Know the scam before it knows you

Real examples of the texts, calls, and emails going around right now, each with a clear verdict, the red flags to spot, and exactly what to do. Free.

ScamJul 23, 2026

IRS Forgiveness Call

Scam. The IRS never calls to enroll you in anything, and this Fresh Start robocall is the front door of an offer-in-compromise mill, the scheme the IRS itself names in its Dirty Dozen list.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 23, 2026

Fake date verification

Yes. The 'free' badge site harvests cards: fine print enrolls yours in trial memberships on no-name dating sites that convert to costly monthly rebills, and the profile pushing it is working an affiliate link, not planning a date.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 23, 2026

Fake Lottery Call

No. Powerball and Mega Millions have no idea who won until someone presents a ticket, so no draw lottery can call you. The fee is the whole scam.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 22, 2026

Card charged text

It may be a fake purchase alert designed to make you call. A real issuer alert should match activity in your card app or statement. Check there before using any contact detail in the text.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 22, 2026

MyCartSave text

Not automatically a scam. MyCartSave describes its product as an SMS cart-recovery platform used by stores after shoppers leave checkout. That explains the message type, but it does not verify the store or link.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 22, 2026

Upcoming payment alert

It could be real if you enabled account alerts and the amount and due date match. Treat it as phishing when the payment exists only in the text or the message pushes you to sign in or pay through its link.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 16, 2026

Fake Scammer Lists

Treat these with care. Some are genuine warning communities, but the category also contains sites that charge to run a check, sites that publish photographs of people who have done nothing, and recovery services that target the already-defrauded. A stolen photo tells you the picture was stolen, not who was using it, so a clean result proves very little.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 16, 2026

Lottery Donation Text

Scam. You cannot win a lottery you never entered, and a real winner is not asked to send anything to receive their money. The FTC's line holds for every version of this: if you have to pay to get a prize, it is not a prize. The donation framing is a twist on the same machinery, because generosity is easier to accept than luck.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 9, 2026

Overpayment Refund Scam

Scam, and it is the mirror image of the accidental-payment version: here the overpayment is deliberate and the refund is the point. Someone buying an item or hiring you sends too much, then asks for the difference back. The original payment is reversible and the difference you send is not, which is the entire arithmetic of it.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 9, 2026

Netflix Hold Email

Scam, and Netflix draws the line in one sentence: it will never ask you to share your personal information in a text or email. So a message asking you to re-enter payment details to restore your account has already stepped outside what Netflix does, whatever the branding looks like.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 9, 2026

Apple ID Alert Scam

Scam. The tell is structural: the message hands you a phone number. Apple's guidance is that it never asks for the information these callers want, and support you did not initiate is not support. Whether the message threatens a purchase, a lock, or an iCloud problem, the number is the payload and everything after dialling it is theatre.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 9, 2026

IRS Robocall Scam

Scam. The recording is selling a service that does not need selling, and it reaches you by a route the IRS does not use: the IRS contacts people by post first, and states it never calls to demand payment now, threaten arrest, or tell you about a refund. A robocall promising to settle your tax debt for pennies is an advance-fee operation wearing an official coat.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 9, 2026

Norton Invoice Scam

Fake, and Norton says so itself: it has seen an increase in subscription renewal scams, where fake emails are sent in the hope you will click or call. The invoice is dressed to look like a receipt for something already taken from you, because an accomplished fact is more likely to be argued with by phone than checked in a bank app.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 9, 2026

Romance Scam Signs

Assume yes until they appear on an unscripted live video call. A fake profile spends weeks mirroring your interests and escalating affection, then invents a crisis only your money can fix. The FTC put US romance fraud losses at $1.3 billion in 2022, and the escalation is not personal: it is rehearsed on dozens of people at once.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 6, 2026

Medicare Refund Call

Scam. Medicare has no refund department that rings people, and the call inverts how the programme actually works: it offers you money in order to obtain your Medicare number, which is the thing worth stealing. Medicare's own guidance is blunt on the shape of it, saying it will never call you to sell you anything or visit you at your home.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 6, 2026

Cash App Code Text

The sender is not what settles this. A code text can look identical whether it was triggered by you or by somebody trying to get into your account, so the number it came from is the least useful thing on the screen. One rule covers both cases and never changes: a sign-in code is the login, and nobody legitimate will ever ask you to read one out.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 6, 2026

ReliaCard Frozen Text

Scam. A ReliaCard is the prepaid card some states use to pay unemployment benefits, which makes it a precise target: the people holding one are waiting on money and can least afford to ignore a warning. The text is engineered around that. Nothing about a genuine card problem is ever settled through a link in a message.

See the breakdown → ScamJul 5, 2026

SSA Suspension Call

Scam, and it fails on a point of fact before you even weigh the caller's manner: a Social Security number cannot be suspended. Not for crime, not for fraud, not for anything. The agency does not have that power and has never used it, so a call built entirely on that threat is describing a procedure that does not exist.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 29, 2026

Cash App Text

Scam, and note which lever it pulls. The suspended-account version of this text works on fear; this one works on the opposite, money supposedly waiting for you. Both end at the same fake login page. The tell is simple: money arriving in Cash App requires nothing from you. It lands. There is no step where you verify yourself to release funds someone else has already sent.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 29, 2026

AI Romance Scams

A video call is no longer proof of anything. Face-swapping software runs live on ordinary hardware, so seeing someone speak is not evidence they exist as described. The FTC's guidance on romance scams still holds regardless of the technology: nobody you have only met online should be asking you for money, and the ask is the tell rather than the face.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 29, 2026

Gift Card Scam

Scam, without needing any other detail. The payment method settles it: no legitimate business or agency takes payment in gift cards, and the FTC says so flatly. Whoever is on the phone, whatever the debt or emergency, the moment gift cards are named the conversation is over.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

USPS package text

Yes. The Postal Service does not text you out of the blue: USPS tracking is something you have to sign up for first, using the tracking number of a parcel you already know about. It also sends from five-digit short codes, not from a mobile number or an email address. A delivery text you did not ask for, from a number that looks like a phone, is smishing aimed at your card.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

IRS call

Yes. The IRS states it plainly: "We never call to demand payment now, threaten arrest or inform you of a refund." First contact comes by post, and a real tax matter survives you hanging up and checking. This is the oldest impersonation scam still running, because the fear it borrows is real even when the caller is not.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

DMV text

Yes. State DMVs do not text a link to pay a fine or unlock a licence. The FTC issued a consumer alert about this exact campaign in July 2025: scammers posing as the DMV of states all over the country, demanding payment for an "overdue traffic ticket". It is the same machinery as the unpaid-toll texts that came before it, pointed at a new authority.

See the breakdown →