With complaints over debt collection practices skyrocketing, Better Business Bureau of Southern urges consumers  to protect themselves against bogus and unscrupulous collectors.

The Consumer Fraud Task Force says that consumers need to know their rights if they are contacted by businesses attempting to recover debts. The Federal Trade Commission’s Fair Debt Collection Practices Act sets out specific rules on how collectors must operate.

“In this difficult economy, people who have never before dealt with debt collectors are receiving phone calls,” the Task Force said. “Sometimes, these callers are trying to collect on debts that were settled years ago or never existed at all. But even callers trying to collect on legitimate debts can become overly aggressive and violate consumers’ rights.”

Some of the questionable or illegal debt collecting practices include:

• Attempting to collect “phantom” or “zombie” debts.  Most often, these are debts that were never owed or were previously paid or otherwise discharged.
• Harassing or intimidating collection tactics, usually involving persistent phone calls.
• Telling debtors they will be arrested or have their property seized unless they make payment.
• Claiming that the collector is a lawyer or affiliated with a law firm when that is not the case.
• Withdrawing money from a consumer’s bank account or charging his or her credit card without (more…)

Pet lovers seeking new canine companions are often surprised, and sometimes discouraged, to discover how expensive a purebred puppy or dog can be. Purebreds can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, not including veterinary, shipping and pedigree costs.

That’s why the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is cautioning consumers to watch out for classified ads offering purebred puppies for free or at prices that seem too good to be true.

Classified ads have been appearing in newspapers around the country offering free Yorkshire terrier puppies – a breed that typically sells for $250-$2,000 apiece.

Puppy scams often hook people with offers of free puppies, collect money for bogus fees, such as shipping or ‘ownership transfer,’ and then never deliver the advertised puppies or dogs.

Many of these scams originate in Africa, especially Cameroon. This May a student in Minnesota lost over $1,000 to one of these scams when they tried to purchase a puppy online. The business listed itself as having a Minneapolis address but was actually operating out of Cameroon.

The BBB offers the following tips to avoid scams when you’re looking to adopt or sell a pet:

• Beware of ads with multiple misspellings and grammatical errors; many pet scams come from (more…)

The Sierra Vista Police Department (SVPD) is warning that Southern Arizona residents are receiving phone calls from scam artists claiming to be from the police and federal law enforcement agencies, in some cases using the names of real police officers.

In the calls, police say that the scam artist will claim to be a federal agent, and tell the victim that they recently won a lottery, and that an officer from their local police department will be contacting them so they can collect on their winnings.

When the “local law enforcement officer” calls the victim they instruct them to wire transfer money out of the country in order to collect on their winnings.

To date, SVPD knows of one victim that has succumbed to this scam. In that instance the scam artist used the name of a real Sierra Vista Police officer.

SVPD says that they became aware of the incident when the victim left a voicemail for the officer asking about the status of his lottery winnings, but by the time they were able to contact the victim he had already sent money to Mexico via wire transfer.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona tips to avoid falling for this scam:

• If you don’t remember entering a lottery, you probably didn’t. If someone calls you claiming you did, and won, the best thing to do is to hang up the phone.
• Never wire transfer money to someone whose identity you cannot verify. Once you transfer the money it’s almost impossible to track, especially if the recipient is in a different country.
• Law enforcement- local or federal- will never administer lottery winnings. If someone calls you (more…)