They got here by cellphone, by textual content, by e-mail, they usually even weaseled their approach into folks’s love lives—a complete host of scams that we coated right here in our blogs all year long.
At present, we glance again, selecting 5 noteworthy scams that firmly established new tendencies, together with one particularly that provides us a touch on the face of scams to come back.
Let’s begin it off with one rip-off that pinged loads of telephones over the spring and summer time: these toll street texts.
1 – The Texts That Jammed Everybody’s Telephones: The Toll Street Rip-off
It was the new new rip-off of 2025 that elevated by 900% in a single yr: the toll street rip-off.
There’s a great probability you bought a number of of those this yr,rip-off texts that say you will have an unpaid tab for tolls and that you want to pay straight away. And as at all times, they arrive with a useful hyperlink the place you may pay up and keep away from that menace of a “late price.”
After all, hyperlinks like these took folks to phishing websites the place folks gave scammers their fee information, which led to fraudulent costs on their playing cards. In some situations, the scammers took it a step additional by asking for driver’s license and Social Safety numbers, key items of information for big-time id theft.
Who is aware of what the new new textual content rip-off for 2026 can be, but listed below are a number of methods you may cease textual content scams of their tracks, it doesn’t matter what type they take:
How Can I Cease Textual content Scams?
Don’t click on on any hyperlinks in sudden texts (or reply to them, both). Scammers need you to react rapidly, nevertheless it’s finest to cease and test it out.
Verify to see if the textual content is legit. Attain out to the corporate that apparently contacted you utilizing a cellphone quantity or web site you already know is actual—not the information from the textual content.
Get our Rip-off Detector. It routinely detects scams by scanning URLs in your textual content messages. In case you by chance faucet or click on? Don’t fear, it blocks dangerous websites in case you observe a suspicious hyperlink.
2 – Romancing the Bot: AI Chatbots and Pictures Finagle Their Method Into Romance Scams
It began with a DM. And some months later, it price her $1,200.
Earlier this yr, we introduced you the story of 25-year-old laptop programmer Maggie Ok. who fell for a romance rip-off on Instagram. Her story performed out like so many. When she and her on-line boyfriend lastly agreed to fulfill in individual, he claimed he missed his flight and wanted cash to rebook. Determined to lastly see him, she despatched the cash and by no means heard from him once more.
However right here’s the twist—he wasn’t actual within the first place.
When she reported the rip-off to police, they decided his photos have been all made with AI. In Maggie’s phrases, “That was the scariest half—I had trusted somebody who by no means even existed.”
Maggie isn’t alone. Our personal analysis earlier this yr revealed that greater than half (52%) of individuals have been scammed out of cash or pressured to ship cash or presents by somebody they met on-line.
Furthermore, we discovered that scammers have fueled these figures with using AI. Of individuals we surveyed, greater than 1 in 4 (26%) stated they—or somebody they know—have been approached by an AI chatbot posing as an actual individual on a relationship app or social media.
We anticipate this pattern will solely proceed, as AI instruments make it simpler and extra environment friendly to drag off romance scams on an more and more bigger scale.
Even so, the rules for avoiding romance scams stay the identical:
- By no means ship cash to somebody you’ve by no means met in individual.
- Issues transfer too quick, too quickly—like when the opposite individual begins speaking about love virtually straight away.
- They are saying they stay distant and might’t meet in individual as a result of they stay overseas, all a part of a scammers story that they’re there for charity or navy service.
- Look out for tales of pressing monetary want, akin to sudden emergencies or requests for assist with journey bills to fulfill you.
- Additionally be careful for individuals who ask for fee in reward playing cards, crypto, wire transfers, or different types of fee which might be robust to get better. That’s an indication of a rip-off.
3 – Paying to Get Paid: The New Job Rip-off That Raked in Hundreds of thousands
The job provide sounds easy sufficient … go browsing, evaluate merchandise, like movies, or do in any other case easy duties and receives a commission doing it—till it’s time to receives a commission.
It’s a brand new breed of job rip-off that took root this spring, one the place victims discovered themselves “paying to receives a commission.”
The FTC dubbed these scams as “gamified job scams” or “process scams.” Given the way in which these scams work, the naming suits.
It begins with a textual content or direct message from a “recruiter” providing work with the promise of constructing good cash by “liking” or “ranking” units of movies or product photos in an app, all with the obscure goal of “product optimization.” With every click on, you earn a “fee” and see your “earnings” rack up within the app. You may even get a payout, someplace between $5 and $20, simply to earn your belief.
Then comes the hook.
Like a online game, the scammer sweetens the deal by saying the following batch of labor can “stage up” your earnings. However if you wish to declare your “earnings” and ebook extra work, you want to pay up. So that you make the deposit, full the duty set, and whenever you attempt to get your pay the scammer and your cash are gone. It was all pretend.
This rip-off and others prefer it fall proper according to McAfee knowledge that uncovered a spike in job-related scams of 1,000% between Could and July,which undoubtedly constructed on 2024’s record-setting job rip-off losses of $501 million.
No matter type they take, right here’s how one can keep away from job scams:
The 1st step—ignore job provides over textual content and social media
A correct recruiter will attain out to you by e-mail or through a job networking website. Furthermore, per the FTC, any job that pays you to “like” or “fee” content material is towards the regulation. That alone says it’s a rip-off.
Step two—search for the corporate
Within the case of job provides normally, search for the corporate. Take a look at their background and see if it matches up with the job they’re pitching. Within the U.S., The Higher Enterprise Bureau (BBB) provides a listing of companies you may search.
Step three—by no means pay to begin a job.
Any case the place you’re requested to pay to up entrance, with any type of fee, refuse, whether or not that’s for “coaching,” “tools,” or extra work. It’s an indication of a rip-off.
4 – Seeing is Believing is Out the Window: The Al Roker Deepfake Rip-off
Prince Harry, Taylor Swift, and now the At present present’s Al Roker, too, they’ve all discovered themselves because the AI-generated spokesperson for deepfake scams.
Up to now, a deepfake Prince Harry pushed bogus investments, whereas one other deepfake of Taylor Swift hawked a phony cookware deal. Then, this spring, a deepfake of Al Roker used his picture and voice to advertise a bogus hypertension treatment—claiming, falsely, that he had suffered “a few coronary heart assaults.”
The fabricated clip appeared on Fb, which appeared convincing sufficient to idiot loads of folks, together with a few of Roker’s personal mates. “I’ve had some celeb mates name as a result of their dad and mom acquired taken in by it,” stated Roker.
Whereas Meta rapidly eliminated the video from Fb after being contacted by TODAY, the harm was finished. The incident highlights a rising concern within the digital age: how straightforward it’s to create—and imagine—convincing deepfakes.
Roker put it plainly, “We used to say, ‘Seeing is believing.’ Nicely, that’s sort of out the window now.”
In all, this stands as a great reminder to be skeptical of celeb endorsements on social media. If public determine fronts an obvious deal for an funding, cookware, or a hypertension “treatment” in your feed, suppose twice. And higher but, let our Rip-off Detector enable you spot what’s actual and what’s pretend on the market.
5 – September 2025: The First Agentic AI Assault Noticed in The Wild
And to shut issues out, a take a look at some current information, which additionally serves as a glance forward.
Final September, researchers noticed one thing unseen earlier than:a cyberattack virtually fully run by agentic AI.
What’s Agentic AI?
Definition: Synthetic intelligence programs that may independently plan, make selections, and work towards particular targets with minimal human intervention; on this approach, it executes complicated duties by adapting to new information and conditions by itself.
Reported by AI researcher Anthropic, a Chinese language state-sponsored group allegedly used the corporate’s Claude Code agent to automate most of an espionage marketing campaign throughout almost thirty organizations. Attackers allegedly bypassed guardrails that sometimes forestall such malicious use with jailbreaking methods, which broke down their assaults into small, seemingly harmless duties. That approach, Claude orchestrated a large-scale assault it wouldn’t in any other case execute.
As soon as operational, the agent carried out reconnaissance, wrote exploit code, harvested credentials, recognized high-value databases, created backdoors, and generated documentation of the intrusion. By Anthropic’s estimate, they accomplished 80–90% of the work with none human involvement.
In accordance with Anthropic: “On the peak of its assault, the AI made hundreds of requests, typically a number of per second—an assault velocity that might have been, for human hackers, merely inconceivable to match.”
We knew this second was coming, and now the time has arrived: what as soon as took weeks of human effort to execute a coordinated assault now boils all the way down to minutes as agentic AI does the work on somebody’s behalf.
In 2026, we are able to anticipate to see extra assaults led by agentic AI, together with AI-led scams as effectively, which raises an essential query that Anthropic solutions head-on:
If AI fashions could be misused for cyberattacks at this scale, why proceed to develop and launch them? The reply is that the very talents that enable Claude for use in these assaults additionally make it essential for cyber protection. When subtle cyberattacks inevitably happen, our objective is for Claude—into which we’ve constructed robust safeguards—to help cybersecurity professionals to detect, disrupt, and put together for future variations of the assault.
That will get to the center of safety on-line: it’s an ever-evolving sport. As new applied sciences come up, those that shield and people who hurt one-up one another in a cycle of innovation and exploits. As we’re on the aspect of innovation right here, you could be positive we’ll proceed to roll out protections that maintain you safer on the market. At the same time as AI modifications the sport, our dedication stays the identical.
Blissful Holidays!
We’re taking just a little vacation break right here and we’ll be again with our weekly roundups once more in 2026. Trying ahead to catching up with you then and serving to you keep safer within the new yr.
