BLOCK INC

In January 2025, the CFPB ordered Block, Inc. (formerly Square) to refund Cash App consumers $120 million and pay a $55 million penalty for failing to protect users from fraud and for systematic failures in investigating unauthorized transactions. Block separately agreed to pay $80 million in fines to state regulators for violations of banking laws related to Cash App, bringing the total regulatory cost to $255 million.

The CFPB found that Block employed weak security protocols for Cash App and put users at risk of unauthorized access to their accounts. When users reported fraud, Block's investigations were "woefully incomplete" — the company directed fraud victims to ask their own banks to reverse transactions, which Block would then deny. Cash App lacked even basic customer service: no phone support, no live-person assistance, and no meaningful dispute resolution process. Block had previously paid a $40 million settlement to the New York Department of Financial Services over anti-money-laundering deficiencies in Cash App. The combined pattern — inadequate fraud prevention, failure to investigate disputed transactions, and deliberate barriers to customer recourse — reflects a business that externalized the costs of fraud onto its most vulnerable users.