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Trigaux: Do we all need PhDs to fight scams, frauds and rip-offs?

 
As solar panels become cheaper and more popular, consumer agencies are starting to see a rise in consumer complaints about misleading and deceptive solar offerings. Solar scams are noted in a national report on major consumer complaints issued this week by the Consumer Federation of America and the North American Consumer Protection Investigators. [William Levesque, Times]
As solar panels become cheaper and more popular, consumer agencies are starting to see a rise in consumer complaints about misleading and deceptive solar offerings. Solar scams are noted in a national report on major consumer complaints issued this week by the Consumer Federation of America and the North American Consumer Protection Investigators. [William Levesque, Times]
Published July 29, 2017

There are days when it feels like our school priorities are all wrong. Literature? Math? Computers? Nah. What everyone really needs to survive in the 21st century is a PhD in fighting the rise of increasingly creative consumer scams, frauds and rip-offs.

Few trends seem to be growing as fast, suggests the new annual consumer agency survey conducted by the Consumer Federation of America and the North American Consumer Protection Investigators. The 53-page report details the ten biggest consumer complaints for all of 2016 but also cites examples of emerging schemes that could become the major rip-offs of the future.

It's worth mentioning the national report specifically mentions how the behavior of a single business can result in a spate of complaints. "For example, Frontier Communications' acquisition of cable, phone and internet customers in central Florida from other companies led to more than a thousand (consumer complaints) to state and county agencies about service or billing problems," the report states.

If you can't earn an advanced degree in fraud fighting, at least stay educated to avoid as many scams as possible. It's not getting any easier.

If I had one wish, I'd ask that the Do Not Call list — which no longer seems to do a darn thing — would be enforced.

RELATED COVERAGE: Florida consumers still most annoyed by violators of the Do Not Call List.

Here are five industry examples where fresh scams are rising fast, and old ones continue to dominate the volume of U.S. consumer complaints.

• Solar: As it gets cheaper and more popular, beware of deals that do not deliver as promised. "Solar energy is good for the environment and for consumers' pocketbooks, but there are starting to be complaints concerning misleading sales practices, confusing contracts, and shoddy installation" says Susan Grant, CFA consumer protection and privacy director.

• Autos: They topped the list of most common complaints, in part because most people drive and use cars to get to work. Top concerns involve misrepresentations in ads or sales of new and used cars, lemons, faulty repairs, leasing and towing disputes. Car leasing is a growing source of complaints.

• Home improvement/construction: This industry was second only to autos for consumer complaints about shoddy work or failure to finish the job. Another reason this industry gets more complaints? Fewer people are moving and selling homes, and instead investing more in their own houses. That increases the sheer volume of home improvement projects. And that means more people with marginal skills are finding work in the home improvement business.

• Utilities: Complaints are abundant when it comes to the installation, service and billing with businesses that provide phones, cable and satellite TV, Internet access, and electricity and gas. The difficult experience of many with the arrival of Frontier Communications, which took over Verizon's FiOS operation, is just one prominent example. Many companies of this kind are increasingly merging, buying each other out or morphing into new companies, the report says — "catching many customers in the churn."

RELATED COVERAGE: Trigaux: At struggling Frontier Communications, the bleeding cannot go on forever.

• Retailers: Most complaints involved deceptive advertising, defective merchandise, problems with rebates, coupons, gift cards and gift certificates, warranty claims and the failure to deliver what was ordered.

The report says 39 state and local consumer protection agencies in the survey received more than 203,284 complaints last year and saved or recovered $161.4 million through mediation and other actions.

The examples above just skim the surface of a vast universe of consumer complaints. Skimmers that steal customer credit card information at Florida gas pumps? Alive and well. Impostor scams by people seeking your tax refund via identity theft or demanding a delinquent debt be paid at once when no loan actually exists? Still popular.

Cyber attempts — a whole other sphere left untouched in this annual report — to hack your personal computer, or hold it for ransom? Just beginning.

Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @venturetampabay.