http://afflicter.com All About Accountability Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:56:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There are some fascinating statistics in today's New York Times story about banks' use of misleading and poorly disclosed debit card fees. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D.-N.Y., is proposing legislation that would require banks to warn consumers when debit card transactions would overdraw their accounts.  Her legislation would also ban banks from ... http://afflicter.com/2009/09/09/debit-card-fees-keep-half-of-banks-in-business/ The Federal Trade Commission is moving to shut down a group of web sites that appear to be operating government grant scams. Last month the FTC got a court order to at least temporarily to shut down web sites affiliated with companies including Grant Connect LLC of Reno, Nev., and individuals ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/26/government-grant-scam/ For reasons that are at this point mysterious, the term "government grants for women" is one of the most popular searches on Google this morning. The afflicter hasn't ascertained what's driving this interest, but when you do this search, the number one site that comes up is usagovernmentgrants.org. At first glance, usagovernmentgrants ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/21/government-grant-sites-are-still-scams-even-for-women/ It seems now like a very long time ago that many people seemed relatively casual about the expense of replacing their car. Now with the economy finally starting to come back, a replacement vehicle for many of us may be overdue. So it's worth recalling, although it's been a long time, ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/19/car-dealer-scams/ Even with new regulations about to go into effect that will limit some of the shady practices of the past, credit cards are still finding ways to pose consumers with new problems. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on what appears to be a growing number of instances where credit ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/12/credit-card-problems-continue-with-sudden-cancellations/ If you're fortunate enough to have a job in this economy, it's likely that you still haven't gotten much of a raise in the last couple of years or seen much opportunity for promotion. People are desperate for opportunities for career advancement right now, helping out professional networking web sites like ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/07/whos-who-scams-are-timely/ The Afflicter regards the entire acai berry industry as somewhat of scam.  Studies don't support marketers' claims of acai berry's benefits as a weight loss suplement, much less the hype of its potential to fight cancer, improve sexual performance, etc. Still, distributors of acai berry products are able to sell wine ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/05/acaiburn-squeezes-every-drop-from-the-berry/ As the Senate debates an extension of the cash for clunkers program, public awareness of cash for clunkers is at its peak. That is why law enforcement has been warning since late last week that people should be alert to cash for clunkers scams. Several state attorneys general and the Federal Trade ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/04/cash-for-clunkers-scams/ While the Afflicter was away on vacation last week, he received an email from a representative of Spadester.com, the gambling web site that we had previously posted about. If you missed it, Spadester has been accused in numerous online forums and blogs of failing to pay out the accounts of ... http://afflicter.com/2009/08/03/spadester-responds/ The Afflicter wasn't very familiar with the card game called spades, so we were surprised to find in our research how many people were looking for a game of spades online. There are 60,500 searches a month on the keywords "spades online," according to estimates from research tools that Google offers. ... http://afflicter.com/2009/07/26/spadester-internet-spades/