Category: Scams & Your Rights
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The FTC says a bill-pay site posed as your utility and charged extra, and it will pay $2.1 million
Federal regulators sued the online bill-payment company Doxo in April 2024. A federal court later found, at the agency’s request, that the company had violated a law governing online subscriptions, and on August 17 the Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed order requiring Doxo and two co-founders to pay $2.1 million, all of it earmarked…
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The FTC is mailing 640,038 Grubhub refunds, and each check expires after 90 days
The deadline is printed on the face of the check. On August 12 the Federal Trade Commission began sending 640,038 payments worth more than $23.8 million to Grubhub drivers and diners, and the instruction attached to that money is a single line: cash it within 90 days, as indicated on the check. Anyone paid through…
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A boiler room sold retirees pre-IPO stakes at prices 46 percent above what it paid, the SEC says
More than 800 mostly retail investors across the United States, many of them retirees, put over $74 million into eleven private funds that offered a stake in companies before those companies went public, according to a complaint the Securities and Exchange Commission filed on August 14, 2026. The agency says those investors were reached by…
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A credit union branch manager took $381,000 from four elderly customers, one with dementia, and got three years
In 2022 a credit union in Columbus, Indiana fired its branch manager after discovering she had forged customer signatures on banking documents. Shortly after the termination, a client contacted the credit union about unauthorized transactions in her father’s account. The internal investigation that followed confirmed both the forged signatures and withdrawals made without permission, and…
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Anyone who paid for YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream since April 2019 can claim part of Disney’s $50 million settlement by September 8, with no receipts
Claim forms in a $50 million antitrust settlement with The Walt Disney Company must be submitted online or postmarked by September 8, 2026. The same date closes the window for anyone who would rather step out of the settlement and pursue Disney separately. Two later dates govern when money actually moves: written objections are due…
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A package you never ordered may mean your name is being used
An FTC alert explains brushing scams: an unordered package validates a delivery so a seller can post fake reviews, and a QR code inside may lead to a phishing site.
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Federal regulators say a Connecticut dealership charged customers to certify cars it had already advertised as certified, and it agreed to pay $4 million
The FTC and Connecticut secured a $4 million stipulated order over allegations a dealership charged buyers to certify cars advertised as certified pre-owned.
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People who bought a Google-made device in the United States since May 2016 have until August 27 to file a claim in a $68 million privacy settlement
A $68 million Google Assistant privacy settlement closes its claim window on August 27, 2026. Purchaser claims require the device model, a serial number, and a receipt.
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The consumer bureau just stopped publishing what people write about their banks and lenders
For more than a decade, anyone choosing a bank, a credit card or a mortgage servicer could read, at no cost, what other customers said happened to them in their own words. That free record stopped growing this month. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it is no longer publishing the written narratives consumers attach…
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A credit-repair network took nearly $200 million and filed identity-theft reports in customers’ names without telling them, the FTC says
A federal court has temporarily shut down a credit repair operation the Federal Trade Commission says collected close to $200 million from people trying to fix their credit. The allegation that stands out is not about the money. It is that the operation allegedly filed identity theft reports with the federal government in customers’ names,…