On Reddit, a user recently asked for help recovering from a credit card scam. The poster was more concerned with the emotional impact than the lost funds.

The person who posted expressed embarrassment about falling for the scam and didn’t know how to recover from the experience.

Respondents offered many good ideas: Try to recover the money. Focus on positive things in your life. Forgive yourself for making a mistake. Many assured the individual that anyone can fall for a scam and emphasized that there’s no reason to feel shame.

Experts on financial fraud and identity theft agree with that sentiment.

“The scammers are bad. You’re not bad. You were lied to,” says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. “We are all vulnerable.”

Even a fraud expert could fall for a scam, she adds.

That’s why knowing how to bounce back from a financial scam is the key to getting past it. Here’s how fraud experts say you can recover:

Keep track of exactly what happened

“Gather as much detailed information about what occurred as possible,” Velasquez says. Try to remember what you clicked on or who you interacted with. Those details can help determine the best way to proceed.

For example, if you clicked on a link but didn’t enter any information, you might not need to take further steps. If you downloaded malware onto your computer, then the next step might be to run a scan of your devices or undergo a factory reset.

“If you clicked on a website and it asked you to log in, then it probably logged your keystrokes,” says Jason Zirkle, training director at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and former fraud analyst with law enforcement.

In that case, you’ll want to change your password immediately and then follow up with your bank. “If you catch it quickly, it lessens the damage,” he says.

Call your financial institution

If you shared your credit card or banking information with a scammer, then call your financial institution to let them know. They will follow a fraud procedure that might include helping you change your password, or closing your old account and opening a new one. The latter may require new credit and debit cards.

In the case of credit card fraud like the Reddit poster experienced, you can often dispute the charge and recover the money by following the card issuer’s fraud protection procedure. After all, credit cards come with built-in fraud protections.

If you shared your driver’s license number or passport details, then Velasquez suggests reaching out to the relevant government agencies to follow their protocol for lost or stolen identification items.

Velasquez says to monitor financial accounts for any unfamiliar charges for a time after the fraud, too. You might also want to consider freezing your credit to prevent new accounts from being opened in your name.

Paid credit monitoring services are another option. They can’t necessarily prevent fraud from taking place, but they can alert you to unusual activity so you can take action quickly.

File a police report

File a report with your local police department to create an official record of what happened. That’s important if you or your financial institution are trying to recover the funds.

You can also file a complaint through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, your state’s attorney general’s office and the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint center .

Zirkle warns that while important, none of these steps are likely to get your money back.

“It’s hard to swallow, but if you can accept the funds won’t be recovered, it sets realistic expectations,” Zirkle says.

But you can do your part to stop further losses.

Talk about what happened

One way to fight back against the shame that often surrounds scams is to talk about it, Velasquez says.

You can share your story with friends and family to help them spot the signs and avert a sketchy situation.

Reach out if you know someone recovering from the aftermath of a scam, Velasquez recommends. “Say, ‘I can help you through this. We’ll find answers together.’”

After all, a big part of recovery is the emotional component, as the Reddit poster showed us.

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like fraud, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

The article What’s the Best Way to Recover From a Scam? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting on Wednesday following the latest discouraging signal on the job market.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading, though it remains near its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 51 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, a day after setting its own all-time high. The Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.

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The action was stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields sank after a report suggested hiring may have been much weaker across the country last month than economists expected.

Employers outside the government actually cut 32,000 jobs more than they added, according to the survey by ADP Research, with the hardest hits focused in the Midwest. What’s worse, the survey also revised down its numbers for employment in August, down to a loss of 3,000 jobs from a previously reported gain of 54,000.

The ADP survey gets its numbers from a smaller sample of employers than the U.S. government does for its monthly jobs reports, and the ADP’s does not have a perfect track record predicting what the more comprehensive Labor Department’s will say each month.

Usually, traders on Wall Street wait for the U.S. government’s report to suss out more fully how the job market is doing each month. But the next one, scheduled for Friday, is likely to be delayed because of the shutdown of the U.S. government that began just after midnight. The Department of Labor has said that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will completely cease operations if there’s a lapse.

“Whether this is an accurate statistic or not, people in the markets believe that it signals something,” according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “The signal from today’s headline will not be a good one.”

The hope on Wall Street has been that the job market will continue to slow by a very precise amount: enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it brings a recession.

That’s a delicate balance to achieve, and every report from the U.S. government on the economy that gets delayed only increases the uncertainty about whether it’s possible.

To be sure, the stock market and economy have typically powered through past shutdowns relatively well, particularly if they are short in duration. But this shutdown could be different in a couple ways, including the threat that the White House may use it to push for large-scale firings of federal workers.

On Wall Street, Cal-Maine Foods dropped 2.6% after its profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. That was even though the egg company delivered its strongest-ever first quarter.

On the winning side of the market was Nike, which rose 4.7% after blowing past analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. The athletic giant reported strong growth for apparel sold in North America.

Lithium America’s stock that trades in the United States soared 22.5% after the Canadian company said the U.S. government agreed to let it draw from a previously announced $2.26 billion loan. As part of the agreement, the U.S. Department of Energy will take an ownership stake in the Vancouver-based company.

Lithium Americas is developing a lithium project in Nevada with General Motors, and it follows Intel and other companies where the U.S. government has recently taken an ownership stake.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.09% from 4.16% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed, fell more sharply. It dropped to 3.53% from 3.60%.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Part of a high-rise apartment building in New York City collapsed Wednesday morning, leaving a corner of the building a pile of rubble.

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The city’s fire department said it had no immediate reports of injuries. It said it was responding to a report of a gas explosion that collapsed an incinerator shaft in the 20-story building in the Bronx.

Video from the scene shows a high-rise with one corner collapsed from the ground floor to the roof. Videos by nearby residents showed a cloud of dust billowing over the block moments after the collapse, which happened around 8:10 am.

The building is city-owned public housing.

Incinerator shafts in New York City buildings were once used to dispose of trash, which was then burned on site. But they have largely been replaced with trash compactors, which can use the same chutes.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and JONEL ALECCIA, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Wednesday that it plans to remove synthetic food dyes and 30 other ingredients, including some preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes, from its store brands sold in the United States by January 2027.

The move announced by the the nation’s largest retailer amounts to an acknowledgment that American consumers and the U.S. government under President Donald Trump are paying attention to what goes into packaged foods. Walmart said its goal would affect about 1,000 products, including salty snacks, baked goods, power drinks, salad dressings and frosting.

A customer walks past a display of Great Value brand cereal at a Walmart Neighborhood Market, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in Bentonville, Ark. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Several of the ingredients on Walmart’s removal list, however, already are banned, not widely used or have not been used in the U.S. food supply for decades. Others were included despite no known problems or have been targeted by the Trump administration for review and possible elimination as an approved food additive, according to food safety experts.

Walmart said the 14-month reformulation plan primarily would involve its largest private-label food brand, Great Value. Customers also can expect changes in Walmart’s Marketside and Freshness Guaranteed lines of prepared foods, and to some extent in its premium label Bettergoods products, the company said.

In recent months, major food companies such as Kraft Heinz, Nestle and Conagra Brands have pledged to eliminate petroleum-based synthetic dyes in coming years. Walmart took its news a step further by identifying other kinds of food additives in its phase-out timeline.

The chemicals and compounds the discount retailer intends to eliminate encompasses the breadth of food manufacturing. For example, Walmart’s list includes potassium nitrate, potassium nitrite and potassium bisulfite, which are used as preservatives in processed meats. It also plans to remove phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic flexible.

Health advocates have argued that phthalates in plastic wrap, plastic packaging and plastic bottles can end up in food and beverages. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has limited but not ended their use in items that come into contact with food.

But some of the 30 non-dyes listed by Walmart are already banned or no longer used. Simplesse, a fat substitute the company named, was phased out of the U.S. food market in 2023. Other banned additives on the list include synthetic trans fatty acids, or trans fats, which the FDA effectively phased out and then eliminated in 2023 by determining that partially hydrogenated oils no longer were recognized as safe.

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Walmart said the choice of banished additives reflected the availability of “viable and scalable alternatives” for maintaining product quality, taste and affordable pricing.

Some of the 11 artificial food dyes the company identified, such as Red No. 4, Red No. 3, Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B, also are already banned or the subject or proposed bans, or haven’t been used in the U.S. for years.

In June, Walmart’s wholesale club division, Sam’s Club, said it would remove more than 40 ingredients, including artificial colors and the artificial sweetener aspartame, from its Member’s Mark products by the end of the year.

Walmart shoppers also are likely to see reformulated food items in the coming months, the company said. Among them: Great Value cheese dips made with paprika and annatto, a food coloring and spice that’s derived from the seeds of the achiote tree, in place of Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6, Walmart said.

In the future, a new version of Great Value Fruit Spins Cereal will not get its colors from Red No. 40, Yellow No. 6 and Blue No. 2, but from beta carotene, annatto, blue-green spirulina and juice concentrates, according to Walmart.

Scott Morris, Walmart’s senior vice president of private brands food, consumables, and manufacturing, told The Associated Press that 90% of Walmart’s private label foods don’t contain synthetic dyes. He said Wednesday’s news marks the biggest food reformulation in Walmart’s history but also an acceleration of a process the company initiated in the last few years.

Customers have been asking Walmart to get rid of certain ingredients, but replacing them with more natural alternatives is complicated, Morris said. The performance of the substitutes can vary significantly depending on whether a product is shelf stable or needs to be refrigerated, he said. New versions need to be vigorously taste-tested with customers, he added.

“Every item’s a snowflake,” Morris said.

The main factor that prevented Walmart from overhauling its food shelves sooner was a limited availability of approved alternatives, but the market for those is increasing, he said.

“Now’s the right time to make our declaration and be more broad with our application of the natural ingredients,” Morris said.

The federal government is also giving artificial food dyes increased scrutiny,

Days before Trump returned to office, the FDA banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation’s food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk.

In April, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency would take steps to eliminate synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, largely by relying on voluntary efforts from the food industry.

Aleccia reported from Southern California.