| Volume 131 Number 3 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
As more and more consumers are shopping with mobile apps, fraudsters are following the money. There are fake phone apps popping up that impersonate well-known retailers in order to steal your personal information. Their names are similar to well-known brands, and their descriptions promise enticing deals or features. But these fraudulent apps can take your credit card or bank information. The below link has information from the FTC. Click here for more.
Macy's and Sears to Shut Down Stores
Although the holiday season usually brings more shoppers to retail stores, two historic department stores are cutting jobs and closing stores. Macy's lowered its earnings outlook for 2017 and said its getting rid of 10,000 jobs, or 6% of it workforce, this year. The company also plans to shut 68 stores. Sears also said it plans to close an additional 150 stores as it looks to improve performance after holiday sales were down 12%. Click here for more.
Your Money
Small banks are not much better than big banks when it comes to overdraft fees they charge customers. That is the finding of a report published on Tuesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts that studied information from 45 smaller banks from across the country. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advises that consumers not use the overdraft coverage offered by banks for debit-card purchases and ATM withdrawals. By law, customers must “opt in” to get such coverage. You may want to call your bank to confirm that you are not mistakenly signed up for the coverage and turn it off if you don’t want it. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Spokeo requires more than technical violation of Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA). The Seventh Circuit narrowed standing to bring lawsuits under FACTA, holding that plaintiff’s allegation that defendant failed to truncate credit card expiration dates properly on its receipts in violation of FACTA was, on its own, insufficient to establish Article III standing. Plaintiff’s allegation of a statutory violation without alleging how that violation injured him failed to establish the concrete injury or harm required by Spokeo v. Robbins. Myers v. Nicolet Rest. of de Pere, LLC (7th Cir. 2016), Click here for more.