Online Training Academy hyped a “patented” training program that promised to help people earn “big money” by paying big money to OTA for trainings costing as much as $50,000.
OTA’s lavish earnings claims often came with encouragement for people to go into debt to pay for OTA’s trainings.
A settlement announced Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission means debt forgiveness for some people who owe money to OTA.
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Despite U.S. PIRG Education Fund calling out Amazon and other online retailers for allowing price gouging in their online websites at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a new analysis shows that the problem is still serious.
Six months later, U.S. PIRG Education Fund revisited whether Amazon had lived up to its promise of tackling price gouging. Its new analysis looked at 10 products found on many shopping lists during the covid-19 pandemic, including hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, and digital thermometers.
Of these items, options from Amazon were two to 14 times more expensive than the identical products sold at other retailers. Some examples include:
Continue reading "Price gouging persists on Amazon, consumer group reports" »
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If you see a message on WhatsApp or Facebook offering you free help during the pandemic, watch out. People are reporting seeing messages that seem to be from Pepsi, Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, and other well-known companies.
These messages offer money to people who need it – through grants, coupons for food support, or other giveaways. But they’re all fake, and not from those companies, said Diana Shiller, investigator for the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Marketing Practices.
You might receive this message, in English or Spanish, from a friend or contact. The message tells you to click a link to get your money. If you click, you might find a survey to take. Or it might ask you to enter your name, address, phone number, or other information. And it might ask you to forward the message to several friends to be eligible to collect.
Continue reading "Facebook and WhatsApp offers of free covid-19 help are scams" »
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When Labor Day comes, many of us think about the end of summer. This year of the pandemic is so different.
Rather than having a big barbecue, we’ll probably have a gathering with our small social group. And, as for shopping, it’s likely that we’ll be looking for bargains online rather than going to stores.
Dealnews.com offers these tips on what to expect from Labor Day sales in 2020, including when they'll start, what items will be discounted, and the kinds of deals you'll see.
The sales
Labor Day is on Sept. 7 this year, but sales will begin way before the holiday weekend. Look for sales now.
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The College Board appears to be in violation of its own policies on protecting the privacy of college students, Consumer Reports found in an investigation.
The College Board is sending personally identifiable student information to major technology companies and ad platforms including Adobe, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Snapchat, and Yahoo, according to researchers at Consumer Reports’ Digital Lab.
“College-bound students don’t have any choice but to transact with the College Board – which is what makes these findings so concerning,” said Ben Moskowitz, director of the Digital Lab at Consumer Reports.
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The world as we know it is changing due to the coronavirus pandemic. But as it exposes inequities in the health and food systems, many people hope that the pandemic offers an opportunity to build a new and more sustainable food system.
To understand what it will take to move forward, the Food Tank has compiled its summer reading list to examine the issues that affect the country's food system today. These 20 books provide insight into food access and justice in black communities, food relief and school nutrition programs, the effects of technology on global food supply chains, the relationship between climate change and food production, and more:
Priya Basil explores the meaning of hospitality within a variety of cultural, linguistic, and sociopolitical contexts. Basil uses her cross-cultural experience to illustrate how food amplifies discourse within families and touches on the hospitality and the lack thereof that migrants and refugees experience.
Continue reading "20 books to read about food this summer" »
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a consent order Friday against Sovereign Lending Group Inc., a mortgage lender in about 44 states and the District of Columbia.
Sovereign offers mortgage loans guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Sovereign’s main advertising is through direct-mail campaigns targeted mostly at U.S. military servicemembers and veterans.
Sovereign sent consumers hundreds of thousands of mailers for VA-guaranteed mortgages that contained false, misleading, and inaccurate statements or that lacked required disclosures in violation of federal laws and rules.
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Problems with car sales and repairs and home improvement and construction once again topped the list of complaints reported to state and local consumer agencies across the country, according to an annual survey by the Consumer Federation of America.
“When the used car you just bought breaks down or your new roof leaks, who are you going to call? asked Susan Grant, director of consumer protection and privacy for CFA. “It’s your state or local consumer agency.”
Grant conducted the survey, which included participation by 31 agencies from 19 states this year. It asked about the most common, the fastest-growing, and the worst complaints agencies received in 2019.
Top 10 complaints in 2019
These are the complaints most frequently cited as the top problems reported to state and local consumer agencies last year:
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Consumer groups filed an appeal on behalf of low-income consumers with the Federal Communications Commission Friday of a ruling by the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau that federal protections against unwanted text messages don’t apply to peer-to-peer text messaging systems, systems where the text message is sent by a person.
The calling industry is already citing the ruling as a basis to exempt all text messages and autodialed voice calls from the federal prohibition against making these calls without the consumer’s consent.
“Such an interpretation would lead to an exponential growth in unsolicited calls and text messages from both telemarketers and political campaigns,” said Margot Saunders, senior counsel with the National Consumer Law Center. “Now more than ever, as consumers face mounting pressures from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and as we’re entering the peak election season, the FCC must protect consumers from unwanted and harassing text messages rather than bowing to political pressure to allow these unwanted texts without consent.”
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A report comparing information about individual real estate agents provided by widely used online information sources – Zillow, Realtor.com, HomeLight, Yelp, Facebook, and the websites of the agents themselves – concludes that Zillow agent profiles are the most useful source of information.
The report – "Choosing a Real Estate Agent: An Evaluation of Information Sources About Quality of Service" by the Consumer Federation of America– says Zillow profiles cover a large majority of active agents and include current listings, past sales and their price history, customer reviews, and other information for most of these agents.
“A home represents the most expensive purchase consumers will ever make,” said Stephen Brobeck, a CFA senior fellow. “Consumer selection of an agent strongly influences whether they receive good value from the sale. Zillow agent profiles represent a valuable source of information for making this choice."
Continue reading "Use Zillow for best realtor reviews, consumer group advises" »
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