telling you.
task scam · app rating scam · commission scam
E-commerce automation and business opportunity schemes
A real service, a plausible business, and a promise the platform itself will not allow.
Amazon automation · passive income storefront · AI e-commerce
Money mule recruitment
The job pays you first — with money stolen from someone else, and your name on the account when it gets traced.
money mule scam · reshipping scam · parcel mule
MLM pyramid schemes
A real product for sale, and a compensation plan that pays for recruiting people rather than for anyone buying it.
pyramid scheme · illegal MLM · multi-level marketing scam
Extortion
Payment demanded under threat of exposure, arrest, or harm.
Charity & disaster
A disaster used as a collection tin.
Other
Everything that does not fit the boxes above.
Prize, lottery and sweepstakes scams
You have won something you never entered, and there is one fee left before it can be released.
lottery scam · sweepstakes scam · prize scam
Advance fee and 419 scams
A large sum that is nearly yours, held up by one more payment that is always the last one.
419 scam · Nigerian prince · inheritance scam
Recovery scams
The second scam, aimed at the people the first one already took — and it arrives knowing exactly what you lost.
crypto recovery scam · asset recovery fraud · second-wave scam
Mass-mailing and psychic letter fraud
Nobody moderates an envelope, which is why one of these ran for twenty years.
mail fraud · psychic mailing · prize notice fraud
Credit repair scams
A federal law already made the fee illegal before the service even started — the shortest test there is for whether the promise is real.
credit repair fraud · credit repair pyramid scheme · credit sweep scam
Debt settlement scams
A federal rule already bans charging you before a single debt is settled — most of these operators charge you anyway.
debt relief scam · debt relief fraud · debt settlement fraud
Power of attorney and caregiver financial 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.
power of attorney abuse · elder financial exploitation · caregiver theft
Government grant scams
You already qualify for free government money — a small fee is all that stands between you and it.
free government grant scam · grant scam · free money scam
No scheme matches those filters.