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Consumer Issues
Auto Issues
| | Auto Repair |
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The best way to avoid auto repair rip-offs is to be prepared. Knowing how your vehicle works and how to identify common car problems is a good beginning. It's also important to know how to select a good technician, the kinds of questions to ask, and your consumer rights.
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| | | | Buying a Used Car |
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Law in Plain Language: Used Car Sales - As the prices of new cars continue to rise, many consumers take what appears to be a less expensive route: buying a used car. But before you buy a used car, you should know what protections are available to you under the law.
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Businesses
| | Protect Your Business Against Fraud: A Guide For Connecticut's Small Business |
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Each year, small businesses are targets of fraudulent or deceptive sales practices. Protect Your Business Against Fraud is a guide designed to help Connecticut's small business employers and employees know in advance about the many varieties of scams that con artists most often attempt in our state and around the country.
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Consumer Credit
| | FORECLOSURE PREVENTION/LOAN MODIFICATION ASSISTANCE |
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There are many resources available to consumers attempting to achieve loan modifications and avoid foreclosure.
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| | | | How to Protect Your Privacy |
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The Federal Trade Commission has developed a Privacy Page on its Web site to show consumers how to protect their personal information from public access. The page explains how to protect the privacy of your personal information.
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| | | | Credit Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (“CARD”) Act |
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Many of the CARD Act’s consumer protection provisions became effective on February 22, 2010...
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| | | | Mortgage Issues |
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Mortgage related information
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| | | | How to Correct Mistakes In Your Credit Report |
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Review your credit report for any mistakes or information more than seven years old (10 years for bankruptcy). If you don't understand something, ask. The credit bureau is required by law to explain your report to you. If there are mistakes, you can take the following actions:
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| | | | Credit Reporting Laws |
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Have you ever had difficulty getting your credit report or disagreed with the information on the report? Thanks to a new law, your rights to obtain your credit report and to correct inaccurate information are now significantly stronger .
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| | | | How to Spot Credit Repair Scams and Correct Your Credit History Yourself |
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There's a brisk business among so-called "credit repair" companies that charge from $50 to more than $1,000 to "fix" your credit report. In many cases, these outfits take your money and do little or nothing to improve your credit report. Often, they just vanish.
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| | | | Spotting Credit Repair Scams |
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If you are tempted to contact a credit repair company for help, use considerable caution. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a number of state Attorneys General have sued credit repair companies for falsely promising to remove bad information from credit reports. Consider the following:
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| | | | More Credit Related Scams |
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"Gold" or "Platinum" Cards - Beware of promotions for "gold" or "platinum" cards that promise to get you credit and build your credit rating even if your credit history is poor.
Checking Account Scams - One of the latest scams making the rounds typically begins with a postcard advertising easy credit approval or low credit card interest rates.
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| | | | What's In Your Credit Report |
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If you're having trouble getting credit, try checking your credit report yourself. The credit report tells how you've managed your credit in the past. Companies examine your credit report before deciding whether to give you credit. When a company denies your request for credit because of your credit report, it must tell you so and identify the bureau that supplied the report.
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Funerals
| | Shopping for Funeral Services |
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Connecticut consumers can pay less for funeral goods and services armed with information in a report released today by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group (ConnPIRG).
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| | | | Consumer's Funeral Checklist |
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This is an important list for comparing prices and holding the funeral home accountable.
If you believe you may have been scammed, contact the Office of the Attorney General at 860-808-5400.
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| | | | Report on Funeral Home Investigation |
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A Consumer Guide to the Prices, Practices, and Regulations of the Funeral Industry
Consumers can choose from a wide variety of goods and services when making funeral arrangements, but the uniqueness of the funeral industry poses many challenges to the consumer concerned about cost.
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Hot Scams
| | Shopping Coupons |
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Attorney General Richard Blumenthal warned Connecticut consumers again to never give out bank account or credit card information over the telephone. Attorney General Blumenthal's warning comes in response to a new telephone scam in which scammers offer hundreds of dollars worth of bogus shopping vouchers or gift certificates from stores, such as J.C. Penney and Kmart. The scammers then ask consumers to provide their bank information in order to quickly pay a $4.95 processing fee. The information is then used to withdraw much larger amounts from consumers' bank accounts.
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| | | | Check-Overpayment and Money Wiring Scams |
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Attorney General Richard Blumenthal warned consumers about a scam in which swindlers “buy” items on the Internet with counterfeit cashier's checks greater than the purchase price and then ask sellers to return the difference.
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Identity Theft
| | If You Are Victimized |
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Many states have passed laws regulating credit repair companies. This may help if you have lost money to credit repair scams.
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| | | | Identity Theft |
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Attorney General Richard Blumenthal warned consumers today to be wary of an email that asks them for the expiration date and account numbers for their credit cards.
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| | | | Privacy Protection |
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Privacy Protection -- Credit card companies and financial institutions have been sending consumers privacy notices and sometimes confusing information regarding selling and sharing of private information between companies.
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| | | | Identity Theft Alert |
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A new sophisticated thief is on the horizon, an "identity thief." Identity thieves obtain your important personal information such as social security numbers, and bank or credit card account numbers to commit fraud or theft.
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| | | | Ficticious IRS Forms and Bogus Bank Letter Alert |
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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Identity Theft Alert.
How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of Identity Theft
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| | | | Phishing |
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Attorney General Richard Blumenthal renewed his warning to consumers today about potential online scams, including "phishing."
"Phishing" is the fraudulent attempt by con-artists to obtain personally identifiable information from the public at large by sending millions of e-mails randomly to anyone with an e-mail address.
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Internet Issues
| | Choosing an Online Internet Service |
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Today, millions of people are signing up for what has become an industry worth billions of dollars annually. There are literally hundreds of companies offering Internet service, including everything from small entrepreneurial firms to telephone companies that want to sell their telephone customers Internet service as well. Here are some tips:
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| | | | Going Shopping on the Internet? Here are a few tips to keep in mind |
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Going Shopping on the internet?
Here are a few tips to keep in mind
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Telephone Scams
| | Other Credit Related Scams |
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Consumers searching for an easy way out of their credit problems
are susceptible to a wide range of credit-related scams in addition to credit repair fraud.
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| | | | Unauthorized Charge In Service |
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Law in Plain Language: Telephone 'Slamming' - Slamming refers to long distance telephone service companies switching consumers' phone service without their knowledge, a practice that has unfortunately become much more frequent recently.
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| | | | Telephone Scams |
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You are promised free gifts, prizes, vacations, "investment/deal of a lifetime", but only if you act "right away." If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is. Telephone con artists are only after your money. Don't give it to them.
Some common telephone scams are as follows:
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Travel Scams
| | Consumer Guide To Travel Scams |
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CONSUMER GUIDE TO TRAVEL SCAMS -
AN INFORMATION GUIDE DEVELOPED BY THE CONNECTICUT OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SENIOR VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
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Other Consumer Information
| | Home Improvement |
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This brochure is designed to help the senior consumer who is planning a home improvement project. Problems with home improvement contractors rank near the top of all complaints received by various agencies of the State of Connecticut.
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| | | | Federal Trade Commission Oil and Gas Web site |
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For updated information regarding the price of gasoline and what you can do to get the most out of every gallon you may visit the FTC's web site dedicated to oil and gasoline related issues including fuel conservation and market information.
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| | | | Consumer Myths: Top 10 |
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The "Top 10 consumer Myths"have been compiled by members of the National Association of Attorneys General and the Connecticut Office of Attorney General
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Consumer Resources - Government
Consumer Resources - Non-Government
| | DISCLAIMER |
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The following resources are not created, recommended or endorsed by the Office of the Attorney General, but are provided as resources that may offer additional information or assistance. External links will open in a new window and you will be redirected to a third-party website
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| | | | National Charities Information Bureau |
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The Alliance reports on nationally soliciting charitable organizations that are the subject of donor inquiries.
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| | | | National Fraud Information Center |
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The NFIC was originally established in 1992 by the National Consumers League, the oldest nonprofit consumer organization in the United States, to fight the growing menace of telemarketing fraud by improving prevention and enforcement.
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| | | | Public Interest Research Group |
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U.S. PIRG is an advocate for the public interest. When consumers are cheated, or our natural environment is threatened, or the voices of ordinary citizens are drowned out by special interest lobbyists, U.S. PIRG speaks up and takes action.
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| | | | CTLawHelp.org: Self-Help Guides for Consumers |
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A project of the Connecticut Network for Legal Aid, this page offers easy-to-understand information about issues affecting consumers including bankruptcy, collection and repossession, credit practices and reports, security deposits, small claims court, and more.
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