is Latin for Let The Buyer Beware of Ford.  Readers of the Bankruptcy Law Network may remember my blog last year about the special offer Ford sent me.  It turned out that my car loan had two years of payments left and Ford wanted to hook me up with a new vehicle loan for another [...]

Millions of Americans have been affected by identity theft.  Identity theft happens when someone else uses YOUR personal information to commit a fraud in your name.   Your personal information can be your name, your social security number, or anything that identifies you as YOU.    Identity thieves can do an incredible amount of damage before they [...]

Just when you thought you had heard it all in the world of credit card rip-offs, debt collection and bankruptcy, something interesting happened in the office last week.  I met with two different potential clients who stated that their credit cards were cancelled, despite the clients having zero balances on the credit lines and decent credit [...]

Phishing is a criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information including passwords, credit card numbers, and the like.    It typically occurs when you receive an email that appears to be from your bank or an online service (think PayPal or eBay) instructing you to click on a link to provide information to verify [...]

Pharming is a hacker’s attack aiming to redirect a website’s traffic to another bogus website.  Hackers redirect a legitimate Web site’s traffic to an impostor site, where you’ll be asked to provide confidential information.  Common targets are ecommerce and online banking websites.  Pharming is used to steal identity information.
To help protect yourself from pharming, you [...]

The financial crisis in the mortgage market is causing a tightening of available credit in the credit card arena.  As falling real estate prices decrease home equity borrowing, more consumers are turning to credit cards.  Investment firm Merrill Lynch reports an 8 per cent increase in revolving credit over last year, the highest increase in [...]

Spyware is computer software that is installed on a computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s consent.  You’ve unknowingly downloaded illicit software when you’ve opened an attachment, clicked on a pop-up or downloaded a song or a game. Criminals can use spyware to record your [...]

MSN Money published an interesting article entitled 8 Signs You May Know An Identity Thief.  The article discusses how many people fear identity theft from a stranger when, in fact, studies show that most identity theft victims know the thief in some way.  The article provides an excellent graphic showing this.  In summary, of those [...]

As if the current credit crisis wasn’t enough, Americans are turning toward what I like to call unconventional financing more and more these days.  Just 12 short years ago in 1996, Americans were only in 500 billion dollars worth of credit card debt.  Now, only 12 years later, we have doubled that number with an [...]

Only people with a legitimate business need, as specified by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, can look at you report without your permission.  For example, if you apply for credit, insurance, employment, or to rent an apartment, the company is allowed to obtain your report. 
A Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) is not allowed to give [...]