Smart People Get Scammed Too

A retired engineer. A former realtor. Fifty years of investing experience between them. They still lost $126,000 to a crypto scam in five months.

Smart People Get Scammed Too tells the true story of Mike and Mary — a financially savvy couple who were targeted by an organized AI investment fraud operation that used free classes, fake trading platforms, and a sophisticated community to steal their retirement savings. Their paid-off car. Their camper. And nearly their home.

This isn’t a story about careless people making obvious mistakes. It’s a story about how professional scammers use psychology, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency to exploit the very qualities that made their victims successful: intelligence, trust, and love for their families.

Written by Jeff Kikel, a wealth management professional with over thirty years of experience, this book walks you step by step through:

• How the scam worked — from the first free class to the day the website disappeared
• The 8-step blueprint every AI crypto scam follows (and how to spot it at step one)
• Why smart, experienced investors are the primary target not in spite of their intelligence, but because of it
• The 7 red flags that signal fraud before you lose a dollar
• A simple retirement income framework that makes you nearly immune to these pitches
• Digital self-defense tools you can set up today in 15 minutes
• Exactly what to do if it’s already happened to you or someone you love

In 2024, Americans lost $12.5 billion to fraud. Investment scams were the single largest category. Victims over sixty lost more per incident than any other age group. Behind every statistic is a real person — someone’s parent, spouse, or neighbor — who trusted the wrong people.

Mike and Mary chose to tell their story publicly so that others wouldn’t have to learn the same lesson the hard way.

As Mary said: “If it helps one person not get scammed, it was worth it.”

This book is for retirees who want to protect what they’ve built. It’s for adult children who worry about their parents. And it’s for anyone who’s ever thought, “It couldn’t happen to me.”

It can.

This book makes sure it doesn’t.

Includes printable Red Flags Quick-Reference Card, Reporting Checklist, Family Conversation Starters, and Digital Security Checklists.