Same Old Trick

You’ve seen this one before.

The scams going around this week, from a parent’s phone to a kid’s job hunt, ranked, each with its tell and one thing to do, plus three messages to practice on.

The first thing you get is What We Check First: one page, four checks that work on any text, email, call or letter, and a Call me first line to fill in.

Keep it by the phone, or hand it to whoever sends you the screenshots.

Your own address, nobody else’s. A confirmation email from Same Old Trick comes first, and nothing arrives until you click the link in it. It’s free, every issue has an unsubscribe link, and your address is held by Kit, the company that sends the email for us, and nobody else.

Read one before you decide, if you like: a sample issue.

An engraved hand from an 1876 conjuring manual holds a cup over a ball

What you get

Fig. 1.

Three scams, ranked

What’s going around this week, and the count or the source behind each rank.

Fig. 2.

The tell, and one thing to do

How each one is done, what gives it away, and the one move that ends it.

Fig. 3.

Three to practice on

Messages we wrote ourselves and label as practice, with the answers at the bottom.

This week

How the grocery allowance call is done

Read the sample issue

We will never ask you for money, a password, a code or your Social Security number, and we never send a link to sign in anywhere. An email that does is not from us.

Scams going around right nowPast issuesAboutDisclosuresPrivacyCorrections

Independent newsletter. Not a government agency, and not connected to Social Security, Medicare, the IRS, the FTC, the FBI, USPS or any company we write about. Their names appear only to say who scammers pretend to be. General information about scams, not legal, financial or insurance advice, and we can’t check your message, letter or caller. No claim to original U.S. Government works.

We will never ask you for money, a password, a code or your Social Security number, and we never send a link to sign in anywhere. An email that does is not from us.

Drafted with AI tools, approved by a person.

Every issue has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. [postal address]

The hands are from Professor Hoffmann’s Modern Magic, 1876, and the pointing hand from an 1891 printers’ specimen book.