Consumer Safety & Awareness Part 27

Advertising Scams

(Part 1 – You Do Not Care They are Robbing You)

To this point we have discussed techniques scammers, robbers, and other unsavory people use to get your goods and money. There is, though, not much of a chance you will encounter any of these techniques.

Yet every day you are exposed to hundreds of advertising scams. In fact a large majority of advertisements, on television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, and, especially, on the Internet, use some form of deception to convince you to purchase their product. There is even a chance you will be offered items that do not exist.

Always keep in mind that manufacturers make products and need to sell them. They do this by whatever technique they can, not always honest ones. The federal government writes laws and hires people to inspect advertisements, but laws can easily be circumvented and there are so few inspectors that unless there is a blatant violation of law or many complaints, dishonesty is rarely discovered.

Even though there are state and local consumer protection agencies, as well as dozens of foundations and private organizations (such as Consumer Reports – see below), it is far too easy to bend the law, to use misdirection, exaggeration, testimonials, or any of the dozens of semi-legal techniques to fool consumers.

And warnings do not reach the people that most need them. We are so used to advertising that we simply let them filter into our brains without any question. Every day the ten organizations listed below, and hundreds of others (including Slightly Creaky), pass alerts on to consumers. Yet such things do not sell newspapers. Consumer warnings rarely make it into TV or Radio news as these companies depend on advertising for their existence. Would they run an ad for Direct Buy (for example), collecting millions in revenue, and then have news article that there are questions about this company’s honesty?

For over two years I have been trying to get organizations in my community to let me speak to the public about advertising scams, yet only two places welcomed my overtures, and only five people signed up to attend. Are people uninterested in protecting what they have worked so hard to earn? Do they simply not care? Are they too busy watching television (and viewing advertising) to find out how they are being scammed of thousands of dollars a year?

The folks here at Slightly Creaky are at a loss to explain this apathy. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let us know at suggestions@slightlycreaky.com. We will post the best of these comments in a future blog.

Obviously those people who are reading this are interested in consumer fraud and misleading advertising, and probably wish to know more about this. Our weekly posts can only touch the surface and provide generalities. You can bookmark these ten web sites and visit them occasionally to get the latest consumer protection information:

Slightly Creaky’s Consumer Assistance Links: http://www.slightlycreaky.com/scams.html#ConAssist

Consumer Reports: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

Better Business Bureau: http://www.bbb.org/us/

Scam Busters: http://www.scambusters.org/

Scam.com: http://www.scam.com/

Federal Citizen Information Center: http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/scamsdesc.htm

Federal Reserve Consumer Information: http://www.frbsf.org/publications/consumer/fraud.html

ScamBlog: http://www.scamdex.com/ScamBlog/

QuackWatch: http://www.quackwatch.org/

Hot Scams: http://www.hotscams.com/