by Marian Wang, ProPublica, A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling. “They would say, ‘We don’t care what happened with your son, you have to pay us,’” recalled Reynoso, a gardener from Palmdale, Calif. Reynoso’s son, Freddy, had been the … Read more
by Cora Currier ProPublica The Obama administration is billing today’s $25 billion agreement between most states and five banks that engaged in flawed or deceptive practices as a big win for struggling homeowners. Most of the money in the settlement isn’t a penalty, or a fine levied on the banks. Instead, the biggest slice of … Read more
History repeats itself. Fact. George Santayana once stated, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This fact holds true with every aspect of one’s life, especially in one’s financial life. And especially in the world of scams. If you’re not up to date and familiar with the latest scams and schemes … Read more
Last week a man whom operated a foreclosure-rescue scam agreed to plead guilty after collecting $1.6 million from 1,100 distressed homeowners. The man, Frederic Alan Gladle, of Austin, Texas, ran his scam in Los Angeles and elsewhere where he falsely promised the owners of more than a thousand distressed properties that they could indefinitely postpone … Read more
The state of South Carolina and Bank of America have teamed up together to administer unemployment benefits to South Carolina residents. Unemployment benefits used to come in the form of a check but are now being issued in the form of a Bank of America prepaid debit card. Bank of America claims that it’s good … Read more
Just one month ago I wrote about the implementation of debit card fees coming into play for big banks such as Chase, Wells Fargo and most notably Bank of America. Due to the change in a new government regulation that caps what banks can charge merchants for debit transactions they announced plans to implement a … Read more
Scammers are some of the dumbest and smartest people in the world. They know where, when and how to find people when they’re down and vulnerable. They also keep up with the times; evolving at every change in our world. That’s how they’re smart. They’re dumb because they’re scammers. And scammers are dumb. Period. Recently, … Read more