Consumer Protection FAQs

What areas can a consumer protection lawyer help us with, if we had terrible problems with buying?

Contact a Consumer Protection Lawyer now for a free case review.

• Be wary of people selling insurance door-to-door and over the telephone.
• Be suspicious if, after an accident, a stranger contacts you to offer “quick cash” or recommends a particular attorney or health care provider. Report the incident to your police department.
• Don’t give your insurance identification numbers to companies you don’t know.

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• File a report with your local police. Keep a copy of the police report, which will make it easier to prove your case to creditors and retailers. Contact the credit-reporting bureaus and ask them to flag your account with a fraud alert, which asks merchants not to grant new credit without your approval. Close your accounts, call the security or fraud departments of each company and follow up in writing with copies of supporting documents.
• Special Report for Consumers on Identity Theft
• Identity Theft: A Quiz for Consumers
• Special Report for Retail Businesses on Identity Theft
• Identity Theft Complaint Form
• Special Report on "Phishing"

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• Consider the promotion carefully.
• Get earnings claims in writing.
• Study the business opportunity's franchise disclosure document.
• Interview each previous purchaser in person, preferably at their place of business.
• Contact the local consumer protection agency and Better Business Bureau, both where the business opportunity promoter is based and where you live to find out whether there is any record of unresolved complaints.
• Internet fraud
• Cybercrime web site
• Tips on dealing with internet fraud
• Internet Crime Complaint Center

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• FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent
• The federal government does not maintain a national cell phone registry. Personal cell phone users have always been able to add their numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry — the same Registry consumers use to register their land lines — either online at www.donotcall.gov or by calling toll-free 1-888-382-1222 from the telephone number they wish to register. Registrations become effective within 31 days of signing up and are active for five years. There is no cut-off date or deadline for registrations.

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• The Lemon Law applies to passenger automobiles, including pickup trucks and vans and any self-propelled motor vehicle chassis of motor homes sold new to a consumer in the State.

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• Over the last few years, FDA has worked with food safety agencies at federal, state and local levels to significantly strengthen the Nation's food safety system across the entire distribution chain -- from the farm to the table. The main results of this cooperation -- more effective prevention programs, new surveillance systems, and faster foodborne illness outbreak response capabilities -- have already enabled the agency to protect the safety of our food supply against natural and accidental threats.

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• The FDCPA provides that a collection agency must end all contacts if the consumer sends a letter asking them to stop. The collection agency may, however, send a final letter acknowledging that it will no longer be contacting the consumer. The final letter may also state what future steps the creditor plans to take to collect the debt.

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• Are you having trouble making your home mortgage payments? Are you facing foreclosure on your home? Get all the facts before you pay someone to help you work out your mortgage problems. Check out our consumer alert on mortgage foreclosure scams .
  
• Gather all the information you need and do comparative shopping when you need a mortgage. Looking for the Best Mortgage? A Consumer Information Brochure will guide you on what you need to know when obtaining a mortgage.

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