For years now we’ve been warning consumers about the apartment rental credit check scam: a scheme where homes (that may not even exist) are listed online with the sole purpose of tricking prospective renters into paying for “credit checks” that will never be done. Today, federal regulators announced they had put a stop to one company accused of using bogus listings and fees to swindle millions out of hopeful tenants. [More]
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Qualcomm Faces Anti-Trust Lawsuit Over Patents, Licensing
By 1.17.17
Your phone might say “Apple” or “Samsung” or “LG” on the outside, but inside there are parts from dozens of companies, including Qualcomm, which now stands accused by federal regulators of using anticompetitive tactics to maintain an alleged monopoly on one important cell phone component. [More]
Medical Debt Collection Firms Must Refund $577K For Threatening Consumers
By 1.9.17 — Updated: 1.10.17
In this latest episode of Debt Collectors Behaving Badly, we bring you the tale of two medical debt collection law firms who must now refund hundreds of thousands of dollars after they were caught falsely claiming that attorneys were involved in collection actions. [More]
CA Man Who Posed As Immigration Lawyer Charged With Defrauding Consumers
By 12.8.16
Two weeks after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, along with a number of immigration advocates, warned all consumers about the possible increased risk of immigration fraud following the recent presidential election, his counterpart in California charged the owner of one such operation that allegedly defrauded countless immigrants. [More]
Credit Repair Service Accused Of Misleading Customers, Charging Illegal Fees
By 9.23.16
It can take years, decades even, to repair one’s credit. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix, despite promises of relief from companies offering their services for a price. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued one such company, Prime Marketing Holdings, for allegedly misleading consumers and charging illegal fees. [More]
Alleged Mastermind Of Largest BitTorrent Site Arrested
By 7.21.16
Nearly two years after authorities took popular pirating site The Pirate Bay down, federal authorities say they have arrested the mastermind behind another BitTorrent distribution site, Kickass Torrents. [More]
Feds Sue Gold, Silver Investment Company That Allegedly Bilked Millions From Retirees
By 6.3.16
Buying gold and silver is in many ways no different than anything else: You pay your money and expect to get what you paid for within a reasonable amount of time. Unlike most other products, when that gold and silver never arrives, you could be out thousands of dollars.
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JetBlue Pilot Charged With Flying Plane From Florida To New York Drunk
By 4.27.16
FAA regulations prohibit pilots from consuming alcohol at least eight hours before flying or having a blood-alcohol level higher than .04%, and it’s a federal crime to fly with a BAC of .10% or higher, which is why a now-former JetBlue pilot is in hot water.
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Nursing Students Sue ITT Tech Over Misleading Enrollment Practices, Substandard Program
By 4.8.16
The lawsuits continue to pile up for embattled for-profit college company ITT Education Services. Just days after the Massachusetts Attorney General filed a suit alleging the operator of the ITT Technical Institute brand engaged in a slew of abusive and misleading practices, a group of 11 Tennessee nurses have filed their own complaint accusing the company of deceiving students during the recruitment process about the school’s accreditation prospects. [More]
Feds Sue To Halt Illegal Solar Panel Telemarketing Operation
By 3.10.16
It’s not against the law to tell people they might be able to save money by slapping some solar panels on their roofs. What is illegal is using millions of unauthorized calls to people on the Do Not Call list to sell those solar panels.
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Data Broker Must Pay $4.1M For Selling Sensitive Information To Scammers
By 2.18.16
Data brokers are companies that collect and aggregate information on consumers to create detailed profiles that are then sold to other companies to determine if an individual is qualified for loans, mortgages, jobs, and other things. But sometimes, these companies get their hands on unauthorized, highly sensitive personal information and sell it. Today, four connected data brokers agreed to settle federal charges of selling this sort of information to unscrupulous customers. [More]
Woman Sues Kohl’s After Receiving Thousands Of Robocalls Intended For Ex-Boyfriend
By 1.22.16
Receive just one phone call meant for someone else and you might chalk it up to a simple misunderstanding. But getting thousands of prerecorded calls for your ex-boyfriend over a more than two-year period and the situation becomes annoying, aggravating, and — according to one Pennsylvania woman — grounds for a lawsuit. [More]
“Buy Here, Pay Here” Dealer To Return $700K To Consumers Over Deceptive Lending Practices
By 1.21.16
Federal regulators continued their crackdown on not-so-upfront “buy-here, pay-here” auto dealers today, ordering a Colorado-based dealer to pay nearly $1 million in restitution and fines for operating an abusive financing scheme. [More]
Staples, Office Depot Extend Merger Deadline To Fight Antitrust Lawsuit
By 1.20.16
Just because the Federal Trade Commission went to court in an effort to block the pending merger of Staples and Office Depot, doesn’t mean the companies are putting the mega-deal behind them. In fact, the office-supply chains have extend the contract for their proposed $6.3 billion merger to allow more time to placate antitrust regulators. [More]
Regulators Accuse Oracle Of Deceiving Customers About Security Of Java Updates
By 12.21.15
The owners of more than 850 million personal computers using Oracle’s Java Platform Standard Edition were misled about the security of their devices after software updates left the PCs susceptible to hack attacks according to federal regulators. [More]
FTC Says Staples-Office Depot Deal Is A No-Go, Files Antitrust Lawsuit To Stop Mega-Merger
By 12.7.15
The nightmare dream of the formation of the $6.3 billion StaplesMaxDepot Voltron has officially hit a (very big) speed bump: federal regulators unsurprisingly filed a complaint today charging that the proposed mega-merger’s affect on commercial businesses would violate antitrust laws. [More]
Debt Collector Must Pay $2.5M In Refunds, Penalties For Illegally Collecting Consumers’ Old AT&T Debt
By 12.7.15
Federal regulators continued their fight against unscrupulous debt collectors today, ordering a Massachusetts organization to pay $2.5 million in refunds and penalties for illegally collecting unverified debt and providing inaccurate information to national credit reporting agencies. [More]
Consumers Sue To Stop $107B Mega-Beer Merger
By 12.4.15
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s formal $107 billion bid to acquire SABMiller is far from a done deal: federal regulators will likely be combing through the details of the proposal for quite some time to determine how it will affect the global beer markets, and consumers’ wallets. But it looks as if lovers of the sudsy drinks are a bit ahead of the game, filing a lawsuit to stop the mega-merger. [More]
