News and Alerts

These news reports from Consumer Rescue provide alerts and information to consumers concerning products, and scams, with useful advice and tips.

Medicare fraud and scams are causing the program to be on the verge of collapse. Our special features reporter explains how.

Medicare fraud: How can you protect yourself against the latest scams?

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According to the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare loses $60 billion annually to fraud, scams, waste, and abuse.

Scammers are counting on your confusion about Medicare’s complex rules so you go along with their fraudulent schemes.

The lost money is bad enough. But some of those Medicare scams can harm you personally. Read on for important tips so that you won’t fall for Medicare scams and contribute to this problem.

Can Robinhood freeze a customer's account and keep their money?

Robinhood froze my account and kept my $3,000 inside! Is this legal?

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Robinhood, the online millennial-focused brokerage site, brags that “Investing is simple here.” That sounded great to Bryan Bryan when he was looking for an easy way to invest some cash. So, he followed the onscreen prompts, transferred $2,400 into his Robinhood account and prepared to make his first transaction.

Of course, as is true with any investment, Bryan knew there would be some risk involved. But what actually happened, he never saw coming. That simple investment he hoped to make turned into an instant nightmare. Robinhood accepted his money, immediately froze his account, and refused to explain why.

That was four months ago.

How did an Airbnb scammer book a trip to France with this consumer's account?

If an Airbnb scammer takes $1,942 from your account, can you get it back?

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Is your Airbnb account safe from scammers and hackers?

Berenice Anaya certainly thought so. In fact, the possibility of a criminal accessing her Airbnb account and causing havoc had not even crossed her mind.

However, this Airbnb user recently woke up to an unpleasant reality after a scammer successfully hacked right into her account. The Airbnb security team thwarted the thief and prevented him from completing his ultimate goal. But not before $1,942 was removed from Berenice’s bank account.

So why won’t Airbnb return the money to its victimized guest? That’s what Berenice is asking our team after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to retrieve her cash from the company.

What’s going on here, and can we help?

What should a consumer do if a stranger drops money into their bank account via Zelle and then demands it back?

An angry stranger sent me a Zelle payment by surprise! Is this a scam?

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What’s the safest thing to do if you receive an unexpected Zelle payment and then an angry stranger asks you to send it back?

That’s something Erin Scheithe wants to know. She recently received a surprising text that an unknown person had made a $925 Zelle payment to her. Soon after that, a panicked woman emailed pleading for the return of the misguided funds. But when Erin asked her bank for guidance, things really started going wrong.

Erin’s frustrating tale is one you’ll want to read if you have a cash app like Zelle or Venmo installed on your phone. Although these services can be a great way to send money to friends and family, they’re also a great way to lose a ton of cash. Here’s what you need to know to help you decide if a money transfer app is right for you.

Consumer alert: If someone offers you a job as a mystery shopper at Walmart -- it's a scam.

How to quickly lose $1,100 in a Walmart shopping scam

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If you receive an unsolicited job offer from Walmart that involves shopping and getting paid big bucks to do it, it’s certainly a scam. But when Michele Turner received such an invitation, she was sure she had found the perfect way to make some extra cash. Unfortunately for her, there was a thief on the other end of that email who was about to reel Michele into an expensive mystery shopper scam. And the only person about to make some extra cash was that predator.

Now Michele is hoping that our advocacy team can help retrieve the over $1,100 she lost during this fiasco. But how?

Consumer Alert: Here are the latest eBay gift card scams to avoid.

eBay gift card scams are running wild. This is how to avoid them

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Here come the eBay gift card scammers — and just in time to steal your cash before the holidays. But the Consumer Rescue team is here too, warning you about these swindlers so you can avoid their trap.

We’ve received many pleas for help from distraught victims of various eBay gift card scams during the past year. They’ve lost hundreds and even thousands of dollars to this scheme. These consumers all want the same thing: to retrieve their stolen money from the anonymous predators who tricked them.

But is there any possible way to do that?

This college student lost $9,000 to a fake job scam.

A fake job scam could quickly drain your bank account. This is how

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Could you fall for a fake job scam?

If you’re like Sam Erin, you probably answered “no!” She’s a college-educated young adult who was sure she knew how to spot a con game. That is until a phony employment crime ring preyed on her naivety and stole nearly $9,000 from her.

Now, after draining her bank account, the scammers have vanished, leaving Erin jobless and cashless. She’s hoping our advocacy team can help. But how?

If a stranger sends you money, should you keep it? This Zelle user wishes he had.

If a stranger sends you money by mistake, should you keep it?

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If a stranger sends you money by mistake, do you have any obligation to give it back? If so, how do you do it without exposing yourself to a scam? And if you transfer money to the wrong person using Zelle, is there any possible way to fix your mistake?

These are not uncommon dilemmas faced by users of cash apps like Zelle and Venmo in 2022. Along with the increasing popularity and convenience of instant money transfer services came a dramatic rise in pricey user errors. Unfortunately, our attempts to investigate and resolve many of these cases have exposed some disturbing flaws in the programs.

Minh Tran is just one of the many desperate Zelle users who’ve recently asked our team for help. In his case, a stranger’s mistake set off a frustrating and confusing chain of events that almost cost him $360.

Here’s his story.