Shock therapy to avoid scams

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Shock therapy to avoid scams
By PresenterMedia.com
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• The annual list of the top 10 consumer complaints
  is out, and it features familiar scams. Once
  again, the report is a good reminder to be
  careful. Some of the scams have become more
  sophisticated, with more high-tech ways of
  stealing your money. Topping the list are auto
  complaints, including misrepresentations in
  advertising or sales, faulty repairs, and leasing
  and towing disputes.

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• In second place are complaints about credit and
  debt. The category includes mortgage
  modifications and mortgage-related fraud,
• credit-repair schemes, debt-relief services,
  predatory lending, and illegal or abusive
  debt-collection tactics. The five fastest-growing
  complaints are about fraud, debt-collection
  abuses, do-not-call violations, mortgage-related
  issues, and problems that people have had with
  both legitimate and sham home-improvement
  companies.

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• New to the list this year are real-estate-related
  complaints. Hard times have left many people
  wanting to dump their timeshares, or at least get
  out from under yearly maintenance fees they can
  no longer afford. This desperation on the part of
  timeshare owners has been a boon to schemers. In
  one such swindle, timeshare resellers tell
  folks they can help them unload their unwanted
  properties and ask for an upfront fee for the
  service. Im sure you can guess what happens.

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• No buyers are found, no help is really offered
  and people are out of their money, stuck with a
  timeshare they cant afford. But then another
  timeshare crook swoops in to add insult to
  financial injury. Timeshare recovery companies
  offer to help owners get back the funds lost to
  resellers. They ask for an upfront fee. Its a
  double financial whack because this, too, turns
  out to be a scam.