Get your copy of our weekly print products at any of these convenient locations.
Rob Zaleski: Threats don't daunt state consumer crusader
Hazards of the trade, you might say.
Just a few years ago, Glen Loyd was standing outside a chain motel near East Towne, handing out informational fliers to people attending one of those notorious "get rich quick" seminars in the motel.
The fliers warned the attendees that the company conducting the seminar had a shady past, says Loyd, the public information officer for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection.
The next thing he knew, he says, the manager of the company was standing inches from his nose -- and, to put it mildly, was rather perturbed.
"He started grabbing the papers out of my hand and roughed me up a bit," the 68-year-old Loyd recalls with a laugh.
Loyd says he called police and later filed a complaint against the man.
"But nothing ever came of it," he says. "These guys were long gone by then."
As unsettling as the confrontation was, Loyd says he quickly shrugged it off as "part of the job" -- a job, by the way, that he still relishes and that he has no intention of relinquishing any time soon.
"I'm having too much fun," says Loyd, who spent 19 years as a consumer crusader for TV stations in Dallas and Green Bay before joining the state's consumer protection division in 1990.
During the course of his career, Loyd estimates, he and his co-workers have handled about 70,000 complaints -- the majority from people who felt helpless and said they had nowhere else to turn.
He says he's been sued six times, assaulted twice, and once had a rifle pointed at his chest while investigating the owner of a Green Bay kennel who'd been accused of stealing dogs and selling them for research.
That confrontation ended when Loyd simply turned and walked away.
"But I died a thousand deaths first," he cackles.
Loyd is so proud of his record that he has put together an online "consumer protection memoir" at www.fglenloyd.blogspot.com that chronicles many of the highlights of his career and even includes videos of some of the most heart-wrenching stories he covered as a newsman. But the chief reason people should check it out, Loyd suggests, is because it offers valuable tips that will prevent them from becoming victims of consumer fraud.
And that advice, Loyd maintains, has never been more important than it is today, what with tens of thousands of criminals "watching our every move" on the Internet.
"Thanks to the Internet, it's open season on American consumers and businesses," Loyd says. And because a large percentage of the con artists are from Great Britain, Canada, Nigeria and other foreign countries, it's virtually impossible to track them down and bring them to justice, he says.
Loyd says consumers should be especially on the alert for the "fake check scam," which he says has reached epidemic proportions in recent years.
Though there are many variations, one of the most common scenarios is one in which you receive a check in the mail from a company that says it recently discovered it owes you a large sum of money. You are advised to deposit the check -- which is described as a "down payment" and looks "very authentic" Loyd says -- in your bank account as soon as possible.
Once that's done, the company will ask you to send money from your account -- or to wire it via Western Union -- to cover insurance, handling and other fees, which can be hundreds and even thousands of dollars. A week or so later, your bank will inform you that the check you deposited was bogus -- and that you've been swindled.
"I'm telling you, people are falling for this right here in Madison," Loyd says. "I mean, consumers are being taken, banks are being taken. So if a stranger sends you a check, for whatever reason, a red flag should go up. Immediately."
Of course, check scams are hardly the only thing consumers need worry about these days, Loyd says.
Identity fraud is rampant -- which is why, among other things, people need to shred any preapproved credit cards that arrive in the mail. Don't just toss them in the trash, he says, because there are thieves who actually go "dumpster diving" looking for things like that. And they'll fill out the information and start using the cards as soon as they can.
(If you call 1-800-422-7128, consumer protection will send you contact information that will enable you to stop all preapproved credit offers, Loyd says.)
And Loyd says people are still falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book: the "free" vacation to a resort in Florida or some other warm locale, where you will be pressured into buying a timeshare the moment your feet touch the ground.
In fairness, some people are perfectly content with their timeshares, Loyd says.
But there are countless others who aren't. And many of those people are shocked to find out just a year or two after purchasing a timeshare that it's very difficult to sell them.
"In some cases, the timeshare companies won't even take them back," Loyd says. "Their attitude is, 'You bought it, you keep it.' And then you're stuck having to pay all those fees every year."
That's why, Loyd says, timeshare companies that operate in Wisconsin are prohibited from selling timeshares as an investment. "Because generally, after you buy them they go down in value."
Loyd acknowledges that consumer fraud is so widespread that many people just accept it as a sad fact of life and don't even bother to file a complaint. But he rejects the notion that consumer protection's 16-member staff hasn't been as aggressive in investigating complaints since -- at the urging of then-Gov. Tommy Thompson -- it was moved from the Justice Department to the Agriculture Department in 1995.
"It would be a mistake to think that way, because last year consumer protection got back $15 million for Wisconsin consumers," Loyd points out.
"That's a lot of money. And I'm proud to be an agent in that."
