The MO Missouri Department of Insurance Financial Institutions & Professional Registration -- DIFP -- will be sending representatives to Southeast MO on February 10-12 to assist and counsel victims of the recent ice storms.

The DIFP and local agencies will have centers set up in Poplar Bluff, Sikeston and Kennett.

For more information, see the DIFP website.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced a large settlement with Dell.  This follows numerous complaints that AG offices around the country acquired from consumers who said they were deceived by phony promotions. Other complaints included customers having problems obtaining warranty services and never receiving rebates.

Missouri consumers can download a Dell claim form or by call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-392-8222.

• For more information, read the FAQs page about Dell multi-state settlement

Missouri consumer writes:

My Utility Company has received a request to turn over my information under a Missouri Sunshine Law request. I do not want the people requesting this to have any of my personal information. I fear identity theft.

Here's the way this works. First, a reminder that a utility is only subject to the Sunshine Law if it's publicly owned. So if the local water works is run by the city, the Sunshine Law applies. That means the utility must turn over the records requested.

However, as far as ID theft goes, there is no cause for concern. The Sunshine Law says Social Security numbers are closed, even when they're part of a record held by a public body. So in the case above, the consumer's utility bill records would be public except for the SSN.

AG Nixon is asking for consumers' help in reporting illegal political robo-calls this election season. The AG sent a letter to all political campaigns registered in Missouri reminding them that federal law requires these automated calls to:

• Clearly identify who's paying for the call. This must be done at the beginning of the call.
• Give a call back number, so that you can contact the group and tell them to stop calling you.

Just like TV and radio commercials say "paid for by Citzens for Whoever," the automated calls must do the same. If they don't, please file a complaint with our office.

Nixon asked the Missouri legislature the last two years to make it illegal for these calls to contact people on the No Call list, but that didn't happen.

AG Nixon today announced a lawsuit against JK Harris, a company that offers to help consumers with debt and tax problems. Consumers complaining to our office paid in some cases $4500 to the company to help them with their IRS obligations. In many cases, the customers found them self off in worse financial shape after dealing with JK Harris.

We are also suing a lending company that does business with Harris - Professional Fee Financing Associates.

Two tips on this:

1. If you are in debt, work with a good credit counselor. You can find one here.
2. Before doing business with a company, check with our office to see if there are complaints against it. Use our KnowMO link.

The IRS put out a consumer alert warning of these kinds of companies four years ago.

AG Nixon today is reminding consumers about a publication we have full of consumer tips and fraud warnings for students and young adults. The Student Consumer Guide covers credit, used cars, renting apartments, cell phones, identity theft, scholarship scams and everything in between.

This and all of our publications are available for free using the online order form.

AG Nixon issued a consumer alert today reminding veterans and their families that they don't have to pay when trying to qualify for veterans benefits.

There are a number of companies - "Veterans benefits specialists," insurance companies and others - who charge a fee (or get some other kind of gain) from helping consumers wade through the complicated process of applying for benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA.

But there are accredited organizations who will provide that service for free. They'll help with the paperwork, make sure you provide all the info required, hit your deadlines, etc.

There's nothing illegal about charging veterans / family members / widows a fee for this help, but just know that the help is available for free. Pass this along to veterans who may be appyling for benefits in the near future.

We've added some new features to our KnowMO service that lets you search online for consumer complaints. When we launched a year ago, we showed you how many complaints there had been against a particular company.

We believe the new version is even more helpful. You'll see "complaints" and "complaints resolved successfully." We think it's informative to consumers to know which companies try to work out problems when they arise.

So if a consumer files a complaint and the company does nothing, that will obviously not go into the "Resolved successfully" category. But two scenarios that we classify as successful:

1. Consumer files a complaint, we contact the company, and the company grants the consumer's wish (refund, credit, perform requested services, redo a job, etc)
2. Consumer files a complaint, we contact the company, and the company makes a good offer to resolve the problem. Even if the consumer refuses to accept the offer, we will call that successful.

If you have friends or relatives without Internet access, they can still get this information by phone at our Consumer Protection Hotline, 1-800-392-8222.

Missouri consumers like their No Call list. So when a telemarketer violates the law by calling them, those consumers file complaints. Many times those complaints lead to lawsuits by AG Nixon. And those lawsuits lead to court orders requiring telemarketers to pay.

Our enforcement efforts have now hit the $3 million mark with those court orders. So as I've written before - you can't say it doesn't do any good to complain.

File your complaints against telemarketers with us here.

Financial exploitation of the elderly sometimes happens at the hands of those they love and trust - children, in-home caregivers, etc. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has released a video (on DVD)to help seniors understand that those they least expect to cheat them may indeed be the ones to do it. You can order this video for $10 or watch it online for free.

For example, a deadbeat son convinces his mother to routinely withdraw money from her bank account to help him out - while leaving her with little left over to pay her bills.

This video is part of the MOSAFE project, which had input from a number of different organizations and state agencies (including ours). The acronym stands for Missourians Stopping Adult Financial Exploitation.

It's the second video put out by MOSAFE. The first was a training DVD for bank and credit union employees to help them to see the signs of when their customers are being taken advantage of.

We often say that doing business with a stranger is a dangerous thing to do - but unfortunately sometimes the ones we know best do it to us as well.

AG Nixon has sued a timeshare seller on consumer fraud charges, based out of Branson.

Almost every day we get complaints from seniors and others being victimized and sold a bill of goods while vacationing in Branson. Timeshare companies and travel clubs are the biggest sources of complaints. Consumers enter a high-pressure sales presentation, buy, then regret it.

Or if they don't regret it right away, they do as soon as they realize they're not getting what they were promised.

For those of you who vacation in Branson or have friends and family who do, tell them to think long and hard before accepting one of these travel pitches. At the very least, consumers should take a day to think about it, rather than signing right away.

Low-income Missourians may be able to save money by finding free or discounted medications, thanks to some grant money made available by AG Nixon last week.

There are hundreds of programs out there that make drugs available for low-income folks, but because there are so many, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. The best way to find them is through the Internet, which is unavailable to many poor and elderly.

The grant money will go to clinics, hospitals and advocacy groups who help these folks with their medication needs. It will allow them to buy software that helps find medications available for free or at a discount for the people they serve. These organizations are encouraged to apply for this grant money.

We have a handful of applications in so far, but we have room for many more. Any group that consults seniors and low-income consumers with their medication needs are encouraged to apply.

I recently gave a talk at a seminar for small business owners, reminding them that they are consumers as well. Anyone who pays bills, hires vendors, signs contracts for services, etc, is a consumer.

So that means they can be victims of fraud, and they can file consumer complaints with our office. We filed around 60 lawsuits in consumer cases in 2007, and 15 of those involved businesses as a victims. Highlights of the last couple of years:

• Yellow-page companies sent checks for small amounts to companies. When cashed, these activation checks obligated the business to an online yellow-page ad they didn't want or even know about.
• Junk fax company busted for sending faxes to businesses. Sending unsolicited faxes is illegal.
• Company charging businesses for posters that say "Employees must wash hands." All such required government posters can be obtained for free from government agencies (OSHA, Family Medical Leave Act, employment rights, etc)
• Company charged businesses to build Web sites and didn't deliver.
• Another company charged for Internet advertising and didn't deliver.
• Company grossly overcharged businesses for credit card processing machines.
• Fire extinguisher inspectors who didn't perform. 2 different inspection companies left a lot of businesses not only ripped off but in grave danger of fire. This one could have lots of victims we don't know about yet.

Watch for a piece next week on the common scams that target businesses.

We continue to be amazed at the explosive growth of readership on this blog. We had well over 100,000 page views in December. So I'm curious as to what brings you here. Are you having a problem, and found us in an online search? Are you a regular reader of the blog? We've had a number of people say these blog posts have helped them avoid a scam. I can't imagine a more rewarding piece of feedback. We want to keep this as useful as possible to you, so please comment below and let me know what brought you here.

At our first ever Get the Lead Out event in St. Louis, we had quite the learning experience. Consumers on Friday and Saturday brought in more than 300 toys to be screened for lead content. About 30 of them (10 percent) tested positive.

Here is a shot of one of the screeners using his X-ray gun on a coloring kit. (Before you get any ideas of buying one of these for home, I should tell you they cost $40K.) The toy with the highest lead content was actually an old metal tractor that's a hand-me down from my wife's family. This thing may be 60 years old or more. It had 85,000 parts per million of lead. Some perspective: no amount of lead is safe for children. The federal government allows lead content up to 600 parts per million in consumer products. So this tractor had 140 times the legal limit. Another hand-me down tractor had about 5,000 ppm. That one was probably 35 years old.

Interestingly, people brought in some coffee mugs that were off the charts with lead. The biggest hazard is to kids under six years old, but still it was startling to find lead in things designed for oral contact like a mug. Check out AG Nixon's Recall Clearinghouse to find the latest items recalled in several different categories.