Remember that cool blue hippo mascot for the company, appropriately named, BlueHippo? Whether you remember it or not, many people got burned. So, just how sleazy could a cool blue hippo get? Really, really, sleazy.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has had it with the company, which offers computers on layaway to those too poor to buy one outright. Buyers put up $99 to $124 in down payments, then make regular payments of $36 to $88. After 13 of these payments, the company says it will send out a computer, while the payments continue until the balance is paid off.

Unfortunately for the friendly folks at BlueHippo, the FTC smelled a scam. People were simply not getting machines, and BlueHippo’s “cancelation policy” required people to send in prepaid money orders first even if their account had enough money to cover the necessary fees–not allowed under FTC consumer protection rules. In 2008, BlueHippo settled with the agency. Under the terms of the deal, BlueHippo would pay up to $5 million into a “consumer restitution pool” to reimburse those who had been burned.

At the time, BlueHippo thought this was a great idea. “The FTC staff was fair and professional, and after months of hard work we have fashioned a deal that satisfies all parties,” said Andrew Campbell, General Counsel of BlueHippo, last year. “We are very excited about this settlement. The FTC is our only national regulator and the country’s most important consumer advocate. We’ve made tremendous progress growing our systems and programs since 2006 and we are very optimistic about our future.”

So, more than a year later, how did the plan turn out? Well, when the FTC files court documents in which it accuses a company of being a “money pit,” it’s safe to say that the government isn’t entirely pleased.
Inside the “money pit”

According to the FTC, the company’s brazen business model continued without interruption after the 2008 settlement. “In fact, in the year following entry of this Court’s Stipulated Final Judgment and Order for a Permanent Injunction, BlueHippo financed—at most—a single computer to the over 35,000 consumers who placed orders for computers that could be financed during the period,” the FTC told a court (PDF) yesterday. In the meantime, the company took in a cool $15 million in payments from consumers, who don’t appear to have received anything in return.

Here’s how bad the situation was: according to an FTC footnote buried in the agency’s new court filing, “the shipment of this [one] computer was most likely in error, rather than a computer that BlueHippo intended to finance.”
Would you buy a computer on layaway from this hippo?

In April 2009, the FTC went back to the court and complained about the continued problematic behavior, seeking further penalties. BlueHippo suddenly started shipping computers. It had moved one machine between April 2008 and April 2009, but after the court filing, it suddenly ordered 4,056 computers.

But this didn’t impress the FTC, either, which points out that 2,594 of the customers who received machines had not even met BlueHippo’s financing criteria. In other words, the glut of orders only showed that BlueHippo’s “haphazard, litigation-driven efforts were not truly reflective of their business practices, but rather an effort to stave off further law enforcement action.”

BlueHippo also failed to do basic things like file the FTC reports it had agreed to as part of the agency’s oversight. In April 2009, a federal judge ordered the company to pay $2,500 a day until the report was filed; it took the company five days, resulting in a $12,500 sanction. But the report didn’t please the judge, who took a look at it and then “imposed an additional daily sanction of $5,000 per day… for BlueHippo’s continued failure to provide responsive information to the FTC.” After another $20,000 in fines, BlueHippo finally turned over the detailed information in question.
Seeing red

The FTC has had it, and today went back to court asking a federal judge for a contempt order against BlueHippo.

“Years of broken promises by BlueHippo have left consumers seeing red,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a statement. “We’re putting companies like this on notice: If you mistreat consumers and thumb your nose at the courts, we will hold you accountable.”

Phishing scam is what crooks and hackers do to steal your personal information. Once they get all the information they need they can use it to steal your cash. Whenever there is a request for your personal data, whether online or not, should make you vigilant and set yourself that it can be someone trying to steal your personal identity!

By now, most of you may have already heard of phishing scams. This can happen not only online but also anytime outside so you should be on guard against it. But criminals today are very creative and imaginative in coming up of new ways to trick us and trying to con us out of our hard-earned money.

Scareware is one of methods that they have been using for quite some time now. It works by screen pop up when you are online showing you a warning message that your computer has been infected with a virus. Usually they make the box similar to Windows dialog box that you are used to so you wont get suspicious that it was a hoax.

They also include a site or a link where you can buy software that you can use the said virus or malware. But if you buy that software and run it in your computer, it will not solve the problem but install viruses and spyware on your computer. The malware installed in your system can fetch for important personal data such as credit card numbers, passwords and bank login information. Once the hacker has your credit card number he can use it and leave you with a pile of bills.

Usually those pop-up windows get into your computer when you may have unconsciously victimized by a phishing scam. Another way of getting it is when you visited a well-known and respected site that had been attacked before. There are malwares today that can be installed in your computer without any action from your part. This happens when you visit an affected site that caused a malicious program to be downloaded and installed on your system. There are many ways an attacker can use to infect your system that’s why it is important to know how to avoid being a victim of such attacks.

When you encounter a pop-up box warning you that you were infected with some kind of malware of virus remember not to close it using the red X button on the upper right of the box because some hackers have ingeniously initiate a malware to download on your computer when you close the dialog box that way. A simple press Ctrl + Alt + Delete will be able to close that box or by right-clicking the pop-up’s tab on the Task Bar which is located at the bottom of your screen then click Close. Another way to do it is to close your browser in the list of running programs then clicking End Task. You should also remember to disable pop-ups in your browser to prevent it from happening again.