HomeCity Government NewsConsumer Protection Workshop Arms Residents With Helpful Tips

Consumer Protection Workshop Arms Residents With Helpful Tips

California State Assembly Member Ed Chau, representative of the 49th State Assembly district, hosted a consumer protection workshop in the Barth Community Room of Crowell Public Library on Fri., Feb. 24.

The event was well attended and featured speakers from four government agencies, all of which are tasked with supporting consumers against the threat of fraudulent schemes.

Stacia Crane, a spokesperson with the United States Postal Inspection Service, shared many tips for people of all ages to protect themselves from scammers.

She encouraged the audience to look out for neighbors and friends who have fallen off the grid.

“The scammers want to isolate their victims,” she said. “Talk to people. Check on your neighbors. Find out what’s going on and if they’re being approached by someone who’s trying to separate them from their money. If they’re being approached by someone who they’ve never met but loves them immensely.”

Crane also advised checks should be signed with a gel point pen.

“It’s hard for anyone to wash that information off of your check,” she explained, sharing that her identity had been stolen.

“You need to protect yourself because odds are your ID is going to be stolen if it already hasn’t [been],” she noted, stating that children’s identities are “prime for stealing.”

“If you have children in your family—grandchildren, children, whatever—tell them to freeze their credit,” she advised, explaining that the action requires a call to all three credit reporting agencies and a nominal cost.

She added that she hopes the state of California will one day pass a law that automatically freezes a child’s credit when they are born.

“Does a two year old really need a credit card? Do they need a new car? No. But criminals are using it because they know that no one’s going to check [a child’s] credit until they’re much older,” she stated.

“We are the ones who have to patrol our own safety [and] our own security,” she concluded, encouraging anyone victimized or potentially victimized in a mail fraud case to report it to postalinspectors.uspis.gov or the Federal Trade Commission.

Carlos Marquez with the enforcement division of the Contractors State Licensing Board, or CSLB, shared tips that help consumers to protect themselves during home construction and renovation.

“One of the things you want to do when you’re looking for a contractor is look for a licensed contractor, get three bids, ask your friends, neighbors who have just gone through a project who they hired for a job you want performed,” he informed the crowd.

He also advised that consumers verify that a contractor or subcontractor has workers’ compensation for their employees, including asking questions about their business and business practices.

“When you enter a contract for $500 or more, every contractor is supposed to provide a written contract. Within the scope of the contract should be everything you want done, outlined,” Marquez continued.

He explained that consumers have the right to cancel a contract within three days of signing it and should never pay more than 10 percent or $1,000 of the full cost upfront.

“You never want to pay monies in advance of the work being performed,” he added, stating that a homeowner can file a complaint with the CSLB within four years of the work performed.

Homeowners, however, need to make sure they have done their due diligence during the process to ultimately help investigators with CSLB.

“When we do an investigation, the homeowner will allege, ‘Well I was supposed to get all American Standard fixtures throughout,’ Marquez said. “We do the investigation and it says ‘contractor grade.’ And that’s where homeowners get in trouble by not defining specifically the kinds of materials to be provided.”

He advised that homeowners should beware of contractors soliciting over the phone or on the internet. Homeowners should also ensure that their contractor pulls the necessary permits for a project.

“I don’t want to be responsible in the end if the building department comes to me and says my room addition is illegal,” he said.

In regards to payment, he added, “When you’re making that check out for that portion of the work, request that they provide some kind of unconditional release of proof of payment.”

Drawing on themes from the previous two speakers, Stephanie Holloway, a community outreach liaison with Los Angeles County’s Department of Consumer & Business Affairs, shared her tips.

She warned the audience to be aware of three red flags to identify a scammer.

“There’s always going to be a sense of urgency from someone who wants to scam,” she said first.

Then she noted that scammers would implement intimidation tactics.

“That intimidation technique is usually the main reason why so many individuals fall into scams and fraud,” she said. “They said they were going to send the police.”

Thirdly, she added that scammers would likely ask for a pre-paid debit card number or a wire transfer.

“It’s really difficult for an enforcement agency to track that and see where the funds went,” Holloway said of the form of payment.

Holloway also concurred with Crane.

“The security freeze is the best thing you can do,” she said. “Nobody can 100 percent protect you from ID theft because your information is everywhere.”

She also recommended that consumers never say “yes” to a question from an unknown caller, noting that scammers will use a victim’s voice to open fraudulent accounts once they’ve obtained more information about their victim.

San Marino Police Department Detective Brian Wong concluded the morning’s presentation with a variety of helpful reporting resources.

“Let’s say you lost only $100 online. Please report it because your $100 might be a part of a multimillion-dollar scam that has a lot of victims. And the FBI needs a little bit of everybody’s information to try to put together a good case,” he said, listing identitytheft.gov and IC3.gov as good fraud reporting websites.

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