Sign Florida Banking Permission Slip Fast

Industry sign banking florida permission slip fast

good afternoon thank you for joining us for our webinar which is our way of wrapping up National Consumer Protection week we're it's titled F Dax making a difference for Florida's consumers and we'd like to spend the next hour highlighting the services that we provide to consumers and to businesses to help protect you from frauds and scams and other type of deception one of the things you'll hear about over and over today is our website and our toll-free number our website is Florida consumer health comm and the phone number is 800 health Fla or 800 FL ayuda in Spanish and the website and the call center are great places to learn more about scams and frauds it's a great place to sign up for our consumer newsletter which highlights different topics every month and it is a the number is a great place to call if you don't know who to call you can call us and we'll help get you to the right government agency or the right identity to help you with whatever problem that you have in the division of consumer services we always say that an informed consumer is the best defense against fraud and deception and that is what we're focusing on today is giving you the tools that you need to protect yourself the division of consumer services is divided into several bureaus on the Bureau of compliance registers businesses the bureau of mediation enforcement processes complaints and and finds entities that aren't following the roles our bureau of fair rides inspections inspects rides all over the state to make sure that they're safe to ride Bureau of Standards has our the section which handles weights and measures also inspects petroleum looks for skimmers and performs a lot of other functions and then we have our consumer assistance Center which is there to answer your calls and to help you so we'll hear more from each of these bureaus now and I'm gonna start off with lists content who is the bureau chief of the Bureau of compliance Thank You Aimee and good afternoon everyone very excited to be here as Amy mentioned the Bureau of compliance is the licensing arm of the division it's our role to review applications for compliance with state law or laws license or permit entities that meet those requirements if their applications are deficient we let them know when we give them the opportunity to respond and get into compliance now this compliance role helps ensure consumers are protected when a business is following the law depending on the industry this can involve ensuring bonds are submitted so if consumers are wronged they can see seek some redress through the bonds and in the case of Movers & LP gas they can get some insurance protection in that if a mover has an accident with your belongings in the vehicle we want to make sure that their insurance is up-to-date and and protects the consumers and of course with LP gas that the insurance in case there's some sort of an accident so ensuring compliance with the laws it is protects consumers in a big way but it also protects the regulated industries themselves it's important that businesses that don't follow the law they don't register or post the required bonds and insurance therefore they may be able to charge less and that gives them a competitive advantage over that those that are doing the right thing so this is a consumer protection and a business protection now as you can see from that many industries up on the slide we we license agriculture dealers anti-freeze and brake fluid game promotions health studios if you're going to a gym you can find out from us are they properly registered if they need to have a bond do they have it interstate movers look LP gas motor vehicle repair before you take your car in for a repair you can find out are they properly registered or am I getting the the required estimate and invoice form am I getting my consumer rights met by that shop pawnbrokers sellers of business franchises sellers of travel solicitation of contributions that's a short or a long form of wagging charities and of course telemarketing so compliance regulates an array of industries again as you can see and there's some things they have to submit with the application for instance pawnshops have to have compliant pond forms sellers of travel telemarketers egg dealers and some health studios as I'd mentioned must have required bonds and movers have the insurance so there's not just the applications there are additional forms that we review and in the long run we were able to protect consumers and businesses doing the right thing from those that may not be and that's just keeping an even playing field and making sure we have documents and information in-house that can assist if we do have to take action against a business so they're they're designed to protect the community as a whole throughout the state of Florida so there you have it we are the licensing area and we appreciate that they the ones that do stay into compliance and when they don't stay into compliance it heads to mediation and enforcement and with that let me introduce Alan Parkinson who is our chief over the bureau of mediation and enforcement Thank You Liz again my name is Alan Parkinson the Bureau of mediation enforcement has two main roles we are the state Clearing House for consumer complaints we work those complaints through informal mediation and an attempt to come to an amicable resolution for both the consumer and the business if a complaint is received by the division and it's regulated by another state agency that our role is to refer that to them so that they can address it and handle it appropriately again the other role that we provide is in enforcing the registration requirements of businesses so if they do not come into compliance with our bureau of compliance then those cases will be referred to us and part of our role there is to educate these businesses and make sure that they understand the registration requirements and we will get them back into compliance one of the things that we use is a tool to do that is sometimes issuing fines as you can see up here on the screen when you visit our website Florida consumer help calm here's a list of the complaints that you can file online along with downloaded as well so we have some specific complaints and then we just have our general right there as you can see such as motor vehicle repair do not call and then I regulated and unregulated complaints so with the complaint process what can you expect if you file a complaint number one first and foremost all complaints are public record once a complaint is received by us and typically that's within three days of the receipt it will be entered into our database and assigned to one of our complaint analysts they are required to process that complaint within 20 days within 10 days 90% of the time we address those so we do get to them extremely quickly once we address that complaint and mail to the business letting them know that complaints been filed we provide them with 30 days to offer a written response should they choose to cooperate we cannot force them to do so again if a complaint is regulated by another agency we will refer it to them for processing if its regulated by this division we will look for statutory violations and if we feel that it's appropriate we will refer to our regulatory investigative section and you the consumer will have direct contact with your complainant analyst here are some statistics for 2018 calendar year with regards to our complaints and the enforcement's as you can see we recovered over two and a half million dollars on behalf of consumers related to those complaints we receive forty two thousand eight hundred complaints last year and that is typical year to year that's about the average that we receive the top five complaints are right there number one is what we consider to be an unsolicited communications those are do not call and telemarketing related complaints those are always our number one complaint and then next you have landlord-tenant Motor Vehicle repair petroleum and communications the enforcement side as you can see almost 1,500 enforcement actions were taken with regards to registrations and other potential violations 600 or so final orders were entered based upon those and the top five areas of enforcement actions are as you can see here charities motor vehicle repair weights and measures health studios and petroleum and that is consistent as well based upon the of the registrations so to the do-not-call list and again we refer to this internally as our unsolicited communications so the do-not-call list it's free to sign up do not have to renew once you register your number it's on there and the list was established to allow businesses that make sales calls as part of the business practice to refer to a list of people who wished not to be solicited it was never intended to stop all calls and it will not prevent your phone for rain it's not a technological application so your phone will still get those calls the list is made available vailable quarterly and businesses must purchase that list from the department what do you need to know with regards to unsolicited communications a license or exempt telemarketer can make sales calls but they can't make it to those who are register only do not call us so there are some calls that are not a violation to the do-not-call law as you can see political calls charitable calls surveys if you have a prior or existing business relationship or have given express written consent you as a consumer can play an important role with the do-not-call process and and how we handle complaints and enforcement actions so what can you do it's important that you gather as much information as possible about the communication that you have received what was the product or service I was offered the name of the solicitor a callback number that's very important oftentimes you the number that's provided to you on your screen is not necessarily the phone number that gets to the organization so as much information as you can gather and report to us is very important so you can go to Florida consumer health to file that specific complaint in 2017 the Federal Communications Commission adopted rule allowing the service providers your phone company the ability to proactively block fraudulent calls and that's an important note because the service providers play an important role and what's happening with the barrage of calls that all of us are receiving on a consistent basis so there's some things that you should communicate and we would like for you to communicate to your service provider with regards to blocking some of these calls so first contact your service provider ask them if they're blocking calls because the FCC has authorized that if they're not asking why and when they'll begin doing that also can they detect what we call abnormal calling patterns and the you know identifying fraudulent calls illegal calls and ask them if they're applying policies to block or tag those calls as suspicious if that gets to spoofing we're all very familiar with what this is but if you're not that's the altering of a calling number that shows up on your caller ID in order to deceive you it may appear as a local number sometimes it may even appear as your number you never know typically that's related to a scam so always be red wary of that and never give your personal information over the phone the Federal Communication Commission has encouraged telecommunications industries develop a solution to stop these robo calls that is something that's called stir and shaken it's a technology to help ensure that the numbers that are being sent through their system to your phone are not spoofed so they're trying to authenticate those numbers so that you have a high likelihood of understanding that that call is not fraudulent and then it allows you to decide if you want to answer that call so if you have any questions regarding unsolicited communications please call us you can call our helpline as you see right there it's a 1-800 and help Florida help Fla and ask for our to speak to our unsolicited communications team we are here to help and we're glad to do so with that we're going to turn it over to our chief of Bureau and theorise inspections Allen house Thank You Marcus again thank you for being here this afternoon for this webinar on the bureau chief of the bureau fair rights inspection our be responsible for inspecting all amusement rides in Florida can make sure they're in compliance of our state statutes these rides can be temporary events Carville's fair festivals anywhere the right setup were there to inspect them each and every time part of parks are also inspected twice a year go-karts one related Muser on a zipline of course throughout the state we have 15 inspectors that protested carry out this inspection process we checking for safety instructional operational technical integrity each and every setup and twice a year for the parks the bureau is broken down into four four categories subcategories musical rides go-cart tracks water related music riots and budget related visa rides the categories are based on operating based on operating characteristics the kiddie rides or design primary to be used by patients under 12 years old the non Kitty is a ride design or use for patrons over the 12 years old there's also a super ride category which because of the size and the passenger capacity design restraint system or operating characteristics requires an excessive amount of inspection time the bureau fair rides also permit each ride annually in Florida this requires requirements for the temporary right in front of parks they're the requirements for having a permit the temporary short set up each set up per quarter stick to twice annually and during the permit process annually the Ryan's have to be reviewed by a third-party inspector or a professional engineer prior to permitting there is also a requirement for $1,000,000 of liability insurance prior to getting the permit in Florida the exempt acidities which could be Disney Walt Disney World Busch Gardens Legoland Universal Legoland are exempt from our requirements for permitting this is due to the fact they have a thousand or more employees and an on-site inspection staff they even though we don't regulate them there is oversight by our Bureau they have to submit after they've compliance provided to the Bureau of engineering for all the rides operating at the example syllabus there's also a requirement for the bureau to annually visit each site to review and discuss their safety technology training and trends in the industry they have a high standard or standards very high and what they do they also have to report serious injuries or fatalities immediately to the department other actions which are patient this is the hospital has to be reported for the 24 hours then quarterly the actions are submitted to the bureau right at this current time the bureau regulates 269 permit parks 135 traveling shows this last fiscal year there was over 9000 sections conducted there's 4,000 go cart inspections conductor and there's resolved there's 27,000 efficiencies that were detected 223 saw operational orders issued and that's to the fact the ride could not be repaired or presented for inspection to pass so the stop is issued in the rides not allowed to operate there are also 855 on the service tax issued for a carrier or a seat on each amusement ride so the ride and this case could operate that the seeder carrier is closed off due to an efficiency that can be corrected as long as it does not affect the operation of the musical ride so when you're out there and you see a yellow tag placed on a carrier receipt you know that that's not a seizure or carracticus idiom certainly if you see a red stop operational order on the front of the ride is not allowed to operate if you happen to come across something like this and you see that they're being operated you are to contact the bureau immediately to the formas of these things there's also requirements for the owner-operators they have due diligence when they're operating these rides in Florida not only they have to pass inspection they're required to do their daily inspections each and every day only reason Eliza hey notice anything that's unusually unusual noises that could occur after the inspection during the three-day operation or a two-week operation they're required to shut the ride down and notify the bureau immediately if there's an issue going on to the FEC's patient safety there's a requirement for the employees to be trained and documented on State Farm and submit it to the bureau for review when when asked and during action investigations that's certainly we require those documents the daily inspections and the EO training records to be submitted during the investigation coming towards the investigations if there's an accident that requires a transport to the hospital this means that the ambulance could be by the parents Guardian it has to be reported to the bureau within four hours by telephone we have a ton our hotline that should Schmitt they call to the owner operator and then significant 24-hour written report within 24 hours there's also requirement that if the ride is shut down during operation for more than four hours and it could be electrical and mechanical for structural defect to the scene they have to report it to the bureau within the hour or by telephone and then 24 hours in writing after closing the ride and then we we certainly go out and inspect the device and within the reason for this is we want to make sure if there's other musical classes like this offering and the star state then we can go out and reach out to the other owner operators and find out is this isolated incident or is it something that it's going to affect other Musil rides like this we want to make sure that the patients are certainly safe in Florida and we would go out and immediately close these other devices that are operating at that time there is also right here in this next page you'll see the some most common deficiencies found recently and one of the photos onto your left here there's a vehicle coming down a side street it's a highly traveled street and the amusement devices is right against the road with a fence up against the ride and that's it has to be pulled away where you cannot contact the ride so the ride in this case had to be removed where was going to be to stop operation order haven't you removed and pushback and the owner operator did in the next next slide next to that there's blocking it's supposed to be crisscross and this is really really bad blocking in the back background of the photo you can see the blocking stacked one on top of the other on an angle on hill the next photo shows a bent pan if you will that's for the to secure the wall together on the sill knees right called the Gravitron and we found like eight or nine of these that were bent and deformed and so they had to be replaced the next photo was awry presented for inspection well they sent it up in front of this telephone pole and the owner operator want to go and operate it and want to know if they closed the one lane off in the slide we said no the ride would have to be removed to an issue stopped operational or in this case the slide was removed to and located in another location and the left lower corner of the page there's a pen that was found inserted in the slot and it was notice it was moving our inspector pulled it out and it was broken into the right lower photo shows a rusted component this that supports the ride wall which rusted into and once he pushed against it he just attached these are some of the things that the bureau theorized finds in the state each and every year these are concerning and we certainly are out here to inspect these devices each each setup do you make sure our consumers are safe and can enjoy their time at the Emmys ride festival with this being said I'm going to turn it over to Rick Kenzi good afternoon a Rick Kinsey and the assistant director of consumer services here to give you some information about the Bureau of Standards the Bureau of Standards has responsibility for monitoring the accuracy of the gas of gas plants scales price scanners and other commercial Whang devices we do this to promote fair and equitable mark marketplace and protect consumers weights and measures is a long-standing tradition in the United States and is one of the major basis of commerce throughout the United States it's actually written into article 1 section 8 of the US Constitution all commerce in the United States is based on the system of weights and measures so that consumers and purchasers of products and commodities can accurately get information about the quantity or or amount of commodities that they're purchasing specifically in the bureau standards there are three sections there's our weights and measures inspection section our section that deals with standards such as gas pumps and then our section that deals with LP gas in our wasted measure section the primary responsibility is to inspect and ensure the accuracy of weighing and measuring devices Wayne weighing and measuring devices inspected by our our Bureau include everything from prescription scales grocery scales cattle scales and even up to large truck scales that you see along the highway we inspect commodities for accurate weight and pricing these are prepackaged commodities such as meat chips mulch other household goods and we will also we inspect any type of commodity whether it be a liquid or solid form under this section we also look at price scanners so everyone has experience going out to a store and scanning the price when you get to the register and we expect that to match the the price on the on this FB on the shelf so our inspectors go out and they check this to make sure that consumers are actually getting the price that they believe they will be getting the moment they pick up they choose the merchandise they inspect commodities for correct and accurate labeling we look for proper disclosure disclosure of weights and measures and also to inform the consumer and allow proper price comparison in our Bureau of Standards there's also an LP gas section our LP gas section inspects LP gas for safety and accuracy we look at the safety of the location to make sure that there are no hazardous things that exist that may injure workers or consumers and we also look at the accuracy as far as the amount of LP gas that is being delivered to the consumer we install inspect bulk distribution plants large plants meant for distribution of small smaller retail locations we look at retail filled locations typically a hardware store or some location like that where you may go buy big gas for your grill delivery trucks for safety and accuracy we look at delivery vehicles that come out to people's homes to make sure that the vehicles are safe while they're on your property as well as delivering accurate measure we look at LP gas installations at institutions these are some some sensitive institutions like schools prisons places where people could be injured by larger volumes of LP gas our inspectors go out there to help ensure that safety as well we look at the workmanship of licensed technicians so that if you have a technician come in to install or work on the LP gas system in your in your home or business the department can also monitor that to make sure that they are providing services up to national standards and in ensuring the safety of the product in your home we look at retail kill cylinder get cage sales so the cylinders that you see side of every gas station Walmart Supermarket around town we look at those to make sure that the safes this escape cylinders are compliant with all of the nationally accepted and adopted laws and as well as give proper notification to the customer what they're purchasing the Bureau of Standards also houses a petroleum inspection program in the petroleum inspection program we inspect and ensure the accuracy of petroleum dispensers these are everything from retail your local gas station to high-volume truck stops that produce that pump lots of fuel used in trucks to to deliver products throughout the United States we inspect and ensure the safety of petroleum dispensers we check things such as safety valves the overall safety of the device device to make sure that it's operating properly and will not injure the patrons we inspect dispensers and signs for accurate pricing we like to make sure that the roadsign pricing matches the pump and properly informs the consumer of all excess or all aspects of the transaction we inspect and sample the products for quality and cleanliness we take samples and our local gas stations we call those retail locations typically we will take to check things like octane and ethanol content we also sample products at all the ports of entry into the state of Florida the state of Florida is very unique in that most of the fuel brought into the state comes in across the water into seven different ports of entry and throughout the state that gives us an opportunity to look at the fuel before it's delivered or distributed to ensure the quality of fuel sometimes the quality is compromised during that transportation process and that's why we also take take a look at it at your local gas station we have two laboratories located in Tampa and in Pompano Beach and those laboratories aim to analyze a sample within 24 hours just to make sure that there's minimal impact to consumers if bad fuel is released to the market one major initiative in the Bureau of Standards lately is credit card skimmers credit card skimmers are small electronic devices that collect information from the magnetic strip on your credit card or debit card when swiped during your transaction these are largely unprotectable unless the pump is open for maintenance as you can see the incidence of credit card has been grown or credit card skimmers has been growing throughout the state we began finding these devices in 2015 and since then we've we've gone from 169 devices found that first year to over 1200 devices the last calendar year and 2019 is off for a bang I think we're up to 200 for the first two months of of 2019 the bureau estimates that there are about a hundred credit card numbers per skimmer those those technology has been rapidly evolving and those numbers are beginning to be revised we're seeing technology out there that may be able to carry far greater number of credit card numbers per skimmer currently through the National Crime Victimization survey there's an estimate of 1103 dollars in direct and indirect losses per victim so that equates to approximately 110,000 dollars in direct and indirect economic loss to the public purse skimmer based on the skimmers that we've located so far there could be a potential impact of over 65 million dollars to Florida consumers in our Bureau of Standards Labs that I mentioned earlier we sample and test petroleum products we sample tests and register antifreeze products and we also sample tests in register automotive brake fluid each laboratory receives probably 100 to 150 samples a day as I mentioned earlier we try to respond to these deficiencies within 24 hours immediately Department inspectors would then return to the station or remove for sale any substandard fuel that is we work with consumers who are injured and the businesses to try to help them resolve the issue many times those issues are not are taken care of by the [Music] business but at all times we suggest that if you do feel you're injured at a gas station to notify the department at our previously mentioned number 1-800 help FLA the Bureau of Standards also houses the state metrology lab the state metrology lab houses standards that allow our measurements to be directly traced back to the National Institute of Standards and Technology which is the standard for weight and measure in the United States we certify the accuracy of weighing and measuring standards for regulatory agencies and private industry so the Department inspectors have to periodically send their weights and measures in to be certified so that we can ensure the accuracy of our measurements and ensure that customers are getting what they paid for many of the tests done on devices outside the presence of the department are done by private industries the department also assists these industries by making sure that they use accurate weights and measures to assist businesses here are a few statistics for 2018 for inspections the department performed over 19,000 petroleum inspections our petroleum facilities suspected I'm sorry and four hundred and sixty four thousand petroleum pumps were inspected we recovered over 1,200 credit card skimmers we found those and remove those skimmers and provided those to law enforcement forty-seven thousand petroleum and alternative fuel quality tests were done in our two laboratories 1,800 petroleum retail facilities were sampled for fuel quality and we got ended up with a 98 percent compliance rate for quality fuel Indian in the state we inspected nine thousand four hundred thirty four LP gas facilities and systems we inspected over forty three thousand weighing devices and performed almost 6,000 mass and volume calibrations and I guess I will turn it back over to Amy Amy Tokoloshe Hey and again I'm Amy topal I'm the director of the Division of Consumer Services and I'd like to talk now a little bit about the kinds of scams and frauds that we're seeing in the division in ways that you can protect yourself from those scams and frauds the Federal Trade Commission releases a data book it's called the concern consumer Sentinel data book the 28 to anyone just came out and unfortunately the news in Florida was not good and we are number one in complaints per capita in the nation for fraud and other types of scams of the top 15 metropolitan areas with the highest number of fraud and consumer complaints 18 of them are located in Florida so those are pretty depressing numbers just for comparison the most populous states are California Texas Florida and New York we have 18 here in Florida Texas has two and California has one on that list likewise and identity theft complaints related sent to the Federal Trade Commission we are number three on that list or number four I apologize and of the top 15 metropolitan areas reporting identity theft complaints nine are located in Florida for comparison Texas house seven and California has 11 so when you look at population size the amount of fraud that's occurring in Florida is unfortunately very disproportionate to what's happening in the rest of the nation our Commissioner Commissioner Nikki Freitas is dedicated to protecting consumers of Florida to elevating these issues to a higher level and to doing what we can to turn the tide here in Florida she is partnered with Senator gruder's and representative Brown on a piece of bipartisan multi-agency legislation that will create a working group that we take a good hard look at the the types of frauds and scams that are occurring in Florida and taking a look at what we can do to stem that tide to turn the ship and to get us off of that top 10 list in Florida Florida alone consumers have lost eighty four point two million dollars to frauds average consumer lost is four hundred and of those victims are people that were that scammers attempted to victimize one out of every four people report actually losing money the types of scams that are happening in Florida now and under the identity of theft umbrella primarily are a credit card new account fraud which is a little disturbing in that it's a little harder to detect if you have a current credit card and you get a charge that you don't recognize that's gonna flag a lot faster than it is if somebody goes out takes your personal information and creates a new credit account in your name and it may not until you get a collection call or a bill or you run your credit report that you actually see that that's out there so incidences of new account fraud have increased 24% the good news is that tax fraud is down 38% so that's a little bit hardening but it looks like overall scams and frauds are are not heading in the direction that we would like to see so nationwide the number one type of scam is imposter scams and an imposter scam can take many different forms it could be about someone claiming to be from a government agency like the IRS asking you for oney and telling you that if you don't pay you're going to be arrested it could be a someone claiming to be from your electric company saying that your bills about your electrics about to be shut off because you haven't paid your bill and you have to pay it very quickly as in what you're hearing I'm sure is that most of these are happening over the phone it is the primary means of communication when when these fraudsters are perpetrating scams some of the others could be someone calling saying that they're from Microsoft and they've seen a virus on your computer and I think probably the most disturbing ones from my perspective are the ones where someone calls it claims to be a family member or a friend we call these frequently the grandparent scams because it'll be someone claiming to be a grandchild and saying they need money right away so how do you protect yourself from that well first off is as Alan mentioned earlier your caller ID can be spoofed so don't trust what you see on your caller ID or on your phone it may not actually be the person that they may not be calling from that number and they're not who they say that they are what we recommend really is that you independently verify the person that you're talking to so what that means is you hang up that phone and you look up the phone number for your bank or your electric company or the IRS or whoever it is and you call them back on a number that you know to be accurate and valid if you don't know the number don't don't worry at all about that you call us 800 help fola and we will find the number for you and make sure that you have an accurate and a good phone number to call and to verify the other big hallmark of scams like this is there's always going to be an element of of urgency so they're gonna tell you you'd have to pay today or your electric will be turned off you have to pay today or we're going to issue a warrant for your arrest or whatever it is if you start to hear that sense of urgency that should be an immediate flag for you to slow down to think about what you're hearing and to independently verify and make a separate phone call the most common method for taking these funds from use through wire transfer so if they're asking you to go to Western Union or another type of facility like Western Union and to wire money to them is very likely a scam the IRS the FBI any government agency will never ask you for a wire transfer your electric company will never ask you for a wire transfer no law enforcement agency will ask you for a wire transfer fortunately companies like Western Union have started to really promote information that warn people about sending money to people that you don't know one of the one of the other scams that we've seen a lot unfortunately is overpayment scams and that's another one that engages Western Union in particular you may be selling an item online someone sends you a check for that item and they overpay and they ask you to wire back the money so and just to cash the check and wire back the money unfortunately the check is not good so the money that you wire comes out of your account and you're never going to be reimbursed for that so yeah we just really caution everyone to think to move slowly to think about what you're doing and to do not get caught up in their sense of threat or urgency so reiterating make sure that you talk to someone make sure that you independently verify if you get a robo call and automated voice hang up the phone be skeptical of anything that is offered to you for free free trial offers free cruises anything where they have the word free and then they can be they mentioned a convenience fee or anything like that those are always scams the third bullet here don't deposit a check and wire money back it's a common fraud in fact unless you and actually know the person we encourage you to not wire money to anyone at all if you have questions or you need information we have our website here WWE Florida consumer help calm or you can call us at one eight hundred forty five seven thirty five two and at that website there's a lot of things that you can do you can look up businesses and check the number of complaints against them you can check out a charity before you donate money to them to make sure that they're spending the money in the way that you feel comfortable with or you can file a complaint with us if you have a consumer related issue all right so I'd like to thank today's presenters I'm not going to thank myself but I do want to thank Rick Kinsey our assistant director Liz Compton our bureau chief of compliance Alan Parkinson our chief of mediation and enforcement and Alan Harrison our chief affair ides inspection yes Amy this is Alan Parkinson the radiation enforcement again just to piggyback on the scams that amy was just talking about I want to reinforce if you receive an unsolicited communication that should be the first red flag for you you didn't ask to be contacted so if you did call us find out as much information about that communication get a callback number take a minute think about it call the department and let us look into it for you we also recognize is that it is the largest complaint that we receive so we have revamped our online forum for submitting these unsolicited communications also known as do not call in telemarketing complaints to us so in the next few weeks I would be looking for that it's currently in our test production mode but we want to make it more efficient and user-friendly for you to submit complaints to us so that is coming and again like Amy said most scams are over the phone so if you receive an unsolicited communication you are not expecting that let that be a red flag to you and I'm going to add Thank You Alan this is Liz Compton you know there's a reason that these entities that who are ripping people off are doing and it's because it's working they're making a lot of money and even it's worth the cost of doing business even if they get in trouble sometimes and I can say just personally I've received a number of emails that looked so much like my bank that I almost wanted to respond and only because I'm in an agency where I know better did I know to you know to not respond to that email first of all let them know you're a real person but you open yourself up to to a lot of potential damage to yourself so if you get an email from say a bank or even you know your your credit card company anything like that do not respond to it find out the published number of that entity a Citibank might happen to be Citibank and it had the logo everything about it looked real and so find out the published number and call them and say did you try to contact me because if they get ahold of your information and that's that's another thing do not give your financial information out that includes your social security number that includes your bank account number that includes your credit card number and maybe Amy made mention of a they work sometimes on fear and I've gotten emails where they'll say you're not going to be able to access your bank account well you know you start to hyperventilate because you're thinking I need to be able to get that money and so they just out of fear you respond but banks don't work that way credit card companies don't work that way the IRS doesn't work that way and they're not gonna arrest you so take the time to not respond to it but if you want to know more about whether it's them you know get a published number call them and ask them and I will tell you nine times out of ten if not more they'll tell you no we did not contact you and she they also mentioned spoofing and the numbers I get call after call on my cell phone from the area code in which I live and initially I would answer thinking it must be somebody I know because it's my area code and I read recently that even just answering just to check and see if that someone can cost you it may be tied to a 900 number or some other call that so just answering could cost you money and then when you're asking questions or trying to figure out who it is every minute is gonna cost you money so don't even answer if you don't recognize the number if it's somebody trying to reach you they'll leave a voicemail and so hundreds of dollars just for the very thought you know just with a very action of answering your phone because it might be somebody I know and let me finish by saying Amy mentioned check the charity you can go on our website and you can put in and see if an organization is properly registered we also post all sorts of financial data it's it's public record you can do a little research and find out are they spending the money prudently are they spending it like you got on the program services or are they a huge amounts going to salaries and and going going on trips and things like that so you can do that but in addition to that on our our same site we have what's called a business complaint look up find out before you take your car and is my motor vehicle repair shop that I'm thinking about going to is it properly registered and what is the complaint history if you look up a shop that happens to be in your neighborhood and you find out there's been a hundred complaints you may want to think twice before you take your car there every business gets a complaint or two that that's just part you know of life and doing business but we'll tell you what were the complaints handled satisfactorily and again if it's a ton of complaints so I don't take my car anywhere I wouldn't join a health studio without checking to see if they're properly registered and the complaint history we provide a wealth of information that consumers can use to arm themselves before they lose that dollar because while we can get and have gotten millions of dollars back to people it's a lot easier to save yourself from losing it in the first place than to try to get it back exactly right thanks Sam and on that note too I do want to encourage everyone if you're not buying a house or buying a car there's no reason to go out and freeze your credit it is free to do that in Florida now you can freeze your credit and unfreeze it at no cost and it is one of the best ways you can protect yourself from new account fraud likewise if you have young children or disabled an adult that you take care of you can freeze their credit for a child you can create a credit identity and freeze it so that it cannot be frozen unfortunately a credit or yeah basic and small children is devastating it can it can impact the rest of their life and it gives if you have a five-year-old child it may be 10-15 years before they realize what their identity has been stolen so finally ours oh yeah exactly we encourage everyone to go out and freeze your credit identity so that it makes it much more difficult for people to steal that so again as as we've mentioned repeatedly on the webinar Florida consumer health comm there is a wealth of information and you can find multiple ways to contact us through the phone through chat through email and we respond to to every call to every email to every letter that comes in here we work every complaint and we're always here for you whatever it is if you're not sure who to call you call us and we'll get you to the right place we'll do whatever we can to help you okay with that being said I'd like to thank all of our presenters I hope you all have a lovely afternoon