Posts Tagged ‘fraud’

Scam Week: Office Depot Rebate Scam

August 15th, 2008

In the third installment and final installment of Scam Week, we will discuss another rebate scam, this time at the hands of Office Depot. Earlier this summer, I purchased an HP LaserJet 3050 printer from Office Depot. The printer was on sale for $199.99, and there were two rebates of $100 each advertised in the store, which would make the printer free after the rebate. As this was an amazing deal, I jumped on it and submitted my two rebate requests.

One of the rebates came as promised, however it was clear from the beginning that there would be issues with the second. Once the rebate showed up on the rebate processor’s website, it sat in the processing stage for weeks with the notation “Error: Pending Verification”. After several weeks I called the rebate center and was told they would escalate the issue and to call back in a week. After a week in which the status changed to noncompliance, I called the rebate center back and was initially told again that they would escalate the issue and to call back in another week. Of course I wasn’t satisfied with that and when I escalated to a supervisor I was given a BS story that it was a system issue that would be resolved in a couple of days.

A week later when I receive a postcard stating that the rebate is in noncompliance and that I have until a certain date resolve the issue if I would like the rebate to be paid. So of course I call again, and again I am told by the first representative that they will escalate the issue and to call back in a week, and then I escalate to a supervisor who tells me that they aren’t sure I can claim two different rebates on the purchase of a single printer and that they will escalate the issue to the account manager, and finally I speak to the floor manager who flatly states that their policy is not to honor two rebate offers on a single item purchase and that although the rebates were advertised together only one would be paid. I asked for the address for their principal place of business (the rebate processor, not Office Depot), and they refused to even confirm what rebate fulfillment company they were and would only give me an address for the Office of the President of Office Depot. They also refused to escalate me to the next level supervisor and the manager I spoke to told me he was the highest authority I could speak to.

I contacted Office Depot customer service about the issue, however I have never received a reply. I used to consider Office Depot to be one of the best in terms of standing behind its advertised rebates. About four years ago I had a rebate offered through a manufacturer for an item sold at Office Depot that Office Depot was willing to pay after the manufacturer refused. However in the last two years or so there has been a definite change in the culture at Office Depot with regards to customer service and now if you do a rebate for a purchase from them you are pretty well assured that Office Depot will not help if something goes wrong. And in this instance the rebate was offered by Office Depot itself and not by the manufacturer. How disappointing!

At this point in my SlickDealing career I have only had three rebate deals that did not come through, and sadly two of them have been through Office Depot.  That is why I am so thankful that we are finally getting Staples here in Houston, so we can finally have an office supply store that provides good customer service unlike Office Depot and OfficeMax.

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Posted in Rebates, Scams

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Scam Week: National Service of Process (NSP)

August 12th, 2008

In our second installment of Scam Week, we go into the seedy underworld of abusive collection agencies. Now let me say that I fully support the collection agencies that act in an ethical and legal manner. In this country I feel a lot of times we discount the concept of personal responsibility, and legitimate collection agencies serve the valuable purpose of holding people accountable for their debts and helping businesses with legitimate claims to recover at least a portion of what they are owed. Unfortunately this company falls outside of the bounds of ethical and legal practice.

Our experience began a couple of weeks ago when we receive a call early on a Sunday morning. Being early we let the machine answer and the caller left a message for a family member that has never lived here and even has a different last name. The caller identified themselves as an investigator named “Morgan Stevens (Stephens)” representing a company referred to as NSP and was calling regarding a supposed civil complaint that was going to be filed against the family member. She left a callback number of 678-916-5965 and a case number. Knowing that the family member had never lived here and that any valid claim would need to be communicated in writing, we simply ignored the message.

Unfortunately this is not the last we would hear from this outfit. About a week later one mid-week evening they call us again, at which time my wife answered the phone. The caller again identified themselves as an investigator named “Morgan Stevens” with NSP and asked for our family member. When my wife informed them that the person did not live here, the caller was extremely pushing and inquired as to whether we knew the person and then whether we could give the person a message. After a few questions from my wife it was noted that the full name of the company was “National Service of Process” and that they would supposedly be filing a complaint in civil court if the underlying matter was not immediately resolved. The next night the same person called again and left a message on our machine asking for the family member and claiming that they would be filing their civil complaint if they were not contacted within 24 hours.

After discussing it within the family, we found out that we were not the only family members that had been contacted. And after doing a little bit of research, we found that this is apparently the company’s method of operation. For whatever reason, they get information on very old debts (which in most cases had been previously settled or were well beyond the time limitations to be reportable to credit reporting agencies) and then start contacting family members and associates of the person to pressure them into payment. So what’s the issue? Well, besides annoying us, they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on several points, namely:

  1. Debt collectors may not use harassment to encourage payment. For instance, debt collectors may not “repeatedly use the telephone to annoy someone.” Seeing that they have now called here three times and they have called other family members multiple times, they are certainly in violation on this point.
  2. Debt collectors may not use any false statements when collecting a debt. Debt collectors may not state that actions, such as a lawsuit, will be taken against you, which legally may not be taken, or which they do not intend to take. That NSP in this instance has never sent anything in writing to the family member in question indicates they have no intention of ever filing a lawsuit as they are threatening.
  3. Debt collectors may contact third parties, but only to gather information on how to contact you. They are not permitted to disclose that you owe money, nor are they generally permitted to contact a third party more than once. In this instance NSP did disclose that our family member owed money (indicated by the disclosure that a civil complaint would be filed) and contacted us three times, including once after we told them the family member didn’t live here and asking them not to call back.
  4. Debt collectors are not permitted to contact you at inconvenient times or places. Seeing that we were contact before 8:00am on a Sunday morning, this certainly qualifies.

What should you do if you or a family member are being harassed by an abusive debt collector? First, you should be familiar with your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. A great summary of your rights under the act can be found here. Secondly, be very cautious about what level of information you provide to a debt collector or someone who may be a debt collector. You have no obligation to answer any of their questions, and any and all information given to a debt collector can be used to pursue payment on the debt they are collecting. In this instance, I would recommend taking down the contact information and that’s it.

So what are others saying about National Service of Process (NSP)? You can check out their profile with an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB here, which indicates 7 unresolved complaints as of the writing of this post since the BBB open a file on them in June 2008. You can also see some raw comments on them at CallFerret, CallerComplaints.com, WhoCallsMe, PhoneOwner.info, WhoCalled.us, 800notes.com, and a write-up that indicates they are operating under even more aliases here.

There is also a great summary of the scam that was posted by a user on 800notes.com, which shows among other things that they are a just a front working out of a UPS Store mailbox in Georgia:

You have nothing to worry about; it’s a scam.

This scam operation calls from many numbers, most of which have a Georgia area code and have many complaints filed on 800Notes. Here’s all the information on these crooks: http://budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/cmc_recovery.htm

As Bud Hibbs’ report indicates, these crooks are actually in Buffalo, New York, operate under many dopey aliases (CMC Recovery, Claims America, RSI, National Service Processors, etc.) and falsely represent themselves as being physically located in Georgia.

There are two Georgia addresses associated with this scam. One address in Georgia — 5295 Stone Mountain Hwy, Stone Mountain, GA 30087 — is actually the location of a Mail Boxes, Etc. storefront. In other words, the RSI/Claims America scam’s Stone Mountain “office” is just a rented private mailbox.

The other Georgia address used by this scam is:

RSI Claims Process Services
2483 Heritage Village, Suite 16-324
Snellville, GA 30278
(404) 287-0204

Unsurprisingly, “Suite 16-324″ is not a suite but another rented private mailbox at The UPS Store in the Heritage Village shopping center:

The UPS Store
Heritage Village Shopping Center
2483 Heritage Village
Snellville, GA 30278
Phone: (770) 979-7011
Fax: (770) 979-5711
http://www.theupsstore.com/locations/locdet.asp?strCenterNum=MBE1063

So don’t let these scammers worry you. It’s a handful of petty grifters hiding out in Buffalo, NY trying to swindle you out of your money. Ignore their illegal threats and report their extortion attempts to the following:

1) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country’s financial infrastructure and payment systems. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book.

2) Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by an extortionist over the phone and give them all the details.

3) File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone. Be sure to tell them that you’re being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details.

4) These grifters maintain rented private mailboxes in Georgia and represent themselves as calling from Georgia, so file a complaint with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs here. 

5) These crooks are operating in New York and are associated with this address: 3835 Bailey Ave, Buffalo, NY 14226, so file a complaint with the New York New York Attorney General at http://www.oag.state.ny.us/complaints/complaints.html or 800-771-7755

6) File a complaint your state’s attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.naag.org

7) File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

In addition to reporting these thieves to law enforcement, you can also sue them. For more information on protecting yourself from crooked debt collectors and suing them, check out these websites:

http://www.naca.net/debt-collection-abuse/
http://attorneysforconsumers.com/
http://www.fairdebtlawyers.com/
http://www.myfairdebt.com/
http://www.consumercounselgroup.com/
http://www.westcoastlitigation.com/
http://www.theadvocateslaw.com/
http://www.budhibbs.com/First.htm
http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/
http://www.collectionstopper.com/

If these crooks call back, promise them nothing, pay them nothing and tell them nothing other than that you know they’re a scam and that you’ve reported them to law enforcement.

Hope this helps.

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Posted in Debt, Scams

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Scam Week: Sears/Dockers Rebate Scam

August 11th, 2008

Welcome to scam week here at CheapEncounters.com! This week I will be highlighting several scams that I have recently encountered that badly need to see the light of day. Some of my most memorable and popular posts have been about scams (see the FreeNEzy.com saga and the Reservations Rewards scam), so I thought it would be appropriate to revisit this very important topic.

The first scam I will highlight this week is the current debacle from the recent Sears and Dockers Fathers Day rebate offer. According to their initial press release, consumers would receive a $75 Shell gas card and a “$10 Sears Reward Card” for purchasing $100 in Dockers apparel items during the promotion period after mail-in rebate. Pretty sweet deal: spend $100 and get back $85. Understandably, many consumers took advantage of the deal (including myself), expecting to receive a $75 Shell gift card and a $10 Sears gift card.

Imagine our surprise when we get our rebate back with a $75 Shell gift card and a $10 Sears COUPON! Yes, instead of a gift card good on anything in the store or online and without expiration as alluded to in the press release announcing the deal, consumers received a crappy $10 off $50 purchase coupon. Not only does the coupon require a $50 purchase, the purchase must be from Men’s Apparel and made by 10/15/2008, and excludes “special purchases, Great Price items, Introductory Offers, Lands End merchandise, Levi’s (pretty ironic considering Dockers is a Levi’s brand), fragrances, Celestial Star diamonds, Sears.com, Kmart.com, Landsend.com, Sears Auctions on Ebay, outlet store purchases, catalog orders, gift cards, money orders, wire transfers and protection agreements.” Additionally the coupon cannot be combined with other coupons like a gift card could.

Needless to say I and many others who took part in this deal feel quite deceived by this and are pursuing Sears for our $10 gift cards. Initially some on SlickDeals reported they were able to call Sears Customer Service and get the gift card sent, but apparently Sears has now decided to deny these requests. One person has reported that they had success filing a BBB complaint over the matter, so that may be the way to go at this point. As for me, I am waiting for the submission in my wife’s name to come in so that I can try to take care of both $10 gift cards with one call and one BBB complaint. Also if the rebate doesn’t come it escalates the issue to another level.

Have you been scammed by Sears on this deal too? Leave us a comment here to share your story with the world, and then use the following contact information to let Sears and Levi Strauss know you aren’t taking their crap laying down!

Sears

1-800-549-4505
Email

Sears National Customer Relations
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Dockers

1-800-DOCKERS (1-800-362-5377)

Email form

Levi Strauss & Co.
Attn: Consumer Relations
1155 Battery St.
San Francisco, CA 94111

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Posted in Scams

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The Never-Ending Saga of FreeNEzy.com – A New Owner???

March 29th, 2008

4/22/08 Update:  The FreeNEzy.com website written about in this post appears to have been sold and under new management, as documented on this recent post. While this change in ownership does not change any of the events that have occurred previously with this site (and my friend never got his reward), there is currently no evidence we are aware of that the new owner has continued any of the fraudulent practices previously associated with the site. As always, use caution when dealing with this or any other site.

Long-time readers of this blog are familiar with the exploits of Mr. Vikram Jhaveri, founder of FreeNEzy.com. The whole thing started when Mr. Jhaveri decided to promote his site on the forums over at SlickDeals.net posing as an unaffiliated user. There is some question as to whether the site was actually ever legit or was a scam from the beginning, but after the posting of SlickDeals scores of users flooded the site, many of whom never received the items they had rightfully earned. A very close associate of the blog was one of those folks, which led me to post the story of the scam on this post in April 2007.

The posting went relatively unnoticed until September 2007 when someone purporting to be Mr. Jhaveri starting leaving comments on the original posting trying to justify himself. I posted a reply in the comments of that post which led to another reply, at which point I posted the string as a new post and left a challenge to Mr. Jhaveri to make my friend who is still waiting on his item whole by sending the item. The thought was that Mr. Jhaveri should have had all the information on past users of his site and know who he sent items to, so to fulfill the challenge he would have to make all the users whole since I did not divulge the user’s identity. Of course, still no item and no further reply.

I heard nothing else for about a month, when Mr. Jhaveri found my eBay username off a prior post and started sending me messages through eBay to lead me to believe he was offering other eBay users I had dealt with money for my identity and contact information, which I wrote about here. He pulled this stunt in early October, and then did a similar stunt in November.

Shortly afterwards he decided to list the site for sale on eBay, as posted about here. The asking price for the site at the time was $50,000. The listing I posted resulted in no sale, nor did a relist.

Well, this past week someone using the name Josh has started posting in the comments of the original posts both here and on the old Wordpress site the following:

I bought this website not long ago (freenezy). I definitely didn’t pay 50k for it. I paid much, much less. I wish I knew that it/it’s owner had this reputation before I bought it though, or I wouldn’t have bought it, obviously. Unfortunately, I didn’t come across this until now though, and it’s too late.

Anyway, it looks like I have a lot of work to do to rebuild the reputation of this site, and I intend to do just that. So for starters:

To the person who wrote this article, if you’d like to email me, I’ll gladly give you my phone number. You can then call me to confirm that I am not the previous owner, and that I have every intention to reward members when they complete the necessary requirements. I’ll even email you a scan of my driver’s license if that’s what it takes for you to believe that I am who I say I am.

An interesting development indeed, however I’ll be honest that I don’t completely trust it. Why? Several reasons:

  1. The FreeNEzy site looks exactly the same now as it did before. The page is still noted as being run by eJawab, Inc., which was/is Mr. Jhaveri’s company. The site also still notes that it is a California based student run organization and lists a PO Box in Chico, California as the mailing address for the site (Mr. Jhaveri was/is a student at a university in Chico).
  2. This person is inviting me to email him for proof of his identity. Considering that Mr. Jhaveri has tried in the past to learn my identity and contact information, this could very well just be a scheme on his part to get that info. Sorry, not gonna do it!
  3. Who in their right mind would buy a web site without even doing a Google search on the site’s name? My posts about this site are at the top of the second page of results for the term “freenezy.com”.

Here is what will convince me that the site was indeed sold:

  1. A scan of a signed document evidencing sale of the site from Mr. Jhaveri to a new owner.
  2. A copy of a canceled check or other proof of payment from the new owner to Mr. Jhaveri for the amount specified in the sales document.
  3. A scan of the ID of the new owner with the name matching that in the sales document.
  4. As new owner, what message you would like to give to those who are aware and may have been victims of the scams perpetrated through the FreeNEzy.com website.

If you have these things, you can reply back with a comment to this post. I have placed your IP and the name “Josh” on my list to hold for moderation, so any reply back would have to be approved by me to be visible on this site (Note: I did not do that on the old Wordpress site, so don’t post it over there). Place the document copies on the site of your choice and provide the link in your comment. You may black out ID numbers, account numbers, etc., but there must be enough information for me to have a reasonable certainty that you are who you claim to be. I reserve the right to post any documents provided as evidenced, however I will remove the names of individuals, account numbers, contact information, pictures, and the sales price before posting.

I will review any documents provided, and if your story checks out I will make a new posting stating that it is my opinion based on the documents provided that the site was in fact sold and that Mr. Jhaveri is no longer associated with the site. Additionally, I will post the message provided (within reason) in that post and provide a note on each of the prior posts where FreeNEzy.com is mentioned that the site was sold with a link to the new posting. I will not delete the prior posts because these are things that actually happened and there are lessons to be learned from those posts to protect oneself from other scams that may be out there, however each of those pages will have an explanatory note that the site discussed is under new ownership.

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Posted in GPT, Scams

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My brother-in-law’s trash feeds Mexico!

February 27th, 2008

Several months ago I posted about my brother-in-law’s refusal to shred his personal papers, including credit card statements. At the time I warned that he was just asking for trouble, and it looks like that trouble has finally hit. On one of the cards he rarely uses he suddenly noticed several charges on his account from Mexico. The unauthorized charges totaled over $1000, with the oddest charge being a charge for over $30 at Burger King. Thankfully he caught the charges early (even before his statement closed), so he was able to have the account shut down before much damage was done. He also isn’t responsible for any of the charges. He just has to identify the unauthorized charges on his next statement and complete an affidavit and the items will be taken off of his account.

So what does this incident teach us? A few things, some perhaps not so obvious:

  1. Obviously, you should shred your account statements and anything else with your account numbers or personal information. The most likely way that the thief got the account number was out of the trash, and a shredder is a simple way to prevent the theft of this information.
  2. It is important to monitor your accounts, even if you don’t use it that often. An easy way to do this is to use a Yodlee account aggregator service such as Fidelity Full View, where you can enter in all of your accounts and monitor activity from a single page. This is a must if you have several accounts at different banks to keep an eye on.
  3. One of the biggest advantages to credit cards is limited liability for fraudulent charges. For credit cards, consumer liability is limited to $50 for fraudulent charges, with most issuers offering zero liability for fraudulent charges. While the issue is being straightened out, you are not out any money. Compare that to a debit card, where the funds are immediately deducted from your checking account. Many banks will only credit your account for fraudulent charges once they complete their investigation, which may take days or even weeks. While you are waiting you don’t have use of your money and may even bounce checks because your funds aren’t available. That’s why I feel debit cards are one of the most dangerous products out there. On our main checking account we only have ATM cards which require a PIN to use (no signature based transactions allowed).

Perhaps now my brother-in-law will start shredding. Doubtful, but we can always hope.

On an admin note, apologies to my readers for the lack of posts over the last week. My latest client work assignment has been for a financial reporting group of a publicly traded company, so we have been working crazy hours preparing for the filing of the annual report. Hopefully things will get back to normal before much longer.

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Posted in Credit Cards, Crime, Tips

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