Scammers use frantic phone call to drain Oakland woman's life savings  — Your bank is not going to call you. That's the takeaway lesson from an Oakland woman who received a fake call from her bank and lost her life savings.

Scam Victims Seek Help Only to get Victimized Again  — An AP/FRONTLINE investigation finds that online scams in the U.S. have reached record levels, but victims often receive little help from law enforcement, banks, or government agencies, and almost never recover their stolen money. Victims can face additional financial burdens such as fees and taxes after being scammed. Worst of all, victims looking for help sometimes find themselves the victims of new scams!

Phishing scams disguised as party invitations target email accounts  — ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - As weddings, end-of-summer and fall holiday gatherings fill calendars, federal investigators are warning that scammers are disguising phishing attempts as online invitations, messages that can look polished, name a familiar host and even appear to arrive from a friend’s real email address. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a consumer alert about unexpected messages impersonating well-known invitation platforms such as Evite and Paperless Post. The messages prompt recipients to enter an email address and password to view event details, or ask for a phone number and a one-time code to RSVP. The FTC said that is not how legitimate invitations work.

FBI warns that clicking one link can give scammers full access to your email  — A new scam that starts with a legitimate login can give malicious cyber actors access to your email even after you’ve changed your password. According to a warning issued Tuesday by the FBI, the scam is known as “OAuth consent phishing” and is targeting people across the country. OAuth is an often used and legitimate permission screen used by services like Google and Microsoft. The feature gives apps the ability to access a user’s data without the user providing sign-in credentials or a password.

Traitors Star Loses Life Savings to a Scam  — Sam Little, a former contestant on the BBC show Traitors, lost his £40,000 life savings in an cryptocurrency scam that he calls "gut-wrenching". It all began with a few fake text messages.

A Featured Phool Gets His Revenge Scam of elderly man goes so well, con artists strike again. But this time the Phool is ready for them.  — Two scammers stole $25,000 from a senior in Ventura County. But once they find their mark, scammers love to try again -- so they reached out a second time, but this time the victim was ready -- with the police. The scammers now face jail time and our Featured Phool got his money back. The moral of the story: shame is a scammer's weapon. They count on their victims to feel so much shame that they don't get help. This victim went to the police and successfully landed his scammers in jail.

Phishing exploits the gap between tools and trust  — Experts at Vanguard describe phishing scams today in a straightforward primer. The key insight: "While phishing is often framed as a single event, it can also mark the starting point for broader scams that evolve over time. In many cases, escalation is not driven by the message itself, but by the response—small actions that signal availability, trust, or willingness to continue the exchange." The most effective way to avoid being phished is to never engage. Don't respond and feed the interaction.

Woman loses nearly $1M in romance scam, shares red flags she missed | 7 On Your Side  — CONNECTICUT (WABC) -- Valentine's Day is next Friday! So, if you're single and looking for love, you may be trying to find your soulmate online. It's one of the top ways to connect, but unfortunately, dating apps are another avenue for online scammers to take advantage of others looking for romance. Romance scams are all over the headlines, often involving international rings of criminals to trick victims into sending them a lot of money. Who doesn't want to be loved? These types of scams are so successful because many of us are vulnerable, and it's not a quick, hit send me money for a plane ticket, and then they disappear.

The last time she spoke to her son was in a FaceTime cooking lesson. The next day she was the victim of a deadly scam  — Mario Hall last saw his mother on the other end of a FaceTime call, teaching him how to make pepper steak. She’d propped her phone near the stove in her kitchen in Dublin, Ohio, so he could see the pan. From his home in Columbia, South Carolina, he watched and followed along as she added peppers and seasoned the beef. “I’d told her I wanted some pepper steak, but I didn’t know how to make it. And that was one of the meals she used to make for me when I was younger,” Hall told CNN this week. “So she was like, ‘well, get on FaceTime and let’s just walk through it.’ ”

Sophisticated banking spoof callers drain local customers' accounts, nearly fool ABC7 anchor  — These customers lost thousands of dollars to fake bank scams. Remember that a bank will never call you and ask you to transfer money. When in doubt, hang up and call your bank directly.