Former Fresno anchor loses $72,000 in Robinhood scam

Longtime journalist and former Fresno news anchor Alex Delgado lost $72,000 after a text message about her Robinhood account pulled her into a scam built on urgency, pressure and a fake fraud department. Delgado said the scheme unfolded in March while she was getting ready for a trip, and she later said she felt “dumb” and was in a “very vulnerable place.”

Delgado said the text warned of suspicious activity on her Robinhood account. When she called the number in the message, the person who answered sounded legitimate and then transferred her to a fake Robinhood fraud department. She was told someone in Asia using an Android device was trying to access the account, then pushed to move her money into another account in increments over two days while the investigation was underway.

The scam ended only when Delgado tried to get off the phone and realized she had been talking to criminals. She contacted Robinhood support through the app, but by the time the company called back, the money had already been transferred. Robinhood says real phone help comes through an in-app callback request, and customers should not rely on numbers found in internet searches or embedded in suspicious messages.

Fresno Police Detective Timothy Johnson said scams are growing more sophisticated as artificial intelligence makes texts and emails look more official. Do not call numbers taken from texts or emails, and independently verify contact information through official websites or apps before doing anything else.

The Federal Trade Commission said reported losses to investment scams exceeded $7.9 billion in 2025, with a median individual loss of more than $10,000. The FTC says bogus bank-fraud warnings are among the most commonly reported text-message scams.

Do not use the number in the message, open the app or official contact page yourself, request a callback only through the app, and treat any demand to move money in stages as a major red flag. Robinhood says it will not reimburse customers when their own actions facilitated unauthorized activity if a fraud investigation finds they participated in the scam.