Earlier this year, we told you how the American Bankers Association was seeking exemptions from the FCC that would allow banks to get around a law that forbids businesses from robocalling cellphones without prior approval. Today, 60,000 consumers are telling the FCC to just say now to the banks’ request. [More]
Government Policy
Colleges May Be Violating CARD Act By Not Providing Copies Of Credit Card Agreements
By 2.19.15
Although the number of agreements between credit card issuers and higher education institutions are on the decline, many of the schools that do have such agreements may be in violation of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act by not making those contracts publicly and readily available to consumers, according to a new investigation by a consumer group finds. [More]
FDA Warns That Undeclared Peanuts Could Lurk In Food Containing Cumin
By 2.19.15
Life with a severe food allergy can be scary enough, but knowing that sometimes labels are inaccurate and that not all allergens are identified is even scarier. The situation right now where a batch of ground cumin was contaminated with peanuts shows that even spices and spice blends can be dangerous to people with severe enough allergies. [More]
California Slaughterhouse Co-Owner Pleads Guilty To Processing Cattle With Cancer
By 2.19.15
The co-owner of a now defunct California slaughterhouse at the center of a February 2014 recall that involved 8.7 million pounds of beef found “unfit for human food” has pleaded guilty in the federal case, acknowledging that he processed cancerous cattle. [More]
Will The FDA Ever Get Around To New Warning Labels For Cigarettes?
By 2.18.15
In June 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law, directing the Food and Drug Administration to not only create larger health warnings, but to include graphic images in the labels. And when the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a tobacco-industry fight against these labels in April 2013, it was supposed to get the ball rolling again on these new warnings. But in the years since, there’s been no apparent movement on the matter and the FDA won’t say when, or even if, these Congressionally mandated labels will become a reality. [More]
My Car Is Recalled In A Snowy, Icy State, But Not My Snowy, Icy State. What Do I Do?
By 2.18.15
While most automobile recalls are national, some recalls are limited to specific regions of the country where particular road and weather conditions increase the risk of a problem. What about those people who live outside the recall region but who are concerned their car needs to be checked out? [More]
What Can An ID Thief Do With My Social Security Number?
By 2.17.15 — Updated: 5.2.17
When I was working at the library in college, every student had to tell me his/her student ID number to check out a book, and with very few exceptions that number was also the student’s Social Security number. Oh boy, the profitable things I could have done if I’d been enterprisingly evil. [More]
Demand That Phone Companies Give Consumers Free Tools To Block Robocalls
By 2.17.15
While federal regulations and the Do Not Call list have significantly cut down on some auto-dialed, prerecorded messages, the problem of illegal robocalls still persists, mostly because scammers don’t care if they break the law. There are various technologies that phone companies could use to preempt even more of these calls but most consumers don’t have access to them. [More]
Philip Morris Does Horrible Job Of Defending Itself After John Oliver Mocking
By 2.17.15
On Sunday night, John Oliver called out the tobacco industry, and particularly Philip Morris, for the practice of threatening small and poor countries with complicated, expensive international trade lawsuits if they try to strictly regulate cigarette marketing. But while Big Tobacco has the coffers to pay for costly legal battles, it does a really poor job of trying to defend its actions. [More]
Lawmakers In House, Senate Investigating Fraudulent Returns Filed With TurboTax
By 2.17.15
Joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service on the case of bogus tax returns filed used Intuit’s TurboTax software will now be lawmakers from both the House and Senate, who have started probing the recent flurry of fraudulent activity. [More]
Death Toll From GM Ignition Defect Reaches 56
By 2.16.15
A year after General Motors first announced the long-delayed recall of the Chevy Cobalt, Saturn Ion and several other vehicles for an ignition problem that both the carmaker and regulators had ignored, the fund responsible for vetting death and injury claims related to the recall is now acknowledging at least 56 fatalities. [More]
Corinthian Colleges Inc. Expected To Be Delisted From Nasdaq Tuesday
By 2.13.15
Embattled for-profit college operator Corinthian Colleges Inc. — the company behind the Everest, WyoTech, and Heald College chains — is set to be delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange Tuesday after it failed to meet a deadline to file quarterly earnings reports.
Sysco Meets With FTC Over Foodservice Voltron Proposal
By 2.12.15
Way back in 2013, we shared the news that Sysco, the country’s biggest supplier to restaurants and other food-service facilities, wanted to acquire its next-biggest competitor, US Foods. Yet the Federal Trade Commission still hasn’t come to a decision about that proposal. FTC officials don’t agree on the question of whether Sysco plans to sell enough of its business to make sure the restaurant supply business stays competitive. [More]
FBI Now Investigating Possible Fraudulent Federal Tax Returns From TurboTax
By 2.12.15
Days after TurboTax resumed e-filing of all state tax returns following a third-party security expert’s finding that fraudulent activity reported by state tax officials did not result from a breach of Intuit’s own systems, federal regulators announced they would take a look for themselves. [More]
IRS Issues List Of “Dirty Dozen” Scams Taxpayers Should Be On The Lookout For This Year
By 2.12.15
Each tax season fraudsters manage to separate taxpayers from billions of dollars by using aggressive schemes such as impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents or employing emails and websites designed to gather consumers’ personal information for fraudulent use. This year, the IRS has issued a list of the “Dirty Dozen” scams consumers should guard against. [More]
New NHTSA Chief Wants To Create Team Focused On Spotting Defects
By 2.12.15
Just a month into his new gig as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mark Rosekind unveiled his vision for the future of the agency, including increasing staff and creating two new divisions to help step up efforts to identify defects and alert motorists about issues and recalls. [More]
Sprint Says Net Neutrality Won’t Stop Verizon, AT&T From Investing
By 2.12.15
Mouthpieces for the wireless industry would have you believe that the FCC’s pending net neutrality rules — which would reclassify both terrestrial and wireless broadband as a utility — will cripple investment and plunge us into an era where we carry around mammoth brick cellphones like Zack Morris. So why is Sprint telling everyone a completely different story? [More]
Kidde Recalls 5M Disposable Fire Extinguishers Because Fire Extinquishers Should Put Out Fires
By 2.12.15
The thing about fire extinguishers is that when there’s a fire, you have a reasonable expectation that the device can put out said fire. But that apparently isn’t the case for nearly 5 million Kidde plastic disposable fire extinguishers being recalled. [More]
