Category: Scams & Your Rights
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The FTC warns paid search ads can steer Medicare shoppers to fake plans
Anyone shopping for a Medicare plan this fall may find the wrong website sitting at the top of the search results. The Federal Trade Commission warns that scammers and dishonest businesses pay for top placement, and that a click on one of those ads can lead to a plan that is “not health insurance” or…
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The FBI says scammers are selling stakes in campaigns that pay out if a candidate wins, and a donation is never an investment
An offer to put money into a candidate’s campaign and collect a payout if the candidate wins is not a real investment, the FBI says. The bureau is warning that scammers are selling exactly that pitch to political donors this election season. The warning is in an Oct. 15, 2026 alert, number I-101526-3-PSA, from the…
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The FBI says fake voter-registration texts are harvesting personal data
A text arrives saying the recipient is not registered to vote and must fix it right away. The FBI says that message is a trap, and with the 2026 midterm election approaching, the bureau says it is being used now. The warning comes from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, known as IC3. Its public…
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The FBI says political merchandise sold online is often never shipped
Campaign hats, yard signs, flags and T-shirts sell in an election season, and the FBI says criminals have noticed. Some online sellers of political merchandise take the payment and never send the order. The warning is one of four in an Oct. 15, 2026 public service announcement from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3),…
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Social Security must give an identity-theft victim one contact who tracks the case to completion and coordinates every other office
People whose Social Security numbers have been misused have long described being bounced between field offices, phone lines and departments, repeating the story each time. A new section of the Social Security Act is written to end that: the agency must give each victim one point of contact for the whole case. The section, numbered…
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Dating services that ban a member for fraud will get 24 hours to warn everyone who was messaged, and the FTC will treat a failure as deceptive
Online dating apps will soon have to warn members after they ban someone for fraud. The Romance Scam Prevention Act, H.R. 2481, gives a service 24 hours to tell every member who received a message from the banned account, and a miss is treated as an unfair or deceptive practice under the Federal Trade Commission…
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Trump signed the Romance Scam Prevention Act, which will force dating apps to warn members within 24 hours when a match is banned for fraud
President Donald Trump signed the Romance Scam Prevention Act on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The law, H.R. 2481, will require online dating services to warn members who were messaged by someone the service later banned for fraud. The default deadline for that warning is 24 hours after the ban, but the rule does not start…
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Cleo cash-advance refunds arrive by PayPal only, and the FTC asks recipients to accept the payment within 30 days
The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $15.8 million back to people who paid Cleo AI for instant cash advances, and every payment goes out through PayPal. The agency says it will send 2,124,796 PayPal payments, starting Oct. 27, 2026. The FTC’s Cleo AI refund page names PayPal and no other method. Its instruction…
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Insured Kroger pharmacy customers who filled a prescription between December 2018 and August 2026 have until December 21 to file a claim
Kroger has agreed to a $17,000,000 settlement of a lawsuit over how it reported prices on prescription drugs, and insured customers have until December 21, 2026 to submit a claim form. The class covers people who paid for a Kroger prescription between December 9, 2018 and August 23, 2026, according to the long-form court notice.…
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Trump signed a law giving Social Security 180 days to stand up a single contact for identity-theft victims, and a card lost in the mail qualifies
President Trump has signed a law that gives Social Security 180 days to set up one point of contact for people whose Social Security number has been misused. A card lost in the mail is covered too. The White House notice describes the contact as one for people whose number has been misused or whose…