The Sentinel

That "I hacked your webcam" email showing your old password is a mass-mailed bluff. Why it is almost always fake, and exactly what to do: do not pay, do report.

We checked what is actually known about the Spro Deal earning app, how task and commission scams turn users into unwitting money mules, and why bank accounts get frozen.

File an FBI IC3 complaint at ic3.gov: a step-by-step guide to what evidence to include (IPs, WHOIS, email headers, file hashes) and what realistically happens next.

Indian bank account frozen or lien-marked over a cyber-fraud complaint? A step-by-step 2026 guide to getting it released, limiting the lien, and protecting your rights.

Fake IRS, Social Security, and Medicare calls and texts cost Americans hundreds of millions a year. Real agencies do not call to threaten arrest or demand gift cards. The tells that give the scam away, and exactly where to report an IRS, SSA, or Medicare impersonator.

Gift cards are the number one way Americans get scammed out of money, because once you share the numbers the cash is gone. No real business or agency takes payment in gift cards. How the trap works, the warning line that ends every version of it, and what to do fast if you already paid.

Criminals pose as a peer, trick a teen into sending an explicit image, then demand money under threat to share it. The FBI calls it one of the fastest-growing crimes against children. What parents and teens need to know, what to do if it happens, and the free tool that can pull the images down.

The first 24 hours decide whether you get your money back. A calm, ordered checklist for any scam — the universal first moves, the exact next step for how you paid (card, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, SSN), and where to report it in the US.

A credit freeze, a fraud alert, and credit monitoring do very different jobs — and only one actually prevents fraud. Here's what each does, what it costs, and which you should use (hint: start with the free freeze).

If your Social Security number was exposed in a data breach, don't panic — act methodically. Freeze your credit, get an IRS IP PIN, make a plan at IdentityTheft.gov, and monitor your reports. The exact steps, and what NOT to do.

A credit freeze is the single strongest, free protection against new-account identity theft. Here's how to place one at all three US bureaus in minutes, why it won't hurt your score, how to lift it free when you need credit, and how to freeze a child's credit.

Whether PayPal can refund you hinges on one thing: did you pay as 'Goods & Services' (covered by Purchase Protection) or 'Friends & Family' (not covered)? How to open a dispute in the Resolution Center, the 180-day and 20-day deadlines, unauthorised-charge reporting, and the card-chargeback backstop.