If you have a home alarm system that is monitored through a cell-phone system, you may not be getting the monitoring that you are paying for. You could be paying money for nothing and leaving your home unprotected at the same time. The reason is that your system likely runs on a discontinued cellular network standard called "2g". This is an issue that alarm companies have known about since at least 2015.
Apparently, up to 90% of home alarm systems installed before 2015 that used cell service were based on "2g" technology. In December 2016, some cellular telephone companies, including AT&T largely discontinued "2g" service to monitoring companies. In the summer of 2016, ADT reported that it sent a letter out to its customers offering to convert their system to 3g/4g cell capability at no charge, but it has been brought to our attention that not all customers received notice. Many customers either switched monitoring companies or ADT assigned monitoring contracts to third party companies.
The bottom line is that if you have an older, "2g" cell phone modem in your alarm system, and you haven't upgraded it, there is a strong possibility that your alarm system has not been monitored since December 2016. I think that companies holding monitoring contracts should be held to a pro-active standard, and if they are still collecting monitoring money from customers who haven't upgraded, they need to refund the money to the customers.
If that weren't bad enough, there are reports that the 2g-3g changeover has resulted in a new scam of companies posing as the original monitoring company calling customers and promising free upgrades, but instead signing the customer up for long-term monitoring contracts at high rates. Senior citizens are often targeted by home security scammers.
If you have an issue relating to the changeover to 3g-4g, please send me an email to hoferlawindy at gmail.com. There should be a contact link at the top of the page.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Letter to the Editor Supporting the CFPB and the Dodd Frank Act
Senator Ted Cruz proposed legislation that would dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Donald Trump has stated publicly that he wants to repeal the majority of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dear consumers, the CFPB and the Dodd Frank Act are essential at keeping the robber barons from stealing you blind. The current administration is so hostile to consumer interests that two NACA attorneys that I know are refusing to represent any consumer who voted for Donald Trump. I'm not going that far, but I hope that whether you voted for Donald Trump or not, you will contact your congressional representative. Finding your representative is easy, just go to www.whoismyrepresentative.com
I can't believe that the votor mandate for the people that were voted in in November was a mandate to roll back consumer protections to the bad old days.
Anyway, I drafted a letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star, my hometown newspaper, and I am publishing it here whether or not it gets published in the paper. and it is published below.
Save the CFPB and The Dodd Frank Act
Most Americans have never heard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or even its initials, CFPB; but if you ask most Americans if they think the government should have an agency that protects people from financial frauds and rip-offs, safeguards their savings and makes sure the banking system is sound, most people would say “absolutely yes”. That’s exactly what the CFPB does. Even though most Americans approve of the CFPB’s mission, and the CFPB has been successful in accomplishing that mission, the new Congress and the Trump Administration are trying to fast-track legislation to eliminate the CPFB. I want to tell you why you shouldn’t let that happen.
The CFPB wasn’t even formed until 2010, but in its first five years, the CFPB has recovered $11.7 billion dollars for consumers. Basted on its annual budget of around $600 million, the CFPB has paid for itself roughly four times over just in its recoveries for consumers. The CFPB does a lot more than just recover cash for consumers. It sets the standards for fair dealing in the financial marketplace. The CFPB has instituted new rules that eliminated some of the most unfair practices in the credit card industry. The CFPB has a department that is dedicated to eliminating scams targeting service members. The CFPB has targeted predatory practices involving payday loans and student loans. The CFPB has handled more than one million consumer complaints involving financial institutions.
As a consumer advocate attorney representing homeowners in mortgage foreclosure cases, I saw first-hand the difference in the marketplace before and after the CFPB. In the wild 90s through the Great Recession in 2008, the subprime mortgage market was like Dodge City. Consumers were being ripped off by predatory loans that were shockingly unfair but in some cases completely legal. These predatory loans and the questionable investment products that supported them crashed our economy in 2008. This was a crash caused, not by excessive regulation, but by too much greed and too little regulation. The Dodd Frank Act and the CFPB put new standards in place that eliminated the worst abuses in the mortgage market, and provided a framework for lenders to modify mortgages to keep consumers in their homes. Initially the lenders fought these modifications, but eventually the lenders realized that even they benefited by fair modifications that turned nonperforming loans into performing loans and reversed a downturn in home values that threatened all their loans.
Consumers don’t even see what could be the CFPB’s most important function, and that is supervising financial institutions, making sure they have enough capital to weather a market downturn so the institutions won’t have to be bailed out by the federal government down the road.
Despite the CFPB’s achievements, this agency has been targeted for elimination by the Trump administration. This is nothing but a naked ploy by the financial crooks to get rid of the cop on the beat. To justify their actions, the supporters claim the financial industry cannot thrive under the CFPB and Dodd Frank Act. This is a lie. Even under the CFPB, bank profits are at or near record highs. Commercial and consumer lending is thriving.
I urge all who read this to contact your senators and representative and tell them to vote the way of the public and not the way of the lobbyists, and vote to save the CFPB and the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Steven Hofer
Indiana State Chairperson
National Association of Consumer Advocates
I can't believe that the votor mandate for the people that were voted in in November was a mandate to roll back consumer protections to the bad old days.
Anyway, I drafted a letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star, my hometown newspaper, and I am publishing it here whether or not it gets published in the paper. and it is published below.
Save the CFPB and The Dodd Frank Act
Most Americans have never heard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or even its initials, CFPB; but if you ask most Americans if they think the government should have an agency that protects people from financial frauds and rip-offs, safeguards their savings and makes sure the banking system is sound, most people would say “absolutely yes”. That’s exactly what the CFPB does. Even though most Americans approve of the CFPB’s mission, and the CFPB has been successful in accomplishing that mission, the new Congress and the Trump Administration are trying to fast-track legislation to eliminate the CPFB. I want to tell you why you shouldn’t let that happen.
The CFPB wasn’t even formed until 2010, but in its first five years, the CFPB has recovered $11.7 billion dollars for consumers. Basted on its annual budget of around $600 million, the CFPB has paid for itself roughly four times over just in its recoveries for consumers. The CFPB does a lot more than just recover cash for consumers. It sets the standards for fair dealing in the financial marketplace. The CFPB has instituted new rules that eliminated some of the most unfair practices in the credit card industry. The CFPB has a department that is dedicated to eliminating scams targeting service members. The CFPB has targeted predatory practices involving payday loans and student loans. The CFPB has handled more than one million consumer complaints involving financial institutions.
As a consumer advocate attorney representing homeowners in mortgage foreclosure cases, I saw first-hand the difference in the marketplace before and after the CFPB. In the wild 90s through the Great Recession in 2008, the subprime mortgage market was like Dodge City. Consumers were being ripped off by predatory loans that were shockingly unfair but in some cases completely legal. These predatory loans and the questionable investment products that supported them crashed our economy in 2008. This was a crash caused, not by excessive regulation, but by too much greed and too little regulation. The Dodd Frank Act and the CFPB put new standards in place that eliminated the worst abuses in the mortgage market, and provided a framework for lenders to modify mortgages to keep consumers in their homes. Initially the lenders fought these modifications, but eventually the lenders realized that even they benefited by fair modifications that turned nonperforming loans into performing loans and reversed a downturn in home values that threatened all their loans.
Consumers don’t even see what could be the CFPB’s most important function, and that is supervising financial institutions, making sure they have enough capital to weather a market downturn so the institutions won’t have to be bailed out by the federal government down the road.
Despite the CFPB’s achievements, this agency has been targeted for elimination by the Trump administration. This is nothing but a naked ploy by the financial crooks to get rid of the cop on the beat. To justify their actions, the supporters claim the financial industry cannot thrive under the CFPB and Dodd Frank Act. This is a lie. Even under the CFPB, bank profits are at or near record highs. Commercial and consumer lending is thriving.
I urge all who read this to contact your senators and representative and tell them to vote the way of the public and not the way of the lobbyists, and vote to save the CFPB and the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Steven Hofer
Indiana State Chairperson
National Association of Consumer Advocates
Friday, February 10, 2017
Have You Been Sued by LVNV Funding, LLC in Indiana
Have you been sued by LVNV Funding, LLC, This company buys a lot of old debt, and they file a lot of lawsuits. I am looking into some issues that I've noticed in LVNV's documentation If you have been sued by them in Indiana, please call me at 317-662-4529.
Old Spice Deodorant - Is Old Spice Deodorant Safe to Use?
This morning I got up, and I put on Old Spice deodorant. This afternoon I handled an intake from a person who claimed fairly serious injuries relating to Old Spice deodorant. I wondered whether this is an isolated occurrance, so I googled "old-spice deodorant (injured or injuries) and came up with 1.47 million hits.
Proctor and Gamble, makers of Old Spice, maintain their deodorant is seafe, and the injuries claimed are not chemical burns, they are imune reactions unique to the individuals claiming the injury - freak occurances in other words.
In my mind, it doesn't matter if the injuries are chemical burns or not. If there are enough of them, even if they are the product of allergic reactions, the product is not reasonably safe. If you are injured by Old Spice or any other product, you should save the prroduct and report the injury both to the manufacturer and the Food and Drug Administration. DO NOT GIVE THE PRODUCT BACK TO THE MANUFACTURER. At most give them a small sample to test.
If you have injuries that require medical treatment, you should consider contacting an attorney who handles personal injury cases. If you are in Indiana, I would like to hear from you, call me at 317-662-4529.
There are various law firms that are advertising for these cases, and at least one class action has been filed. I suggest anyone affected find a LOCAL attorney to represent you. Your local attorney can team up with other attorneys to take on P&G on more equal terms. If you rely on a national law firm only, it is easy to fall between the cracks and not get the kind of individual attention that you might expect.
I have nothing to do with the production of the video below that I found on Youtube.
Proctor and Gamble, makers of Old Spice, maintain their deodorant is seafe, and the injuries claimed are not chemical burns, they are imune reactions unique to the individuals claiming the injury - freak occurances in other words.
In my mind, it doesn't matter if the injuries are chemical burns or not. If there are enough of them, even if they are the product of allergic reactions, the product is not reasonably safe. If you are injured by Old Spice or any other product, you should save the prroduct and report the injury both to the manufacturer and the Food and Drug Administration. DO NOT GIVE THE PRODUCT BACK TO THE MANUFACTURER. At most give them a small sample to test.
If you have injuries that require medical treatment, you should consider contacting an attorney who handles personal injury cases. If you are in Indiana, I would like to hear from you, call me at 317-662-4529.
There are various law firms that are advertising for these cases, and at least one class action has been filed. I suggest anyone affected find a LOCAL attorney to represent you. Your local attorney can team up with other attorneys to take on P&G on more equal terms. If you rely on a national law firm only, it is easy to fall between the cracks and not get the kind of individual attention that you might expect.
I have nothing to do with the production of the video below that I found on Youtube.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Is Credit One Bank on your credit report? Have they been calling you?
We are investigating practices by Credit One Bank relating to their telemarketing (robocalls) and their credit reporting and possibly accessing the credit information of those who do not have accounts with them. If you have a credit report with Credit One on it, and you didn't have an account with them, I would love to see it and talk to you.
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