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A fake debt
collector who allegedly bullied people into paying debts they didn’t owe has
been stopped at the FTC’s request. According to the FTC, American Credit
Crunchers, LLC, Ebeeze, LLC, and
owner Varang K. Thaker misused the personal information of people looking
online for payday loans. The defendants used callers from India who pretended
to be law enforcement or federal investigators to falsely
threaten lawsuits, arrest, or dismissal from their job if they didn’t make a
payment on a delinquent payday loan. The people didn’t owe the defendants a
thing, the FTC says. For more on handling callers
claiming to be debt collectors, read
Who’s Calling? That Debt Collector Could Be a Fake.
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The FTC is taking
action to stop two massive robocalling
operations
that allegedly enabled telemarketers to make hundreds of millions of illegal prerecorded
calls to people across the country, including many whose numbers were on the National Do Not Call Registry. The agency alleges that the defendants offered
"self-service" voice broadcasting to make it easy for telemarketers
to deliver tens of millions of robocalls for mere pennies per call. Marketers simply
had to upload a prerecorded message — pitching debt relief services, carpet cleaning, auto warranties,
and satellite dish broadcasting, for example — and a list of telephone numbers at
the defendants’ web sites for the calls to be placed. Read Robocalls are
Illegal: Scammers Use False Caller IDs to Hide for more.
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The FTC and the state of Arizona have stopped
a business that
allegedly ran an illegal government job scheme. According to the complaint, Government Careers Inc. advertised supposed
postal, border patrol, and administrative support jobs on Careerbuilder.com and Yahoo! Hot Jobs among other
websites, and in local newspapers. The defendants told people that for
$119, they would get study materials to help them pass an exam to get a federal
job. But in many cases, the jobs didn’t require exams or didn’t exist, the FTC
says. The defendants allegedly also charged
people $965 for career counseling services, including resume editing and exam
preparation, despite saying the ‘clients’ wouldn’t have to pay until they got a
job.
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Five companies have settled FTC charges that the
energy-efficiency and cost-savings marketing claims they made about their
replacement windows were deceptive. According to the settlement, the companies couldn’t back up
their claims, which in some cases said people could cut their energy bills in
half just by replacing their current windows with the windows advertised. But
the potential savings from new windows depend on several factors, including the
climate, the kind of windows you’re replacing, and how the new windows are
installed. For more on replacing your
home's windows, and information that could affect your energy savings, check out Shopping for New
Windows.
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The FTC has expanded its case against an allegedly deceptive payday lender. According to
the FTC, South Dakota-based Payday
Financial, LLC, is trying to manipulate
the legal system by forcing borrowers who’ve fallen behind on their payments to
appear before the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court in South Dakota, regardless
of where they live, in an attempt to get a tribal court order to garnish their
wages. But the tribal court doesn’t have jurisdiction. The agency’s original complaint alleged that
the defendants illegally tried
to garnish employees’ wages without court orders. For more on payday
loans, read Payday Loans Equal Very Costly Cash.
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To resolve FTC charges that acquiring its rival Liberty
Dialysis would harm renal care patients in local markets across the country, Fresenius
Medical Care will sell 60 outpatient dialysis clinics in 43 cities under a
proposed settlement. Patients suffering from end stage renal disease use
outpatient dialysis treatments to remove toxins and excess fluid from their
blood, and rely on nearby clinics for these services. According to the FTC,
without these divestitures, renal care patients would likely face higher prices
or reductions in quality of care in the 43 cities as a result of the
merger.
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"The
fact that almost four million consumers fell prey to the lure of these 'free
trial' offers is a stark reminder that 'free' offers can come at a huge price."
— David
Vladeck, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection
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For the 12th year in
a row, identity theft is at the top of the FTC’s annual
list of consumer complaints. Of more than
1.8 million complaints filed with the FTC in 2011, 15 percent were ID theft
complaints; nearly a quarter of these were related to tax- or wage- fraud.
Complaints about debt collectors were second to identity theft.
At the request of
the FTC, a U.S. district court has issued a
contempt ruling against
promoters of
credit repair, debt relief, and food stamp services who violated a 2010
settlement. The court, which ordered refunds, said the defendants promoted a
food stamp application guide that falsely promised to show how “almost
everybody” can legally get food stamps for free.
Bank of
America subsidiary BAC Home
Loans Servicing, LP — formerly known as Countrywide — has agreed to settle FTC charges that it
illegally assessed more than $36 million worth of fees against struggling
homeowners in violation of an earlier settlement. BAC Home Loans has already
reversed or refunded $28 million in improper fees. The new settlement requires
them to reverse or refund the remaining $8 million.
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IN OTHER NEWS:
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SHARE THIS:
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Did you know your SSN can help an identity
thief get a job or the tax refund that should be yours? Learn more: http://go.usa.gov/Psh
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In the wake of a
late-winter tornado outbreak, the FTC says watch out for charity scams and home
repair fraud: http://go.usa.gov/P0D
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Do
the apps you download for your kids collect personal information? A new FTC
report finds apps lack information: http://go.usa.gov/P0W
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