Reuters uses illustrations to tell the story of Oly, an IT consultant who flew from Ethiopia to Thailand to meet a friend for a few days. He was trapped in Southeast Asia for five months.

The New York Times | A person called a reporter, asking for him by name. The caller ID said “Chase Bank.” The scammer had a ready answer for every question the reporter asked. It almost worked.

Reuters | Reuters asked AI chatbots to draft e-mail messages for a phishing scam targeting older people. The results show how scammers can use AI to conduct fraud.

IT Brew | Experts say the US government isn’t doing enough to fight scams. The FBI has prevented $400 million in crypto fraud to date in 2025, yet US scam victims lost over $5 billion in 2023.

ASPI | In a new report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute outlines what’s happening as Myanmar becomes a haven for transnational organized crime groups.

Cosmopolitan | After the investigation by Brianne and Cecilie, the romance scammer is in federal custody, facing charges filed by Operation Shamrock’s Erin West.

The Guardian | Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the military junta, the number of massive scam complexes on the Thai-Myanmar border has doubled since 2021.

Fox 13 | After getting a series of emails that seemed to be too good to be true, Barbara did the right thing, she contacted law enforcement — and it paid off.

PYMNTS | Finding victims isn’t random luck on the part of scammers. They use data to align messages with a target’s age, income, and habits, then pick the contact channel where the person will most likely respond.

Forbes | Scammers trick people to believe they have a computer error, then pose as tech support to fix it. FBI reports losses to these scams hit $1.4B in 2024; a 87% jump from 2022.

Idaho News 6 | Police are warning parents about a new phone scam. Scammers are calling parents, pretending to be medics, and claiming their child has been injured.

KABC Eyewitness News | A California woman learned her mother had been sending money to a scammer who used deepfake videos to impersonate celebrity Steve Burton.

NBC News | It seemed simple: Invest a small amount in a high-tech scooter-sharing company. Use the app to see your profits rise as people rent scooters. But it was a scam.

UPI | The FCC’s enforcement bureau removed more than 1,200 non-compliant robocall providers from its “Robocall Mitigation Database” for violating certification rules.

WIRED | New research reveals that transnational organized crime groups may now be targeting children in their sextortion schemes.

KHOU-11 | Thirteen people have been charged in an elder fraud scheme targeting more than 400 seniors through fake “grandparent” calls from the Dominican Republic.

CubaHeadlines | Using a “SIM swap,” scammers impersonated the victim, transferred her phone number and data to a new phone, and stole over $17,000 in less than a day.

FightCybercrime.org | The casual conversations from friendly new contacts online or the wrong-number texts aren’t casual at all. They’re calculated to manipulate.