People Get Screwed All the Time: Protecting Yourself From Scams, Fraud, Identity Theft, Fine Print, and More

368 Pages·2007·1.3 MB·English

by  Robert Massi

PEOPLE
GET SCREWED
ALL THE TIME
Protecting Yourself From Scams, Fraud,
Identity Theft, Fine Print, and More
R O B E R T M A S S I

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
vii
Part I
IDENTITY: HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET
CAUGHT IN SOMEONE ELSE’S MESS
Chapter 1 STOLEN PURSE, STOLEN IDENTITY 3
Chapter 2 FALSE ARREST, MISTAKEN IDENTITY 12
Chapter 3 FALSE INFORMATION ON A BACKGROUND CHECK 21
Chapter 4 CREDIT CARD FRAUD 29
Chapter 5 YOUR CHILDREN AND IDENTITY THEFT 35
Chapter 6 IDENTITY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 42
Part II
LOVE, FAMILY, AND RELATIONSHIPS: HOW TO KEEP
YOUR HEAD IN MATTERS OF THE HEART
Chapter 7 CHILD CUSTODY RIGHTS 51
iii
iv CONTENTS
Chapter 8 CHILD SUPPORT FRAUD 60
Chapter 9 BLINDED BY LOVE AND TAKEN FOR A RIDE 68
Chapter 10 FAMILY VICTIMIZED BY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES 76
Chapter 11 CASH SETTLEMENTS AND DIVORCE 85
Chapter 12 UNMARRIED COUPLES, JOINT FINANCES,
AND SHARED PROPERTY 92
Chapter 13 LOVE, FAMILY, AND RELATIONSHIPS:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 100
Part III
MONEY, FINANCES, AND DEBT: HOW TO STEER
CLEAR OF MAJOR FINANCIAL HASSLES
Chapter 14 REFINANCING FIASCO 111
Chapter 15 BANKRUPTCY AND DIVORCE 119
Chapter 16 HEALTH INSURANCE 126
Chapter 17 HIGH-RISK INVESTMENTS 132
Chapter 18 DEBT REPAYMENT AND DEBT MANAGEMENT PLANS 140
Chapter 19 MONEY, FINANCES, AND DEBT:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 147
Part IV
YOUR HOME: HOW TO LIVE IN YOUR HOUSE
WITHOUT RUINING YOUR FUTURE
Chapter 20 HOMEOWNERS VS. HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATIONS 157
Chapter 21 MOVING SCAMS 164
CONTENTS v
Chapter 22 TENANTS BANKRUPT LANDLORD 172
Chapter 23 HOMEOWNER’S LIABILITY FOR INJURY ON PROPERTY 180
Chapter 24 HOMEOWNER VS. CITY HALL 186
Chapter 25 YOUR HOME: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 193
Part V
CARS: HOW TO KEEP ON THE GO WITHOUT ENDING
UP IN DEBT, IN JAIL, OR WORSE
Chapter 26 SELLING A CAR 201
Chapter 27 TWICE A VICTIM: STOLEN AND IMPOUNDED CAR 208
Chapter 28 CAR DEALERSHIP HORROR STORY 215
Chapter 29 LEASED CAR 222
Chapter 30 BORROWED CAR AND INSURANCE SCAM 228
Chapter 31 CARS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 234
Part VI
WORK AND BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS:
HOW TO MAKE A LIVING WITHOUT RUNNING
INTO LEGAL NIGHTMARES
Chapter 32 PARTNERSHIPS 243
Chapter 33 BUSINESS LOANS 250
Chapter 34 SMALL BUSINESS WOES 258
Chapter 35 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PARTNERSHIPS 265
Chapter 36 SELLING YOUR BUSINESS 272
vi CONTENTS
Chapter 37 WORK AND BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 280
Part VII
FINAL AFFAIRS: HOW TO TIE UP YOUR AFFAIRS
WHILE PROTECTING YOUR INTERESTS AND THE
INTERESTS OF THOSE YOU LOVE
Chapter 38 SWINDLED OUT OF MOTHER’S ESTATE 291
Chapter 39 BLENDED FAMILIES AND CHANGED WILLS 298
Chapter 40 LIVING TRUSTS 304
Chapter 41 WHEN LAWYERS GET ALL THE MONEY 310
Chapter 42 OPEN PROBATE AND UNSETTLED ESTATES 317
Chapter 43 FINAL AFFAIRS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 323
FINAL THOUGHTS
328
Acknowledgments 336
References 338
Index 345
About the Author
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
INTRODUCTION
YOU MAKE A QUICK STOP AT AN ATM TO WITHDRAW SOME POCKET CASH. You
are shocked to discover that your request is declined. How could that
be? Just this morning, you had nearly $3,000 in your checking account.
Hours later, your balance is inexplicably in the negative.
Your sister signs a forty-eight-month lease agreement on a great car.
She’s sad to turn it in when the lease expires—but she’s absolutely out-
raged when the dealer hands her an additional bill for $7,000 from the
leasing company. It seems she was charged an additional 25 cents for
every mile over the yearly allowance, but no one at the dealership had
mentioned anything about a yearly mileage allowance.
Your brother and his wife are getting divorced. What starts out as an
amicable split turns ugly when she manages to have him evicted from
the condo they had lived in—and he had purchased.
Your parents have retired to a gated community, where their harm-
less decorating scheme and confusion over the fine print of their pur-
chase agreement has resulted in outrageous homeowners’ association
fines that have snowballed to the point where their retirement savings
are dangerously close to being wiped out and they are in jeopardy of
losing their home.
You hear it every day: stories of good people, innocent people,
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
who suddenly, without warning, find bad things happening to them,
and then the system they expect will protect them reaches out to hurt
them. The system is a tool, and tools are only as good as the people
who wield them. Even competent professionals make mistakes, and
too often, the people in the system are neither competent nor pro-
fessional. The legal system is a bureaucracy, and bureaucracies are
inflexible. They move slowly. They’re impersonal and overtaxed. The
victims all say, “You never think it will happen to you.” And the rest
of us, viewing from afar, think, “How terrible—good thing that didn’t
happen to me.”
The truth is that anyone’s life can be transformed, his or her desti-
ny changed forever, by poor judgment, inadequate preparation, a lack
of caution, an absence of information or of simple common sense.
Ordinary people really do get screwed all the time.
As an attorney for the past twenty-five years, I’ve listened to the most
incredible tales of frustration and woe. The damage done to innocent
people who run afoul of the system can be irreversible, because the
average person on the street does not have the financial means to either
fix the problem or challenge the monster that created it in the first
place.
When I listen to these people tell me their stories, it’s with an empa-
thy born of personal experience. I know how they feel, because I came
dangerously close to being just another victim of the system myself. I
know what it takes to protect oneself from indifferent bureaucrats and
impersonal and inflexible rulings, because I had to overcome these very
obstacles in my fight to practice law.
After I graduated from law school in Texas in 1976, I moved to Las
Vegas to clerk for a judge and to study for, and take, the Nevada bar
exam. I was young and idealistic, and ready to put my knowledge of
the law to practical use. Not sure where I would begin my law career,
in 1977 I returned to Texas, where I had gone to law school, to take the
bar exam. Having grown up in Pittsburgh, I also took the bar exam in
Pennsylvania. I also took the bar in Nevada, where I was living at the
time. I got the results from Nevada first—I had failed the bar. Then I