NCL grooming a new generation of savvy consumers during NCPW and year-round – National Consumers League

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March 7, 2010

Contact: (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC – With the focus of this year’s National Consumer Protection Week (March 7-13) highlighting consumer education for every age – from grade school to retirement – the National Consumers League is reminding consumers, especially the youngest ones, that it pays to be “LifeSmart.” NCL, an official partner of NCPW, along with federal government agencies and other consumer organizations, runs LifeSmarts (www.lifesmarts.org), a national program for high school and middle school youth that tests students in grades 7-12 with questions about real-life marketplace issues ranging from personal finance, health and safety, the environment, technology, and consumer rights and responsibilities. So far in this 2009-2010 season, the program has recorded the highest numbers ever in its 16-year history.

What better time than National Consumer Protection Week for consumers to learn ways to manage their money wisely, protect themselves from scams, and be smart about credit,” said Lisa Hertzberg, program director of LifeSmarts. “We encourage consumers of all ages to visit the official NCPW Web site—and to log on to www.lifesmarts.org to get involved in LifeSmarts.”

The LifeSmarts competition begins online at the state level, where young consumers form teams and compete for spots at state championships across the country. State champions will go on to attend the National LifeSmarts competition in Miami, April 24-27.

“The current marketplace is a challenge for adult consumers,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “But at younger and younger ages, children are having an influence on how their families spend money.  Our LifeSmarts program, and the many resources offered by NCPW partners this year, recognize that we need to start educating our consumers when they are young. NCL is delighted to be a part of the official NCPW Steering Committee.”

During NCPW, consumer advocates join with federal, state, and local government agencies to devote a week to raising awareness about today’s consumers’ issues. This year’s efforts include free online resources, which can help consumers protect their privacy, manage money and debt, avoid identity theft, understand credit and mortgages, and steer clear of frauds and scams.

To learn more about the LifeSmarts program, contact Hertzberg at the National Consumers League at (202) 835-3323 or lisah@nclnet.org or visit www.lifesmarts.org.

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About the National Consumers League

Founded in 1899, the National Consumers League is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Its mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Avoiding online car buying scams – National Consumers League

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When it comes time to buy a car, consumers are more empowered than ever thanks in large part to the Internet and its offerings of car reviews, online vehicle history reports, detailed car listings, and more. The Internet has also, unfortunately, given scammers a new venue to find auto-buying victims.When it comes time to buy a car, consumers are more empowered than ever thanks in large part to the Internet and its offerings of car reviews, online vehicle history reports, detailed car listings, and more. The Internet has also, unfortunately, given scammers a new venue to find auto-buying victims.

One car-buying venue that consumers are increasingly turning to is online classifieds sites such as Craigslist. There are many advantages to using such sites to purchase an automobile, most notably cutting out the dealership middlemen. Unfortunately, NCL’s Fraud Center also hears frequently from consumers who have fallen victim to fraud when purchasing a car via these services. Different scams tend to affect buyers and sellers. Here are some of the more common variants, though this list should not be considered exhaustive, as con artists are among some of the more inventive criminals out there.

The “Price Too Good to Be True” scam

In this scam, a prospective buyer sees an attractive-looking car (often a classic or exotic car) for a price well below market value. When the buyer contacts the seller, he or she is notified that the seller and the car is outside of the country and will arrange for shipment of the car upon receipt of payment, most often via wire transfer (such as Western Union) or bank-to-bank transfer (for very large payments). When the money is transferred and collected, the “seller” breaks contact and the buyer is out the money.

The overpayment scam

A legitimate seller posts a car for sale. He or she is then contacted by a prospective “buyer” (really a scammer) who offers to send a cashier’s check immediately plus additional funds to cover shipment of the car overseas. When the check arrives, the seller is instructed to deposit it and wire the overage to the “shipper.” When this is done and the wire transfer picked up, the “buyer” breaks contact and the seller is left on the hook to their bank for the fraudulent check and the missing funds.

Escrow scams

Many consumers are rightfully wary of sending large amounts of money to someone they’ve never met. Scammer frequently recommend the use of fake “escrow” services that will hold funds involved in the transaction until both parties are satisfied that the transaction has been completed. In a typical scam, a legitimate buyer will be approached by a scammer selling a car (again, often an exotic or classic car priced, but usually priced well below market value). The scam seller will offer to ship the car and that there is no risk of fraud due to the “escrow” service (purportedly eBay, PayPal, or another service). Once the money is transferred, contact is broken (or sometimes additional funds are requested to cover “unforeseen” events). In any case, the legitimate buyer never receives a car and loses their money.

How to avoid car-buying scams

  • NEVER wire money or use a bank-to-bank transfer in a transaction.
  • ALWAYS try to deal locally when buying or selling an automobile or other high-value merchandise
  • DO NOT sell or buy a car from someone who is unable or unwilling to meet you face to face.
  • NEVER buy a car that you have not seen in real life and had inspected by a professional. A vehicle history report may also be a good idea, though scammers have been known to use fake vehicle identification numbers to defeat this countermeasure.
  • WAIT until a check (personal, cashier’s, certified, or otherwise) has cleared the bank to transfer title or the car itself. Funds being made available by a bank DOES NOT mean the check is not counterfeit. Clearing a check can take days or weeks depending on the financial institutions involved. Check with your bank about their particular processes for clearing checks.
  • NEVER trust a seller or buyer who says that the transaction is GUARANTEED by eBay, Craigslist, PayPal, or other online marketplace. These sites explicitly DO NOT guarantee that people using their services are legitimate.
  • BEWARE sellers or buyers who want to conclude a transaction as quickly as possible. Scammers want to get your money before you have time to think or have a professional examine the deal.
  • CALL the buyer or seller to establish phone contact. If the buyer or seller seems to neglect details agreed to via e-mail or is unable to answer questions about their location or the location of the automobile in question, it is likely to be a scam.
  • ALWAYS trust your gut. If a deal feels “fishy” or sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Plenty of people use online classified ads to buy and sell cars every day. The vast majority of these transactions are legitimate and go smoothly. Losing out on a “great” deal in order to work with someone you trust could save you big in avoiding a possible scam.

If you feel you or someone you know has been a victim of a car-buying scam, report the scam to NCL’s  Fraud Center at www.fraud.org.

Bipartisan deal on Federal Reserve may not be best deal for consumers – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Yesterday’s papers indicate that one house of Congress – the Senate – has reached a bipartisan deal to give the Federal Reserve primary responsibility for protecting consumers from abusive and deceptive financial products. But it may not be the best deal for consumers. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), the House Chairman of Financial Services, whose committee oversees the financial community, said he was “dumbfounded” by the idea: “When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke.”

In February of this year, a broad coalition, of which NCL is a member, sent a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT), thanking him for his strong efforts to enact an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). The coalition, Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), argued that existing bank regulators had “utterly failed to protect consumers from abusive lending practices in the marketplace because they were not independent of the lenders they regulated and because they subordinated consumer protection concerns to a dangerously shortsighted focus on the near-term profitability of these institutions.”

So, this news coming from the Senate to give the Fed heightened consumer protection powers has been received with very mixed reviews, particularly from consumer advocates. The Fed has been accused of turning a deaf ear to consumer protection time and time again. The Fed has also at times appeared to be a federal agency far more concerned with the health of the business community and keeping interest rates low than with the protection of the little guy. However, others disagree. A former Fed governor, Mark Olson, believes the Fed has made a new commitment to carry out rigorous consumer protection and bank supervision.

We’ll see how this plays out in Congress. The point is that consumers need a tough, unyielding watchdog to reign in the abuses of the credit card company and banks. I’m willing to listen to the arguments, but I too am skeptical that the Fed and its thousands of staff could have become pro-consumer overnight.

Foodborne illness victims lobby Washington for passage of food safety reform legislation – National Consumers League

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By Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

Today, as part of the Make Our Food Safe coalition’s coordinated events this week, 45 foodborne illness victims and their family members are meeting with senators from their 23 home states to advocate for the passage of FDA food safety reform legislation,  S. 510.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions unanimously passed this bipartisan piece of legislation in November 2009. Now, in order to make food safety reform a reality, the Senate must bring the bill to the floor for a vote as soon as possible. In July, the House overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2749, its version of the FDA food safety reform, which does even more to strengthen the food safety system than does the Senate bill.

For the individuals who traveled from across the country to urge their senators to act, the pending legislation is highly personal. At a dinner following the advocates’ training session yesterday afternoon – an event that both first-time and seasoned advocates attended, to prepare for their legislative visits and share their stories – I had the opportunity to speak at length with a number of the incredible people with whom senators are currently meeting. Their stories are heartbreaking.

The woman to my right, a vivacious stay-at-home mom from Virginia, told me all about the various athletic pursuits of her ten-year-old twins, children she felt particularly lucky to have in her life. In her fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, she contracted listeriosis from a contaminated food product, an infection that spread to her unborn babies and sent her into early labor. The twins faced severe medical complications and an extensive hospitalization. Thankfully, both mother and children recovered. Across the table sat two girls, chatting with each other and the group alternately: a 12-year-old who contracted E. coli O157:H7 during the 2006 spinach outbreak, fell deathly ill, and recovered to become a seasoned advocate; and a college senior visiting Washington, DC to lobby for the first time after spending a week in the hospital last year fighting illness caused by contaminated Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough.

What none of these incredible individuals mentioned over our pasta or bread pudding were the medical consequences that remain for many who suffer from foodborne illness: life-changing conditions such as paralysis, kidney failure, seizures, and hearing impairments. Furthermore, these survivors are the “lucky” ones. Another advocate, a soft-spoken dad from Tennessee, came to DC. on behalf of his six-year-old son who passed away from foodborne illness in 2004. With the pain that comes from the loss of a child clearly written on his face, he said to me, “He got sick, and two weeks later he was gone.”

As the brave advocates will underscore to their senators today, no one should have to suffer, or watch a loved one suffer, as a result of something as necessary and basic as eating. Many of the individuals in the room came to DC this week – and return again and again – to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves: parents and grandparents, children and grandchildren, whose lives were cut short by eating contaminated commonplace foods such as peanut butter or spinach.

In addition to the human face of foodborne illness, this week the Make Our Food Safe Coalition has drawn attention to the economic consequences of foodborne illness outbreaks. Utilizing data from a new report that places the cost of foodborne illness in the United States at 152 billion dollars annually, Make Our Food Safe has created an interactive, online map that enables users to explore the costs of foodborne illness state by state. Both the report and the map underscore the financial consequences of a food safety system that does not adequately protect the public from contaminated products.

On Tuesday, HELP Committee Chair Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) stated that, if all goes according to plan, food safety legislation is likely to reach the President’s desk by May. It is the hope of the National Consumers League, the Make Our Food Safe Coalition, and the victim advocates on the Hill today that our efforts this week will rededicate the Senate to vote on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510, and move food safety reform one step further towards becoming a reality.

Health reform a reality through ‘reconciliation’? – National Consumers League

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By Mimi Johnson, NCL Health Policy Associate

President Obama just released his proposed plan for health reform. This proposal follows last Thursday’s bi-partisan summit to explore health reform compromises and solutions.

In agreement with many Americans, the President suggests we have little time to waste in passing this bill and must move quickly. A likely solution for getting the bill to the President’s desk is to use reconciliation, which was also echoed by Senator Harkin. The reconciliation process was designed by Congress to quickly get legislation through Congress and is often used to reduce the federal deficit. It requires only a majority vote in the House and Senate, and debate is limited.

According to Senator Harkin, the House must first pass the health reform bill that was passed by the Senate in December before it can go through the reconciliation process in the Senate. Some on the Hill suggest this can be done before the President leaves for international travel on March 18; others suggest something might reach the President closer to Easter.

As the President’s plan to Congress reminded us, the reforms proposed will provide consumers with greater choice and control over their health care and lower costs (including reduced premiums), and will end discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.

End of an era for Illinois LifeSmarts – National Consumers League

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By Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts Program Director

I just returned from a very successful Illinois state LifeSmarts competition at West Chicago High School in West Chicago, Illinois, hosted by State Coordinator Don Zabelin at his home school. Zabelin coached the winning team that will represent Illinois in Miami Beach in just seven weeks! Before heading to Florida, the West Chicago 1 team members will be studying up on 529s, simple interest, and mattress flammability, but they had a very strong showing in all other areas and ran the table to go unbeaten in the double-elimination competition.

For years, Zabelin has always had a great group of volunteer competition officials representing organizations such as the IL AGO, FTC, IL Securities Commission, Money Management International, Bridgestone, and DeVry University. He makes time during the competition to allow students to hear from all of the officials, and Wally Kleinfeldt of the BBB had perhaps the most direct message of the day, encouraging the students to always do their homework as consumers before any major purchase: “You’ll be doing homework for the rest of your life.”

This competition marked the end of an era, as Zabelin passed the torch to Debra Bartman, who will take over the role of Illinois state coordinator this summer. We wish Don the best as he retires after 33 years of teaching – congratulations on a wonderful career! Don, stay in touch – and don’t forget to write several hundred LifeSmarts questions for us in your newly-found spare time!

Reigning Florida champs en route to Miami – National Consumers League

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By Brandi Williams, LifeSmarts Program Assistant

There is nothing better than seeing LifeSmarts in action!

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to travel from the National Consumers League’s office in Washington, DC to attend the Florida state LifeSmarts competition in Tampa. As NCL staff prepares for the National LifeSmarts Championship in April, also to be held in the state of Florida, we are always excited when we have the chance to attend a state LifeSmarts competition and visit with our state partners.

The Florida LifeSmarts program, coordinated by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs, hosted its 2010 state competition at the Florida State Fairgrounds on President’s Day, February 15, 2010. On a day where many students were out of school for the 3-day holiday weekend, 13 student teams from all over the large state of Florida were in attendance to compete for the title of LifeSmarts State Champion and to represent Florida at Nationals.

Teams traveled for five to six hours from far-away cities including Jacksonville and Freeport to showcase their dedication—to not just LifeSmarts, but also to consumer literacy—affirming their commitment to learning the necessary skills to be educated, savvy consumers in today’s changing marketplace. The rounds of competition were tough, culminating in a neck-and-neck battle between the reigning state champs, Seminole County 4-H team and Paxon SAS Varsity from the Paxon School for Advance Studies. While the match was close, Seminole 4-H once again took the title will be on their way to Miami in April.

Florida state champs declared in Tampa.

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs Commissioner Charles H. Bronson was there to cheer teams on. He also gave remarks and congratulations to all 13 teams in attendance, and presented the winning team and coaches with a check for $3,300 on behalf of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs.

State Coordinator Gwen Worlds recalled how enthusiastic Commissioner Bronson was when he attended the 2008 LifeSmarts National Championship held in Orlando, FL. “He jumped up from his seat and cheered the Florida team on,” Worlds said. “It was encouraging to the Florida team.”

Congratulations to all teams at the Florida LifeSmarts Competition, and the best of luck to Seminole 4-H in Miami Beach in April!