Back in the early days of the foreclosure crisis, consumer advocates were warning about foreclosure rescue scams, which caused thousands of distressed homeowners to part with their money and, often, their last chance of staying in their homes.

Now, according to WalletPop.com, unscrupulous individuals are scamming struggling homeowners out of their money in a slightly different way.

Loan Modification Scams

Apparently, “forensic audits” are at the heart of this scam. Here’s how they work:

• You pay a mortgage loan auditor. Scammers of all sorts are notorious for upfront fees, and the loan modification scammers are apparently no different. If someone asks for fees before performing a service, be very wary.
• The auditor examines your loan for fraud. Theoretically, a loan auditor’s job is to review your mortgage documents and discover any illegal activity on the part of the lender.
• The auditor goes to your lender. Once evidence of fraud comes to light, an honest auditor can take it to the lender and use it as a bargaining chip to get you better terms on your loan.

But, naturally, the dishonest auditors out there won’t follow through. They may fail to thoroughly examine your loan papers, fail to actually visit and negotiate with your lender or simply walk away with your money.

Protect Yourself, Your Money and Your Home

If you are in danger of losing your home to foreclosure, you’ve probably considered applying for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). To see if you qualify, start by taking this survey at the government’s HAMP website.

Once you know whether you can reasonably expect a modification from your bank, consider researching loan auditors in your area (honest ones may in fact be able to help you find fraud in your loan – and they won’t charge you fees until they’ve actually helped you).

To verify a company’s credibility, check out their standing with your state’s Better Business Bureau (BBB)

Other Options

If a loan modification isn’t in the cards based on your loan, you may be able to stave off foreclosure by filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. A bankruptcy lawyer in your area may be able to help you determine whether this is the best path for you.

I’m always excited when I hear about ways to save money on fun activities, and when I can do that while supporting local businesses and/or spending time with my friends, even better. Which is why I was jazzed to hear about the web site Groupon.com.

What It Is

Groupon is a site that allows members to save money through collective bargaining. Here’s how it works:

• You sign up. It’s free and easy. You just need to indicate where you live and provide an email address.
• Each day, there’s a deal. Groupon offers deals on things like restaurants, tickets and other types of entertainment. They advertise themselves as offering 50–90 percent off normal prices.
• You choose whether or not you’re interested. If the deal sounds like something you’d use, you click the buy button. If enough people choose to buy by the deadline (usually midnight), your card is charged and you receive your coupon in the mail.
• You redeem your coupon. Each individual coupon has information about expiration dates and limits right on it, so you’ll see pertinent details when you print.

For people interested in going out, this site could provide excellent ways to save money.

The Drawbacks

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect service. It has limitations, including:

• Availability: at this point, you need to be near a major city to take advantage of the deals.
• Uncertainty: if too few people agree to buy the day’s coupon, the deal is canceled. The good news is that you won’t be charged for a canceled deal.
• Commitment: since you’re paying for a coupon, you must use it in order for the bargain to work. So if you tend to lose track of dates, this may not be a good choice for you.

Why It Works

Groupon works on the principal that exposure to a business is the best way to increase its sales. When new customers are coming through a business’s doors and like their experience, everybody wins.

This is why Groupon also allows users to recommend friends (and rewards them with $10 credit when they join) as well as businesses to include on the site.

Have you tried Groupon? What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments below.

As I often do, I’ve found some useful and/or exciting information this week on the wilds of the World Wide Web. And I’m here to share it with you.

FTC Warning: Watch out for Chinese Drywall Scams

In recent months, you may have heard reports about the dangers of the Chinese drywall used in many homes built between 2003 and 2008. Various government agencies (including the CDC and the EPA) are investigating claims that the drywall may cause serious health problems.

Last week, the FTC issued a warning cautioning consumers of scams involving drywall and home repair, including:

• Drywall testing kits
• Drywall home inspections
• Various quick fixes for problems associated with drywall

Proceed with caution! Send away door-to-door inspectors and investigate on your own time whether you might be at risk.

Save Money: Love Vinegar

The Simple Dollar details 15 little-known uses for common white vinegar, which can be bought inexpensively at the grocery store. My favorites include:

• Fabric softener: toss some in with your next laundry load
• Sunburn healer: apply directly to skin
• Room odor reducer: a few bowls in the open air should clear unpleasant scents
• Rust remover: soak overnight
• Eyeglass cleaner: much cheaper than the fancy stuff

Take a look at how you can save serious cash (and the environment!) by using vinegar for the dirtiest jobs around your home.

Time to Switch to More Efficient Appliances

Back in October, when the country was still enjoying its Cash for Clunkers high, the deadline for states to submit their guidelines for appliance rebate programs arrived. Now, the government has had time to review and approve guidelines across the nation, which means that, if you’re in the market for new household appliances, it may be a good time to shop.

While requirements, guidelines and rebate amounts vary by state, one rule is consistent: act as fast as you can. The reason? Each state has only a limited amount of money to distribute as rebates, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

To get started, check out the web site Energysavers.gov, which has rebate information by state. As with the Cash for Clunkers program, this might be a prime opportunity for people who were already planning to get new appliances; otherwise, the rebates may not be significant enough to make investment worthwhile.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued suggestions to help Americans keep their money and identities safe as they shop for presents and other items of good cheer.

Each tip is less than 140 characters, making them perfect for sharing via Twitter.

So, before you deck the halls, be sure to take these precautions.

• Know the terms of your payment plan. Before you take advantage of a layaway program, make sure you fully understand the fine print. While layaway can be a great way to budget for big purchases, some plans have huge penalties for late or missed payments and offer no refunds for customers who want to cancel.
• Hang on to your receipts. You may want to make a special place for holiday receipts, which often contain important return policy information in addition to documentation of your purchase.
• Ask about returns. The credit crunch has led some retailers to change their policy for unwanted gifts and other returns, so be sure to ask before you fork over your cash. Many stores are particularly unwilling to take back clearance items.
• Stay skeptical. Don’t let your holiday spirit get in the way of clear thinking. Some online bargain gift cards are fakes or come with outrageous fees and restrictions. Make sure you read all fine print before proceeding to checkout.
• Watch out for charity solicitations. Some scammers take advantage of the holiday atmosphere to raise money for fake charities. Always ask for written information about an organization before donating. Verify this on your own. Don’t let door-to-door solicitors pressure you into donating – ask for materials and say you’d like time to consider.
• Resist the promise of easy credit. Online offers of quick lines of credit can be tempting to those looking for extra shopping funds, but most such offers are scams. Navigate away from the page.
• Make a budget and check it twice. Don’t forget to factor in all the holiday extras: ribbons, wrapping, food, cards, travel expenses, parking for shopping trips, etc. Planning for all the little things will take some time, but it will save you stress in the long run.
• Watch out for wire scams. Unless you know a person and are expecting to wire money, don’t agree to do so. Money wiring scams are common and can be costly.

For more details and suggestions on protecting your money, visit the FTC’s website.

Being a conscientious consumer isn’t always easy—between monitoring your credit report, reading the fine print on all offers before signing and scrutinizing per-unit costs on merchandise, you’ve got plenty of financial matters to keep your mind occupied.

And, because you work hard to take care of yourself, it’s important to learn how to usefully complain.

The Difference between Complaining & Whining

Many Americans are afraid to complain when something goes wrong because they don’t want to seem rude or ungrateful, but some situations merit complaint—and can both benefit you and save others from negative experiences.

Here are some guidelines for effective complaining about defective goods.

• Protect yourself and your family. Some botched buys (the canned food that smelled strange, the light bulb that had a crack in it) are health and safety hazards. If you discover that a recent purchase has spoiled before its time, you should complain.
• Be polite and concerned. If your complaint involves an isolated incident or purchase, call the retailer in question and explain your situation calmly. Ask about the policy for such cases. In addition to potentially getting a refund or replacement, you’ll be able to alert the manager to what may be a larger problem.
• Act quickly. Report any defects as soon as you notice them, while you still have a receipt handy. Swift action may also prevent other consumers from having to deal with the faulty product.
• Consider the cost. If the prospect of lodging a complaint seems too unpleasant, consider the amount of money you stand to lose by throwing away your defective purchase.

Larger-Scale Complaints: Getting the Government Involved

While sending back your soup or asking for a refund on some tainted beef may seem marginally important (after all, such items only affect a small group of people), filing complaints about fraudulent practices and scams could help protect millions of other consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency designed to protect consumer rights, allows Americans to file complaints online about businesses and organizations.

If you’ve had dealings with a group that you think may have scammed or cheated you, do not hesitate to file a complaint. When the FTC receives a certain volume of complaints about a given organization, it can launch investigations and take legal action to prevent the group from doing further damage.

In some cases, the FTC even settles with scammers and requires such organizations to pay restitution to the individuals who were harmed.

If your finances have been harmed and you need help, consider speaking with a bankruptcy lawyer.

Sweeping financial cutbacks since the beginning of this recession have led to the popularity of the phrase “do more with less.”

The newest statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that American workers are getting less money for doing more work.

Part One: Productivity Shoots Up

(For statistical purposes, “productivity” is understood to be the amount of product made per man hour – in other words, how efficiently American businesses are producing goods.)

Overall productivity rates for the second quarter looked like this:

• 6.4 percent increase in the business sector
• 6.3 percent increase in the nonfarm business sector
• 5.3 percent increase in manufacturing
• 3.9 percent increase in durable goods manufacturing
• 2.0 percent increase in nondurable goods manufacturing

What does this mean? Basically, people worked fewer hours and produced more goods.

In other words, American workers intensified their time spent at the office or factory.

Part Two: Work Hours Drop

So how much less did we as a nation work in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the first? The numbers paint a somewhat gloomy picture.

• In the business sector, hours worked fell by 7.5 percent for all members (proprietors, employers and unpaid family workers), compared to last quarter
• In the nonfarm business sector, hours worked fell by 7.6 percent
• In the manufacturing sector, hours worked fell by 14.4 percent (19.6 percent for durable goods and 5.3 percent for nondurable goods)

These figures probably aren’t surprising, considering the hundreds of thousands of layoffs and forced part-time work that have plagued the U.S. since the recession began.

Part Three: Pay Dips

The last part of the productivity puzzle comes from looking at how compensation for this increased work has changed since the last quarter.

In the business and nonfarm business sector, compensation has fallen since last quarter (by 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively) – in the manufacturing sector, it’s actually risen 4.4 percent.

Bottom Line: Many of Us Hanging onto Jobs, But Working More

These numbers illustrate a trend unsurprising to anyone working or looking for a job: employed Americans are apparently happy to be working at all, whether or not their salaries and work hours are better than they were a few months ago.

All of this extra work and less pay has many people considering filing bankruptcy.

Additional Resources
Bureau of Labor Statistics Report: Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter 2009

I knew cigarettes were getting expensive, but this is ridiculous.

It seems a New Hampshire man stopped to pick up a pack of cigarettes and his credit card was charged $23 quadrillion dollars. That’s right, quadrillion dollars.

The exact charge: $23,148,855,308,184,500.

To top it all off, Bank of America charged him a $15 overdraft fee.

Credit card companies, huh? In what is clearly a banking error, they’re still trying to squeeze you for every penny. The man who suffered the erroneous charge spent five hours on the phone with the bank and Visa to get the problem cleared up, reports the Associated Press.

This is yet another example of how credit card companies can make your life difficult at every turn.

If you can’t handle your credit card debt anymore, filing bankruptcy may be able to help.

As if the current state of the world’s economic and social affairs is not enough to produce anxiety filled, sleepless nights there is still the constant fear of the Swine Flu.

I’m taking a break from my typical posts and turning attention on the Swine flu–mostly because I don’t think the media are doing anything about it.

Otherwise known as the H1N1 Swine Flu (Influenza A Novel) Virus, the fear of this viral infection is embedded in the minds of most Americans.

But the media have turned their heads to “bigger news items” and ignored the growing numbers of infected people.

Although Not a Trendy News Topic Anymore, Swine Flu is Still Here

The truth is that the Swine Flu is still very much present. In fact, it may be stronger than when the media frenzied over the bug a few months ago.

It has even hit one of my Chicago coworkers and his family. He just go out of the hospital a couple days ago.

Here’s how he described it to me:

“Have you ever tried typing on a computer and looking at the screen while someone is poking you in your temples with a hot stick? All while a train is steaming past your ears and a piano is on your chest? You have? Well then you understand what the recovery from Swine Flu is like.”

Swine Flu Alerts

The WHO (World Health Organization) has issued the following alert:

“The World Health Organization pandemic alert level is Phase 6.The Phase 6 alert is the highest level of the WHO pandemic phases and has not been declared since 1968.

According to the WHO pandemic response guidelines, Phase 6 confirms that there is human-to-human spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in at least two countries in two different world regions.

This classification means that a worldwide pandemic is imminent and that countries must finalize preparations to deal with the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak.”

The lack of reporting by the media has lulled the general public into a false sense of resilience to the recent outbreak.

The problem in this false conditioning is that the Swine Flu is still very much in play throughout the country and the world for that matter.

Take for instance, the most recent reporting cycle by the CDC (Center for Disease Control):

“During the time period of June 28-July 4, 2009, the influenza activity in the United States was in a decline, normally this would be good news, however there were still higher levels of influenza-like illness than is normal for this time of year.”

What makes this an even more speculative report is that of all the reported cases over 97% of all influenza A viruses were the novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

To further increase the tensions surrounding the Swine Flu, the CDC’s Web site reports that:

“As of July 10, 2009, there were 37,246 confirmed and probable infections with novel influenza A (H1N1) virus and 211 deaths:

• 6 deaths in individuals 0-4 years
• 34 deaths in individuals 5-24 years
• 87 deaths in adults 25-49 years
• 50 deaths in adults 50-64 years
• 19 deaths in adults age 65 and older and 15 deaths with unknown age)

All cases being identified by CDC and state and local public health departments.”

Seemingly, the pandemic the world is currently in, that of the Swine Flu, is far from over.

The questions will inevitable soon turn to culpability in dealing with this matter.

Can You Sue for Swine Flu?

Who is at fault? Who should be held accountable? Can anyone be held accountable for individual accounts of Swine Flu?

With the progression of time, these questions will find their answers.

However, it only seems logical that personal injury will not be an associated legal challenge within the Swine Flu corridor.

On the other hand, if it does come to light that an organization- whether public or private- aided in the spread of, or increased susceptibility to, the H1N1 virus then there will ostensibly be a cause for litigation.

No matter the legal state of affairs as they pertain to a virus outbreak and pandemic status, new ground is sure to be broken with the Swine Flu.

Pharmaceutical companies, such as those that make and distribute the two common meds (TamiFlu & Relenza), are certainly breeding their legal council for the presumed battles which are potentially brewing and will percolate the seems of legal proceedings for many years to come.

If preventive measures are available, you may want to take advantage of them. The old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” could prove true when it comes time to pay your medical bills. If you’re struggling with medical bills, learn more about how filing bankruptcy may help you get out of debt.

Between resisting impulse buys, keeping up on sales and comparison shopping, being a frugal consumer is hard enough.

But, because salespeople are always trying to make a profit, they have plenty of sneaky ways to get us to spend money – and we may not even realize we’re falling for them.

Here’s a primer on what to look out for so you can hang on to money you may not really need (or want!) to spend:

Restaurant Pricing Tricks

Eating out can be fun, but when you’re watching money, it can also be stressful. Consider these tactics restaurants use, from a report by the National Restaurant Association:

• Pricier items in targeted menu spots: Restaurants know that the human eye is drawn to the middle of the inside right page. That’s why they place the more expensive items there.
• Placement in a list of items: Studies have shown that we tend to best remember the first two and last items of a list – and savvy restaurants will put their higher-cost dishes in one of these menu spots.
• Tempting pictures: On menus, pictures sell. It’s easy to be tempted by tantalizing images, but resist if they’re not what you really want.
• No dollar signs: We’re less likely to think of money when prices are listed as a number unattached to the dollar sign, which could lead to spending more easily.

To counteract these tricks, take your time ordering.

Consider what you really want and, if price is a concern, don’t be tricked by the tempting tricks menus are so good at playing.

The Skewering of Price Perception

In a study by two business school professors at UC Berkley, researchers found that comparison shoppers are influenced by how many choices they have.

First, shoppers were given the choice between two microwaves, a low-priced one and a slightly higher-priced one. The shoppers split about 50-50 on their choice of microwave.

Then, the researchers added a third microwave to the mix – one with a much higher price. With the higher price available, 60 percent opted for the mid-range appliance.

Lesson: know how much you would like to spend on an item, and don’t by swayed by a perception that your price may be too low. A more expensive alternative doesn’t always mean you should pay more than you expected to.

Reciprocity

We all know the saying “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”

And so do people trying to sell stuff to us.

At home-based sales parties (for Tupperware, jewelry, etc.), people often feel obligated to buy, since they’ve already been granted a favor of hospitality and snacks by the host.

Similarly, various charities have found that sending a “free gift” (like return address labels) along with a request for money nearly doubles their donation success rate.

Lesson: Don’t let anyone guilt you into spending money! There’s no reason you should be considering filing bankruptcy because of ridiculous restaurants.

I’ve been following the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights as its snaked its way through the Senate and House.

Now that our Senators have approved their version, I think it’s time to post about what the credit card bill of rights might mean for you and I.

Keep in mind that the two houses of Congress currently have different versions of the bill, but both versions have similar terms.

Proposed Consumer Protections

• Card issuers must wait until a borrower is at least 60 days late on a minimum payment before increasing the interest rate on an existing balance.
• Issuers must give 45 days’ notice before changing any terms of the credit card agreement, including increases to the interest rate and alterations to rewards programs.
• Payments must be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate first (for cardholders with multiple interest rates on a single card).
• Issuers must mail a bill at least 21 days before it’s due. The current limit is 14 days, which gives borrowers less time to allow paychecks to arrive.
• Issuers cannot charge late fees until the due date has passed. Currently, many card companies consider payments received in the afternoon of the due date “late.” Further, if your due date is a Sunday or holiday, payment will be considered on time if it arrives by the next day’s mail.
• Exceeding your credit limit (and paying the accompanying fee) will require you to opt in (rather than occurring automatically if you make a purchase that puts you over).
• Credit cards will be more difficult to obtain for students and those under a certain age (18 in the House bill, 21 in the Senate).
• Limits and expirations on gift cards will be slackened, and vendors of such cards will be required to print and explain their terms more explicitly.

Potential Side Effects of Credit Card Rights

Although these protections are generally considered necessary and long overdue, they may come with certain drawbacks for enthusiastic and responsible credit card users.

Because card issuers will (hopefully) be picking up less revenue from penalties and fees, they’ll need to find ways to cut back their spending.

Some commentators (e.g. New York Times) suggest that certain rewards programs will be scaled back, so that benefits like airline miles and cash-back bonuses will be smaller.

Card issuers will still have incentives to reward big credit card spenders, though, since they’ll earn money from such users in the form of fees companies must pay to accept credit cards.

Stay tuned in–I’ll be posting about this legislation again if/when it passes into law.