If there is something you can count on, it is that there seems to be a new scam every day. While we’ve covered different types of Social Security scams over the years, Jeanne from Hackensack, New Jersey, forwarded a new one to share with you.

‘I received this email (displayed below) yesterday. I did not open the attachment. I hovered my mouse over the name of the Sender and immediately saw it as a lie.’

This vigilant approach by Jeanne demonstrates the importance of being cautious and skeptical when dealing with unsolicited emails, especially those claiming to be from official sources.

What type of scam is this?

A phishing scam is when a person or group pretends to be an established organization, such as a governmental agency, financial institution or legitimate company. The scammer uses what looks like a legitimate email address and usually attaches what looks like an official invoice or letter. 

They usually approach with a sense of urgency. In this instance, her Social Security number was compromised. The desired outcome is to get you to open the attachment, which can download a virus or malware onto your device or reach out to them to get your personal information, in this case, over the phone. Luckily, Jeanne knew better, did not open the attachment and reported it to the governmental agency being impersonated.

What to do if you receive one of these scam emails?

Now that you know what types of emails to be wary of, what should you do when you receive them? Below are several methods to protect yourself.

1) Flag the email

Mark the email as junk or spam so your email service provider will learn to flag such emails. This should also make it harder to open the attachments accidentally.

2) Don’t open any attachments or links

Jeanne smartly did not open the attached letter. She hovered her cursor over the attachment and saw it was suspicious. Remember, opening attachments or links from a scammer can download viruses or malware to your device. It can also take you to another website that can glean more of your personal information or release viruses or malware.

3) Do not respond to the email or reach out to these scammers over the phone or any other method

This will simply validate that they have an actual victim to harass further. Additionally, if you do call them with the number they provided, they can connect your email address to the phone number you use to call them. 

4) Go directly to the source

If there was indeed a problem with your Social Security number or account, you can go to the official Social Security Administration website. You can even visit them in person to validate your account standing.

8 ways to prevent phishing scammers from reaching you

Preventing yourself from being a target of a scam can save you loads of anxiety and trouble. Below are 8 ways to prevent yourself from being a victim in the first place.

1) Verify or sign up for a Social Security account

Whether you already have an account or not, regularly verifying your Social Security account is crucial. For those who haven’t, visit the official Social Security Administration website to create one. Since only one account can be registered per Social Security number, securing yours prevents others from fraudulently claiming it. If you already have an account, ensure it’s linked to a secure email that you check often and review your account statements to spot any discrepancies. This proactive approach helps safeguard your personal information and alerts you to any unauthorized activity.

2) Use two-factor authentication

Always enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your online accounts. 2FA adds an extra layer of security by requiring two or more verification methods. It’s not just a password; it could be a code sent to your phone, a fingerprint or a facial scan. This makes it much harder for scammers to gain unauthorized access.

3) Keep software and systems updated

Cybercriminals often exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software. Regularly updating your operating system, antivirus software and other applications can protect you from these threats. You can also set your devices to update automatically so you don’t have to remember to do it manually.

4) Secure your personal information

Be cautious about sharing personal information online. Think twice before entering sensitive details on websites, especially if you’re unsure they’re legitimate. Use privacy settings on social media to control who can see your information and be wary of unsolicited requests for your personal data.

5) Have strong antivirus software

If you have strong antivirus software installed on your device, it can protect you when you receive these types of scam emails or accidentally open the attachment or click a link. The best way to protect yourself from clicking malicious links that install malware that may get access to your private information is to have antivirus protection installed on all your devices. This can also alert you of any phishing emails or ransomware scams. Get my picks for the best 2024 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

6) Invest in personal data removal services

Scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods of obtaining personal information. They often scour the web for publicly available data, piecing together details from various sources to create targeted phishing attacks. These personalized scams can be alarmingly convincing, making it crucial to limit the amount of personal information accessible online.

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. Remove your personal data from the internet with my top picks here.

7) Use an identity theft protection service

Identity theft companies can monitor personal information like your Social Security number, phone number and email address and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account. They can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals. 

One of the best parts of using some services is that they might include identity theft insurance of and a white-glove fraud resolution team where a . See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft.

8) Directly reach out to the real organizations for verification

Just like Jeanne did, contact the government agency, financial institution or company directly using contact information from their official websites. Ensure that you never use any contact details provided in unsolicited communications, as these can be falsified by scammers to mislead you and become a potential victim.

By incorporating these strategies, you can significantly reduce the risk of becoming a victim of phishing scams. Stay vigilant and proactive in protecting your personal information.

Kurt’s key takeaways

When it comes to protecting yourself from scammers, you can never be too prepared. Let’s face it: These fraudsters are getting craftier by the day. They’re like those pesky weeds in your garden; just when you think you’ve got them all, a new one pops up. But don’t let that get you down. With the tips we’ve covered, you’re now armed and ready to spot these scams from a mile away. Stay skeptical of those fishy emails, and when in doubt, reach out to the real organizations directly. And hey, if you ever feel overwhelmed, just think of Jeanne from Hackensack. She didn’t fall for the scam and neither will you. You’ve got this.

Have you received a scam email from anyone pretending to be from a governmental agency? How did you respond? Let us know by writing us at

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The father of an Israeli-American hostage still being held by Hamas demanded a ‘negotiated agreement with Satan’ soon, as President Biden and Vice President Harris head into the Situation Room with the U.S. negotiating team.

‘It is absolutely clear, the only way to get hostages home alive is by some kind of negotiated agreement with Satan,’ Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui is still being held in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, said in an interview with ‘Fox & Friends’ Monday morning. ‘Keeping in mind that all of Israel’s military and intelligence, senior command have been saying for weeks if not months the fighting needs to stop in order to get the hostages back, as many as possible alive, but all of the 101 hostages remaining.’ 

There are seven U.S. citizens still being held by Hamas as hostages, including four believed to be still alive, and three whose murders have already been confirmed, Dekel-Chen noted. 

‘As far as messaging to the Israeli government, my government, it’s that the time is over for selling, perpetuating this fantasy of total victory over Hamas based on the sacrifice of our sons, daughters, grandparents who are hostages in Gaza,’ Dekel-Chen said. ‘We’ve been at this for 11 months, hearing from our government that a little more military pressure and a little more military pressure is going to cause Hamas to come begging for an agreement in exchange for our hostages. Clearly, that has not happened. Six bodies were returned yesterday of hostages who were alive until this past week. A week before that, six other hostages were returned after their murder, months and months after [Oct. 7].’ 

Biden and Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, plan to meet in the White House Situation Room Monday morning along with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team after the murder of six hostages, including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, by Hamas on Saturday.

The White House said the focus of the meeting is to discuss efforts to drive toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages. 

Mobs of protesters took to the streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on Sunday, after the bodies of the hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel, fueling frustration and anger toward the country’s leadership for failing to achieve a cease-fire deal freeing the remaining hostages. Israeli media reported that the crowds of protesters were estimated to be up to 500,000 in major Israeli cities.

A rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza led to closures and other disruptions around the country on Monday, including at its main international airport. 

‘I think the Biden administration itself will say that they will have done enough when all of the hostages are home. The seven Americans, of course, but all of the 101. The Biden administration has given us extraordinary support since Oct. 7, as well as Congress, from wall to wall which is quite extraordinary in these very polarized political times,’ Dekel-Chen said. 

‘At the end of the day, the Biden administration or any US administration is not the one who has to sign this agreement. The United States together with Qatar and Egypt are trying to broker an agreement between Israel and a savage terrorist organization,’ the father added. ‘To date, I believe that the Biden administration, all of the U.S. families would agree, has done everything in its power to bring those two sides to yes. Clearly, a little more is necessary, and that’s what we’re asking for, that last little push to convince, obviously Hamas and the Israeli government to get to yes, to end this madness, and to get our people home. Americans, the U.S. citizens and everyone else.’ 

Dekel-Chen said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition don’t have any excuse not to complete a deal. Hamas, though, has rejected recent proposals.

Dekel-Chen argued that the complete eradication of Hamas should not be a sticking point for a deal, because they are too weak to control the Gaza Strip anymore.

‘The entire senior command of the Army and our intelligence services have said very clearly that Hamas at this moment has been so significantly depleted as a military and a governing organization that that simply cannot be used anymore, except for evidently, domestic political purposes by our prime minister and his coalition, that cannot be used as a reason, really an excuse, anymore to not complete this deal,’ Dekel-Chen said. ‘The only resistance in Israel is from the government itself, most of its ministers unqualified really to make these kinds of decisions from military and intelligence standpoint.’ 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden and Vice President Harris plan to meet in the White House Situation Room on Monday along with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team after the murder of six hostages, including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, by Hamas on Saturday.

The White House said the focus of the meeting is to discuss efforts to drive toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages. The meeting is also closed to the press.

Mobs of protesters took to the streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities on Sunday after the bodies of the hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel, fueling frustration and anger toward the country’s leadership for failing to achieve a cease-fire deal freeing the remaining hostages.

Israeli media reported that the crowds of protesters were estimated to be up to 500,000 in major Israeli cities. Many of the protesters demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining 101 hostages.

Reuters reported that Israel’s leadership estimates that nearly a third of the remaining hostages are dead.

While protests remained strong on Sunday, labor leaders called on workers to be part of a one-day strike Monday.

‘We are getting body bags instead of a deal,’ Histadrut Labor Federation chief Arnon Bar-David said to reporters on Sunday, according to Reuters. ‘We must reach a deal. A deal is more important than anything else.’

The Histadrut Labor Federation is Israel’s main labor union that represents hundreds of thousands of workers. Bar-David’s call for a one-day strike was supported by manufacturers and tech entrepreneurs in the country.

Israel’s military announced that the bodies of hostages 40-year-old Carmel Gat, 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, 32-year-old Alexander Lobanov, 27-year-old Almog Sarusi and 25-year-old Ori Danino were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

A polio vaccination campaign had begun in the war-torn Gaza Strip, which sparked violence in the occupied West Bank.

The bodies of the six hostages have since been returned to Israel, according to military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

An Israeli health ministry spokesperson said a forensic analysis of the bodies determined the hostages were ‘murdered by Hamas terrorists in a number of shots at close range’ 48 to 72 hours prior.

After learning of the news, protesters blocked streets in Jerusalem and held a demonstration outside Netanyahu’s residence. In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked the main highway while holding flags with images of the murdered hostages.

During the protests, police reportedly arrested about two dozen Israelis nationwide, Reuters reported.

After the hostages’ bodies were recovered, Netanyahu said in a statement that he was ‘shocked to the core’ by the murders.

‘He who murders abductees does not want a deal. We are in a difficult day. The heart of the entire nation was torn,’ Netanyahu said. 

‘Along with all the citizens of Israel, I was shocked to the core by the terrible cold-blooded murder of six of our abductees.’

War has been raging in the Middle East since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israel, sparking Israel to declare war soon afterward. An estimated 257 Israeli hostages were trapped in Gaza when the war first began, and 101 hostages are still in Gaza. Of the 101 remaining hostages, 66 are believed to be alive, four of whom are American citizens.

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion, Emma Colton and Reuters contributed to this report.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. urged President Biden and Israel to take action against Iran after six more hostages were killed, calling Vice President Harris a ‘wrecking ball on foreign policy.’ 

Appearing on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ Graham reacted to the news that Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among the six hostages whom the Israel Defense Forces reported finding brutally murdered by Hamas as Israeli forces were close to rescuing them.

‘Heartbroken. Yeah. Devastated. Mad. John and Rachel have done everything in their power to help their son be released from captivity after 11 months of captivity,’ Graham said, referencing Goldberg-Polin’s parents. ‘He was murdered by Hamas. Hamas [couldn’t] care less about the hostages or the Palestinians. And if you want the hostages home, which we all do, you have to increase the cost to Iran.’

‘Iran is the Great Satan here. Hamas is the junior partner. They’re barbaric, religious Nazis, Hamas,’ Graham continued. ‘They [couldn’t] care less about the Palestinian people. I would urge the Biden administration and Israel to hold Iran accountable for the fate of remaining hostages, and put on the target list oil refineries in Iran if the hostages are not released.’ 

The IDF said all six hostages had been killed shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces. 

Hamas terrorists seized Goldberg-Polin, 23, and four of the other hostages at a music festival in southern Israel during the Oct. 7 attack. The native of Berkeley, California, lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack. In April, a Hamas-issued video showed him alive but with his left hand missing, sparking new protests in Israel.

The Israeli army identified the other dead hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was abducted from the nearby farming community of Be’eri. The IDF said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in Rafah, around a half a mile from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.

Graham accused Harris of ‘sending a signal’ to terrorists in the Middle East that the United States doesn’t have Israel’s back when she boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address before a joint session of Congress.

‘She’s been a senator. She’s attorney general. She’s now vice president. Obviously, she has some talent. But here’s what I would say. On foreign policy, she’s been a wrecking ball,’ Graham said. ‘On Israel, she sat there and listened to somebody call the Israeli government and people engaging in genocide and did nothing about it. She boycotted Bibi’s speech to the Congress, sending a signal to Hamas and Iran that America really doesn’t have Israel’s back. She was cheerleading the withdrawal from Afghanistan. She’s bragged about being the last person in the room, the dumbest decision maybe in modern history by American administration.’

‘I was in Munich when she warned the Russians not to invade Ukraine. Four days later, they did. She’s been in charge of the border,’ he continued. ‘I don’t know what the hell she’s been doing on the border, but we’ve got more terrorists in our country than any time in history. And fentanyl poisoning is the leading cause of death among young people in America.’

‘She’s been a wrecking ball on foreign policy,’ Graham stated. ‘It’s been the most incompetent administration I can remember on things that matter to the American people, your safety and your prosperity.’

Graham was asked about a reported altercation at Arlington National Cemetery, where former President Trump was invited by the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony on the three-year anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, ISIS-K bombing that happened during the Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal. 

‘I’m all for looking at what happened. But you know what really is unfortunate? That these families had to go visit their fallen loved ones at Arlington due to incompetence by the Biden administration,’ Graham told ABC. ‘You know, I’ve tried to work with President Biden to get Saudi Arabia and Israel to reconcile. I’ve supported a lot of their … nominees. I’ve known President Biden for a long time, but Vice President Harris bragged about being the last person in the room, cheerleading the withdrawal of all forces that led to the death of these13. Rising terrorism, combine that with a broken border – another 9/11 coming our way. So what I take away from this whole debate about Arlington is why they died, how they died, and the incompetency that led to their death to the American people.’

‘We’ve lost deterrence. Nobody in the world is afraid of Kamala Harris. She has become, in my view, ineffective, in terms of a voice for America. So if you want to avoid more dead Americans, vote for Trump,’ he added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump is a marvel to behold. It is astonishing that such a prominent member of America’s quintessential Democrat family embraced the most conservative Republican nominee since President Ronald Reagan.

If a majority of Kennedy’s roughly 6% of likely voters support Trump on November 5, they could compose the 3.1% that he might need to edge Vice President Kamala Harris in a photo finish. But Kennedy should add value beyond Election Day. If re-elected, Trump should ask him to chair a new Presidential Commission to Make Free Speech Great Again.

Kennedy and his commissioners should investigate federal assaults on the First Amendment, most notoriously the election-interference campaign to censor news coverage of Hunter Biden’s Laptop from Hell.

‘The FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma,’ Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R – Ohio) on Monday. After the Oct. 14, 2020 story in the New York Post exposed Hunter Biden’s laptop and its evidence of the Bidens’ dodgy international deals, ‘we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.’

After conferring with then-Biden-Harris campaign aide Antony Blinken (now secretary of state), former acting CIA chief Michael Morrell recruited 50 other former intelligence officer to sign an open letter that dismissed the Post’s exclusive for containing ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’

Biden-Harris’ allies and other Deep State denizens used the ex-spies’ communiqué to dragoon Facebook, Twitter (now X), and other social-media giants into censoring the Hunter Biden story. In fact, Twitter (pre-Elon Musk) padlocked the Post’s account for 15 days!

Meanwhile, during his final debate against Trump that Oct. 22, Joe Biden used the ex-spies’ bogus letter to denounce the Post’s true story as ‘a bunch of garbage.’

Mission accomplished! Millions of voters never learned about the Biden family’s corruption that haunted Hunter Biden’s laptop. Within days, Crooked Joe captured the Oval Office.2

‘In 2021,’ Zuckerberg added, ‘senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.’

Biden-Harris’s Justice Department sicced the FBI on ‘domestic terrorists,’ specifically parents who complained to school boards about Critical Race Theory and radical transgender treatment of minors. The Administration proposed that a Disinformation Governance Board patrol the Internet for undesirable ‘misinformation’ and then deplatform and punish Biden-Harris’s detractors.

While public ridicule doomed the DGB, Biden-Harris reportedly still coerce tech giants to silence the administration’s critics. Biden-Harris’ FBI also spied on ‘violent extremists,’ namely Latin-Mass Catholics.

These unconstitutional policies also oppressed Kennedy. As the pandemic roared on, his concerns about COVID-19 vaccines got buried.

As a victim of Biden-Harris’ censorship, Kennedy is ideally suited to investigate their War on the First Amendment. The Kennedy Commission should identify every federal employee who perpetrated these unconstitutional outrages. 

‘What alarms me is the resort to censorship, media control, and weaponization of the federal agencies,’ Kennedy said in Phoenix on Aug. 23, as he suspended his campaign. ‘When a U.S. president colludes with, or outright coerces, media companies to censor political speech, it’s an attack on our most sacred right of free expression.’

As a victim of Biden-Harris’ censorship, Kennedy is ideally suited to investigate their War on the First Amendment. The Kennedy Commission should identify every federal employee who perpetrated these unconstitutional outrages. Trump then should tell these totalitarians: ‘You’re fired!’ The attorneys among them should be disbarred and their law licenses shredded. Those who violated federal law should be prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned.

And on Day One, Trump should revoke the security clearances of those 51 lying ex-spies. This would signal — big league — that censorship is dead, and free speech is alive and well.

What a beautiful, bipartisan victory this would be for America, courtesy of Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Republican Donald J. Trump.

Trump-Vance campaign adviser Cory Lewandowksi said that pro-lifers who choose not to vote due to dissatisfaction over former President Trump’s moderate stance on abortion give a ‘tacit endorsement’ of Kamala Harris’ ‘radical position on abortion.’ 

Appearing on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ Lewandowski, a 2016 Trump campaign adviser who recently joined the 2024 re-election team, was asked about pro-life activist Lila Rose’s recent comments to Politico Magazine.

Rose, who runs Live Action, said in a recent interview that Trump has been ‘alienating’ his base by moving to the center in recent weeks. 

‘I think it’s very foolish what he’s doing,’ Rose told Politico. ‘It’s politically unwise, it may cost him the election, and it’s morally unprincipled as well. Right now, it’s all about turnout. If he wants to galvanize his base, he needs to stop trying to pander to Kamala Harris’ base, because they’re never going to vote for him anyway.’ 

The Republican presidential nominee has spoken out against using the federal government to ban the delivery of abortion medication by mail. Trump also pledged universal support for IVF treatment because ‘we want more babies.’ Despite Democrat Kamala Harris insisting Trump would enact a national abortion ban if elected, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has said Trump would veto any such measure. 

Trump has also said in recent days that Florida’s abortion limit after six weeks is ‘too short.’ 

‘If she chooses to stay home, then by, you know, tacit endorsement, she’s supporting, Kamala Harris, who has had a radical position on the issue of abortion,’ Lewandowski said of Rose Sunday. ‘Many Democrats believe that you can have an abortion not only on up until the last week, but also in some cases after the baby’s been born. What Donald Trump has said was, let’s have the states decide – they are the laboratories of democracy. Let’s turn this back. And that’s what Roe v. Wade really did. And so we see across this country right now opportunities for individuals to go and vote at the ballot box of what they want to see transpire in their state.’

‘And every state is going to look a little different,’ he continued, responding to  host Shannon Bream. ‘We have seen some relatively or very conservative states go to a position where women are given opportunities that you would not have expected because of that. But those states understand, whether it’s Ohio or Kansas, that women have the opportunity to make their own decisions, and the states are allowing that to happen. So what Donald Trump has done, and I think by and large, the American people support this, is Roe v. Wade has been overturned because of his three Supreme Court nominees that are now sitting on the bench. And they’ve put it back to the states. And it’s a decision at the local level now.’