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Resources for Addressing Financial Fraud
This resource library highlights practical tools, research and advocacy efforts focused on combating financial fraud, scams and misinformation. These materials provide insights for CFP® professionals, consumers and other stakeholders seeking to strengthen financial protection.
Explore this collection of industry research, legislative and regulatory advocacy information, and guides designed to help combat and mitigate financial fraud and exploitation and build greater financial security. These resources support awareness, prevention and response strategies while helping users to recognize emerging threats, navigate misinformation and make informed financial decisions.
Follow the progress of bills impacting CFP® professionals and their clients. These include the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act, which would help combat fraud, and the Tax Relief for Victims of Crimes, Scams and Disasters Act, which would help victims of financial fraud and scams.
CFP Board’s comment letter to the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) outlines the need to modernize the U.S. National Strategy for Financial Literacy. CFP Board urges the FLEC to address the complexities and challenges of today’s economy, leverage opportunities created by new products and accounts, and prepare consumers to identify and combat ever-increasing and sophisticated financial frauds, scams and exploitation.
This joint comment letter urges FINRA to strengthen its rules to protect seniors and other vulnerable adults from financial exploitation and all investors from fraud.
CFP Board submitted testimony to Idaho's House Business Committee in favor of state legislation to protect seniors and other vulnerable adults from potential fraud and scams.
CFP Board submitted a statement for the record to the House Financial Services Committee’s Capital Markets Subcommittee for its hearing, “Safeguarding Main Street: Combatting Fraud and Exploitation in Our Capital Markets.” In the statement, CFP Board strongly endorsed the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act of 2025 (H.R. 2478) and the Honesty in Your Promotion of Equities (HYPE) Act.
This guide describes the top ten forms of financial misinformation, with examples commonly found on social media and ideas for how CFP® professionals can respond.
Financial fraud, scams and exploitation threaten to derail Americans’ financial security and, ultimately, their confidence in achieving their long-term financial goals. This survey explores how financial fraud impacts Americans, including how they have encountered fraud and the worries they have related to fraud and protecting themselves and loved ones.
This toolkit helps you recognize misleading financial content. This guide outlines the top ten forms of financial misinformation and provides examples of fact-based social media posts as well as reliable sources.
This ongoing study shows that clients of CFP® professionals are significantly more likely to maintain emergency funds, have comprehensive financial plans and report lower financial anxiety — outcomes that make them demonstrably more resilient against fraud and exploitation.
Awareness and quick action are key defenses against financial fraud. Because scammers typically make the first contact, familiarizing oneself with their tactics can help individuals recognize red flags. By learning about common scam types and staying vigilant, Americans can better safeguard their finances and personal information.
Understanding the warning signs of financial exploitation and maintaining open communication about finances can help families identify risks early. This guide offers seven steps to help adult children advocate for their parents and safeguard their financial future.
In his testimony for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging’s hearing on “Empowering Seniors Through Financial Literacy: Tools to Protect Savings, Prevent Fraud and Promote Independence,” Scott Kahan, CFP® highlighted how financial literacy and access to trusted advice play a critical role in helping older Americans protect savings and maintain independence in retirement. Kahan also discussed the need to expand access to competent and ethical financial planning and the importance of the fiduciary standard.
While 3 in 4 Americans seek out financial information online at least once a month, 3 in 5 Americans regret a decision they made because of financial misinformation. As a result of misleading online information, 2 in 5 people have lost more than $250, and almost 1 in 5 have lost more than $1,000. In addition to direct monetary losses, Americans experience delays in financial decisions because of financial misinformation.
This free program is designed to help banks, credit unions and financial professionals detect and prevent financial exploitation, particularly targeting older adults. Through interactive training, research and industry partnerships, BankSafe equips frontline staff with tools to recognize fraud warning signs, intervene effectively and protect consumers’ financial well-being.
This resource helps consumers recognize, avoid, and respond to scams and fraud. The program offers fraud alerts, educational tools, a scam-tracking map, podcasts and access to trained specialists through a free helpline.
The study found that fraud exposure is widespread: 90% of respondents reported receiving suspicious communications, and 14% said they had likely lost money to fraud in the past year. While relatively few consumers actively seek out fraud-prevention information, most engage with it when they encounter it, suggesting that frequent, broadly distributed fraud-awareness messaging may be more effective than expecting people to look for it themselves.
From the basics to how-to-guides, CFPB’s resources help consumers prevent, recognize and report scams and fraud. CFPB’s most recent Financial Literacy Annual Report highlights the work being done to equip consumers with tools and resources to identify and avoid fraud and scams.
This bipartisan financial resource guide helps older adults make informed financial decisions and protect their retirement savings. The guide covers topics such as avoiding financial scams, Social Security, Medicare, retirement income, housing choices, disaster preparedness and charitable giving.
The FBI reported receiving over one million online financial crime complaints in 2025 with cybercrime losses amounting to almost $20.9 billion — a 26% increase from 2024. Complaints involving investment fraud reported losses of more than $8.6 billion.
This toolkit is a comprehensive, free resource designed to help financial firms, caregivers, and older investors identify and prevent elder financial exploitation. It compiles actionable training tools, red flags and regulatory guidance to safeguard senior assets, and it can help advisors in their efforts to protect their clients.
To educate investors, state securities regulators have identified several financial products and practices that currently pose significant risks to unwary investors. These include social media and internet schemes and relationship/romance scams.
With frauds and scams draining $150 billion from Americans each year, the National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention issued a report recommending a unified national approach to combat fraud, update legal frameworks and dismantle the business model that enables scams to thrive.