Image credit: Suzanne Kantra/Techlicious
If you paid Cleo AI a fee to get a cash advance instantly, the Federal Trade Commission may be sending you money. The agency is distributing more than $15.8 million through PayPal to 2,124,796 Cleo AI customers who paid for eligible instant cash advances, according to the FTC's announcement.
Emails to eligible customers arrive between October 8 and October 26 from no-reply@consumersentinel.gov. Payments begin October 27, and the agency says you must accept your PayPal payment within 30 days. The FTC has not announced how individual settlement amounts will be determined.
The payments trace back to an FTC complaint filed in March 2025. The agency alleged that Cleo advertised access to "hundreds of dollars" in cash advances, yet almost no customers received anything close to that amount. Subscribers also had to pay an extra fee for same-day or instant delivery. Yet, even after paying it, some waited until the next day for their money.
Cleo also made it extremely difficult for unhappy customers to cancel. Consumers reported to the FTC they were charged monthly fees despite repeated cancellation requests and were told they could not cancel until their outstanding advances were repaid.
Cleo agreed to pay $17 million to settle the case, and the settlement terms call for the company to clearly disclose advance terms and fees, get express consent before charging for a subscription, and offer a simple way to cancel.
Scammers like to piggyback on refund programs, and because a sender address can be forged, a message that appears to come from the FTC may not be. The FTC's Cleo AI refund page lists the legitimate sender address, and the agency says it never requires anyone to pay money or provide account information to receive a payment. It is not clear from the announcement whether consumers will be required to create a PayPal account to receive the funds, but that is the likely scenario given how PayPal operates.
Anyone who contacts you demanding a fee for a refund, making threats, or telling you to transfer money is running a scam, and you can report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. You should also be on the lookout for PayPal phishing emails related to this settlement. Our guide to how to tell if an email has been spoofed shows how to review an email's message header to determine validity.
Questions about a specific payment can be made to the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, at 1-877-788-4958.
