How To Protect Yourself - Scams and Cons Explained

Protecting Your Financial Health

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Learn about scams before they happen. While we cannot offer legal advice we can teach and inform so you know what to watch for. Collection offers may sound valid, but companies want your money and may promise to help. This is your online scam, fraud and con prevention center

On these pages we tell you the truth about settlements scams, debt collector scams, false promises, and how companies later claim "There is no record of that conversation", and how to prevent future frustration

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The FBI says types of public corruption include:

Law Enforcement corruption at the state or local level typically involves the payment of bribes or kickbacks in exchange for official actions or inaction. It also includes any violation of law not necessarily connected to the official duties of law enforcement personnel.

Legislative corruption at the state or local level usually involves payment of bribes or kickbacks in exchange for official action or inaction. These bribes or kickbacks can be received by the legislators themselves, by aides, by staff persons, and/or by outside parties doing business with the government.

Municipal corruption involves illegal activities similar to legislative corruption. Common corruption schemes at a local level include bribes or kickbacks in exchange for: supporting local ordinances, approving local government bond issuance, reducing taxes unlawfully, fraudulently manipulating probate assets, and conspiring with others to rezone property or to influence land-use proposals.

Judicial corruption typically arises out of the corrupt influencing of state or local judges, juries, or court personnel (clerks, bailiffs, probation officials, and other administrative staff). Common corrupt schemes include: payments to judiciary personnel in exchange for dismissal of charges; reduction of charges, bonds, or sentences; waiver of fines; return of forfeitable property; and favorable probation conditions.

Contract corruption usually involves the payment of bribes or kickbacks to local or state officials in exchange for favorable treatment on government contracts. Potential subjects are private contractors, anyone acting on their behalf, and public officials involved in the contracting process (procurement officers, purchasing agents, city councilpersons, and county commissioners).

Regulatory corruption involves payment to local, state, or federal officials in exchange for favorable action or inaction pertaining to identification documents, licensing, and inspection and zoning variances. Unlawful payments are commonly known as bribes and kickbacks.

Prison corruption involves corrections officers taking unlawful payment for acts directly or indirectly related to their job. Common schemes include: smuggling contraband into the facility, granting unlawful privileges, and prematurely releasing inmates.

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The Rise and Fall of Household International and HSBC Finance Free Document - Learn more about the history of predatory lending and causes of the financial crisis. 32 Page Free PDF. Get it now

Article Title

When creditors attack your credit report after identity theft

Identity Hijacking - When creditors go wild by entering bad, false, or misleading information on your credit report. You were not the victim of identity theft, but you were the victim of identity hijacking. Your credit is hijacked until you get the matter resolved and life returns to normal. Put on your seat belts as we discuss:
• Settlements gone wrong
• Collectors out of control
• Predatory Lenders and you
• Are the customer service reps really that stupid
• Who's the moron - you for calling or me for listening
• Tell me that interest rate again....
• What do you mean you didn't get my payment
• Supervisors that should be in some type of rehab program
• Thanks for calling -- now give me $1000
• If you don't have a last name please send me that in writing

EXAMPLE: When closing escrow on my home, $1749.27 was taken out of my funds, and Household International / HSBC Finance Corporation claims I opened an account in 2/90 and closed it 11/90 via the telephone. None of this is true. I contacted them over and over again and had no luck. I contacted the Arizona State Attorney General's office and they went after them big time. They finally sent me a check, but $500 short and I hounded them for the remainder which will be overnighted tomorrow. They had this bogus debt on all 3 of my credit reports and I have requested a letter basically saying they made a big mistake. What grief this caused me. It is clear that you will lose against HSBC unless somebody powerful is on your side.

If your identity was hijacked you should immediately report it to the credit bureaus, your state attorney general, the FTC, the OCC, and the company that originally had the debt.

Report that you may be the victim of identity theft with at least one of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax (www.equifax.com or 800-685-1111), Experian (www.experian.com or 888-397-3742) or TransUnion (www.transunion.com or 800-888-4213). That bureau is required to notify the other two.

Many settlement offers include amounts padded into the account balance, and the account might have been yours. You may not owe any of these additional amounts.

Correct identity theft issues until your credit report reflects the real you. They've tried to take you for a ride, but now it's time to solve the problem.

February 1, 2005, WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans lost at least 548 million dollars to identity theft and consumer fraud last year as the Internet provided new victims for age-old scams, according to government statistics released Tuesday.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it received 635,000 consumer complaints in 2004 as criminals sold nonexistent products through online auction sites like eBay Inc. or went shopping with stolen credit cards.

Identity theft -- the practice of running up bills or committing crimes in someone else's name -- topped the list with 247,000 complaints, up 15 percent from the previous year.

2010/09/03 · by T. Blake