A recent federal judge's ruling says that LifeLock is breaking California law when it puts credit alerts on consumer files at credit reporting agencies.

The lawsuit was brought last year by credit reporting agency Experian, which alleged that LifeLock was abusing the fraud alert system to make money off its customers.

Fraud alerts came on the scene in 2003, when a new law allowed consumers to put alerts on their credit files if they believe they have been a victim of identity theft or are at serious risk of becoming a victim of identity theft. The fraud alert means that creditors are supposed to contact you directly before opening a new line of credit in your name.

In reality, that doesn't always happen. Creditors may see a fraud alert on your report, but not take any steps to verify that it's really you trying to obtain credit. The law says they should try to phone you at the telephone number on your credit file, but beyond that, there's no guidance and apparently little recourse if the creditor doesn't follow through. For this reason, I caution consumers against putting much faith in the fraud alerts to begin with.

This story will come as no surprise to many WalletPop readers. Banks are raising interest rates across the board and it's upsetting consumers. If you've had some trouble with your finances, you're probably expecting your credit card company to penalize you in some way.

But if you've been paying your bills on time and have a strong credit score, the rising interest rates on credit cards seem unfair. We're talking double digit rate increases for many credit card users. The banks say it's simple: They have too much money at risk and they need to generate some profits. This is a surefire way to do it.

But how many times must consumers bail out the banks? As taxpayers, we're on the hook for the bill for all the bailout madness. It seems like we've already made our involuntary contribution to the banks. Why should we be hit again with rate increases?

Today's the big day, for those of you wanting to file their taxes on time, and there are plenty of people sprinting toward that finish line. There are also plenty of procrastinators.

Based on the numbers collected by TurboTax when its users file their taxes online, Intuit has compiled a list of the cities with the most tax procrastinators. And from the looks of it, most of those in the top ten are repeat performers, making their inclusion in this list next year almost a sure thing.

Here are the top ten procrastinating cites when it comes to filing taxes:

If General Motors is going bankrupt, why are we still pumping taxpayer money into it? Beats me, but now the word is that GM is well on its way to bankruptcy and the government (that's us, taxpayers) will have to kick in $77 billion to help that bankruptcy go smoothly.

Here's how it supposedly will work: GM will file bankruptcy around June 1. The type of bankruptcy it will file won't mean that GM will be out of business. Rather, it will restructure (hopefully with a business model that is actually sustainable). In addition to the $13.4 billion GM has already gotten from the taxpayers, another $77 billion would be added to the tab.

The latest news in the case of the alleged $8 billion Ponzi shceme perpetrated by Allen Stanford is that... he says he didn't do it. Now isn't that clever and unexpected? In an interview with ABC News, Stanford apparently said he didn't really run a Ponzi scheme, and he'd "die and go to hell" if his business was a Ponzi scheme.

Well all right then. That's all I needed to hear. Move along. Nothing to see here.

If only it were that simple. And if only those who invested money with Stanford were going to have such an easy time getting their money back. I say we let Stanford prove that he didn't run a Ponzi scheme. Just go ahead and refund everyone's money to them. If it's not a Ponzi, surely there are funds available?

Stanford says there are funds, but that government agencies have frozen account and other assets in order to hopefully collect for investors. It will be interesting to see how much is really available from those frozen assets. And I'd be thrilled if there really was enough money out there to make investors whole. Somehow, I doubt it.

Today the largest increase in the federal tobacco tax of all time is going into effect -- what used to be 39 cents per pack will now be $1.01 per pack. It won't exactly pay the tab of the stimulus package, but it's probably the most palatable to the average Joe.



Typically the easiest way to get a consumer to be in favor of a tax increase is by convincing her or him that someone else will pay it. No one personally wants to pay more in taxes, but if someone else is paying, who really cares? It's even easier to get a consumer to endorse a tax if those paying the tax are made out to be evil villains.

Naughty rich people are often the targets of tax increases. It doesn't matter that they pay an enormously high proportion of the taxes in this country (yes, more than their fair share), they can "afford" more so let's stick it to them.

Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president in American International Group's financial products unit sent a pointed resignation letter to Edward Liddy, the head of the company. That letter was published yesterday in the New York Times and provides an interesting perspective on the bonus and bailout situations.

Specifically, DeSantis criticizes Liddy for throwing him and other bonus recipients under the bus following taxpayer outrage at the bonuses paid by AIG. The unit DeSantis was over didn't cause the major financial troubles of AIG. Yet those employees still had to pay the price for the reckless acts of other units within AIG.

During the turmoil, AIG promised employees like DeSantis that they would receive their bonuses defined in contracts previously signed. Many of the employees did make concessions throughout the drama, such as DeSantis, who worked for an annual salary of $1. Yes, $1. And after putting in his time to help AIG come out of this mess, DeSantis and others received their bonuses but have now been asked to return them.

Madoff bankruptcy trustee David Sheehan says he's found more than $1 billion around the world that will hopefully be available to investors scammed by Bernie Madoff. Sheehan is on the hunt to find as much money as possible, and I doubt that Bernie Madoff is inclined to give hints about the secret hiding places.

With Madoff victims around the world, there is already fighting over who should take control of the money and other assets. A billion dollars is a lot of money, but unfortunately, it's only fraction of what victims have lost and really won't go very far toward making them whole.

This case continues to shock me, even when I think I've had enough of it. It's shocking that Madoff was allowed to continue living in his $7 million Manhattan apartment instead of in jail. It is appalling that his wife was busy trying to hide money as all this was unfolding.

I'm at the point where I don't think there should be any mercy for Madoff or his wife. They lived the high life on stolen money, and they both should pay for their sins. There are people who have lost everything they own thanks to the Madoff family, and the price must be paid.

Regulators are going crazy over Ponzi schemes. One regulatory agency has reportedly found 19 Ponzi schemes so far this year, and says that hundreds of reported investment schemes are currently being investigated across America.

Why are all these schemes coming to light? It probably has less to do with the media coverage of Bernie Madoff's scheme, and more to do with the economy. The tough financial climate has caused a lot of people to want to cash out their investments. Cashing out is difficult to do in a Ponzi scheme because the heart of this type of scam is a constant influx of cash. When investors try to cash out (especially if many of them want to do it at once) a Ponzi scheme is likely to be uncovered.

I've always believed that Google is your friend, and it is especially friendly when it's telling you that 19,000 credit card numbers are freely available on the internet. That's what happened to someone in Australia, who received a strange-looking Google Alert.

The alert was triggered by a name that was within a list of about 19,000 credit card numbers and personal information. When the person realized that thousands of credit card numbers were there for the taking on the world wide web, he tried to report it to Visa and Mastercard. Their response? None.

Again and again we hear stories of poor security leading to the compromise of thousands of credit card numbers, along with vital information. This data breach didn't just include credit card numbers, it also offered names, addresses, expiration dates, and the CVV numbers from the backs of the credit cards.