Consumer protection has always been a special domain for numerous agencies and non-profit organisations. These organisations and agencies provide consumers with legal and information support, as they are building their relationships with sellers and suppliers. However, any violations of consumer laws and rights can easily result in criminal charges. This is why a police department can and should be actively involved in consumer protection.
The police department often receives consumer complaints, and many of these complaints are valid and demand thorough criminal investigation.
It would be fair to say that the police department is in a better position to investigate such cases than consumer protection agencies and non-profit organisations providing legal support. At times, the boundary between administrative and criminal law violations is extremely blurred, and only a law enforcement professional can help determine the scope of the issue, its gravity, consequences and potential solutions.
One of the most common consumer protection cases involving police is that of identity theft. At times, consumers make purchases from unreliable suppliers, who use their credit card information for fraudulent purposes. In this situation, filing a complaint to the local police department is the first step to resolving this criminal issue. The police will have to examine the customer’s credit card report and identify fraudulent inaccuracies and the criminal’s identity (herself).
Very often, consumers receive fraudulent messages about awards and lottery prizes, especially by phone. At the same time, they are asked to make a purchase or donation, in order to get their prize. This is a sophisticated scheme of fraud, which crosses the boundary of administrative and consumer protection law. Apparently, only the police department can help protect the rights of the consumers, who have been defrauded of their possessions in this way.
The police department may also get involved in cases, when trade solicitations become a huge pressure for the potential customer. A reputable business owner will never insist that the customer makes an instant purchase decision. In case of threats, the local police department will react immediately, because consumer rights are violated, and the consumer’s life and health may be put under risk. Certainly, if consumer rights violations lead to injuries or death, they become a matter of the local police’s concern.
For instance, some police departments assume a responsibility for checking and monitoring non-licensed chimney contractors. Overall, any consumer rights violations, trade violations and deceptive practices, false pricing and advertising, as well as consumer frauds that contain the signs of crime are to be investigated by the local police department. This is also the case of consumer extortion.
Consumer extortion has become quite common, and thousands of customers suffer from the loss of their property as a result of deceptive business practices.
More often than not, it is the local police department that receives extortion complaints from consumers. The local police department can get involved in an extortion case, when it has the features of a crime, including felony. Recently, many moving companies have fallen into an extortion disgrace, and some business owners were even arrested for extortion and unauthorised used of the movable.
Unfortunately, many cases of consumer rights violations end up as a civil matter; for this reason, business owners are not afraid of extorting their customers for a certain sum of money. Simultaneously, for an attorney and police professionals who know their job, detecting the signs of crime in consumer extortion is not difficult, and the police department can interpret such actions as felony.