Open House & Mixer, September 4, Thursday, 5 pm

geoffrey — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:28:57 -0700

UCAN News

The Utility Consumers’ Action Network (UCAN)
Privacy Rights Clearing House (PRC)
New Media Rights
Fuel Tracker
Telenforcers

and the

San Diego Enviro Leader Network (SDELN)

are inviting you to a monthly mixer at their open house!

Thursday, September 4
5:00 – 7:00 pm or so

Light hors d’oeuvres, soda, beer & wine

Organization background:
Founded in 1983 by concerned

San Diego citizens, the Utility Consumers' Action Network, UCAN, was formed to protect consumers from utility and corporate abuse. Since that time, UCAN's not-for-profit legal team has saved

San Diego consumers billions of dollars in unfair utility rate hikes.

Today, UCAN brings legal actions, advocates policy initiatives, educates, and guards against corporate abuses in the energy, landline and wireless phone, internet, and gasoline industries, among many other areas. UCAN.org is the most visited consumer organization website of its kind on the Internet.

UCAN has been a fixture in protecting the rights of all

California consumers, repeatedly challenging the largest corporate interests and pursuing the most significant corporate abuses. UCAN aggressively intervenes on behalf of its members with utility and other disputes with companies. If you want to be a part of UCAN, JOIN or RENEW your membership now! You can also read more about our membership benefits.

In addition to its core advocacy work, UCAN also sponsors four affiliate organizations and projects, as listed above. Click on each logo to learn more. Common among them is the goal of safeguarding the rights of consumers in a complicated and corporate-dominated economy.

LOCATION:

Utility Consumers' Action Network
3100 5th Ave, Suite B
San Diego, CA 92103
(upstairs above the ‘Caliph Lounge’, at the corner of 5^5hand Redwood)

Map and aerial photo: http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=32.737933~-117.159786&style=h&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=6262255&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

On-street parking. Look for free (no meter) spaces on Redwood and Park Blvd. Meters run until 6 pm.

RSVP’s requested... you know how it is throwing a party! We need to know how much food and drink to prepare. Please call or email Laura Impastato at 619.696.6966 or laurai [at] ucan [dot] org

Join the SDELN network: Click on this SDELN-subscribe [at] yahoogroups [dot] com to subscribe to monthly calendar announcements and mixer invitations. You’ll be glad you did! Or, visit www.sdeln.org to get all the details.

Since 2001,

SDELN mixers have been a great way to mix and mingle with fellow enviros, as we get to know and learn from each other. Standard
SDELN mixer informal ‘rules’ apply:

Sharing            with No Lobbying
   Supporting         with No Brow-Beating
   Laughter           with No Shame
   Business Cards     but No Leafleting
   Cooperation        but No Petitions
   Fun                with No Compromise!
   Stand up and mix   no Sitting Down!

We hope to see you there!

Geoffrey

Property tax reassessment scam

janemorton — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:17:56 -0700

UCAN wants to know: Have you been contacted by a company that is offering to reassess the value of your property for a fee? Consumers should be aware the county will reassess property value for free. The company has a P.O. Box and goes by the name of "Property Tax Reassessment." The notice looks like it's an official government notification but it's not. If you have received a notice from this organization, did you ignore it, try to contact someone with the company or pay the fee? UCAN has received several calls from people who have received this notice. They have been advised to contact their tax consultant or the Attorney General's Office. They have also been told to call the District Attorney's Office if they would like to file a complaint. Read more

Cell phone users 'crammed' with unauthorized fees

Laura Impastato — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:19:16 -0700

UCAN In the Media

Unauthorized Mobile Content: Consumers are Fighting Back

San Diego, CA: It's called 'cramming' and it's got nothing to do with studying for an exam. Cramming is the latest catch phrase for unauthorized mobile content that shows up on your cell phone bill that you didn't authorize. You didn't order it, didn't ask for it, and didn't subscribe to it—at least knowingly. And yet you continue to get billed by a third party for something you hardly even know exists, let alone use.

Thankfully, people are fighting back. The proof is in the number of class action lawsuits that have been filed by mobile phone users fed up with unauthorized third-party billing, and last week a major announcement by AT&T Mobility that it would settle a group of class action suits, and issue refunds to consumers who are out-of-pocket for services they never used and didn’t want.

It's easy enough to do. According to the Utilities Consumers Action Network (UCAN), a not-for-profit advocacy group based in San Diego, a consumer can subscribe to everything from ring tones, to horoscopes to a joke-of-the-day and never know it. Perhaps you have filled out a form, or entered a contest that required the inclusion of your cell phone number.

This often happens with our kids, a popular target for these third-party hucksters. A constantly growing sector in cell phone usage, adolescents live on their cell phones and enter everything unless they are counseled not to.

Suddenly they, or you find that as a new subscriber for monthly ring tones, horoscopes, games or joke services you are suddenly paying a larger cell phone bill every month. This is because while you may have unwittingly subscribed to one of these third-party entities, it is your service provider who collects the money from you on their behalf.

Art Neill is an attorney with UCAN who has sued several cell phone providers with regard to incorrect billing, and unauthorized fees. He backs up the statement that signing up for such third-party services is so subtle, most have no idea they've done so. Now you're being billed for a $9.99 per month ring tone service you didn't ask for—and just try to get it cancelled.

Easier said than done, he says.

"People have to search and search to find out what the message code is to turn off a service. You should be able to call (to cancel), but I don't think it's as easy as that," Neill says. "What we find is, it often depends on who you get on the phone, how effective you are and how persistent you are, how persuasive you are."

Most third-party service providers hope that you won't notice an extra ten dollars on your cell bill. They're hoping that you won't be able to remember what is was for, but may assume that 'it must be necessary to my service if it is there,' and do nothing about it. Inaction could also be the result of sheer busy-ness, something that befalls most of us. You look at your phone bill and declare, "This doesn't look quite right." However you are far too busy to deal with it right now, and if you make a mental note to check into it later, justification of your cell phone bill may never happen at all.

If, and when you DO get around to looking into what appears to be an unauthorized billing for a service you do not use and did not want, they certainly don't make it any easier for you to cancel. That's the whole idea. Make it so difficult to cut the expense loose that you might just be inclined to say the hell with it.

However, those who have picked up the gauntlet and challenged the repugnant practice have helped to achieve the kinds of paybacks announced earlier this month when AT&T Mobility agreed to refund current, or former customers for unauthorized charges covering a period January 1st 2004 through May 30th of this year. Provided they have not received a refund from a third party, affected consumers can claim up to three of their monthly bills during the claims period.

Meantime cramming will continue, and Sue Macomber of UCAN advocates that consumers watch their cell phone bills like a hawk, and dispute any charge that you did not knowingly authorize. Even an amount as little as $3 should be disputed. Macomber says third party content providers should be contacted, and asked in no uncertain terms that the charges—and the unwanted service—be removed.

She says it's also best to send a letter by registered mail to your cell phone service provider, detailing the charges and the unwanted services. A written letter, for which you should arrange for proof of receipt, is a good way to officially log your complaint with your cell phone service provider.

And don't stop there. Give them a deadline, she says. Ask when you can expect to hear their reply, or to see the charges (and the service) removed. Be polite, but persistent. Take no prisoners, and don't take no for an answer.

It's a jungle out there…

SOURCE: lawyersandsettlements.com

Consumers can get their money back on fake "miracle" cold remedy Airborne in false advertising lawsuit settlement

art neill — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:15:01 -0800

Consumers who bought the cold remedy Airborne, and related products, between May 1, 2001, and November 29, 2007, can get their money back. Simply visit airbornesettlement.com to make your claim, I just did, and I'll give an update on the results. You can file a complaint online or print and send a claim form, but you'll want to rack your brain and try to remember...

The store from which you bought the product(s),
The amount you spent on the product(s).
The city in which you bought the product.
The type of product you bought

According to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, the company that made Airborne "settled a lawsuit brought by customers who were upset to learn that the 'clinical trials' that proved that it worked were faked. If you bought any of this snake-oil, you can get some money back.

Boing Boing points to the Lede blog from the NY Times, which reports that

"Under the agreement, a special Web site was created here to accept claims from customers, who have spent far more than $23.3 million on the range of Airborne products, from Airborne On-the-Go and Airborne Nighttime to Airborne Gummi and Airborne Power Pixies, which is sweetened for children..."

Debt Elimination Scam

ucansue — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:49:59 -0800

As if losing homes to predatory lenders isn't bad enough, there are Internet scam artists ready to help the rest of us eliminate debt with "legal" ways to dispose of mortgage loans or credit card debt. The most frequent method is asking the victim to send between $1200 to about $2,000 to the scam artist, along with all the loan information particulars tha contain all of your personal information. These predators then require a special power of attorney authorizing the victim to enter into transactions regarding the title of the homes on their behalf. The scam artist proceeds to issue bonds and promissory notes to the lenders that purport to legally satisfy the debts of the victim. . In exchange, the victim is then required to pay a certain percentage of the value of the satisfied debts to the "scammer". The risk for identity theft is drastically increased because victims have provided all of their peronsal information to the scam artists.

You can file complaints with the FBI at http://www.fbi.gov/ and with the National White Collar Crime Center at http://www.nw3c.org/ if you, a friend or relative has fallen victim to a debt collection scam. This alert is close to me because a dear friend who was housebound due to illness, fell prey to Internet cyber crime.

Free investment seminars pick senior citizens' pockets

Laura Impastato — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:54:36 -0700

You’ve heard the saying: “There’s no free lunch.” Well, that is turning out to be true for many of the nation’s senior citizens who are being courted by investment firms in the form of free meals or free “educational” events that end up being mere sales pitches for their investment products.

This problem has become so pervasive that The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and AARP held a “Senior Summit” to focus on these practices that, in some cases, have left seniors with full stomachs but empty pockets.

Why are senior investors such attractive targets for these schemes? The Associated Press reports that an estimated $16 TRILLION -- three quarters of the nation’s consumer financial assets -- is held by households headed by persons 50 and older.

The SEC, now on full alert about the growing problem in California and other states where there are large numbers of retirees, has put together the following tips for seniors to consider before exposing their hard-earned money to possible investment fraud. Investors will find more valuable information by going to the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov

Seniors — Beware of Investment Seminars
No Free Lunches

INVESTMENT SEMINARS ARE DESIGNED TO SELL

Although you have been invited to an “educational” program or investment “workshop,” never lose sight of the fact that the sponsor's goal is to sell investment products to new customers. Don't be taken in by laims of “urgency” or “limited space availability" for the seminar.

BE ALERT TO POSSIBLE SCAMS

Investment seminars are legitimate sales practices. However, some seminars may involve fraudulent sales practices such as sales of fictitious products and outrageous misrepresentations of risk and return. You should always thoroughly check any product before investing.

THE SEMINAR'S SPEAKERS MAY BE BIASED IN THEIR PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

Although seminar solicitations generally focus on the speakers, they may not include the name of the firm or product sponsors. Product sponsors, like mutual fund companies or insurance companies, may fund the seminar with the expectation that their products will be sold to the attendees. Always get a disclosure about any products that you are thinking about purchasing, including information on fees paid by the product sponsor.

ADVERTISING AND SALES MATERIALS MAY BE MISLEADING

Advertising and sales materials may include misleading or exaggerated statements about the safety, liquidity or anticipated rates of returns. Sales materials also may make comparisons between dissimilar investments or services. Some firms fail to disclose that they have paid for positive testimonials from other customers.

“EXPERTS” MAY MISREPRESENT THEIR QUALIFICATIONS

The education, experience, and other requirements for receiving and maintaining a "senior" designation vary greatly and in some cases may be a marketing tool. Always thoroughly evaluate the background of any financial adviser before you hand over your hard-earned money.

PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS MUST BE SUITABLE FOR YOU

Products are not “one size fits all.” Make sure that any investment you make meets your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizons.

DON'T BE A VICTIM OF “BAIT AND SWITCH” TACTICS

Unfortunately, too many seniors have replaced existing investments with investments that are unsuitable or have steep sales commissions, high surrender charges or tax consequences.

Source: “Protecting Senior Investors: Report of Examinations of Securities Firms Providing 'Free Lunch' Sales Seminars.” (Joint Report of SEC, NASAA, and FINRA, September 2007)

How to spot fake "green" cleaning products

Charles Langley — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:08:31 -0700

UCAN In the Media

ECO-Friendly, or ECO Farce?

	360065 [at] video [dot] fox6 [dot] com">Watch This Video
	Clean and Green
	Eco-Friendly Cleaning Tips

Vistit FOX NEWS

Eco-friendly or Eco-farce? The latest
eco-friendly trend of cleaning green
comes without regulation, so it can be
difficult for consumers to know if the
products they are buying are better
for the environment or not.

"Eco-friendly doesn't mean anything...
unfortunately marketers have figured
out that people are willing to pay a
premium, a little more, if it says eco
on it. So sometimes it does even though
it may not be ecofriendly at all," says
consumer advocate Michael Shames of
UCAN.

It can be difficult to tell if the products
are environmentally friendly even by
looking at the ingredients on the label.
Just because a product had natural oils
or juices doesn't mean it has a softer
impact on the environment.

Consumer advocates say if the label indicates the product is non-toxic it's better for the environment. Stores like
Whole Foods have done the homework for you. So you don't have to read the labels.

The eco-friendly products can be a little pricier than their more stringent chemical based products. But you don't have to pay more to go green.

"It's as simple as these basic organic materials," says Jimme Rogers of Whole Foods. "Lemon juice on the countertops, olive oil on your furniture. There's all kinds of alternatives. We've got baking soda that's good for cleaning glass especially for your coffee pot."

If you are going to take a chance on eco-friendly products, consumer advocates say it's truly a case of buyer beware.

Domain Registry of America scam

brandon — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:25:08 -0700

I recently received a deceptive notice from Domain Registry of America (see image to the left). The "notice," which looks more like a bill than a notice, gives the impression that a domain I own is about to expire and must be renewed. Domain Registry of America's notice informed me that, "Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web." OK. That's very thoughtful, but my domain doesn't expire until November. Why is Domain Registry of America only giving me until July 23 to reply? Well, mostly because it's a scam.

The scam is nothing new. In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission slapped the Canada-based Domain Registry of America (DROA) on its wrists for:

misleading consumers into thinking that they are renewing their registrations with their current registrar when, instead, they are transferring their registrations to DROA's registrar, eNom.
failing to disclose a $4.50 processing fee for any transfer requests that are not completed, even when the failure occurs without any fault of the consumers.
failing to issue promised refunds in a timely manner, in violation of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), sometimes delaying refunds for months.

On top of Domain Registry of America's deceptive practices, its domain prices are outrageous (sometimes 2 to 3 times higher than the industry norm). If you receive a notice from Domain Registry of America, DO NOT SEND MONEY. It is a scam.

Caller ID Scam Using Fake Phone Numbers to "Spoof"

ucansue — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:48:07 -0700

There are Internet sites like www.SpoofCard.com or www.itellas.com where anyone can buy a prepaid calling card. This prepaid calling card has special features to hide the real identity of the caller. There are Federal regulations prohibiting the use of this technology by telemarketers and debt collectors. This service is also a stalker's dream and a victim's nightmare. Who else but telemarketers, debt collectors, scam artists trying to get your personal information and stalkers trying to harrass you, would need this type of service? Even though it is said that the service is for Law Enforcement, Skip Tracers, Private Investigators, etc., everyone knows that these professionals have other means to accomplish the same goal. The "Spoofer" is also able to change his/her voice to be a man or a woman and not sound like a recording. With a "Spoof" call, *69 (Call Return), *57 (Call Trace), and Anonymous Call features to typically provide you with information, do not work.

The people or companies using this service are able to send any number to your Caller ID. As a victim of identity theft, I received calls where total strangers pretended to be someone else and were demanding my date of birth, social security number, current and previous addresses and my mother's maiden name. One call came from a 512 area code and turned out to be the Secretary of State Comtroller Office for Texas to gather information for taxes. There is no state tax in Texas! Another call was a law firm in Tampa, Florida calling to collect debts on three credit cards. Again, personal information was requested including my bank account number. As a victim of ID theft, I did not take the threat of a major lawsuit or the threat of taking my home lightly. These scam artists fortunately said I owed on 3 cards that I had never used or ordered and that were already removed from my credit history as part of the ID theft.

The attempt to personally violate others is inexcusable and reflects the lowest form of human character. Now that a legislator was "spoofed", laws against the companies providing the service are being enacted. If problems had resulted for regular consumers like you and me, there is no telling how long this practice would have continued.

859-212-1501 or 859-212-1502 Spanish-speaking telemarketing calls

ucansue — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:25:21 -0700

Consumers are receiving a pre-recorded message in Spanish claiming that they have won a prize. If you respond as an English-speaker, you are immediately disconnected. Spanish-speaking callers are told that they have won a free Mexican vacation if they are able to get through to the 859 phone numbers.

As with all of these types of offers, there's always a "Gotcha". The best way to stop this practice is to file complaints with the Federal Trade commission (FTC) at www.ftc.gov. This federal agency responds to the quantity of complaints received for a single issue. Therefore, you will help yourself and others by filing an online complaint ASAP.