Current Events in March 2012

Gulf States Toyota is recalling about 360 2012 4Runners and Siennas because of a problem with the remote engine starter.

The company said that a malfunction in the Audiovox brand remote starter module can prevent normal operation of the vehicle's onboard computer network, which could cause the antilock braking and stability controls to fail.

Gulf States Toyota will notify owners and dealers will replace the Audiovox starter with a new one free of charge. Owners may contact Toyota at 1-800-444-1074.

One of the hazards of outdoor living in the spring and summer is poison ivy, a harmless-looking green plant that can cause intense itching just by making contact with the skin. But now there may be hope for those who are especially allergic to the plant.

Scientists at the University of Mississippi, working with ElSohly Laboratories, have developed a compound they say will prevent reactions to poison ivy, oak and sumac. The compound has been licensed to Hapten Sciences Inc. of Memphis, Tenn.

The product, currently called HPT-721, is being developed for the prevention of contact dermatitis secondary to poison ivy, oak and sumac. The molecule contains chemical derivatives of the oily substance in the plants that causes the itchy rash.

New solution to the problem

"Our HPT-721 molecule provides a completely new solution to the problem of urushiol exposure," said Raymond J. Hage Jr., president and CEO of Hapten. "We are enthusiastic about the significant potential health benefits of this product candidate."

The researchers say the compound will be administered by injection, much like a flu shot. Next development steps include final formulation analysis, completion of manufacturing processes and toxicology studies. Hapten plans to file an Investigational New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and begin clinical trials in 2012.

Hypersensitivity to poison ivy develops with repeated exposure to the plants, said Mohammad Ashfaq, a member of the research team that worked on the new compound. "The first time people are exposed, there is no reaction. The second time they are exposed, they get the flared reaction typical of poison ivy dermatitis – the redness and blistering."

Irksome rash

Each year, nearly 50 million Americans develop that irksome skin rash, resulting in more than 7 million visits to health care providers.

Assuming HPT-721 clears the FDA approval process, it will likely be available with a doctor's prescription. Patients would receive an annual shot at the beginning of outdoor season.

In the meantime, make sure you are able to spot poison ivy, poison oak and sumac before you head out into the woods this spring and summer. Also, learn how to treat these rashes when you get them. The U.S. National Library of Medicine provides a helpful resource.

More data is now being transmitted using mobile devices, but consumers, while diligent about keeping their PC's updated with the latest spyware, leave their mobile phones unprotected.

Now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University CyLab have developed a new smartphone app that establishes a more secure basis for Internet communications. The app is called SafeSlinger.

"With SafeSlinger, users can gain control over their exchanged information through end-to-end encryption, preventing intermediate servers or service providers from reading their messages or other sensitive stored data in their smartphones," said Adrian Perrig, technical director of Carnegie Mellon CyLab and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at CMU.

Perrig along with Michael W. Farb, a CyLab research programmer, Jon McCune, a CyLab research systems scientist, and CMU students Gurtej Singh Chandok and Manish Burman developed SafeSlinger to help mobile phone users safely and privately retrieve information from trusted sources.

Who's who

SafeSlinger is designed to provide the user with the confidence that the person you are communicating with is actually the person they have represented themselves to be. Perhaps the most impressive feature is that SafeSlinger provides secure communications and file transfer even if the servers involved are tainted with malware.

As more and more consumers access the Internet from an ever-expanding pool of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, Web-based threats continue to become more frequent and increasingly sophisticated.

"We increasingly lose control over our data,” said Perrig. “But SafeSlinger's user-centric security design includes an advanced protocol, which incorporates elements of several cryptographic schemes and factors in the prevention of numerous types of attacks."

SafeSlinger is available for free download.

After a two-year study, the Federal Trade Commission has issued a report calling on Congress to pass legislation protecting consumers' privacy and requiring data brokers to let consumers see the information that has been collected about them.

"If companies adopt our final recommendations for best practices – and many of them already have – they will be able to innovate and deliver creative new services that consumers can enjoy without sacrificing their privacy," said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC. "We are confident that consumers will have an easy to use and effective Do Not Track option by the end of the year because companies are moving forward expeditiously to make it happen and because lawmakers will want to enact legislation if they don't."

The final privacy report calls on companies handling consumer data to implement recommendations for protecting privacy, including:

• Privacy by Design - Companies should build in consumers' privacy protections at every stage in developing their products. These include reasonable security for consumer data, limited collection and retention of such data, and reasonable procedures to promote data accuracy;
• Simplified Choice for Businesses and Consumers - Companies should give consumers the option to decide what information is shared about them, and with whom. This should include a Do-Not-Track mechanism that would provide a simple, easy way for consumers to control the tracking of their online activities.
• Greater Transparency - Companies should disclose details about their collection and use of consumers' information, and provide consumers access to the data collected about them.

Self-regulation

While Congress considers privacy legislation, the Commission urges individual companies and self-regulatory bodies to accelerate the adoption of the principles contained in the privacy framework, to the extent they have not already done so. Over the course of the next year, Commission staff will work to encourage consumer privacy protections by focusing on five main action items:

Do-Not-Track - The Commission commends the progress made in this area: browser vendors have developed tools to allow consumers to limit data collection about them, the Digital Advertising Alliance has developed its own icon-based system and also committed to honor the browser tools, and the World Wide Web Consortium standards-setting body is developing standards. "The Commission will work with these groups to complete implementation of an easy-to-use, persistent, and effective Do Not Track system," the report says.

Mobile - The FTC urges companies offering mobile services to work toward improved privacy protections, including disclosures. To that end, it will host a workshop on May 30, 2012 to address how mobile privacy disclosures can be short, effective, and accessible to consumers on small screens.

Data Brokers - The Commission calls on data brokers to make their operations more transparent by creating a centralized website to identify themselves, and to disclose how they collect and use consumer data. In addition, the website should detail the choices that data brokers provide consumers about their own information.

Large Platform Providers - The report cited heightened privacy concerns about the extent to which platforms, such as Internet Service Providers, operating systems, browsers and social media companies, seek to comprehensively track consumers' online activities. The FTC will host a public workshop in the second half of 2012 to explore issues related to comprehensive tracking.

Promoting Enforceable Self-Regulatory Codes - The FTC will work with the Department of Commerce and industry stakeholders to develop industry-specific codes of conduct. To the extent that strong privacy codes are developed, when companies adhere to these codes, the FTC will take that into account in its law enforcement efforts. If companies do not honor the codes they sign up for, they could be subject to FTC enforcement actions.

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) are calling for action against employers who demand that job applicants turn over their Facebook passwords and other private information, calling it "a grave intrusion into personal privacy that could set a dangerous precedent for personal privacy and online privacy, make it more difficult for Americans to get jobs, and expose employers to discrimination claims."

The senators want the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a federal investigation into the trend, exposed in recent press reports. News stories have said that certain employers in New York and across the country are demanding the information from job applicants as part of the interview process – including photos and personal messages not shared with anyone else.  

"I am alarmed and outraged by rapidly and widely spreading employer practices seeking access to Facebook passwords or confidential information on other social networks,” said Blumenthal. “A ban on these practices is necessary to stop unreasonable and unacceptable invasions of privacy. An investigation by the Department of Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will help remedy ongoing intrusions and coercive practices, while we draft new statutory protections to clarify and strengthen the law. With few exceptions, employers do not have the need or the right to demand access to applicants’ private, password-protected information.”

“Employers have no right to ask job applicants for their house keys or to read their diaries – why should they be able to ask them for their Facebook passwords and gain unwarranted access to a trove of private information about what we like, what messages we send to people, or who we are friends with?” said Schumer. “In an age where more and more of our personal information – and our private social interactions – are online, it is vital that all individuals be allowed to determine for themselves what personal information they want to make public and protect personal information from their would-be employers. This is especially important during the job-seeking process, when all the power is on one side of the fence. Before this disturbing practice becomes widespread, we must have an immediate investigation into whether the practice violates federal law – I’m confident the investigation will show it does. Facebook agrees, and I’m sure most Americans agree, that employers have no business asking for your Facebook password.”

According to recent reports, employers are beginning to ask prospective employees for their Facebook passwords as part of the interview process before they are hired. In one case, the Associated Press reported a New York City statistician was asked for his Facebook user name and password so that the employer could review private components of his profile as part of the interview process for the job he was applying for. At least two other cases were identified where individuals who were applying for jobs were required to turn over Facebook passwords and user names in order to be considered for the job they were applying for, as well as a city that, until recently, required job applicants to provide access to their email accounts.

Facebook itself came out against the practice on Friday. In a post on its website, the social networking site said it was a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to share or solicit a Facebook password. Facebook noted that the practice “undermines the privacy expectation and the security of both the user and the user’s friends” and could expose employers to lawsuits by exposing themselves to claims of discrimination if the employer discovers the individual is a member of a protected group (e.g., over a certain age) and then don’t hire that person.

Unlawful discrimination 

In their letter to the EEOC, Blumenthal and Schumer specifically raised concerns that by requiring applicants to provide login credentials to social networking sites, employers will have access to private, protected information that may be impermissible to consider when making hiring decisions and may be used to unlawfully discriminate against otherwise qualified applicants. Blumenthal and Schumer both made clear that comprehensive background checks for individuals are sometimes needed when seeking employment in law enforcement, at highly sensitive infrastructure sites, and with jobs where there is significant access to vulnerable populations. The senators pointed out, however, that requiring prospective employees turn over Facebook and social media user names and passwords, essentially granting access to private information that is not otherwise made public, could very well give employers information they otherwise cannot ask about, such as religion, age, marital status, pregnancy status, and a host of other protected classes that employers are not permitted to ask about or make hiring decisions based on.  

In their letter to the Justice Department, Blumenthal and Schumer pointed out that two courts have found that when supervisors request employee login credentials, and access otherwise private information with those credentials, that those supervisors may be subject to civil liability. Although those two cases involved current employees, the courts’ reasoning does not clearly distinguish between employees and applicants. Pointing to Facebook terms of service and the civil case law, the senators urged DOJ to investigate and issue a legal opinion as to whether requesting and using prospective employees’ social network passwords violates current federal law.

Blumenthal and Schumer also announced that they are currently drafting legislation that would seek to fill any gaps in federal law that allow employers to require personal login information from prospective employees to be considered for a job. The senators noted they are seeking additional legal opinions, from both the EEOC and DOJ to determine what protections currently exist and what additional protections are necessary

Jane of Woodruff, Wis., thinks auto insurance should be like peanut butter: if you have the money to buy it, your credit rating shouldn't affect the price.

"My credit rating is not correct. In any case it has nothing to do with my buying insurance, not any more than my going to the store and buying peanut butter. I get the peanut butter if I pay for it, the same with insurance," Jane said in a recent ConsumerAffairs posting about her insurer, Progressive. "It's distortion for a state to demand we have insurance and then companies like these profit without control."

Unfortunately, Jane is not alone. Millions of consumers pay more for their car insurance because of factors that consumer advocates say have nothing to do with actual risk factors.

It's mandatory

Since states require drivers to have insurance, consumers feel that the price of that insurance should be regulated so that it is fair for all.

Technically, that's how it's supposed to be. Auto insurance companies are required to sell policies to any driver without discrimination, at least, barring certain conditions where drivers with egregious offenses may need to purchase a policy through state programs. After all, auto insurance is mandatory for practically all U.S. drivers.

For their part, car insurance companies state flatly that race and income level play no part in policy premium valuations, but some consumer advocates are telling another story, one that is a bit more detailed and shows that there’s more than one way to block drivers from the auto insurance market.

Earlier this year, the Consumer Federation of America released an extensive study of what it calls “disparity” in auto insurance markets. What it found may be troubling to many who either struggle with high auto insurance costs, live in low income neighborhoods, or advocate for the working class American.

One thing that the CFA study points out is that many insurers lower their involvement in areas that they consider higher risk by clustering their offices in desirable neighborhoods, to the extent that some low income neighborhoods and zip codes suffer from the “desert and oasis” effect common to urban food distribution models and other retail placement systems.

That means residents in these communities have fewer choices for shopping around to get lower rates, but the issue of choice does not seem to be the primary problem.

The CFA study also cites a big difference in what the average low income driver will have to pay for a policy, a difference of up to $1,000 annually for a comparable policy. Citing annual premiums as high as $4,000 to $5,000, the study's authors suggest that many low income drivers are being priced out of the market.

Nuanced problem

In order to achieve this difference, according to the CFA report and other analysis, insurers use other demographic information that ties into the primary identifiers of race and income, making the disparity a very nuanced problem. One example is education: insurers use level of education as a risk factor, which obviously is going to result in higher premiums for lower-income drivers, since it requires a lot of capital to get an advanced degree, which in turn usually results in greater earning capacity.

The use of identifiers like level of education has sparked a hot  debate about whether it is fair to consider seemingly unrelated issues such as academic achievement and financial background in risk assessments; another very controversial practice is the use of a driver’s credit score.

Proponents of these practices would argue that a higher education encourages a driver to make smarter choices; the reasoning for using a credit score is more convoluted, where it might be suggested that a person with bad credit is “careless” and may be more inclined to cause an accident.

Other who oppose these data link-ups argue that they are discriminatory, not just because they punish low-income drivers disproportionately, but because they assume a level of knowledge about an individual that may not be founded in fact.

Regardless, insurers have been free to use these types of data in policy valuations, which is what leads some critics of the industry to claim that auto insurance rates are not only higher for low income drivers as a whole, but for some ethnic groups. African-Americans, say consumer advocates, tend to pay more for auto insurance as well, because of many of the same issues of data correlation.

State initiatives

For those who despair about the high rates that unfavored drivers may be asked to pay, there’s some light on the horizon in the form of new state programs. For example, in 1999, the state of California created the California Low Cost Auto Insurance program that subsidizes rates for some low-income households.

California’s State Department of Insurance says that the program was “designed to provide income eligible persons with liability insurance protection at affordable rates as a way to meet California's financial responsibility laws.” It helps many thousands of Californians to afford something that they need, and makes everyone on the state’s roads safer from the financial problems related to a collision with an uninsured driver.

Automakers occasionally try to make it easier for their customers to get insurance. Last year, on a test basis, General Motors offered detailed collections  to car buyers in Washington and Oregon but there has been little long-term help from the auto industry.

Are some companies better than others?  Maybe, although the state-by-state nature of insurance regulation makes it difficult to generalize. What is certain is that some states are more aggressive in protecting insurance customers than others. 

Find more information in our Auto Insurance section.

At ConsumerAffairs.com, we follow detailed collections in order to help individuals and families get the best policies for their needs. We also keep detailed collections of consumer complaints about the big auto insurers who use these kinds of tactics to drive up prices. Look for more on how the car insurance industry works and shop around for a reasonably priced policy.

Consumers often complain that a business sends them products they didn't order, then sends them a bill. Lately, some consumers have reported this situation with a book seller called Bottom Line Books.

“I ordered just one book from Bottom Line Books and I received it and paid for it,” Mariana, of Cleveland, Ohio, wrote in a post at ConsumerAffairs. “After a while another book came that I did not order. Since there was no phone number or return info on the book I just let it sit there, and then a bill came charging me for this book I did not order. No contact or return info on the bill either, and since I was not sure how to contact them, I figured it would be less of a headache to just pay the bill, and along with the check I also wrote that I did not order that book nor do I want any more. I asked if I was placed on an automatic shipment by mistake to please remove me from it and any other future mailings. After a little while I received yet another book I did not order.”

Mariana is angry and confused, not understanding why she is continuing to receive books she did not order. And she isn't alone.

More than she bargained for

“I ordered one book from the company and decided not to keep it,” writes Katie, of Rancho Cordova, Calif. “Shortly thereafter, I received another book, but this one had not been ordered. There was no phone contact number on the invoices, nor instructions/policy on how to return the books. When I got online to make the inquiry, I found a number of complaints similar, if not exactly like mine.”

So, what are Mariana and Katie's options? Are they obligated to pay for the unordered books? Assuming they have not specifically agreed to join an ongoing “book club,” the answer is no. In fact, if you are sent any merchandise that you did not order, you have a legal right to keep the shipment as a free gift.

Federal law prohibits the mailing of unordered merchandise and then sending you a bill. Some states, like Illinois and Washington, have specific laws as well. In Washington, if unsolicited goods or services are provided to a person, the person has a right to accept the goods or services as a gift only, and is not bound to return the goods or services.

Goods or services are not considered to have been solicited unless the recipient specifically requested, in an affirmative manner, the receipt of the goods or services according to the terms under which they are being offered.

How to respond

What should you do if you receive unordered merchandise? While you are not obligated to send a letter to the company stating your intention to keep the merchandise as a free gift, it's usually a good idea to do so. Your letter may stop the company from sending you repeated bills, and if it's simply an honest mistake, the letter may help clear the air. You should send the letter by certified mail and keep the return receipt and a copy for your files.

As for Bottom Line Books, we are unable to shed much light on its business policies, and whether consumers, when purchasing a single book, have to agree to keep purchasing additional books. If that is the case, many consumers, such as Mariana and Katie, are completely unaware of it.

Oddly enough, Bottom Line Books does not seem to have a website. However, various online sites list its address as:

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) today liquidated Shepherd’s Federal Credit Union of Charlotte, N.C. NCUA made the decision to liquidate Shepherd’s Federal Credit Union and discontinue the credit union’s operations after determining the credit union was insolvent and had no prospect for restoring viable operations.

Student debt may be the new financial crisis. For years young people have headed off to college, paying the ever-rising tuition and fees with student loans. After graduation, in a tough job market, they find they can't repay the loans, or if they can, they can't afford anything else.

Jana, of Dorset, Vt., says her daughter left college with $150,000 in student loan debt that is now in default, and has impacted their entire family.

“My daughter, a new grad, asked for guidance from a representative of Sallie Mae and they suggested just paying the interest!” Jana wrote in a post at ConsumerAffairs.

Jana said she requested information from Sallie Mae about the loan so that new payment terms could be worked out but, even though she co-signed the loans, has been unable to get it.

“I do not understand why a bank will not follow through with such a request but only send intimidating billing material,” Jana wrote. “I find this to be harrassing. And they keep calling my parents that have also co-signed but are helpless at this point. This is very upsetting!”

Higher than anyone thinks

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says student debt in the U.S. is actually higher than anyone thinks, putting the total at around $1 trillion. Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman, says the bureau recently undertook an effort to determine the size of the student loan market that she says went through the same boom and bust cycle that played out in markets for mortgages and other credit products.

“Our initial findings on the size of the private student loan market are sobering,” Chopra said. “When we add in the outstanding debt in the federal student loan program, it appears that outstanding student loan debt hit the trillion dollar mark several months ago – much larger than estimates from other recent reports. It seems that this market is too big to fail.”

Fast-growing debt

Unlike other consumer credit products, Chopra says student debt keeps growing at a steady clip. Students borrowed $117 billion in just federal student loans last year. And students continue to borrow private student loans, which lack the income-based repayment and deferment options of federal student loans.

“If current trends continue, there will be consequences not just for young people, but for all of us,” she said.

According to data from the Department of Education, federal student loan debt isn’t growing just with new originations – with so many borrowers unable to keep up with interest payments, debt is growing even for many who have left school.

And it's not just students and their families who are affected, Chopra warns. Large levels of debt might also pose immediate problems for the rest of us.

Could affect housing recovery

“Excessive student debt can slow the recovery of the housing market,” she said. “Student loan borrowers are sending big payments every month to their loan servicers, rather than becoming first-time homebuyers. This debt can also put added stress on the borrowing capacity of the household and government sector.”

CFPB said it is working with the Department of Education to educated students about the dangers of racking up to much college loan debt. It's also supervising private student loan providers to ensure they comply with Federal consumer financial protection laws.

Any dog owner will tell you that dogs will eat just about anything. But that doesn't mean they should.  It's up to dog owners to be sure they're feeding their furry friends a balanced, healthy diet. 

Just like humans, dogs shouldn't gorge themselves on treats and snacks at the expense of healtheir fare. 

Snacks are often blamed, fairly or not, for canine health problems. One brand that's currently taking heat from dog owners is Waggin Train, which makes chicken jerky and other snack products.

"After wondering why our dog was getting so sick, I started hearing about the Waggin Train Jerky Treats. I checked in her box of different treats and discovered that I have an almost empty bag of Waggin Train Jerky Tenders!" said Lucinda of Strasburg, Va., in one of many similar  ConsumerAffairs postings. "I am so upset and broken hearted because my dog is dying! ... Our sweet girl is dying because of this poison!"

Waggin' Train insists its snacks are "made of premium chicken breast fillets" and says the "high-protein, low-fat treats are slow-cooked to seal in the natural flavors for a healthy and wholesome snack."

FDA indecisive

But if the snacks are so healthy, why are dogs getting so sick? Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been studying the situation for years and still has not reached a conclusion.

The agency says it has been "unable to determine a definitive cause of reported dog illnesses or a direct link to chicken jerky products" and says that "extensive chemical and microbial testing ... has not uncovered a contaminant or cause of illness from any chicken jerky treat, including Waggin' Train treats."

The FDA does note that jerky and other snacks "should not be substituted for a balanced diet and are intended to be fed occasionally in small quantities."  

"It breaks my heart to know I was giving treats to my dog that killed him," said Vivian of Macomb, MI, who said her four-year-old Golden Retriever died after being fed Waggin Train treats.  "I took him to vet and liver enzymes were off the chart."

Unsympathetic

Many pet owners who've written to ConsumerAffairs have complained that Waggin' Train was unsympathetic to their complaints.

"I gave my Shih Tzu a Waggin Train' Big Blast Treat yesterday and this morning she was very sick. She trembled and cried for over an hour. When I called the complaint hotline, they acted like it was no big deal," said Marsha of Adrian, MI. 

Besides making sure their pets are eating a healthy and well-balanced diet and getting plenty of exercise, dog owners might want to scan the reviews about various pet foods in the ConsumerAffairs Pet Care section, where it quickly becomes obvious that some pet food companies are more responsive to consumer concerns than others.

More responsive

Tiffany of Marblehead, Ohio, recently complained that her dog had refused to eat her Natural Balance food. She complained to Natural Balance, which refunded her money and suggested she try another bag.

"I did receive an email from a representative at Natural Balance asking me to contact her, and did so today. The representative was very pleasant," Tiffany said. "She feels that my dog has decided she doesn't like this food any longer. She said no significant changes have taken place with the Natural Balance formula, and that she has not had any other complaints. She is mailing me a voucher of one of the different formulas to try, and we will try it."

A cat owner, David of Optional, Ohio, posted a ConsumerAffairs complaint saying his cats had gotten sick eating Natural Balance. 

"Natural Balance voluntarily contacted me to understand my issue. We discussed the situation and settled on the fact that the bag of food may have been expired as they had not had other complaints about any batches of the salmon formula being bad. I was impressed with the way they handled the issue. I'm now using Natural Balance again," David said.

All too often, car buyers focus first on the monthly payment or how much cash they have to add to their trade-in, when they should be bargaining on the cost of the vehicle.

In the case of Sylvia, of St. Albans, N.Y., she didn't learn that she had overpaid for her new Lexus until after she signed the papers.

“I purchased a car, the car that was presented to me did not have a listing of the standard equipment and installed options and price as the other cars in the showroom, but I was told that it had a similar price as the other models,” Sylvia wrote in a post at ConsumerAffairs.

Her story is pretty amazing. She says she traded in her old Lexus and received $21,558 credit. She then paid $4,614 for additional options, and then wrote a check for an additional $7,000. Still, she says she hadn't been told the price of the car.

"The sales person did not disclose the new price of $67,000 until after my old car had been traded in,” she wrote. “I asked on several occasions how the car came to be $67,000 and was told it was because of the options on the car. I returned to the dealer to get my paperwork and requested a copy of the options list and a breakdown of the charges for the car and was told that Lexus does not retain a copy of the breakdown once the car is sold.”

Car was actually $12,000 less

But Sylvia persisted and says she was finally given a copy of the breakdown and the car price was only $55,407.

“I then asked how did the car go from $55,507 to $67,000 and I was told that its a special formula in their system,” Slyvia said. “I challenged that further and was told by the sale manager that part of the price that I was given for my trade in was placed back on the new car, and that they decided to charge me $59,000 instead of $55,407 as listed on the breakdown.”

Sylvia should tell her story to someone in New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office. Meanwhile, the lesson for car shoppers is to establish the price of the vehicle before there is any discussion of a trade-in.

As more drivers get interested in the possibility of an all-electric plug-in vehicle, automakers are trying to position themselves for this future market. But meanwhile, some smaller companies are getting into the mix, with some creative strategies for making more of tomorrow’s vehicles less reliant on traditional fossil fuels.

One company, called AMP, is taking its own approach to offering consumers an all-electric ride.

AMP recently announced that it has been approved by federal regulators, meaning that purchasers of AMP vehicles are going to be eligible for the $7,500 electric-car tax credit. In addition to the federal tax credit, many buyers will be eligible for state incentives of up to $5,000. 

But unlike other companies offering these options, AMP is not selling its own vehicles. Instead it's converting other models that previously ran on gasoline.

Conventional body

While companies like Tesla and Fisker unveil their own exotic models running on high-power batteries, AMP is cutting costs by using a conventional auto body and adding its own proprietary technology.

“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” reads AMPs corporate mantra, “We want to power it differently.”

Some of the vehicles currently in the works are the AMP electric Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is going to represent AMP’s flagship model as the “first all-electric SUV.” AMP has received accolades from Consumer Reports and other venues as a major player in making all-electric power available for larger vehicles, not just small cars.

Reports from last year show that AMP has moved to a relationship with Chrysler from previous collaborations with General Motors; AMP is also credited with developing the first all-wheel drive electric vehicle with its Mercedes ML model. As for the AMP Grand Cherokee, it’s expected to have about a 100-mile range.

With a list price of around $50,000, minus the state and federal tax credits, the AMP Grand Cherokee becomes affordable for many drivers who can tolerate the relatively short range.

As for the timeline, customers who are interested can now reserve vehicles in key market areas, including Southern California and Seattle on the West Coast, New York City and the Washington DC metro area in the Northeast, and Cincinnati in the Midwest.

After its debut at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, this new all-electric option is slowly making its way out into the American street. Think about how it stacks up against some of the “big seven” plug-ins if you’re interested in piloting a no-gas, zero-emission vehicle without sacrificing size.

Two online marketers have agreed to settlements with the Federal Trade Commission that will permanently halt their allegedly deceptive practice of using fake news websites to promote acai berry supplements and so-called “colon cleansers” with deceptive claims that consumers could use them to lose weight.

In the first case, the FTC settlement with Intermark Communications, Inc., doing business as Copeacand several other defendants allegedly involved in the scheme results from the first FTC suit against an affiliate network. 

As an affiliate network, Copeac not only operated its own fake news sites, it also recruited an entire network of affiliates that used fake news sites to promote products with allegedly deceptive claims.

The FTC’s original complaint against the New York-based Copeac was part of a law enforcement sweep the agency conducted last year against 10 alleged operators of fake news sites.  The FTC charged all of them with deceptive advertising for portraying the sites as    legitimate news sites; making false and unsupported weight-loss claims; and failing to disclose that they were being paid by the merchants of their so-called weight-loss products. 

In settling with the Copeac defendants, the FTC amended its complaint by adding allegations that the operation developed an affiliate network, and by adding three individual defendants.

Under the settlement, the Copeac defendants will pay more than $1.3 million, which represents revenues they received from deceptive fake news site ads for acai berries, colon cleansers, and other supposed weight-loss dietary supplements; and revenues they received for other products marketed on fake news sites. 

The settlement also requires Copeac to monitor all its affiliate marketers when selling any good or service, obtain adequate information about the affiliate marketers it hires, approve their advertisements, and immediately stop processing payments generated by any affiliate marketer using deceptive advertisements.

Coulomb Media

In the second case, under the terms of the settlement with Coulomb Media, Inc., and Cody Low, also known as Joe Brooks, the defendants’ $2.7 million judgment will be suspended after they pay $170,000 in cash, proceeds from the sale of Low’s 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe, and a certificate of deposit.

As part of the FTC’s ongoing crackdown on bogus health claims, the proposed settlements with the Copeac and Coulomb defendants will require the operators to make clear when their commercial messages are advertisements rather than legitimate journalism, and will bar the defendants from further deceptive claims about health-related products such as the acai berry weight-loss supplements and colon cleansers they marketed. 

The defendants also are required to disclose any material connections they have with merchants, and will be barred from making deceptive claims about other products.

With these two settlements, eight of the 10 fake news site cases the FTC brought in 2010 have been resolved, and all the fake news sites affiliated with the eight operations have been permanently shut down.

Ads passing as news

When federal courts temporarily halted all 10 fake news operations last year at the FTC’s request, the agency alleged that their websites were designed to falsely appear as if they were part of legitimate news organizations, but were actually nothing more than advertisements deceptively enticing consumers to buy the featured acai berry weight-loss products from online merchants. 

With titles such as “News 6 News Alerts,” “Health News Health Alerts,” or “Health 5 Beat Health News,” the sites often falsely represented that the reports they carried had been seen on major media outlets such as ABC, Fox News, CBS, CNN, USA Today, and Consumer Reports.  Investigative-sounding headlines presented stories that purported to document a reporter’s first-hand experience with acai berry supplements – typically claiming to have lost 25 pounds in four weeks, according to the FTC complaints.

In pitching the acai weight-loss products, the defendants posted attention-grabbing ads on search engines and high volume websites, such as “Acai Berry EXPOSED – Health Reporter Discovers the Shocking Truth,” driving traffic to the fake news sites and ultimately to the sites where merchants sell the products, according to the complaints. 

The FTC received numerous complaints from consumers who paid between $70 and $100 for weight-loss products after having been deceived by fake news sites.

Derived from acai palm trees that are native to Central and South America, acai berry supplements often are marketed to consumers who hope to lose weight.  In recent settlements with other online acai berry marketers, defendants in the Central Coast Nutraceuticals case were required to pay $1.5 million, and Jesse Willms was required to surrender corporate and personal assets, including bank account funds, a Cadillac Escalade, a fur coat, and artwork.  In 2011, the Commission brought a suit against another online acai berry marketer, LeanSpa, LLC, which the Commission sued in conjunction with the State of Connecticut.  In that case, the FTC obtained a preliminary injunction barring the defendants from engaging in the charged deceptive practices.

Now that spring has officially arrived, so has allergy season. In fact, it arrived well ahead of schedule, thanks to the moderate temperatures that have prevailed this month over wide areas of the U.S.

In fact, the first day of spring brought record high pollen counts to the Atlanta area, beating Tuesday's record by 1,200 points.

The March 21 pollen count was 9,369 particles of pollen per cubic meter of air. That's 55 percent higher than the old record prior to this week of 6,013, set on April 12, 1999.

Anything more than 1,500 is considered "extremely high.” Last year, the highest pollen count measured in the Atlanta area was 3,939 on March 24.

“Weather conditions are particularly favorable for this ‘perfect storm’ of pollen, which is making an already extended allergy season even worse,” said allergist Stanley Fineman, MD, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. “We are seeing patients with allergy symptoms much worse than usual for this time of year.”

Allergies usually produce cold-like symptoms, including a runny nose, watery eyes, and sneezing. While a number of over-the-counter remedies may provide some relief, it's helpful to know what exactly is triggering the symptoms.

“Allergy skin tests can be very helpful to identify triggers,” said Fineman.

The most common outdoor airborne allergens are grass, tree and weed pollens, all of which are plentiful right now because of the mild weather.  

A researcher at the National Institute of Health is proposing new criteria for a broadened syndrome of acute onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in children. 

The syndrome describes children and teens who suddenly develop on-again/off-again OCD symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms — without any known cause. In a world where everything must have a formal name and an acronym, the syndrome is known officially as Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).

Some instances of the syndrome can be traced to an autoimmune process triggered by a strep infection. A clinical trial testing an immune-based treatment is currently underway.

Ferocious onset

"Parents will describe children with PANS as overcome by a 'ferocious' onset of obsessive thoughts, compulsive rituals and overwhelming fears," said Susan Swedo, M.D., of the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), who first described the syndrome two decades ago. 

Swedo and other researchers propose working criteria for the syndrome in the open source journal Pediatrics & Therapeutics.

"As the field moves toward agreement on this broadened syndrome, affected youth will be more likely to receive appropriate care, regardless of whether they are seen by a neurologist, pediatrician or child psychiatrist," said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.

Clinicians reported that evaluations of more than 400 youth diagnosed with the problem confirmed that affected boys outnumbered girls 2-1, with psychiatric symptoms, always including OCD, usually beginning before 8 years.

Fine points

Although debate continues about the fine points, the field is now of one mind on the core concept of "acute and dramatic" onset of a constellation of psychiatric symptoms. There is also broad agreement on the need for a "centralized registry" that will enable the research community to analyze evidence from studies that will eventually pinpoint causes and treatments.

The syndrome will "likely turn out to include a number of related disorders with different causes that share a common presentation," explained Swedo.

Among the wide range of accompanying symptoms, children may appear terror stricken or suffer extreme separation anxiety, shift from laughter to tears for no apparent reason, or regress to temper tantrums, baby talk or bedwetting. In some cases, their handwriting and other fine motor skills worsen dramatically. Leckman's team at the Yale Child Study Center is in the process of developing assessment tools for diagnosing the syndrome.

The vast majority of sinus infections are caused by viruses and should not be treated with antibiotics, suggest new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Nearly one in seven people are diagnosed with a sinus infection each year. Although sinus infections are the fifth-leading reason for antibiotic prescriptions, 90 to 98 percent of cases are caused by viruses, which are not affected by antibiotics. Used inappropriately, antibiotics foster the development of drug-resistant superbugs.

“There is no simple test that will easily and quickly determine whether a sinus infection is viral or bacterial, so many physicians prescribe antibiotics ‘just in case,’” said Anthony W. Chow, MD, chair of the guidelines panel and professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. “However, if the infection turns out to be viral – as most are – the antibiotics won’t help and in fact can cause harm by increasing antibiotic resistance, exposing patients to drug side effects unnecessarily and adding cost.”

Guidelines

The guidelines – the first developed by IDSA on this topic – provide specific characteristics of the illness to help doctors distinguish between viral and bacterial sinus infections.

A sinus infection, called acute rhinosinusitis, is inflammation of the nasal and sinus passages that can cause uncomfortable pressure on either side of the nose and last for weeks. Most sinus infections develop during or after a cold or other upper respiratory infection, but other factors such as allergens and environmental irritants may play a role.

The guidelines recommend treating bacterial sinus infections with amoxicillin-clavulanate versus the current standard of care, amoxicillin. The addition of clavulanate helps to overcome antibiotic resistance by inhibiting an enzyme that breaks down the antibiotic. The guidelines also recommend against using other commonly used antibiotics, including azithromycin, clarithromycin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, due to increasing drug resistance.

The recommendation to use amoxicillin-clavulanate instead of amoxicillin is a major shift from older guidelines developed by other organizations. Dr. Chow notes that this recommendation was made due to increases in antibiotic resistance as well as the common use of pneumococcal vaccines, which have changed the pattern of bacteria that cause sinus infections.

After years of consumer complaints, one state - Illinois - is close to outlawing a practice known as "cramming," which results in unauthorized charges being placed on consumers' phone bills.

Illinois' House of Representatives voted 105-0 to ban third-party companies from placing charges for services, many of them non-existent or unwanted, on consumers' bills. The measure next goes to the Illinois Senate where passage is expected.

“Phone cramming is a multibillion-dollar business for con artists who sneak unauthorized charges onto unsuspecting customers’ bills, affecting everyone from residential users to small business owners, even nonprofit organizations and government agencies,” said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. “The only way to put an end to this scam is by instituting a ban on third-party charges on our phone bills.”

Conflict with the feds?

While Madigan may be right, the legislation, if passed, is almost certain to be challenged in court, since it would undo a feature of federal legislation. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allows third-party service providers to market their services to consumers and place the charge for those services on the consumers' residential phone bill.

Congress intended the legislation to promote competition for services, which it expected to be good for consumers. But like much of what Congress does, there have been unintended consequences.

Scam operators have used the law to charge consumers for voice mail service, website design and hosting, and other services they neither want nor agreed to.

"I received a bill for $12.95 with $.81 taxes from I Tech PC Support for a monthly fee on Feb 19,2012, on my Frontier phone bill. I never requested this or know this company," Tom, of Hamilton, Ohio, wrote in a post on ConsumerAffairs.

Ban on third-party billing

The Illinois legislation seeks to end the practice of "cramming" by banning all billing by a third-party company. It hopes to avoid a conflict with the federal statute by allowing for limited, common sense exceptions for legitimate services.

Madigan says estimates indicate that telephone companies place at least 300 million third-party charges on their customers’ bill each year. According to a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee report, third-party billing generates at least $2 billion annually.

Phone cramming scams originally were perpetrated primarily through telemarketers, especially before the Do Not Call registry was established. More recently, however, the scam has flourished online.

Online cramming

Internet users report simply submitting their phone number, among other personal information, for online prize drawings, surveys or free recipes. Weeks or months later, consumers find charges on their phone bills for unauthorized services.

To date, Madigan says she has filed 30 lawsuits against crammers, representing more than 200,000 Illinois businesses and residences who were victim to these phone billing schemes. Among the most glaring of targets for these scams was cited in Madigan’s 2009 lawsuit against US Credit Find Inc., a Venice, Calif.-based operation, which crammed a Springfield public library’s dial-a-story telephone line.

Madigan has testified before Congress, urging federal legislation to ban cramming. Congress, however, has failed to amend the law that allows it. Illinois is now attempting to hang up on crammers at the state level.

If the housing market is slowly beginning to recover from the devastation of the bubble years, you can probably thank investors.

Month after month investors - most of whom pay with cash and don't have to jump through mortgage company hoops - have bought homes that homeowners either don't want or can't afford. Without them, housing would likely be in a depression.

In February, sales of existing homes were were down 0.9 percent from January but were 8.8 percent higher than February 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). All-cash sales rose to 33 percent of transactions in February from 31 percent in January. They were 33 percent in February 2011.

Who is it that is buying homes without having to borrow money? NAR says for the most part, it's investors who either plan to fix up the houses and flip them or rent them.

Competition

“The bottom line is investors and first-time buyers are competing for bargain-priced properties in much of the country, with home prices showing signs of stabilizing in many areas,” said NAR President Moe Veissi. “People realize that homeownership is an investment in their future. Given an apparent over-correction in most areas, over the long term home prices have nowhere to go but up.”

The fact that one-third of buyers each month do not need bank financing has provided consistent support for the market. Now that the employment situation is improving, more owner occupiers are entering the market, which should provide increased stability.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said underlying factors are much better compared to one year ago.

Trending higher

“The market is trending up unevenly, with record high consumer buying power and sustained job gains giving buyers the confidence they need to get into the market,” he said. “Although relatively unusual, there will be rising demand for both rental space and homeownership this year. The great suppression in household formation during the past four years was unsustainable, and a pent-up demand could burst forth from the improving economy.”

The fact that rents are rising should also help. It is now cheaper to buy than rent in many cities. Part of it is the price of the real estate and part is due to rock bottom interest rates.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was a record low 3.89 percent in February, down from 3.92 percent in January; the rate was 4.95 percent in February 2011.