The biggest problems consumers are facing in the U.S. marketplace include some familiar suspects, such as shady used-car salesmen, fake mortgage-rescue deals, online scams and soaring credit-card rates and fees.
A survey of state and local consumer agencies around the country conducted by the Consumer Federation of America found that the top complaints last year related to autos, home contractors, loans, retail disputes and utility or cable providers. Other complaints related to faulty household goods and repairs for big-ticket items, fraudulent Web solicitations or Internet sales, telemarketing and home solicitations, and landlord-tenant disputes.
"In economic hard times, consumers are even more vulnerable to phony promises to help them financially or money-making schemes," says Susan Grant, CFA's director of consumer protection.
In one familiar incident related to the housing crisis that is crushing consumers' wealth and contributing to their debt burdens, a Georgia company charged an initial $400 to $500 to help consumers whose homes were in danger of foreclosure, plus other fees for appraisals, title searches, processing and refinancing. It reached out to customers through Web advertisements and direct mailings.
However, according to the governor's office of consumer affairs, none of the services offered were ever provided and most of those who paid the steep fees lost their homes. The agency is still investigating the company, which CFA did not name.
Bob Harris, who manages the Office of Consumer Protection in Washington, D.C., says state and local agencies have also had to develop "expertise to deal with the evolving nature of fraud, especially online."
