Resources

Tax Day! Now Comes the Great Refund Rip-Off
- Consumer Alerts
- April 14, 2014
It’s become a growing problem–the crime of “stolen identity refund fraud”. Justin Gelfand, a former federal prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Tax Division writes: “If the problem continues unabated, Treasury estimates the IRS will lose 21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the next five years.”
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Scaring young drivers into putting down their cell phones
- Consumer Alerts
- April 3, 2014
Texting while driving could cost you your life. Just ask 19-year-old Liz Marks who knows first-hand about the dire consequences of distracted driving. Marks admitted that she was texting behind the wheel when she crashed into a stopped tow truck back in 2012. Luckily she survived, but was left with a collapsed lung, fractured skull and traumatic brain injury.
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Shocked To Learn How Data Brokers Are Watching You?
- Consumer Alerts
- March 9, 2014
How safe is your personal information? An investigation by the 60 Minutes team explains what you really need to know about data brokers and how they get your information. Producer Maria Gavrilovic explains: “The majority of these companies don’t even consider themselves a data broker. They like to call themselves an app maker or a marketing company or a retailer.”
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1 in 3 Americans has used tanning beds, upping skin cancer risk
- Consumer Alerts
- February 4, 2014
We know that indoor tanning can cause skin cancer, yet a new study found that more than half of college students and 35% of Americans still report using tanning beds. "It is appalling how often exposure to indoor tanning takes place in presumably educated populations and particularly worrisome that we allow adolescents to be exposed
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Child deaths are tragic reminder that products pose risk long after recall
- Consumer Alerts
- January 27, 2014
Just because a product has been recalled doesn’t mean it isn’t still harmful. After the untimely deaths of two children from Massachusetts who got stuck in an antique chest, safety experts are advising parents to safeguard their homes and remove any items that have been recalled or that may not be safe for children. Nancy
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Got a charge for $9.84 on your credit card? Beware
- Consumer Alerts
- January 25, 2014
A fraud alert was issued by the Better Business Bureau following complaints of a $9.84 charge showing up on many people’s credit card statements. The charge may show up as “customer support” or as a charge from any one of a number of different websites.
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Consumer Reports: Too many sodas contain potential carcinogen
- Consumer Alerts
- January 23, 2014
The caramel coloring used in many sodas contains a chemical called 4-methylimidazole, or 4-Mel, that may increase your risk of getting cancer, Consumer Reports says.
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Dr. Oz warns against health dangers of processed chicken from China
- Consumer Alerts
- December 23, 2013
The USDA is working to allow chicken from China to be sold to consumers in the U.S., but China has different standards when it comes food safety. The proposal calls for chicken to be sent to China for processing after it is raised in the U.S. or Canada, then sent back to the U.S. to
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Hackers steal millions of passwords; Tips to protect your security online
- Consumer Alerts
- December 23, 2013
Is your information safe online? The user names and passwords of almost 2 million people (most of them outside the U.S.) were compromised online for sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Google, according to security firm Trustwave SpiderLabs. It's become clear that weak passwords are easier to guess, often leading to accounts being compromised. Combining
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Prove those antibacterial soaps are better and safe, FDA tells makers
- Consumer Alerts
- December 23, 2013
Does your antibacterial soap or body wash actually do more harm than good? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is calling on all soap makers to ensure that all added ingredients, such as triclosan, are safe and effective at killing germs. "The proposed rule covers only those consumer antibacterial soaps and body washes that are
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Cars with crash-avoiding technology ranked safest
- Consumer Alerts
- December 23, 2013
The annual list of the safest new cars was released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Last year's list contained 130 cars, while stricter safety standards cut this year's list down to 39 cars. The cars that earned the best ratings were those that helped to prevent accidents by alerting drivers, or actually
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Energy drinks speed heart contractions, MRIs show
- Consumer Alerts
- December 23, 2013
Energy drinks led almost 21,000 people in the U.S. to the emergency room in 2013, according to a report from the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration. This influx of emergency room visits led a team of cardiac radiologists to seek a reason behind the problems caused by energy drinks. Consuming lots of caffeine can
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There’s Still Arsenic in Rice (and It’s Probably Not Going Away)
- Consumer Alerts
- December 20, 2013
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that rice contains levels of the carcinogen arsenic, but says there is no short-term harm to our health. The long-term impact on health, however, is not yet known. Previous studies had linked arsenic to rice, leading the FDA to conduct ongoing research. Dr. Suzanne C. Fitzpatrick, senior
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Kraft removing artificial dyes from some mac and cheese
- Consumer Alerts
- December 5, 2013
Do you really know what’s in the macaroni and cheese that you feed your kids? Kraft is changing the recipe for some of its mac and cheese products by removing Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6, since these dyes can cause harmful side effects for kids. Research has shown that Yellow No. 5 can
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GPS vs. reality: Don’t let GPS win
- Consumer Alerts
- October 21, 2013
Do you trust your GPS when it tells you to take a direction you know seems wrong? More and more people are following instructions from their GPS, rather than trusting their instincts, leading them to get into accidents, drive into oncoming traffic in the wrong direction, or take suggested shortcuts that lead them to the
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