Category: News
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The Retirement Scam That Cost One Man $300,000—And Why the System Keeps Failing People Like Him
You’re 70 years old. Inflation is rising, your grandkids need care, and you’re thinking about how to stretch your retirement savings just a little further—maybe grow the nest egg, maybe leave something behind. So you do what so many people do: You research online. You talk to friends. You find a seemingly legitimate investment opportunity.…
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Former TV Meteorologist Battles AI Sextortion Scam That Hijacked Her Face
By any measure, Bree Smith should have been celebrating a fulfilling career and life. A beloved meteorologist in Nashville, a mother, and a woman with a public presence built on years of hard work. But instead of charting cold fronts, she’s now at the epicenter of a chilling new digital storm—fighting for her identity, her…
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AI Scammers Just Pulled Off a $25 Million Heist Using Deepfake Video Calls
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi thriller: A finance worker at a multinational company gets a video call from the chief financial officer. The request? A confidential, high-stakes money transfer. Other colleagues are on the call, nodding along, seemingly in the know. Everything checks out. So, the employee wires over $25 million.
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A Woman Lost Her Life Savings to Fraud. Chase Bank Says It’s Not Liable.
For nearly two decades, Courtney White deposited her earnings into a savings account at Chase Bank. A former sergeant with the Markham Police Department, White worked overtime shifts to build a financial cushion, carefully structuring her account to require in-person transactions—no debit card, no checks—as an added layer of security. But in the fall of…
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How Victims of Online Fraud Get Hit Twice—By Scammers and the IRS
There’s a cruel irony in the aftermath of being scammed. First, someone deceives you into giving up your hard-earned savings. Then, as you’re trying to piece together what remains of your financial life, the government comes knocking. Not to help—but to collect taxes on money you never even really had.
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How a Fake Brad Pitt Conned a Woman Out of $850,000
Scams can take many shapes, but some, like the one that swindled a French woman out of nearly $800,000, are as elaborate as they are heartbreaking. This case involves a series of carefully orchestrated deceptions, including AI-generated images of Brad Pitt, messages from a supposed family member, and a fabricated tale of medical and financial…