Make our voices heard!

Years ago we used to organize letter writing events. Everyone would write a letter telling why they think scam education and awareness are important topics that need attention brought to them, and need the attention of lawmakers. Then all you have to do is send that same letter on the first of the month to the contact that I post on this message board . . . someone in the media, law enforcement or government. If we all send the letters the same day then their contact person will get a flood of letters on the same topic around the same time, and could get more attention then just one letter all by itself.


My question is this . . . who is with me and willing to commit to sending out one letter per month? If we do not have a big enough impact, then it will not be effective.
 
ScamVictimsUnited.com


Find us on Twitter, Facebook and more through
http://www.retaggr.com/page/ShawnMosch

Forex Fraud

I am the first to admit, I know nothing about trading and investments, so when  fellow fraud fighter came to me and wanted to talk to me about Forex Fraud I was clueless.  Forex Fraud is a type of investment fraud.  As with anything, you should do your homework first.  You can go to ForexFraud.com to find reviews of brokers, software, a beginners course in forex trading and tips of what to look for in forex scams.

We are happy to add ForexFraud.com and the information that they provide to our Scam Victims United family.

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

Maxed Out

I have to get a copy of this movie.  I first heard about it when I was in Florida at a Consumer Empowerment Expo.  Knowledge is power, and from what I hear this movie will open your eyes to the problems of America's debit crisis.

Back up and running

I am happy to announce that our blog is back up and running.  Now that things have been restored, I can share with you the story of what happened, as well as why some of you may not have even noticed that the blog was down.

 

When we first decided to start a blog, we did not know anything about the blogging world.  Which free blogging site is better to go with?  What things do we have total control over, and what things can the blogging site control?  Most important to me, since I would be the main person updating and taking care of the look of the blog, was how easy it was to use and update.

 

For whatever reason (really, I don't even remember at this point) we decided to go with WordPress.  That was going fine and we were starting to build a following, but we really wanted to be able to put advertisements on our site for businesses we support and could help consumers.  We found out that we were not able to do that with our WordPress site.  And that is when I started to look at Blogger. 

 

Blogger is a part of the Google family, and allows you to easily place Google AdSense onto your blog.  Since we already had an AdSense account, which we use on our main website, this was a simple process for us.

 

For a while I would post each and every article/blog entry on both our WordPress site and our Blogger site.  I did not want to abandon the followers that we had already gained at WordPress, and I knew that it would be against the rules to simply put a post that said "We have moved to . . . . " since this would be seen as using the blog as a redirecting site.  After a while it got to be a lot to keep up the posts at both blogs, and I began to use the Blogger site as our main site.  I had links to this site and it's articles coming from our website and message board, and it directly updated to my Twitter feed and to our Facebook Fan Page.  Things seems perfect, until March 3rd.

 

I was at work (yes, scam fighting does not pay the bills so I have a regular day job) and a co-worker who also has a Blogger site which I follow informed me that I was no longer listed as a follower on her site.  WHAT!?!?!  So over my lunch break I logged into my Google account to see what was going on, and I found out that my account had been suspended because one of my blogs had been deemed as "spam".  I was even MORE shocked to find out that is was my Scam Victims United blog that was the one under investigation. 

 

I was easily able to get my Google account back up, so then all of my other blogs were fine and I showed up as a follower again on all of the sites I enjoy checking out, but I had to jump through some hoops to try and get the Scam Victims United blog back up.  After a few days of the blog being down, and no idea of when or if it would ever be up again, we decided to begin using the WordPress site as our main blog again.  I updated links and feeds that I could, but remember there were some posts that were JUST on the Blogger site, and I could not even view our Scam Victims United Blogger site.  Luckily, I could still see the text of the posts in the Notes section of our Scam Victims United Facebook Fan Page, so I copied the posts that were just on Blogger from there and saved them on my computer with the intention that at some point when I had time I would re-post all of those at the WordPress site, and then search out the links to individual articles and change them to the WordPress links.  Sounds like a LOT of work, right?  Yes, but there were some articles that I did not want to be gone forever, so this was the only way to bring them back.

 

Then on March 18th I found out that our Blogger site was back up and fully restored.  Now I would not have to update links that I sent to victims, or posted on our message board to specific articles!  This was great news.  The bad news is that our blog was down for over two weeks, and I still don't have any idea what parts of it Google deemed as "spam" to make them take it down in the first place.  I worry that they could do this again with no notice.

 

So that is the story of our blog going down, and why you may not even have noticed since I had a "back-up blog"

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.

National Consumer Protection Week

NCPW 2010 -- Dollars & Sense: Rated “A” for All Ages


12TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CONSUMER PROTETION WEEK


WASHINGTON – Today, Scam Victims United joins with federal, state and local government agencies and consumer protection organizations to announce the 12th Annual National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW), March 7-13. This coordinated consumer education campaign encourages individuals across the country to 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. In recognition of NCPW 2010, Scam Victims United and its partners are promoting free resources to help people protect their privacy, manage money and debt, avoid identity theft, understand credit and mortgages, and steer clear of frauds and scams.

"The message of National Consumer Protection Week 2010 is simple: It’s never too early or too late to become a more informed and empowered consumer,” said Shawn Mosch, Co-Founder of Scam Victims United. “Regardless of your age or financial situation, there are useful lessons to learn about spending and managing money wisely. Scam Victims United encourages everyone to visit the NCPW website, www.consumer.gov/ncpw, for tips about making smarter decisions in the marketplace. ”