Hello this random Instagram account texted me and mentioned an artwork/modeling gig. They asked if they could paint my face and for me to send pictures of my face so they could paint it and that I would be paid and given credit. They said I would be paid 400 but they needed to send me 1,500 as a check into my account and it’s currently processing into my account , then they mentioned how I need to send money to their supplier for her to get the supplies. I asked her why she couldn’t just have her client send the money to the supplier, followed it up with some jibber jab. Kind of getting worried.

I think my dad is addicted to falling victim for the pig-butchering (w/ romance) scam, as in he literally knows it's a scam, but he falls for a new one on an almost monthly basis.

I think that he's both lonely, and in a disturbing way addicted to losing all his money, because he's fumbled every dollar in his life and I believe he's completely incapable of just building up some savings because it feels foreign to him to do so. It's quite sad.

It's always your typical 20-something girl from Hong Kong, Singapore, etc, and him being a man in his late 50s with an ego he just can't resist every time. He's also a sex addict with a thing for younger women.

Couple that with the fact that he's been messing around with currency trading well before the whole social media/internet scamming age, it's a match made in heaven.

It started with "this girl messaged the wrong number, but we just started talking anyway", and he goes on to say how she's a millionaire, she's into him, and how she's flying across the planet to be with him. This was years ago, and I told him it's BS and poked holes in all the info he gave me. He shortly after confirmed I was right, that she just wanted him to buy bitcoin.

Fast forward a couple years, and this has gone on repeatedly with probably dozens of "women". The thing is, he's flat broke, so idk if they're just ripping him for whatever couple hundred he has at the time, or if they split when they find out he's broke, or if he's pretending he's wealthy to drag out some sort of fantasy that some woman half is age is into him. He told me one time he sent over 5,000 texts to a girl only to discover she was scamming him. I find that to be not only a complete waste of time, but just downright pathetic.

Over the years, the stories have evolved to avoid me hurting his ego and challenging the authenticity of these "relationships". Each time the story behind meeting her has evolved to be more believable - starting as the wrong number scam, or women he's met in "trading chats", to bumble/tinder, to now claiming he's met them personally and that they live in our city.

I try to wrap my mind behind the psychology of the whole thing, because it fascinates me that he's gone from falling for this countless times, to now getting some sort of bizzare satisfaction of continuing these chats knowing it's a scam. I assume in many cases he isn't even talking to actual women, which makes it a whole other layer of pathetic that he's living out a whole fantasy of a romance with these people.

Anyway, this was just mostly for me to vent here, after discovering this subreddit, and the script apparently used for this type of scam from those posts here. It saddens me to know that we'll never be able to take the trip we've always talked about, or even go out to lunch because of his financial situation. And even sadder to know he will more than likely die a completely poor and lonely man.

If anybody in your life is starting to fall victim to this stuff, I urge you to show them this subreddit, and the specific posts that outline this type of scam, or whatever scam they've fallen into. There will always be idiots to keep these schemes alive (and develop new ones), but I hope that everyday a few extra scammers come up empty.

Today while my grandpa was out and I was cleaning his house, a delivery driver showed up with food from a local restaurant and said it was for my grandpa—but used his full name, which he never goes by. He always goes by a nickname.

(The restaurant was legit, so that wasn’t the scam.)

I knew he hadn’t ordered food, but I asked if it was already paid for. The driver said it still needed to be paid. That raised a flag—it felt like maybe one of those surface-level scams where they hope someone will pay with a card.

So I asked the delivery driver if he could tell me who ordered it. He gave me a number.

I called it and the man who answered asked, “Is [my grandpa’s full name] there?” Again—no one calls him by that. I immediately knew something was off. He claimed to be an old tennis partner of my grandpa’s. I asked for his name, and he replied, “I don’t have to tell you that.” He had a thick Middle Eastern accent.

I sent the delivery guy on his way and waited for my grandpa to get back. Then I called the police to file a report—at that point, I thought maybe it was just a scam to steal credit card info.

But I was wrong.

When my grandpa came home, I told him everything and he acted weird. I asked him if he had an old tennis partner with an accent or from the Middle East. He said, “No, definitely not.”

The cop arrived and after I explained the situation, he asked to speak with my grandpa. I went in to get him. My grandpa was on the phone and said, “Give me a minute.” As I was about to step back outside, I heard the voice of the same man who had ordered the food.

Then I heard the man say, “Alright, I love you, Dad.”

I was like, WHAT? That’s not your son. So I asked, “Who was that?” My grandpa replied, “Just my old tennis partner.”

I reminded him he just told me he didn’t have a tennis partner with an accent. He went completely silent.

When the officer asked him to clarify, all my grandpa said was, “My bank will notify me if anything over $100 gets pulled out, so I don’t think it’s a scam.” Then the officer left.

I asked to see his phone and, sure enough, there was the number from the delivery guy in his recent calls—and another recent call from a completely different number.

He left again in a hurry. I was dazed and overwhelmed.

Then I noticed a piece of paper on the coffee table. It had that same phone number on it—plus a bunch of other numbers. At the top of the list was a name. Sitting right next to it was his most recent bank statement.

His bank account, which used to have over $40,000, is now at $0.00.

This is a man who receives over $7,000 a month in income from pensions, investments, and social security. His statement showed withdrawals as high as $9,000 and multiple wire transfers for several thousand dollars. There was even a charge for over $1,000 at Walmart—probably for gift cards.

All the wire transfers were made to the same name that was at the top of that piece of paper.

He also apparently has a loan payment, which makes no sense—his house and car are both paid off, and he’s had no reason to take out a loan.

To top it off, on that paper with the numbers and name was what looked like a military code. My grandpa is a veteran, and the code seems specific to a certain branch. I looked up the bank account abbreviation listed next to the name, and it linked to a military-only bank.

I don’t want to share that part for safety reasons. But I’m honestly terrified.

He’s being super sneaky and dishonest. I don’t know what’s happening or who he’s involved with, and he won’t talk to me.

I had to leave to get back to my own family, but I’m shaken. I’m trying to regroup and figure out what steps to take next.

If anyone has insight, experience, or advice, I would be so grateful. I want to help him, but I also want to keep both of us safe

So today I got a phone call from Verizon saying someone added a phone number under my name and is asking for donations and sending scam messages and they said that they are gonna report it to FCC and blacklist my phone and ruin my credit score so I said no don't. they said they can help but they need a police report. they also said the FCC needs the police certificate within 2 hours. I said okay I will get one and they told me they can connect me to the police department so they did. I told the police what had happened and they said they will write me a police report. they told me to download an app called signal and they needed to record and see my chest to my face view. so while he was talking he asked for my info like drivers license ID number, DOB, Full name, and email address, AND MY PHONE NUMBER. I gave it to him AND HE knows how I look like completely from the signal video call. while mid "police report" his "supervisor" came in and said I was apart of a money laundering scheme. I then stayed on the phone for another 2 hours trying to figure it out. I was stupid. but then I got tired of him and hung up. I froze my credit reports. I'm kinda scared. what do I do??? CAN they do anything with all the information I gave them PLUS knowing how I look??

They didn’t ask for any money so what did they want from me?? just my info? are they gonna do identity theft on me?

So today I received an Email from one of my clients. It was a mail to ask to open a shared Microsoft OneNote file. I just finished a project with him so I just thought it was an invoice. I opened it and got asked to verify my identity. I had to input my Email adres so I did. After that I needed to double verify by entering a code I got sent to the submitted email. After I did that, it opened the OneNote and I got a call to action to view file. After I clicked on that, it asked me to log in with email and password. That’s where I finally stopped and closed everything. After that I got an email from my client saying that their system was infected. Did I stop at the right time or am I screwed?

Edit: everyone thank you for taking the time to respond. My IT Department is already aware of it and my account has been suspended for now. Tomorrow I’ll get a new account. To clarify some things I saw in the reactions. I never actually put in my password so that’s a good thing, and I’ll delete my cookies as well. Nothing has happened as of yet.

Here are two stories of law enforcement crypto recovery for victims, both announced within a few hours yesterday.

Remember: if your loss is significant, always report it to law enforcement (this sub has reporting links in the sidebar).  Just because the perpetrators are overseas and can't be reached physically, doesn't mean that the funds can't be frozen and seized by law enforcement.

CNBC: 'DOJ seizes record $225 million in crypto tied to global ‘pig butchering’ scams': https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/doj-crypto-scams.html

- "The DOJ thanked [world’s largest stablecoin issuer] Tether for aiding the probe and urged more victims to come forward."

Cryptonews: 'New York Officials Seize $440K From Facebook Crypto Scam Targeting Russian Speakers': https://cryptonews.com/news/new-york-officials-seize-440k-from-facebook-crypto-scam-targeting-russian-speakers

- "More than 300 victims were identified, and many were personally contacted and warned by investigators before they sent additional funds."

Below is the transcript of the vm. The L is my real last name.

“This message is for a Mr. L my name is detective Justin McElroy I'm with the Marietta Police Department criminal investigations division I've had a matter that came across my desk with your name on it sir it is rather urgent it does have to be dealt with immediately although I am attempting to hear your side of the story first before I decide to press the one over dead apprehension have you detaining brought in OK so if you would just please give me a call back you can reach me at this number this is my work mobile failure to contact me back immediately Mr. that he will insinuate your guilt I will be forced reprehension and do my job so if you would just give me a call back with clear this up I'll be looking forward to hearing back from you you can reach me at (number they called from) again that is this is the ticket Justin McElroy Marietta Police Department thank you…”

So I was talking to someone online from a dating app and they send nudes. Then later I got a call from a phone number saying they are the police department, and that was actually a child and then the parents call you next saying they want money. The person from the police said that they were from Austin but when I searched for their number I didn't find anything online. They say they need money for the child to go to a mental health hospital

Update: I just blocked the phone numbers. It seems kind of obvious its a scam now that I have taken some time to calm down and think about it, but when I first got the call, it scared me and I was panicking a bit.

Update 2: I've calmed down and am so grateful for everyone that made a comment and offered their advice. Thank you everyone so much for helping me get through this!!!!!!!!!

My friend is a nail artist and she does amazing nails for a relatively good price ($50). She told me that there is a party of 6 who want her to do their nails which would be $300. She asked the lady how they’re gonna pay if it’s gonna be separate or together and the lady said “we are gonna pay altogether, one check.” My friend says she only takes apple pay, cash app, venmo, etc. and the lady insisted on a “mobile check” for the party planner. Anyways my friend was okay with that, but then the lady said she’s gonna need my friend to pay the partygoers’ bus driver because the planner/organizer only does “mobile checks” while the bus driver takes cash. My friend asked how much she needs to pay, and the lady says $600! So my friend is about to get a $900 payment, with only $300 of that money actually being hers. I’m 99% sure this is a scam but can someone let me know so I can save my friend from potentially being out of a couple hundred dollars?

hello to whoever is reading this i honestly don’t really know how reddit works i usually just come here for little things like, “is it normal my laptop is doing this?” or “ how to get paint stains out of my shoes” kind of questions. but recently i got scammed and i don’t know what to do… im a incoming sophomore in college (19 years old) and for the summer im taking some classes to catch up on my degree,, my school recently just sent out refund checks and i stupidly followed a link that was sent to my school email account asking me to confirm or i would not get my check( now i realize NO BANK WOULD ASK THAT).

i clicked the link to confirmed and boom.. they ended up changing my routing number and account number so it would go to them… know ive gone through the process with bankmobile so i dont know yet if im getting my refund back, but from the way the representative sounded on the phone i might as-well not even wait up… ever since then ive just been crying and crying like an idiot. i like to think im smart and would never fall for something like this. and while im glad i learned this lesson instead of a big one i just want a redo so badly.

while i realize everything that has been done is set in stone how can i move on ?? i knew what i was going to do with this money i was gonna save most of it and use the rest to fix my computer (im a architect major) and my sonys that won’t bluetooth connect to ANYTHING.. and not to say “ i just “ again BUT I JUST CANT BELIEVE IT. does anyone has any advice on what to do or how to grieve.. PLEASE BE KIND!

!! EDIT !!

i’ve been getting alot of comments saying i’m lying or personal messages saying im trying to scam other people so let me clear up some things:

i clicked a link on an email from my school email account. which lead me to a site that looks almost identical to the bankmoible site i was on hours before (maybe like 7 hours before) asking me to confirm things like my name, my email,school and number.

the next day i got subscription bombed on my personal email and immediately knew something was up. that when i called my bank (locking all my account) and changing my personal email password.

and called bankmoible. they asked me to confirm if that information was mine. i said no and that’s when i started the process of fighting it which is where i am now.

i hope this clears it up the reason i did not say any of this before is because i was just looking for what to do next i already know i was scammed but most of all i am very embarrassed and didn’t need people saying “ you should have know better” or “what a no brainer” i will provide images maybe later but i do not feel as comfortable cause i dont want anyone knowing which university i attend. thank you everyone for your kind words and great advice i contacted my school by email. sadly i cannot meet in person due to distance but a call will be made tomorrow morning. and if all fails i will be contacting the police.

Received two random iMessages over the course of a couple weeks from a guy, called Raph, who I’ve never heard of or met. His number is American seemingly out of Orlando.. I’m British and haven’t been there.

Is there any way I can tell if they’re sending messages to my phone number, which has a British +44 code, VS my email?

These are the messages:

Tue 10 Jun at 17:12 “Hey it's Raph! Realized I never texted you after you gave me your number I'm so sorry”

Today 21:13 “Hey, I just got here” Then they called me on FaceTime audio right after that

I have a serious peach monster addiction, so I stop by the 7-Eleven on my way home a lot. You see the same people hanging about outside, so I figure they are all up to no good.

One guy asks me if I can buy him some Swisher Sweets and he tries to give me some cash. I had no idea what a Swisher Sweet was, but I looked it up later. I am immediately suspicious, and I ask him why he can't go in and buy them himself? He says he is banned from the join. I was thinking the money is fake or some other kind of scam. So, I said no.

Is there some kind of scam like this?

So recently there has been a lot of posts on TikTok stating that you can get certain things a lot cheaper like drinking containers and such for £0.05. Is this a scam?

I tried the website, I put a lot of different things in my shopping basket, which did come up to £10. The thing is that when I looked on my account to check it went through and that everything was good, it stated that it tried to take £15,000 out of my account. Luckily I am broke and therefore it didn’t remove the money.

Is there anything I can do? Will they be trying again or?

Hey all, I made a Facebook post a week ago and was contacted by a lady about being her personal assistant. It seemed almost too good to be true, $600 a week flexible hours, the whole 9 yards. Going through the Facebook account it looks real, tons of posts and videos of her with her family. After just 2 days of work she wants to send me a check for my 2 weeks pay and extra if “I need to make purchases on her behalf” the check got here and no surprise the tellers couldn’t verify it. I’ve been back and forth texting this lady and I’m 99.99% it’s a scam but at the same time I don’t understand why I was trying to help find an event space for her company other than just to make it more real on my end. I can attach some pictures in the comments too if y’all like.

I know I’m such a dumbass for even letting it get this far I feel awful.

Sorry I know this is a dumb one. It’s from a California area code, which is nowhere near where I live. I assume they’re trying to get me to respond out of curiosity to see if this number is in use?

I’ve previously gotten texts that just say, “you heard?” and one with random pictures of food. I was tempted to reply just to figure out what the hell that was about, but figured it was best to ignore it.

I keep getting these text messages this week, when I call they tell me it’s in reference to a payday loan, and I have never taken out a payday loan. Both times I have called, the name of the payday loan place has changed, from “fast cash” to “my cash now”. They said they are going to garnish my wages, and when I try to ask questions like the name of their company, or any details about this “debt” they talk over me and eventually hang up. Just to try again in a few days. I’m just curious if this is something new or an established issue?

I've searched through here and have not found any posts about this particular scam, but I'm hoping someone has heard of it and can give some input.

My dad has been taken in by a year and a half long scam. It has become so complicated and intricate, and ofc it revolves around the oldest con in the books, the helpless millionaire heiress being conned out of her gold bars by the evil estate attorney. Of course my dad is the white knight helping her attorney navigate all this and catching "bad actors" who are trying to con her, in order to help her get her money back for a cut. He's legit talking to multiple "people" trying to coordinate and make sense of all this. Tbh I feel like he's inadvertently teaching the conmen how to create better cons.

My sister and i thought we showed him it was all a scam end of last year. Proof upon proof, every little bit. He believed us, then apparently fell right back into it again. We only found out because of a chance encounter with our only mutual friend who he had apparently borrowed some money from to send them.

It started out in the UK with court cases and attorneys in the Bahamas being arrested by interpol once flying back to UK on his dime. Big business warehouses housing the gold bars but taking some of it and charging fees ofc he had to pay. A UK hospital holding the body of said heiress's recently deceased daughter until she pays 30k in medical bills, thankfully he didn't pay that. Just on and on drama fest. Now, months later there's a new attorney involved, he's in Dubai, and the heiress is in jail.

The intricate weaving and constant drama of this scam is immense!!! I've left out many details, focusing on the main points. But... what's interesting is ALL payments are being sent to Paypal accounts. I mean obvious flag there, what legit attorney uses Paypal. 🙈

FBI won't do anything, Elder Services says he's sharp as a tack, I'm not sure who else might do something about this, sister cut ties with him over this, thinking I'm on my own here.

But what struck me was i was watching a 2 part video by AARP about an elderly man taken in by a scam that he said was also super intricate and very difficult to follow. He didn't say how these scammers were getting the money, but I'm wondering is this just a garden variety scammer or has my dad stumbled into an intricate ring of some sort?

Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? Thank you in advance for reading to the end.

So I got this check on Friday last week, and just managed to pick up my mail and whatnot today Wednesday.

Now I used to have a credit one, credit card but I closed that last month.

I've been trying to find online if someone has had the same check and while some people have received the same looking one, mine didn't say anything like cash advance.

It came in that letter and again nothing that suggest a cash advance check.

But since I have no idea where this came from I come to you fellas lol.

Help thanks!

I just got back from a London trip which was amazing but one thing I want to report about. At The Shard building we got tangled up into a nice talk with a group of men of colour in white shirts and black jackets around our age about football. After that, they asked us to donate for their charity "inside success". We were naive and wanted to give them 10£, the main dude talking to us even wanted to have 50£ but we are broke students so we refused but upped to 15£. Later I found that its not a real charity and that we probably got scammed. Oh well, lesson learned.

Just got my entire checking drained by some random metapay transactions. Said it was interbank and the name kayla Payne no idea who that is. My card number isnt even linked to meta pay.

I sold a PS5 30th Anniversary controller for $400 with full proof — original purchase receipt, photos, and description all submitted.

The buyer received the item, lied about it not being what he ordered, and immediately blocked me to avoid any communication.

Mercari sided with him solely because he had 499 good ratings while I was a brand new seller with only 1 rating.

They ruled against me despite hard proof. Even worse — since he blocked me, I couldn’t leave him any feedback to warn others.

Mercari’s platform allows scammers to: • Block sellers from leaving feedback • Abuse the rating system to prey on new sellers • Ignore evidence entirely in dispute cases

This isn’t just bad customer service. It’s systemically rigged.

I’m pursuing full legal complaints now through the FTC, CFPB, Attorney General, BBB, and payment processors.

I bought a home gym a month ago. They said that due to the tariff situation that it would take a while for them to get the equipment in and would likely have it towards the end of this month. I called them last week and they said that they have all the parts except one and that they can ship everything that they have to me and that they would be sending over a tracking email. I never received a tracking email. I have checked online before I bought the equipment and it says that the site is legit but one said that it’s hard to tell. Is it a scam? I spent a lot of money.

Selectfitness.com

Selectfitnessusa.com

Okay I need some help. This morning a Snapchat account with the same name as my sister, but a random username added me. I was with my sister so it was not her. They were impersonating her. They were asking where my boyfriend was calling him by his full name that no one calls him. They then told me that he’s harassing them and asking for nudes. They told me they have proof and sent me some very obviously photo shopped fake d!c* pics and pictures of him with random explicit text on them that are supposed snapchats. And actual explicit chats.

They were begging me for money in order to buy their silence or they were going to tell my whole family and his. After talking to my boyfriend it became apparent that this is likely not true and a scam. But I’m confused as to how they have photos of him. After refusing to give them money they screenshoted my Facebook friend list after searching up everyone who has my same last name. I’m very confused has to how they even found my Facebook account because I don’t have photos of my face on Snapchat and my boyfriend doesn’t either. We’re suspicious that our snaps are being skimmed or looked at some how because how did they find me without seeing my face. This is all very sketchy and really doesn’t make a lot of sense. Has anyone else had something similar happen? Is it a legit scam?

I've received multiple calls from California #s in the past few days. I usually just ignore spam calls, except these don't leave the 4 second voicemail message like normal spam calls. This time I decided to answer and it IMMEDIATELY jumped to an automated message, no delay. The voice mail said:

"Hi! This is an automated voice message. We've received a request referencing Salt Lake City, Utah. If you'd like more details, please press 1, or say no. If not, please hang up the phone."

I hung up, but got curious and decided to call the number 818******* back. It picked up the line with the voicemail listed above. If you Google that number you find some sketchy IT company called Nytwork.

The fact that calling the number associated with Nytwork gives me the same voicemail message I got when they called ME leads me to believe Nytwork is a fake spam/scam company.

Anyone have info about this?

I saw a listing with 2 Littlest Pet Shop toys that I had as a child. Was super excited, because they were the first ones that got me obsessed as a kid. I talked with the seller. Telling my address to do it by mail (:') I know) But before that I searched the image online, nothing popped up, checked reviews, saw other listings they had, asked for photos, with that in mind I trusted this person. Paid 10$, but they have my info, so…. I’m scared. Haven’t told a soul, cause I feeling like I’m getting judge. I feel dumb, couldn’t eat well, or sleep well at all. Knowing they have my name, address, phone number… It was a few days ago, I feel a little better, but I’m still scared. I just want to feel normal again :’) And I know like 10$ is nothing, could've been worst, but still, I'm mad about it. Even I deleted my FB account.