Four checks before you type your details into a claim form

News of a big settlement is a marketing signal to people running scams. Lookalike claim sites go up within days, and they are cheap to build because the real ones are plain by design.

You do not need to evaluate a site's design. Four checks settle it.

One: arrive from an official page

Start at the court docket, the agency's own refund list, or the notice you were mailed — and follow the link from there. Do not start at a search result, a social post, or a link in a text message.

This single habit defeats most of these sites, because the fake ones cannot get themselves listed on the agency page. If you cannot reach a claim form from an official source, treat that as the answer.

Two: check what it asks for

The FTC's line is a useful benchmark: it never requires you to pay upfront fees or asks for sensitive information. A real claim form typically wants a claim ID from your notice, some detail about the purchase or account, and how you would like to be paid.

What it does not want is your full Social Security number before a claim exists, a bank login, or a copy of your ID uploaded to a site you reached from a text.

Three: check the payment direction

Money in a legitimate claim only ever flows toward you. There is no filing fee, no processing fee, and no tax to prepay.

The FTC's warning covers the rest: never pay someone who insists you can only pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, a payment app, or a gift card. The same goes for a surprise check you are asked to deposit and partly send back — the FTC describes exactly that pattern, and the check turns out to be fake.

Four: check the pressure

Urgency is the tell. Real claim deadlines are published on the official notice, they are the same for everyone, and they do not move because someone called you this afternoon.

Honest organizations, as the FTC puts it, will not call, email, or text to ask for personal information like your Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers. If you are unsure, hang up and call the number listed on the agency's own page.