I went in to a bank yesterday and asked about a home equity loan. The amount of personal information I was asked to divulge immediately, without any talk of what's on offer or how this information will be used, was staggering. I was asked to begin filling out a large form upon which I would release all of my personal financial information. I was asked separately for my name and phone number. I became part of an operation designed to remove money from me. The agents of this scheme were the nice women at the bank who make very little money. I left after 5 minutes.
Talking to people recently, they have told me stories of being called by their bank, by a telemarketer, offered a lower rate of some kind, offered something that will not cost them money, and then realizing later that this has caused some monthly fee to appear on a bill, some sort of diminution of personal worth had been effected, through means scientifically calculated to exist one millimeter shy of class-action lawsuit territory.
Similar near-fraud experiences are a facet of dealing with any large corporation. Cellular phone companies pull similar stunts, attempting to get customers to agree to things that they don't understand. At car rental places, forms are signed in front of representatives of the company who recite carefully crafted phrases designed to protect the parent company from lawsuits. These agents are aware that people are signing forms without reading them, but apparently this does not invalidate the contract.
Here is a proposal cooked up by myself and Greg Shakar: We need a client-side contract invalidation incantation. We need anti-fine-print. This incantation, to be recited at the conclusion of any meeting with the representative of a corporation, whether in person or on the telephone, should go something like this:
Customer Service Representative: Can I help you with anything else today?
Customer: Yes, I must now say something. By participating in this interaction with the representative of ________, Inc., I do not authorize the creation or enactment of any fees which have not been explicitly mentioned during the course of this interaction, either ongoing or one-time fees, nor do I sanction or give approval to any action on the part of ________, Inc. of which I have not been made explicitly aware in a statement of no more than 50 words. In no way shall my participation herein constitute a binding contract in any form, and I do not give permission for the information communicated herein to be used for any purpose at all.
avoiding corporate fraud-like activity is filed under politics (29) legal (2) free_markets (5) .