COVER STORY: FRAUD 2026
RED-HOT SCAMS TO AVOID IN 2026
BE WARNED: SCAMMERS ARE ALWAYS REFINING THEIR TACTICS. HERE’S WHAT TO WATCH FOR NOW
The caller said he worked for a company helping people recover lost benefits. “Our records show you may have $5,286 waiting in a federal assistance check,” he said in messages to phones nationwide. The call directed people to a website—where they were deceived into revealing personal data used to steal their identities. Over two months in late 2025, the Better Business Bureau received more than 800 complaints about the calls. Relief-check fraud is just one of the scams to watch out for this year. Here are five more scams to avoid.
EMPLOYMENT SCAMS
U.S. employers laid off more than 1.2 million workers in 2025, the most since the 2020 pandemic. With so many Americans seeking work, employment scams are surging, and desperate job hunters may be more susceptible than in the past to fraud, including bogus jobs in online ads, on job search websites and on social media. Some scammers impersonate real recruitment agencies and companies. Their goal: to obtain personal information or money by requiring you to pay a fee.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
▶︎ Never pay. If you’re required to pay for a job interview, it’s a scam.
▶︎ Distrust big promises. Guarantees of great pay and few hours while working at home are probably red flags not to ignore.
▶︎ Scrutinize the source. If a so-called recruiter contacts you, check the company’s website and see if they’re hiring for that particular position—and if the person actually works there.
▶︎ Be careful about posting your résumé. Criminals can use information included there to manipulate you.
RECOVERY SCAMS
Being victimized is awful. Being re-victimized is even worse. That’s what happens with recovery scams: Criminals promise to help victims recoup their losses, then charge fees for nonexistent services or ask for personal or financial information. Recovery scammers might be the same criminals who victimized you initially, but this time they claim they’re from a government agency, a consumer advocacy group or a law firm. “I think we’re going to see a lot of recovery scams [in 2026],” says Amy Nofziger, senior director of victim support with the AARP Fraud Watch Network.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
▶︎ Reject upfront fees. Criminals charge you in advance and ask you to pay with gift cards, cryptocurrency or Venmo.
▶︎ Beware of phony checks. Scammers might send a counterfeit check, often for more than what you lost. Then they’ll say they overpaid and instruct you to return the balance.
▶︎ Do your homework. Search the recovery firm’s name using keywords such as “scam,” “fraud” or “complaint.”
DIGITAL ARREST
The process is terrifying. You’re informed that you’re the subject of a criminal investigation. Fake law enforcement officers interrogate you for days on video calls, threatening you with criminal charges, sending AI-generated phony arrest warrants and pressuring you to pay settlements or fines. “It’s a terror-based scam that involves holding a person digitally captive. They’ll get you in a video call, and they won’t let you go,” says Frank McKenna, chief innovation officer with Point Predictive, an AI technology company in San Diego. Digital arrest is a major problem in India (in September 2025, a retired doctor there died from a heart attack after enduring nearly 70 hours of harassment), and it’s spreading to the United States, McKenna reports.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
▶︎ Hang up. “Law enforcement doesn’t call people and threaten to arrest them,” McKenna says.
▶︎ Know how the system works. Court orders and arrest warrants are not delivered through phone calls, emails or social media.
“HELLO, PERVERT” SCAMS
In this insidious scam, criminals claim they’ve hacked your computer and recorded you visiting porn sites. If you don’t pay them, they’ll share evidence of your naughty behavior with your email contact list. They might even spoof your email address so it appears that the blackmailer is contacting you through your own account. The AARP Fraud Watch Network reports a spike in these scams; people can be very fearful of getting a bad reputation if someone believes they are watching porn or sending nude photos. Scammers exploit that fear. Pervert scams also tend to follow data breaches. Crooks use your info to create highly personalized messages, making the threat seem more legitimate.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
▶︎ Never respond. If you reply, scammers will likely send more messages.
▶︎ Don’t open unsolicited attachments. Blackmail messages are frequently sent as PDFs to bypass phishing filters.
▶︎ Stay calm. Ignore deadlines to pay money. Urgency is a scam tactic to force rash decisions.
SELF-PUBLISHING SCAMS
There is a growing market among older Americans to write their memoirs and seek a publisher for their life story, to share with friends and family. That can be a satisfying pursuit. But be careful: Publishing scams are growing. Some scammers pose as literary agents. Others create fake publishing companies that take your money but never publish your work. In a complaint to the AARP Fraud Watch Network, a victim said she wired $6,000 to a self-publishing company but never received the book. When she called, the number no longer worked.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
▶︎ Know how talent agents operate. Writers never pay agents to represent them. Agents receive a percentage of advances and payments.
▶︎ Ignore unsolicited emails. Legit agents and publishers will not contact unknown authors.
▶︎ Scrutinize URLs. Fake publishers often use variations of real company names to seem respectable, so study the web links.
Ken Budd is a journalist who frequently writes about fraud for AARP.