Bottom Feeders, Swindlers and Lying Cheaters: The Rip Off Report- Beating Down Northern Kentucky Scams
My dad is the king of righting the wrong and the champion of the underdog, especially when he thinks he’s been ripped off or somehow treated unfairly. He’s always told me to stand up for my rights, fight for what I believe in and not to give up if they tell me no- somewhere, someone is waiting to hear me tell my story.
I inherited the fight for what you believe in gene. I have a list of (franchised) restaurants where I won’t eat because they have discriminatory hiring practices. I don’t shop at certain grocery stores because they’re non-union. And like my dad, I’m on a first-name basis with many folks in my local Attorney General’s office.
Case in point: I worked downtown years ago and parked my black VW Scirocco (yeah, I know, it was a hot car) under the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge every day. When they started painting the bridge, we were told it wouldn’t be a problem, and anyway, they’d let us know before they started on the Ohio end, so we could move our cars out of harm's way. Not so much, I discovered, when I walked outside one day to find my baby covered with a fine mist of white paint.
Others that parked in my row took small payouts from the construction company that painted the bridge to have their cars repainted. I opted to take the construction company to court. Where I represented myself. And won. This may have been my dad’s proudest moment.
The Rip-Off Report provides a community-based list of scams, rip offs and companies to avoid in general. Search on Ohio or Kentucky to read several new rip off reports posted about local companies this year.
Take the information you read on the Rip Off Report with a grain of a salt. It’s not terribly regulated and clearly, sometimes the reports are based on some sort of personal problem between the parties involved.
The Better Business Bureau, scam.com and the Federal Citizen Information Center have additional information about ways you can avoid getting scammed.
From the FTC: The 2006 Top Fraud complaint categories for the Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area:
Rank - Fraud Categories - Complaints - Percentage
- Shop-at-Home/Catalog Sales 316 11.0 %
- Internet Services and Computer Complaints 282 9.8 %
- Prizes/Sweepstakes and Lotteries 271 9.4 %
- Internet Auctions 222 7.7 %
- Foreign Money Offers 108 3.8 %
Total: 2,872
Comments