Investigation Resources, Consumer Complaint Sites, etc.

[Bob Hubbard]

This thread will be used for MT Staff to post resources for our members to investigate and report matters of concern such as fraud, dishonesty and crime.

Links here are provided for your use. MartialTalk makes no guarantee of suitability. Use at your own discretion.

 

[jks9199]

Crime Reporting Resources:

This is far from an exhaustive list of resources and places to report criminal activity, and I'm not trying to address local or state contacts as there are simply too many of them.

FBI Tips Website:
https://tips.fbi.gov/

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Please use this website to report suspected terrorism or criminal activity. Your information will be reviewed promptly by an FBI special agent or a professional staff member. Due to the high volume of information that we receive, we are unable to reply to every submission; however, we appreciate the information that you have provided.[/SIZE][/FONT]

Internet Fraud Reporting:
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C),
and the Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA).

IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints
regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims
of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities
of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies
at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral
mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Urban Legends Reference

SNOPES: http://www.snopes.com/

Check here before forwarding those bulk emails about free money from Microsoft, or virus alerts you get in your email.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Consumer Complaint Sites

The Federal Trade Commission - https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer protection agency, collects complaints about companies, business practices, identity theft, and episodes of violence in the media.

Rip Off Report http://www.ripoffreport.com/

Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice?
Ripoff Report® is a worldwide consumer reporting Web site and publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file and document complaints about companies or individuals. While we encourage and even require authors to only file truthful reports, Ripoff Report does not guarantee that all reports are authentic or accurate. Be an educated consumer. Read what you can and make your decision based upon an examination of all available information.

Better Business Bureaus - http://www.bbb.org/

United States and Canada BBB Consumer and Business Reviews, Reports, Ratings, Complaints and Accredited Business Listings

Scam Busters - http://www.scambusters.org/

"Internet Scams, Identity Theft, and Urban Legends: Are You at Risk?"

National Consumers League's Fraud Center - http://www.fraud.org/

What does the Fraud Center do?
Our mission is to give consumers the information they need to avoid becoming victims of telemarketing and Internet fraud and to help them get their complaints to law enforcement agencies quickly and easily.

Consumer Fraud Reporting - http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org

What is Consumer Fraud Reporting?
Consumer Fraud Reporting is an free online service to warn consumers about specific types of financial and other scams via the internet and provide a means to report scams and fraud.In addition to thousands of actual examples of scam letters, emails, faxes and transcripts of phone conversations to help you identify a scam, we have many pages of concise lists of contact information, links, phone numbers and guidance to help you report the scam to the proper authorities, and to try to recover your loss.

Complaints.com
post and research consumer complaints

Scam Watch - http://www.scamwatch.com/
How to avoid internet and money making scams

consumeraffairs.com - http://www.consumeraffairs.com

ConsumerAffairs.com is an independent Web-based consumer news and resource center. We are not a government agency, not affiliated with any other consumer organization and not affiliated with any of the corporations whose products are reviewed on our site.

iRipoff.com.

This website is made to help customers resolve their consumer complaints / issues and prevent others from doing or making the same mistakes.

TheSqueakyWheel.com

Bad service? Crummy products? — TheSqueakyWheel.com gives individual consumers more power than ever before. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it works to make sure that complaints cannot be Ignored.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Martial Arts & Military Fraud Reports and Investigations

Bullshido - Bullshido.net

Bullshido.net is a martial arts-oriented website devoted to rooting out fraudulent practices in the field. In existence since 2002 Bullshido.net has earned media attention for at least one of its investigations. It somewhat styles itself after scientific skepticism organizations such as CSICOP, employing various means of investigation to test the claims of martial arts practitioners or their schools. It's forums are mostly unmoderated and unfiltered, and may not appeal to more sensitive readers.

Bullshido maintains a wiki with completed investigations at http://www.bullshido.org/Category:Investigations


P.O.W. NETWORK - http://www.pownetwork.org/
Maintains a list of phony veterans at http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm

The listed individuals have been reported as having made statements about being captured, captured but never reporting it, held in captivity, tortured, escaping captivity, being rescued or the unique report noted below. Based on the P.O.W. NETWORK's access to POW/MIA documentation, contact with former POWs, NAM-POWS Inc, American Ax-POWs, SEALS, Special Forces, MACVSOG, Vietnam Helicopter Pilots, Medal of Honor recipients and basing our work on the DPMO's list (PMSEA) -- NO documentation exists to back up their statements. In our FIFTEEN YEARS of working with the data - NOT ONE CASE has shown the PMSEA and the corroborating documents to be wrong. The names listed make up a combined list of individuals reported to the P.O.W. NETWORK. In some instances the individual was reported to one of the other above named organizations and sent to us for further investigation. For many, military records are IN HAND providing actual military service details that do NOT confirm alleged POW status.