Money Matters: 5 websites for consumer reporters to bookmark

Protect consumers in your community by bookmarking these websites and signing up for their newsletters. These sites are sources for up-to-date information about fraud, scams, recalls and more important consumer alerts.

BBB Scam Tracker ^SM
Search the Better Business Bureau® fraud database for reports of fraud by keyword, type, location and date reported. Use the media inquiry form to ask for more information about specific scam reports. The Better Business Bureau also offers localized monthly newsletters with consumer alerts.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The CFPB’s blog, research and newsroom are great sources for story ideas. The Bureau regularly releases regulatory updates, research on financial well-being and consumer trends and consumer alerts. The website also includes a searchable database of complaints and as of January 2020, has a new API to access, search and display the data.

Your State Attorney General’s office
For local information about fraud, scams and more consumer complaints, be sure to bookmark your State Attorney General’s website. These sites very significantly by state, but are often a great resource for up-to-date information about how the state is protecting consumers. Some may have complaint databases and many will offer links to additional state and local consumer protection organizations.

Federal Trade Commission Consumer Information page
The Federal Trade Commission tracks scams and fraud reports in a long list of categories. It doesn’t update quite as often as the CFPB, but its reports are often more substantive than the consumer complaints in the CFPB database. The FTC page includes information about companies the federal government is suing, resources to combat fraud and tips for avoiding scams.

Recall Alerts
Recalls.gov is a repository for recalls from several federal agencies and also links to email alert sign ups from multiple agencies which each track recalls for different types of products:

• USDS Food Safety and Inspection Service recalls page
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Food and Drug Administration
• Environmental Protection Agency

Weekly Money Matters personal finance content for your newsroom is sponsored by the National Endowment for Financial Education.