Financial Advice & Advisors Terms

A 12b-1 fee is an ongoing charge deducted from a mutual fund's assets to pay for marketing, distribution, and sometimes broker compensation, reducing your return every year it applies.

A periodic summary from a brokerage showing account holdings, transactions, income, and value over the reporting period.

Account takeover is a form of fraud in which a criminal gains control of your existing financial or online account and uses it for theft.

Advance fee fraud tricks victims into paying an upfront fee for a promised loan, prize, or large payout that never arrives.

Affinity fraud is a scam that targets members of a shared group, such as a religious or ethnic community, exploiting the trust among them.

An AI voice cloning scam uses artificial intelligence to mimic a person's voice, often impersonating a family member in distress, to pressure the victim into wiring money or sharing sensitive information.

Annuity twisting is the improper practice of persuading a customer to replace one annuity with another mainly to earn a new commission, often saddling the customer with fresh surrender charges and little real benefit.

A title loan is a short-term, high-cost loan secured by your vehicle's title, meaning the lender can repossess your car if you don't repay.

A back-end load is a sales commission charged when you sell mutual fund shares, often shrinking the longer you hold the shares before selling.

Balance billing is when a provider bills you for the difference between their charge and what your insurance paid, a practice now limited in many situations.

A balloon mortgage has smaller payments for a set period followed by one large lump-sum payment of the remaining balance, which the borrower must pay off or refinance.

Investing in bankrupt companies means buying the stock or debt of a firm in bankruptcy, a high-risk bet since shareholders are often wiped out when a company reorganizes or liquidates.

A broker's duty to seek the most favorable available terms — price and other factors — when carrying out a client's trade.

State securities laws that regulate investment offerings within each state to protect investors from fraud, operating alongside federal securities rules.

Borrower defense to repayment is a federal process that can cancel student loans for borrowers whose school misled them or broke certain laws.

Buy now, pay later is point-of-sale financing that splits a purchase into a few scheduled installments, often interest-free — convenient, but easy to overextend across multiple plans at once.

A callable CD is a certificate of deposit the issuing bank can redeem early, usually if interest rates fall, returning your principal and interest but ending the higher rate sooner than you expected.

A captive insurance agent sells policies for a single insurance company rather than shopping among several insurers.

A chargeback is a reversal of a card payment initiated through your bank or card issuer, typically used to reclaim money for fraudulent, unauthorized, or undelivered purchases.

Charity care is free or reduced-cost hospital treatment offered to patients who cannot afford to pay, based on their income and financial need.

Charity evaluation is the process of researching a nonprofit's finances, transparency, and results before deciding to donate.

Charity Navigator is an independent organization that rates nonprofits on their finances, accountability, and transparency to help donors give wisely.

A charity scam is a fraud in which someone poses as a charitable cause to collect donations that never reach any genuine beneficiary, often spiking after disasters or during the holidays.

Check fraud is the use of stolen, forged, or altered checks to illegally take money from someone's bank account.

Check washing is a form of fraud where criminals steal checks and use chemicals to erase the ink, then rewrite them to a new payee and amount.

A check-cashing service converts a check into cash for a fee, a costly alternative to a bank account used mainly by people without traditional banking access.

A checkbook IRA is a self-directed IRA setup that gives the owner direct control to write checks for investments through a legal entity the IRA owns.

Churning is the unethical practice of an advisor or broker making excessive trades in a client's account mainly to generate commissions for themselves rather than to benefit the client.

A closed school discharge cancels federal student loans for borrowers whose school shut down while they were enrolled or shortly after they withdrew.

A Closing Disclosure is the final standardized form listing the exact mortgage terms and closing costs, which the lender must provide for review before you sign.

A CLUE report is a database record of the insurance claims tied to a person or property over recent years, which insurers use when pricing home and auto policies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a U.S. government agency that oversees banks, lenders, and other financial companies to enforce consumer-protection laws and handle complaints about unfair or deceptive practices.

A contract for deed is a seller-financed home purchase where the buyer makes installment payments but the seller keeps legal title until the contract is fully paid, an arrangement carrying notable risks for buyers.

A bank or trust company that serves as trustee, administering a trust professionally rather than relying on an individual.

Credit counseling is guidance from a trained counselor, often at a nonprofit agency, who reviews your finances, helps you build a budget, and may set up a debt management plan.

A credit dispute is a formal challenge to information on your credit report, requiring the credit bureau to investigate and correct or remove anything it cannot verify.

Credit invisible describes someone with no credit file at the major bureaus, making it hard to qualify for loans, apartments, or even some services despite having no negative history.

Credit life insurance is a policy tied to a specific loan that pays off the remaining balance if the borrower dies, with the lender as beneficiary.

Credit monitoring is a service that watches your credit reports and alerts you to changes — such as new accounts or hard inquiries — that could signal fraud or errors.

A credit repair scam is a fraudulent service that promises to erase accurate negative information from your credit report or demands payment before doing any work, both of which are illegal for legitimate credit-repair companies.

Investment crowdfunding is raising money for a company from many small investors online, each receiving a share of ownership or a stake.

Crypto custody is how a cryptocurrency's private keys are stored and safeguarded, whether by the owner directly through self-custody or by a third party such as an exchange.

A crypto exchange is an online platform where people buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.

Crypto lending is depositing cryptocurrency with a platform that pays interest by lending it out, carrying the risk that the platform fails and the deposit is lost.

A custodial wallet has a third party hold your crypto's private keys for you, while a non-custodial wallet leaves you in sole control of the keys and the responsibility for keeping them safe.

Dark web monitoring is a service that scans hidden online marketplaces and forums for your personal information, such as email addresses, passwords, or account numbers, and alerts you if your data appears to have been leaked or sold.

A data breach is an incident in which sensitive personal or financial information is exposed or stolen from an organization that held it, potentially enabling identity theft or fraud against the affected people.

A debt collector is a person or company that pursues payment on overdue debts, either on behalf of the original creditor or after buying the debt outright.

A debt relief scam is a deceptive offer to reduce or eliminate your debts that instead charges high upfront fees, damages your credit, or collects payments without ever settling anything with your creditors.

Debt settlement is negotiating with creditors to accept less than the full balance owed — an approach that can shrink your debt but typically damages your credit and may create taxable income.

A debt validation letter is a written request that forces a debt collector to prove a debt is real, accurate, and actually yours before collection can continue.

A deepfake scam uses artificial intelligence to create realistic fake video or images of a real person, tricking victims into sending money or trusting a fraudulent request that appears to come from someone they know.

A direct deposit switch scam is a fraud in which someone impersonates an employee to reroute their paycheck to a criminal's account, usually through a fake payroll change request.

IRS Direct File is a free government-run tool for preparing and filing a federal tax return directly with the IRS, without commercial software or a paid preparer.

Disaster fraud is a scam that exploits natural disasters or emergencies, using fake charities, phony contractors, or bogus aid offers to steal money from victims and would-be donors.

A dormant account is a bank or investment account with no customer activity for an extended period, which can eventually be flagged and turned over to the state as unclaimed property.

Dynamic currency conversion is an option to pay in your home currency when abroad, which sounds convenient but usually comes with a worse exchange rate than paying in the local currency.

Elder financial abuse is the illegal or improper use of an older person's money or property, often by a caregiver, family member, or scammer.

An estate planning attorney is a lawyer who helps you create wills, trusts, and related documents to manage and pass on your assets.

An unsecured debt security promising a return tied to an index; unlike an ETF it holds no assets, so its value also hinges on the issuer's creditworthiness.

Fee drag is the cumulative bite that investment fees take out of returns over time — money paid in fees never gets the chance to compound, so small annual percentages grow into large lifetime costs.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law that governs how credit-reporting companies collect and share your information, giving you the right to see your credit reports and dispute errors on them.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the federal law that limits how third-party debt collectors can behave — banning harassment, lies, and unfair tactics and giving consumers the right to dispute and verify debts.

The Fair Housing Act is the federal law prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing on the basis of protected characteristics including race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability.

A fake job scam is a fraudulent job offer designed to steal your money or personal information, often by charging bogus fees, sending fake checks to deposit, or collecting your bank and Social Security details during a phony hiring process.

The Federal Trade Commission is a U.S. government agency that protects consumers by policing fraud, deceptive advertising, and unfair business practices, and that collects reports of scams and identity theft.

Financial counseling is guidance from a trained professional who helps people with everyday money challenges like budgeting, debt, and building savings, often distinct from investment advice.

The financial planning process is the structured series of steps — from setting goals and gathering data to creating, carrying out, and reviewing a plan — that advisors and individuals use to manage money toward objectives.

The framing effect is the tendency to reach different decisions based on how the same information is presented.

A fraud alert is a free flag on your credit file telling lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before approving new credit in your name.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the federally authorized website where you can get free copies of your credit reports from the three nationwide bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

IRS Free File is a partnership between the IRS and private tax-software companies that lets taxpayers under an income cap prepare and e-file their federal returns at no cost.

A free look period is a short window after buying a policy during which you can cancel it and get your money back.

A free lunch seminar is a sales presentation, often aimed at retirees, that offers a complimentary meal to attract attendees and then pressures them into buying investment or insurance products that may not suit their needs.

A front-end load is a sales commission deducted from your money at the time you buy mutual fund shares, so less than your full purchase amount is actually invested.

Fully paid securities lending is a program in which a broker lends out shares you fully own and shares the resulting fee with you, in exchange for your taking on certain risks.

A ghost preparer is someone who charges to prepare tax returns but refuses to sign them or include the required preparer tax identification number — a red flag that leaves the taxpayer alone on the hook for errors or fraud.

A government imposter scam is a fraud in which someone poses as a government agency to frighten victims into paying money or sharing personal details.

A grandparent scam is a fraud where a caller pretends to be a grandchild in trouble to pressure an older person into sending money quickly.

A guaranteed-return red flag is a warning sign of fraud in which someone promises high investment returns with little or no risk — a combination that legitimate investments cannot honestly deliver.

A state guaranty association steps in to pay certain claims when an insurance company operating in that state becomes insolvent.

The implied warranty of habitability is a legal rule requiring landlords to keep rental housing safe and livable, with working essentials like heat, water, and plumbing, whether or not the lease says so.

A health care sharing ministry is a membership arrangement in which members share one another's medical costs, and it is not insurance and carries no guarantee of payment.

This strategy uses a home equity line of credit to pay down mortgage principal in chunks to cut total interest, a tactic that carries real risks and doesn't suit everyone.

High-pressure sales tactics are aggressive methods used to rush you into a financial decision, such as claiming an offer expires immediately or discouraging you from taking time to research or seek advice.

An itemized hospital bill is a detailed, line-by-line statement of every charge for a hospital stay, which patients can request to spot errors and verify what they owe.

Identity theft insurance helps pay the costs of recovering from identity fraud, such as restoring your credit and covering related expenses.

An independent insurance agent represents several insurance companies and can compare their policies for you.

Indexed universal life is a type of permanent life insurance whose cash value growth is tied to the performance of a stock market index, with limits on both gains and losses.

Infinite banking is a strategy of borrowing against the cash value of a whole life insurance policy to act as your own source of financing.

An initial coin offering, or ICO, is a way for a crypto project to raise money by selling new tokens to the public, a largely unregulated method that has often been used in scams.

Insider trading is the illegal buying or selling of a company's stock based on important, non-public information, giving the trader an unfair advantage over ordinary investors.

An insurance broker works on behalf of the buyer to find and arrange coverage from various insurers.

A state insurance commissioner is the official who regulates insurance companies and agents within a state and handles consumer complaints.

Insurance company ratings are grades issued by independent agencies that measure an insurer's financial strength and its ability to pay claims in the future.

Insurance fraud is deliberately deceiving an insurer to gain a payout or lower premium you are not entitled to, which is a crime that raises costs for everyone.

A federal law that regulates mutual funds and other investment companies, setting rules on their structure, disclosures, and treatment of investors.

An IRS Identity Protection PIN is a six-digit code, changed each year, that must accompany your tax return — it blocks criminals from filing a fraudulent return in your name.

An IRS imposter scam is a fraud where a caller or message pretends to be the IRS, demanding immediate payment for supposedly unpaid taxes.

A judgment is a court's official ruling that you owe a debt, giving the creditor powerful collection tools such as wage garnishment or a levy on your bank account.

Juvenile life insurance is a policy taken out on a child, usually by a parent or grandparent, often marketed for future insurability or cash value.

Land banking is buying undeveloped land to hold in hope of future value, a strategy that has also been used in investment scams.

A Loan Estimate is the standardized form lenders must send shortly after you apply for a mortgage, laying out the projected rate, payment, and closing costs so offers can be compared side by side.

A loan shark is an illegal lender who charges extreme interest rates and often uses intimidation or threats to collect, operating entirely outside consumer protection laws.

Lottery mentality is relying on an unlikely windfall to build wealth instead of steady saving and investing.

A lottery scam tells victims they have won a prize but must first pay taxes or fees to collect winnings that do not exist.

A medical billing advocate is a professional who reviews medical bills for errors, negotiates charges, and helps patients resolve disputes with providers and insurers.

A memecoin is a cryptocurrency built around an internet joke or trend, typically highly speculative with little underlying use.

A merchant cash advance is a lump sum a business receives in exchange for a share of its future sales, repaid daily from card revenue — often at very high effective costs.

Limited benefit plans, sometimes called mini-med plans, offer low-cost health coverage with strict caps on what they pay, leaving large gaps that can expose you to major medical bills.

A money mule is a person who moves stolen or illicit funds through their own bank account on behalf of criminals — sometimes knowingly, often after being tricked — which can expose them to criminal liability.

Mortgage protection insurance is a policy designed to pay off or cover mortgage payments if the borrower dies or becomes disabled.

A mortgage statement is the periodic summary from your loan servicer showing your balance, payment, interest, and escrow activity.

Multi-level marketing is a business model where sellers earn from their own sales and from recruiting other sellers, and most participants earn little or lose money.

A my Social Security account is the free online account at the Social Security Administration where you can view your earnings record and estimated future benefits.

NCUA insurance is the federal protection covering deposits at credit unions — up to $250,000 per member, per credit union, per ownership category — the credit-union equivalent of FDIC coverage.

A neobank is a financial technology company offering app-based banking services — often without being a chartered bank itself, instead holding customer money at partner banks.

The No Surprises Act is a federal law that protects patients from many unexpected out-of-network bills, especially for emergency care.

A non-traded REIT is a real estate investment trust that is not listed on a stock exchange, making it harder to sell and value than publicly traded REITs.

The phrase "not your keys, not your coins" warns that if someone else, such as an exchange, holds the private keys to your cryptocurrency, you do not truly control it and could lose it if that party fails.

An offshore account is a bank or investment account held in a country other than where you live, which is legal but carries strict US reporting requirements.

Open banking is a system that lets you securely share your financial data with approved apps and services through standardized connections, rather than handing over your login credentials.

An overpayment scam is a fraud in which someone sends you a check or payment for more than an agreed amount, then asks you to refund the difference before their original payment bounces — leaving you out the money you returned.

A password manager is a secure app that stores and generates strong, unique passwords for all your accounts, so you only need to remember one master password instead of reusing weak ones.

Earned wage access, sometimes marketed as a paycheck advance app, lets workers withdraw a portion of wages they have already earned before payday, often for a fee or optional tip.

A payday loan is a very short-term, high-cost loan meant to be repaid from your next paycheck, with fees that often work out to triple-digit annual interest rates.

Payment for order flow is compensation a brokerage receives for routing its customers' trades to particular market makers, a practice that helps fund commission-free trading but creates a potential conflict of interest.

A penny stock is a very low-priced stock of a small company, typically trading for a few dollars or less, known for high volatility and vulnerability to manipulation.

The personal CFO mindset means managing your household finances with the discipline of a company's chief financial officer, planning, tracking, and making deliberate decisions about every dollar.

Phishing is a scam that uses fake emails or websites impersonating trusted organizations to trick you into revealing passwords, account numbers, or other sensitive information.

A pig butchering scam is a long con in which a fraudster builds a relationship over time to lure the victim into a fake investment, often involving cryptocurrency.

Plaid is a technology company whose service connects your bank accounts to financial apps, letting them securely access your account data with your permission.

A precious metals IRA is a self-directed retirement account that holds physical gold, silver, or other approved metals instead of stocks and funds.

Predatory lending is any lending practice that exploits borrowers through unfair, deceptive, or abusive terms — such as hidden fees, unaffordable payments, or targeting vulnerable groups.

A prepaid debit card is loaded with money in advance and can only spend what you load onto it, working like a debit card without a linked bank account.

A private key is a secret string of characters that proves ownership of a cryptocurrency wallet and lets its holder authorize transactions; anyone who has it controls the funds.

A private placement is the sale of securities directly to a small group of selected investors rather than to the general public.

Deed fraud, also called home title theft, is a scam in which a criminal forges paperwork to transfer a property's ownership without the real owner's knowledge, often to borrow against or sell the home.

A prospectus is the legal document an investment issuer must provide to investors, describing the security's objectives, risks, fees, and other essentials before they buy.

A public adjuster is a licensed professional a policyholder can hire to document and negotiate an insurance claim on their behalf, rather than relying on the insurer's own adjuster.

A pump and dump is a scheme where fraudsters hype a stock to inflate its price, then sell their shares and leave other investors with losses.

A pyramid scheme is a fraud in which participants earn mainly by recruiting others rather than selling a real product, inevitably collapsing as recruitment stalls.

Insurance rate shopping is regularly comparing premiums across insurers for the same coverage so you avoid overpaying as your rate creeps up over time.

A real estate agent commission is the fee, usually a percentage of the sale price, paid to the agents involved in a property transaction.

Real estate wire fraud is a scam where criminals impersonate a title company, agent, or lender and send fake wiring instructions to a homebuyer, redirecting the down payment or closing funds to the thief's account.

A recovery room scam is a follow-up fraud that targets people who already lost money to a scam, falsely promising to recover their funds in exchange for an upfront fee.

A set of SEC rules letting companies raise money by selling securities privately, without full public registration, usually to accredited investors.

A Regulation A offering is a rule that lets smaller companies raise limited amounts of money from the public with lighter requirements than a full IPO.

Regulation E is a federal rule that protects consumers who use electronic transfers, such as debit cards and online payments, by limiting your liability for unauthorized transactions and setting rules for disputing errors.

Rent increase rules are the laws and lease terms that govern how much and how often a landlord can raise rent, which vary widely by state and local rent-control ordinances.

Rent-to-own is an agreement where a tenant rents a home with the option or obligation to buy it later, sometimes with part of the rent credited toward the purchase.

A rental application fee is a charge landlords collect to cover the cost of screening a prospective tenant, such as running a credit and background check.

A series of Department of Labor efforts to require retirement-account advisors to act in clients' best interests, versions of which have faced repeated legal challenges and revision.

A romance scam is a fraud in which someone feigns a romantic relationship to gain a victim's trust and manipulate them into sending money.

A rug pull is a crypto scam in which the creators of a project suddenly abandon it and disappear with investors' money, leaving the token worthless.

A sales load is a commission charged when you buy or sell certain mutual fund shares, paid to the broker or advisor who sold you the fund.

A federal law requiring companies that sell securities to the public to register them and disclose key financial facts, aimed at preventing fraud in offerings.

A federal law that regulates trading of securities after they are issued and created the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the markets.

Securities fraud is the illegal deception of investors in connection with stocks, bonds, or other investments, such as spreading false information or running schemes that misrepresent an investment's value or risk.

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) is a nonprofit that restores customers' missing cash and securities, up to set limits, when a brokerage firm fails — it does not protect against investment losses.

A seed phrase is a list of ordinary words, usually twelve or twenty-four, that backs up a crypto wallet and can restore access to it if the device is lost, so it must be kept private and secure.

A seller disclosure is a document in which a home seller reports known defects and problems with the property so buyers can make an informed decision.

A separately managed account (SMA) is a professionally managed portfolio of individual securities owned directly by one investor, rather than pooled shares of a fund.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is a federal law that gives active-duty service members financial protections, such as capped interest rates and limits on evictions and foreclosures.

Short-term health insurance is temporary coverage meant to fill a gap between plans, and it often excludes benefits that regular plans must include.

Card skimming is the theft of payment card data using a hidden device attached to an ATM, gas pump, or point-of-sale terminal that copies your card's information when you swipe or insert it.

Smishing is phishing carried out through text messages that try to trick you into clicking a malicious link or handing over personal information.

A SPAC is a shell company that raises money through a public offering for the sole purpose of merging with a private company, giving that firm a faster route to going public.

The statute of limitations on debt is the state-law time limit after which a creditor can no longer sue you to collect — the debt itself doesn't disappear, and making a payment can sometimes restart the clock.

Stranger-originated life insurance is an arrangement in which investors with no personal stake fund a policy on someone's life to collect the payout, a practice that is generally illegal.

Structured products are complex investments built by combining bonds with options or other derivatives to produce a specific payoff pattern.

A student loan forgiveness scam is a fraud that charges fees to enroll you in loan-forgiveness or repayment programs that are actually free through your federal servicer, and may steal your login credentials in the process.

Synthetic identity fraud combines real and fake personal details to create a new fictitious identity used to open fraudulent accounts.

Tax evasion is illegally hiding income or faking deductions to escape taxes you legitimately owe — a federal crime, unlike tax avoidance, which uses legal strategies to reduce tax.

Tax identity theft happens when a criminal files a fake return using your Social Security number to steal a refund — often discovered only when your real return is rejected as a duplicate.

Tax scams are schemes that use fake IRS communications, inflated refund promises, or bogus credits to steal money or personal information — the IRS highlights the worst offenders in its annual Dirty Dozen list.

A tax shelter is any arrangement used to reduce taxable income — a spectrum running from ordinary retirement accounts to aggressive schemes the IRS labels abusive and penalizes.

A teaser rate is a temporarily attractive interest rate used to win new customers, which resets to a less favorable rate after the introductory period ends.

A tech support scam tricks victims into believing their computer has a problem so a fake technician can charge for phony repairs or steal information.

Tenant rights are the legal protections renters have, such as a habitable home, proper notice before entry or eviction, and the return of a security deposit, which vary by state and locality.

A timeshare is a shared-ownership or right-to-use arrangement that gives you the ability to use a vacation property for a set period each year, along with ongoing fees.

A timeshare exit scam is a fraud that targets owners desperate to get out of a timeshare, charging large upfront fees for exit services that are never delivered.

A title defect is a problem in a property's ownership record, such as a lien, error, or competing claim, that can cloud the right to sell or transfer it.

A trusted contact person is someone you name on an investment account whom the firm may reach out to if it suspects financial exploitation or cannot reach you. Naming one gives that person no authority over the account.

The Truth in Lending Act is a federal law that requires lenders to disclose the true cost of borrowing — including the annual percentage rate and fees — so you can compare loan and credit offers fairly.

Two and twenty is a common hedge fund and private equity fee structure charging a 2% annual management fee plus 20% of profits.

Two-factor authentication is a security method that requires a second proof of identity beyond your password — such as a code sent to your phone — making it much harder for a thief to access your accounts.

Unbanked describes households with no checking or savings account at a bank or credit union, often relying on cash and costlier alternative financial services.

Unclaimed property is money or assets — like forgotten accounts, uncashed checks, or insurance payouts — that a holder turns over to the state after the owner cannot be located, where it waits to be claimed.

Underbanked describes people who have a bank account but still regularly rely on services like check cashers, money orders, or payday lenders for financial needs.

Undue influence is improper pressure that overrides a person's free will, sometimes used to invalidate a will or gift obtained through manipulation.

An unregistered investment is a security sold without the registration or exemption that securities law normally requires, which removes standard disclosures and is a common feature of investment scams.

Usury is lending money at an interest rate above the legal maximum — usury caps are set by state law and vary widely.

Velocity banking is a debt-payoff strategy that uses a line of credit to make large lump-sum payments toward a mortgage or loan, then routes income through the credit line to reduce interest.

A viatical settlement is the sale of a life insurance policy for cash by someone who is terminally ill, giving the buyer the death benefit later.

Vishing is phishing carried out by phone call, where a scammer impersonates a trusted party to pry loose personal or financial information.

Wage garnishment is a legal process where part of your paycheck is withheld by your employer and sent directly to a creditor, usually after a court judgment.

Whiskey cask investing is buying casks of aging whiskey hoping they rise in value, an unregulated market that has drawn fraud warnings.

Wire fraud is a crime in which someone uses electronic communications, such as email or phone calls, to deceive a victim into sending money, frequently by impersonating a trusted party and requesting an urgent transfer.

Worker misclassification is when a business incorrectly labels an employee as an independent contractor, often to avoid taxes and benefits, which can deprive the worker of legal protections.

Yield farming is a high-risk crypto strategy of moving digital assets between lending and trading platforms to chase the highest possible returns, often paid in additional tokens.

Zelle is a bank-backed payment network that sends money between U.S. bank accounts within minutes — fast and free, but payments are hard to reverse, which makes it a frequent target for scams.

Zero liability protection is a policy offered by most card networks and issuers that shields you from paying for unauthorized charges on your credit or debit card when you report them promptly.

Options contracts that expire on the same day they are traded, carrying extreme price swings and high risk over a very short window.

Zombie debt is old debt — often past the statute of limitations, already settled, or not even yours — that a collector tries to bring back to life and pressure you into paying.