Fraud & Scams
Financial fraud, phishing, identity theft, scam alerts, data breaches, and how to protect yourself and your accounts.
Latest in Fraud & Scams
A Georgia CEO got 20 years for a $380 million Ponzi scheme that drained more than 2,000 investors, and prosecutors seized his yacht and cars
Todd Burkhalter, the founder and chief executive of the Georgia advisory firm Drive Planning, was sentenced on August 14 to 20 years in federal prison,...
Comcast customers can claim $50 with no proof from a $117.5 million data-breach settlement before September 14
A $117.5 million fund is now paying out to people caught up in a Comcast data breach, and the simplest route to money asks for...
Port-out scammers hijack your phone number to grab the codes guarding your bank accounts
Thieves have found a way to drain a bank or brokerage account without ever touching the victim’s phone, using the number itself as the key....
Federal prosecutors won a conviction against a Georgia man who laundered $2.7 million stolen from fraud victims
Federal prosecutors in Atlanta have won a conviction against a Georgia man who laundered more than $2.7 million stolen from victims of romance schemes and...
A Florida healthcare executive was sentenced for a $35 million scheme that preyed on elderly Medicare patients
A South Florida healthcare executive and the telemarketing operator he paid to funnel him patients are headed to federal prison for a scheme that billed...
Federal prosecutors say elder-fraud losses keep climbing, and a credit freeze is the free step that blocks new-account theft
Federal authorities keep warning that the money older Americans lose to fraud is climbing, and one of the few defenses against a large slice of...
Seniors reporting six-figure losses to government and business impostors lost about $445 million in a single year
The size of the checks older Americans are losing to scammers has grown far faster than the number of victims, and the clearest measure sits...
A Pennsylvania man was indicted for draining over $1 million from one elderly victim
A York County, Pennsylvania man now faces federal fraud charges after prosecutors said he talked a woman in her late 80s and her family out...
Federal prosecutors charged 19 people in a $4 million scheme that billed Medicare and Medicaid for home care never given
Federal prosecutors unveiled charges on August 4, 2026 against 19 defendants accused of billing Medicare and Medicaid for home care that was never delivered, a...
Another data-breach settlement pays a no-proof $80, or up to $5,500 for losses, before September 5
A data-breach settlement involving the health-benefits administrator Lucent Health Solutions is paying eligible people a flat $80 with no paperwork, or reimbursing documented losses of...
A China-based ring stole $2.2 million from 28 older victims across 17 states using fake Apple Pay alerts
Federal prosecutors say a fraud operation run partly out of China drained about $2.2 million from at least 28 older Americans, using a fake warning...
One data-breach settlement pays up to $7,500, or a no-proof cash payment, before September 10
A single class-action settlement now on the table pays as much as $7,500 to people who can document their losses, or a smaller no-proof cash...
Federal prosecutors charged 30 people in a $65 million scheme that drained older Americans’ savings
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 30 people in a $65 million fraud and money-laundering operation that emptied the bank accounts of thousands of older...
Medicare is warning seniors about a “new card” scam demanding your number before benefits switch
The call follows a familiar script. A voice claiming to be from Medicare tells the person on the line that a new card, or a...
Anyone who used the Flo period-tracking app can claim from a privacy settlement by October 15
Unlike a typical data breach, where criminals break in and steal records, the $59.5 million Flo settlement stems from information the company allegedly shared on...
Doxim data-breach victims can claim $100 with no proof of loss before October 13
Most consumers have never heard of Doxim, yet the company quietly handles sensitive financial paperwork for banks and credit unions across the country. That obscurity...
A Lands’ End data-breach settlement pays $60 with no proof, or up to $5,000 for documented losses, until October 22
A data breach that reached into Lands’ End’s computer systems in December 2024 has produced a proposed class-action settlement, and the retailer’s affected customers now...
A grandparent scam can cost a retiree tens of thousands in a single call, and the caller often knows the grandchild’s name
The call usually opens with a sob and a familiar voice: a grandchild in a car crash, an arrest overseas, a medical emergency that demands...
Port-out scammers hijack your phone number to break into your bank account
Most account takeovers require a stolen password, but a growing category of theft skips that step entirely by stealing something harder to change: the victim’s...
Zelle’s member banks now reimburse customers tricked into wiring money to a scammer posing as their own bank
For years, one of the most punishing banking scams left its victims with almost no way to recover a cent: money sent through a payment...