Category: Scams
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Deepfake Celebrity Scams Are Here—and They’re More Convincing Than Ever
It began, as these things often do, with a game. A woman in a quiet coastal town matched with a stranger on Yahtzee with Friends. The stranger, she was told, was Owen Wilson—yes, that Owen Wilson: the famously easygoing star of “Wedding Crashers,” “Loki,” and a hundred internet memes. At first, the relationship was digital…
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How Scammers Use AI to Terrify and Trap Teens
It begins, almost invariably, with a ping: a new friend request, a message on Instagram, a DM from someone who looks like a classmate or a crush. For most American teenagers, this is the digital fabric of everyday life—unremarkable, even routine. Yet, increasingly, these unassuming notifications mark the opening moves in a criminal scheme whose…
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The Phone Call Sounded Just Like Her Daughter. It Was a Scam.
Imagine getting a call from an unknown number. You answer—because they won’t stop calling—and on the other end is your child, sobbing and terrified. You can hear her. She says she’s been in an accident. She hands the phone to a man who says she messed with the wrong person. That the cops can’t be…
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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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How a Romance Scammer Almost Fooled Someone Who Should’ve Known Better
He’s the kind of person who should’ve seen it coming. He works in tech. He builds cloud infrastructure. He knows what deepfakes look like. He reverse image searches like it’s second nature. When someone sends him a suspicious link, he checks the metadata, the DNS registration, and whether the IP has ever touched a malware…
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Don’t Respond to This Message—It’s a Scam Disguised as a Job
It starts with a text. A friendly message from a recruiter named “Monica,” saying your online profile caught the attention of a company called “Top.” The gig? Assisting TEMU merchants with product reviews. Flexible hours. Free training. And here’s the kicker: a daily salary ranging from $201 to $3,000.
