Class Action Claims by Customer

Class action lawsuits are a powerful weapon on the side of the customers. These are a unite kind of lawsuits that increase the chances of a settlement that favors the customer. There are filed by multiple victims of the company who have faced the same kind of problems. This is very useful for customers when a large number of people are involved and have suffered damages.

When a single customer files a law suit against a company, she is not able to compete with the corporation against the high cost involved to spend on lawyers and other costs. The stingy nature of corporations is just too tough to beat for individual class action lawsuits even if the company knows that it is wrong. It will find a fault of the customer in some way or the other and wiggle out of the problem. It is just not worth it to go along with lawsuit like this when one can go for a class action lawsuit instead. In a class action lawsuit, an attorney will invite all people affected by the same problem from the same company to join the lawsuit without hiring lawyers for themselves.

There are various types of lawsuits which relate to Design defects in products that cause harm, manufacturing defects, price fixing, warranty frauds, fraudulent overcharging, insurance fraud, discriminatory business practices, illegal fees imposed, fraudulent marketing tactics and other are all part of class action lawsuits. If you have been a victim of such a fraud by any company, then you can go for class action lawsuits. Most people wait for other people with similar problems to file a class action lawsuit only after the judge has given permission to do so. Some lawyers specialize in class action lawsuits; make sure you find the right lawyers who are experts in handling mass lawsuits and who have won money to their customers before.

Filed Under: Business Scam, Consumer Affairs | Tagged: Tagged With: , , ,

Identity Theft and President Bush

During his eight years in the office as the President of the Unites States, George W Bush has been criticized profusely for a number of issues. From issues that range from how he handled the economy to the issues of the Iraq war. During his rule, the cases of Identity theft have increased by a huge number which has pushed Bush to pass on many acts to make identity theft cases fewer.

The identity theft criminals are well equipped and the people who fall for identity theft cases are incredibly stupid. This makes the part of stopping crimes that much harder for the governments. During President Bush’s rule, the cases of identity theft have increased by 40 percent. Almost half of consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission are related to identity theft. Social security numbers are used by majority of Identity Thieves. Crimes involving social security number have increased by 500 percent. By 2002 the cases of identity thefts had caused losses worth $1 billion for the banking industry. On an average $18,000 was lost by every victim of Identity theft. Even after this huge number of identity losses, only three people were convicted of identity theft crime.

President bush has passed the The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in 2003 which has helped to a certain degree with solving problems of identity theft. This act orders all online merchants to delete all credit card information from these online business transaction systems. Only the last five digits can be saved and used by the merchants for detection purposes. This act also provided customers with a system of saving all information that can be used by criminals safely. Another act passed by Bush was the Identity Theft Penalty that charges criminals according to the crime they have committed. This act has also been useful in spreading more information about this law among people and pushed people to report if they have ever been criminals of identity theft. It can be said that president bush has done whatever he could, but only one person has been charged till now.

Filed Under: Consumer Affairs, General | Tagged: Tagged With: , , , , ,

Health Care Insurance Fraud

Health care fraud is big business these days and it doesn’t receive the attention it should. We like to think of doctors as above reproach but, sadly, this is not always the case.

Here are just a few examples of health care provider fraud:

  • Upcoding: Billing for a more costlier service than provided.
  • Unbundling: Charging individually for procedures that are actually part of a single procedure.
  • Rent-a-patient: This popular scam involves paying a kickback to a patient for unnecessary treatment.
  • Unnecessary treatment: Self-explanatory.  This may include surgeries, therapy, tests and other procedures.
  • Phantom billing: Adding charges to a claim for services never performed.
  • Misrepresenting services: If services are not covered under an insurance policy, the provider may bill them as something else. Cosmetic surgery is particularly notorious for this. For example, nose jobs are often billed as deviated septum surgeries and tummy tucks as hernia surgeries.
  • Treatment from unqualified providers: This is far more common than most people realize. Medical professionals are often complicit in this scam. For example, a dentist allows someone else to bill for fillings or extractions and use his or her tax identification number to ensure the claim will be paid.

Patients also participate in insurance fraud.

  • Identity theft: This is using another person’s health insurance card or identification to obtain healthcare or other services or to impersonate that individual.
  • Doctor shopping: Changing doctors frequently or seeing multiple doctors at the same time to obtain multiple prescriptions for controlled substances.
  • Assignment of benefits: If the assignment of benefits box on a claim form is signed, payment goes to the provider. Otherwise payment is sent to the patient. Some patients will send a claim to an insurance company and then not reimburse the provider.

There is also doctor/patient collusion in which the provider and patient are working the scam together.

Filed Under: Consumer Affairs, General | Tagged: Tagged With: , , , ,

419 and Advance Fee Fraud

Even with the most aggressive spam filter, chances are a few 419 or other advance fee emails slip through. You can’t help but wonder, “Do people really fall for this?” Even without the embarrassingly bad grammar, 419 schemes  are so well known to the public these days that it should be impossible for fraudsters to make any money at all. So how is it worth their while?

Like so many other businesses, the answer is: bulk. These schemes are the internet equivalent of carpet bombing. There was a time when con-men had to be smart to survive. To get someone to part with their money, they had to be clever and charismatic. Sadly, the days of “Professor Harold Hill” are over. Nowadays, all it takes is a computer and a list of email addresses. Send out thousands of emails like the one above and, statistically, you’re bound to hit a target. Sadly, these targets are often the elderly, who tend not to be computer savvy.

Because these scams often originate in countries with lax attitudes towards fraud, money will likely never be recovered. The only real solution is education and prevention

Some people have found another way to turn the tables on scammers. Called scambaiters, they respond to these emails, pretending to have fallen for the scam. They offer to send money but first ask the scammers to perform some task or tasks first, “as a show of good faith.” This sort of thing rarely leads to an arrest. The real purpose is to waste the scammers time and, if possible, humiliate him in the process. One scammer was asked to take a picture of himself pouring a glass of milk on his head. He did and the scambaiter promptly posted the picture on his website. It seems some scammers aren’t any smarter than their victims.

Filed Under: Consumer Affairs | Tagged: Tagged With:
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