The FTC Is Sending PayPal Refunds From a More Than $15.8 Million Fund to 2,124,796 Cleo AI Cash Advance Customers, Who Have 30 Days to Accept

PayPal accounts belonging to 2,124,796 people who paid Cleo AI for an instant cash advance are being credited with refunds from a fund of more than $15.8 million, the Federal Trade Commission said. The agency began sending the payments on Oct. 27, and the recipients have 30 days to accept them. The money comes from a $17 million settlement the company reached with the FTC in 2025.

No application was needed. People who qualify were told to expect an email, and the payment itself arrives through PayPal.

Who Is Getting a Cleo AI Refund, and How Much?

The agency’s Oct. 8 announcement says the payments go to Cleo AI customers who paid for eligible instant cash advances. The FTC’s Cleo AI refunds page counts 2,124,796 PayPal payments totaling more than $15.8 million.

The pages do not spell out eligibility beyond the phrase “eligible instant cash advances,” so the email is the clearest sign that a customer is on the list. Cleo AI is an app-based cash advance service, and the FTC complaint described subscribers who paid fees to get money faster.

Neither page states a per-person amount. A simple division of the two FTC figures works out to roughly $7.40 to $7.50 a payment on average, though the real amounts are not stated and an individual payment may be higher or lower.

The refunds page gives the timeline. Eligible people were to receive an email between Oct. 8 and Oct. 26 from [email protected]. The FTC began sending payments on Oct. 27, and PayPal recipients are told to accept the payment within 30 days. For a payment sent on Oct. 27, that window closes around Nov. 26, by a simple count of days.

The FTC does not say how people without PayPal will be paid. Local news site MyChesCo reported the same email and payment dates and said the process involves an email notice and a PayPal payment, with no claim form described.

The $15.8 million being distributed is a little less than the $17 million Cleo AI agreed to pay in 2025. The FTC’s announcement and refunds page do not explain the difference, so it should not be read as a shortfall or a leftover.

What the FTC Said Cleo AI Did

The FTC sued Cleo AI in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In its March 27, 2025 announcement, the agency said the company agreed to pay $17 million to settle allegations that it misled consumers about how much money they could get and how fast.

The agency alleged that ads implied access to hundreds of dollars in advances, but almost no one received close to that. It said ads promised same-day or instant advances, yet subscribers had to pay an extra fee, and some still waited until the next day.

Cancellation was also hard, the FTC alleged. Consumers were charged monthly fees after repeated cancellation requests and were told they could not cancel until outstanding advances were repaid.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the 2025 release that the complaint shows Cleo “misled consumers with promises of fast money.”

The Commission voted 2-0 to approve the complaint and proposed order, the 2025 release says. The proposed order bars misleading statements about material terms, including amounts and fees. It also requires clear subscription disclosures, express informed consent before subscription charges and a simple way to cancel.

How to Accept the PayPal Payment and Spot a Refund Scam

Accepting depends on the PayPal account. PayPal’s help page explains that a payment stays unclaimed until the recipient accepts it. A person with no account must set one up and verify it. A person who has turned off automatic acceptance must accept or deny within 30 days. PayPal says it automatically cancels pending or unclaimed payments after 30 days and returns the money to the sender’s original payment method.

The refund administrator is Rust Consulting, Inc., which the refunds page lists at 877-788-4958. The FTC’s refund FAQ page covers common questions about the process.

Scams follow every refund program. The FTC’s refunds hub says the agency will not threaten anyone, tell anyone to transfer money to get a refund or promise a prize, and that any such request is a scam. The Cleo refunds page repeats that the FTC never charges a fee to receive a refund and that nobody should pay a person who offers a refund in exchange for money or share personal information with someone who makes contact about one.

The FTC’s release adds that the Commission never requires people to pay money or provide account information to receive a payment. Suspected scams can be reported at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Recipients of other FTC payouts, such as the Walmart money transfer checks, are told the same things.

The sender matters. The refunds page names [email protected] as the address the official email comes from, so a message from any other sender is not part of the program as the page describes it. A household that gets such a message, or a call or text that asks for a fee or account details, is looking at something the FTC says it never does.

For a household that used the Cleo app in the past, the practical steps are short: look for the FTC email, confirm it matches the official refunds page, and accept the PayPal payment before the 30 days run out.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Shixart1985 – CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons