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One Great Way to Fight Student Debt - You Can Get a Graduate Level Education on How Online Crypto/NFT Scams Work for Free via YouTube

5/17/2022

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Anyone who has EVER thought of "investing" in cryptocurrency or "non-fungible tokens" (NFTs) should watch this priceless expose.

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Outstanding Idea: Stop Auto Dealers From Using Yo-Yo Sales Scams

4/29/2022

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Friend of John Gear Law Office and outstanding consumer attorney Young Walgenkim, along with a stellar cast of other consumer protection experts, has filed a petition with the FTC to stop one of the worst abuses in the entire US market system, the yo-yo sales scam that auto dealers use.

The yo-yo sale is so bad it reminds you of the old saying that "If you think the illegal stuff is bad, take a look at what's legal."

Basically, a yo-yo sale is where you are stuck with the bargain you made but the dealer gets to revoke it … in other words, they get you psychically invested into and committed to the car you bought and often into sinking money into the car, and then they pull it back (the yo-yo) and demand that you, the consumer accept a worse deal or give the car back. And, believe it or not, today, that's legal.

It’s absolutely a shocking and abusive predatory practice that ought to be outlawed in auto sales just like all other forms of consumer contracts. If the deal isn't binding on them, it shouldn't be binding on you.

Read the rulemaking petition below and then contact your congressional rep and your Senators and tell them you agree:

If an auto dealer isn't bound by the contract, the consumer shouldn't be either. 
If a deal's a deal, then it should be binding on both sides or neither side. End Yo-Yo Auto Sales!

2022-04-29_request_for_rulemaking_yo-yo_grppetition_yo-yo_financing_ftc_04-29-22.pdf
File Size: 404 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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Veterans: Get Your Free Federal Parks and Recreational Lands Pass

4/27/2022

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Regular Annual Parks Pass cost $80
Cost for Vets: $10 ($5 processing/$5 delivery)

Get it here: https://store.usgs.gov/MilitaryPass

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Don't Paint Cryptocurrency with Such a Broad Brush!

4/26/2022

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A clever Twitter user named Pat Dennis posted this perfect gem recently:
Pat Dennis @patdennis

Sick of people calling everything in crypto a Ponzi scheme. Some crypto projects are pump and dump schemes, while others are pyramid schemes. Others are just standard issue fraud. Others are just middlemen skimming of the top. Stop glossing over the diversity in the industry.
In all seriousness, I see a LOT of signs of bubbles and scams in the cryptocurrency space.

If anyone consulted me, I would advise clients to put no money into cryptocurrency except for money they would happily take to Vegas or Seven Feathers Casino and be absolutely OK with losing. 

As far as I can tell, sellers are the only ones for whom cryptocurrency is an investment -- for buyers, it's just Beanie Babies for nerds.  You might buy low and sell high -- or you might be the one stuck with a roomful of worthlessness. 
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Venmo Users: Don't Sleep on This - Don't Give Up Your Rights to Use Class Actions

4/26/2022

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Very helpful article from The Verge below with step-by-step directions on how to avoid getting jobbed out of your right to join a class action against Venmo (which is, in practical terms, probably the only way you'd ever be able to have a hope of dealing with a problem with them that they won't fix for you).

Excellent deeper analysis of how Venmo is hoping you won't bother so they've made the process absurd, from the Credit Slips blog.
How to opt out of Venmo’s new arbitration clause

Keep your rights to class action

By Barbara Krasnoff  Apr 25, 2022, 2:52pm EDT

. . .  We’ll tell you how you can opt out — but first, a little info about arbitration clauses.
Arbitration clauses have become extremely popular in agreements between companies and consumers. (For example, here’s a 2019 article explaining how to opt out of the arbitration clause that emerged when Apple added a credit card.)

It’s not surprising. When you agree to arbitration, you are basically putting most of the advantages in the company’s court.

For example, most arbitration clauses deny you the opportunity to become part of a class action suit or to individually sue the company. Instead, an arbitrator (often chosen by the company) reviews the case and then makes a ruling that cannot be appealed.



MOST ARBITRATION CLAUSES DENY YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME PART OF A CLASS ACTION SUIT

And, in fact, this is exactly what the arbitration clause that Venmo is adding is meant to do.

. . .


here’s the short version of what you need to do:

  • Download and print out the Venmo Opt-Out Notice Form
  • Fill out the entire form
  • Mail it (yes, the kind of mail with an envelope and a stamp) to:
PayPal, Inc.
Attn: Litigation Department
Re: Venmo Opt-Out Notice
2211 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95131



1) .... if you accepted the user agreement for the first time on or after May 23rd, 2022, then your form has to be postmarked up to 30 days after that date.

If you’ve been a Venmo member for longer, you have until June 22nd, 2022.


2) ... Send it so it can be traced or, even better, so somebody has to sign for it.

This will cost more, but if you foresee yourself possibly needing to take Venmo to court anytime in the future (especially if you plan to use the service extensively), then it pays to be sure.


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Spearphishing Attacks - How they get you (and how to spot them)

4/23/2022

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So we are selling a house right now, which involves signing an absurd number of forms, many of which we have already signed, and that all have to be re-signed by everyone every time so much as a comma changes. So I'm constantly getting emails from the title company demanding that we go to a document signing website to re-sign things.

So this afternoon, I got the email in the photo on the left and thought "Great, we've got a closing date!" And I was reaching for my mouse when I remembered that we aren't even using First America Title to do the closing. So the entire email was just bait to get me to click on it -- they send them out by the millions, and some fraction of people end up snared by malware that downloads on their computer when they click on the links in the email.  This is called a "spearphishing attack."

To confirm it was spearphishing, I hovered my mouse over the sending email address, and sure enough, it has nothing to do with any real title company. It's no doubt a spoofed address for some criminal somewhere.

So good reminders:
1. Never click on links in unknown mail, especially mail made up to look all official.

2. Learn to use your mouse to hover over sender email address so you can always double check suspicious emails by seeing the actual sending email instead of just looking at the displayed email (as in the photo on the right).


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Annual Business Registration Renewal Scam Returns

4/14/2022

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So, here it is, 2022, and the old favorite scams come back like dandelions.

This one targets small and medium-sized businesses where either the owner is doing everything themselves and is too busy to read the mail really closely or where someone else opens the mail and sends the invoices to the owner for payment, but doesn't realize that this one is a scam.

I've posted about this scam in 2012 and 2019.

Remember: It ONLY COSTS $100 to renew your corporate registration ($50 for nonprofits).

You DO NOT NEED to pay these criminals $185 to do for you what you can do for $100 in five minutes flat at the Secretary of State Corporations Division Website.

You will get a REAL LETTER IN THE MAIL from the Oregon Secretary of State when it's time to renew your corporate registration. Then it will tell you how to go online and renew your registration here:

 https://secure.sos.state.or.us/cbrbr/renewal.action#stay

So don't make it easy or profitable for scammers!  Recycle that trash they mailed you, or --- better yet -- use it to train your people in how to recognize scams so that your business stays away from them entirely.

IF YOU GOT A NOTICE LIKE THE ONE SHOWN BELOW, IT IS A SCAM TRYING TO RIP YOU OFF!
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A very convincing fraudulent email - you must learn how to check actual sender email addresses

3/28/2022

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The scammers are getting better and better all the time. 

You MUST learn how to use your mouse to hover over email addresses so that the ACTUAL sender email displays, because it is very easy for scammers to fake the email address that appears in the header on your email application.

Note how well done this scam email is -- it looks pretty convincing and, to a busy person, the tempting idea of an email about disaster relief money might be just the push they need to click the link -- which leads to disaster, because this is from a scammer operating out of Germany, it is NOT from the US Small Business Administration.  Sad but true, we must learn to be appropriately suspicious of every unexpected email, ESPECIALLY any that seem to be offering something for nothing.

The top photo is what the email looks like when you glance at it in your inbox.

The bottom photo is what you see if you hover your mouse over the (faked) sender email address - hovering the mouse over the email causes the ACTUAL sender email to show up, which is when you see that it's NOT from the Small Biz Administration but rather from someone in Germany (.de is the country domain for Germany).

If you could only learn one anti-scam habit, learning to find the actual email sender is maybe the one to know.
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Did COVID cause you to have problems with your mortgage?

3/9/2022

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If  you are a homeowner who has not been making payments on your mortgage and now you are having a problem getting back on track with your mortgage, you may be eligible for help from a new legal aid foreclosure defense project, Oregon Homeowner Legal Assistance (OHLA).

If you are low/moderate income and face any COVID-related financial hardship that threatens your homeownership (defaults, lender refusals to modify your loan, etc.) you should seek if  OHLA can help you by calling
Oregon Homeowner Legal Assistance:  1-855-503-2598.
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Tell Congress: Stop Companies from Preventing Do-It-Yourself Repairs!

2/4/2022

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Right to Repair 

The Freedom to Repair Act Will Make All Electronic Repairs Legal


Article by:
Elizabeth Chamberlain @elizzybeth
  • February 2, 2022
Restoring our right to repair what we own is being considered in the US House of Representatives right now. Today, Representatives Mondaire Jones of New York (D) and Victoria Spartz of Indiana (R) introduced the Freedom to Repair Act. The bill would permanently fix an important aspect of copyright law, making almost all electronic repairs legal by default.
Copyright law shouldn’t prevent repair, but the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 made it illegal to circumvent technological protection measures for any purpose, repair included. More and more products have technological protection measures, to the point where fixing your Xbox or Keurig has become illegal. Every three years, we fight to get the Copyright Office to grant specific repair exemptions to the DMCA. We’ve had some success, but the limited exemptions we’ve received don’t allow people to  share the tools or software necessary for these repairs.


The Jones-Spartz bill would simplify all of this. It would clarify that working around digital locks when fixing things isn’t a copyright violation. Making tools and software for those repairs would become legal. All products with embedded electronics are included, with the exception of medical devices. (We’re not thrilled about this exception.)


Nathan Proctor with US PIRG weighed in, “Manufacturers have gone too far by locking repair functions. Congress never intended to outlaw repair. It’s no surprise that fixing this oversight is bipartisan. It’s common sense.” 


Eschewing unnecessary lock-outs also supports technology education, too, as cybersecurity expert Tarah Wheeler pointed out at a right to repair hearing in Washington recently. When “manufacturers restrict the right to poke around in their devices,” she said, it damages the opportunity for “curious minds to explore” and makes it harder for her, as an employer, to find employees with knowledge and skill.


Momentum for Right to Repair is growing. Yesterday, Senator Tester (D) introduced a Federal agriculture equipment right to repair bill. And state bills have moved out of key committees in Washington and Massachusetts this week.
Making more devices repairable will empower recyclers and refurbishers to reduce e-waste by extending the useful life of these products.


“We shouldn’t have to beg permission from the Copyright Office every three years for the right to fix our stuff. Repair isn’t piracy and it’s not how copyrights are infringed. This bill helps make repair practical again,” said Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of Repair.org. “When passed, this reform will improve choice in repair markets, which means better service at lower costs for consumers.”

Let your congressional representatives know that you support the bipartisan Freedom to Repair Act and the legal right to repair.
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John Gear Law Office LLC and Salem Consumer Law.  John Gear Law Office is in Suite 208B of the Security Building in downtown Salem at 161 High St. SE, across from the Elsinore Theater, a half-block south of Marion County Courthouse, just south of State Street. There is abundant, free 3-hour on-street parking throughout downtown Salem, and three multi-story parking ramps that offer free customer parking in downtown Salem too.

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