| Volume 143 Number 11 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Ready for tax season? If you’re not ready for tax identity thieves and IRS imposters, you might not be. But breathe easy. Today is the start of Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, and the FTC's got lots of easy ways to learn how to recognize scams and help protect yourself from fraud. Click here for more.
FBI warns consumers about new levels of e-skimming
If you’ve had your credit card compromised in the last year or two, you’re not alone. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says millions of consumers have fallen prey to electronic skimming. Having cut its teeth on hacks of British Airlines and Newegg, e-skimming uses software called Magecart which allows hacking teams to inject malicious code into ecommerce sites so they can run off with a consumer’s payment details. In some hacks, the 'Shopper Approved' ecommerce toolkit many ecommerce sites use was also compromised by Magecart. Click here for more.
Your Money
If you've recently gotten out of bankruptcy, refinancing your mortgage might seem out of the question. But you might not have to wait as long as you think to potentially lower your mortgage payments or snag a lower interest rate. Here's what you need to know about refinancing waiting periods. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
The CFPB's new abusiveness policy statement. Recently, the CFPB issued a Policy Statement on Abusive Acts or Practices. According to one commentator the Policy Statement is disappointing in several respect. The Policy Statement described several limits to how the Bureau plans to use its abusiveness power. The Bureau explained that it would challenge “conduct as abusive [only] if the Bureau concludes that the harms to consumers from the conduct outweigh its benefits to consumers.” In this respect, the Bureau’s interpretation of abusiveness implies the use of cost-benefit analysis. If I recall correctly, during the Bureau's symposium on abusiveness, Pat McCoy pointed out that Congress did not include such a cost-benefit test when it enacted the abusiveness power. Chris Peterson made the same point in a tweet. Congress plainly had cost-benefit analysis on its mind when it gave the Bureau the power to pursue abusive acts, because it included a cost-benefit test in the very section, § 5531, conferring upon the Bureau the ability to address abusive practices. That appears in the provisions giving the Bureau the power to act against unfair practices. § 5531(c)(1). Elsewhere in the statute, Congress directed the Bureau to consider costs and benefits when issuing rules. § 5512(b)(2). It thus seems fairly clear that Congress knew about cost benefit analysis and chose not to have it be a factor in enforcement and supervisory actions based on abusiveness. Accordingly, the Bureau's statement seems unjustifiable as a matter of statutory interpretation of the text and seems more rooted in its own policy views than what Congress wrote or intended. Click here for more.