Safety & recalls · 15 Aug
FTC: 'refund and recovery' scammers buy lists of past scam victims - anyone offering to recover your money for a fee is scamming you again
The FTC's August 2026 consumer alert (the page carries the month but no day) warns that refund and recovery scammers buy lists of people who have already been scammed and contact them posing as a government agency - even the FTC - a law firm or a consumer group. They promise to recover the lost money or the prize that never arrived, then demand an upfront 'retainer fee', 'processing fee' or 'administrative charge', or ask for financial information to 'deposit' the refund. Paying loses more money; sharing information can lead to identity theft.
What to do: never pay upfront for a refund, never hand over account or Social Security numbers to someone who contacted you. If you already paid a scammer, the FTC's real recovery steps are to contact your bank or card issuer and ask to reverse a wire, card charge or payment-app transfer, then report to the FTC and your state attorney general. The alert's reach is anyone who has lost money to a scam - and the protection is simply hanging up.