Here is a twist on the usual 419 advance-fee scams: the scammer signs up for something such as a newsletter, and then replies to the confirmation email with their scam. We know this, because we were hit with just such a scam from “Steve McCoy”, using the email address stevecoy61@gmail.com.

If you are on Facebook you can’t avoid them. The “She’s gone” ads, suggesting that celebrities like Sally Fields, Betty White, Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Susan Sarandon, and Kris Jenner, have died (they haven’t), with the weird domain names, are everywhere. Click on them, and each and every one of them leads not to news that they have died (surprise, surprise) but a website selling Beauty and Truth (oh, the irony) brand youth serum.

A brand new SMS text message scam has hit smartphones. Coming from prvs=1846e0b0b3=kross@bloodsystems.org, it is an image of text, which reads “CONFIDENTIAL Mrs Thorens has assigned a rewarding charity project worth $2.5 Million USD to you. For full details, please contact her only at her private email address below.” The sample that we saw had an email address of mav22@rogers.com, although it’s quite likely that as that email address gets shut down, the scammers will swap in a different email address.

Did you get an invoice through Paypal, out of the blue, and from someone you have never heard of, and maybe even for $0 dollars? Odds are that if you did, you were on the receiving end of the newest engine for sending spam: Paypal (and odds are also good that it advertised Jaboo or skrylcomputers.com).

We’ve all seen them – there are all sorts of ads for scams on Facebook, and all sorts of scammy ads and false advertising on Facebook (such as the ones suggesting a famous actress such as Betty White or Judi Dench has died). In fact, for many of us, not a day goes by that we don’t see some ridiculous ad on Facebook and think “How can Facebook let them get away with that ad?” In part it’s because Facebook relies on people reporting scammy ads to Facebook. So here’s how to report ads on Facebook.

The new Paypal.me service is being hailed as a simpler way to request money, and by Paypal as “the link to getting paid,” but it also turns out to be a great way for scammers to get you to send them money.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Key Bank are among bank accounts being phished, SMiShed and vished by scammers who are sending SMS text messages to users, directing them to call hijacked Holiday Inn Express phone numbers which the scammers have disguised to make them sound like automated banking systems. So far this current crop has happened primarily in the Houston area.

We get a lot of visitors who are looking to learn how to identify and recognize an online dating site scammer, and so we thought we’d tell you about this current Internet dating site scam. It’s a riff on a “friend of a friend” scam, in which a person of your same sex contacts you to tell you about their “friend” who is desperately interested in meeting you.

There is a new scam featuring the phone number 202-599-9670. So far, the call is coming from 710-201-2246.

The “One Ring” and “Missed Call” cell phone scam is becoming more common. According to both the FTC and the FCC, the way this works is that you will get a call from a number that you don’t recognize, starting with what seems to be a U.S.-based area code, such as 809, 876, 649, 268, 473, or 284. The scam is that when you call back to see who it is trying to reach you, you are actually connected to an international “pay per minute” or “pay per call” line, that will run up your phone charges.

We have written about Internet dating scams before, but this online dating scam is new – or at least coming around again. Our example of this Internet dating scam involves a “woman”, WonderfulHumma from Las Vegas, who is shilling for her friend “Talented Roy” (talentedroy60@aol.com). “Good Morning Friend,” the scam beings, “This may sound cliche or weird.” And indeed it does…if an email on an Internet dating site sounds weird, it probably is. Stay away.

If you got an email from eBay saying “Important – eBay Password Reset Required”, and are wondering whether it is a scam or legitimate, you’re not alone. Here’s the scoop.

Here is the full text of one of the newest Wells Fargo Phishing Spam, which started showing up this month (May, 2014). This one comes with an attached HTML file named “Wells Fargo Instruction Form.html”. Whatever you do, don’t download or open it!

If you’ve seen the warnings on Facebook, you may be wondering “Is the Talking Angela app safe?” The Talking Angela app is basically safe for children, despite the revival of the Internet hoax chain letter on Facebook that is making the rounds. The post which is being shared around Facebook begins with “I cant even in words say what I just found out.. I am SHOCKED…” and goes on to tell how Talking Angela was caught asking their child inappropriate questions.

The newest social engineering scam email hitting some inboxes is the “thank you for your Red Sox ticket order” email. In this spam, the fake order confirmation tells you that you have ordered over $200 ($238 in the example below) worth of Red Sox tickets, which have been charged to your MasterCard.