The Scam

We scour the web and investigate thousands of scam reports, then bring you the monthly rundown: what's circulating right now, in plain English. The scam calls will come either way — families who read this know exactly what to do when they do.

Criminals are now placing FaceTime calls that look like they come from your bank's fraud department or Apple Support. The caller warns about "suspicious activity," then asks you to share your screen while you check your account. Then they watch you type your password and one-time code, live. McAfee researchers described the scheme in July. Some callers push further and coach people to switch off two-factor authentication "to stop the attack."

Apple confirmed it this month and opened a reporting address, reportfacetimefraud@apple.com. Their rule is simple: Apple will never ask you to log in to a website, approve a two-factor prompt, or read out a password. McAfee's version: "Your bank should never ask you to share your screen or reveal one-time authentication codes."

The call comes from someone claiming to be the government, a utility company, or "fraud prevention." Your money is in danger, they say. The fix, somehow, is always the same: withdraw cash and feed it into the cryptocurrency kiosk at a nearby gas station or grocery store. Once the cash goes in, it converts to crypto and leaves the country in minutes.

The FBI put numbers on it in May: $388.9 million lost through crypto kiosks in 2025, up 58% in one year, and more than half the complaints came from people over 50. States have started acting. Tennessee's outright ban on the machines took effect July 1. Georgia now requires transaction caps, fraud warnings, and refunds. Indiana banned them in March; Florida and California added caps and receipt rules, per Cointelegraph's reporting on the new laws.

On July 20 the FBI warned about AI-generated deepfake videos of its own senior officials, paired with counterfeit copies of the bureau's complaint site, ic3.gov. The targets are people who already lost money to a scam once. Someone claiming to be an agent reaches out on Facebook Messenger and offers to recover it. Then come the forms, the "reference numbers," and the fees.

The FBI counted $893 million in losses from AI-assisted scams in 2025, across 22,364 complaints. "AI-created fraudulent communications can look very official and very legitimate to even the most trained individuals," said Michael Machtinger of the FBI's Cyber Division. Type ic3.gov into your browser yourself. Real agents don't contact you on Facebook.