Scams & Fraud

Did you notice the "operational  compliance fee" increased 75% on your recent Consumer Cellular bill.  There was no notice or substantiation.  No wonder they provide an AARP discount since they just make it up in this bogus fee.

Good day, allToday my husband was at work and received a call with the name of the company he works for as the caller. Turns out it's a scam where the caller is representing that they are calling from Publisher's Clearing House and he just won $6 milliion dollars.  My husband was taken aback because the caller ID was showing someone calling from within the company. He knew immediately that it was a scam and he started smiling. The caller wanted to meet somewhere and that really got my husband's attention. The caller asked him why he was smiling and my husband asked the caller how did he know. The caller told him that he could see him.  This was a call on his cell phone.  My husband told the caller that he was smiling because he knew from the beginning that he doesn't even participate in PCH and why would he have to meet with him and his crew at all . Before he hung up he told the caller that this is a scam.  Has anyone else experienced a call like this?

Hello, I need help decoding a “letter of intent” I signed to give insurance money to a roofer. Can I ask here or is there another place? Ugh, I know, why did I sign it in the first place?  Sorry, long post! The company has an A+ rating with the BBB, excellent reviews (from people with new roofs paid for by insurance) and they’re rated 2nd best in the area, down a notch from last year. They sounded legit, and they knew all the buzz words like “flashing” and “mold remediation”. I’ve never made a claim on a homeowner policy and this is my 3rd home. But, the roofer with 2 public adjusters, a necessity they claimed, assured me insurance would pay for the damages because I had a claim. These roofers likely knew my insurance wouldn’t cover the replacement given the roof’s age. However they warned me against calling my carrier saying they’ll cancel my policy. That felt so scammy to me. But, They claimed that was happening to people and sent me hour+ long videos of Congress

  If Consumer Cellular is not on the FRAUD LIST, they should be.Check your bill people,they have changed your plan without notice,they are also now adding a $5 charge if you do not sign up for direct pay, again with no notice,(even if you have never ever been late to pay)if you go over their "DATA LIMITS" (another rip off btw, nothing but a money grab) they move you to a more expensive plan ... but will not move you back to your previous plan even if it was a one timer, if you do not personally do it you keep paying the new higher rate.I am sure there is a serious amount of money that AARP receives from Consumer Cellular,but AARP,  if you say you advocate for seniors don't be a hypocrite, they are so dirty and literally taking money by the handful from people. I feel SO much better since I cancelled them!AARP you won't cut them loose, so I will not be renewing.Geo 

Horrible company. They advertise $55 for 2 lines for AARP members. I was told taxes & fees are included in that amount. But I received a bill for $70.63. When I called they said 15.63 is for taxes & fees.I cancelled my account. It was 4 days into new month & they are telling me that I have to pay for the full month even though I am no longer using their plan! No pro rate billing. FTC should look into this & stop their robbery. AARP should stop sponcering them.

We have been having problems with medical billing.  It must be some sort of 'corporation' that medical facilities or doctors can join to handle their payments.  The address is PO Box 14000, Belfast ME.  Primary Providers of Central Kentucky do their billing there, as well as a local Physicial Specialist.  We paid a bill in April through Truist Bank.  They wrote a check and it was mailed April 12th 2022.  The check was never processed and we started getting calls about the bill.  After calling the bank they said stop payment and pay with debit card.  Payment was processed again on May 3, 2022.  Have called two different 844 numbers and mailed proof of payment to two different e-mails.  In the meantime got another call about the bill, returned the call and they said it is cleared.  This involves sending bank statements.  Which I tried to black out the account number before I sent it.  But since then I have had to see a spec

FROM THE ARTICLE. AARP’s ‘Fraud Wars’ Episode 1: Judith Boivin Had $600,000 Stolen in an FBI Impostor Scam.She learned the hard way that no one is immune to today’s fraud criminals. By Ken Budd, AARP. Published July 11, 2025. By the time the scammers posing as law enforcement called Judith Boivin’s cellphone, they had researched their target well. They knew she’d worked as a registered nurse and a clinical social worker before becoming a licensed therapist. They knew she had worked in Belize to help children with HIV and had lived for three years in Mexico while she helped a priest establish a mission.“I’ve been a caregiver all my life in various forms and shapes,” says Boivin, 81, who lives in Rockville, Maryland. USE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/fraud-wars-fbi-impostor.html

What rights does the members of a Home Owners Association have when the board members and management company violate HOA by-laws and state codes?

 I have had two separate individuals use my home address fraudently as their own.  I believe they are doing this to claim residency.  I have received bank statements and insurance statements for them.  Neither has ever lived here (past or present). These are their names. Jose Rodriguez Jacques Skriletz I have reported this fraud to the United States Postal Service, FBI, and ReportFraud.Gov. if you experience something similar, you should do the same.  Having mail with an address if the first step in establishing residency.  Consequences of this to the rightful owner can be severe.  Please be aware!

I read in your monthly magazines regarding this Telikin Computer made specially for seniors and easy to use even if had no tech experience.  I called and he gentlemen told me it was better than any computer on the market that would cost you over $2,000.  He painted a picture of how easy it was to use and you had all the help you needed so you were able to do everything on this computer.  I bought this computer which coat me over $1000+ in Nov. 2021.  What happened when the computer got her I had to leave for Iowa to my daughter's and I did not get to set up this computer until May 2022.  This computer is the worse thing I have ever gotten.  There is no easy way of using it unless you are an expert tech.  To this date I have not been able to use the video chat because the salesman forgot to tell me the people have to have the Telikin Web site and it does not work on phones, people have to have a computer in order for this to work.  Mostly none of

Originally was lured in by AARP recommending Consumer Cellular. Hope they got a piece of the action! Was having significant problems with consumer Cellular's voicemail or receiving alerts. Had to change service. Thought I received my last $115 bill but when calling customer service they told me I'll receive another one for the same amount? It will be debated with my charge card company as these people are cheats and AARP should have nothing to do with them! Neither should you

 US Bank --I signed up for a no fee senior acct?? They switched me to a $14.95 month acct --I was unable to monitor acct  -- When I noticed they won't refund past fees-- Stay away from them  Mark Olson   

Hi everyone! I'd like to warn you about the possibility of scam. Freewallet org is a website, created to commit online Fraud. It's owners, are Russian citizens Dmitry Gunyashov and Vasilii Mesheryakov.  Among investors, traders, and clients of other financial services, interest in cryptocurrencies is growing every year. Freewallet is named as a crypto wallet but actually it's a scam service , created to steal digital assets. I am writing this post because scammers order active advertising, including through mailings to clients of financial forums. I don’t know where they get the information, maybe they look at emails in user profiles somehow. Of course, they can't just hack your accounts. But if you receive a message advertising Freewallet, you should know that this is a scam mailing list!  

Does anyone have experience with this organization?  I received a letter from them offering to buy some property I own in Oklahoma.   Is it legitimate?  How can I know if it's a scam?

I signed up with these guys November last year, I tried their trial period for 45 days horrible service, I didn't like it in December 2024 I toldt hem I'd like to cancel this service at the end of my billing cycle to my amazement they send me a bill January 2025 for $98 I tried to dispute the bill with them telling them I gave them notice I was canceling my service back in November,they were very confrontational,rude customer service and they basically tell told me to sue them..Don't believe the commercials they are not as friendly as the commercial portrayed them to be, they refuse to port my number over to another company stalling them for me to stay with them, I'm going to have to file I dispute with a FTC and the state attorneys office

I  am not able to get any help from the Experian Credit Monitoring company. I want to temporarily unfreeze my credit report so I can obtain a credit card. I am not able to login to their website - it says my user id or password is invalid. Their web site states I can have a text or phone call with a code sent to me. I tried by phone and did not get a call.  I got a text with a link to another website.  When I go to that website, it asks for my personal information.  When I enter what they requested, it says my information is invalid. I called the Experian help number 1-888-397-3742. I get a recording which is absolutely no help - your are directed to another website that also says my information is invalid.   I sent a certified letter 3 weeks ago to: Experian Customer Care, PO Box 9554, Allen TX 75013, explaining the problems.   Experian has not responded.Has anyone else ran into these problems ?  Has anyone found a way to get around these p

It took years and years and years for people to accumulate monies in their 401-k to get it all taken away in one day. Do we hear AARP speaking to this abomination? No, we don't.

I received the AAP pare today and was interested in the Omaha Life add that AARP displayed. I typed in the Directoamhalive.com that the ad from the AARP paper displayed and it immediately stated "Connection is not private and scammers maybe watching", do you want to go forward"! that's right people, the AARP paper is the scam itself attempting to fraud us! Is nothing safe anymore? I will stop using the AARP magazine/paper as it is totally unsafe garbage. 

I have recently experienced two instances (in last two months) of orders being placed through my account, charged to my card. The first time, it was for a pick-up, which I was able to cancel. The second was for deliveries to addresses thousands of miles away, using different names but possibly mis-read to be mine. Both instances for for hundreds of dollars. Walmart assistance advised they would escalate to their cyber-security but advised I should change password and remove my payment method. I changed password but could not remove payment method (due to my membership in Walmart+). While checking my account I found the fraudster added their address to my account, which indicates they had access to my account. What puzzles me is of all my online accounts, ONLY EVER have I experienced this with Walmart. Has anyone else had this happen with their Walmart account? Thanks in advance! 

Just received an email from social-security@aarp.org <aarpadvocacy@email.aarp.org> with the following text:It’s time to tell your lawmakers: “I pay into and EARN my Social Security — and you MUST protect it." Talking with your Congressional offices makes a huge impact and shows them what’s on voters’ minds.We are hearing from thousands of older Americans who are confused and concerned about their Social Security. They want to know their members of Congress will protect Social Security for them, their children, and grandchildren.Dial 866-972-9806 to talk to your U.S. House RepresentativeDial 866-995-8827 to talk to your U.S. Senators This is all well and good but since I have been contacting my Senators and Representatives, I KNOW that these are not the numbers to contact them by.

Anyone else receive an email thanking them for purchasing over a grand in this? Says it's being charged to my PayPal account!

Hello, guys! Thanks for a wonderful podcast; I really love the Perfect Scam podcast. In this post I want to provide a bit of feedback, especially relevant for the "SIM Swapping: Scammers Hijack Smartphones and Steal Thousands" episode. Especially for this episode and also for the podcast in general, I feel like there are not enough details provided on how the scam operates. I feel like the podcast focuses more on what victims were feeling, what their emotional struggle was like (which is, of course, important) but not enough details are provided about how the scam operates. For the SIM Swapping, the host says that this victim had his phone number moved to a different eSIM and that this would not have been possible with a physical SIM. This is wrong, the telco can move numbers to other physical SIMs at free will. Next, after having the phone number moved to another SIM, the attackers gain access to the victim's bank account by means of controlling the SMSes arriving

This story is akin to the Jonathan Roumie thread. But I wanted to post this separately to bring it more attention to show the scope these frauds can take. Last month it was reported that a French woman was scammed of the equivalent of $850,000 USD (I don't know you but to me that's starting to get into serious dough! lol). "Brad Pitt" was the perpetrator. In other words it was not Brad Pitt but a scammer. The victim was interviewed on television. Sadly, she was subsequently subject to a lot of harassment and belittling due to having fallen for the long-running scam. That's a doubly sad story.The victim was 53 and ran her own professional business. This shows that anyone might become a victim unless they are very careful. See https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgnz8rw1xgo (or use a Google search, this was reported in January, 2025)

I started a complaint against a mover broker who scammed me out of $1600. The following is the report that I sent to the Better Business Bureau:I reported the company, American Relocation and Storage, and the company refused to settle and I rejected their reasoning. The gentleman I spoke with, Steph, assured me that I was merely getting a quote and that I was not obligated to use American Relocation and Storage. I mention this because when I was asked to make a downpayment, I thought it was odd. Informed the representative that his was the very first quote I had sought and that I planned to shop around. I have not moved in 11 years and the previous move was a local move. Steph did not have a representative to send out to look at my possessions, he also merely made me list approximately what I wished to move. He did not ask me to conduct a video recording of the furniture and possessions in my apartment, so his quote was not based on a reasonable assessment of my property. Accordin

 On 11/19/2024 I ordered a new Induction Oven from the Frigidaire website. They gave me a delivery date of 11/28/2024. Maybe they deliver on Thanksgiving? Well, it's now 12/5/2024 and they have given me a new delivery date of 12/24/2024. I told them if you were just honest up front and stated that you did not have any in stock I would have understood. But, no. 4 phone calls later and they are still pretending that the oven is eventually going to exist. I asked for compensation for the delay and they offered me $40.What a slap in the face. I had also ordered the air fry rack that goes with that oven; it was shipped right away. Please be warned!  These people are not straight shooters. I would not recommend them to anyone. Again, Please be warned! I am so upset. I am 68 years old turning 69 on Christmas; was buying this oven for my wife of 48 years; now all is lost.