96% of Americans Get Scams Weekly; Quest Breach Confirmed

KEMETIC MINDS
Cybersecurity & Scam Daily Briefing — August 19, 2026

Photo: Gustavo Fring via Pexels (source)

• 96% of Americans get at least one scam call, email, or text every week (American Bazaar Online, 2026).
• Phishing is up 94% year over year; 2025 cybercrime losses passed $20 billion (American Bazaar Online, 2026).
• Quest Apartment Hotels confirms a breach exposing names, emails, and some birth dates (ABC News, 2026).
• Singapore warns that fake CPF refund emails are a phishing scam (MSN, 2026).
• Urgency is a red flag — real organizations let you take a moment to verify (American Bazaar Online, 2026).

1. Fake Rental Listings

Watch how a real fake rental deposit request unfolds — and the red flags that give it away.

Cybersecurity firm Bitdefender published a guide to rental scams, explaining how to spot and avoid fake rental listings (Bitdefender, 2026).

The guide is aimed at anyone searching for a place to rent, where criminals create listings for properties they don’t own or that don’t exist (Bitdefender, 2026).

How to Avoid This Scam

• Confirm the listing through the property’s official owner or management company before paying anything (Bitdefender, 2026).
• Be suspicious if a ‘landlord’ demands a deposit before you’ve toured the property (Bitdefender, 2026).
• Follow Bitdefender’s full guide before signing or wiring any rental money (Bitdefender, 2026).

2. Phishing Flood: 96% of Americans Hit Weekly

Watch how a real fake paypal payment text unfolds — and the red flags that give it away.

In a phishing scam, a fraudster pretends to be a real company — like PayPal, the DMV, or a bank — to steal money or personal information. New data from BrokerChooser shows phishing is up 94% year over year, and 96% of Americans receive at least one scam call, email, or text each week (American Bazaar Online, 2026).

The U.S. gets twice as many fraudulent messages as other countries, and cybercrime losses surpassed $20 billion for the first time in 2025, with 191,561 phishing reports logged that year (American Bazaar Online, 2026).

The most-impersonated brands are PayPal, with about 38,500 monthly U.S. searches for related scams, followed by the DMV, USPS, Apple, and Venmo (American Bazaar Online, 2026).

How to Avoid This Scam

• Leave suspicious messages untouched — don’t click, don’t reply, don’t call numbers inside the message (American Bazaar Online, 2026).
• Contact the organization directly through its official app, a website address you typed in yourself, or the phone number on the back of your card (American Bazaar Online, 2026).
• Treat urgency as a warning sign: a legitimate organization won’t lose your parcel or freeze your account because you took ten minutes to check (American Bazaar Online, 2026).

3. Fake CPF Refund Emails

Watch how a real fake cpf refund phishing unfolds — and the red flags that give it away.

If an email claims you’re eligible for a refund of excess Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions, it may be a scam (MSN, 2026). The warning comes from a Singapore public-safety alert about phishing emails.

These emails use a message that sounds believable because CPF is a real government program — and that’s exactly what makes the phishing attempt more dangerous (MSN, 2026).

How to Avoid This Scam

• Don’t click links or attachments in any unexpected email about a CPF refund (MSN, 2026).
• Verify any refund eligibility directly through official CPF channels — not through contact information inside the email (MSN, 2026).
• Treat the email as a scam until a refund actually appears in your account (MSN, 2026).

4. Quest Apartment Hotels Data Breach

Watch how a real fake hotel refund phish unfolds — and the red flags that give it away.

Quest Apartment Hotels is investigating a data breach that exposed customers’ personal data (ABC News, 2026). The compromised records date from before June 2025 and include full names, email addresses, and other contact details; a small number also include dates of birth (ABC News, 2026).

The hotel chain said it identified unauthorized access to a database on Monday, 17 August 2026, through a vulnerability in a third-party service provider, and immediately contained the incident (ABC News, 2026). Quest has notified Australia’s Information Commissioner and the Cyber Security Centre (ABC News, 2026).

Customers on Facebook and Reddit confirmed they received Quest’s notification emails overnight (ABC News, 2026). Managing director David Mansfield apologized in the email, saying protecting customers’ privacy and security is extremely important to the company (ABC News, 2026).

How to Avoid This Scam

• Don’t click on unexpected links or open attachments, even if the email appears to come from the hotel (ABC News, 2026).
• Be alert for follow-up phishing that uses your real name and email address to look legitimate (ABC News, 2026).
• Quest says it will contact you if further steps are needed — go to the official Quest website to verify any breach-related messages (ABC News, 2026).

5. Quest Breach: Hackers Used an External Service

Watch how a real fake breach-notice phish unfolds — and the red flags that give it away.

A separate report on the same incident says customers of one of Australia’s biggest hotel chains were warned their personal details may have been exposed (MSN, 2026). Hackers gained unauthorized access to a database through an external service, according to the report (MSN, 2026).

How to Avoid This Scam

• If you have stayed at Quest, watch for phishing messages that reference the breach and try to collect your login or payment details (MSN, 2026).
• Verify any “breach help” call, email, or text through the official Quest website or a customer-service number you look up yourself (MSN, 2026).

What the Research Actually Says

Being financially educated doesn’t make you scam-proof. A 2023 study of about 12,100 older adults in China found that more household financial assets were directly linked to a higher risk of financial fraud victimization — being tricked out of money by a scam (Mao & Liu, 2023, Research on Aging). More education, urban status, and more assets were also tied to higher fraud risk through higher financial literacy and greater interest in financial matters (Mao & Liu, 2023, Research on Aging).

Identity theft research shows the system often puts the burden on victims. Lenders and credit bureaus can attribute a thief’s unpaid debts to the impersonated consumer, which gives them little incentive to invest in prevention (Sovern, 2004, Journal of Consumer Affairs). Sovern argues consumers should be able to hold creditors and credit bureaus liable for reporting fraudulent transactions under their names (Sovern, 2004, Journal of Consumer Affairs).

Password choices are a known weak point. A study in Computers & Security analyzed breached passwords and proposed a password policy designed to change how people pick passwords (Güven et al., 2022, Computers & Security). The study’s focus on user password selection habits shows that passwords are a security decision, not a minor detail (Güven et al., 2022, Computers & Security).

Today’s Family Safety Checklist

• Pull your credit report and look for accounts or inquiries you didn’t open — identity theft often appears there first (Sovern, 2004, Journal of Consumer Affairs).
• Use a unique password for each important account; the way people choose passwords is the weak point breached-data research targets (Güven et al., 2022, Computers & Security).
• Help older relatives hit pause before paying or sharing details — a 2023 study found more financially engaged older adults were at higher fraud risk, not lower (Mao & Liu, 2023, Research on Aging).
• Dispute any unauthorized account or charge in writing; the research shows consumer pushback is essential because lenders and credit bureaus often have little incentive to act on their own (Sovern, 2004, Journal of Consumer Affairs).

References

1. Bitdefender. (2026, August 18). Rental scams: How to spot and avoid fake rental listings – Bitdefender. news.google.com
2. Bing News. (2026, August 18). New data reveals 96% of Americans receive at least one scam call, email or text every week. americanbazaaronline.com
3. Bing News. (2026, August 19). Beware phishing e-mails that offer fake CPF refund payouts. msn.com
4. Bing News. (2026, August 18). Quest Apartment Hotels customers' personal data exposed in security breach. abc.net.au
5. Bing News. (2026, August 18). Australian apartment hotel Quest reveals customer data breach after hackers accessed database. msn.com
6. Mao, Liu (2023). Relationship Between Socioeconomic Conditions and Financial Fraud Victimization Among Older Adults in China: Do Financial Literacy and Financial Attitudes Matter?. Research on Aging. doi.org/10.1177/01640275221132195
7. SOVERN (2004). Stopping Identity Theft. Journal of Consumer Affairs. doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6606.2004.tb00866.x
8. Güven, Boyaci, Aydin (2022). A Novel Password Policy Focusing on Altering User Password Selection Habits: A Statistical Analysis on Breached Data. Computers & Security. doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2021.102560