I had a car for sale two years ago on craig's list. I had a scammer of some sort contact me via email. At first they seemed to be making legitimate inquiries about the car. The person said they were representing someone in England, who wanted the car, and they were buying it for them here in the U.S. to be shipped back to England. Then they said they wanted to buy it with a cashier's check but the amount would be over the purchase price and I would need to send the difference before shipping etc, etc. Since this was April of 2005, the scam was new at the time but I still knew it was a scam of some sort. I researched it online on the FBI's website. Sure enough, there were big warnings about the new scam. I reported this person but never heard anything from the FBI. However, they didn't use an international address. They actually used the address of a bed and breakfast in michigan. But the phone number they gave me always went straight to voice mail. And when I called the B&B, they had no idea who that person was. Since the money was to be wired to them instead of sending it to the B&B, I think they just picked an address at random that seemed legitimate. They weren't planning on getting any mail or money at that address. But having a U.S. address made them seem more legitimate, I suppose. One of the things that made me curious at the very beginning was it made no sense for anyone in England to want to buy a used car in the U.S., especially a gas guzzling Ford Explorer. So big for a country with such narrow streets and sky high gas prices. How much is the equivalent of a gallon of gas there? Isn't it around $6? And plus, the steering wheel would be on the wrong side of the car! Anyway, I never did tell the guy that I'd busted him. I wanted to see if the FBI would catch him. But they didn't do anything. No one ever contacted me. I did find an article at the time in the Chicago Sun Times on this then new scam. So I emailed the reporter to give him the details on how they'd tried to scam me. He emailed me back and I forwarded him the emails. I thought at least a reporter could make use of the info to get the news out.

Cynic >This one has me confused though: "...my cell phone provider gouged me for 4 consecutive months of payments even though I was paying cash at their store." If you have auto-pay, why are you paying cash at the store? Something's missing or I'm not following something. I was paying my bill in cash at their store. I had already called the (cell phone provider) ahead of time and told them I would be doing this. Each month my bill would arrive, each month it kept reflecting an overpayment. I would call them and they said it would be corrected. This happened FOUR months in a row. I contacted the credit card company and told them to cancel the card. Same thing happened with them. They would say it would be canceled. The following month I would get a bill for the same incorrect amount. I finally spoke to someone at the CC co. who said until the cell phone provider notified them, I would continue to be responsible for the charges whether they were right or wrong. They never said ANYTHING about having to have a cancellation number. BOTH the cell phone provider and CC company neglected to inform me of this necessary requirement. I wonder why? Well the reason why, is because THEY were MAKING MONEY and didn't want it to stop. These companies do not make it easy. They don't fully inform you when you sign up, and they don't tell you what you really need to do in order to cancel this type of payment. I finally contacted a consumer newspaper reporter. She said she doesn't care for automatic payments for the same reason and gets many calls regarding this. She contacted the cell phone provider's publicity relations department. That worked. They must have called my CC company because everything was taken care of within the month and I didn't receive any more credit card bills. My cell phone bills are what they are supposed to be. I still pay in cash. I no longer have the credit card. They send me solicitations all the time. Thanks, but no thanks. Contacting the AG's office is a good idea. dadoes >dreamgarden probably thought if he/she paid cash, the autopay wouldn't trigger. That's not necessarily the case. I wonder what IS the case? Who at EITHER company, was supposed to tell me I needed a cancellation number in order to stop the autopay? Out of a total of seven calls, 4 to the cell phone provider and 3 to the CC company, not ONE person mentioned this. Don't they teach customer service reps this information? I no longer wanted auto-pay and told them this. I said I would be paying in cash from now on and to cancel auto-pay. I don't understand how I could have been any clearer. >I recall a couple cases where I work of customers having autopay set up through CheckFree. One fellow died, his wife had NO CLUE about any of their finances and the auto-pay kept coming, for MONTHS. She no longer wanted the service, but she didn't contact us or was even aware the service existed, so how are we to know that? "How are we to know that?". How did you find out that her husband died? How do you know the wife no longer wanted the service if she was never contacted? Was she on the account too? Doesn't your company have some policy regarding taking money from a deceased person's account? > The other case, the fellow changed his account services, but didn't change the monthly autopay amount. We contacted him, he still didn't change the amount. Built up a large credit that had to be refunded when he eventually closed the service. When the fellow called to change his account services, was he asked if the present autopay amount was ok? If he was changing his account services, this would seem to be a logical question to ask a customer. Was he notified by telephone or in writing? This is why I like to receive paper billing. Sometimes when a credit card company calls (and leaves a message), they don't always state the nature of their business. When I have called back, they try to sell me some service or item I'm not interested in. Now I don't return calls unless they leave a message telling me something is wrong, or needs to be corrected. I had them put this in my file. I don't want to be bothered with solicitations or irrelevant matters that aren't directly related to some kind of problem with my account. In my opinion the above examples are just more reason to pay as you go and not allow company's to have recurring access to your bank account.

Sadly, this just happened to my 83 year old parents on Friday morning and they called to tell me about yesterday after the scammer tried a second attempt. I am so stunned that they fell for this scam and are now out $4000. They were told to get $4000 in Visa gift cards immediately as their grandson "Tommy" was set to appear before a judge at 11:00am, so they went to Best Buy and purchased several cards. The "officer" that called even said that they may be questioned why they are buying so many cards, but to tell Best Buy it is for a friend you are helping out. The officer told them he would be calling them at 10:30am to get the card info. He called right on time and my mom read the numbers and pins on all the cards. She asked if she could talk to her grandson and they put "Tommy" on the phone who kept begging my parents not to call his wife or parents. Apparently he had been in jail for 2 days. My mom said it sounded just like "Tommy" and he even called her "Nana". Second attempt happened yesterday morning when the officer called them again saying that "Tommy's" bail was increased and he needed another $4000. This time my dad wised up and asked to speak to "Tommy". It took about 10 minutes for "Tommy" to come to the phone and my dad asked what is your sister's name (he doesn't have a sister). Tommy kept laughing saying "oh come on you know what her name is, why are you playing these games with me." This went on for a few minutes and "Tommy" hung up. My dad then called the real "Tommy" who was home with his wife and quite stunned by what my dad proceeded to tell him. It makes me sick as I write this, I can't believe my parents fell for it because they know about all these scams, we talk about them quite often and this incident is so not my parents. FYI, "Tommy" is my son and has never been in trouble with the law. My parents feel so embarrassed and upset about what happened, so there was no lecturing from me. I feel bad for them.

Hopefully for the last time, a Power of Attorney is a piece of paper. It's not a person, a legal capacity, or a status. . I've been away from home but I have a copy of some forms in my digital possession with the following effect. The first, a durable and mostly limitless General Power of Attorney, says: "I, XXX, a resident of YYY County, State, appoint as my attorney in fact: My name". It's a 19 page document. As a result of which, I am that person's "attorney in fact". The document is a Power of Attorney Another document for that same person is a durable power of attorney for health care that names me as "agent". My title under that document is "agent". The document is a healthcare power of attorney. I also have that person's will that names me as Executor. As a result, when acting under that document, I am "Executor". The document is a will. This is an area I worked in, in my professional career, for which I had a state license and plenty enough training. Not much, it isn't that complicated, irrespective of what people think they know based only on what they've heard used or misused.