Category: Scams & Your Rights
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Avast antivirus buyers who accepted a first FTC refund are getting 91,093 more payments worth over $1.5 million by check, PayPal or Zelle
Avast antivirus buyers are getting a second round of refunds from the Federal Trade Commission, and the agency says the money is going to people who accepted their first payment. The FTC’s Avast settlement page, updated in October 2026, lists 91,093 payments totaling more than $1.5 million. They go out by check, PayPal or Zelle,…
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A Massachusetts restaurant operator used more than 100 stolen identities to create 24 fake food stamp households and collect about $440,000 in benefits
A Massachusetts restaurant owner was sentenced on October 5 to two years in federal prison for a food stamp scheme built on other people’s names. Raul Fernandez Vicioso, 38, of Fitchburg, ran El Primo Restaurant in Leominster. Prosecutors say he used the stolen identities of more than 100 real people to create 24 fake SNAP…
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Cleo AI customers owed FTC refunds are getting notice emails through Oct. 26, and the FTC says it never charges anyone a fee to receive a refund payment
More than $15.8 million in Federal Trade Commission refunds is headed to 2,124,796 people who paid Cleo AI for instant cash advances, and the notice emails are going out through Oct. 26. The FTC announced the payments on Oct. 8. The agency also says it never charges anyone a fee to receive a refund payment,…
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The FTC is sending 170,571 more AdvoCare refund payments worth over $11.4 million to former distributors who accepted a first one, and checks should be cashed within 90 days
A second round of AdvoCare refunds is going out from the Federal Trade Commission. The agency is sending 170,571 more payments worth more than $11.4 million to former AdvoCare distributors who accepted their first payment, according to the FTC’s AdvoCare refund page, which carries an October 2026 date. No form is involved. Anyone in the…
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Hawaii’s Supreme Court upheld caps on what lawyers can take from the $4.037 billion Maui wildfire settlement in a Sept. 30 ruling
Lawyers for Maui wildfire survivors cannot take more than a fixed slice of the $4.037 billion global settlement, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled on September 30, upholding fee caps that a Maui judge had set. The opinion, written by Justice Todd Eddins, affirmed the order “as modified,” and the opinion says the Maui circuit court…
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Treasury says reported U.S. ATM jackpotting losses total $40.73 million as of August 2025, as it sanctions Tren de Aragua-linked targets
Criminals who plant malware in a bank’s cash machine can make it pay out until it is empty, and the Treasury Department now puts reported losses from that kind of attack in the United States at $40.73 million across more than 1,500 attacks. The figure is as of August 2025, and Treasury describes the attacks…
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A Washington man got three years for using a forged power of attorney to accept an offer on a dead Seattle resident’s home and for trying to sell $235,000-plus in stocks
A niece’s alert ended an attempt to sell a dead relative’s Seattle home. A man with a forged power of attorney had accepted an offer on the house, and when the niece was alerted she intervened and reported it. Tyler Lee Berens, 36, of Carnation, Washington, was sentenced on October 5 to three years in…
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The FBI seeks Kishu Inu investors after an alleged $9 million rug pull indictment
At its peak, the Kishu Inu cryptocurrency was worth more than $1.6 billion on paper. A federal indictment now charges its creator with wire fraud and alleges that he made about $9 million through what prosecutors call a “rug pull,” and the FBI wants to hear from anyone who put money into the token. The…
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A banned futures trader who promised a church a 72 percent yearly return got 33 months and must repay $2,749,210.60 to at least 128 victims
A $150,000 investment, a promised 72 percent yearly return and $4,798,153 after five years: that was Brian Mitchell’s pitch to a local church while he was barred from commodity futures trading. On October 7, a federal court sentenced the 44-year-old Ann Arbor man to 33 months in prison for wire fraud and ordered him to…
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A courier got 27 months in a roughly $2.5 million scam on an Illinois man
In July 2025, a Chinese national was arrested as he arrived at a house in Belleville, Illinois, to pick up gold. The house belonged to a man who had lost an estimated $2.5 million to an online investment scam. The courier, Shenghan Jin, has now been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his…