Louisiana Scam and Fraud Laws: Where to Report, Your Right to Sue (2026)

Louisiana's consumer protection law, the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (often called LUTPA), lets any person who lost money or movable property because of an unfair or deceptive practice in trade or commerce sue for actual damages. Three conditions shape that right: triple damages are available only if the practice was used knowingly after the attorney general put the business on notice, the deadline is one year from the transaction or act, and the law does not apply to federally insured banks and credit unions or to companies licensed by the state's Office of Financial Institutions.

Louisiana also has specific rules for crypto ATMs and bank holds. A crypto kiosk user is capped at $3,000 a day and is protected by a rule that the operator must either hold the transaction for 72 hours or let the user cancel within 72 hours for a full refund, and since August 1, 2026, a bank may delay a transaction it suspects is a scam on a customer 60 or older for up to 45 business days.

Information last verified on October 2, 2026. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This guide covers Louisiana state law: the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (La. R.S. 51:1401 and following), Louisiana complaint offices, Louisiana protections for older adults, Louisiana's crypto kiosk and anti-phishing laws, and Louisiana court limits and prescription periods for suing. Federal refund and reporting rights are summarized briefly and covered in depth on our national guides. Out of scope: criminal defense, and the law of other states (if the scammer or business is elsewhere, that state's law may also matter).

First steps if you were scammed in Louisiana

Contact the bank, card issuer, payment app, wire company or crypto exchange that moved your money right away; that company is usually the only one that can stop or reverse a payment. Your federal rights depend on how you paid. Our guide on how to get money back after a scam walks through each payment method, and the Zelle and payment app guide covers app transfers.

Then report it. Most scams go to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and online crime goes to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Our where to report a scam guide lists every federal channel. The Louisiana offices below are in addition to those, not instead of them.

Where to report a scam in Louisiana

OFI's complaint pages for kiosks and money transmitters and for securities both say: "All complaints must be submitted in writing. To file a complaint, please complete the complaint form and send to OFI by mail or fax." The mailing address on both pages is 8660 United Plaza Boulevard, 2nd Floor, Baton Rouge, LA 70809-7024, and the fax number is (225) 925-4525. Address the envelope to the right division (Non-Depository Division or Securities Division).

Fraud is also a crime. Theft "by means of fraudulent conduct, practices, or representations" is covered by Louisiana's theft statute (R.S. 14:67), so a report to your local police or sheriff can matter, especially for a crypto ATM refund (see below).

Louisiana's consumer protection law: can you sue?

Yes, in the right case, but with conditions most summaries skip. Section 51:1405(A) declares unlawful "unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce." Trade or commerce is defined broadly to cover advertising, offering, selling or distributing services and property. Section 51:1409(A) then gives a private right to sue:

"Any person who suffers any ascertainable loss of money or movable property, corporeal or incorporeal, as a result of the use or employment by another person of an unfair or deceptive method, act, or practice declared unlawful by R.S. 51:1405, may bring an action individually but not in a representative capacity to recover actual damages."

Three things follow from those words. You need an actual loss of money or property. The loss must result from an unfair or deceptive practice in trade or commerce. And you sue for yourself: the words "not in a representative capacity" mean LUTPA does not allow a class action.

The act says "any person," not only a consumer who bought something. Whether a particular scam fits, for example a payment to an impostor who sold nothing, depends on the facts and on how Louisiana courts read the act. A Louisiana lawyer can tell you whether your situation fits.

Who the law does not cover

Section 51:1406(1) says the act does not apply to "any federally insured financial institution, its subsidiaries, and affiliates or any licensee of the Office of Financial Institutions," or to transactions subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioner of financial institutions, the insurance commissioner and certain other regulators. OFI regulates money transmitters and licenses crypto kiosk operators. On the face of the statute, then, a LUTPA claim against your bank, credit union or a licensed kiosk operator may be excluded. How courts apply that exclusion to a particular claim is a question for a lawyer; for those companies, the complaint routes above and the payment rules on our national pages are usually the practical path.

What you can recover

LUTPA provides actual damages. More is possible only on a specific finding:

"If the court finds the unfair or deceptive method, act, or practice was knowingly used, after being put on notice by the attorney general, the court shall award three times the actual damages sustained."

So triple damages require both that the practice was used knowingly and that the attorney general had put the business on notice first. What counts as that notice is a question of Louisiana case law, so do not assume triple damages. Section 51:1409 itself provides no minimum statutory damages and no punitive damages.

Attorney fees work in your favor if you win money: "In the event that damages are awarded under this Section, the court shall award to the person bringing such action reasonable attorney fees and costs." The risk runs the other way too. If a court finds a suit "was groundless and brought in bad faith or for purposes of harassment," it may award the defendant its attorney fees and costs.

Your lawyer must mail a copy of the petition and any judgment to the attorney general, but the statute says failing to do so does not affect your rights (R.S. 51:1409(B)).

The one-year deadline

Louisiana calls a statute of limitations "liberative prescription." Section 51:1409(E) sets a short one:

"The action provided by this Section shall be subject to a liberative prescription of one year running from the time of the transaction or act which gave rise to this right of action."

The clock runs from the transaction or act, not from when you discovered the deception. Whether anything can stop or extend that year is a question of Louisiana case law that this guide does not cover, so if you are anywhere near a year from the loss, talk to a lawyer now.

The honest limit

A LUTPA case needs a defendant you can identify, serve and collect from. That can work against a Louisiana business or seller with a real address. It usually does not work against an anonymous scammer behind a spoofed number or an overseas account, and a judgment does not help if nobody can be found to pay it.

Protections for older adults in Louisiana

It is a crime, by anyone. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:93.4 makes it a crime for "any person, including a caregiver" to intentionally spend, diminish or use the property of a person who is elderly, has an infirmity or is an adult with a disability, without their express voluntary consent "or by means of fraudulent conduct, practices, or representations." A first offense carries a fine of up to $10,000, up to 10 years in prison, or both; a second offense carries 1 to 10 years and a fine of up to $20,000. The statute also requires restitution under Code of Criminal Procedure article 883.2. Fines go to the state; restitution is the part of a criminal case aimed at repaying the victim.

Everyone must report. Under R.S. 15:1504(A), "any person" who has cause to believe an adult's health or welfare "has been or may be further adversely affected by abuse, neglect, or exploitation shall report." In this law, an adult is someone 18 or older who, because of a disability or "the infirmities of aging," cannot manage their own resources or protect themselves. Exploitation includes "the illegal or improper use or management of the funds, assets, or property" of an aged person or adult with a disability. A good-faith report is protected from liability. Reports for people 60 and older go to Elderly Protective Services (1-833-577-6532); for ages 18 to 59, to Adult Protective Services (800-898-4910).

Banks may hold a suspicious transaction. Louisiana's law on financial exploitation of eligible adults (R.S. 6:1371 to 6:1376) covers people 60 or older and people subject to the Adult Protective Services Act. Act 654 of the 2026 Regular Session (HB 555), effective August 1, 2026, changed it in three ways that matter after a scam:

• Financial exploitation now expressly includes "the use of a scam, a deceptive scheme, enticement, extortion, or impersonation of a government official, causing the eligible adult to conduct a financial transaction or to transfer money to a stranger or imposter for a promised benefit or good that the eligible adult did not receive."
• The delay a bank or credit union may place on a suspect transaction was extended to 45 business days, and to 60 business days when a law enforcement or adult protection agency asks.
• The account holder's designated contact is now called a "trusted contact," and from January 1, 2027, covered institutions must train the appropriate employees.

The hold remains optional. The statute says an institution "may, but is not required to, delay" a transaction, and that it is not required to delay one except as a court orders. The law applies to banks, credit unions, savings banks, savings and loan associations and trust companies operating in Louisiana, not to money transmitters or crypto kiosks. If you are worried about a parent's account, tell the bank directly that you suspect a scam; the delay power turns on the bank reasonably believing the transaction may be exploitation, or on information from an agency. (When we checked, the legislature's code pages for these sections still showed the pre-2026 text; the changes are from the enrolled act and its official digest.)

For fraud against anyone 60 or older, the federal DOJ National Elder Fraud Hotline (833-372-8311) can also help you report; see where to report a scam.

Louisiana scam laws on the books

Crypto ATMs (virtual currency kiosks)

Louisiana regulates crypto kiosks through the Virtual Currency Businesses Act, overseen by OFI. Since August 1, 2025 (Act 369 of 2025), section 6:1389 has set two core protections:

"A. There is a maximum daily transaction limit of three thousand dollars for each user of a virtual currency kiosk. B. The owner or operator of a virtual currency kiosk shall wait seventy-two hours before processing a user's virtual currency kiosk transaction or shall, at such owner's or operator's cost and within seventy-two hours after a virtual currency kiosk transaction, allow the user to cancel and receive a full refund for the virtual currency kiosk transaction."

Operators must also "take reasonable steps to detect and prevent fraud," including a written anti-fraud policy (R.S. 6:1396(A)).

Act 482 of 2026 (SB 287), effective August 1, 2026, added refund rules:

1. Unlicensed operators refund at any time. An operator must, at its own cost, let a user cancel and get a full refund "at any time if the owner or operator was not licensed" under the act at the time of the transaction.
2. Ten business days to respond. The operator must acknowledge and respond to a cancellation and refund request within ten business days and "clearly disclose all requirements for a refund."
3. What counts as proof of fraud. For a refund request over suspected fraud, the operator may require proof of a police report or other government report, and proof of identification. A police report or proof of a complaint to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center counts.
4. Ninety days to pay. Once the requirements were clearly disclosed, the refund must be completed within 90 calendar days of your request or of when you submitted the police or government report and proof of identification, whichever is later.
5. A real person on the phone. Kiosks must offer live customer support by telephone from a toll-free number "prominently displayed" on the kiosk and on the receipt, during operating hours.

Read the limits carefully. For a licensed operator, the refund right is still the 72-hour window; Act 482 does not give a scam victim an open-ended refund from a licensed operator. That makes speed critical: if a caller sent you to a crypto ATM, contact the operator's toll-free number and file a police report or an IC3 complaint at once. Act 923 of 2026 (SB 163), effective August 1, 2026, also repealed the act's July 1, 2027 sunset date, so these rules do not expire on that date (if a federal virtual currency licensing law preempts part of the act, the conflicting Louisiana provisions lose effect on the last day of the calendar year that federal law takes effect).

If you used a Bitcoin Depot machine. OFI issued a consumer alert on July 6, 2026, saying Bitcoin Depot "filed for bankruptcy last month and has ceased operations" and took its machines offline. OFI says Louisiana consumers with a claim against Bitcoin Depot "may file a claim in the bankruptcy case" or call the restructuring hotline at (844) 339-4117. OFI's Non-Depository Division can be reached at (225) 925-4660.

For how kiosk and investment scams work, see our crypto and investment scams guide.

The Anti-Phishing Act

The Louisiana Anti-Phishing Act (R.S. 51:2021 to 51:2024) makes it unlawful, with intent to fraudulently use another person's identifying information, to create a web page or domain name "represented as a legitimate online business without the authorization of the registered owner" and use it to solicit identifying information; section 51:2023 covers phishing email. The act's civil lawsuit is limited: section 51:2024 lets an internet access provider, an affected web page or trademark owner, or the attorney general sue. It does not list individual victims. For what to do if you clicked a phishing link, see our phishing guide.

Door-to-door and telephone sales

For a "noncredit home solicitation sale" of $25 or more, Louisiana gives the buyer until midnight of the third business day after signing to cancel (R.S. 9:3539). The definition includes "all telephone solicitations in which the seller has initiated contact" where you agree to buy at home (R.S. 9:2711.1). Until the seller gives the required cancellation notice, you can cancel "by notifying the seller in any manner and by any means," and a seller's failure to comply "shall be an unfair trade practice" under LUTPA.

Gift cards

Act 28 of 2025, effective August 1, 2025, added gift cards and gift card account information to the definition of an "access device" in Louisiana's access device fraud crime (R.S. 14:70.4). It is a criminal law aimed at stealing or draining gift cards; it does not create a refund right. If someone told you to pay with gift cards, see our gift card scams guide.

Suing a scammer or a business in Louisiana

Small claims. In Louisiana, city courts may set up small claims divisions by court rule, which hear civil cases where the amount in dispute "does not exceed five thousand dollars," not counting interest, costs, attorney fees or penalties (R.S. 13:5202(A)). A small claims division cannot issue injunctions and does not hear class actions. Not every city court has one. Justice of the peace courts also hear civil cases up to $5,000 (Code of Civil Procedure article 4911(A)). The statute sets a small claims filing fee of $35 for each defendant (R.S. 13:5205(A)); ask the court about its current costs.

Prescription periods. A LUTPA claim has the one-year period above. A claim sued as a delictual action (Louisiana's term for a tort claim) arising after July 1, 2024, has a two-year liberative prescription that "commences to run from the day that injury or damage is sustained" (Civil Code article 3493.1). Claims that arose on or before July 1, 2024 stay under the prior law. Whether a fraud claim is treated as delictual or contractual, and whether discovery of the fraud can delay the clock, are questions of Louisiana case law; ask a Louisiana lawyer how they apply to your dates. Our Louisiana statute of limitations guide covers other civil deadlines.

Who you can actually reach. Lawsuits work against people and businesses with a name, an address and assets. A scammer behind a fake identity, a spoofed caller ID or an overseas account is usually not reachable through a Louisiana court. In those cases the payment company, a fast report to law enforcement and protecting your identity are where your effort pays off. Our guide on when a lawyer helps after a scam explains when legal help is worth it.

Related guides

• Scams and fraud: your rights and where to start
• How to get money back after a scam
• Where to report a scam
• Elder fraud
• Government impersonation scams
• Louisiana identity theft laws
• Louisiana debt collection laws
• Louisiana statute of limitations

Last updated: October 2, 2026.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, contact your payment company, the Louisiana office named above, or a lawyer licensed in Louisiana.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue a scammer in Louisiana?

Possibly, if you can identify and serve them and your loss of money or property resulted from an unfair or deceptive practice in trade or commerce. LUTPA (R.S. 51:1409) allows an individual suit for actual damages within one year of the transaction, but it excludes banks and OFI licensees, and an anonymous or overseas scammer is usually not reachable through a Louisiana court.

Does LUTPA award triple damages?

Only in a narrow case. Under R.S. 51:1409(A), the court awards three times actual damages if the practice was knowingly used after the business was put on notice by the attorney general. Otherwise the recovery is actual damages.

How long do I have to file a LUTPA claim in Louisiana?

One year. R.S. 51:1409(E) makes the claim subject to a liberative prescription of one year running from the transaction or act that caused the loss, not from when you discovered it. Whether anything can pause that year is a question for a Louisiana lawyer.

Does LUTPA pay my attorney fees?

If damages are awarded, yes: the court shall award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the person who brought the suit. A defendant can recover its fees if the suit was groundless and brought in bad faith or to harass.

Can I sue my bank under LUTPA after a scam?

R.S. 51:1406(1) says the act does not apply to federally insured financial institutions or OFI licensees, so a LUTPA claim against a bank may be excluded; ask a Louisiana lawyer. Federal payment rules may still give you rights; see our money-back guide.

Can I get a refund from a crypto ATM in Louisiana?

Within 72 hours of a transaction, an operator that did not wait 72 hours must let you cancel for a full refund (R.S. 6:1389). Since August 1, 2026, an operator that was unlicensed at the time must refund at any time. A police report or IC3 complaint counts as proof of suspected fraud.

What is the crypto ATM limit in Louisiana?

Three thousand dollars per user per day, under R.S. 6:1389(A), in effect since August 1, 2025.

Can a Louisiana bank stop a transaction if it suspects a scam on an older customer?

Yes, but it is not required to. Since August 1, 2026 (Act 654 of 2026), a bank or credit union may delay a transaction it believes is exploitation of a customer 60 or older, including a scam, for up to 45 business days, or 60 at an agency's request.

Who do I call if an elderly person in Louisiana is being scammed?

Elderly Protective Services at 1-833-577-6532 (weekdays 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM; Spanish 1-800-737-1813; 911 for after-hours emergencies). Louisiana law requires anyone with cause to believe an adult is being exploited to report it. The DOJ Elder Fraud Hotline is 833-372-8311.

What is the small claims limit in Louisiana?

Five thousand dollars, excluding interest, costs, attorney fees and penalties, in a city court small claims division where the court has one (R.S. 13:5202). Justice of the peace courts also hear civil cases up to $5,000.