Fraud & Scams
Financial fraud, phishing, identity theft, scam alerts, data breaches, and how to protect yourself and your accounts.
Latest in Fraud & Scams
Comcast is paying Xfinity customers up to $10,000 over a data breach, or a flat $50 with no receipts, if they claim by September 14
Comcast will pay eligible Xfinity customers as much as $10,000 apiece, or a no-paperwork $50 flat rate, after a federal judge approved a $117.5 million...
A my Social Security account guards against a scammer diverting your benefits
A free my Social Security account closes off a specific fraud pattern the Social Security Administration has warned about for years: an identity thief who...
A fraud alert placed with one credit bureau automatically covers all three
Placing a fraud alert with any one of the three national credit bureaus sets off a legal notification requirement that automatically covers the other two,...
Freezing your credit is free at all three bureaus and blocks a thief from opening accounts in your name
A federal law that took effect in September 2018 made it free, nationwide, to freeze a credit report at each of the three major credit...
A federal sweep charged 25 people in a $65 million scam ring that drained thousands of seniors, seizing luxury cars and $4.2 million
Federal prosecutors in San Diego are moving from guilty pleas to prison time in a $65 million fraud and money-laundering ring that spent years draining...
A SIM-swap scam hijacks a phone number to break into a bank or brokerage account
A phone that suddenly loses all service, no calls, no texts, no data, can be the first sign that a scammer has just taken over...
A verbal password on a bank account can block a scammer who spoofs the bank’s number
Caller ID showing a bank’s real name and number no longer proves a call is genuine, because scammers can fake, or “spoof,” that same information...
A fake-overpayment scam pressures seniors to wire back money they never received
A buyer for an item listed online sends a check or money order for more than the agreed price, then asks the seller to wire...
Banks that run Zelle now reimburse some victims of bank-imposter scams that spoof a bank’s number
Banks that operate the Zelle payment network must reimburse some customers hit by bank-imposter scams, a benefit that predates the current political fight over who...
A federal grand jury charged a man with draining more than $1 million from an elderly investor’s savings
A federal grand jury in Harrisburg indicted William D. Brenner, 62, on Aug. 5 on charges that he drained more than $1 million from an...
Federal prosecutors charged Jay Goswami with running a $7.5 million cash-and-gold scheme that drained nine older victims
Federal prosecutors in Buffalo have charged Jay Sunilbharthi Goswami, 21, with running a cash-and-gold fraud scheme that authorities say drained more than $7.5 million from...
A Flo Health privacy settlement of $59.5 million is open to app users through October 15
Flo Health, Google and Flurry have agreed to a combined $59.5 million settlement over claims that the popular period and ovulation tracking app shared users’...
Lands’ End shoppers can claim up to $60 in a settlement before the October 22 deadline
Lands’ End has agreed to settle claims over a December 2024 data breach that exposed a wider set of identity documents than most retail hacks...
Generic drugmakers will pay states $96 million over price-fixing; buyers can register now
Forty-eight states and territories have settled with generic drugmaker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals for $29.6 million over allegations it conspired with competitors to inflate generic drug prices,...
A True World breach settlement pays a no-proof $50 by September 8
True World Holdings is not a household name — it is a wholesale food distributor most people have never bought anything from directly — which...
A settlement is paying Farmers Insurance customers up to $160 over unwanted calls, with a September 14 deadline
Farmers Insurance customers who fielded repeated marketing calls or texts from the company’s agents can file for a payment of up to $160 under a...
The FTC warns of “recovery” scammers who target past fraud victims with a fake promise to get the money back
The Federal Trade Commission is warning that scammers are specifically targeting people who have already lost money to fraud once, promising to recover the stolen...
The SEC charged 38 firms with faking filings, even forging a certificate, to pose as real investment advisers
The Securities and Exchange Commission says it has charged 38 entities with lying on the paperwork that let them pose as legitimate investment advisers, including...
Medicare blocked $1.6 billion in fake lab billing, revoking 157 providers
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says its enforcement actions have stopped more than $1.6 billion in fraudulent or potentially improper Medicare laboratory payments,...
Grubhub is mailing $23.8 million to 640,000 customers and drivers automatically, and the checks expire in 90 days
The Federal Trade Commission has begun mailing more than $23.8 million to 640,038 Grubhub drivers and diners the agency says were harmed by the delivery...