*See bottom paragraph for the latest update regarding this company

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is alerting consumers to Patterson Bell, Harris Fields, Lexington Duke, Henderson Gill, Robinson Rhodes, Madden Hall, Nicholson Barnes, Jefferson & Greer, Welsch McCormick, Shelton White, Zimmerman Cain, Davidson Powell, Morrison Banks, Sutton Perry, Gilbert Turner, Sullivan Lang, Stanton Carney, Emerson Ross, Swanson Carr, Thompson Fuller, Richardson Blake,  and Hoffman Sims,  self proclaimed “Awards Redemption” agencies  mailing letters to local consumers that state the recipient has qualified for airline tickets.

Since Dec. 10, BBB has received over 30 inquiries about Patterson Bell from consumers seeking to determine if the offer is legitimate. Consumers who spoke to BBB said they had no recollection of ever entering a sweepstakes or contest for the airline tickets.

Consumers say the letter states that they have qualified for an “award” of two airline tickets that have a retail value of $1,400. The letter claims that Patterson Bell has attempted to contact the consumer multiple times and if the consumer does not contact them by a specific date the airline tickets will be given to an alternate recipient.

According to consumers, Patterson Bell’s address in Tucson is 4811 E Grant Rd, STE 261 85712, and its Web site, www.pattersonbell.com, says the company has additional locations in New York, Florida, Utah, New Jersey, Texas, California, and Oregon.

BBB has also received a number of inquiries about Hoffman Sims, another “Awards Redemption Agency” in Tucson whose Web site, www.hoffmansims.com, is similar to Patterson Bell’s, and claims to operate in the same cities.

Consumers who called BBB concerning Hoffman Sims say they too received a letter indicating they had won free airline tickets. A Hoffman Sims representative told BBB over the phone that they the mailings were sent on behalf of Southwest Travel Inc., a Tucson-based travel club. BBB has not been able to (more…)

If your filing system consists of piles of paper on the kitchen counter – or bulging file folders in an unlocked drawer – you could be setting yourself up for identity theft, Better Business Bureau warns.

“Identity theft prevention starts with safekeeping your records,” said Kim States, BBB President.  “Important documents shouldn’t be left out where anybody who comes into your home or office can find them easily. They should be secured in a safe place. Outdated records should be shredded.”

BBB sponsors two “shred days” each year, in Tucson and Sierra Vista, for consumers and businesses. Participants receive information on how to protect their identities, and they can shred as many documents as they like for a small donation.
While online identity theft gets lots of headlines, theft by someone who has access to your home is actually more common. People who work around your house, friends, even relatives can be tempted to pick up a credit card bill or bank statement left lying on a countertop.

The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year, costing individuals and businesses nearly $50 billion. Arizona is the worst state for identity theft, with around 300,000 people in the state having their identity stolen annually.

So what should you keep and how long should you keep it? Here’s a list of types of documents and suggested retention times:

• Tax returns and supporting documents should be kept for eight years. Supporting documents may include charitable donation receipts, medical bills and property tax records, for example.
• Records on contributions to individual retirement accounts should be kept permanently.
• Retirement and savings plan statements should be kept from one year to permanently. Keep the monthly or quarterly statements until the end of the year, then keep the year-end statement and (more…)

Today Better Business Bureau joined the Federal Trade Commission and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) in a press conference to alert consumers to online deceptive marketing practices associated with free trials with a negative option feature. According to a Visa survey, 29 percent of American consumers have fallen victim to deceptive marketing when unscrupulous e-commerce merchants require them to cancel or opt-out of a recurring charge for future products or services.

With free trials with a negative option feature,  a company takes a consumer’s failure to cancel as permission to begin charging. While many merchants use this billing process appropriately, others pre-check consent boxes, bury the details of the offers in the terms and conditions and make cancellations or returns difficult, catching consumers in a cycle of recurring charges for products and services they do not want.

“Most e-commerce merchants care about their customers and conduct business fairly, but even a few bad actors can cause consumer distrust,” said William M. Sheedy, Group President, The Americas, Visa Inc. “We want to let consumers know more about the protections they have against these types of practices and how to pursue a reversal of charges if they’ve been charged improperly.”

Visa monitors its payment network to identify merchants with excessive levels of cardholder disputes which may indicate the use of deceptive marketing practices. In fact, merchants who use deceptive (more…)