News and Alerts

These news reports from Consumer Rescue provide alerts and information to consumers concerning products and scams, with useful advice and tips. If you’re looking for travel alerts and dilemmas, hit up our Travel Troubles category.

Consumer alert, gas station card skimmers warning, don't use debit card at gas station.

How did a gas station skimmer drain my prepaid debit card balance?

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Danger could be lurking at the pumps of your local gas station in the form of a tiny card skimmer. These small, almost invisible devices quickly retrieve and store all of your card’s information as you make your payment. Then the “owner” of this illegal apparatus uses that data to extract whatever funds he can from your account. 

Sylvia Powers wishes someone had warned her about gas station skimmers before she swiped her prepaid American Express Bluebird debit card at the pumps. Unfortunately, her education on the topic came in the most unpleasant way – after a skimming device drained all her money from her Bluebird card. But she assumed that American Express would protect her against this fraud.

She assumed wrong.

It's open enrollment season, and now is the time to shop for a better Medicare plan.

Here’s why you should shop around for the best Medicare plan right now

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Ben Franklin famously said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” How about saving nearly $1,000? That’s how much my wife’s sister-in-law saved just by comparing Medicare prescription drug plans. 

If this were an advertising scam, the headline might say, “Click here to find out how she earned $1,000 in less than an hour.”

But this isn’t some kind of advertising sales come-on. There is a real way to save money on your annual Medicare costs that most people overlook: shopping around for the best plan. 

Facts about Medicare Advantage plans, compare Medicare Advantage to Original Medicare.

Why would Medicare Advantage cancel a patient’s surgery at the last minute?

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Bob Miller of Columbus, OH, needed cataract surgery on both eyes. He had the surgery on the first eye, but the evening before he was to have the second eye done, he got a phone call from his ophthalmologist. Miller’s Medicare Advantage plan had just informed the doctor that it was not authorizing the second surgery and she told him that she had to cancel the procedure.

“I was dumbfounded,” Miller told me. “It wasn’t like this would be a surprise to them. I have two eyes.” 

This consumer got caught in an online shopping scam.

How did I lose the credit card dispute after this online shopping scam?

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Before you do any more online shopping, you’ll want to read about the scam that just ensnared Susan Leipholtz. She paid an online “merchant” $129 through PayPal and received absolutely nothing in return. But getting blindsided by the internet thief wasn’t nearly as shocking as what happened next. That’s when Capital One sided with the scammer in her credit card dispute.

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.

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?