In the past week I have received 5 text messages on my cell phone offering me quick and easy loans online. These text messages are completely unsolicited and I have never heard of the websites being advertised, let alone been to them. Worse still, every text message could potentially cost me money if they cause me to exceed the alloted number of text messages in my plan.

Spam text messages to cell phones are becoming more common, more annoying and more costly for consumers. At least one company responsible for flooding cell phones with unsolicited text messages is being sued for violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The state of Illinois has filed a federal lawsuit against C & C Global Enterprises, L.L.C., www.resortsellers.com and two individuals, the operators of www.webuyresorts.com and www.resortsellers.com. The company has also been sued by Cingular Wireless and the state of Georgia for spamming cell phones with messages offering to buy the recipient’s time share, even though many of them didn’t own time shares.

Cell phone users often view their cell phone as their one refuge from unwanted calls and telemarketers, yet 8 in 10 cell phone users have received an unsolicted text messages. The incidence of cell phone spamming is expected to increase.

Mobile network operators are still in the early stages of testing technological answers to the problem of preventing spam attacks on their customers. If you receive spam text messages, report it to your carrier.

No one likes paying taxes but some people will go to extreme lengths to avoid them, people like Ed Brown who has barricaded himself in his Plainfield, NH home after being convicted of tax evasion.

Brown is one of a large group of Americans who hold to the belief that income tax is unconstitutional and there is no law that requires citizens to file tax forms and pay taxes to the federal government.

Often cited by these anti-tax groups is their contention that the 16th amendment to the constitution was never properly ratified. Because not all the ratifying states used the exact same language or punctuation, the wording of the amendment ratified by most of the states differed from the original, with only four states ratifying the exact text proposed by Congress. Another argument made by some tax protesters is that because Congress did not pass an official proclamation recognizing Ohio’s year 1803 admission to statehood until 1953, Ohio was not a state until 1953 and therefore the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified. Both of these arguments have been repeatedly rejected by the courts.

But Ed Brown still firmly believes that the government collects taxes illegally and refuses to comply with IRS regulations or recognize their authority. Brown, a former militia man who quotes the state’s motto “Live Free or Die”, plans to wait it out at his home which is equipped with generators, internet access and stocked with food. His home is also stocked with armed supporters, ready for US marshalls to descend.

The Sixteenth Amendment:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Fox News

KQED: You Decide Federal Taxes

If you plan to file for deductions for state sales taxes, college tuition and classroom supplies you may have to wait. The 2006 IRS tax forms don’t have lines for those deductions.

The 109th Congress extended those deductions at the last minute but they were not in time to make it into the tax forms printed up by the IRS.

To claim these deductions, go to the IRS website for instructions. If you e-file, the IRS says the online forms should all be updated to include these deductions. However, the IRS doesn’t plan on processing forms claiming those deductions until after Feb 3, so there’s no rush to file yet.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against a scheme calling itself “America’s Premier Debt Consolidation Company” for violating the FTC Act and the FTC’s “Telemarketing Sales Rule”.

According to the complaint,the defendants have violated the FTC Act and the TSR by falsely claiming that they are a nonprofit entity; that the only cost for their services is a monthly administrative fee that is less than $49 and/or that there is no application fee; that their services will result in estimated savings of a specified amount, typically several thousand dollars; and that their services will reduce the consumer’s monthly payment or total debt, or will improve their credit rating. In fact, the complaint states, in addition to a monthly administrative fee, the defendants charge a fee equal to the monthly payment, which is collected from the consumer’s first payment; they overstate the estimated savings, if any; their services do not necessarily reduce the consumer’s monthly payment or total debt; and they do not provide any service to improve, or prevent deterioration of, a customer’s credit record, history, or rating.

The defendants used recorded messages delivered to answering machines stating “We are a nonprofit agency that can consolidate your credit cards, lower your monthly payments dramatically, and reduce your interest rates down to as low as 1.5 percent.”

The defendants also use mail and Web sites (www.expressconsolidation.org and www.expressconsolidation.com) to get consumers to contact them, the complaint alleges.

The defendants are attorney Randall L. Leshin, P.A., d/b/a Express Consolidation, Express Consolidation Inc., and Consumer Credit Consolidation Inc. and its president, Maureen A. Gaviola. The Commission vote to authorize staff to file the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.