What were the biggest consumer stories of 2022? The holiday meltdown by Southwest Airlines was a huge event but happened too late in the year to make a full impact on ConsumerAffairs readers.
When we looked back at the stories that drew the most attention from readers this year we found the most interest in scams and class-action settlements that doled out millions of dollars in cash.
Our story in March reporting that “The ‘Zelle scam’ is spreading quickly across the U.S.,” was number one with readers. We continued to report on different variations of the scheme throughout the year and it will no doubt be a topic for stories in 2023.
Criminals love the peer-to-peer payment app because the money can’t be traced and it’s a little less obvious than asking for payment with Target gift cards.
In October, when we asked “Are you a T-Mobile, Subaru, AT&T, Chrysler, DirecTV, GEICO, Avis customer? They may have some money for you,” readers responded with an overwhelming “yes.” It was the number two story for the year.
Some of the settlements were huge but the payments to individual consumers won’t be. We reported that 76 million T-Mobile customers whose personal data was exposed last year will get part of a $350 million settlement.
A lot of interest in tax matters
The third and fourth-place stories covered taxes. Readers showed a lot of interest when we reported “IRS wants taxpayers to get ready for changes and has built a new tool…
