Gone are the days of the 'Nigerian prince'

It used to be that scammers tried to dupe you with the lure of free money. A prince died and named you in his will. Your student loans have been forgiven. You won the lottery and forgot to turn in your ticket, but someone has called to give you your belated winnings. Since the invention of currency, people have dreamed about what they could do with a windfall like that — a new car, a new house, a new life. Who wouldn’t fill in all their personal information for a chance at the American dream?

The scam has changed.

The other day, I was annoyed to receive a medical bill in the mail for testing I’d apparently gotten for a urinary tract infection. The date of service was last October — long enough ago that it’s easy to think I might have forgotten about peeing into a cup. Every year, more than 8 million people go to the doctor for UTI treatment. The bill was for $749.48 — a high and weirdly specific number (just like every bill for basic medical care I’ve ever gotten). After insurance, I was responsible for paying $125. I’d paid more than that to get treatment before. It all seemed normal enough. I just didn’t want to spend the money.

It bothered me that the bill was so late in getting to me (but that wasn’t new either). I don’t make a lot, so I’m always looking to avoid paying for things. I scrutinized it more closely. I’d never heard of the company that was billing me and they didn’t mention the doctor I’d seen or the name of my insurance company. In fact, other than my name and home address, none of the information on the bill was specific to me. Finally, I looked up the company name and phone number online and found one person after another warning me that this was a scam.

And I had been so close to falling for it. Because in America in 2025, there are few things more believable than hearing you owe someone money.

It’s a sad sign of the times that employment, not a free beach vacation, is the carrot scammers dangle in front of their victims.

Scammers are a scourge, but I have to give them some credit; they have their finger on the pulse of a vibe shift that’s been in progress for a while. These days, the mood of the general population is so pessimistic that most of us would hang up immediately if a stranger called us with happy financial news. We don’t expect good surprises. Only bad ones. The days of looking forward to a bright future are long gone; the majority of Americans think things were better in the past than they are in the present or are going to be in the future.

We go to the grocery store and discover there’s an egg shortage. We hear about an exciting new technology called AI, and then find out it’s taking our jobs. Worker productivity keeps increasing while wages stay the same.

Whether it’s through medical bills or mortgages, unpaid taxes or student loans, or even a forgotten credit card, Americans have collected $18.2 trillion in collective debt. We’re used to owing people money. All these scammers had to do was pay for some postage and hope enough people recently had a UTI that they’d pay a bill without thinking too hard about it.

Along with debt scams, job scams are also on the rise. It currently takes people an average of six months to find a new job, but in 2022, only 54% of Americans had enough set aside to cover even three months of expenses (and that number is probably lower now). So it comes as no surprise we’re falling for the promise of scam jobs in record numbers. People lost $501 million to job scams in 2024 compared to $90 million in 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Fake recruiters or hiring managers contact applicants about a job opening and then ask them for banking and other personal information to “onboard” them before they get hired. Some of these are for too-good-to-be-true jobs that offer thousands a month for remote work, no degree required. Others use real job postings — the kind that don’t pay a living wage but require advanced degrees — to tempt applicants. It’s a sad sign of the times that employment, not a free beach vacation, is the carrot scammers dangle in front of their victims.

These days, many successful scams are boring. Sure, some scammers use AI-generated deepfakes to try and convince people they’re getting a call from a loved one who desperately needs money right away. But often scams are just a text message telling you you have an unpaid road toll. Or owe money to some medical lab in another state.

I’ve long known to be skeptical of unexpected good news. The bill was a reminder that these days, even bad news is untrustworthy. It seems like a bad omen for what’s to come. If a medical bill in my mailbox can be fake, what’s next? Fake notices telling me my magazine subscription has expired, or fake pleas for me to donate to a good cause? It’s exhausting to feel like the only way to avoid getting taken advantage of is to be on guard at all times.

On the bright side, a scam medical bill is one I don’t actually have to pay. Work is slow in the summer, my credit card bill is higher than I’d like, and I’m certain my rent is going up this year. There are plenty of real bills that need my attention. I know better than to hope for a windfall: though I sure would love a free vacation. If anyone knows a real prince looking to give away their fortune, send them my way.

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