Technology

FBI warns of scam targeting victims with fake hospitals and police

Published

11 months ago

April 30, 2025

FBI warns of scam targeting victims with fake hospitals and police

The FBI warns that scammers are impersonating doctors, police and banks using spoofed numbers, while “smishing” texts impersonating toll agencies and delivery services surge nationwide.

In one elaborate scheme, fraudsters posing as hospital staff claim victims’ identities are linked to Chinese crime rings, then transfer calls to fake police demanding wire transfers, complete with fake IDs and encrypted app requests.

These cons often target previous fraud victims through social media groups, where fake profiles like “Jaime Quin” promise fund recovery to steal more data. With AI and deepfakes making scams harder to spot, here’s how to fight back.

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FBI building in Washington, D.C. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

How these scams work

The FBI says that these scams often target people who have already been victims of fraud, which makes them especially cruel. Scammers reach out through phone calls, emails or even social media, pretending they can help you recover money you’ve lost.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

One common trick involves someone posing as an official from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, using fake names like “Jaime Quin,” who asks for sensitive information such as your Social Security number or bank details.

In other cases, scammers create fake female profiles to join online support groups for fraud victims, gaining trust before directing people to contact their “recovery experts.” While the details may change, the goal is always the same: to steal your personal information or money all over again.

A woman working on her laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG WHEN SCAMMERS CALL

How to keep yourself safe

Protecting yourself from scams starts with these critical defenses; each is designed to shut down fraudsters before they gain a foothold on your personal information or money.

1. Stay calm: If you think a scammer is calling you, it’s important to stay calm and not let yourself get emotional. It’s very easy to get worked up when you’re in the middle of this situation. If it happens, you can always say you will get back to them and hang up the phone. If they become aggressive and try to exploit you, tell them you will report them and hang up.

2. Avoid unknown contact numbers: Never call phone numbers that appear in pop-ups, unsolicited texts or emails. These numbers often belong to scammers trying to trick you into sharing personal information or making payments. Instead, always verify contact details through official websites or trusted sources before reaching out.

3. Download warning: Do not download software at the request of unknown individuals who contact you. Installing unknown programs can introduce malware or give scammers a way to steal your personal information.

4. Security precaution: Do not allow unknown individuals access to your computer. Granting remote access can give scammers control over your files and personal information, putting your security at serious risk.

5. Don’t click that link and have strong antivirus software: Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups on your computer, links sent via text messages or email links and attachments. As scammers weaponize AI and deepfake technologies, strong antivirus software becomes your first line of defense. The best way to protect yourself from clicking on malicious links that install malware that may access your private information is to have strong antivirus protection installed on all your devices. This can also alert you to any phishing emails or ransomware scams. Get my picks of the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

6. Remove your personal information from the web: Your personal information is out on the web. If you want to make your personal information inaccessible, you might want to look into removal services. While no service promises to remove all your data from the internet, having a removal service is great if you want to constantly monitor and automate the process of removing your information from hundreds of sites continuously over a longer period of time. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.

7. Never send money or valuables to strangers: Avoid wiring cash, sending gift cards, cryptocurrency or any other assets to people you’ve only met online or over the phone. Scammers often pressure victims for these untraceable payments, so always be cautious and verify who you’re dealing with before sending anything.

8. Consider identity theft protection services: These services monitor your personal information across credit reports, the dark web and public records, alerting you quickly if your data is exposed or misused. These services offer valuable early warnings and access to experts who can help recover your identity if fraud occurs. Choose a reputable provider that offers comprehensive monitoring, timely alerts and support for resolving identity theft issues. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft.

FBI working to stop scams (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

TOP 12 ELDERLY FRAUD SCAMS

What to do if you’re targeted

If you believe you’ve been contacted by scammers impersonating the FBI, hospitals, police or other trusted entities, it’s crucial to act quickly.

Stop all communication immediately. Do not engage further or provide any personal or financial information.
Report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.ic3.gov. Provide as much detail as possible, including contact information, methods used by the scammer and any financial transactions.
Notify your bank or financial institutions if you’ve shared any account information or sent money.
File a police report with your local law enforcement to document the crime.
If you’re an older adult or need assistance filing a complaint, contact the Department of Justice Elder Justice Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311).

Reporting scams not only helps protect you but also assists law enforcement in identifying and stopping these criminals.

FBI WARNS ABOUT NEW EXTORTION SCAM TARGETING SENSITIVE DATA

Kurt’s key takeaways

As scams grow more sophisticated, your best weapons are skepticism and proactive security measures like those we listed above. When in doubt, ask yourself: Would this agency really pressure me for payments via Signal or another app? Report all attempts to ic3.gov and trust your gut. If it feels off, it probably is.

Do you trust today’s cybersecurity policies to shield your identity when scammers weaponize AI and critical infrastructure remains a target? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’

Published

4 hours ago

March 17, 2026

Press Room

The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’

After a chaotic week following the Justice Department’s mid-trial settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial picked back up surprisingly smoothly on Monday — this time, with dozens of states leading the case.

This isn’t the outcome the states originally wanted. Out of concerns about being able to effectively take over the case and fear that the jury would be prejudiced by the shakeup, they requested a mistrial, which would have restarted the court battle at an unknown future date. But an irritated Judge Arun Subramanian seemed likely to deny the request, and once the states figured out how to retain the DOJ’s expert witness and were able to quickly hire up, they withdrew their mistrial motion. After the new faces were introduced, the trial restarted from roughly where it left off more than a week ago, with testimony that included how Live Nation deployed its “velvet hammer” against rivals.

Subramanian welcomed the jurors back from their “spring break” and asked if they had read or encountered any news about the case when they were out, which is forbidden by the jury instructions. They either shook their heads or remained silent. He reminded the jurors that the US had resolved its claims, as had a handful of states, but the rest were proceeding to trial. Jurors shouldn’t make any inferences from the fact those parties are no longer in the case, he said.

With the DOJ out of the picture, the lawyers who questioned early witnesses were gone, replaced by a new team co-led by Jonathan Hatch, an attorney from the New York AG’s office, and Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn, who represented college athletes in the landmark Supreme Court antitrust case against the NCAA over compensation.

The states’ attorneys picked up questioning of Jay Marciano, the COO of AEG, a competitor to Live Nation on multiple fronts. While Hatch refreshed jurors on parts of Marciano’s prior testimony, it was otherwise a fairly standard examination. Marciano testified about ticketing models he prefers in Europe, where multiple ticketing services often work at a venue, unlike the norm in the US where venues tend to accept exclusive ticketing contracts, often from Ticketmaster.

On cross examination, Marciano spoke to an incident the jury heard about early in the trial: a call between the Barclays Center’s then-CEO and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, who responded to an attempt to abandon Ticketmaster by saying it would be harder for the arena to get concerts with the new UBS Arena nearby. While Barclays interpreted this as a threat to protect Ticketmaster, Marciano affirmed that it’s common as a concert promoter to play venues against each other to get more favorable terms, and that the UBS Arena likely would attract artists away from Barclays as the new venue in town.

Live Nation’s president of US concerts, Robert Roux, addressed a separate allegation: that Live Nation uses its broad control over US amphitheaters to maintain its monopoly power, leaving no other real options for artists looking to play large outdoor venues. Through Live Nation’s own business presentations, plaintiff attorney Josh Hafenbrack demonstrated that the company made big strides to gain power over four of the top five amphitheaters in the US by ticket sales between 2016 and now. A 2018 presentation showed a largely highlighted list of the top 100 amps worldwide, with the green highlights representing the 62 Live Nation owned, operated, or exclusively booked venues at the time. Since then, Roux confirmed, the company has added several more on that list.

Live Nation denies it acted anticompetitively, and argues the states ignore other kinds of venues that compete for the same shows. But Roux wrote in a 2015 email that many non-superstar artists come in wanting to play amphitheaters — many of which, evidence shown in court has suggested, are controlled or exclusively booked by Live Nation. He also wrote that in those cases, there was “room for tighter negotiations and deals.”

“Either we are together or we are competitors”

Other emails described how Live Nation thinks about its competition when contemplating otherwise lucrative deals. In a 2018 email exchange, Rapino questioned why Live Nation should give shows to a promoter in the South it considered acquiring, Red Mountain Entertainment, before it actually owned it. Roux wrote at the time that the message to Red Mountain should be, “Either we are together or we are competitors.” He described the approach as a “velvet hammer.” On the witness stand, Roux said the message wasn’t meant to “antagonize” the promoter, but to be firm and send a clear message. In a separate exchange that mentioned Red Mountain, Roux wrote that Live Nation shouldn’t get “complacent” and “let small guys encroach from the edges.” Roux said the comment was a general one, and not specific to the promoter. Live Nation acquired Red Mountain in 2018.

In 2020, Rapino advised Roux against letting Radio Disney and concert promoter Superfly into a Live Nation venue, even after they offered a contract that would yield at least $400,000 in profit for Live Nation for renting out the amp. One executive had raised a concern about allowing a third-party promoter into the amp, even though the “money is great.”

Finally, Roux testified that Live Nation’s profits per fan have multiplied in recent years, with profitability in large amps, a key market in the case, growing more than other venue categories between 2019 and 2024. Before certain costs were factored in, the company made $386 million in profit from large amps in 2024, nearly triple the amount it made in that segment in 2019.

Besides the delay in the case while the states’ team sorted out its next moves absent the DOJ, there wasn’t a noticeable change in the flow of trial and how the new litigators operated, compared to the first week of trial. The case is still expected to run several more weeks, though both sides said they’ve worked to trim their witness lists to help make up for lost time. Toward the end of this week, one of the trial’s most high-profile witnesses is expected to take the stand: Live Nation’s CEO.

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Lauren Feiner

Technology

How debit card fraud can happen without using the card

Published

4 hours ago

March 17, 2026

Press Room

How debit card fraud can happen without using the card

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Every so often, we receive an email that stops us cold. Not because it is dramatic. Not because it is careless. Because it feels impossible.

Sheri M. from Georgia recently wrote to us with this question:

“Yesterday I learned that someone had stolen my debit card information. I was alerted by my bank about 10:00 p.m. last night that someone tried to use my card in Brazil. I am in the Southern United States and have never traveled outside the country. What I have trouble understanding is that this particular debit card has never been used and has never been out of a locked vault. It has been activated, and once activated, I locked it up. No one had access to it, no questions about that. It is just not possible. So how could someone have my card information? I asked this question at my bank, and after speaking to several people, they are at a loss as to what to tell me. I hope you can shed some light on this.”
— Sheri M. from Georgia

GHOST-TAPPING SCAM TARGETS TAP-TO-PAY USERS

Debit card numbers can be compromised digitally through system breaches or automated number-guessing attacks. (fizkes/Getty Images)

Sheri, first, we are glad your bank flagged it. That alert tells you fraud monitoring worked. Now let’s address the part that feels unreal. How can someone use a debit card that has never left a locked vault?

If you have asked that same question, you are not alone. This type of debit card fraud happens more often than most people realize. And it almost never involves someone physically touching your card.

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How debit card fraud happens without using the card

When a card is compromised without being used, the issue is typically digital. Here are the most likely explanations.

1) The number was exposed before you received it

Debit cards move through multiple systems before they reach your mailbox. Third-party vendors manufacture, encode and ship them. That means the card number exists in databases long before you open the envelope. If one of those systems is breached, criminals can obtain card numbers in bulk. They never need the physical card. They never need your home. In that case, it has nothing to do with your vault.

2) A BIN attack may be responsible

Every debit card starts with a bank identification number. Criminals use software to generate the remaining digits at high speed. They test thousands of combinations using small transactions or foreign authorizations to see which numbers work. This is known as a BIN attack. They are not stealing your specific card. They are guessing valid numbers mathematically. If your card was activated, even if it was never used, it becomes part of the pool that can be tested. A foreign attempt, like one in Brazil, is often a test authorization. It feels personal. In reality, it is automated.

WEB SKIMMING ATTACKS TARGET MAJOR PAYMENT NETWORKS

A customer completes a transaction at Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, on May 28, 2025. Financial security specialists recommend canceling compromised cards and monitoring accounts immediately after a fraud alert. (M. Scott Brauer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

3) A processor or network weak point

Sometimes the exposure does not originate at the bank itself. The weak link can involve:

A payment processor
A card network
A digital wallet backend
A servicing vendor

Frontline bank employees often do not have visibility into these system-level issues. Patterns can take time to surface internally. That is why you may not receive a clear explanation right away.

4) Backend systems assign numbers early

Many banks pre-assign card numbers or connect them to digital systems before you ever swipe the card. If that backend data is exposed, the physical card remaining locked away does not matter. That is why debit card fraud without using the card can still occur.

Why did the transaction show up overseas?

You may wonder why the attempt came from Brazil. Foreign authorizations are often used as test transactions. Criminal groups run small or unusual location charges to see which numbers are active. If the charge clears, they escalate. The good news is your bank blocked it.

What you should do right now

If this happens to you, act quickly.

Cancel the card completely. Do not just lock it. Make sure the number is permanently closed.
Request a new card number. Confirm it is not a reissue of the same digits.
Monitor your checking account daily for at least 30 days.
Freeze your credit with all three credit bureaus.
Add identity monitoring to detect broader misuse.

That final step is often overlooked.

WHY SCAMMERS OPEN BANK ACCOUNTS IN YOUR NAME

Experts say debit card fraud often occurs without the physical card ever being used or stolen. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Why identity monitoring matters

Debit card fraud can be isolated. It can also signal a larger data exposure.

If your card number surfaced through a breach or vendor leak, other personal details may be circulating too. Email addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers often appear together in stolen datasets. That is where early detection becomes critical.

Our top Identity Theft Protection recommendation monitors credit activity, financial accounts and dark web marketplaces for signs your identity is being misused. You receive fast alerts so you can respond before small incidents turn into larger problems.

Instead of waiting for a late-night fraud alert, you gain earlier visibility.

See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com.

Ways to stay safe from invisible debit card fraud

You cannot control global criminal networks. You can reduce your exposure.

Keep debit cards locked in your banking app when not in use
Turn on real-time transaction alerts
Use credit cards for online purchases when possible
Freeze your credit as a preventative step
Avoid storing debit card details across multiple retail sites
Use identity monitoring for broader protection

Layered security gives you more control.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Sheri’s experience feels impossible because she did everything right. The card never left the vault. It was never used. No one had access. Yet the number was still tested from across the world. That is the reality of today’s financial crime. It is automated, remote and system-driven.

If this can happen to a card locked in a vault, what does that say about how secure our financial system really is? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Technology

Sony’s AI graphics upscaling for PS5 Pro games is getting a big update tonight

Published

16 hours ago

March 16, 2026

Press Room

Sony’s AI graphics upscaling for PS5 Pro games is getting a big update tonight

Sony’s upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology is rolling out to several titles on the PS5 Pro, including Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Silent Hill 2, and more. Digital Foundry got a chance to test some of them and found that the “new upscaler delivers the kind of upgrade we were looking for from PS5 Pro.” Problems with shimmering, flickering, and other visual artifacts have been addressed, and they said it now delivers crisper and more consistent in-game graphics.

This is the first upgrade we’ve seen from AMD and Sony’s combined Project Amethyst work on improving the effect of rendering a game at a lower resolution, then using AI trained on graphics to analyze each frame and upscale it, delivering improved quality on the same hardware without reducing the framerate. The upgraded PSSR is included with the latest PS5 system software update, which will start rolling out “in phases” on March 17th at 1AM ET, and Sony says its improvements will also improve AMD’s next FSR update when that rolls out.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077 will also get a patch with the PSSR update in the “coming weeks,” while CrimsonDesert will adopt the tech when the game launches on March 19th, according to Sony. You can also toggle the updated tech on or off for PS5 Pro games not on this list that already support PSSR, though Sony notes that “results may vary by title.”