Wanna go on vacations for half-price? All the time? You like concierge service? 24/7.

What? Oh, all you gotta do is go to a 90-minute travel presentation. That’s it. You game? Come on! It’s great. OK!

That’s how it begins. In the case of one travel club that put on presentations on Bridge Street in Fort Worth, Texas, hundreds of people paid thousands of dollars each. In return, according to the Texas attorney general, they got nothing.

The company operated as SeaLand Travel Club, Royal Palms Travel and All Inclusive Excursions.

Owner Adrian D. Miller, formerly of Grapevine, signed an agreed judgment with the attorney general in August. He agreed to pay $30,000 to the state and $20,000 in attorney fees. He also promised not to engage in any future fraudulent activities. Read the lawsuit here.

Customers may get a little back from the state, but their best bet is to seek a settlement with the company, which continues to work with customers who filed complaints. The company says in the judgment that it has refunded $300,000 and knows it will refund more.

Travel club memberships have been a prime source of consumer complaints for a decade. Companies promise great deals. Often, consumers don’t get them and file complaints. Companies get in trouble with the law and close. Consumers lose their money and learn hard lessons.

It’s repeated over and over. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

WatchdogNation.com has important information that could help put an end to travel club deceptions.

Buried deep in the legal judgment are promises by Miller to no longer engage in certain business practices.

His lawyer, William Lewis Sessions, says both sides worked on the guidelines.

“Candidly, my client feels good about that,” Lewis said. “They want to be a positive model.” He said Miller was out of town and unavailable for an interview.

The guidelines are the attorney general’s latest prohibitions on deceptive practices by travel clubs. They could also help consumers and businesses protect themselves — not only in the travel club business but also in any other area where money is involved.

I’ve rewritten them from the original legal language and added comments:

- Beware of travel clubs that fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose their correct business identity and ownership. (A club hides it name so you can’t easily look it up on the Internet before you visit. But always look up the company before signing any contracts.)

Same goes for any sales presentation in which a company’s name is not clearly displayed and explained. (What else is it hiding?)

- A red flag goes up when a company fails to disclose in documents to consumers that the travel club may not always provide prices that are lower than those published on the Internet or elsewhere. (How can anyone promise the lowest prices all the time?)

- Same applies to any legal contracts that attempt to deceive consumers into believing that their membership entitles them to lower prices than those published elsewhere. (That is a promise that ought to get all kinds of companies in trouble.)

- Sales staff must not promise that the examples of accommodations, cruise lines, carriers, resorts, hotels or amenities shown in sales presentations and sales literature will be available to purchasers of the plan. (In other words, don’t fall for the brand names. In this company’s case, it didn’t have permission to use the name and logo of Carnival Cruise in promotions but did anyway.)

- Written disclosures should be made to potential buyers that what the company offers may not always be available to members. (Promised trips and half-price deals never materialized.)

- All statistics offered in sales materials must clearly and conspicuously give the source and date of the information cited. (A way to stop companies from making stuff up.)

- Beware of these words used in sales presentations to describe relationships with other well-known companies: affiliation, association, authorization, connection, partnership. (They try to imply a close relationship with the better-known company. Just because they say it doesn’t make it so.)

- Don’t let these phrases confuse you: deep discount, deeply discounted, pennies on the dollar, greatly reduced rates or similar phrases. (The first price you’re told is too high. The final price is much lower. But it’s still too much.)

- Look for other warning phrases that are never as good as they sound: gift, promotional gift, prize, incentive, complimentary gift. (The company doesn’t tell you that the “free” trip will cost you hundreds of dollars in taxes and other fees. Or it doesn’t tell you that the gift costs you money.)

- Beware also of promises for trips where the company fails to disclose a restriction on available dates to redeem travel vouchers. (I’m still waiting for that Vegas trip I was promised by a different company in 2005.)

- Be skeptical if you hear promises that someone else can negotiate better deals for you. (Professional travel agents –yes, they still exist — are best suited for that.)

The Texas attorney general’s office asks anyone who did business with Royal Palms Travel, SeaLand Travel Club and All Inclusive Excursions to file a complaint as soon as possible. Two defendants have not settled, so a portion of the case remains open. Call the attorney general at 800-252-8011.

# # #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

“This actually makes you physically ill,” she says.

The retired Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy invested in what regulators describe as an alternative investment: life settlements. Her money was used to buy insurance policies of older adults who want to cash out and sell their benefits to investors. When the original policyholder dies, investors, who pay the premiums, reap the death benefits. The quicker the person dies, the greater the payoff.

As I reported in the spring, the company she invested with, Retirement Value LLC. of New Braunfels, has been shut down by the state. Now comes word from the court-appointed receiver that commissions paid to financial advisers and company officials were 30 percent. Read the report here.

Of $77 million raised in a year from 900 investors like Brady, about $10 million went to Retirement Value and $13 million went to sellers of the program. Brady says nobody told her commissions would be that high.

Eduardo Espinosa, the receiver, told me: “Every time I’ve spoken to an investor, they did not realize the commissions were coming off the top, or the extent of the commissions.”

Receiver Eduardo Espinosa

Texas is one of a few states that don’t regulate life settlement investments specifically. The term does not appear in state law.

The Texas State Securities Board, which closed Retirement Value, evaluates each complaint case by case. The agency’s enforcement director says that fraud is growing and that Texas is wide open for abuses.

A lengthy report released last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission recommends that Congress toughen federal laws for life settlements. Texas lawmakers may do the same in the 2011 session.

The state receiver’s report is the first full look at the workings at Retirement Value.

The contents, which Espinosa describes as allegations, portray, in his words, “substantial evidence of fraud.”

Although the company was a little more than a year old, its sellers raised $77 million in the first year. Investors were promised that their money would be placed in third-party escrow accounts. That didn’t happen. The money was kept under the control of Retirement Value, the report alleges.

As the state prepared to seize the company’s assets, CEO Richard Gray moved $1 million from company coffers to another company set up by friends. The receiver found out and seized the money. The receiver has seized $25 million all told.

The company purposefully underestimated the life expectancy of policyholders to lure investors, the report alleges. The estimates used were calculated by a company run by a convicted felon.

The report also alleges that investors were told false information that prevented them from making informed decisions. That’s against state law.

How much Brady and the other investors get back is up to the receiver. He has to decide whether to pay back the 900 investors from that seized $25 million or keep the investments alive by using that money to continue paying insurance premiums.

“I anticipate there will be a loss,” he says. “How big? I don’t know.”

Brady made the investment last year at the Camp Bowie Boulevard office of James E. Poe, owner of Senior Retirement Planners. Poe introduced Brady to Bruce Collins, chief operating officer of Retirement Value.

“They really played it up,” Brady says of the investment, sometimes called “death bets” by critics.

After the state came down on the company, Poe wrote Brady and about 20 other investors that they should be wary when contacted by state investigators.

“You are under no obligation to respond, or even continue the conversation,” Poe advised his clients in a letter.

Poe told me in June that the investments were good and that the company would come out of this. The receiver’s report makes that seem unlikely. (The Retirement Value receiver’s website is www.rvllcreceivership.com.)

Last week, Poe said that the company’s side is not being told. He said his lawyer advised him not to discuss specifics with his clients.

“There’s not enough room in your paper to present a fair and balanced argument on both sides of this, sir,” he said.

Barry Bishop, a lawyer for former CEO Gray, did not respond to a request for an interview.

When I asked about commissions, Poe answered: “Every business in America operates on a profit margin. And a 30 percent profit margin for a company that creates a product can be made to look disgraceful. Or it can be made to look like a reasonable return.”

The receiver says the story of Retirement Value offers a warning to investors: Whenever someone touts an alternative investment that promises low risk and high rewards, be skeptical.

“That should trigger an alarm in your head that something is not right,” Espinosa says. “Dig a little deeper.”

The former sheriff’s deputy knows that now: “It affects your life in all directions. Even though you pick up the pieces and act normal, it’s always there in your mind.”

# # #

Read our previous stories on this subject below:

Life settlements are the wild west of the investment industry

Financial adviser warns clients about investigators

# # #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

A hive began growing two months ago behind the siding of the house next door to Cody Tucker’s. Tucker talked to his neighbor and offered to help pay to have it removed. But the neighbor rebuffed him, saying he could handle it.

The hive grew larger.

The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, tells me he has been working on the hive problem for weeks.

Not fast enough for Tucker. The hive grew to thousands of bees.

A week ago, after his daughter and dog were stung, Tucker called Fort Worth’s code enforcement department. At first, he says, a code officer told him there was nothing the city could do. Tucker insisted on filing a complaint.

Tucker also called the police, who sympathized but couldn’t do much. So Tucker called The Watchdog.

The Fort Worth city code states that a bee infestation is a hazard to the public health and safety. But it’s not considered a nuisance. The difference is that the city can issue a citation for a hazard. If it were a nuisance, the city could also hire someone to solve the problem and bill the homeowner. Not here.

For a hazard such as this, “we generally give citizens a reasonable amount of time to comply,” says Brandon Bennett, the code compliance director. “We could have written a citation on Day One, but that generally does not speed things along. We would rather see the citizen put their time and money into abatement as opposed to court fines.”

And that’s what the neighbor says he is trying to do.

He called in two bee companies for estimates, listened to their free advice and decided to go it alone. Estimates were several thousand dollars — and that didn’t include repairs to the house.

The neighbor says he doesn’t want to remove the siding. He decided to use expanding foam and caulk to lock the bees in and keep the rest out.

A homeowner trapped a bee hive behind his home siding using expanding foam and caulk.

He built himself a bee suit using masking tape and nylon. “They sting you right through the stuff,” he says, adding that he has been stung “multiple times.”

When I asked him about Tucker’s complaints to the city, he answered, “He can see from his property what we’re doing. Short of waving a magic wand, there’s not much he can do.”

Tucker says he is worried about his neighbor’s attempt to seal the bees in. From what he learned through research, sealing a hive inside a house is asking for trouble. “The bees could potentially bore their way through the drywall and into the house,” he says.

I checked that with Tarrant County Extension Agent Steve Chaney. He told me, “You can’t just seal it up with them in there. They will either exit outside or into your house. You’ve got to get rid of them somehow, whether you do it yourself or have someone come out and do it.”

Pete Glasser, an Arlington hive removal specialist, says the bees most likely are in a small area between the first-floor ceiling and second floor.

“They will find another way out,” he predicts. “It may be into the guy’s house. It’s really hard to get rid of a hive in there. You have a queen laying 2,000 eggs a day. There could be 30,000 bees in there.”

Bee removal specialists sometimes must open an interior wall to remove the hive, he says.

That’s why Glasser recommends preventive maintenance. “Seal up openings between the siding and brick. It doesn’t take a big opening for a bee to get in there and decide ‘This is a great place to live.’ Pretty soon, he brings in tens of thousands of his buddies. Then it gets complicated.”

Tucker was also stung by the city’s response. Buzzing like an angry bee, he spent a week making phone calls, pleading with code enforcement to get serious about his problem. At first, he says, he was rebuffed. Then his complaint number wasn’t entered properly. Then nobody got back to him.

Code officials say they didn’t have a callback number for Tucker. (Note: Write a letter.)

The neighbor acknowledges that he has placed a big bet that his sealing measures have curtailed the problem. But he doesn’t know yet.

When I met with the neighbor, I saw less than a dozen bees flying near the house.

Later, leaving the property, I watched as he vacuumed live bees off his window frame.

# # #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Meet Riley. He doesn't care for smart meters.

From his point of view, it’s easy to see why he might have nipped at the gloved hand that reached over the fence in his back yard in Crowley, Texas.

The hand belonged to a smart-meter installer from Oncor Electric Delivery.

The installer’s other hand reached for his can of HALT! — a dog repellent spray — and fired away.

Riley ran back into his house. His eyes had swollen, and he wiped his head frantically on the carpet. His owners, Carter and Mandy Forbes, didn’t know what had happened. They rushed him to the vet, where the doctor explained that someone had apparently sprayed the dog with repellent. Riley was treated and released. The bill was $90.

Back home after that, Mandy Forbes saw an Oncor installer in the neighborhood. She says she watched him take off his hard hat and butt a neighborhood Chihuahua that was barking at him in the head.

“Did you spray my dog?” she says she asked him.

“I haven’t done it in six months,” he replied.

“Do you have the right to do that?”

“Yes,” he answered. “If we feel threatened.”

She told him what Riley went through. He apologized but said it must have been the other installer working the neighborhood.

The Forbeses contacted Oncor. Days later, the company, which delivers electricity to much of North Texas, agreed to pay the medical bill.

Oncor doesn’t like to pay claims. But it did so in this case because the installer didn’t follow company policy.

“It was really in the spirit of customer service that we decided to pay this claim,” spokeswoman Megan Wright said. “There wasn’t anything legally that would make us pay this claim. But the fact that the meter installer did not knock before he installed the meter, which is not required by law, we felt that we wanted to pay this claim.”

The front-door knock, she said, is “something we like to do as a courtesy.”

When I pressed for more details, she said, “His body was not bit, but he said the dog’s teeth did make contact with his really thick gloves.”

Riley is fine. The installer, however, was reprimanded. “We tell our employees they have to put their safety first,” Wright said. “He had to do what he could to protect himself.”

Previously, I’ve reported how smart-meter installers have the right to climb backyard fences to change out meters and how, during the installation, the power to your home or business will go off for several minutes. I’ve recommended that you install surge protectors on valuable electronics and even consider purchasing a whole-house surge protector, usually best installed by an electrician. Oncor says it doesn’t pay claims on electronics that are ruined by power surges.

As far as dog bites, Oncor says installers have been bitten by dogs 12 times this year and were bitten 22 times last year.

Oncor provided this photo to show what its smart meter installers must endure.

Oncor provided me with photos of installers and the nasty bites they received. The photos are difficult to look at.

Oncor says it trains installers how to handle dogs without spraying them.

“We talk to them about how to spot the danger signs of aggression,” Wright said. “How to walk away. Move slowly and carefully. You don’t look in a dog’s eyes. You do not smile, because you don’t want to show your teeth. The dog will think that’s an aggressive move.

“Never run. You just stay calm and quiet. We also talk to installers about being aware of their surroundings, looking to see if there are any dog toys, dog runs, well-worn paths.

“Our meter readers also carry with them a stick with a little tennis ball on the end of it. The dog will oftentimes attack the tennis ball.

“No one wants to hurt an animal.”

Oncor has almost 2 million smart meters left to install. That’s a lot of back yards to enter — and a lot of watchdogs that have no idea what’s coming.

Oncor provided this photo of a worker's pants to show the perils of going into the backyards of others.

# # #

Dog bite stats

• 2005 – 43 dog bites
• 2006 – 31 dog bites
• 2007 – 32 dog bites
• 2008 – 27 dog bites
• 2009 – 22 dog bites
• As of 8/1/2010 – 12 dog bites

Source: ONCOR

# #  #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

At first, I talked to him through the glass. I rarely open the door for anyone except the pizza deliveryman. But he was one persistent son of a gun.

He told me he was from an alarm company. I asked which one, and he pointed to the logo on his sleeve — GE Security.

When I finally opened the door, he moved the notebook that he was holding against his chest, revealing his real company logo on his breast pocket — Pinnacle Security. I wrote about Pinnacle selling 60-month contracts previously.

I told him I already had an alarm system. He said my analog system wasn’t good enough.

“There’s a city ordinance in the works in Tarrant County where they’re going to require everybody to switch over to the new digital system,” he said. “That’s kind of what we’re advertising.”

There’s a lot wrong with that. He confused Fort Worth, where I live, with Tarrant County. Tarrant County doesn’t adopt alarm ordinances. The city does.

But I told him that nothing like what he described was in the works in either the city or the county.

“You can research it online,” he insisted. “I’m telling the truth.”

I told him he wasn’t.

“I promise you!” he said.

No, I repeated. It’s not happening.

“The honest truth,” he said. “I’m not lying.”

But he was wrong.

I asked to see his state license for door-to-door alarm sales.

Instead, he pulled out his company ID card.

I told him state law required that he show a license. He didn’t have one with him.

“You’re in violation,” I said.

“You gotta have it right now?” he asked.

Yeah, man.

“I’ve only been at the company for a month,” he said.

I identified myself as The Watchdog columnist at the Star-Telegram. Told him I wrote about his company in October. Seemed as if I knew more about Pinnacle than he did.

I went inside and fetched a copy. Brought it outside. Started reading excerpts aloud.

“Alarm salesmen and installers must carry a pocket card with their photograph issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Private Security Bureau. If they don’t have a card, they are not licensed to work in Texas.”

Hmm, he said. “I didn’t think I was breaking the law.”

He told me he was 23 years old, finishing up college in Arizona. This is a summer job, and he expects to return home in a month with his wife. He wasn’t doing too well in the new job either, he confessed.

No wonder.

Later, I checked with a Fort Worth spokesman, who confirmed that the city is not contemplating forcing burglar alarm users to switch from analog to digital. Why would it?

I looked on the Texas Department of Public Safety website and saw that this salesman did have a license. Perhaps his boss never bothered to give it to him.

Checked also with the agency, which investigates unlicensed alarm salesmen. In this case, I was told, if a complaint were filed, the company would be cited, not the salesman, because management didn’t give him proper credentials.

Looked up the company’s Better Business Bureau rating and saw that Pinnacle has the same F grade it had when I checked in October. But the numbers are worse. In October, there were 800 consumer complaints going back three years. Now there are 1,200.

Checked the Orem, Utah-based company’s record with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, too. In November, the company was fined $6,000 for disobeying state rules. Among the violations cited was “indicating that a replacement or a repair is needed when it is not.”

Called Chris Russell, president of the Fort Worth-based Texas Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, who told me, “It’s very frustrating to hear a story like that because we try to warn homeowners of these types of sales tactics. I guess we haven’t been effective yet to put a stop to it.”

Contacted Pinnacle, where Chief Operating Officer Steve Hafen told me he would contact the Dallas office “to make sure we are not misstating or exaggerating facts.”

He added: “He should have been carrying that license. … There’s no excuse for that. … We’ll follow up with that office to make sure that all the representatives follow the comprehensive code of conduct we have in place.”

As for the salesman, when we said our goodbyes at my front door, I suggested that his best bet was just to boogie on out of my neighborhood. I watched as he stopped knocking on doors, at least on my block.

One down. A zillion more to go.

# # #

After the above Watchdog column first appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a former alarm salesman sent this confessional e-mail to the paper’s comments board:

Burnsengine wrote on 8/6/2010 1:02:19 AM:

When I moved back to D/Fw, I went to work for a major company that sells alarms systems. This kid, though I feel sorry for him, probably has little idea about the law. I didn’t.

This is likely what they trained him to do and say. And, in this working environment today, it was probably the only job he could get. When I left the company (after 6 horrible months), I realized that I too may have been violating the law.
These salesmen are trained to sell. That’s it. They are trained to say whatever it is they have to say to scare, worry, frighten, nag or break you down to make the sale. They are only given a brief summary on what’s legal and what is not at a local seminar. The rookies know very little compared to the veterans.. and the veterans don’t have time to teach anyone. I believed this was purposeful then, and I still do now.

Ignorance is bliss, right? I witnessed lie after lie from my own managers to my customers about their systems OR lack thereof. Leaving this company was one of the best decisions I ever made.

# # #

For Texas alarm customers

– Alarm salesmen and installers must carry a “pocket card” with their photograph issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Private Security Bureau. If they don’t have a card, they are not licensed to work in Texas.

–  To check whether a salesperson or installer is licensed in Texas, visit www.txdps.state.tx.us/psb/individual/individual_search.aspx.
To check whether an alarm company is licensed in Texas, visit www.txdps.state.tx.us/psb/company/company_search.aspx.

–  Texas consumers can complain to the Private Security Bureau at 512-424-7710  or e-mail: privatesecurityboard@txdps.state.tx.us.

–  If you have fallen victim to an unlicensed salesman, complain to the Texas Attorney General at 1-800-621-0508.

–  Alarm system companies in Texas operate under Chapter 1702 of the Occupations Code (the Private Security Act.)

–  Texas customers who have a complaint about a Utah-based alarm sales company may file a complaint with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection Web site at www.consumerprotection.utah.gov. Or call 801-530-6601.

TIPS

Be cautious about purchasing an alarm system from door-to-door salesmen.

Be wary of offers of free systems. Equipment and installation fees may be free, but don’t forget the monthly monitoring fee.

Check the company’s reputation before signing any contract. Get other bids and compare.

Ask for the company’s security procedures when an alarm sounds so you know how it handles your security.

Learn the length of the contract. Get the shortest possible.

The Federal Trade Commission requires a “cooling off period” of three days in which you can cancel any contract you signed with a salesman who came to your door.

Source: BBB

# # #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

There was the financial adviser who convinced his clients to invest $50,000 in a life settlements, but the company they invested in was put out of business by state regulators. Read that here.

There was the 79-year-old man who lost $20,000 to an ex-convict in a home foundation scam. Read that here.

There were the retired teachers getting hit with postcards enticing them to invest in financial instruments that are loaded with excess fees. Read that here.

As I continue to research why the elderly are so vulnerable, I receive troubling letters from adult children of older adults.

Christine writes me that her father fell for a Jamaican prize scam and lost $50,000. “He is so upset with the final realization that he lost all of his money that he won’t let me help him,” she writes.

Annette writes that her father lives alone and is inundated with mail announcing that he has won lotteries, sweepstakes and other contests. All he has to do is send money to claim the rest of the prize. “He believes the windfall of money will land in his mailbox,” she writes. “This encompasses his daily life. It’s all he talks about, the money he is waiting for.” But it never comes.

There’s a name for this: elder investment fraud and financial exploitation. Although the problem is expected to get worse as more Americans grow older, initial signs are that one possible solution is coming out of Texas.

A pilot program originated by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston looks at how older adults may lose some mental abilities that helped them avoid risky situations. The medical term is cognitive impairment, and one-third of all adults older than 71 show some signs of it.

Couple that with a strong desire for more money, as shown by Christine’s and Annette’s fathers, and you’ve got the making of a financial catastrophe.

The Baylor program trains Texas doctors to detect warning signs of mental impairment that may make people susceptible to fraud. The doctors are shown how to report what they find to authorities such as the Texas State Securities Board and Adult Protective Services.

The experiment has its roots in a revelation by former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Christopher Cox. He said a few years ago that his elderly mother, besieged by throat cancer and unable to talk, was pestered by salesmen with a barrage of annuity schemes and bad mortgage offers.

“Even though my father was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the brokers would prey upon him as well,” Cox said.

The products horrified Cox: They included annuities with huge penalties and a low-rate 30-year mortgage with a short-term loan that had a balloon payment and a teaser rate.

“That would have cost my parents their home when it came due,” Cox said.

Robert Roush, an associate professor of geriatrics at Baylor, heard about Cox’s statements and decided to pursue the matter as a field of study.

He learned that older adults can be especially susceptible to schemes where the true penalties of the investment are hidden in fine print. As adults grow older, they may take greater risks. Cognitive impairment is found in half of all adults older than 85, some researchers say.

When baby boomers reach senior citizen status, 1 in 5 Americans will be older than 65.

“We’ve got a large, growing population that is going to roughly double in the next 20 years,” Roush said. “It will change the way this country operates.”

He wants to change the way older adults are protected, too. His project is growing. Regulators from 30 states, including the Texas State Securities Board, have joined.

The program is built around red-flag questions that a doctor can ask a patient. Samples from the project’s Clinician’s Pocket Guide include: Who manages your money day to day? How is that going? Do you regret or worry about financial decisions you’ve recently made?

In Texas, almost 70 doctors participated in the study. About half reported to state authorities that they encountered potential victims before they were hurt and, in some cases, after they lost money.

June 15 was designated World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The Investor Protection Trust released a study that day showing that 1 in 5 Americans 65 and over has been victimized by financial fraud. That’s 7 million people.

During his research, Roush learned about older adults hurt through cellphone contracts, credit card offers, car loans and “on almost every financial transaction you can think of.”

“If there’s a hell, those scammers are the ones that will burn the hottest,” he said. “At least I hope so.”

His project, if successful, may turn up the heat on them here, too.

# # #

WARNING SIGNS:

You run out of money by the end of the month.

You regret or worry about financial decisions.

Your bills are confusing, and you have trouble paying them.

You don’t feel confident making big decisions alone.

You don’t understand financial decisions others are making for you.

You give loans or gifts that you can’t afford.

Your children are pressuring you to give them money or change your will.

Someone is accessing your accounts, and money is disappearing.

You can’t reach your financial adviser.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine’s Texas Consortium Geriatric Education Center.

# # #

RESOURCES:

Here’s the “Pocket Guide on Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation.”

Research investment advisors at the Securities and Exchange Commission website here.

Spend some time at the National Committee for Prevention of Elder Abuse website.

Learn about the Duke University student that shows that one in three people over 70 have memory impairment

Read about the Investor Protection Trust study that showed  that one out of five Americans older than 65 have been victimized by financial fraud.

# # #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Dig that. But what about assumptions themselves?

I’ve narrowed down, in my continuing study of consumer boo-boos, that one of the most overlooked errors committed by anyone who buys something at least once a day (all of us!) is that we assume things when we shouldn’t.

We live in a world of assumptions. We believe what store products tell us on the label. We listen when our doctor says there’s something wrong with us. We assume the experts know what they’re talking about.

Assumptions kick our ass.

Joseph Nguyen got his butt kicked by an assumption. He assumed his spare tire fit all the wheels on his Toyota Camry. It didn't. He spent several hours stuck on an interstate overpass in the hot Texas summer.

In today’s marketplace, the product box may say “Deluxe” or “Premium” — but it’s really not. Deluxe and Premium are now bottom rung. Corporate language is used to confuse as much as to inform.

I remember that I assumed that the company from which I bought a check stamp years ago was still the same honest company when I recently ordered a new stamp from them. By then, though, the company was in the business of taking money, but not fulfilling orders.

Not until I involved my bank, the California state police, two local police departments, the California attorney general and the Better Business Bureau did I get my money back. Then one day a new stamp arrived in an unmarked envelope. By then, I already bought one somewhere else.

I assumed.

Joseph Nguyen assumed that his spare tire was the right one for his Toyota Camry. It had worked once before when he had a flat rear tire. But this time it was a front tire, and that made all the difference.

He got a flat tire in the worst way. It shouldn’t have been a problem. He’s a mechanic for Lockheed Martin.

He was driving his 2004 Toyota Camry on the overpass that takes motorists from Interstate 30 East near downtown Fort Worth to Interstate 35W North. Nguyen was about four stories above the ground, coming down the slope that’s like a roller-coaster ride.

“I hear a pop. The car is shaking. I stop and pull over.”

Hole in the right front tire. He removed the spare tire from the trunk and jacked up the car.

It was 4 p.m. July 7. Traffic backed up. Nguyen and his car were on the shoulder of the treacherous ramp. No shade. Temperature in the 90s.

And the spare wouldn’t align with the bolts on his wheel. Although the mechanic had once used the spare for a flat rear tire, this time he couldn’t make it fit.

He was frustrated — and thirsty. He called 911. “I need some water,” he said. A dispatcher promised help.

A half-hour later, two police cars arrived. An officer tried to change the tire. “It’s not the right one,” he agreed. Police called for a tow.

A fire truck arrived, answering a call about a dehydrated man stuck on the ramp. A firefighter gave him water.

Then an ambulance arrived. Nguyen was shaky. A paramedic gave him more water.

It was now rush hour. Traffic backed up for as far as Nguyen could see. Two police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance didn’t help the traffic problem.

“I’m real mad,” he said. “I stay in the car and turn on the air conditioning. Because I have water, I feel better. And I wait for the tow truck.”

At 6:30 p.m., after 21/2 hours, a tow truck arrived. By the time the truck towed his car to the repair shop, it was closed. The car was towed to his home.

Nguyen next called Toyota’s U.S. headquarters in California. He was told to call his area dealership. Nguyen visited Freeman Toyota. His invoice states, “Spare tire is a size 15 and vehicle recommendation [is] for a size 16.” Freeman sent him to Vandergriff Toyota, where Nguyen bought the car four years ago, used, with 4,000 miles.

Under most state laws, used cars are sold “as is” unless the seller offers an added return policy or warranty. In this case, after four years, Vandergriff Toyota is under no obligation to do anything for Nguyen.

Still, Vandergriff gave him a new spare for free.

Vandergriff customer relations manager Radonna Gritten says the reason is that the dealership wants used-car buyers “to be just as happy” as new-car buyers.

“I have apologized to Mr. Nguyen, but he’s very adamant,” she said.

Nguyen is asking Vandergriff to also pay his $200 towing bill and $35 rental-car charge. He hasn’t received an answer.

Gritten gave it to me: “The fact that this was four years later threw me off. I do realize he is requesting we pay his tow bill. From what I understand, we’re not going to do that.”

What happened here? My guess is that before the used car was sold, someone put the wrong-size spare in the trunk and at least one improper-size wheel on the car. A Camry uses 16-inch tires. But a 15-inch spare worked on one of his wheels and not on another.

Because he used the spare once, he assumed the spare would work for all four tires.

“Most of the time, your spare tire fits all four,” Gritten said.

For Nguyen, the dominoes keep falling. To replace the one bad tire, because of uneven wear on the others, “I had to buy all four new tires.” Another $535.

This story reminds us to challenge our assumptions. We assume the spare tire will fit. The jack will work. We figure the fire extinguisher in the kitchen will spray and the backup valve on the water heater will hold. Our assumptions sometimes get us in trouble.

“Check the spare before you go on vacation,” Nguyen said. “Make sure you have the right one. You never know what’s going to happen on the freeway or wherever.”

Yes, that life is worth living is a grand assumption. But false assumptions can make you feel the other way.

Watchdog Nation advises: Now is NOT the time to assume anything anymore from anybody.

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Only when it isn’t.

Meet Dan St. Clair, who is one little piece in the puzzle that is the part of Fort Worth government that doesn’t seem to be working for a lot of people. He asked for public information 16 months ago. He never got it. The city admits it mishandled his request. It wasn’t until this week, with prodding from The Watchdog, that the city even told him that what he wanted is no longer available. (The reason it’s not available is something we’ll discover — and you may not like it.)

Recently, my colleague, Star-Telegram reporter Gene Trainor, reported that Fort Worth is one of the toughest cities from which to retrieve public records. It filed more requests for attorney general rulings than other cities its size. Critics call that a delaying tactic. “I can go to Euless and request the same information; they turn it over. Fort Worth — no,” a defense attorney told Trainor.

St. Clair is quick to agree. The 38-year-old retired Air Force captain has gung-ho ideas about what it means when you say government of the people, by the people, for the people. For the last three years, he has worked as a Fort Worth police officer. And in a move that seems to be from a TV detective show, he began investigating the behavior of a police sergeant who he fears may have railroaded a colleague off the force unfairly.

It takes guts to request records from your own employer. Here, in words worthy of the Fourth of July, is St. Clair’s reason:

“I don’t see it as a fight with the entire department. I see it as a fight with what I’ve seen is a very corrupt element of the department. If I’m trying to uphold the law and the lawyers for us are blatantly breaking the law, to me, there’s no place for that.

“When I was in the military, I didn’t let things like that slide. If someone was doing something wrong, I did what I could to take care of it. I want to take ownership of the job I have, which I believe is a public service. If I see something like this, I have to do something.”

In February 2009, St. Clair asked for e-mails and other computer terminal messages sent by a police sergeant while she was on duty. He believes that the sergeant sent messages stating her intention to remove the other officer from the force.

After St. Clair filed his request, the city missed deadlines for informing him about the status of the records. After agreeing to pay $71 for the records, he didn’t hear from the city for seven months.

The city told him that parts of the records had to be edited to delete confidential information. Eventually, he received three sets of squad car messages, the kind police send from computers in their cars, but they were almost all police-related checks of license plates and other data. There were few personal e-mails.

St. Clair knows that there were many more because he received some of them originally, he says.

Now the matter is before the Texas attorney general. The city acknowledges the screw-up. Assistant City Attorney Patrick Phillips wrote to the attorney general last week that “the city acknowledges that it has failed to comply with the time periods prescribed … in seeking a ruling from your office and recognizes that this failure results in the presumption that the information is public.”

But.

But the city has another argument to make. Phillips told me the city doesn’t have the information anymore. Why? E-mails and squad car messages are kept on the city’s computer servers for “not that long.”

Once e-mails are deleted from the system and removed from the servers, “we are not required to go to backup systems and backup tapes. … The attorney general’s office considers anything on a backup tape, that it’s no longer public information. … That’s a distinction made at the attorney general’s office, and we’re bound to follow.”

He may be right. In two open-records rulings for other government bodies, released in April, the attorney general’s office says that because e-mails are sometimes deleted from computers, “the data may be overwritten and permanently removed.”

To use backup tapes to retrieve old information, the attorney general’s office says, “the city would be required to restore data from the city’s back-up tapes onto a separate server. … Therefore, we find that any of the requested information that existed only in back-up tapes at the time of the request was no longer being ‘maintained’ by the city at the time of the request, and is not public information subject to disclosure.”

Read the two April 2010 opinions here and here.

Ouch. The Watchdog doesn’t like that. Did the city miss deadlines so that the information would be gone? The Library of Congress can accept an archive of every public tweet on Twitter since 2006, so electronic storage of records by governments should not be a problem.

St. Clair wants copies of messages that he believes he is entitled to have. He will apparently never see them, but until now, nobody bothered to tell him why.

“It’s not our ideal,” Phillips said. “We know the process is ugly. … We would like it to be better.”

Happy Fourth.

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Jessie Washington, 87, wearing a shirt from her grandson that says “I love Grandma,” stands in her manicured front yard next to her “keep off the grass” sign, hands on hips, looking angry. She has a message for the city of Fort Worth.

“Tell ‘em I don’t like them.”

Jessie Washington, 87

For more than a half a century, she has lived in her Lake Como neighborhood home. The last seven years, since the house next door became empty, have been terrible, she said.

“I wake up mad when I look over here.”

The house is covered front and back, ground to rooftop, with overgrown vegetation. A side fence has collapsed. Two trash bins sit in the alley, filled to the brim with dirty water and decrepit junk. Barrels lie on their sides in the back yard, near a half-built wooden shed that is falling apart.

“If this place ever catches fire, there’s nothing to do but run. They couldn’t put it out even if the firetruck was parked outside.”

She has complained to city officials, by phone and in person, on and off for years, she says. “Anytime I see them anywhere, I stop and tell them.”

Finally, fed up and plum out of ideas, she wrote to The Watchdog. I visited this week and made a video of her giving me a tour and begging for help. I put the video on YouTube and sent the Web link to Code Compliance Director Brandon Bennett. I also sent him photos of the disgusting trash bins, too.

Bennett jumped on the problem. The video and photos, he told me, were the evidence he needs to get a warrant giving his staff permission to march onto the property and take action. Code officers aren’t allowed to enter private property without owner permission, but this owner isn’t around.

City-hired mowers are allowed to enter a property every so often, and in this case, they do. But the listed owner doesn’t pay the bills.

“This is one of the ones that are falling through the cracks,” Bennett told me. “We have too many of these. They are killing us.”

Substandard housing is a threat to most large U.S. cities. As the economy suffers, it gets worse.

“These patterns develop,” Bennett said. “It just brings down the rest of the neighborhood. It starts with one house, and pretty soon it’s the whole block.”

With his department’s budget cut 20 percent, he said, “We have to prioritize calls for service.”

Used to be the city ordered mowers to cut neglected grass and weeds when they reached 12 inches. Now it’s 18 inches. Used to be the city hired mowers every 21 days. Now it’s 45.

“We just don’t have the funding to pay for them,” he said.

I tried to contact the listed owner of the house but couldn’t find her.

Nine liens on the property for mowing and administrative fees total $2,300, city records show.

The listed owner has also fallen behind on city property taxes for three years, totaling $2,500.

Eight resident complaints for tall grass and high weeds have been listed against the property since 2006. Before that, there were complaints for trash, debris, storage and junked vehicles.

It’s an eyesore every way you look. But there’s hope for Washington. This week, the city launched what it calls its “nuisance abatement process” — legal talk for “get rid of the junk.”

The debris, barrels, fence, a dead tree near a power line and the wretched bins should all be removed by July 20, the city says.

There’s also hope for others in the same situation.

A state law that went into effect Jan. 1 (House Bill 3065) allows counties with a population greater than 1.5 million to adopt ordinances requiring registration of vacant buildings. That process allows a city to take drastic action on abandoned properties, too.

But there is a kink. Even though Fort Worth officials began working on such an ordinance, the process was halted temporarily because Tarrant County didn’t have enough residents to qualify.

New census numbers expected to become official in April will show that Tarrant County’s population has grown.

What does this mean? A new city ordinance will give officials greater control to stop the pattern of block erosion.

Jessie Washington has a wait-and-see attitude.

“I know they let me down,” she said. “They ignored me. That’s what they did.”

No longer.

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For code violations, call Fort Worth at 817-392-1234.

House Bill 3065 gives counties greater powers to deal with abandoned properties. City officials hope to:

- limit the time a structure can be boarded.

- require owner registration, a compliance plan and a fee if a property is not fixed.

- define minimum boarding and securing standards.

- force owners to submit an action plan.

- force demolition of vacant properties that have no historic or rehab potential.

- force owners to keep properties free from code violations, overgrown vegetation and nuisances.

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Advisers are about to be reigned in somewhat with the new consumer financial protection bill weaving through Congress. One provision requires full disclosure of broker fees, commissions and other charges levied on investors. In the past, some folks thought if they invested $50,000 they actually invested $50,000. Read about one such case here.

Here’s another example of duplicity that ensnared investors: A Concord, New Hampshire company, Lincoln Financial Securities Corp., sold the contents of an investment book written by another company’s chief executive officer. According to the Texas State Securities Board, six different agents of Lincoln, all based in Texas, put their names on the cover as co-authors with Mark Matson, the actual author. They used the book to attract clients and establish their own credibility.

However, the six agents didn’t write the book. They just wrote a preface to it.

Title of the book?

The Dirty, Filthy Lies My Broker Taught Me and 101 Truths About Money & Investing.

Ironic, eh?

The book cover in question, provided by the Texas State Securities Board, which blocked out one "author's" name and photo.

After the Texas securities board inquired, David Booth, president of Lincoln Financial, told the Texas agents to stop using the book.

On June 15, 2010, Texas regulators entered a disciplinary order that fined Lincoln Financial $40,000 and reprimanded the firm. Read the order here.

What will they think of next?

If you hear of investment folks using deceptive practices to entice clients, write to Dave Lieber, founder of Watchdog Nation, at watchdog@star-telegram.com.

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber