Last week the CPSC unanimously approved the law which says manufacturers will have to provide postage-paid registration forms with each baby or toddler product and then track the registrants’ name, address, the product model name and number as well as the product’s manufacturing date.

The 10News I-Team has reported on numerous baby and child product recalls, including a major crib recall last year that affected 320,000 cribs and we tracked the sale of toys recalled due to lead and other safety concerns.

The new law will go into effect 180 days after publication for 12 product categories. The rules for the other six categories will take effect one year after publication.

The 18 categories of products covered under the new law follow: full-size cribs and nonfull-size cribs; toddler beds; high chairs, booster chairs, and hook-on chairs; bath seats; gates and other enclosures for confining a child; play yards; stationary activity centers; infant carriers; strollers; walkers; swings; bassinets and cradles; children’s folding chairs; changing tables; infant bouncers; infant bathtubs; portable toddler bed rails; and infant slings.

The CPSC hopes the new rule will help manufacturers better notify product owners about recalls.

“Too many of these products are ones that children have died in. But it is especially troubling when a child dies in a product that our agency has recalled because the owner of the product was unaware of the recall,” said CPSC Commissioner Thomas H. Moore. “I think we must do everything in our power to encourage the public to use these safety alert/recall cards and I hope the product manufacturers will strongly promote the use of these cards to their customers.”

Now the Better Business Bureau has compiled a list of the top scams they’ve tracked in 2009. Topping the list are weight loss pill free trial offers. This is an issue the I-Team has tackled this year as well. Our stories on offers for Acai berries were eye-opening. Consumers signed up for one product and ending up paying for a lot more. And when the company’s employees faced I-Team cameras, they scrambled.

Another scam on the list involves mystery shopping, which is another topic the I-Team heard a lot about this year.  Jodie of San Diego recently emailed us about a secret shopping offer. She said, “I am supposed to send them $2,690 with fees through Western Union to them in total in which I keep the rest of $250.00 seems simple enough, except the check did not clear and my bank dropped me for giving them a fraudulent check.”

The BBB says many of these secret shopper offers are bogus, costing consumers hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in bank and money wiring fees.

Fraudulent lotteries also make the BBB’s scam list. A letter in the mail or an email notifying you of your lottery or sweepstakes winnings may look legitimate, but it’s typically a scam.

A major red flag is the request to send money — usually hundreds of dollars — to pay taxes and fees. Most of the time, any money sent goes right to the scammers.

The Grandma Scam has been a big scam this year as well. 10News has reported on the fraud, which typically involves a victim receiving a phone call or email claiming a family member needs help, especially money to get out of a jam. Victims are told to wire money to help the family member, but it’s all a con.

The best way to prevent this type of fraud is to contact the “distressed” family member directly or contact someone else in the family who can verify the “distressed” family member’s well-being.

The I-Team has reported numerous mortgage foreclosure rescue scams and problems with debt assistance during 2009. These scams also make the BBB’s top scams list because they prey on vulnerable families who are struggling in a down economy. Paying money upfront for a loan modification or debt consolidation may seem like a good idea, but we’ve found it’s often a gateway to more financial problems. The best thing consumers can do is deal directly with their lender or the company to which they owe money.

With all these scams masquerading as great offers, consumers need to be vigilant. For help or questions about scams, contact the 10News I-Team by email iteam@10news.com.

A county ordinance requires stores they catch overcharging more than one dollar on an item or overcharging on two or more items to post a “Notice of Penalty for Failed Inspection” sign in the store’s entrance for 10 days.

The best things a shopper can do is check prices on the display shelves and check all receipts for pricing errors.  

County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures. Call them 1-888-878- 3722 or go online. 

That’s what happened with our report about Curbstoning, which is when unlicensed individuals sell vehicles for profit. If caught, curbstoners face a $100 fine for each violation and up to six months in jail.

Curbstoners sell cars the way house flippers sell homes. They buy and sell the cars quickly (with a few repairs if necessary) and hope to make a profit. Unlike  licensed car dealers, curbstoners cut corners and don’t pay fees and taxes to the state. The California DMV doesn’t keep track of how much money they lose each year to curbstoners.

Buyers who purchase from a curbstoner often don’t have much recourse if something goes wrong with the vehicle.

Curbstoning violates California Vehicle Code section 11700.  A DMV attorney says, “In some circumstances, a licensed dealer might commit a violation of acting as a dealer without a license or unlawful display of a vehicle at an unlicensed location.”

That’s what happened with the case of Kate Shafie. We met her on a street near a condo development in San Marcos. While Shafie is licensed as a dealer, her license to sell cars is in Oceanside, not San Marcos.

The DMV told us they, “issued a warning letter to the Shafies, doing business as Quality Plus, notifying them against selling from unlicensed locations in violation of the California Vehicle Code.  Katie Shafie was also verbally warned about violating the law by repairing vehicles without a license from the Bureau of Automotive Repair.  Katie Shafie stated that only detailing is performed at her residence and all repairs are performed by a vendor at a licensed.”

The DMV said they have investigated 6,498 curbstoning cases statewide since 2006.  Of that number, 367 cases have been in San Diego County.

A new California law,  AB 2042, which took effect this year gives law enforcment the authority to impound cars being sold by curbstoners.

Buyers need to aware of curbstoning when looking to purchase a vehicle.
 
“If they say they’re selling it for their cousin, uncle or somebody like that, then I would be very wary,” says Auto expert Rosemary Shahan of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety who says curbstoners often pretend to be selling a car for a friend or a relative as a way to gain a buyer’s trust.

Shahan suggests buyers ask to see a vehicle’s service records for oil changes, alignments, etc. “See if their identification matches the name on the service records because if someone owned this car they should be able to show you, I had the oil changed and all this maintenance done.”

You can also run a CarFax to see if the vehicle’s history matches what the seller told you, such as the seller being the original owner or how much mileage the car has. Plug in the Vehicle Identification Number to get car’s history.

If you suspect a seller is a curbstoner, you can report the seller to the California DMV’s Investigations Unit. The DMV’s Investigations Office in San Diego can be reached by phone at (858) 627-3951 or by fax at (858) 627-3957.

You can also file a complaint with the Independent Automobile Dealers Association of California.

The offers look enticing, but it’s a buyer beware situation.

Here’s a good example of what can happen: a 10News employee renewed a subscription to a popular entertainment magazine. The deal was fantastic — $10.00 a year! But when the invoice arrived, it was about five times that amount.

Luckily the subscriber kept all the original paperwork and was able to settle the billing dispute with the company. He got the magazine for the $10.00 price, not the much higher invoice price.

The lesson here is be sure to read the fine print and keep a copy of who your talk to, the date of the subscription as well as check or credit card receipts in case you need to follow-up with the magazine billing company at a later time.

Locally, San Diego had eight reported hate crimes across the county. Five were for race discrimination, two for sexual orientation discrimination and one for religious discrimination.

The FBI also reported on hate crimes in 12 individual cities in the county such as San Diego, Chula Vista, El Cajon and Escondido, among other cities. Forty-nine hate crimes were for race; 22 were for sexual orientation discrimination; 18 were for religion and 17 were for ethnicity discrimination.

“The FBI doesn’t compare year to year statistics.”

The FBI reported nationally, hate crimes against gays and religious groups were up about two percent in 2008.

According to the Associated Press, the FBI doesn’t compare year to year statistics, so it’s tough to figure out whether the problem of hate is improving or worsening. The FBI told the AP that more agencies are reporting hate crimes so that could explain why so much hate crime data is available.

The 10News I-Team has reported on hate crimes and has participated in the annual United for a Hate Free San Diego  Summit.

Last week, Jerry Brown, California Attorney General sent letters to six retailers “warning them that a number of children’s products on their store shelves were found to contain ‘illegal levels of lead’ and to pull the products from their stores immediately,” according to the press release from Brown’s office.

The I-Team has tracked problems with children’s toys, looking at dangerous lead levels in children’s lunch boxes, dishware, and in holiday toys, among other reports on kids’ product safety.

Under California law, children’s products cannot contain more than 300 parts per million (PPM) of lead. Still Brown’s office reported the following items violated that standard:

- Kids Poncho, Wal-Mart stores, 677 ppm;
- MSY Faded Glory Rebecca Shoes, Wal-mart, 1331 ppm;
- Reversible Croco Belt, Target, 4270 ppm;
- Dora the Explorer Activity Tote, TJ Maxx, 2348 ppm;
- Paula Fuschia Open-Toed Shoes, Sears, 3957 ppm;
- Disney Fairies Silvermist’s Water Lily Necklace, Walgreens, 22000 ppm;
- Barbie Bike Flair Accessory Kit, Tuesday Morning stores, 6196 ppm.

This week, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said safety is a priority when shopping for kids’ products.

“We all remember the lead paint problems involving Thomas the Train and Fisher Price recalls,” said Tenenbaum. “Well, this year, the legal limits for the amount of lead paint on toys dropped to some of lowest limits in the world. For the first time ever, new federal rules also put strict limits on how much total lead can be in toys and all children’s products. And toys now have to be independently tested and certified that they meet the new lead paint limits.”

The law also puts a limit on some phthalates, a worrisome chemical the I-Team has reported on.

The CPSC reports they’ve had 38 toy recalls in 2009, which is a decrease from the 162 recalls they had in 2008 and the 148 recalls in 2007. This year, they’ve handled 15 lead recalls, compared to 63 in 2007 and 85 in 2008.

“It was definitely a struggle, but it was definitely worth it,” says Chawla who took a class for first time homebuyers, did a lot of her own research and worked with many different realtors until she found the right one. “I realized they work for me,” she says.

All that looking and researching paid off. The India native and UCSD graduate looked at over 30 properties, until she found and purchased a San Diego metro condo where she’s been living since September.

“It was definitely a struggle, but it was definitely worth it.”

“This place when we walked in, I absolutely loved it,” she says of the foreclosure property, which she got for a great deal — $135,000 for the two bedroom condo.

The $8000 first time home buyer tax credit from the federal government helped motivate Chawla to close the deal before the November 30 deadline which now has been extended to April 2010.

“The secret is persistence and wanting it badly enough,” says Chawla who says she encourages other would-be homeowners to look at properties and consider buying. “It’s definitely a possibility. It happened for me, so it can happen for anybody.”

Housing Resources:
http://www.hud.gov/buying/comq.cfm
http://www.ftc.gov/bc/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/zalt001.shtm
http://www.yourhome.ca.gov/using_mortgagebroker.pdf

SAFE Law
A new federal law called The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act, taking effect in 2010, “is designed to enhance consumer protection and reduce fraud,” says the California Department of Corporations.

Under the SAFE law, each state must adopt policies to set minimum licensing and registration standards for loan originators. California has responded with AB 34, SB 36 and SB 491 which ensure proper licensing or registration; criminal history and credit checks; and education and testing, among other actions to protect consumers.

Check a lender or real estate agent’s license.

That’s what happened when travelers Ampy Marzan and Emy Distor contacted the I-Team. They paid a company called Catholic Pilgrimage Center over $6000.00 a couple for a trip to the Holy Land. The women paid in full by check and waited for the tickets to arrive. When the tickets hadn’t arrived within three days of their scheduled departure date, the ladies emailed the I-Team.

We were interested right away. We interviewed Marzan and Distor the next day and started our research. We found lots of similarly situated customers who paid for travel services that never happened, including a travel group in Connecticut organized by a Catholic priest Father Paul Ramen. We also found the family running Catholic Pilgrimage Center had a history booking travel tours that never happened or were somehow incomplete.

Manfred Reinhard runs Catholic Pilgrimage Center. He and his then company, Modern Pilgrimages got in trouble in 1999 with the California Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Trade Commission as part of a bust called, “Operation Trip Trap.” He was ordered to pay over $600,000 in restitution. The I-Team found Manfred’s ex-wife Regina once served as president of Catholic Pilgrimage Center.

Regina Reinhard has most recently been running a travel company in La Jolla, called Spirit Travel. But the California Attorney General’s Office cracked down on her in 2008. In a court document, we find, “Reinhard used client funds for non-travel business and personal expenses.”

We also found out Regina Reinhard filed for bankruptcy last year. She recently moved to Germany to care for her ailing parents, leaving her attorney Alex Llorente to handle her case with the California Attorney General’s Office.

Llorente says some clients received a partial refund, while others received no refund. He says he’s working with the California Attorney General’s Office to come up with the totoal amount of money owed to former Spirit Tours clients.

Manfred Reinhard and his Catholic Pilgrimage Center are facing legal action from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.

Marzan and Distor are waiting for a refund from Catholic Pilgrimage Center, a company the I-Team has been contacting by phone and email for two weeks. We haven’t been able to speak to anyone and our emails have not been returned.

We had heard the Reinhard’s were soliciting Catholics for travel packages and that names of Catholics were coming from the Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus. But a spokesman says that’s not the case.

“We do not, as a matter of long-standing policy, share our membership lists with anyone,” says Patrick Korten, Vice President for Communications for the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, CT. “And not only do we not endorse, or promote, or assist any travel group running tours to the Holy Land or anywhere else, we do not even accept advertising of any kind in our monthly magazine, Columbia, to avoid any impression that we might endorse the products or services of any advertiser.”

Korten goes on to say: “We have more than 13,000 local councils in 14 countries on three continents, and if any of them have allowed use of their local membership lists for any commercial purpose, we will act quickly to put an immediate stop to it.”

The I-Team has been investigating hate crimes in San Diego County.  In an interview with T.J. Leyden, a past skinhead and current tolerance activist, the I-Team gained exclusive information on the recruiting tactics and membership requirements of hate groups.

For fifteen years, Leyden was an active member of the Hammerskins, a neo-Nazi organization with a reputation as the most violent of hate groups.  During that time, Leyden recruited, befriended and trained potential Hammerskin members.

According to Leyden , white-power music is a powerful tool used in recruitment and helps racist groups get their messages across.  Today, racist groups also use Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube for recruitment.  By creating groups, sending out communication and networking with other racists, Leyden explains he was able to recruit adolescents seeking a sense of belonging.

“They want to fit in,” Leyden , who was inducted into the Hammerskins at age 13, says of many of the preteens he recruited, “and how easy is it to fit into this group?  You just have to have the right skin color.”

Leyden says he can zero-in on an adolescent who has been inducted into a racist group simply by noticing a change in appearance.   child’s dress changing from normal to clean-cut can, according to Leyden , mean one of two things,  “It’s either … a girl or they’re in a racist group.”

Young teenagers are not the only ripe targets for hate groups.  Members of the United States Military, too, are sought out as potential racist recruits.

“There’s a good amount of military personnel that are white supremacists,” Leyden , a former Marine, says.  “If people knew how many we had, they’d start being afraid.”

According to Leyden , former military members often train skinheads in combat tactics.

Such violence is a core aspect of membership in a hate group.  Leyden explains that new members must first build a solid reputation before they can be validated.

“You have to prove your loyalty by committing acts of violent assault,” says Leyden .  He adds that members must often spend time in prison without “snitching” before they can be inducted.

Since Leyden and his wife created StrHATE Talk Consulting in 2000, he has continued to work with children, lecture on tolerance, and collaborate with law enforcement to gather information on hate groups.  Leyden also writes a blog and published a book, “Skinhead Confessions,” last year.

When he’s not speaking against hate, Leyden spends most of his time with his sons. 

“I’m a father first and friend second,” says Leyden .  “We have family dinner talks and I am involved. You have to be an involved parent. You have to keep them busy.” 

It is that high level of parental attention, in Leyden ’s opinion, that keeps kids out of hate groups.