How to Tell a Real Settlement Notice from a Scam
Settlement scams spike around high-profile cases. The good news: real notices have predictable patterns and the scams almost always violate one of them.
- 1
Check the sender address against the administrator's corporate website
Real notices come from one of a small set of administrators: Angeion, Kroll, Rust, JND, A.B. Data, Epiq. Look up the administrator on a search engine, find their corporate URL, and compare the email sender domain. Mismatches mean scam.
- 2
Never click links in the email
Type the administrator's URL by hand or arrive through classaction.org, topclassactions.com, or the FTC refunds page. Email link redirection is how scammers grab credentials.
- 3
Refuse any request for payment or SSN before account reference
Real administrators never charge a fee to file. They ask for the minimum information needed to match you to the existing class records. A request for full SSN before any account number, email, or order ID is a hard red flag.
- 4
Verify the case number on PACER
PACER (pacer.uscourts.gov) is the federal court docket. If a notice cites a case number, look it up. No matching docket means the case is fictitious. PACER charges per page, but court docket sheet retrieval is small and gives an authoritative answer.