Tag Archives: Better Business Bureau

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Top 10 Consumer Complaints of 2012

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By Selena Maranjian

The top complaints in America

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If you’re fed up with hearing people complain, imagine being the Consumer Sentinel Network. This online database for law enforcement compiled and categorized more than 2 million complaints in 2012 — instances of fraud, scams, schemes, and violations consumers reported to everyone from the FTC to the Better Business Bureau to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

So which industries or groups of people cause us the most grief? Here are the CSN‘s findings for the top 10 complaint categories and the percentage of the total complaints that each represents:

1. Identity theft (18 percent)
2. Debt collection (10 percent)
3. Banks and lenders (6 percent)
4. Shop-at-home and catalog sales (6 percent)
5. Prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries (5 percent)
6. Impostor scams (4 percent)
7. Internet services (4 percent)
8. Auto-related complaints (4 percent)
9. Telephone and mobile services (4 percent)
10. Credit cards (3 percent)

Stolen identities
It makes sense that identity theft tops the list. Detecting, uncovering and correcting the fallout from identity theft is a long, labyrinthine process. Sure, it’s terrible if you lose, say, $500 or $1,000. But with identity theft, some people have not only lost a lot of money but have spent years trying to undo the damage done, encountering many frustrations along the way.

Most of us know to shred documents containing personal information before discarding them, and to be careful to whom we divulge personal information. It can be easy to imagine that identity theft won’t happen to us. But according to the CSN, nearly one-fifth of all complaints — a whopping 369,132 — were about identity theft.

Military variations
The distribution of complaints was different among military personnel than other Americans. For example, while their top two complaints were the same as the overall results, their No. 6 complaint category was mortgage foreclosure relief and debt management, while it was just 15th for the overall nation.

Foreclosures and debt problems have been major issues for many service members. That’s because they often receive orders to pick up and move to a new location and assignment, but with our economy struggling and home prices depressed, they can end up owing more than their homes are worth. Worse still, hundreds have had their homes illegally foreclosed upon by big banks — JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), and Citigroup (C) — as has been reported by The New York Times. Military members should know that settlements have been struck with big banks to address these and other wrongs, and that entities such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are looking out for their interests.

Fraud
This wonderful digital age has ushered in new ways for scammers to scam us. The most common method …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Looking for Your Tax Refund? So Are Scammers

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By Selena Maranjian

Tax refund

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Alamy

There aren’t many enjoyable aspects to tax season, but for a lot of folks, at least there’s a tax refund check to look forward to. The problem is — you’re not the only one excited about getting a refund.

There are some con artists out there who have been looking forward to your refund check just as much as you have. According to The Wall Street Journal, tax fraud is the third-biggest way that federal funds are stolen, after Medicare/Medicaid fraud and unemployment insurance fraud. There were 1.1 million cases of it in 2011, up more than 2,000 percent over 2008’s 51,700.

The Better Business Bureau has outlined some of the top tax scams. Here are their top three, followed by another big danger.

Social Security number theft: When your Social Security number falls into unscrupulous hands, it can be used to file a tax return for you, and to then collect your refund. When this scam is perpetrated, many victims don’t even know about it until they receive an unexpected mailing from the IRS.

Phishing for personal information: “Phishing” is a year-round danger, used in non-tax schemes, too. It involves legitimate-seeming emails, calls, texts, or other contacts with you that prey on your trust or fear. You’re told you need to give some information, such as your Social Security number or some other personal data, and when you do, it’s often used to steal your identity. These phishing communications can be quite tempting, suggesting that the IRS has discovered that you’re owed some money, for example. Don’t fall for them.

One helpful thing to remember is that the IRS typically only contacts taxpayers through the mail or by telephone, not text. If they do call, ask for the employee’s badge number and a contact phone number you can use to call them back. You can also contact the IRS to make sure that the employee and the reason for calling you is legitimate.

Shady tax preparers: There’s nothing wrong with seeking help with your taxes — it actually makes sense, given the complexity of the tax code that’s now made up of almost four million words. Just be careful which tax pro you hire. While most are legitimate, there are some that are crooked. (Others are merely less than competent — here are six warning signs.) As the Better Business Bureau explains, the crooked ones may be “skimming a portion of refunds, charging inflated fees for return prep services and/or promising refunds that are too good to be true.” Remember that filing false numbers is against the law and that as the one who signs the return, you are the one responsible for being truthful on it.

Don’t be the scammer: Whether or not you employ a tax …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

3 missing Colorado women have online modeling profiles

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Three young women who disappeared in Colorado reportedly all had profiles on modeling social networking sites.

According to Fox 31, The National Women’s Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation says Kara Nichols and Raven Furlong both had profiles on ModelMayhem.com. The group says the site is a common link in several cases of missing girls.

“We’re up to 13 or 14 cases that we’re familiar with,” the organization’s co-founder, Michelle Bart, told Fox 31.

Nichols, 19, of Colorado Springs, has been missing since Oct. 9, 2012. She told her friends she was going to Denver for a modeling job and disappeared, KRDO Newschannel 13 reports. Furlong, 17, has been missing from Aurora since Feb. 5. Police consider her a runaway, according to KRDO.

A third missing woman, Kelsie Schelling, appears to have a modeling profile on the site Explore Talent. Schelling was last seen on Feb. 4. Her empty car was discovered in Pueblo.

Furlong’s aunt discovered her Model Mayhem profile after she vanished and saw some disturbing correspondence.

“The photographers asking her to do nude photographs after asking her if she was 18 and her telling them no,” Buckley told Fox 31.

According to the station, Furlong called her family last month, but her mother says the call wasn’t normal.

“She said she had to go because it’s not her phone and they need their phone back,” said Lin Furlong.

Professional model Jillian Mourning, 25, says she learned firsthand the dangers of modeling websites when she was 19. She tells KRDO that she connected with a “manager” on Model Mayhem and was sexually assaulted during a shoot in Arizona.

“He came into my room with three guys, and they [all] proceeded to rape me,” recalled Mourning. “They took pictures of it, and would even show me pictures of things that I was doing, and videotaped the whole thing.”

She says at 19 years old, she felt trapped. She said she was trafficked and forced to have sex with men for six months until her manager went to prison for an unrelated crime.

The owner of Model Mayhem, Internet Brands, said in an emailed statement to KRDO that it cooperates with all law enforcement investigations involving people on the site.

“Model Mayhem strongly believes that safety should be top of mind when doing anything online. Because there are scams on the Internet, Model Mayhem tries to educate users about scams and how to avoid them. The site offers detailed safety advice to help members understand what to look for when they are contacted by others. This can be found here,” said public relations manager Joe Ewaskiw. “The site also has a feedback mechanism called “Contact a Moderator” that allows any member to let site moderators know of any suspicious activity they encounter. Moderators view and respond to each and every inquiry.”

Police have not officially linked Model Mayhem to the girls’ disappearances, but the company does have an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau, according to Fox 31.

Click for more from Fox 31.

Click for more from KRDO.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

Family in Montana reportedly tacks on $70M in bogus phone charges nationwide

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A Montana family and their accountant are accused of tacking $70 million in bogus charges onto customer phone bills nationwide, then funneling some of that money through a religious organization to buy land and pay for the husband’s legal bills.

Steven Sann, his wife Terry, son Nathan and accountant Robert Braach run a maze of nine companies engaged in “cramming, ” or adding unauthorized charges to a customer’s phone bill, according to a civil complaint filed this month by the Federal Trade Commission.

When customers complained or phone companies grew suspicious about one of the Sanns’ companies charging phone bills, they would switch over to another company, the complaint says.

The FTC is asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction that will force the Sanns to stop operating the companies and freeze their assets. In a court filing Friday, Sann’s attorney, Sarah Rhoades, asked U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen for a stay in FTC civil action, saying there is a criminal investigation already under way.

Allowing the government to pursue both criminal and civil cases against Sann and his companies is improper, Rhoades said in the filing. The civil case would let the government examine company information that it is not entitled to under criminal procedure rules, she wrote.

Some of the money went to buy 94 acres in western Montana where Steven Sann runs a youth camp, the FTC alleges. Some went to pay for Sann’s defense in an unrelated medical marijuana case. In those instances, the money first was deposited in the bank account of Bibliologic, a religious organization set up by Sann and Braach.

Bibliologic Ltd was incorporated in 2009 as a charitable religious organization without any members, according to Montana Secretary of State registration records. The organization has no physical address.

Steven Sann recently reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors investigating large medical marijuana operations. According to a federal affidavit, he was an investor in two medical marijuana dispensaries.

Sann struck a deal with prosecutors in September to plead guilty to conspiracy to maintain a drug-involved premises. He had been scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, but his attorney in that case has asked for a delay because of illness.

The Sanns’ nine companies are voice mail and electronic fax services that charge a customer’s phone bill through an intermediary called a bill aggregator. The companies are American eVoice, Emerica Media Corp., FoneRight, Global Voice Mail, HearYou2, Network Assurance, SecuratDat, Techmax Solutions and Voice Mail Professionals.

The charge is typically $14.95 and appears near the end of the phone bill month after month until the customer notices and challenges it.

Hundreds of complaints have been filed against the Sanns’ businesses with the FTC, the Better Business Bureau and with phone companies, the FTC complaint says.

Of the $70 million billed since 2008, the Sanns’ companies have returned more than $40 million after customer challenges, according to the FTC complaint. But data collected by the federal agency show many more don’t know that they’re being charged.

Last April, the Sanns’ companies had 119,810 voice mail accounts open, but only 12 customers actually accessed their accounts. From March 2010 to April 2012, fewer than 1 percent of the people purportedly with voice mail accounts through the companies actually accessed them.

“These abysmally low usage rates strongly suggest that consumers neither ordered the services nor knew they were being billed for them,” the FTC complaint says.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News