Alex Delgado said a caller posing as a Robinhood fraud specialist gained her trust and directed the transfers over two days.
FRESNO, CA — A former television news anchor who spent decades reporting on scams says she lost $72,000 after responding to a fake fraud-alert text and following instructions from someone posing as a representative of the Robinhood investment platform.
Alex Delgado, who worked as an anchor at KSEE in Fresno for 22 years, said the scheme began in March while she was preparing for a trip. The message claimed suspicious activity had been detected on her Robinhood account and provided a telephone number to call. Delgado said she believed the warning was real and called the number in an effort to protect her savings.
The person who answered told Delgado that someone in Asia was trying to access her account from an Android phone, according to Delgado’s account. The caller then offered to transfer her to a supposed fraud department. Delgado said the conversation sounded professional and followed the pattern she expected from a legitimate financial institution.
“They said, ‘Not a problem, let me transfer you to the fraud department,’ so it was very legit,” Delgado said in an interview first reported by KSEE and CBS47 in Fresno. “It sounded very legit.”
Delgado said the people on the phone told her that her money had to be moved to another account while the suspicious activity was investigated. Over the next two days, she said, a caller remained on the line and guided her through a series of steps that transferred the full balance from her account.
She said she attempted several times to end the calls but was persuaded to continue. By the time she realized that the people contacting her were not Robinhood employees, the money had been transferred and could not be recovered. Delgado later contacted the company through its official app and reported the suspected fraud to several institutions.
Delgado said losing the money left her feeling embarrassed and vulnerable. She had placed years of savings into the investment account after leaving the television station in 2020. Her experience covering fraud as a journalist had not prepared her for the pressure and credibility of the people who contacted her, she said.
“I feel dumb, that I should have been smarter about it,” Delgado said. “I am in a very vulnerable place.” She said she decided to discuss the loss publicly because the scheme showed that experience and familiarity with scams do not guarantee that a person will recognize one while it is happening.
“If it can happen to me, and I am familiar with these, I covered it for the news, I hear about it all the time, it can happen to anyone,” Delgado said.
Robinhood said it was aware that financial scams were increasing and that it had safeguards designed to monitor, report and disrupt suspected fraud. Publicly available reports did not establish whether the transfers were made within Robinhood, through another financial service or directly to an account controlled by the people who contacted Delgado.
The Federal Trade Commission has described fake account warnings as one of the most commonly reported forms of text-message fraud. Such messages often claim that an unauthorized purchase, suspicious login or other problem requires immediate attention. The message may direct the recipient to a telephone number or website controlled by an impersonator rather than the company named in the alert.
The commission has also warned about schemes in which callers claim money must be moved to protect it from theft or investigation. Those requests can involve bank, retirement or investment accounts. The apparent urgency is used to keep victims from independently contacting the real institution before transferring funds.
Federal data show that financial fraud continues to produce heavy losses nationwide. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said investment-related fraud was the largest source of reported internet-crime losses in 2025. The totals reflect only complaints submitted to the agency and may not include victims who did not file reports.
No arrests or identified suspects had been announced in Delgado’s case as of Sunday. Public reports also did not say whether investigators had traced the transfers or whether any portion of the $72,000 remained recoverable.
Author note: Last updated July 12, 2026.