MilConsumer Blog Feed

Retirement is a big transition in a servicemembers’ life. It will affect you, your family and your finances. Military Consumer and @StopFraudCo will host a Twitter chat to talk about what retirement means for military families on September 14, 2017 at 1 p.m. M.T. / 3 p.m. E.T. We’ll talk about retirement options and features, how to prepare for the transition, and tips for avoiding scams. Join in at #MilChat. Here are the questions we’ll address...

If you have a credit report, there’s a good chance that you’re one of the 143 million American consumers whose sensitive personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies. Here are the facts, according to Equifax. The breach lasted from mid-May through July. The hackers accessed people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s...

David Winfrey was one of the excellent panelists at our recent military financial workshop in San Antonio. David is a financial counselor at Fort Sam Houston. He has a passion to help wounded warriors with the challenges they face. David says his clients were “sailing along and then there was a shipwreck... often they are on a rudderless raft, floating with the current… My immediate goal is to get them into a boat where they are rowing toward a...

If you’re planning a business trip or vacation, you may have to make a decision about how to pay tolls when you rent a car. Most rental car companies offer ways to pay tolls automatically, but that convenience comes at a cost. Here’s how the devices work. In many parts of the country, your rental car comes with a transponder — a small electronic device on the windshield. Once set to ON or OPEN, tollbooths or scanners automatically scan and charge...

One thing we’ve learned at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is that scams often follow the news – especially when there’s a natural disaster, like Hurricane Harvey, in the headlines. Case in point: Colleagues at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tell us homeowners and renters are getting robocalls telling them their flood premiums are past due. In order to have coverage for Hurricane Harvey, consumers are told they need to submit a...

Have you ever filed your taxes using an online tax prep account? If so, you’ll want to know about the FTC’s recent settlement with TaxSlayer, LLC. What happened? From October until December 2015, hackers used user names and passwords stolen from other websites to try to log in to TaxSlayer Online. Because consumers sometimes reuse passwords, hackers were able to gain full access to more than 8,800 TaxSlayer Online accounts. Thieves could have...

Getting a call from a debt collector can be stressful. But it can be downright frightening when the caller uses lies, profanity and threats to try to get you to pay. In a case announced today, the FTC says a debt collection operation in Charlotte, NC pretended to be lawyers. Really, they were not lawyers and had no authority to collect debts. The FTC says the “collectors” used a variety of names to make people think they were dealing with a law...

It’s heartbreaking to see people lose their lives, homes, and businesses to the ongoing flooding in Texas. But it’s despicable when scammers exploit such tragedies to appeal to your sense of generosity. If you’re looking for a way to give, the FTC urges you to be cautious of potential charity scams . Do some research to ensure that your donation will go to a reputable organization that will use the money as promised. Consider these tips when...

Hurricane Harvey has devastated much of Southeastern Texas. Once the rain and floodwaters recede, it’ll be time to take stock and develop a recovery plan. The process may seem overwhelming. Here are a few tips and links to resources to help make the task less burdensome. Contact your insurance company. Ask what the next steps are in assessing any damage to your home or business. Your home and its contents may look beyond hope, but it’s possible...

People who lost money to a telemarketing tech support scam will soon get an email with instructions to claim a partial refund. The refunds are the result of an FTC case against Advanced Tech Support, which also used the name Inbound Call Experts. At the end of a lawsuit brought by the FTC and the State of Florida, a federal court in Florida ordered the company to pay $10 million for customer refunds. The company deceived hundreds of thousands of...