February 2009 Archives

In its 2009 session, the Virginia General Assembly gave consideration to a number of pieces of legislation that extended privacy protections for the Commonwealth's consumers. The majority of that legislation passed. Of particular note are the following examples: 1.  Credit reports; consumer reporting agency's duty to place a security freeze thereon within one business day after receiving such a request. Amending § 59.1-444.2. (Patron-Nixon, HB 1884 (P)).  See my February 9 post. 2.  Freedom of Information Act; disclosure of names of individual teachers is not required thereunder in response to a request for official salary of employees of local school board....

My last post (Scams Use Email As First Contact Over Half the Time According to Top Ten Frauds Report) about the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network's (CSN) publication of its 2008 Databook focussed on the catagories of fraud and nationwide prevalence of the categories. In this post, I'm looking at the prevalence in Virginia of scam categories.All told, Virginians reported 16,114 fraud claims to CSN agencies. For the 85% of these reports that included information about the amount of their payments, the grand total was $31,066,922, resulting in an average payment (or loss) based on fraud of $2,276.Topping all reports, whether...

In February, the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) published its annual Data Book for January-December 2008, identifying the top ten fraud complaints, identity theft complaints and other complaints that plagued this nation in 2008. This year for the first time, the report includes "other complaints" in addition to fraud and identity theft. It is based on over 1.2 million complaints collected by the Network during calendar year 2008: 52% fraud complaints; 26% identity theft complaints; and 22% other types of complaints. Of those complaints reporting the initial means of contact, fifty-two percent (52%) said that method was email. The Internet...

The right to a credit report security freeze was created in Virginia in 2008 to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in consumers' names without their consent. A "security freeze" means a notice placed in a consumer's credit report, at the request of the consumer that subject to certain exceptions, prohibits the consumer reporting agency from releasing the consumer's credit report or score relating to the extension of credit. The new law passed last year provided that security freezes must be requested in writing by certified mail. Section 59.1-444.2 of the Code of Virginia gave credit reporting agencies  three...

This 2009 session, Virginia's General Assembly is poised to expand the Consumer Real Estate Settlement Protection Act.  Presently the Act requires that consumers be given a statement explaining the role of a settlement agent, and indicating that they have the right to select their own settlement agents.  This is true, of course, and being given notice is all good and well, but notice alone lacks the teeth to really protect consumers.  This is because some lenders who want to avoid the effect of the law do so by including contractual language in their loan documents whereby consumers voluntarily give up or "waive" the right make their own selection of...

This 2009 session, Virginia's General Assembly is poised to expand the Consumer Real Estate Settlement Protection Act.  Presently the Act requires that consumers be given a statement explaining the role of a settlement agent, and indicating that they have the right to select their own settlement agents.  This is true, of course, and being given notice is all good and well, but notice alone lacks the teeth to really protect consumers.  This is because some lenders who want to avoid the effect of the law do so by including contractual language in their loan documents whereby consumers voluntarily give up or "waive" the right make their own selection of...