How to actually protect yourself from fraud in 2026
I am increasingly getting firsthand stories of fraud hitting people of all ages, tech-savvy or not. The FBI’s IC3 2024 report logged 859K complaints with $16B in losses. That number is up 33% from 2023. Here is what is actually happening and what to do about it. Threat vectors (ranked by prevalence) Phishing and smishing Still the number one attack vector by volume. Fake texts from a bank, Robinhood, Coinbase or “USPS” with seemingly urgent links. The Verizon DBIR consistently finds phishing in over 30% of breaches. Do not click links or call numbers from unsolicited messages. Go directly to the website or app instead. Hardware security keys are the strongest defense since phishing sites cannot intercept them. ...