Fraud Everywhere

Schemers

Product Rebates

I have an FBI friend who worked on a joint crime task force in Russia.  He told me that, while he found his Russky counterparts to be agreeable, competent people,  he hadn't met single honest Russian. Not one. He blamed 70 years of socialism for teaching them to survive their gummint by any means. I see that attitude beginning to prevail here.  In that light, this. “ Your Mail in Rebate May Be In Jeopardy If you use mail in rebates for virtually any product in North America, you will want to read up on this and start making sure your money is safe. ” Directed at manufacturers, this warning ultimately impacts you.  Say you buy a computer from Best Buy, basing your purchasing decision on a promised $200 MFG Rebate. “ We have been longstanding supporters of mail in rebates (MIR) in our industry and for the most part if you properly managed your personal rebate process, MIRs have been a fairly safe bet. All of that is about to change. Continental Promotions Group headquartered in Canada is one of the rebate industry’s largest and oldest players and has huge ties to computer hardware rebates. CPG is putting the screw to its customers to “repay” rebates that have already been funded. Hardly what we would call “Fulfilling the Promise of the Brand” as it is stated on its home page. ” Are you with me?  So far it looks like a simple case of corporate embezzlement. But, wait. “ Here is a simple overview of how a rebate with CPG works. Company X puts a rebate on its product, let’s say for $20. Company X expects to pay out 5000 of these rebates to consumers. Company X would then put the $100,000 needed to cover that rebate into CPG’s bank accounts. CPG basically escrows the money for consumers. CPG is trusted with this money in order to make sure the consumer is “safe.” We have it from good sources currently that CPG owes consumers somewhere in the neighborhood of $9M to $12M worth of rebates. The problem here is that CPG currently only has about $3M in cash to cover that $9M-$12M in rebates owed to the consumer. Where that money has gone to is anyone’s guess and we will leave speculation up the law enforcement authorities and the courts. Currently CPG is contacting its customers telling them that they will need to yet again deposit money into CPG accounts in order for CPG to have the cash to cover rebate checks to consumers. This is money that companies have already paid CPG previously. CPG is telling its customers that if they do not pony up AGAIN, consumer rebate check payments are in jeopardy. In our example above, CPG is not sure where the $100,000 is that Company X paid them, but we are sure that they want another $100,000 or CPG will start bouncing consumers’ MIR checks. ” So, we have a company evidently caught red-handed in a massive fraud.  Is their response to fire corporate officers, and open the books to investigators?  No.  Their response is taken directly from the script congress is using in the sub prime meltdown.  That is, brazenly demand from their already defrauded constituency more   cash to cover the embezzlement, or customers won't get entitlements. It's the commie way. It's what gummints do. H/T Marc Miller