‘Tis the season for showing you remembered to buy something for your loved one, but if the object of your affection is lactose-intolerant, you might want to think twice before splashing out on a deluxe dark chocolate Valentine’s Day gift. [More]
Government Policy
FTC Orders Sweepstakes Promoter To Pay $9.5M For Deceiving Consumers…Again
By 2.11.15
Just like some people have a habit of entering as many sweepstakes as possible, some scammers can’t break their addiction to promoting bogus sweepstakes. Just ask the woman who now must pay $9.5 million because she continued pushing fake sweepstakes even after being caught by the feds. [More]
Advocates Push NHTSA For Answers Regarding Airbag Recall, Remedy Effectiveness
By 2.11.15
The first major automobile recall of 2015 centered on 2.1 million vehicles containing an electronic glitch that could cause the safety devices to deploy inadvertently. While that defect is obviously a safety hazard, little else about the recall seems out of the ordinary. That is until you learn that this is the fourth time these vehicles have been recalled for this particular issue. Now, a consumer group is pushing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for answers regarding the recall, its past remedy failures, and the agency’s ability to ensure owners of recalled vehicles are safe. [More]
CFPB Orders Mortgage Company To Pay $2M Penalty For Deceptive Advertising & Kickbacks
By 2.10.15
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continued its ongoing crackdown of companies deceptively marketing products to U.S. veterans by ordering NewDay Financial, LLC to pay $2 million and revamp its business practices. [More]
Report: Fewer Children Killed By Recalled Products, But Company Aren’t Doing Enough To Notify Consumers
By 2.10.15
Each year thousands of manufacturers recalled potentially dangerous and deadly products. While systems in place to notify consumers of these issues have resulted in fewer deaths and injuries in recent years, a new report has found that companies aren’t using their power on social media to protect consumers. [More]
The “Serial Stowaway” Strikes Again: Woman Hitches A Ride To Florida, Poses As Resort Guest
By 2.10.15
Police in Florida say a 62-year-old woman who’s been caught not once, but twice stowing away aboard a plane she definitely didn’t have a boarding pass to board or ticket to fly on has done it again. This time, police say the 63-year-old woman slipped aboard a flight in Minnesota bound for Florida, and impersonated a hotel guest once she got there for extra measure. [More]
February Food And Supplement Recall Roundup: Curse Of The Contaminated Cumin
By 2.10.15
In this month’s Recall Roundup for food and supplements, some cumin became contaminated with peanut protein, then spread its potentially deadly payload everywhere from ethnic markets to the hot bar at Whole Foods. Pet food marketed for raw feeding of dogs and cats contains bacteria that can harm humans and pets alike. Oh, and there was some more undeclared knockoff Viagra masquerading as a “bee pollen” dietary supplement. [More]
Reverse Mortgage Complaints Show Consumers Confused By Loan Terms
By 2.9.15
While reverse mortgages are only available to a select group of consumers – those 62 years and older – the alternative loan product still makes up a large portion of complaints received by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Today, the Bureau released a report highlighting the most common consumer complaints about reverse mortgages, along with advice for borrowers [More]
Land Rover, Jaguar Recall 104,000 Vehicles For Brake, Light Issues
By 2.9.15
Jaguar Land Rover North America issued three recalls affecting nearly 104,000 vehicles over the weekend for myriad issues, ranging from problems with brake lines to lights. [More]
Alert Safeway Employees Save Woman From Losing Thousands In IRS Back Taxes Scam
By 2.6.15
Only weeks after Internal Revenue Service officials announced that more than 290,000 consumers have fallen victim to an ongoing back taxes scam in the last 15 months, alert employees at a Safeway supermarket in Washington prevented a woman from being added to the list of victims. [More]
FCC Not Scared Of AT&T’s Plan To Sue Over New Neutrality Rules
By 2.6.15
Earlier this week, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler confirmed his intention to ask his fellow commissioners to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, which would give the FCC more authority to regulate it and prohibit anti-consumer practices like throttling and blocking of data. AT&T is already gearing up for a suit to stop this change, but the FCC is apparently not terribly worried. [More]
Proposed Bills Would Revamp Food Safety Agencies & Recall Protocols
By 2.6.15
Last year a group of legislators introduced a bill that would have given the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture the legal backbone to get unsafe meat, poultry and eggs off store shelves. While that bill died in Congress, two new measures seek to pick up the pieces, establishing a single, independent federal food-safety agency and providing new recall procedures. [More]
Wireless & Cable Industries Fight Net Neutrality With Laughably Misleading Op-Eds & Video
By 2.5.15
Yesterday, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler confirmed that he intends to have the Commission reclassify broadband as the vital piece of telecommunications infrastructure that it is, which has resulted in immediate backlash from the wireless and cable industry and the handful of astroturfed “advocacy” organizations they support. [More]
Mortgage Relief Pitchmen Settle FTC Charges Of Deceiving Consumers, Collecting Illegal Fees
By 2.5.15
When seeking to refinance or modify a home loan, consumer advocates urge consumers to seek assistance from professionals that have no financial stake in the outcome. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case for a group of pitchmen who have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges they conned consumers into paying hefty fees for worthless mortgage relief services. [More]
Despite Threats Of Disaster, Investors In Comcast, Verizon, Etc. All Seem Totally Fine With FCC’s Plan To Reclassify Broadband
By 2.4.15
For a year now, the big ISPs have been having a series of public freakouts that stronger net neutrality rules would make for an uncertain regulatory future, leave them exposed, drive investment down, and hurt their businesses. And yet earlier today the chairman of the FCC dropped his bombshell that the agency is going to aim for the strongest possible regulation anyway. So how’d the market respond?
The stocks all went up. [More]
CFPB Orders Subprime Credit Card Company To Repay Consumers $2.7 Million After Charging Illegal Fees
By 2.4.15
In the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s second action against unscrupulous credit card companies this week, it has ordered a subprime credit card issuer to refund $2.7 million to customers for illegally charging costly fees. [More]
FCC Chair Confirms Title II Approach To Net Neutrality; AT&T Already Warming Up For Lawsuit
By 2.4.15
In an op-ed today, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed what sources in the know have recently been saying: to preserve net neutrality, the FCC is indeed going to seek to regulate ISPs as Title II common carriers. [More]
Whole Foods Recalls Macadamia Nuts In 6 States For Possible Salmonella Contamination
By 2.4.15
Hey you — Did you buy raw macadamia nuts from Whole Foods? Did you buy them in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee? If so, then you might want to check the label to see if they belong to the batch of nuts being recalled for potential Salmonella contamination. [More]
