Financial Scams & Fraud Resources

We hope your summer is off to a great start! As promised last quarter, we are deviating from our typical market commentary to offer some thoughts on the prevalence of financial scams and frauds. Though fraud is nothing new, criminals now focus on our use of technology to misappropriate funds, steal personal data, and compromise our e-mails. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to assist criminals with these activities. Years ago, financial scams were often laughably transparent (think of an e-mail from a Nigerian Prince). Today, scams can be almost indistinguishable from real communications. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation 2025 Internet Crime Report, cyber-enabled fraud “includes complaints where criminals use the internet or other technology to commit fraudulent activities, often involving the theft of money, data, identities, or the creation of counterfeit goods or services.” In 2025, cyber-enabled fraud was “responsible for almost 85% of all losses” reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Be on the lookout! While financial scams come in all shapes and sizes, there are telltale signs that we can focus on to identify trouble. Scammers often create a false sense of urgency and use topics that are “hot button issues” for people. Examples include:

  1. a text stating that your credit card has been compromised, with a telephone number to call “right away”

  2. an e-mail indicating that you have an outstanding income tax liability which needs to be handled immediately

  3. a call from a person purporting to work in law enforcement about a matter concerning your granddaughter’s recent arrest

Many of us recently received a text entitled “Important Reminder from the Maine DMV”. The link provided in the text led to a fake website. With the assistance of AI, these frauds can appear incredibly realistic.

“Trust, but verify”

- Russian proverb popularized by Ronald Reagan

While we may lament the loss of a more innocent time, the proverb (see above) may need to be updated in today’s digital world to “distrust, and verify”. If you receive any unsolicited calls, text, or e-mails, you should always question their legitimacy – even if the sender seems authentic. If you have any questions as to the validity of an electronic communication, it is imperative to verify its authenticity by contacting the official source. In the examples provided above, this would entail:

  1. calling the telephone number on the back of your credit card to determine if there was a false claim

  2. contacting the Internal Revenue Service to inquire about unpaid income taxes

  3. calling your granddaughter directly to ensure she is not in any legal trouble

In fact, the likelihood that the IRS would contact you via text is so low that it would probably be best to simply delete and otherwise ignore that particular communication. In addition, you should never provide your personal data in response to an unsolicited call, text, or e-mail. Our “personal information” mantra should be “when in doubt, don’t give it out!” Also, if anyone asks you to provide a payment via gift cards, cryptocurrency, or gold, it is almost certainly a scam. Likewise, if you receive an unsolicited verification number from your bank or e-mail account, and someone contacts you to “verify” the verification number, this is a scam. Never share a verification code with anyone!

There are a number of resources below for you to learn more about financial fraud and scams, and to assist you if you have been a victim of these activities:

In addition to the foregoing, please use us as a resource.  We want to ensure that you are protected from scams and fraud. If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of communications that you receive (from any source), please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We can help determine if it is authentic and guide you in how to respond, if at all. 

-      Jason, Micah, Tim, & Victoria

Victoria Morin