Scammers call and demand immediate payment via wire transfer or prepaid debt card. According to a recent statement from the Maine Attorney General
Read More »Prepaid Debit Cards and Wire Transfers in Debt Collection ScamsThe red flag, however, is that they want you to make an instant payment with a pre-paid debit card or wire transfer. This is how you know you are getting scammed. Hang up the phone immediately.
When it comes to consumer or employment contracts, forced arbitration is a problem in Maryland, and throughout the country.
In their April, 2014 article titled “The Strip Mining of Legal Rights” Ralph Nader and Theresa Amato call for limits on the use of fine-print terms to undermine legal rights. They call the use of fine print to avoid liability an “expanding coup d’etat against the civil justice system” and suggest action by Congress and federal agencies to control the use of forced arbitration clauses and establish model contract terms which are fair to both consumers and businesses.
Read More »Why and How Arbitration Constitutes the “Strip Mining of Legal Rights”Fine print boilerplate is everywhere, but what can be done to stop it? Theresa Amato writes in The Nation that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should take four steps to promote fairness in consumer contracts:
In the Summer, 2014 issue of Washington Monthly, Lina Kahn wrote about how arbitration clauses are used by America’s corporations big and small to shield themselves from lawsuits. For example, suing Target over its loss of customer data to hackers:
may seem like an archetypical story of our times, combining corporate misconduct, cyber-crime, and high-stakes litigation. But for those who follow the cutting edge of corporate law, a central part of this saga is almost antiquarian: the part where Target must actually face its accusers in court and the public gets to know what went awry and whether justice gets done.
Read More »Why and How Forced Arbitration Strips Consumers of Their Right to Sue in Court
CFPB has fined U.S. Bank over its sale of two identity & credit protection add-on products they offered credit card customers. “Privacy Guard” and “Identity Secure” were paid services sold to credit card customers between 2003 and 2012. Sold as add-ons for credit protection, CFPB found that some customers didn’t get the protections they were… Read More »U.S. Bank Fined Over Identity & Credit Protection Add-Ons
September 24, 2014
California has passed legislation to:
prohibit a contract or proposed contract for the sale or lease of consumer goods or services from including a provision waiving the consumer’s right to make any statement regarding the seller or lessor or its employees or agents, or concerning the goods or services.
Read More »California Bans Businesses From Fining Consumers Who Complain
September 21, 2014
A major security failure at Home Depot has led to millions of credit card details falling into the hands of hackers. Home Depot says that hackers used custom written malware to attack the store’s registers. However, former Home Depot employees report that, for several years, the company ignored warnings about the potential for just such an attack.
Read More »Home Depot HackedFor an eye-opening experience, read this description of a sales meeting from a fictional dealership, written by Remar Sutton, who used to be in the business.
While it can take different forms, what we are seeing most often in Maryland these days involves 5 players: 1) a victim in foreclosure who has lots of equity in their home, usually between $100,000 and $300,000; 2) a mastermind con artist who swoops in and promises the help the homeowner “save their home” by… Read More »What is a Foreclosure Rescue Scam?
