Court Ruling Keeps Consumer Watchdog in Business
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federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to continue funding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an anti-fraud watchdog that has been targeted for elimination by the White House. This ruling, and others the judge issued earlier in 2025, affect the congressionally mandated Office for Older Americans and other units within the CFPB.
Senior Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the administration’s claim that it was not required to fund the congressionally mandated agency. The White House, she said in her December 30 ruling, was relying on an invalid legal argument as it “actively and unabashedly (tries) to shut the agency down.”
Not “one penny of the funding needed to run the agency that has returned over $21 billion to American consumers comes from taxpayer dollars,” she wrote. “Today, the agency is hanging by a thread.”
The administration has argued that the CFPB cannot be funded because its budget technically comes from the US Federal Reserve, which is operating at a loss. The CFPB has already been battered by budget cuts, and the judge cautioned that further reductions “would be tantamount to closing what is left of the bureau.”
Congress created the CFPB to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis. The bureau consolidated various oversight responsibilities in one agency and provided a strong consumer voice to support financial safeguards. The CFPB targets scams and fraud involving credit cards, mortgages, student loans, debt collection, and credit reporting. According to its website, the CFPB asks companies to respond to more than 100,000 consumer complaints every week.
While popular with consumer advocates, the agency has stirred up critics in the corporate world who claim it has taken too harsh an approach to regulation and enforcement. The administration has sought to lay off its staff and shut it down.
In a separate development in late December, 21 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in federal court in Oregon to preserve the CFPB’s funding.
“Defunding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will make it harder to stop predatory lenders, scammers, and other bad actors from taking advantage of New Yorkers,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the coalition.
“My office and attorneys general across the country rely on the CFPB for consumer complaints and other data to get justice for consumers,” James added. “The administration’s actions are a handout to those who drive up costs by cheating hardworking Americans.”
Keep Eyes Wide Open for the Typo Scam
When you browse on your phone, it’s easy to overlook a detail or two. And fraudsters know it.
By changing a single letter in a familiar name, or altering a punctuation mark, they create links and emails that can draw their targets onto criminal websites.
The scam even has a name: typosquatting.
In a new twist to typosquatting, scammers pretending to be from Microsoft are purposely misspelling the tech giant’s website in a way that is very hard to spot – rnicrosoft.com. Did you see the trick? The fraudulent website begins with the letters “r” and “n” instead of “m” which, of course, is the first letter of Microsoft.
It is easy to get duped by this scam. The impact is magnified for users who browse quickly, and it is extremely hard to spot in certain fonts.
As FOX News reported: “Security experts are sounding the alarm because this tactic works. These emails closely copy Microsoft branding, layout and tone, which makes them feel familiar and trustworthy.”
Shrewd as such tactics may be, consumers can protect themselves by adopting certain safeguards when they go online. Never click on links you are not certain are legitimate. In addition, Microsoft offers the following tips to stay safe from typosquatting:
- Navigate online from saved, legitimate addresses. “Whenever possible go to your important sites like banking, social media, or shopping from your own saved favorites, rather than by typing them into the address bar of the browser each time.”
- Your browser may provide safety. “If you’re typing in an address you’ve gone to before, your browser may offer to complete the address for you. Give it a quick look, but it’s usually safer to accept that suggestion.”
- Hovering the mouse may give a clue. “If you have to click on a link, look carefully at the address it’s going to take you to. Usually just hovering your mouse pointer over the address will show you what address the link will really take you to.”
Medicare Scammers Turning up the Pressure
In an emerging threat to older Americans, Medicare scammers are contacting their targets over and over in a high-pressure bid to capture personal information.
And it’s working. Medicare scams are rising, with complaints to the Better Business Bureau up 40 percent over last year, according to the New York Times.
Scammers often pretend to be Medicare officials as a way to gain the trust of potential victims. They may also cheat their targets by falsely claiming to offer Medicare plans with generous benefits.
Scammers who capture a patient’s Medicare number may charge the program for fake expenses, but concerns are not limited to cost. Phony charges for tests and equipment have the effect of distorting the victim’s health record, potentially leading to improper treatment by doctors.
A new development is the trend to pressure the same targets to provide personal information through phone calls that may go on all day long.
The New York Times recently highlighted the case of an 80-year-old Pennsylvania man who got calls every 14 minutes in one day from scammers who said they wanted to sell him a Medicare Advantage plan – even though he already had such a plan. (Medicare Advantage plans are privately run plans that bundle together various benefits that are paid for separately in traditional Medicare plans.)
The newspaper also reported that the Federal Communications Commission fields 5,000-6,000 complaints annually about scams related to Medicare and Medicaid.
Fortunately, some protections exist against this sort of harassment and other fraud tactics. Experts suggest you let dubious phone calls go directly to voicemail. You can register your phone number for free with the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov. (After a month, you may report unwanted calls to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.)
If you are in the Medicare program, it’s a good idea to review statements regularly. If you have information about a scam or believe you have disclosed personal information to a fraudster, you can call 1-800-Medicare (1-800-633-4227).
