Question: Dear Steve, Steve Vanderhoof’s widow Rayan Vanderhoof and her CURRENT STATUS with the Department of Justice and her company Olympus Medical Group Corporation for Medicare Fraud? Was Ms. Vanderhoof ever convicted? Answer: Many of the court records in the case of the United States of America v. Rayan Vanderhoof are sealed and not publicly … Read more
Have you ever tried to resolve a dispute with a corporate entity: a bank, a car rental agency, a credit card company? How did it turn out? Most times–I’m guessing–you just gave up without getting your problem solved. A couple of years ago, Chase Bank flagged a fraudulent transfer out of my checking account. Three … Read more
If you get a call that sounds similar to the message below. It is a scam. Hang up. “Hello, this is Mary Fletcher, state number agent, FF694. And this is a notification call from the department of financial relief services. And the purpose of this call is to inform all us citizens in our state … Read more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against GreenSky, LLC for enabling contractors and other merchants to take out loans on behalf of thousands of consumers who did not request or authorize them. The CFPB issued a consent order against GreenSky requiring the company to refund or cancel up to $9 million in loans … Read more
The operators of a scheme that falsely promised participants could earn large sums of money from memberships sold to other participants will be permanently prohibited from engaging in any future business and investment opportunity as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. In a complaint first announced in November 2020 as part of … Read more
On June 29, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a proposed order in federal district court against Burlington Financial Group and its owners and executives, Richard Burnham, Katherine Burnham, and Sang Yi, for allegedly deceiving consumers into hiring the company to lower or eliminate credit-card debts and improve consumers’ credit scores. If entered … Read more
Smart home security and monitoring company Vivint Smart Homes Inc. has agreed to pay $20 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the Utah-based firm misused credit reports to help unqualified customers obtain financing for the company’s products and services. Under the settlement, Vivint will pay a $15 million civil penalty and an additional … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission is sending full refunds totaling more than $11 million to consumers who lost money to a bogus credit card interest rate reduction scheme operated by E.M. Systems & Services. The FTC and the State of Florida alleged that the company’s owners, Steven D. Short and Karissa L. Dyar, used a variety … Read more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today took action against Nationwide Equities Corporation for sending deceptive loan advertisements to hundreds of thousands of older borrowers. The Bureau found that advertisements from Nationwide Equities misled consumers about how much money they could receive from a reverse mortgage, the fees and costs associated with the products, and … Read more
It took a long time but an Illinois company, Stark Law, is finally repaying consumers some money from a suit that was originally started by the State of Illinois in 2016. In that suit, Stark Law, Stark Legal, Ashton Asset Management, CHM Capital Group, Capital Harris Miller & Associates, HKM Funding, Pacific Capital Holdings, Charles … Read more
An Arizona woman, who was also a cafeteria cook at Monte Vista Elementry School in Arizona was appointed treasurer of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). Seems she was more than just a cook in the kitchen because she had a special recipe to cook the books as well. PTOs help parents and schools work together. … Read more
The entire episode with the former debt relief guys from the Sanctuary Belize action by the FTC is coming to a conclusion. Andris Pukke, Peter Baker, Luke Chadwick, and John Usher have all been swatted back by the court. There are two favorite sections of the Opinion just released by the Court. “After nearly three … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission has permanently banned an alleged work-from-home scammer from selling or promoting business opportunities and from using robocalls under the terms of a settlement. The FTC alleged that Randon Morris and a number of companies he controlled initiated millions of robocalls nationwide to promote sham work-from-home business opportunities, focusing on consumers concerned … Read more
The owners and operators of a vast payday lending scheme that overcharged consumers millions of dollars will be permanently banned from the lending industry under the terms of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlement also provides that nearly all outstanding debt—made up entirely of illegal finance charges—held by the company will be … Read more
Cryptojacking is a type of cybercrime that occurs when hackers hijack the processing power of unsuspecting internet users in order to generate new cryptocurrencies. Rising Bitcoin prices often lead people to get into “mining”–the process of using specialized computer hardware to create units of digital currencies. The energy-intensive nature of mining increases the number of … Read more