People who paid Cleo AI for eligible instant cash advances are about to hear from the Federal Trade Commission. The agency says the notice emails come from [email protected] and go out between October 8 and October 26, 2026. Starting October 27, the FTC says it will send 2,124,796 PayPal payments totaling more than $15.8 million.
What the FTC says is coming
The FTC’s Cleo AI refund page says eligible people will get an email notification from that address within the October 8 to October 26 window. The refunds follow an FTC lawsuit that alleged few Cleo AI customers received the cash advance amounts the company promised and that some waited days for funds even after paying an express fee. The money goes to people who paid Cleo AI for eligible instant cash advances.
The payment itself comes by PayPal, not by check. The FTC says anyone who gets a payment should accept it within 30 days. The page says the agency starts sending on October 27, which is the day the payments go out, not a promise of the day the money lands in an account. The 30 days run from the day the payment is received.
Is a message that claims to be about a Cleo AI refund real? Look at the sender address first. The only address the FTC lists for these notices is [email protected], so a message from any other address, including a look-alike with a swapped letter or a different ending, is not the notice the agency describes. The FTC also says it never asks anyone to pay to get a refund. If a message, call or text asks for a fee, or for bank or account details, to release a Cleo AI refund, it is a scam. Do not reply, do not click, and do not pay.
A PayPal refund that sits unaccepted past the FTC’s 30-day mark is a payment the recipient can lose, and the notice window and the payment date are two different dates to keep straight. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker, so the Cleo AI notice date, the October 27 payment date and the 30-day limit sit in one place.
Log the Cleo AI notice and the PayPal 30-day limit in the Recovery System →
Warning signs the FTC lists
The FTC’s page gives three plain rules. Do not pay anyone who promises a refund in exchange for a fee. Do not give personal information to anyone who contacts you promising a refund. And treat any call that demands money, makes threats, asks you to transfer money or promises a prize as a scam. Scams can be reported at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
If an email claims to be the notice, compare the sender to the address above before touching a link, and if anything looks off, leave the email alone and use the FTC page instead.
Who runs the refund and who to call
The FTC’s refunds index lists Rust Consulting as the administrator for these refund programs and gives its phone number as 1-877-788-4958. The agency also keeps a refund programs FAQ. The FTC’s press release index shows the Cleo AI action among its October 2026 announcements, and the refunds index lists four active refund programs this month, so the Cleo AI notices are one of several FTC mailings in circulation. Each program has its own rules. The FTC’s Amazon Prime refund page, for example, describes a different program in which payments expire 60 days after they are issued, so the Cleo AI window of 30 days to accept should not be assumed to apply elsewhere.
Telling the real notice from an impostor
The free route is the FTC page and the notice itself. If you used Cleo AI and paid for instant cash advances, watch the email account you used with the app between now and October 26, and check the spam folder as well. Compare the sender with [email protected] character by character. The FTC says it never asks anyone to pay to get a refund.
When the payment arrives, accept it in PayPal within 30 days of receiving it, and write down the date you got it. If you believe you should have received a notice by October 26 and did not, call Rust Consulting at 1-877-788-4958 rather than a number from an email or text.
Keep any scam message you get. The FTC takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and its Cleo AI page is the reference for the sender address, the October 8 to 26 window and the October 27 start.
A 30-day PayPal limit starts when the payment lands
The Cleo AI refund runs on dates the FTC set: notices by October 26, PayPal payments from October 27, and 30 days to accept. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System gives a reader a claim log and payment tracker to write those dates down, plus the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and its scam-proof rules.
Track the Cleo AI payment to its PayPal deadline in the Recovery System →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
