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.

ScamJun 27, 2026

PayPal scam

Usually a scam, and PayPal gives you a fast way to tell. It never opens with an impersonal greeting: its own guidance is that it never says things like "Dear user" or "Hello PayPal member", because real messages carry the full name on your account. Everything else follows from that, since a message that does not know who you are was not sent by a company that does.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Venmo scam

Usually a scam, and the two most common shapes are opposites. One frightens you, an alert about unusual activity with a deadline to verify. The other flatters you, money arriving from a stranger who then asks for it back. Both end with you moving money or handing over a code, and Venmo settles neither by text: your real balance and history live in the app.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Zelle Fake Alert

The alert is bait and the call is the attack. The text exists only to make you reply, so that the call which follows is expected rather than suspicious. Then comes the instruction the whole thing was built around: send money to yourself with Zelle to cancel the fraud. There is no such mechanism. A Zelle payment sends money away from you, and "sending it to yourself" means sending it to a number the caller controls.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Amazon Sign-In Email

Almost certainly a scam, and the safest habit costs nothing: never resolve an Amazon alert from the message itself. Open the app or type amazon.com and look at Your Orders and Your Account. A genuine sign-in problem is visible there, and a fake one leaves no trace, which is the entire test.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

FedEx text

Usually yes. FedEx states it plainly: it does not request personal information about your account credentials or identity through unsolicited mail, email or text. So a message asking you to pay a small fee or confirm details through a link is not a delivery problem, it is a card-harvesting page wearing a delivery problem's clothes.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Fake Accidental Payment

Do not send it back yourself. An unexpected payment from a stranger is not a windfall and usually not a mistake: the money often came from a stolen card or a hacked account, so it will be reversed later. If you have refunded it by hand in the meantime, the reversal takes the original back and your refund is gone too, leaving you down twice.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Bank of America text

Often yes, and the text is rarely the whole attack. It exists to make you reply or tap, so that a call can follow from someone who now knows you are worried about your account. The safe move never changes: leave the message alone and reach the bank through a number you already had.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Boss Gift Card Scam

Scam. The FTC's rule is absolute and worth holding onto: gift cards are for gifts, not payments, and only a scammer asks to be paid in them. A manager who genuinely needed something bought would not need the numbers off the back read out, and would not need it done before you could walk over and ask.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Fake Cash App Support

Scammer. Cash App does not resolve account problems in social media DMs, and the account that answered your complaint found you precisely because you complained in public. Cash App publishes exactly which accounts are its own, which is what makes this one checkable in seconds rather than a matter of instinct.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Coinbase Code Text

Scam, in every version. Coinbase only generates a code after you start a withdrawal yourself, so an unexpected one means someone is trying to talk you into handing over the real thing. The text is the opening move; the link, the callback number and the call that follows are the same attack.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Crypto Giveaway Scam

Scam. Nobody doubles your money for sending it first. The FTC puts it plainly: anyone guaranteeing profits or big returns is a scammer, and a payment in cryptocurrency has no legal protections behind it, so once it is sent it is generally gone. The celebrity face and the live stream are production values, not verification.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

FB Buyer Zelle

Scam, and a well-documented one. Zelle itself describes this attack: a fake email claiming a transaction cannot complete until your account is upgraded, so that you pay for an upgrade that does not exist. No money was ever sent to you. The email is the entire product, and the moment you reimburse the buyer for a fee they never paid, the item and the money are both gone.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Fake Meta DMs

Scammer. Meta does not run support through unsolicited DMs, and the account that messaged you found you because you were visible, not because you were flagged. Meta publishes the addresses its genuine mail comes from, which turns this from a judgement call into something you can check in seconds.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Geek Squad Renewal Scam

No. Nothing was charged, and there is no membership. The FTC published an alert on precisely this, impersonating Geek Squad, Best Buy's tech support service, and the shape it describes is the one in your inbox: a renewal for hundreds of dollars, and a number to ring within 24 hours if you want to dispute it. The invoice exists to make you call.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

IG Reset Email

Phishing, and it arrives in more than one costume: a reset email you did not request, a DM from an "Instagram support" account, or a message from a friend whose account was taken the same way. Every version ends on a replica login page. Instagram's own definition covers all of them, a message or link asking for your personal information, often claiming your account will be banned or deleted if you do not comply.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Jury Duty Call

Scam. Courts do not ring people to take payment, and the FTC's guidance is blunt about the two things that give this away: real law enforcement will never text or email an arrest warrant, and real officers do not call to say they are about to arrest you. A genuine failure to appear arrives as paper, and it can be checked with the court itself.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

McAfee Renewal Scam

Fake. The giveaway is structural rather than cosmetic: the message gives you a phone number instead of a way to manage the subscription in your own account. The FTC names McAfee as one of the brands this campaign wears, alongside Geek Squad and Norton, and the script is identical in each costume.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Crypto Romance Scam

Yes, every time. This is pig butchering: the person is not a love interest but a script runner, often working under coercion from a compound in Southeast Asia and rotating through hundreds of targets at once. The romance is the setup. The trading platform it leads to is a stage set that accepts deposits and never really pays out.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Toll text

Yes. The unpaid-toll text is the campaign the FBI put out a public alert about, and it has since been recycled into fake DMV notices using the same machinery. Real toll agencies do not text a stranger a payment link for a few dollars with a same-day deadline. The balance is bait; the card is the target.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

UPS Delivery Text

It is a scam. UPS bills duties and customs to an account, to the shipper or the receiver, and settles them through its own systems. It does not text a stranger a payment link for $1.95. The tiny fee is not the point; the card number you type to pay it is.

See the breakdown → ScamJun 27, 2026

Cash App Text

Scam. Cash App does not text you a link to unlock an account, and support only happens if you start it, inside the app or at cash.app/help. The text is the opening move: the link takes your sign-in code, and if you call the number instead, the person who answers wants the same thing. Cash App publishes one support line, and it is inbound only.

See the breakdown →