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	<title>The Geek Professor &#187; Credit Monitoring</title>
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		<title>FreeCreditReport.com Class Action Suit!</title>
		<link>http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/freecreditreport-com-class-action-suit/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/freecreditreport-com-class-action-suit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeremy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Businesses and Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Good News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scams, Ripoffs, and Dirty Tricks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class Action]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Monitoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freecreditreport.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FTC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity Theft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[It's About Time]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/?p=1316</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>FreeCreditReport.com has been cheating people for years and years to the tune of massive profits. Finally, someone takes a stand!</p>]]></description>
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<p><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/04/news/companies/experian_lawsuit_freecreditreport/">This totally made my day</a>:</p>

<blockquote>A Wisconsin college student filed a class-action complaint against Experian this week, claiming that the company's ubiquitous ads for FreeCreditReport.com led her to believe she could use the site to get a no-cost credit report.</blockquote>

<p>Go figure! Someone believed that FreeCreditReport means you can get a free credit report? What are the odds!?</p>

<p>How this has gone on this long I'll never know. Even after 11,000 Better Business Bureau complaints the most that's been done to date was the <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/freecredit.shtm">very cool FTC spoof videos making fun of FreeCreditReport's TV ads</a> where they did everything short of calling them crooks.</p>

<p>It's such an exquisite pleasure to watch this bogus company go down; let's hope this suit sticks.</p>

<div class=update>
<p>Update June 2010:</p>

<p>It's probably been a month or two (or three or four) since this happened, but as a result of the lawsuit, the FTC has required them to put a giant banner on the top of their website saying essentially that they're full of it. Granted, the site should just have been shut down, but it's still nice to see.</p>

<div class='figure jtags_centered_box' style='margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:508px;height:;text-align:right'><img id='img548' class=figure_img src='http://www.thegeekprofessor.com//graphics/posts/2010.06/freecreditreport_ftc.jpg' alt="Hard to sell your supposedly free reports now isn't it?"  width='500px'  height='195px' /><div class=figure_text>Hard to sell your supposedly free reports now isn't it?</div></div>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Senator Wants Free Credit Report Companies to Actually OFFER Free Reports</title>
		<link>http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/senator-wants-free-credit-report-companies-to-actually-offer-free-reports/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/senator-wants-free-credit-report-companies-to-actually-offer-free-reports/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:38:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeremy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Businesses and Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Annualcreditreport.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charles Schumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Monitoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freecreditreport.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity Theft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[<p>Someone in the Senate is getting sick of the BS from the supposed free credit report places.</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/11/schumer_credit_reports.html">U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer is my hero of the day</a>.

<blockquote><div class='figure' style='float:right;margin-left:7px; width:282px;height:;text-align:right'><img id='img549' class=figure_img src='http://www.thegeekprofessor.com//graphics/posts/2009.11/schumer.jpg' alt=""  width='274px'  height='206px' /><div class=figure_text></div></div>"If these companies want to say &#8212; or sing for that matter &#8212; that they are giving people free credit reports, then they can't charge people $15 a month, simple as that," Schumer said. "For years, these companies have said with a smile that they will provide a free credit report &#8212; even though the government already requires a credit report be provided for free every year &#8211; and then suddenly, months later consumers get a bill in the mail for their credit monitoring services. My plan would finally bust up this scam and give consumers some honest choices."</blockquote>

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		<title>Industry Grows Around ID Theft Prevention</title>
		<link>http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/industry-grows-around-id-theft-prevention/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/industry-grows-around-id-theft-prevention/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:41:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeremy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Credit Freeze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Credit Monitoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity Theft]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.jeremyduffy.com/industry-grows-around-id-theft-prevention/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Rather than preventing the problem, many companies are satisfied (and make tons of profit) by inventing new services to attack the symptoms rather than the problem. Don't waste your time or money. Get a credit freeze and don't worry about all the snake oil. (H/T to The Consumerist for the link)]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Rather than <b>preventing the problem</b>, many companies are satisfied (and make tons of profit) by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/business/16venture.html?_r=1&#038;ex=1352869200&#038;en=c225ef245c8123fd&#038;ei=5090&#038;partner=rssuserland&#038;emc=rss&#038;oref=slogin">inventing new services to attack the symptoms rather than the problem</a>. 

Don't waste your time or money. Get a <b>credit freeze</b> and don't worry about all the snake oil.

(H/T to <a id=link1 href='http://www.consumerist.com'  onmouseover="jtagsPopOnAttach('link1','link_pop1','','');"  onmouseout="jtagsPopOff();"  target=_new>The Consumerist</a> for the link)]]></content:encoded>
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