Category Archives: Deceptive Acts and Practices

CFPB Wants to Tackle Form Contracts

On January 11, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is considering the creation of an online, public database of the form contracts being used by “nonbanks,” companies that aren’t banks but provide financial services to their customers (such as a car company that provides loans). According to the CFPB, these nonbanks […]

Incidence and Types of Collection Tradelines on Credit Reports

Many consumers don’t even know what a “collection tradeline” is, but the reality is that collection tradelines may impact your life daily. A “collection tradeline” is the term for when a creditor or collection agency report of a delinquent debt appears on your credit report. Having a collections tradeline on your report influences your credit […]

The FTC reached the largest settlement to date in a credit reporting action.

Was this sufficient compensation? The FTC alleged that some Vivint sales representatives used a process known as “white paging,” which involved finding another consumer with the same or a similar name on the White Pages app and using that consumer’s credit history to qualify the prospective unqualified customer. Vivint sales representatives also sometimes asked customers […]

What to Know About the Facebook Data Leak – The Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/was-my-facebook-data-leaked-what-you-need-to-know-11617751579 More identity theft, more ways for thieves to access credit in another consumer’s name. Consumers can still get free weekly credit reports from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action for free credit reports.

Liberty Vittert: Collecting your data is the biggest, baddest, business around. Where’s our government?

Data Collection Infograph

The Fair Credit Reporting Act was ahead of its time in terms of assuring consumer rights re: the accuracy of the data that is involuntary reported about consumers.  One of the next frontiers is establishing consumers’ rights to control that data.   Listen to Microsoft’s president discuss . . . Your rights are being violated and […]

Where You Went to College May Matter on Your Loan Application

Loan Application Form

Despite the growing embrace of such measures, some consumer advocates say the trend will hurt lower-income or minority borrowers. “It entrenches and perpetuates inequality in such an obvious and stark way,” says Chi Chi Wu, an attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, who adds that the existing system already makes it harder for people […]

Clarence Thomas Just Voted With the Liberals in a Big Consumer Rights Case. Why?

Home Depot Logo

The story of Home Depot is a tale of greed, grift, and civil procedure. It centers on a scheme that involved three companies: Home Depot, Citibank, and Carolina Water Systems Inc. Here’s how it allegedly worked. Representatives from Home Depot or CWS called homeowners and claimed that “contaminants” were found in nearby tap water. They urged homeowners […]

Hundreds of millions of Facebook records exposed on Amazon cloud servers

Facebook on a mobile phone

A vast collection of data on Facebook users was exposed to the public until recently on Amazon’s cloud computing servers, researchers have found. UpGuard, a cybersecurity firm, said Wednesday that there were more than 540 million records including comments, likes, reactions and account names exposed to the public. The number of users whose data was included is […]