Brad K. was — to put it mildly — exhausted. In May 2024, he was a brand-new father to a weeks-old baby, balancing the new responsibility with his role as a husband and dog dad.
"They say the three biggest life stressors are having a kid, moving, and starting a new job," he said in an interview with Mashable. "And I did all three at the same time, within a month of one another."
Sleep deprived and facing one of life's most stress-inducing transitions, Brad, admittedly, wasn't his normal, clearheaded self when an unknown number called him after a long day of grocery and Home Depot runs, driving home with dinner for him and his wife.
A man was on the other end, speaking in what Brad recognized as a regional accent. He explained, with the lack of urgency stereotypically associated with civil servants, that Brad had misfiled his taxes. He still owed more than $800 to the federal government and, the man explained, he needed to pay ASAP.
Brad wasn't clueless when it came to common scam strategies, though. He knew that people (including himself) are frequently inundated by robocalls asking for sketchy money payments, like gift card scams. He also knew that many scam calls come from unregulated (sometimes illegal) call centers overseas, and they can be easily spotted just using the speaker's accent. But this particular call didn't match up with any of those previous experiences — the man had personal information, like his address and wife's name, that would have been found on his tax records. And he sounded very legit. He was also very persistent. Brad had to pay today or risk a penalty or even jail time.
"They knew enough about me to talk intelligently about me," he said. "They knew a lot more than I even think is searchable online. I just thought, 'Oh my god. I have a new kid. I've got a wife. I provide a lot of the income for our household. I can't go to jail.'"
Good digital hygiene is important but not always enough
Brad had practiced smart digital hygiene long before the call, too. On a prior vacation in Aruba, he spent a poolside afternoon setting up Google alerts for sites sharing his personal information rather than soaking up the tropical rays. He still gets the emails today. In high school, Brad worked a brief summer as a telemarketer — the second job he took as a teen after a failed attempt at twirling pizzas — and understood the tactics phone operators use to get people on the line and talking. Brad's late uncle had been defrauded of thousands of dollars after a scammer got a hold of his retirement log-in information, as well, so his family was familiar with the ways bad actors take advantage of technological illiteracy and confusion, especially among older Americans.
I just want other people to know that these scams are evolving.
And, adding to the complexity of the situation, Brad's own father was his accountant. Despite them knowing their way around a tax form, there was a chance one of them could have overlooked something. So he approved the payment to the "tax man," unwittingly giving him access to his bank account in the process.
What Brad didn't know at that moment, and what he would only learn weeks later from a friend, is that the IRS does not make personal calls. Ever. In fact, Brad now explains to anyone who cares to listen, the agency, by mandate, only conducts tax-related activities by mail — and using very specific certified mail at that. The IRS doesn't reach out over email or text or social media, and they never make home visits unless scheduled by the taxpayer, either.
But it was too late.
"It's a feeling that I can't even really describe. Almost like that roller coaster feeling where your stomach drops out from inside of you," he said. Brad immediately contacted his bank and closed the account, fortunate that the scammer hadn't taken out more money. He also froze his credit and filed a report with the FBI — part of a series of steps recommended by agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration. But after that there wasn't much he could do. The money couldn't be recovered. Brad was left adrift.
Tax scams are shockingly common, data reveals
About 23 percent of people in the U.S. have been the victim, or know someone who was a victim, of a tax scam, according to a 2025 survey by McAfee. The majority of these scams are for less than $1,000, the report found, amounts that may slip by an individual's alertness. And the majority of victims are actually young adults (ages 18 to 24).
That landscape is getting even more complex, as improved generative AI tech makes it easier to create realistically deceiving voice calls — Brad still doesn't know if the voice on the other end was a real person. Around 87 percent of survey respondents said they were concerned about AI's growing role in producing fraudulent content and facilitating scams.
Additionally, many are increasingly worried about the security of personal information stored online. According to a recent report by TransUnion, researchers uncovered 970 data breaches in 2024 alone. These breaches, which exposed 640 million consumer records, provided bad actors with personally identifiable information required for various forms of tax fraud, including full Social Security numbers.
The common thread in all of these stories, the fantastical and the real, is that scams can happen to anyone.
Despite making up a large community, many scam victims are hesitant to share their stories, facing the shame and social stigma of being the target of an insidious financial scam. Brad has yet to tell his own family. Instead, he sends articles on victims of scams to the family group chat, hoping to subtly hint at his own experience. He's processed in his own way, with practical measures to regain his stolen money and save for the future. And he's speaking more publicly about the experience. But Brad hasn't found any spaces that offer emotional support for his experiences, either, online or in the real world — he's joined by others who face rippling emotional and mental effects of being the victim of a financial scam.
"I'm very embarrassed about it," he explained. "I try to be positive… I said, 'Okay, I'm gonna have to put this behind me. I've got so much else going on right now.'"
Anyone can be scammed
Popular culture often presents fraud as the result of a victim's negligence or ignorance, like in 2024's indie hit film Thelma, in which an elderly woman is defrauded of thousands of dollars after a scammer uses an audio deepfake to impersonate her grandson. She goes on a sympathetic, action-packed adventure to get her money back, and she succeeds despite the world believing she couldn't. That same year, The Cut financial advice columnist Charlotte Cowles published a personal story about being the victim of a financial scam that forced her into handing over a (now infamous) shoebox filled with $50,000. Many online admonished her apparent foolishness, others applauded her vulnerability — It didn't take long for it to become a meme about the cluelessness and audacity of the rich.
The average person, however, will not confront their scammer IRL, or post to thousands, if not millions, of sympathetic readers as part of their path toward processing the experience. The majority of scam victims are like Brad: Individuals who are targeted during vulnerable moments in their lives and are left without a clear path of where to go next, save for online forums or their loved ones.
Still, the common thread in all of these stories, the fantastical and the real, is that scams can happen to anyone. They can happen to folks being left behind by technological acceleration or to society's financial experts. They can target individuals for thousands of dollars or a moderate sum of a couple hundred. Scams are non-discriminating, and the outcome often depends on something as simple as a misread number or just a few hours of sleep.
"I really don't want other people to get scammed, " said Brad, when asked why he was now sharing his story out loud. "I just want other people to know that these scams are evolving." And, his story poses, with millions of people at risk, why isn't there more being done to help them?
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