Consumer Fraud & Business Fraud

Not all businesses conduct themselves honestly and within the limits of the law. Consumers can become victims of fraud through many types of schemes, all masquerading as legitimate, including:

• Business opportunities, franchises, and work-at-home schemes

• Dance lessons

• Dating or matchmaking services

• Debt collection practices and credit bureau errors

• False advertising

• Health care fraud, such as over-billing for services; bogus cures for cancer, smoking or varicose veins; weight-loss programs and dietary supplements

• Home service contracts such as lawn care, pest control, driveway repair, roof repair and remodeling

• Identity theft and stolen credit cards

• Investment advice

• Loans and other financial arrangements

• Misleading or illegal product warranties

• Multilevel marketing, pyramid, and Ponzi schemes

• Timeshare sales and resales

Attempts by the scammers to entice consumers into participating in fraudulent schemes come from many places, including telemarketing, unsolicited faxes, television infomercials, seminars, e-mail. and the Internet. The con artists are very sophisticated--the successful ones are not usually discovered until the consumer's money is gone.

Businesses can also be victims of fraud from other businesses and, like individual consumers, should beware of solicitations from fraudulent "charities," loan scams, bogus invoices, and "slamming" (changing a long-distance phone carrier without approval).

Federal and state law governs many of the ways companies are allowed to conduct business, including how they communicate, what they communicate, and the promises they make about their products. Sometimes law enforcement agencies can help, and sometimes an arrest is made, but often the defrauded consumer does not get the help that is really needed in time for it to do any good.

If you have been erroneously billed for services you did not use or did not request, if a phone solicitor promises something that is not true, or if a company does not seem to be doing business fairly, you may have a consumer fraud claim.

NELSON HESSE, LLP can assist you if you've been subjected to fraudulent business practices and help you recover damages for the fraud.

For further information regarding our services in the area of consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices, contact Omer Causey at 941-366-7550.

Email Mr. Causey

Please include the names of all parties to allow us to check for conflicts of interests. Do not send any confidential information until it can be determined whether any conflict of interest exists. No attorney-client relationship is established until such time as a written representation agreement or letter of engagement is fully executed by NELSON HESSE, LLP and the client.