I use a site called www.creditboards.com to help me find information on debt collection and my credit report. They have links to legal sites where you can read the law for your area. The forums are a good place to ask for advice. A lawyer is a good thing to consult as well.
In many states if you agree to start paying a debt it becomes yours to pay. Many times you need to write letters to have the debt validated. Never admit the debt is yours in these letters. There are some good example letters on the website.

In CA. the Statute of Limitations can not be revived if a person makes a payment. After the four years there is no consideration, an element required to enforce a contract. Therefore there is no contract or new debt. You can not be sued after 4 years. But can be reported onto your credit for up to 7 years. Also the original creditor must have complied with all kinds of repo laws. Must have sent the proper notice of intent to sell and notice of deficiency as required by law. I own a collection agency and been a debt collector for over 36 years.

What has this world come to when their are more scams and scammers who are making a living out of preying on honest people. My acccount was overdrawn because Google treasure chest took 72.00 extra over the 1.97 DVD I ordered. My bank called, on my behalf I made numerous calls and was given the run around from someone who sounds like they are in another country. I finally got passed it and let it go! There needs to be more protetion for the honest.

I too thought the top 10 work from home site was part of Clark Howard's site. I tried ispeedway and was charged a $1.88 fee that I "agreed" to by entering my credit card information. After entering my credit card info, I was given more information that said after the 30 day trial I would be billed $95 a month. I did not accept this. I called to verify that I had not accepted. I received an e-mail showing a bill that I owed $0. All was good until my credit card bill came with the surprise $1.88 charge.

Must go to my bank to get my money back from these scammers. They say $1.97 and then deduct $$$ from your account. I 'unsubscribed' once but they came back with 'unsubscribe and you don't get your money back'. HAH

Be careful of these links, you pay a $1.99 or whatever for s&h initially and the possibility of profit is there but if you do not make money after the initial charge you are then billed for regular use and membership to this program close to $99.00 per month. It is even within the terms and agreements of the application site. If you do not have the flexibility for this added cost per month be careful on signing up.

The U. S. Postal Inspection Service is the federal law enforcement agency which is charged with investigating all crimes involving the U. S. mail. The work at home scam is one of those crimes. If you visit www.postalinspectors.uspis.gov you can find more information about the scam and download an educational DVD for free! You can also read testimonies from others and report fraudulent activity.

Thx for the list of legit work-at-home sites and suggestions Clark! Im disabled so my choices are limited and this information will surely point me in the right direction. All the best!

If someone uses your credit card for purchases you, the card owner, did not authorize, it's not your problem, you don't have to pay. You WILL have to do paperwork with signature saying this is not your charge. Of course, if the investigations show you lied, welcome to the courtroom. Tell your credit card bank to send the paperwork.Don't "hope" they take a fraudulent charge off.

I got caught well and truly from Clark's website. I was reading about "work from home websites" that were recommended by Clark. I did not notice that the thing that looked like a similar article was an ad. It was set out to show it was chosen as a "top ten" for work at home and suggested it was chosen by the Clark Howard team. I bought the CD for $3.88 using my credit card. I then got two further monthly charges of $72.71, which I have reported to my credit card company and they are investigating. Hopefully they will take it off my card. My card has now been cancelled, so no more charges can be made. Can Clark's team not check that these ads are not allowed to appear on his site.

Yes, there are legitimate market research companies that conduct mystery shops. Volition.com is one site and jobslinger.com is another one. You do not need to pay anything to start doing this. There are about 100 companies that do this legitimately and those two sites will lead you to the legitimate companies. I repeat that you do not need to pay any money to do this. Good luck and happy shopping.

I WAS RIPPED OFF BY A CO. THAT STATED IT WOULD PAY $5.00. PER BOARD, IF TESTED O.K. / AFTER 4 BOARDS, THE PARTS AND BOARDS THEY SENT WERE CHANGED , WHEREBY, NO WAY YOU COULD MAKE THEM TEST O.K. .// I REDESIGNED THEIR BOARDS SO THEY WOULD WORK AND FOOLED THEM. THEY STOPPED SENDING ANYTHING TO ME.

An add circulated many times this year for a "work from Home" ideas that work!!
The ad led me to a website. It looked legitimate, it had a button to order a CD about the most useful "work at home" businesses you ca start up for next to nothting!
I ordered the CD for $1.00 using my credit card. I did not see the small print-actually "tiny tiny print" on the website that said "now that you're a member we will charge your credit card $121.00 per month...when the first $121 came out of my account I called their # I got from my bank. It took 5 times to get through, and whenI did, they claimed that I joined the service (of what I have no idea) and if I wanted to discontinue my membership, they would cancel it for me, but could not refund my $121 .......please pass this on! I felt like such a fool, but it could have been worse..
Thanks Clark
Mike

Today one of your callers remarked on the unscrupulous actions of a collection agency calling his neighbor. The problem is so much worse than that. I would like to share some good advise with your listeners regarding collection agency rip offs by sharing my personal experience. My son lost his job so he voluntarily turned into the finance company his Chevy S10 truck that was not yet completely paid for. The company resold the truck recovering almost all of the outstanding debt and they did not pursue my for the balance however, many years later the original finance contract was sold for pennies on the dollar to a collection firm who started harrassing him and his family members for payment of the full unpaid balance and interest over the 7 years since he had turned in the vehicle. They persistently wanted my son to pay "any amount he could" and they would stop the harrassment. I became involved as a result of receiving some their telephone calls personally so I started researching the situation. What I discovered was a revelation! In our state the statute of limitations for this type of contract had arrived 3 years previous to the collection agency starting their collection efforts but if my son had made even one payment toward their claim he would have virtually been agreeing to their claim and the statute would have started all over again! I also discovered that all you have to do is tell them that you don't agree with the debt, the statute has expired and you want them to stop making any contact. It works! The problem was resolved after writing the agency a letter. Most people do not know that the statute of limitations will start over again if they make payments acknowledging the debt and they don't know that there is a Federal law protecting people from harassment.