Consumers who owe money or are behind on their bills may be legitimately contacted by debt collectors to pay off debts. The BBB warns consumers, however, that phony debt collectors are lurking. Recently, collection agencies ranked 5th in number of complaints received. With over 15,000 complaints, consumers need to be aware of the best practices for when it comes to handling debt collectors.

How to deal with debt collectors, both real and phony. 

In the past few weeks, the BBB has worked with Action Reporter, Bill Capo of WWL-TV to help get the word out about two long-time scams that have recently resurfaced locally.  

Click the links below for the videos of the new stories on WWL-TV's website.  

The first report aired on 4/1/2011, and involved a local woman who was scammed out of $16,000 over several instances by an age-old Nigerian letter with a romantic twist.   

The second report aired on 4/6/2011, and was about a local elderly woman who was first scammed out of money by a phony foreign lottery, and was then scammed by a work-at-home scheme.

The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to be wary of free trial offers for e-cigarettes. It sounds like an unusual product to buy, however, over the past twelve months, BBB has received hundreds of complaints from consumers across the country who thought they were getting a free trial, but ended up losing often hundreds of dollars in recurring credit or debit card charges.

"Not-so-free" offers and the questions to ask to avoid them. 

The Better Business Bureau serving Southeast Louisiana offers all BBB Accredited Businesses the opportunity to promote their Accredited Business status with the BBB Accredited Business logo. We have available for use, BBB double-sided vinyl decals for use on glass doors, windows, service trucks, etc. and we also have stand-up paper tent cards suitable for desks, check out counters, or other office applications.

Please contact Sandy Maslansky at: sandy@neworleans.bbb.org to obtain these for use at your BBB Accredited Business.