Fraud & Scams
Financial fraud, phishing, identity theft, scam alerts, data breaches, and how to protect yourself and your accounts.
Latest in Fraud & Scams
Pawn America will send breach victims at least $30, with up to $5,000 for documented losses, on claims filed by July 6
More than three years after hackers compromised systems at Pawn America, the pawn-and-retail chain is paying up. Under a proposed class action settlement, customers whose...
Three men are charged with stealing $8 million from older Americans who were told to turn their savings into gold bars for fake government couriers
Five people now face federal charges for allegedly running a tech-support fraud operation that drained at least $8 million from elderly victims across at least...
Complete Payroll Solutions will pay up to $5,000 to workers caught in its 2024 data breach, with claims due June 18
Workers whose personal data was exposed in the 2024 Complete Payroll Solutions breach face a June 18 deadline to file claims worth up to $5,000....
Scammers are sending fake graduation and party invites that ask you to “log in,” then steal your email password
Scammers have timed a new credential-theft campaign to graduation season, sending fake digital invitations that ask recipients to enter their email address and password before...
Yahoo just began a second round of data-breach payouts to people who filed claims years ago
People who filed claims against Yahoo years ago for one of the largest data breaches in history are now receiving a second wave of settlement...
Your bank doesn’t have to refund a Zelle transfer you were tricked into sending
Consumers who send money through Zelle after being deceived by a scammer face a hard legal reality: their bank is not required to give the...
Labcorp will pay $35 million over a 2019 data breach, with patients able to claim $50 or up to $5,000 in losses by September 3
Patients whose personal and medical data were exposed in the 2019 breach at American Medical Collection Agency can now file claims for automatic payments of...
The FBI personally warned 8,935 crypto-fraud victims they were being scammed — and 77% had no idea it was happening
Nearly nine thousand Americans were losing money to cryptocurrency fraud without knowing it, and it took a direct phone call or email from the FBI...
A new class action claims Best Buy secretly sold customers’ personal data to advertisers
A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Best Buy of quietly funneling customers’ personal purchase data to advertisers through its in-house media unit, Best Buy Ads,...
Fandango charged “convenience fees” on online movie tickets — now a $9.4 million settlement is paying California customers back
California customers who bought movie tickets through Fandango are now receiving payments from a $9.4 million settlement that resolved claims over convenience fees tacked onto...
Scam victims can check ftc.gov/refunds to see whether the FTC owes them money
Scam victims who get a surprise message saying they are owed money now have one simple way to check if it is real: look for...
A Washington retiree lost more than $300,000 to a gold-coin scam — then got a $53,000 tax bill because cashing out her investments for the scammers counted as income
A Washington state retiree handed over more than $300,000 to a precious-metals dealer that federal and state regulators later confirmed was a fraud operation targeting...
Krispy Kreme’s data-breach settlement pays up to $3,500, with claims due June 22
Krispy Kreme customers affected by a late-2024 data breach can file claims for up to $3,500 through a class-action settlement, but the window closes on...
Scammers are sending photos of fake FTC badges to fraud victims — offering to “recover” the money they already lost
People who have already lost money to fraud are now receiving text messages from strangers claiming to work for the Federal Trade Commission, complete with...
AT&T’s $177 million breach payouts, up to $7,500 each, are waiting on a judge’s final sign-off
Millions of AT&T customers whose Social Security numbers were exposed in a 2024 data breach could receive individual payouts of up to $7,500, but the...
Trader Joe’s shoppers have until Tuesday, June 9 to claim an estimated $102 each from the chain’s $7.4 million receipt-privacy settlement
Trader Joe’s shoppers who paid with credit or debit cards during a specific period can file claims for an estimated $102 each from a $7.4...
A new class action claims Bitcoin Depot’s ATMs let a scammer drain $76,000 from one victim
A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Bitcoin Depot of allowing a scammer to drain $76,000 from a single victim through its cryptocurrency ATMs, adding to...
A courier who drove more than $1 million in gold bars from elderly scam victims to his bosses was sentenced to more than 15 years
Syed M. Makki, a 38-year-old Indian citizen living in Illinois, was sentenced to 15 and a half years in federal prison for driving more than...
Older Americans handed $333 million to scammers through Bitcoin ATMs last year — Indiana became the first state to ban the machines outright on March 9
The scam almost always follows the same script. A phone rings. The caller claims to be from the IRS, a bank’s fraud department, or a...
AT&T’s $177 million data breach settlement is finally distributing this spring — anyone who filed before December 18 gets up to $7,500, no extra paperwork required
Roughly 18 months after AT&T admitted that hackers had stolen call and text records belonging to nearly all of its cellular customers, the company’s $177...