Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Fraud

Did you get ripped off last year? You’re not alone, especially if you were a victim of identity theft. The Federal Trade Commission recently released its list of Top Consumer Fraud Complaints for 2007. And it says that for the seventh year in a row, identity theft is by far the top consumer complaint.

The agency received more than 800,000 complaints from consumers last year, and more than 250,000 of them were related to identity theft. The most common crime committed in conjunction with the identity theft was credit card fraud (23% of identity theft complaints), followed by utilities fraud (18% of identity theft complaints).

Also included on the list of complaints were shop-at-home sales, internet services, foreign money offers, lottery scams, personal equipment/software, and world wide web auctions. It’s astonishing the number of consumers who fall for scams that seem obvious to others. Just remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you’re contemplating a transaction that has you a tiny uneasy, please research the company or person you’re considering doing business with. That research can go a long way toward reducing your chances of becoming one of these 800,000 victims.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Record-keeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Press releases, Rants and raves, Scandals, Politics, Headline news

The ridiculous story published by the New York times yesterday regarding John McCain’s encounters with a Washington lobbyist offered little to it’s readers or the voting American public. It was a waste of time on speak shows and the broader media coverage it received shows how petty election politics can be.

Every official in Washington is constantly being bombarded by thousands of lobbyist’s all the time and someone in McCains position (and Obama’s and Clinton’s) get no relief. If his wife is not griping when he gets closer to some then others and they happen to be attractive too, we’ve nothing to state about it, unless it crosses some legal or ethical boundary.

McCain was unhappy. I was unhappy and most pundits I listened to thought as much of the story as I did. However, I might have handled it with some good humor. McCain should have issued a press release with pictures of the top 100 ideal looking lobbyists (male and female) that he has met with over the past five years. Let them run that in the New Yorks Times. Now that would spark large readership.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

Share This

Share This

For money managers, green is in - Globe and Mail

For money managers, green is in Globe and Mail, Share This Share This No Comments » 22 02 2008 Steal a credit card: No hands necessary Posted by: in Money Ripoffs and Scams Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams Have you heard of the “smart card”? It’s a credit card that’s enabled with a “smart chip” which utilizes RFID technology to transmit your credit card information to a checkout terminal. The cards are supposed to save time and improve security. It sounds cool, doesn’t it? It is… except it now means that someone can steal your credit card information without ever even touching that card. If they get close enough to you with a device created to steal the information transmitted by the smart chip, your identity and information can be compromised. Credit card companies say that their cards with the chips are secure and consumers shouldn’t be worried. I’m not so sure, and I think I’ll take a pass on the chip-enabled cards for now. I really don’t need identity thieves to have one more way to steal my credit. Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Record-keeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud. Share This Share This No Comments »

Search Subscribe Your email:   Subscribe Unsubscribe   Pages About Contact-us

RSS Feed   February 2008 M T W T F S S « Jan   Mar »   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29   Recent Posts Re-think new stimulus package? Push infrastructure! Message to Fed: Leave rates alone! My latest large bet: Doughnuts on Obama FreshBooks launches industry bookmarks Shoeboxed now automatically categorizes your receipts Global catastrophe continues: Asia down 10%, Britain injects $88 billion in top banks Financial crisis goes global Informing the public or fanning the flames? Informing the public or fanning the flames? Congress is screwing up — think backstop not bailout! Categories Money News Money Ripoffs and Scams Networking and Finance News Video Private Industry News Real Estate and Mortgage Shopping Store Today News Archives November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007