Your Better Business Bureau Serving Northwest Florida reports a busy year in 2009, with much of its activity focused on educating consumers to make wise buying and giving decisions in the marketplace and businesses to make wise management decisions to survive the tough economic times.
Last year, BBB|Northwest Florida provided nearly 185,000 “instances of service,” which includes everything from dispute resolution to providing BBB Reliability Reports on specific businesses and charities to offering rosters of all BBB Accredited Businesses within an industry to referring inquirers to government agencies or other organizations that might be able to assist.
Additionally, through the BBB Foundation Serving Northwest Florida, which supports BBB’s mission of an ethical marketplace though community education and recognition programs, reached nearly 4,900 additional individuals through one-on-one contact at expos, tradeshows, presentations and community service events such as the Secure Your ID Day shredding programs.
BBB|Northwest Florida also devoted a lot of time to helping businesses in northwest Florida, providing information about preparing their office for the H1N1 flu, charity giving in a down economy, boosting office morale and more.
BBB|Northwest Florida was honored to be nationally recognized for its efforts in the community by receiving two Outstanding BBB Awards: one for Outstanding Overall Communications and one for Outstanding Charity Review Program.
The year wasn’t all positive however.
Locally, BBB|Northwest Florida revoked the Accreditation of eleven businesses who unfortunately failed to meet BBB’s Standards for Trust during their Accreditation term.
Like BBBs throughout the U.S., BBB|Northwest Florida spent a great deal of time educating the public about a number of scams last year. “While many of the scams we saw last year are perennial problems,” said Norman Wright, president and CEO of your BBB|Northwest Florida, “some of the scams we saw last year were distinct both because of the economic climate and because scammers regularly took advantage of the top headlines in their schemes.”
In no particular order, here is a list of BBBs top scams and rip-offs that took advantage of consumers and small business owners across the U.S. in 2009:
- Acai supplements and other “free” trial offers – Falsely claiming an endorsement by Oprah, Rachel Ray and Dr. Oz and advertised on trusted Web sites of national news organizations, these marketing campaigns resulted in thousands of consumers complaining to BBB that the “free” trial actually cost them as much as hundreds of dollars, month after month.
- Stimulus/government grant scams – Even before President Obama announced the stimulus plan in February, scammers bombarded consumers and businesses with misleading offers of “free government money.”
- Robocalls – More than just a dinnertime interruption, robocalls claiming an auto warranty was about to expire or offering help reducing credit card interest rates prompted the FTC to increase restrictions on telemarketing calls.
- Lottery/sweepstakes scams – Who hasn’t “won” the Nigerian lottery? Letters claiming to be from foreign officials, Readers Digest or Publishers Clearing House include a check that supposedly has to be deposited into the “winner’s” account with a portion wired back to cover taxes or other bogus fees. Victims may wire the money, but of course, the prize never arrives.
- Job hunter scams – There could be a “Top 10“ list dedicated just to scams targeting job hunters. Some attempt to get access to personal information such as bank account and social security numbers; some require payment in order to be “considered” for a position; one claimed the employer had to check the victim’s credit report before hiring them, but was really a marketing ploy for an online credit monitoring service that charged the victim monthly.
- Google work from home scam – Using the well-known logos, countless Web sites claimed victims could make money working from home using Google or Twitter. Google and Twitter had nothing to do with the “job offer;” victims were just lured into another misleading free-trial offer.
- Mortgage foreclosure rescue/debt assistance – Scammers took advantage of some of the most desperate consumers by offering to save their house from foreclosure or help them get out of credit card debt. Unfortunately, the victims paid hundreds of dollars up front for the assistance they desperately needed but ultimately never received.
- Mystery shopping – A seemingly real check is mailed to “employees” to secret shop retail stores and wire transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram. Of course, the check is fake and the money wired – often thousands of dollars – goes directly to the scammers.
- Overpayment scams – Targeting those selling items in the classified ads or on sites such as Craigslist, scammers typically pretend to be a potential customer/renter/buyer who send a check for more than the asking price of the item. The scammer then asks the victim to wire the money back to the scammer or to a third party, such as a shipping company. The check is fake and the money wired simply goes to the scammers.
- Phishing e-mails/H1N1 spam – Phishing e-mails are nothing new. Phishing e-mails claiming to be from government agencies are nothing new. Phishing e-mails that appear to be from friends are nothing new. But they certainly remained rampant in 2009, seeking to obtain sensitive financial information, infect the victim’s computer or both. Spam is nothing new either. But spam e-mails selling wares claiming to prevent H1N1 were out in full force in 2009.
For additional information and advice you can trust in the New Year, start with bbb.org.
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