After another death of a young child in a residential elevator, the CPSC Tuesday asked vacation rental platforms, AirBnB, Vrbo, and others, to take steps immediately to protect consumers. Small children can be crushed to death in a gap that may exist between the doors. Read more →
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday on promoting competition in the American economy. It launches a government effort to combat growing market power in the U.S. economy by seeking to ensure that markets are competitive. Read more →
People are starting to travel again, and they’re finding problems getting rental cars. With rental car availability at an all-time low, prices are very high. So, if you suddenly find an available car at a cheap price, you might be dealing with scammers looking make money on the rental car shortage. Read more →
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Maxtrade are warning consumers to immediately stop using Maxtrade’s Coolster youth ATV-3050-C and ATV-3050-B models to avoid serious injury or death. These youth ATVs don’t meet CPSC’s mandatory safety standards. Read more →
For three years, people have reported losing more money on romance scams than on any other fraud type identified in Sentinel, a fraud database. In 2020, reported losses to romance scams reached a record $304 million, up about 50 percent from 2019. Read more →
First, I received emails from my credit union that $1,500 then $2,300 were possible fraudulent charges. I called and sure enough, a scammer from Sweden was trying to charge those amount to my credit card. The credit union flagged the fraudulent charges, and the money was never charged to me. Read more →
Consumer Reports is launching CR Recommended, a program to bring Consumer Reports recommendations easily to consumers before they buy autos and other products. When consumers shop online, at a dealership, or in a store, they’ll see a “CR Recommended” mark for products. Read more →
Scammers are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to steal money from people. During these chaotic times, knowing about possible scams is the first step toward preventing them. Scammers are inventing new schemes as well as repurposing old ones. Be alert as you go about your covid daily lives. Read more →
When I was writing my weekly Helpful Money Tips for You newsletter (see Newsletter heading above to subscribe), I ran across an article by a women who was upset because a new coffee shop in her area turned out to be secret “nutrition club,” a recruiting tool for Herbalife. Read more →
It’s started already. The scammers are changing their pitches to include stimulus payments. The call yesterday said, due to the soon to be sent stimulus payments, credit card companies were lowering their interest rate. I could press No. 1 to get more information. What? As usual, I hung up quickly. Read more →