Tag: All Scams

What if you thought you’d agreed to a rent you could afford and then learned you had to pay an additional $1,740 in fees during your lease term? You’d probably feel deceived. That’s what the FTC says Invitation Homes did to its residents and people looking for housing. And that’s why Invitation Homes, one of the largest single-family home landlords in the country, will be refunding $48 million to residents and changing its practices.

Did a salesperson knock on your door and promise free rooftop solar panels at no cost to you? Or say you’ll never have to pay another electricity bill because government programs, grants, or rebates cover your solar installation? It’s likely a scam. While there are some government-funded solar programs for households that qualify, “going solar” isn’t free. Honest businesses will tell you exactly how much it’ll cost to get and install solar panels. Here’s how to steer clear of the scams.

Most of us use ATMs pretty often to withdraw cash. But Bitcoin ATMs (or BTMs) are a different beast. Increasingly located in convenience or grocery stores, gas stations, and other places, they’re a way to buy or send cryptocurrency. Only scammers are now using BTMs to steal your money. A new FTC Data Spotlight explains how people are losing millions to fraud at BTMs — and how to protect yourself and the people you care about.

With more powerful and frequent natural disasters — even affecting areas where they weren’t typical — you might have something like “update or make my emergency plan” on your to do list. The FTC has information and tools to help you avoid fraud as you prepare and recover from an emergency. And this National Preparedness Month we’re partnering with FEMA to bring you free webinars in English and Spanish with step-by-step guidance to get ready.

For college students and parents, paying tuition is often at the top of the to-do list each semester. Imagine getting a call from someone who supposedly works at your school, saying you haven’t paid the bill. They threaten to drop your classes unless you send money right away. The call might raise alarm bells, but slow down — you might end up paying a scammer instead of the real tuition and fees.

Looking for local caregiver gigs that pay well? Care.com said it could help, for a monthly subscription fee. But, in a settlement announced today, the FTC says Care.com misled workers about how many jobs were available on the platform and how much they could earn — and made it hard to cancel subscriptions — costing a lot of people a lot of time and money.

If you’ve seen ads for home title lock insurance, they might have you worried. After all, the ads say thieves can steal the title to your home. But then the ads tell you to buy title lock insurance to supposedly prevent home title theft. Stop. Take a breath. It’s just a ploy to scare you.

Imagine carrying a written copy of all your conversations with you everywhere you went. Or copies of your account numbers, usernames, and passwords. Or all the photos and videos you’ve ever taken. I bet you’d do just about everything in your power to protect all that valuable information. Well, your mobile phone holds all that stuff — and maybe more. Are you doing everything in your power to keep it from ending up in the wrong hands? Here are three things you can do today to protect the personal information on your phone.

We’re living in the data age. The things we do on our phones and computers, on our internet-enabled smart devices, and on websites leave a trail of our activities and our personal information. That personal information has value — not just to us, but to scammers and hackers who want to steal our identities. Here are five things you can do to keep scammers and hackers at bay.

If you have federal student loans, you probably got an email last month from Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. (The email address it showed was noreply@studentaid.gov.) It has important information about your options for loan forgiveness. While that email is legit, scammers spread fake information about your student loans to try to get money or information from you.