Open Season: The Six-Week Summer Window Scammers Have Circled on Their Calendars

You've probably been looking forward to summer—a trip on the calendar, time with grandchildren, maybe a road trip you've been putting off. Scammers have been looking forward to it too.

Between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, there's a six-week window that fraud operations treat like a business calendar. Retirees are booking trips, posting vacation photos, connecting to hotel Wi-Fi, and spending more time away from home than at any other time of the year. Adult children are juggling camp schedules and cookouts, which makes it harder for families to notice trouble before it's too late.

That combination isn't coincidental to scammers. It's a pattern they plan around.

What happens inside those six weeks

In late May, fake vacation rental listings appear on popular booking platforms—with convincing photos, friendly “hosts,” and prices just below market. The ask comes later: pay outside the system, via wire transfer or gift cards. The Federal Trade Commission has documented hundreds of millions of dollars in annual travel fraud losses, with older Americans consistently reporting the highest individual losses.

When school ends in early June, grandparent scams spike. Grandchildren become suddenly unreachable, many are off camping, road-tripping or visiting friends across the country. That unpredictability is what makes a panicked call from a “grandchild in trouble” feel believable. The caller already knows your grandchild’s name. They looked it up beforehand.

By mid-June, vacation photos tell scammers where you are, who you’re traveling with, and when your home may be empty. Later in June, fake public Wi-Fi networks in tourist areas can intercept bank logins from travelers who connect without a second thought. Around the Fourth of July, families scatter and emergency scams become easier to pull off when no one’s sticking to their usual routine.

And by mid-July, the cycle may repeat. People who engaged with a scam earlier in the summer—even without sending money—can end up on what investigators call a “sucker list” that gets sold to the next operation.

All of it runs on your personal data

Every phase of this summer calendar depends on the same thing: information about you that is already available for sale. Before a scammer dials, they often already know your name, address, family members, and financial clues. That information comes from data brokers—companies that compile personal profiles and sell access to anyone willing to pay.

Federal prosecutors have convicted data brokers for knowingly selling lists of older Americans to fraud rings. The path from your personal data to a scammer’s script is shorter than most people realize.

The good news is that you can erase that path. Start removing your information today.

Getting your name back

Doing it yourself

You can contact data brokers directly and request removal—it costs nothing, and it’s your right. The catch is scale: there are hundreds of these companies, each with its own process and waiting period, and many quietly relist your information weeks later. Keeping up with it is more than most people have time for.

Letting Incogni do the work

That's why we recommend Incogni. You fill out one short form, once, and from that point Incogni contacts data brokers on your behalf, monitors for when your information reappears, and sends removal requests again automatically. The protection keeps running as long as you’re a member.

It won’t eliminate every scam call overnight—no honest service would promise that. What it will do is steadily reduce the pool of information criminals can purchase about you, making you harder to find and harder to fool.

For anyone living on a fixed income who has spent a lifetime carefully building their savings, that kind of ongoing protection is worth a great deal more than it costs.

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