The following is from the Better Business Bureau web site:
During the U.S. Census, households will be contacted by mail, telephone or visited by a U.S. Census worker who will inquire about the number of people living in the house. Unfortunately, people may also be contacted by scammers, who impersonate Census workers to get access to banking and financial information. Law enforcement in several states have issued warnings that scammers are already posing as Census Bureau employees and knocking on doors asking for donations and Social Security numbers.
The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:
If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don’t know into your home.
Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census. Census workers will not ask for banking and financial information nor will they solicit donations.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by e-mail, so be on the look out for e-mail scams impersonating the Census. Never click on a link or open any attachments in an e-mail that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Friday, July 24, 2009
Cash for Clunkers scam
“A new federal program designed to help consumers buy more fuel-efficient vehicles is triggering new scams. The program, known as the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), provides $3,500 or $4,500 credits to consumers who trade in less fuel-efficient cars or trucks that meet certain qualifications. CARS is scheduled to begin in late July, but related scams are appearing already.”
That's from an alert sent a few days ago by Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray.
“Cash for Clunkers” web sites are already appearing. They claim consumers need to register for the program, which isn’t true, and some seek consumers’ personal information including Social Security numbers.
There is more information on CARS at www.cars.gov or at 866 227-7891.
That's from an alert sent a few days ago by Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray.
“Cash for Clunkers” web sites are already appearing. They claim consumers need to register for the program, which isn’t true, and some seek consumers’ personal information including Social Security numbers.
There is more information on CARS at www.cars.gov or at 866 227-7891.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
For legal hypocrisy, Ohio is a winner
For proof of the rampant hypocrisy in the laws of Ohio, consider the 55-mph truck speed limit. It makes no sense and is never enforced. What IS that about anyway?
Notice how lawmakers have cornered the gambling-profits market. No games of chance for the private profiteer, only the government profiteers, thank you.
And booze. "State minimum prices" is the biggest laugh ever. What business has government to organize all booze merchants into legalized price-fixing? And then dictate what hours they may serve, just in case a few merchants don't get a profit advantage by working longer hours?
State government's prize cash cow is its confiscation of the market for hard booze, so that only government may grow really fat and silly on the profits therefrom.
Funny that these hypocrisies are never discussed, never come up for re-consideration. They just are, and apparently always will be.
Notice how lawmakers have cornered the gambling-profits market. No games of chance for the private profiteer, only the government profiteers, thank you.
And booze. "State minimum prices" is the biggest laugh ever. What business has government to organize all booze merchants into legalized price-fixing? And then dictate what hours they may serve, just in case a few merchants don't get a profit advantage by working longer hours?
State government's prize cash cow is its confiscation of the market for hard booze, so that only government may grow really fat and silly on the profits therefrom.
Funny that these hypocrisies are never discussed, never come up for re-consideration. They just are, and apparently always will be.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Riding to the hospital with your city employees: Bend over taxpayer ...
On Saturday (7/7/07) it was announced in The Advocate that Newark City Council's million-dollar plan to create free money got its first reality check.
The plan was to bill citizens' insurance companies when these taxpayers are transported to the hospital by city employees using city equipment all of which has been paid for by Newark citizens.
This Mayor/Council scam has repeatedly said and/or implied that only the insurance companies would have to pay and therefore would not cost citizens more money; those without insurance wouldn't be billed.
Oops! Bend over, taxpayer. This was wrong. Turns out they will be billed.
Moreover, it was repeatedly promised that, even if bills were sent to the uninsured, the billing would be "soft" billing, meaning that the bills wouldn't have to be paid; that three bills would be sent and but no collection effort would be made.
Oops! Please bend over again, citizen. This was a mistake. What's really going to happen is that there will be a genuine collection effort made unless the citizen reports to the Safety Director and proves he is impoverished.
Likely the poor folks who need this service most will never know about any of this. They'll just pay - through the nose - for an expensive service - which, for their entire working years in Newark, they've already paid.
How could such a terrible mistake occur only to be discovered after the plan was passed by council and billing had begun? Listen to Kathleen Barch, safety director: "We ... revisited the ordinance, as council has established how billing protocol was to be established. This basically addresses what council's wishes were."
But hey, this is played as a mystery to Bob Diebold, councilman-at-large and mayoral candidate. "That's what was passed by city council," Diebold said. "I didn't know how they made the change, when it was passed by council." You, Bob, the chief proponent of this plan, don't know how THEY made the change? If that's true, you're not a reliable councilman. If it's not true, you're not a trustworthy councilman.
And don't you just love it when Mayor Bain says, in the Advocate report, "he's not in favor of aggressively pursuing uninsured residents to pay the bill. 'They'll get billed, and then we'll decide what to do with it. We are not about stopping service to you if you don't have insurance or taking money from you if you can't afford it.'"
Yes, mayor. We can certainly trust you on this one too.
By the way, this concept of "soft billing" is completely over the edge and only double-talking politicians would consider such a scam in the first place. Either a bill is a bill or it's smoke and mirrors.
Well, that's one crock of crap that's already started to smell. Now, wait until these already-unaffordable health insurance bills reach the mailboxes of Newark taxpayers. City Hall scam artists have been ignoring the fact that insurance companies do not give money to cities, as has been their implication.
The bills to citizens reflecting the Bain/Council million-dollar bonanza probably won't arrive in the mail for several months. As any good politician in Newark knows, citizens aren't smart enough to make the connection or retentive enough to take it with them to the ballot box. Or are they?
The plan was to bill citizens' insurance companies when these taxpayers are transported to the hospital by city employees using city equipment all of which has been paid for by Newark citizens.
This Mayor/Council scam has repeatedly said and/or implied that only the insurance companies would have to pay and therefore would not cost citizens more money; those without insurance wouldn't be billed.
Oops! Bend over, taxpayer. This was wrong. Turns out they will be billed.
Moreover, it was repeatedly promised that, even if bills were sent to the uninsured, the billing would be "soft" billing, meaning that the bills wouldn't have to be paid; that three bills would be sent and but no collection effort would be made.
Oops! Please bend over again, citizen. This was a mistake. What's really going to happen is that there will be a genuine collection effort made unless the citizen reports to the Safety Director and proves he is impoverished.
Likely the poor folks who need this service most will never know about any of this. They'll just pay - through the nose - for an expensive service - which, for their entire working years in Newark, they've already paid.
How could such a terrible mistake occur only to be discovered after the plan was passed by council and billing had begun? Listen to Kathleen Barch, safety director: "We ... revisited the ordinance, as council has established how billing protocol was to be established. This basically addresses what council's wishes were."
But hey, this is played as a mystery to Bob Diebold, councilman-at-large and mayoral candidate. "That's what was passed by city council," Diebold said. "I didn't know how they made the change, when it was passed by council." You, Bob, the chief proponent of this plan, don't know how THEY made the change? If that's true, you're not a reliable councilman. If it's not true, you're not a trustworthy councilman.
And don't you just love it when Mayor Bain says, in the Advocate report, "he's not in favor of aggressively pursuing uninsured residents to pay the bill. 'They'll get billed, and then we'll decide what to do with it. We are not about stopping service to you if you don't have insurance or taking money from you if you can't afford it.'"
Yes, mayor. We can certainly trust you on this one too.
By the way, this concept of "soft billing" is completely over the edge and only double-talking politicians would consider such a scam in the first place. Either a bill is a bill or it's smoke and mirrors.
Well, that's one crock of crap that's already started to smell. Now, wait until these already-unaffordable health insurance bills reach the mailboxes of Newark taxpayers. City Hall scam artists have been ignoring the fact that insurance companies do not give money to cities, as has been their implication.
The bills to citizens reflecting the Bain/Council million-dollar bonanza probably won't arrive in the mail for several months. As any good politician in Newark knows, citizens aren't smart enough to make the connection or retentive enough to take it with them to the ballot box. Or are they?
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Knee-jerk government in its finest hour: Brand-new government-paid slum turf
A photo report: slum turf rising from the weedy lots of East Newark
On August 24, 2006, I wrote at Newark Tea Party that when historians look back at the activities of the present Newark City government they are apt to name it the "Knee-Jerk Era." No activity (except perhaps the act of double charging Newark citizens for Emergency Squad services) more clearly illustrates Knee-Jerking than city government's approval of a Columbus developer using tax credits to build lousy houses on lousy lots in the lousy sections of town. This is brand new squalor, but hey, it's obviously profitable for someone. Bet on this: it isn't profitable for Newark's long haul, and it isn't now or in the future going to be profitable for taxpayers.
You don't build stuff like this - maybe the last sort of real estate investment anyone would consider - unless you're a developer in cahoots with deep-pocketed government bureaucrats.
I wrote here earlier that some or all of the houses will be on sub-standard lots with gravel driveways which have no walkways to the house, according to comments reported by Gannett. Thus will financially disabled families be able to afford to rent these houses for 15 years before buying them, likely using government subsidies for all or most of their expenses, including rent payments.
There has been no public discussion that I know of about who is going to manage this potential brand-new slum turf or to what standards that management will be held. There was no report, to my recollection, about whose idea this was, how it got as far as it did without public discussion, and exactly who are the local profiteers. Neither has there been any public dialog about how long the developer, The Woda Group, is going to be in business around here, or anywhere, and what's going to happen to these places if present developers abandon them after they're built.
In fact, there was no public discussion of any kind. It just went through government gatekeepers and developers and here it is.
Knee-jerk government in its finest hour.
On August 24, 2006, I wrote at Newark Tea Party that when historians look back at the activities of the present Newark City government they are apt to name it the "Knee-Jerk Era." No activity (except perhaps the act of double charging Newark citizens for Emergency Squad services) more clearly illustrates Knee-Jerking than city government's approval of a Columbus developer using tax credits to build lousy houses on lousy lots in the lousy sections of town. This is brand new squalor, but hey, it's obviously profitable for someone. Bet on this: it isn't profitable for Newark's long haul, and it isn't now or in the future going to be profitable for taxpayers.
You don't build stuff like this - maybe the last sort of real estate investment anyone would consider - unless you're a developer in cahoots with deep-pocketed government bureaucrats.
I wrote here earlier that some or all of the houses will be on sub-standard lots with gravel driveways which have no walkways to the house, according to comments reported by Gannett. Thus will financially disabled families be able to afford to rent these houses for 15 years before buying them, likely using government subsidies for all or most of their expenses, including rent payments.
There has been no public discussion that I know of about who is going to manage this potential brand-new slum turf or to what standards that management will be held. There was no report, to my recollection, about whose idea this was, how it got as far as it did without public discussion, and exactly who are the local profiteers. Neither has there been any public dialog about how long the developer, The Woda Group, is going to be in business around here, or anywhere, and what's going to happen to these places if present developers abandon them after they're built.
In fact, there was no public discussion of any kind. It just went through government gatekeepers and developers and here it is.
Knee-jerk government in its finest hour.
Friday, May 4, 2007
New age snake oil
That redish ring is a part for an American Standard Champion toilet. It was photographed beside a washbasin drain so you can see how big it is.
Not even as complex as a canning jar rubber, that little ring began leaking before the toilet was two years old and costs $30 if you buy it in a plumbing supply store.
Leaking is a major complaint with this model - from the little rubber ring and also from where the tank attaches to the base.
This was the wonder toilet of the new age, or so it was implied by the ads which showed buckets of golf balls being flushed, in case you ever eat buckets of golf balls. This is the toilet later described on a toilet chat board as a "piece of shit."
That a manufacturer would put a certain-to-fail gasket in a toilet and then charge $30 for a new one is committing the same merchandising scam as Maytag with its $40 refrigerator water filter and as Hewlett-Packard with its $30 ink cartridges; same with expensive razor blades, batteries, Playstation games and many other snake-oil-level products of the new age.
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