RFID ~ protect your data

I have the pleasure of calling fellow scam fighter Denise Richardson my friend, and she introduced me to a product that can help protect everyone, and I had to share it with you.

First off, do you know what a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag is?  A RFID tag holds your name, credit card number and anything else that your bank or credit card company decides to embed on it.

Now this is where I say "Why don't these people use their minds for good instead of evil" . . . I say this because there are also Radio Frequency Readers and Remote Frequency Readers that allow you to read, or skim, the information off of someone else's RFID tags without ever touching the card that those tags are embedded on!  Yes, someone actually went out and created a hand held device that you can use to collect the credit card information of other people . . . people sitting next to you on the bus, or walking down the street.

So, how do the REST of us protect ourselves from those that are using their minds for evil instead of good, or those that have purchased the products that these evil thinkers have created?  There are companies like Kena Kai and Magellan's that have wallets that actually block RFID reading products.  See . . . now THAT is someone using their minds for GOOD and not evil!

How did I find out about these wallets?  From Denise Richardson of GiveMeBackMyCredit.com  If you would like to read what Denise has to say about these products you can read her blog on the topic.

NOVA Conference - summary

I found a video the other day that shows a summary of the NOVA Conference that I attended in August. It was a wonderful event, and I want to thank NOVA for putting this on.

The little guy

If you know me, you know I am all for the little guy being able to stand up and tell big corporations "That's not right!"  I get very frustrated when I see companies doing things that are morally wrong, and only doing them because they know they have so many lawyers that the little guy will not be able to afford to fight them in court for with is right.

My good friend Denise Richardson recently wrote this article about the fact that the Supreme Court with be making a ruling in November that could change class-action lawsuits.  Here is a portion of her article . . .

Sometimes a class-action lawsuit is the only way to force a corporation to assume its corporate responsibility. Access to the justice system and a fair shake under the law are the little guys’ safety nets. Without the threat of a lawsuit, corporations can engage in negligence or recklessness, and the consumer will have little to say in his own defense. Which is why AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the case coming up in the Supreme Court this November, has got my attention and should have yours.

In this case, the Court will decide whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state-law rulings that class-action bans are unconscionable. They will decide “whether corporations can ban class actions in the fine print of their contracts with consumers and employees.

There is a petition you can sign letting them know that you are against forced arbitration and feel the consumer should continue to have the right to class-action lawsuits at http://www.fairarbitrationnow.org/

FTC Halts Cross Border Domain Name Registration Scam

I was glad to see this press release from the FTC, because as the Co-Founder of a non-profit I have seen the letters that companies like this send out, and how real some of them look, so I can see how some people would believe that they must really pay the fees that these people are asking for.

Read the press release to understand what I am talking about . . .

Thousands of Small Businesses and Non-profits Billed for Bogus Renewal Fees

The Federal Trade Commission has permanently halted the operations of Canadian con artists who allegedly posed as domain name registrars and convinced thousands of U.S. consumers, small businesses and non-profit organizations to pay bogus bills by leading them to believe they would lose their Web site addresses unless they paid. Settlement and default judgment orders signed by the court will bar the deceptive practices in the future.

In June 2008, the FTC charged Toronto-based Internet Listing Service with sending fake invoices to small businesses and others, listing the existing domain name of the consumer’s Web site or a slight variation on the domain name, such as substituting “.org” for “.com.” The invoices appeared to come from the businesses’ existing domain name registrar and instructed them to pay for an annual “WEBSITE ADDRESS LISTING.” The invoices also claimed to include a search engine optimization service. Most consumers who received the “invoices” were led to believe that they had to pay them to maintain their registrations of domain names. Other consumers were induced to pay based on Internet Listing Service’s claims that its “Search Optimization” service would “direct mass traffic” to their sites and that their “proven search engine listing service” would result in “a substantial increase in traffic.”

The FTC’s complaint charged that most consumers who paid the defendants’ invoices did not receive any domain name registration services and that the “search optimization” service did not result in increased traffic to the consumers’ Web sites.

A federal district court judge in Chicago, Robert M. Dow, Jr., ordered a temporary halt to the deceptive claims and froze the defendants’ assets, pending trial. The settlement and default judgment orders announced today end that litigation.

The orders bar the defendants from misrepresenting: that they have a preexisting business relationship with consumers; that consumers owe them money; that they will provide domain name registration; and that they will provide “search optimization services” that will substantially increase traffic to consumers’ Web sites. The defendants are also required to disclose any material restrictions or aspects of any goods or services they provide.

The settlement order, entered against defendants Isaac Benlolo, Kirk Mulveney, Pearl Keslassy, and 1646153 Ontario Inc., includes a suspended judgment of $4,261,876, the total amount of consumer injury caused by the illegal activities. Based on the inability of the settling defendants to pay, they will turn over $10,000 to satisfy the judgment. The default judgment order was entered against defendant Steven E. Dale and includes a judgment in the amount of $4,261,876.

Charges against Ari Balabanian and Data Business Solutions were dismissed by the court at the FTC’s request.

NOTE: Stipulated orders are for settlement purposes only and do not necessarily constitute an admission by the defendants of a law violation. Stipulated orders have the full force of law when signed by the judge.
The Federal Trade Commission works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, click http://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or call 1-877-382-4357. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,800 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of consumer topics, click http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.

Elizabeth Warren: A must appointment to offset what passes for "truth" in banking

Harvard Law professor and bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren has shown her willingness to crack down on Wall Street's predatory practices and advocate on behalf of consumers.
Sign the petition at http://www.citizen.org/warren-for-cfpb to show your support for consumer champion Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Also, read the article by my good friend Denise Richardson
Elizabeth Warren: A must appointment to offset what passes for "truth" in banking

Legislation re-introduced to protect people from identity theft and account fraud

In today's day and age, this one seems like a no-brainer to me. We NEED legislation to help protect people from Identity Theft and Account Fraud.

Senator Carper was one of the ones who introduced the legislation. The Data Security Act of 2010 would require entities such as financial establishments, retailers, and federal agencies to safeguard sensitive information, investigate security breaches, and notify people when there is a substantial risk of identity theft or account fraud.

Legislation re-introduced to protect people from identity theft and account fraud

It is changes like this that will help to protect people from becoming victims.

Bank of America Settlement

I found a great article on the Bank of America Settlement with the FTC.

In my last post I noted the beginnings of some positive movement by consumer protection agencies that have been largely dormant and, in some cases like the United States Trustee program, actively anti-consumer. A few weeks ago, as Katie Porter noted in a recent post, Bank of America (BOA) reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission with respect to certain mortgage overcharges, including overcharges in bankruptcy, on mortgages formerly serviced by Countrywide Mortgage. The settlement requires reimbursement to consumers who were overcharged. BOA, in addition to agreeing not to lie, steal, or file documents without reviewing them, will also have to follow notice procedures similar to those that are already required or are likely to be required for all mortgage companies once new Bankruptcy Rule 3002.1 becomes effective in December, 2011. The United States Trustee (UST) Program assisted the FTC in its efforts. This settlement is the first significant positive result of increased UST scrutiny of mortgage lenders, although the extent of the UST’s participation is not known.

To read the rest of the article go to http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2010/07/bank-of-america-settlement-with-ftc-raises-some-questions.html#more

News from the FTC

The FTC has some great information on efforts that they have taken against scams and fraud.  A recent press release talks about a New Jersey based telemarketing scheme and Civic Development Group.  To read the entire press release, go to http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/03/cdg.shtm

U.S. is requiring companies to defend against identity theft - latimes.com

I wanted to share an article I found about requiring companies to defend against Identity Theft.

Here is a quote from the article

The government says that businesses have the responsibility of making sure thieves don't use stolen information to buy goods or open phony accounts. And to that end, the Federal Trade Commission wants businesses that might be targets of identity thieves to develop written plans to spot "red flags" that fraud could be involved and prevent it.

Starting June 1, all businesses that extend credit to customers will have to develop plans to try to prevent identity theft.

"Once the information is in the hands of identity thieves, there's not much more the consumer can do," said Naomi Lefkovitz, senior attorney for the FTC, which will oversee enforcement of the rule as it applies to many — though not all — businesses. "Now it's in the hands of the businesses."

To read the entire article, go to

U.S. is requiring companies to defend against identity theft - latimes.com

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a non-profit organization that focuses on consumer information and consumer advocacy.  They have some great information and alerts that you can sign up for at
http://www.privacyrights.org/privacy-alerts

The founder and director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has contributed to several books dealing with consumer rights and privacy, including The Privacy Rights Handbook.

MyMoney.gov

MyMoney.gov is the Federal Government's website dedicated to helping Americans understand more about their money - how to save it, invest it, and manage it to meet their personal goals. You can use the resources on this site to learn how to manage your money better - and we hope you'll share what you learn with others.

There are sections of this website devoted to
Knowing your consumer rights
Scams and Fraud

Protect the Consumer

Our friends at Americans for Fairness in Lending asked me to share some great information with you about a new site that they are involved with called ProtectTheConsumer.org and their recent webinar with Professor Elisabeth Warren about financial reform. If you missed the webinar, you can listen to it here.

Professor Warren emphasized, we can’t win this fight without everyone’s help. The big banks will always be able to outspend consumers, so it’s up to us to make sure our voices are heard as the Senate considers financial reform legislation. Use your words to make a difference by taking action today!

Letters

Have you ever wanted to write a letter to a company or business about a customer service issue, debt collection or identity theft issues but did not know how to get started? Wouldn't it be nice if there was a website with "sample letters" for you to look before you write your letter, and suggested important information for you to include in that letter? Well, there is.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has a page with just that information for you!

Writing a letter to our elected officials and government agencies is the way we can make our voice and opinions heard, and this site can really help you get started if you feel like you are having "writer's block".

Another sample letter

If you want to join our letter writing campaign, but don't feel like you can come up with your own letter about why scam education and awareness is important, let me offer this as a sample of what you could say in your letter.

--------------------

So many of the online scams involve the scammer sending a counterfeit cashier's check or money order, asking the victim to wait for it to "clear" and then wire a portion of the money on to someone. The scammers make up all kinds of stories to make the reason for having to wire money to someone else make sense, and of course since the bank has already told you that the check is "clear" you feel like there is nothing to worry about.

Did you know this . . . when you wire money to someone, even if you write on the documentation that the wire transfer is to be picked up in Detroit, Michigan if the scammer has the test/security question and answer along with the wire transfer information then they can pick up the money at any location in the world . . . like Lagos, Nigeria.

These test or security questions are a feature put in place for emergency situations, when the person picking up the money has lost their photo id, which is normally needed to pick up a wire transfer. But if you give the scammer the test/security question information that is how they bypass the need for a picture id when picking up the money. This happens every day on sites like Craigslist. The scammer will pretend to be within the United States so as to not raise any red flags with the potential victim by mentioning that they are really in Nigeria.

With so many scams using wire transfering services like Western Union and MoneyGram we at Scam Victims United would like to see these companies increase their security by making it mandatory that the money must be picked up in the destination zone. If the documentation filled out by the customer says that the money is going to Detroit, Michigan, then the money should not be able to be picked up outside of the state of Michigan, no matter what information the person picking the money up has. This would help to reduce the number of scams going on because the scammers would then have to tell the victims to wire the money to Nigeria for them to be able to pick it up, and with so many people this would be a red flag because of the information about Nigerian scams.

In addition, wire transfering services could have a Fraud Alert posted in their store locations, and when anyone does fill out a wire transfer form and indicates Nigeria as the destination for the money to be picked up they could point out the Fraud Alert or have the customer sign a secondary document saying that they are aware that there are many internet scams coming out of the country of Nigeria which involve receiving a cashier's check or money order and then wiring money.

Since we cannot go to other countries and arrest the people running these scams we must do as much as we can to provide the correct information to the American public to educate them about these scams. This means that everyone must do their part, including the wire transfer services that the scammers use as a part of their business. I would like to propose laws that would require wire transfer services to implement and follow such security measures.

Education is the key to fighting scams, and that is why we are also asking for scam education and awareness programs. To read more about this please go tohttp://www.change.org/actions/view/crea ... s_programs

Teaching Consumer Law

The Center for Consumer Law is presenting Teaching Consumer Law in the new economy

May 21 - 22, 2010

The preview of info on this event can be found at
http://pubcit.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b7a769e20120a8d8a594970b-pi

Call your Senators

Tell Your Senator to Support Real Reform

The greedy and reckless behavior of big Wall Street banks, credit card companies, and mortgage lenders caused a financial crisis that cost Americans lost housing wealth, millions of jobs, billions of dollars in tax-payer funded bailouts and trillions of dollars in lost college and retirement savings.

 

As the Senate takes up financial reform legislation, we are asking our Senators to put an end to the abuses that led to the financial crisis.  Join us!

Go to Americans for Fairness in Lending  and follow the steps there to find your Senator's phone number and the points to ask for real reform.

It starts tomorrow! The Call for Financial Reform!

From http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2010/02/action-center-tell-congress-to-hold-banks-accountable/

Tell Congress to Hold Banks Accountable

Join Americans for Financial Reform and our allies around the country in our first National Senate Call-in Week, March 1 – 4, 2010.

AFR is joined in this effort by our large coalition of organizations, small businesses, and individuals.

As financial reform legislation moves through the Senate, we are asking our Senators to:

• Crack down on irresponsible and reckless behavior by big Wall Street banks and hold them accountable;
• Protect consumers by policing unfair and deceptive practices by credit card companies, mortgage companies, and predatory lenders, and create a strong and independent consumer financial protection agency to get the job done well;
• Close the loopholes that allow secret and risky ‘shadow market’ deals where big banks enjoy the winnings of gambling with our money, and then expect us to pay when they lose.

If you’d like to be a part of this week of action, download the flier (pdf) and contact information by clicking here.

To RSVP for this event on Facebook, click here.

Who to contact

When you are dealing with a Consumer Protection issue, sometimes you just want a list of who to contact.  I found this page at the Consumer Action Website that has a listing of offices by State along with their contact information.
http://www.consumeraction.gov/state.shtml

They also have a pdf of National Consumer Organizations at http://www.consumeraction.gov/pdfs/Consumer_Orgs.pdf

Vote for my friend's blog!

I was so happy to hear that my good friend Denise Richardson's blog at http://www.givemebackmycredit.com
has been nominated in the Sun-Sentinel Best of Blogs in South Florida Contest!  Please help me out by voting for her blog!

http://www.sun-sentinel2.com/community/ssblogcontest/voting/?vote_for=9#9



(Help Denise win, but I cannot edit the button they supply)

National Consumer Protection Week

News from the FTC

The 12th Annual National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) is right around the corner: March 7-13. This campaign provides tips and resources at www.consumer.gov/ncpw to help everyone take full advantage of their consumer rights. This year’s theme -- Dollars & Sense: Rated “A” for All Ages -- highlights the importance of using good consumer sense at every stage of life – from grade school to retirement. Check out the NCPW blog for short, timely features about helpful resources, leave a comment, and share your plans for promoting NCPW. The FTC and its NCPW partners will host a Congressional Fair for Members and staff, February 18 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am in the Rayburn Foyer. Get free constituent education resources for town hall meetings in your district. For more information about NCPW and the Fair, contact Derick Rill