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| << January05, 2004 - CCofA Alert - Kiplingers exposes Unum |
January08, 2004 - Corporate Crimefighters of America >> |
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CORPORATE CRIMEFIGHTERS OF AMERICA -- Monday, January 05, 2004 PLEASE PAY FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION TO KEEP OUR WORK GOING - $15/YR MINIMUM, MORE IF YOU FEEL THIS IS IMPORTANT WORK AND CAN AFFORD IT. WE ARE ESPECIALLY SHORT FOR THE NEW YEAR SO HELP OUT IF YOU CAN. P.O. BOX AND PAYPAL LINK AT BOTTOM. ====================================================== "Wisdom is born, stupidity is learned.'' - Russian proverb ====================================================== Well, sorry about the back to back newsletters. It seems to be either feast or famine. But Judy's personal update and an alert about the February Kiplinger's expose on Unum pre-empted what I was going to post, so here it is ;') Hmm, I just lost another 39 subscribers, no doubt due to my intemperate remarks about this Administration. Too bad they didn't stay to hear that the government is now planning to remand all their cases to Federal court where they will be stalled and diminished. Look, leave in a huff if you want, but please don't be under the delusion that this Administration is a friend to insurance industry victims. It ain't ;') Jim ====================================================== UNUM'S MISLEADING QUOTES From "Florida Medical Business" www.medicalbusiness.com Nov 25 - Dec 8, 2003 issue To the Editor In the article: "When collecting oh disability, the devil is in the details," in the Oct. 28Nov. 10, 2003 issue of Florida Medical Business, in-house attorney Chris Collins, a UnumProvident spokesman, is quoted as saying about the John Tedesco case that UnumProvident never knew that Dr. Tedesco's "symptoms" had "shifted from his back to Parkinson's Disease," and that UnumProvident had paid the claim as soon as it learned this. As the lawyer who developed and tried the case for Dr. Tedesco, I am in a position to verify from the trial record how Unum Provident responded to the information it received in the course of handling his claim. Mr. Collins was hot involved in the case, and his statements are either knowingly inaccurate or most likely his best public relations attempt to put a positive spin oh Unum's bad faith conduct. First, Dr. Tedesco's disabling symptoms never changed. They became worse over time, but they never changed in character. From March 1998 onward, his reported symptoms were palsy (tremors) and weakness in the arms and hands, together with back pain. He spent more than a year attempting to get a firm diagnosis for those symptoms. He first consulted orthopedic physicians, who found no orthopedic disorder that accounted for the palsy. In early 1998, Dr. Tedesco was seen by a neurologist, Dr. Ed Berges, who found a herniated disc that could have contributed to the back pain but hot to the tremors. Dr. Tedesco arranged to undergo an extensive series of neurological tests at the Cleveland Clinic, which were performed in October 1998. Oh Feb. 9, 1999, Dr. Berges discussed with Dr.Tedesco the possibility that Parkinson's disease could be the cause of his palsy. Dr. Theresa Zesiewicz, a Parkinson's specialist, began testing Dr. Tedesco for Parkinson's disease oh March 5, 1999, and made the final diagnosis of Parkinson's oh July 14,1999. Unum `in the know' Second, UnumProvident was completely and contemporaneously aware of all the examinations, indications and diagnoses just referenced. In particular, UnumProvident knew that Dr. Tedesco was being examined at the Cleveland Clinic during the very month it closed his file, for the purported reason that he wasn't really disabled. But in reality it was to place money reserved back into company assets. Unum Provident would hot even wait for the test results before denying his claim. This forced Dr. Tedesco to waste almost a year in an administrative appeal and the filing of a new and different disability claim for the same illness.They also purposefully tried to apply ERISA, which every legal authority - including the federal judge - ruled to be clearly inapplicable. Third, it is untrue that UnumProvident paid Dr. Tedesco's claim as soon as it learned about the Parkinson's diagnosis. The truth is that UnumProvident knew that the probable nature of his illness was neurological before October 1998, when it denied his claim. UnumProvident knew that Parkinson's was suspected in early 1999, and it learned of the final diagnosis soon after it was made. Yet UnumProvident continued to stall for two years after the diagnosis before even conducting an independent medical examination, which confirmed the diagnosis. Not until the very eve of trial in May 2001 did UnumProvident finally admit that Dr. Tedesco was totally disabled and pay his accrued benefits. Diagnosis without examination Mr. Collins' scenario portrays a company trying to be fair, but tripped up by medical mysteries and communication problems. The reality, as the jury found, is that from the beginning UnumProvident set out to deny Dr. Tedesco's claim, and deliberately ignored clear and undisputed medical information in its own files showing that Dr.Tedesco was disabled. During litigation the claims handler lied about the claims processing and the unqualified in-house orthopedic doctor, who never examined Dr. Tedesco nor reviewed many of the medical reports, but opined that Dr. Tedesco did hot have Parkinson's Disease. Such testimony, oh behalf of UnumProvident is common. Further, Mr. Collins' claim that of the 450,000 yearly claims filed less than one half of 1 percent end up in litigation is totally misleading. Of that number over 400,000 claims come from short term or group benefits. Fewer than 10,000 claims are filed for long-term benefits, the most costly for the company to pay. These are the ones being forced into litigation. Now having handled numerous such claims it is clear to me from internal documents, tactics of Unum's lawyers during legal proceedings, and settlement discussions, that Unum's business plan is to force most claims for long term benefits to settle for less than owed, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of savings to the company. This conduct will continue until the courts take notice or until juries impose appropriate sanctions as in the Tedesco case. - D. Frank Winkles, Esq. Winkles Law Group, PA Tampa Webmaster's comment: Incidentally, that article also had a sidebar mentioning that one of our subscribers, Atty. Michael Tobin of Miami, a disability advocate, has received the ATLA Award "in recognition of immense service to victims of insurance industry wrongful conduct." If you need a disability lawyer in the Miami area you might consider contacting him at miamilaw@webtv.net (They give a different address but I'm sure mine works. ;') ====================================================== DESTROYING STATES (AND OUR) LEGAL RIGHTS http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-GOP-States-Rights.html Bush Plans Another Assault on States to Increase Corporate Power For centuries, conservatives demanded such things as fiscal responsibility and states' rights. But now the party has been stood on its head by the gaggle of non-traditional neoconservatives who have hijacked it. "Backed by the business community and after failing in 2003, Republicans in Congress this year will again be pushing bills to move class-action lawsuits from state to federal courts, where damage awards to plaintiffs are less generous, and put federal ceilings on what state juries can award in medical malpractice cases... In addition, Republicans are trying to give the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal banking regulators ultimate authority over banking fraud and investor rights, angering state officials who say it will undercut their anti-fraud campaigns...Federal officials are also taking legal action against medical marijuana laws in California and Oregon's assisted suicide law." Webmaster's comments: So much for the state's rights, avoidance of "foreign entanglements," and a loathing of government spending that were always GOP hallmarks. I am beginning to wonder what this party stands for at all. Just because you call something "conservative" doesn't make it so. Unfortunately, anyone fighting insurers is going to find a much, much longer delay (which they love) and lower awards (which they also love) in Federal court. Maybe Bush's motto should have been "Leave no insurer behind." ====================================================== DISGORGEMENT Although helping victims settle claims is a major aim of this site, we also feel that it is very, very important to eventually file disgorgement proceedings against corrupt corporate officers like Chandler, Watjen and Orr. They must be forced to disgorge the millions they have stolen from both stockholders and policyholders. Until we start seeing corporate officers punished, this sort of illicit behavior will continue. ====================================================== INFORMATION REQUEST I'd like the names and addresses of all the insurance brokers who sell UNUM. Anyone who knows of one or more should send that info in. At the very least if you're a victim you know One broker. As a friend who took down a huge and evil organization once told me, "Flow like water" to any hole you can find. Brokers are one such hole. Write me at micethatroar@earthlink.net and include the word "broker" in the email title so that I file it properly. Please don't simply Reply to this newsletter since replies tend to get lost. I was eager to post the "brokers" that Judy's update and news about the Kiplinger's expose pre-empted, so not a lot of other insurance info has come in since the last newsletter. However, there is some interesting reading below from quantum physics to mad cows to credit card scams. If you only want to read about insurance you can stop after the HMO-red-tape article ;') Jim ====================================================== IT'S EASY FOR UNUM TO PREVAIL Because all their victims are sick. And broke. So the basic strategy of the company is to simultaneously starve them out by not paying anything, while filing endless frivolous motions and demanding duplicate forms, records, IMEs and such in order to further exhaust those who are already exhausted from illness. It is a cynical and monstrous policy but, alas, it works. I am tempted to say "the only good adjuster is a dead adjuster" but I was once one myself ;') However, I refused to cheat people so I am an adjuster no longer. Corporate Crimefighting doesn't pay as well as destroying lives, though. I keep asking God why the Devil is such a better paymaster than the angels but I haven't gotten a reply. If anyone has received a good explanation from on high for that peculiar inequity in pay scales, please inform me ;') ====================================================== NEW COMPANY CUTS HMO RED TAPE www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/02/eveningnews/consumer/main591144.shtml PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 2, 2004 Millions of Americans who use HMOs will find the new year brings more out-of-pocket expenses, and more trouble getting HMOs to cover medical services. Jean McLenigan's son Jimmy, who uses a medical implant to assist his hearing-needed a new one because his kept breaking. McLenigan told CBS News Correspondent Wyatt Andrews her son's hearing aid broke more than ten times, prompting trips to the doctor each time. "If he doesn't have that implant he can't hear anything," she said. When McLenigan asked her insurance company Aetna for a new device, it said no, ruling the implant could still be repaired, despite its ten breakdowns. McLenigan called the system typical and bureaucratic, saying Aetna's position was "here's our policy and we are sticking to it." She decided to seek outside help for her son and contacted a company called Health Advocate, one of handful of cutting edge businesses trying to solve health care hassles. Employers pay Health Advocate a fee to cut through the red tape of managed care and appeal denials. Health Advocate employee Ed Hampson convinced Aetna a new device for Jimmy was in fact covered by the policy. "He met enough of the criteria to definitely get a new one," Hampson said. One of the reasons Health Advocate is able to jump the hurdles of health care is that its founders not only came from the managed care business -- they helped invent managed care. Remember when managed care meant gag orders on what doctors could tell you- and endless second-guessing of doctors? CBS' Andrews interviewed former Aetna medical director Dr. Abbie Liebowitz, who is now the co-owner of Health Advocate for some inside perspective on the health care system: Andrews: Were you one of the guys enforcing the gag rule? That existed on your watch didnt it? Leibowitz: It absolutely did. Andrews: Are you on any level navigating a mess you helped build? Leibowitz: Yes -- and part of our experience makes us the best qualified group to do that. For better or worse we helped build it. So now his new company works the other side, on the side of dozens of companies and tens of thousands of workers, sorting through rules he used to make. Andrews: Now that you sit here what would you do differently? Leibowitz: I would have trusted physicians more -- to do the right thing for patients. The right thing for the McLenigans came with mixed feelings -- gratitude that Health Advocate won Jimmy his new equipment -- but frustration at a system so muddled they needed Health Advocate at all. ******************* Webmaster's comments: I doubt this system would work for the crooks at Unum, Allstate, Farmers, or the dozen other most evil insurers. (I hope to do more sites if I can ever get the time and funding ;') But at least it's a start as more and more people realize our health care system is so broken than you need a corporation just to deal with a corporation. Heck, you need a corporation just to call the morons on the phone instead of sitting through an endless circular queue of phone-robots directing you to punch different numbers and listen to seedy apologies: "We value you as a customer but all our phone-slaves are busy, blah, blah, blah." If the jackasses valued me as a customer they would actually hire people to answer the damn phone. Well, actually, they are hiring people - in India and China where they can pay a dollar an hour as they ship all our jobs overseas. Sooner or later, Americans are going to have to realize it is now Us against the Corporations. Maybe once they were sane and fair, to some degree, but the "stockholder value" movement started by the execrable Chicago School of Business, coupled with the horrible idea of executive options, has driven them all totally mad with greed. As for corporations being good citizens of our nation, "treason" is the only word that applies to them - including the big flag wavers like Wal-Mart. Watch what they do as they pay politicians to pervert our laws and destroy our rights, not what they claim with their cheery mom-and-apple-pie ads. Remember this - Mussolini, who invented Fascism (not Hitler), defined it as the marriage of state and corporate power. And that is just what we are seeing now. If Americans don't soon wake up, corporate rule will be complete, but so deceptive that most won't even realize they are becoming slaves. (The Corpagovernment will get up another phony villain like Saddam Hussein to divert us as we starve.) Look, if you want to know what's Really going on in the world, or who is running things, or why some things really happen or don't - Woodward and Bernstein were right - "Follow the Money." But I digress. (Hmm, if the digression is bigger than the original article is it really a digression or is the article the digression - or being first is the article a progression? And this small ellipsis within my digression is also a digression so I guess it would be a bidigression. Or a didigression.) Back to the subject at hand before I lose it entirely ;') Anyway, the article was worth posting since Health Advocate might help with a recalcitrant HMO - in some cases. Also, if you have a home or auto claim it would be wise to contact a Public Insurance Adjuster, rather than simply rely on the tender mercies of the company adjuster. (They can usually be found in the Yellow Pages under Public Adjusters, under Insurance.) PAs can sometimes get you a much fairer settlement without having to go the full, agonizing and tortuous course of a court battle. They also take a smaller percentage and may handle cases too small for a lawyer. Unfortunately, this service is only for Property and Casualty insurance. Still, since there is now an organization to help with HMOs, we can hope that similar services might evolve to assist all insurance victims. I don't know of anyone who can help with disability or worker's comp yet, but perhaps that will come down the pike some day. Of course, these services only work with semi-honest insurers that still have Some shred of decency and common sense. I doubt Jesus Christ could convince the insanely recalcitrant scumbuckets at Unum to stop doing evil or listen to reason. ====================================================== RECOMMENDED SCIENCE READING (Time for a 'Mister Wizard' break from the wickedness of corporations. If you remember Mister Wizard you are nearly as old as I ;') "Conscious Acts of Creation - the Emergence of a New Physics: Intention Induced Raising of Local Gauge Symmetry in the Substratum of Multidimensional Space" by William Tiller, PhD, et al. ISBN 1-929331-04-5 There have been a number of semi-physics books purporting to show that intentionality can influence reality, such as Gary Zukav's "Tao of Physics." But they've just been vague enthusiasms in my view. The book I am recommending is choc-a-block with strict experimental protocols and mathematical derivations that appear to hold water. It cannot be ignored by honest researchers. In my view, the book is a reasonably convincing demonstration of the possibility that thought can affect reality. Although a passing knowledge of linear transformations and differential equations is useful for reading the book, they are not necessary to follow the reasoning. The book is also highly recommended by two eminent physicists: E.C. George Sudarshan, Director of the Center for Particle Theory at the University of Texas and formulator of the first theory of the weak nuclear force; and Rustum Roy, Professor Emeritus of Solid State and founder of the renowned Materials Research Laboratory at Penn. State. So although its conclusions are outre' they have been checked with rigor and are not the work of crackpots and circle squarers. Given than intentionality may affect reality, let's all concentrate every day on the thought that UNUM and other evil insurers crash and burn this year, revealed in all their wickedness and slime, along with their rotten henchmen and soulless enablers in government ;') This is also another good reason to Not let the bastards get you down. (Read the article of that title linked on our front page, by the way.) Once they get you thinking you can't win, they've won. And let us also pray to see their vile corporate officers led away in chains, manacles and orange jumpsuits as they are thrashed with iron rods by burly Irish cops. We may get the jumpsuits some day but I guess iron rods is too much to hope for. Still, these thugs are corporate terrorists and it appears some parts of the Bill of Rights have already been suspended for terrorism. It's stretching a point, but no one stretches points like insurance company lawyers, anyway. I am reminded of Allstate's claim in one court case that their insured was fifty percent liable for his own repairs after he had been hit by another vehicle, because if he had left his car in his garage the accident would not have occurred. Honest, they really tried that one on in court. I am still amazed. The judge should have had their lawyers bound and horsewhipped. Just having fun. I'm really not prone to violence. Let all corporate officers while away a peaceful hundred years in a comfortably appointed solitary cell and that will be enough for me. As long as they are off the streets and out of our pockets ;') Make that two hundred years. Better safe than sorry. I've put a picture of Unum's latest crooked leader on the website so you can think bad thoughts at him a la "intentional" reality creation ;'). Talk about a criminal visage - looks like he just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar - that or he's Really constipated: www.corporatecrimefighters.com/assets/images/watjenConstipated.jpg (Sorry, I realize I've gone beyond the bounds of tasteful editing, but sometimes I just can't control myself. I'm still not sure how I got from quantum physics to whips and jumpsuits. Perhaps I've imbibed too much of the Holiday Cheer ;') ====================================================== CORPORATE GREED AND MAD COWS Big agribusiness disease Geov Parrish - WorkingForChange.com 12.30.03 - The confirmation last week of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) -- mad cow disease -- in a dairy cow outside the town of Mabton, Central Washington has sent the US beef industry into a tailspin. Industry spokespeople and the USDA have scrambled to reassure consumers that the country's beef is safe and that the chances are extremely low of any humans contracting the debilitating and fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD, the human form of spongiform encephalopathy). Nonetheless, so far at least 28 countries have suspended the import of US beef, and the public remains skeptical. As we should. Its true that the chances of contracting CJD are remote at this point -- but its discovery in the US, 15 years after a mad cow epidemic ravaged Britain, is an indicator of much deeper problems. The Mabton cow came from a large, mechanized operation, with 4,100 cows. Its a far cry from the family dairy farms of old, which for simple logistical reasons couldn't support more than a couple dozen head. My colleague at Eat the State!, Maria Tomchick, grew up on a family-owned dairy farm a quarter century ago; she ticks off the differences that come with a large, mechanized operation, of the sort big agribusiness now routinely runs. In 2002, there were some 96 million cattle living in America, virtually the same number as in 1960 -- but on only half as many farms. Maria's parents sold their farm 20 years ago. Once there were nearly 10 million farms in a country of only 100 million; today, with 300 million people, there are only about 2 million farms. Mechanization has made the farms larger even as it has helped depopulate rural America. It almost goes without saying that this sort of factory farming is cruel to the animals, and leaves animals far more prone to disease. The machines themselves can be vectors of cross-contamination, both when dairy cows are alive (milking) and when any type of cow is being rendered. It also means the cows aren't individual animals -- they're cogs in a machine, milked and slaughtered on an exact schedule. A dairy cow, in years back, usually lived 15 or so years on a farm; now, theyre slaughtered for meat at age four, sooner if they're sick or a downer cow -- a cow that cannot stand or walk easily on its own due to disease or injury. The initial symptoms of BSE only emerge, and are testable, four or five years after contamination. Many of the cows that wind up in our nations food supply are slaughtered before any symptoms of BSE could appear. There could easily be any number of past instances of contaminated meat making its way to food distributors -- as happened last week before the Mabton cows test results came in and a recall was issued. If that's not scary enough, consider what happens to downer cows. Their meat does not go into the human food supply -- but the diseases that felled them can. The cow's meat is instead mixed in with grain (for extra protein) and fed to chickens, on the reasoning that viruses, bacteria, and the prions that carry BSE dont affect chickens digestive systems. Assuming that's true, it goes straight through the birds instead -- into their manure, which is then used by many organic farming operations as a fertilizer. Remember that, vegetarians, and vegans, the next time you eat carrots or potatoes without peeling them. Regulators are having a hard time figuring out where, exactly, the Mabton cow came from in its life's journey. It had apparently been born in Canada, sold several times, and lived in multiple states. In all likelihood it contracted BSE as a calf -- perhaps through the use of artificial milk, given to factory calves because its cheaper (and because mom is long gone). The fake milk is protein-enriched through being sprayed with freeze-dried cow blood. Beyond the cow-cannibalism, that's also a great disease vector. The prions that spread BSE are impervious to freezing or high heat. None of these reckless (and, to the animals, unbelievably cruel) big agribusiness practices would be possible were we Americans not, by and large, profoundly ignorant as to where our food comes from. Similarly, contamination of all sorts in our nations food supply has become far, far more likely in recent years through the systematic relaxation and dismantling of food safety regulations and inspections. Budgets for federal food safety enforcement have been gutted; leadership posts have gone to figures closely tied to the industries theyre supposedly regulating; compliance now frequently relies on industrys self-policing. For the worst corporate violators, the ones actually inspected and found to be egregiously violating food safety laws, the penalties are slaps on the wrist. Many large operations consider such fines a cost of doing business, a pittance compared to the money they save through mistreatment of the animals, fouling of the environment, and careless handling of the meat. These issues are hardly confined to cattle -- industrial pig farming has become notorious for its noxiousness. The use of antibiotics on farm animals, pesticides on crops, and genetic engineering on anything agribusiness can figure out how to improve all carry risks right through the food chain into our bodies. Illness from bad meat and food is almost impossible to quantify; unless its an obvious epidemic involving serious illness and a single source, most such illnesses go unreported. Certainly, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is well-established in the U.S.; some 300 new cases are diagnosed each year. News reports that no cases of CJD have ever been confirmed in the U.S. are only technically true; CJD can only be confirmed by autopsy, and beyond the expense, handling the brain tissue of someone infected with CJD, even in a highly controlled laboratory setting, is simply too dangerous. This disease is with us, and contaminated meat is almost certainly one of the ways it has spread. The discovery of mad cow disease in one cow, out of nearly 100 million now living in the U.S., is hardly a major risk to the public. But the factors that made it possible -- big agribusiness, lax regulation, and consumer ignorance -- also fuel any number of far more common problems. For meat, such problems are usually avoidable by buying organic meat free of antibiotics and the ravages of factory farming. In fact, for nutrients and taste as well as food safety, organics in general are well worth the higher price. Just peel your carrots before you eat them. (c) Working Assets Online. All rights reserved. URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16209 Webmaster's comments: Geez, another non-insurance article. But this Is Corporate Crimefighters and I like to keep you folks in the know so you don't buy all the government eyewash. Sure, the beef supply is safe. Sure, as they said years ago, radiation is good for you. Sure, your President loves and protects you and is not owned brain to butt by big corporations. Sure. Have another cup of Soma. (Obscure literary reference - a big no-prize to the first person to place it ;') What can be more stupid than grinding up infected animals then feeding them, unsterilized, to other animals? Oh sure, those horribly rushed minimum-wage meat hackers are going to cleanly excise every speck of disease after they take a CAT scan of the cow to determine its extent, no doubt with surgical precision. NOT! Cows are not naturally meat eaters and neither are they cannibals. The whole idea is, well, obscene and perverted - so it's a natural for corporate America. You see, the real problem is that carnivores have probably evolved various mechanisms to protect themselves from tainted meat, neutralizing and digesting pathogens, but herbivores have not required the necessity to evolve such mechanisms since they never eat meat - at least not until agribusiness got hold of them. The taint goes right from diseased ground-up cow parts to live cows and thence to our dinner table. Ronald McDonald, I never knew ye.. Funny, how we worry so about terrorism while our corporations kill and mail hundreds of thousands more people than Osama bin Laden ever will. ====================================================== FAIR WARNING FOR OUR READERS - A NEW CREDIT CARD SCAM This is a new twist on credit card fraud. Former SPD Officer John Wall sent this down: My wife was called on Wednesday from "VISA" and I was called on Thursday from "MasterCard". It worked like this: Person calling says, this is {name} and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud department at VISA. My Badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card issued by {name} bank. Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a marketing company based in Arizona? When you say "No". The caller continues with, "then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?" You say "yes". Caller continues..."I will be starting a Fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 800 number listed on your card 1-800-VISA and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control #". Then gives you a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?" Caller then "needs to verify you are in possession of your card. Turn card over. There are 7 numbers; first 4 are {your card number}, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are in possession of the card. These are the numbers you use to make internet purchases to prove you have the card. Read me the 3 numbers". Then says "That is correct." I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions? Don't hesitate to call back if you do. You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISA security department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 WAS put on our card. Long story made short, we made a real fraud report and closed the VISA card and they are reissuing us a new number. What the scam wants is the 3-digit PIN number. By the time you get your statement, you think the credit is coming, and then it's harder to actually file a fraud report. The real VISA reinforced that they will never ask for anything on the card; they already know. What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from "Jason Richardson of MasterCard" with a word-for-word repeat of the VISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up. We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are taking several of these reports daily, and to tell friends, relatives and coworkers. Webmaster's comments: Damn, talk about nefariously sneaky. The real kicker is stealing the exact amount that they claim the crooks charged, so as to totally confuse the victim into a long delay while they cash in and clear out. These guys should work for Unum, Allstate or Farmers. Nah, the theft isn't big enough and they might actually get arrested. When you work for an insurer you can commit fraud, forgery, murder, terrorism and the theft of millions and never worry about a day in jail. ====================================================== PLEASE PAY FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION TO SUPPORT OUR CAUSE - $15/YR MINIMUM, MORE IF YOU FEEL THIS IS IMPORTANT WORK. WE ARE ESPECIALLY SHORT FOR THE NEW YEAR SO HELP OUT IF YOU CAN. IF I ANNOYED YOU FEEL FREE TO DOUBLE YOUR CONTRIBUTION ;') Send subscription fees or donations for our work to: James Mooney PMB # 106 4495-304 Roosevelt Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32210-3381 OR Via Paypal at: https://www.paypal.com/affil/pal=cybervigil@earthlink.net Jim Mooney, webmaster: www.micethatroar.com www.corporatecrimefighters.com UNUM'S SECRET "DESTROYED" CLAIMS MANUALS NOW AVAILABLE - Email manuals@micethatroar.com for details. Newsletter Archives are at: http://www.corporatecrimefighters.com/html/newsletter_archives.html |
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