Have you been cheated, scammed, or otherwise disappointed by a company? WalletPop wants your real life stories about consumer scams and complaints.

Email us with your story.... Did you receive horrible customer service? Did you pay for a product or service that you didn't receive? Did a company refuse to honor a warranty? Were you scammed out of money?

What we want to hear the facts of your firsthand experience. If we're interested in your story, we may email you to clarify some of the facts or to request your documentation. Don't be offended if we ask you for more information... we just want to make sure that we get the story right. And while we won't necessarily be able to fully investigate your claims or get your money back, we'll at least be able to hold companies accountable for their behavior. And hopefully, they'll even respond with some action to right their wrongs

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

A fortune in product feedback is squandered in Wal-Mart every day. I'm talking about you, the quick impressions you have of items as you walk through: wrong color, too expensive, those are the ugliest clogs I've ever seen.

Mimieo, a new consumer information startup, is designing a system to provide savvy companies a clever way to gather that feedback. New cell phone technology will allow you, while still standing in front of a sweater in the store, to express your reaction to the manufacturer. If you love the cut of your new leather jacket, text your pleasure. If the movie you just watched sucked, or didn't suck but had a confusing scene, you can let the producer know. If you bit down on a piece of bone in your hamburger, share your pain.

The tech has already been used to gauge reaction to this year's Super Bowl ads. Of course, not all companies will be down with such immediate feedback -- only the smart ones. The rest, those destined for the retail graveyard, will keep the barriers between themselves and their customers intact.

When a product disappoints you, do you reach for the phone, or even worse, write a freakin' letter? You're living in the future, dude, so act like it! If a product sucks, YouTube your rant about it.

YouTube and similar sites such as AOL Video are full of video complaints about product failure, usually extended plaintive ramblings about every nuance of shortcoming. Who, you might ask, watches this stuff? Is anything less interesting than a young lady's travails with a hair weave product? Actually, some of them are damn entertaining, as the video below will attest.

And the results might surprise you. Corporations, at least the savvy ones, keep an eye on viewer-posted video for consumer complaints, for two reasons. First, these most vocal customers can be just as vocal proponents of a brand if turned around by responsive customer service. Second, these complaints can be good business intelligence, an early warning of possible problems.

So the next time you have a consumer complaint for which you can't get a company response, don't just whine to your spouse; video it!

Did you get ripped off last year? You're not alone, especially if you were a victim of identity theft. The Federal Trade Commission recently released its list of Top Consumer Fraud Complaints for 2007. And it says that for the seventh year in a row, identity theft is by far the top consumer complaint.

The agency received more than 800,000 complaints from consumers last year, and more than 250,000 of them were related to identity theft. The most common crime committed in conjunction with the identity theft was credit card fraud (23% of identity theft complaints), followed by utilities fraud (18% of identity theft complaints).

Also included on the list of complaints were shop-at-home sales, internet services, foreign money offers, lottery scams, computer equipment/software, and internet auctions. It's amazing the number of consumers who fall for scams that seem obvious to others. Just remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you're contemplating a transaction that has you a little uneasy, please research the company or person you're considering doing business with. That research can go a long way toward reducing your chances of becoming one of these 800,000 victims.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

If you've been scammed or cheated by a company, we want to hear your story. WalletPop is going to be doing a regular feature on consumer scams and complaints, and we need your real life stories.

What we want:

• Email us with your consumer horror story. Did you pay for a product or service you didn't receive? Were you scammed out of money? Did a company fail to honor a warranty or other promise?
• Include documentation with your complaint. If you have emails, advertisements, contracts, or other documents that back up your story, we want them.
• Who have you been corresponding with? We want their names and contact information so that we can give them a chance to respond.