Fact check
“For some, these scams have become an excuse to reconnect with old friends or flames.”
Reasoning
The claim is directly supported by several passages in the WIRED article, which describe individuals using phishing party invites as a pretext to reach out to past acquaintances and ex‑partners, confirming the claim's accuracy.
On confidence: Multiple excerpts from the same reputable source (WIRED) directly state that scammers' fake party invites have been used as an excuse to reconnect with old friends or former romantic partners.
Important context
The evidence comes from a single source (WIRED) but includes several statements from the article and quotes from individuals and experts confirming the phenomenon.
Evidence
Supporting (4)
- Tier 1 — Primary sourceParty Invite Phishing Scams Are the New Missed Connections | WIRED
Jason Parham Culture Sep 25, 2026 7:00 AM Party Invite Phishing Scams Are the New Missed Connections Email scams that look like an Evite or Paperless Post invitation are meant to snatch your data. For some, they've become an excuse to…
- Tier 1 — Primary sourceParty Invite Phishing Scams Are the New Missed Connections | WIRED
confirms with WIRED that they are back in touch with an ex they haven’t spoken to in years after receiving a fake invite. To be clear, the unintended consequence of scam attempts may be reconnecting with lost friends, but they’re not all…
- Tier 1 — Primary sourceParty Invite Phishing Scams Are the New Missed Connections | WIRED
between two people to manipulate a victim, what’s known as “spear phishing.” AI has only made those deceptions harder to weed out. But in some recent cases, like Umansky’s, the fake party invite is having an unintended outcome: It is…
- Tier 1 — Primary sourceParty Invite Phishing Scams Are the New Missed Connections | WIRED
Lara Aknin, a professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University whose research has explored the hesitancy around reconnecting with lapsed contacts, only 30 percent of people actually check in with an old friend “even when we make doing so…
Limitations
All evidence is from one article; no additional independent sources were provided to corroborate the claim beyond this publication.
- Last verified:
- Sep 27, 2026, 4:27 AM CDT
- Pipeline:
- 2.1.0
- Claim type:
- Factual
Where this claim appeared
Party Invite Phishing Scams Are the New Missed ConnectionsWired · Jason Parham