Planet Antares Scam Tips

Home ownership is down to its lowest level in five years, and the number of potential foreclosures could return home ownership levels to numbers not seen since the 1960′s.  Amid the current real estate storm, homeowners in trouble are becoming easy targets for mortgage relief scammers and increasing their financial difficulties.

Chief among mortgage relief fraud scams are those that seek up-front payments for relief assistance.  These payments are illegal under the Credit Services Protection Act.  Typically, a scammer promises to help a homeowner modify his or her mortgage by working with the homeowner’s mortgage holder in exchange for a fee up front. The scammer pockets the fee and the homeowner gets no mortgage relief.   Read the rest of this entry »

Summer often brings violent storms and unexpected damage from fallen trees, high winds and hail.  Following these events, scammers come out in full force, hoping to make a quick buck off of hapless homeowners.  Here are a few tips to avoid home repair scam complaints.

Avoid the high-pressure sales pitch. If a sudden storm damages your property, don’t agree to accept “assistance” from a contractor who shows up at your doorstep, even if they’re offering a good deal and immediate service. Repair contractors must be licensed and insured. Take time to find the right contractor to repair storm damage. Read the rest of this entry »

Insurance is touted as a good thing to have, and in many cases, insurance is required to protect the value of a large asset like a home or automobile. Insurance lends itself to scams because it’s one of those things you pay for, but may never actually use.

Usually the term “insurance fraud” brings to mind visions of a policyholder trying to make an insurance company pay out on fraudulent claims. Unfortunately, insurance fraud can go the other way, too. Unscrupulous insurance agents can pocket your premiums, issue fake insurance policies or sell you coverage you don’t need.  To help protect yourself from being victimized by insurance scams, here are a few tips.

Insurance is heavily regulated by each state, so check with your state’s insurance commission to make sure the sales agent is licensed and in good standing, and that the insurance s/he is trying to sell is approved for sale in your state.  Ask the insurance commission about any complaints that have been lodged against the agent or the insurer. Find out whether/how these complaints were resolved.

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As an industry, auto repair shops garner more consumer complaints than any other industry in the United States.  There are an almost endless number of scams that unscrupulous repair shop operators can run on customers who, at the end of the day, are simply trying to maintain their vehicles.

Among the most popular scams are recommending work that isn’t needed; overcharging for work performed; and using counterfeit, low-quality or used parts and charging for them as new.

To help avoid auto repair shop scams, here are a few tips.

Research your auto repair shop. Contact your local Better Business Bureau and/or your state’s Attorney General to see if the shop has a high number of customer complaints, or if they’ve ever been cited for bad business practices.

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Charitable organizations raise billions of dollars each year to support social program, community groups and causes. Each recognized charity represents a large potential pool of “free money”, so phony charitable organizations become a vehicle for scam artists worldwide.

Fake charities have become very good at scamming their victims. They often use telemarketing, direct mail or a combination of both to defraud their victims. It’s easy to become a victim of fraud by a fake charity, so here are some tips to help you avoid donating your dollars to scam artists. Read the rest of this entry »

People are creatures of habit, and we tend to form preferences when it comes to shopping.  Retailers know this and want to encourage our business, so they form “loyalty reward” programs that enable their loyal customers to get benefits that less regular shoppers may not receive.  Airline mileage clubs and reward points for credit card spending are also examples of loyalty rewards.

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With the summer upon us, repair scams are in full swing.  These scams often target homeowners and involve home repair work of some kind.  Occasionally, the repair work is a pretext to gain access to the home. Following these tips can help you spot and avoid repair scams.

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The Consumer Federation of America says that one-third of all adults in the US have received a scam offer. The most common fraud is a “lottery” scam, in which the target is told that they have been selected as the grand prize winner in a lottery.  For those adults who actually fall for the scam, their monetary loss averages about  $3,000. Women over the age of 70 are the most likely targets of lottery frauds.

What is a lottery fraud scam and how can you avoid one?  Lottery scams are “advance fee” scams in which the target is told they’ve won the grand prize in a lottery – provided that they pay an up-front fee to “process” the winnings.

The scam artist may advance the target cash in the form of a check cover the cost of taxes, etc. and to reimburse the target for processing fees being sought. Upon receiving and depositing the check, the “winner” is instructed to write a personal check to pay the actual fees and taxes.   The lottery office check turns out to be bogus, while the check written by the victim is unfortunately very real.

The bottom line to avoiding this kind of fraud is to accept the following three facts.

You cannot win a lottery you did not enter.  Likewise, the odds of someone entering your name in a foreign lottery are probably even smaller than your odds of winning one.

It is illegal for US citizens to participate from within the US in gambling ventures operated in foreign countries. US citizens must be physically in a foreign country to participate in foreign gambling ventures.

In some countries, lottery drawings aren’t even legal.

If you’ve been told that you’re a winner on a lottery you’ve never heard of, don’t remember entering the lottery, or have no way to have purchased a foreign lottery ticket, (and you still believe you have a chance of being the winner) do a little research to see if you can find any information about the operation.

Find out if such a lottery exists; how participants enter the lottery; what kind of lottery it is; whether lottery proceeds are taxable, and how drawings are conducted.  Your research should quickly turn up details on the scam.

If you’re asked to pay a processing fee and the scam artist sends you an “advance payment” of any kind, you can rightfully assume that this isn’t legitimate.

Lottery scams are most attractive to older persons who may not be savvy enough to conduct the proper research. If you know of someone who may be a likely target, talk with them about these scams before they become involved in one.

The recession is keeping debt collectors busy, but debt collection scams are growing and are placing innocent consumers in a tough spot.  Being able to identify and avoid debt collection scams may be critical to preserving your credit rating.

Debt collectors may try to force the consumer to pay very old debts. Debt collection scam artists don’t want you to know this, but debts expire. Expired debt – debt which no one – not even the original creditor – possesses the right to collect can be “resurrected” by an unscrupulous debt collector that is using old account information purchased from the original creditor.

The right to collect debts varies by state, but it’s limit to somewhere between 3 and 15 years. Even if the debt collector has the right information about a debt, paying expired debt is a major mistake because it can allow the debt collector to re-report this defunct debt to the credit bureaus, allowing it to affect your credit for another seven years!

This “zombie debt” is legally uncollectable by anyone, yet the debt collector may approach a debtor for payment of expired debt.  The debt collection agency may apply high-pressure tactics to force the debtor to pay old debts.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act places restrictions on how debt collectors may operate; what they can say; when and where they can call you; and how they can communicate with you. So how do you handle pushy debt collectors?

Always verify that a debt is legitimate. Ask the collector to submit proof of the debt to you in writing. Here’s the catch: the proof of debt must come from the original creditor.  The original debtor must provide the date(s) the debt was incurred; the amount owed; and written acknowledgment that the debt collector is authorized to collect the debt.  If the debt collector is running a scam, they know that the original creditor won’t vouch for their debt collection right.

At the same time, directly contact the company the debt collector is supposedly representing to verify the status of your account. If the original creditor says the account was closed and you owe nothing, have them send you a written statement to that effect.

Send the debt collector a letter via certified mail stating that you do not owe the debt. State that they may not contact you by phone to attempt collections, and they may not report the false/expired debt to a credit bureau. If the collector continues to contact you, log all calls they place, noting time and date of call; the name of the caller or any messages they left.

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC does not pursue individual complaints, but they track complaint volumes about particular agencies and scams. The FTC can take action against a business for its business practices, and the more information they have about a scam artist, the easier it is for them to enforce the law.

Report the scam to your state Attorney General, and the Attorney General in the state in which the collection agency is located. Provide specific information about the company’s contacts with you, including dates, times, numbers of calls, and any abusive behavior on the part of the collector. Also provide information about the debt they are attempting to collect.

Get even more news and tips about scams and other business information at planet antares solutions.

Foreclosure can be a scary prospect, especially if you’ve recently lost your job or have other bills that are piling up.  Foreclosure is a process through which a bank or other lender takes possession of a property. Foreclosure occurs after a borrower has defaulted (failed to make payments) on a loan that the property secures.

Foreclosure has a very negative effect on a borrower’s credit rating. For awhile, foreclosure has nearly the same effect on personal credit that a bankruptcy does, but foreclosed borrowers may be eligible for a new mortgage within a few years of the foreclosure, compared to seven or ten years in bankruptcy proceedings. To avoid losing a home or ruining their credit, borrowers facing foreclosure may look for alternatives that may help them stay in their homes.

Enter the foreclosure prevention scams that on vulnerable homeowners with promises of foreclosure avoidance, lowered mortgage payments, forgiven mortgage debt and even credit repair. These scams often cost desperate homeowners thousands of dollars and eventually produce the exact situation the homeowner was trying to avoid: the loss of the home.

1. Understand who you’re dealing with.  If the “foreclosure expert” you’re dealing with doesn’t work with a non-profit organization, or isn’t approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), walk away.

2. Understand how much the service will cost and what you’re getting for your money.  Most non-profit, HUD-approved counselors charge nothing to the borrower facing foreclosure. Others charge a nominal fee.  Your costs shouldn’t reach into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. If a proposed foreclosure prevention plan requires payment, or worse, payment up front, you’re likely dealing with a disreputable firm.

3. Don’t re-route mortgage and/or tax payments on your property through a third party. Make mortgage and tax payments directly to the lender if you have an escrow account. If your taxes aren’t paid in escrow, pay your taxes through the municipal authority where your home is located.

4. Don’t sign anything without reading it.  Many “foreclosure prevention” schemes operate by convincing the owner to sign over the title to the home, most often to the foreclosure prevention company.  Your home’s mortgage and its title are two different things. Transferring title to the home doesn’t change your mortgage obligations in any way. Consult with an attorney before signing any documents related to the deed for the property.

5. Avoid foreclosure counselors who “guarantee” that they can stop the foreclosure process. The bank or mortgage lender has the ultimate power to initiate and stop foreclosure. No one else can make guarantees about the foreclosure process.