Consumer alert!

The FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is warning that those “hitman” e-mails are resurfacing again. That’s where you get an e-mail from someone saying they’ve been hired to whack you or a loved one, but nobody will get hurt as long as you cough up some cash or personal info.

More details are available by clicking here.

Gasoline prices are a little lower than in the past on the eve of the Labor Day holiday.
At stations in Monroe County, the price averaged $3.72, ranging from a low of $3.63 at the Marathon at W. Elm Ave. and N. Roessler St. in Monroe to $3.80 at the Shell station at N. Dixie Hwy. and I-75 in Frenchtown Township.
Especially at lower-priced stations, make sure you read the advertised price signs carefully. Some of the lowest prices are for cash-only purchases. Credit card purchases would be a bit higher.

Michigan fails to adequately protect consumers against two types of small-dollar, high-interest rate loans, according to a survey by a coalition of consumer groups.
One type is a short-term payday loan that carries a 375 percent interest rate. The results of the national survey and a state-by-state scorecard can be found here.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning parents not to use some “closed-sleeper” models of Simplicity bassinets after the recent strangulation death of a 5-month-old girl.
More details may be found here.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged a Florida firm with misleading advertising related to an envelope-stuffing scheme aimed primarily at Spanish-speaking consumers nationwide.
Home Business System, also known as Integrity Marketing, convinced consumers with newspaper ads and a Web site to pay up front fees for a work-at-home scheme that never generated cash.
Detaiis are here.

Michigan’s Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation said it has recovered more than $4.3 million on behalf of Michigan consumers in the first half of this year. About $3.6 million of the amount involved insurance and securities products and the remaining $738,000 involved mortgage and banking products. The recoveries were based on 3,425 complaints resolved by the agency during the six months.
Michigan consumers with financial or insurance-related complaints may call OFIR toll-free at (877) 999-6442.

DTE Energy today unveiled plans to install remotely read electricity and natural gas meters in homes throughout its service territory.
The new meters would provide more accurate meter reading and provide information about customer energy use and recognize power outages without customers having to report them, the utility said.
The system first will be tried in Grosse Ile Township with full deployment beginning in 2009, subject to successful test results.
The $350 million program will be implemented over the next six years and serve as a platform to eliminate manual meter reading, provide remote monitoring of the electric distribution system and enable customers to manage their bills by tracking their consumption and demand via the DTE Energy Web site.
Installation would spread on a community-by-community basis and every Edison electric meter in Southeast Michigan would be replaced with solid state meters having no rotating dials, and every MichCon gas meter would be modified with an AMI module. Customers would be notified when meter changes are scheduled in their communities.
Other benefits of the system include remote monitoring of the distribution network which will enable faster and more reliable power outage detection and restoration, near elimination of estimated bills, detection of low voltage problems, enhanced energy theft/meter tampering detection and the ability to reconnect and disconnect service remotely.
DTE Energy contracts for meter reading services, which will be phased out over the six-year installation period.

A consumer survey of satisfaction with clothes washers and dryers finds that LG gets the best reviews for washers and Samsung gets top marks for dryers.
A summary of the J.D. Power and Associates’ study can be found here.