Scams & Fraud Protection

Scams and financial fraud are aimed at every household, every day — phone calls, texts, emails, fake websites, doctored checks, suspicious refunds. The best protection is recognizing the pattern early and knowing the defensive moves that actually work: freezing your credit, knowing how a real IRS or Medicare contact differs from an imposter, and acting fast when something looks off. These guides walk through the most common threats and the practical steps that limit how much damage any one scam can do.

Identity Theft Basics

Freeze Your Credit

Protect Retirement Savings

Spot Tax Scams

Medicare Phone Scams

Start Here: Build Your Defenses

Three foundational guides for anyone serious about protecting themselves from financial fraud: understanding how identity theft works, freezing your credit so thieves can’t open accounts in your name, and the broader playbook for protecting retirement savings from the scams that increasingly target older adults.

What Is Identity Theft?

How thieves use your personal information to open accounts, file false tax returns, and take over existing accounts — and the first concrete steps to recover if it happens to you.

How to Freeze Your Credit

A credit freeze blocks new accounts from being opened in your name and is free at all three bureaus. The single most effective defensive move against identity-theft fraud.

Protect Retirement Savings

Older adults are disproportionately targeted by financial scams. Common attack patterns and the defensive measures that close the most exploited gaps in retirement accounts.

Specific Threats & Defensive Moves

The most common scams targeting U.S. households, plus the practical defenses that limit damage when something does slip through. Each guide explains what the scam looks like, what gives it away, and what to do if you’ve already responded.

Scam Categories & Recovery

Deeper looks at the specific scams targeting U.S. households — elder financial exploitation (60% of which is committed by family), the phishing patterns hiding inside ordinary-looking messages, romance and cryptocurrency scams that escalate over weeks or months, and the grandparent-emergency call that AI voice cloning is now making far more convincing. Plus the recovery playbook for when something has already gone wrong.

Payment & Messaging Scams

How victims actually lose money today — not just the scam categories but the payment vectors and messaging channels behind them. Zelle/Venmo/Cash App scams (the bank generally won’t reverse what you authorized), gift cards (the universal scammer currency, untraceable in seconds), fake delivery texts (the most common scam SMS in the U.S.), QR code “quishing,” wire fraud (the most expensive category by dollar value), and the fake-check overpayment scam that exploits the banking rule between “available” and “cleared.”

Impersonation, Investment & Emerging Scams

The newest and most convincing cons — AI that clones a loved one’s voice, fake tech-support and government calls, slick investment and prize scams — plus exactly what to do when a company you trust gets breached. Six guides to the threats that are catching people right now.

Latest Scams & Fraud Articles

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  Parking Meter QR Code Scam: FTC Warns Drivers to Check Before Paying
  The FTC is warning drivers that scammers are covering real parking meter QR codes with fake ones, sending payments to fraudulent sites. Here’s how the scam works, real cases from multiple cities, and what to check before you pay.
• 
  153 Million Driver’s License Records Exposed — What To Do Now
  A criminal marketplace called Nexus claimed more than 153 million driver’s license records from the U.S. and Canada, and a journalist found his own license inside it. Here’s what’s confirmed, what isn’t, and the concrete steps to take.
• 
  Renters May Qualify for Part of a $359.9 Million Settlement
  A proposed $359.9 million RealPage rental settlement covers renters at multifamily properties from October 2018 through November 2025. Who may qualify, how to search the official property list, and the deadlines to know before January 29, 2027.
• 
  FTC Amazon Refunds Are Arriving — Check This First
  An email says an FTC Amazon Prime settlement payment just landed in PayPal, maybe the full $51. The settlement is real, but so is the opening it creates for scammers. Here’s the one check that tells you whether your specific message is genuine.
• 
  3.7 Million Patients Exposed — Check These 3 Things Now
  CareCloud, a healthcare technology company, says a cyberattack affected 3,756,469 people — more than ten times earlier estimates. Here are the three things affected patients should check.
• 
  MyChart Medicare Kit Scam: Hospitals Warn Patients
  An email says “Your MyChart Medicare Kit Awaits.” Hospitals across the country are warning it’s a phishing scam, not a real offer. Here’s how to check MyChart safely and what to do if you already clicked.

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Related Sections

Free Legal Aid Programs — If you’ve lost money to a scam and need legal help recovering it or asserting your rights.

How to Replace Your Social Security Card — If you suspect your SSN has been compromised.

How to Dispute a Credit Report Error — Recovering from fraudulent accounts that appear on your credit report.

Credit Score Basics — Understanding the score that fraud most damages, and how it recovers.

Credit & Debt — The full library of credit and debt management guides.

Banking — Banking guides including security features, dispute processes, and account protection.

Another Scam to Know