A new trend has emerged on social media platforms like TikTok, where influencers are promoting misleading claims about receiving “free money” from payment platforms such as Zelle and Cash App. These influencers are suggesting that filing complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will lead to automatic payouts from these companies, even for individuals who were not victims of scams.
Over the last three months, businesses have been receiving requests from California residents seeking to exercise their rights under California’s Shine the Light law, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83. These requests are sent by attorneys who purport to represent a California resident who is a “customer” of, and has an “established business relationship” with, the business receiving the request. The requests seek an accounting of the customer’s personal information disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes within the past year.
A group of 19 state attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, voiced their opposition to a series of proposals from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that they say will dramatically shrink the Bureau’s supervisorial oversight.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, along with 19 attorneys general, sent multiple letters to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), opposing a series of proposals that would dramatically shrink the Bureau’s supervisorial oversight of the markets for auto finance, consumer reporting, debt collection, and international money transfer services. The proposals all outline the CFPB’s intention to regulate only a small handful of companies in each of these markets, leaving consumers who use the vast majority of companies in these markets unprotected. The Trump Administration's proposals would limit the CFPB's oversight to as few as six consumer reporting companies, 11 debt collectors, four international money transfer providers, and five auto finance companies. Shortly after taking office, the Trump Administration launched a campaign of destruction and systemic shuttering of the CFPB, threatening catastrophic harm to hardworking families and consumer financial markets nationwide.
Recently, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget received the CFPB’s Spring 2025 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, outlining 25 regulatory activities at different stages of the administrative process. The Bureau’s agenda included nine entries at the prerule stage, ten entries at the proposed rule stage, five at the final rule stage, and one set for long-term review and action. The CFPB clarified that the timing of these actions is not binding and may change. In its notice, the CFPB also released a list of completed actions, which included regulatory action taken with respect to the FCRA and the reporting of medical debt, credit card penalty fees, and PACE financing.
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