Story Created:
Sep 29, 2009 at 6:37 AM CST
Story Updated:
Sep 29, 2009 at 6:37 AM CST
(September 29, 2009)
Main Topic: How to complain about a business through the BBB?
BBB's goal is to successfully resolve complaints involving buyers and sellers in a fair and timely fashion. This includes complaints involving consumer-to-business and business-to-business transactions that involve the advertisement and/or sale of a product or service.
BBB generally does not handle complaints which are more effectively handled by other government or private agencies or the legal system, such as complaints involving employment practices, discrimination, or matters in litigation.
How to file:
· By fax to 885-0628
· By letter to
BBB
719 S Shoreline, Suite 304
Corpus Christi, TX 78401
BBB reserves the right not to process complaints containing abusive or foul language.
Complaint steps: <graphic>
Conciliation:
Your complaint will be forwarded to the company within two business days. The company will be asked to respond within 14 days, and if a response is not received, a second request will be made. You will be notified of the company's response when we receive it (or notified that we received no response). Complaints are usually closed within 30 calendar days.
Mediation: (new)
If the business responds but the complaint is not resolved, BBB may offer mediation. Mediation hearings are held in Corpus Christi. The mediator is a community trained volunteer, not an employee of BBB. The mediator attempts to get the two parties to agree on a solution. There is a charge of $70 for mediation.
Arbitration:
If the mediation is not successful BBB may offer arbitration. This is basically the same as mediation except the arbitrator makes a legally binding judgment.
Scheme of the week: Consumers are victimized by “Scareware” which attacks their computers with malicious software.
Scareware is a malicious or ineffective software. It's so named because buyers are
usually scared into buying it with fake messages that tell them that their
computer has been infected. These products have been around for years, but in
the past few months they've become a major problem. Over the weekend, The New
York Times was tricked into running a scareware ad on its site by scammers
pretending to be with Vonage, a legitimate telecommunications company.
But scareware ads are popping up everywhere these days, security experts say.
Typically, when a scareware ad pops up on a victim's screen, it looks like a
Windows utility running some kind of security scan. It will then warn that it
has found a critical security problem and direct the victim to a Web site where
they can buy a product to fix the issue.
When the victim pays, the scammers then deliver useless or even malicious
software. Often, they also use the victim's credit card number for further fraud
or try to hack into the machine.
In addition to pushing malicious ads, these scammers have also been poisoning
Google search results lately. To do this, they keep track of hot search topics
and then use search engine optimization techniques -- using software to create a
bunch of links to their malicious pages -- so that their pages come up first in
search results. When the victim clicks on the fake search result, they're taken
to a Web site that pops up the fake scareware system scan.
Today most scareware sellers operate outside the U.S., making it hard to stop
them, Tassi said. "Certainly on a state level, it's become virtually
impossible."
