St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 22, 2014 – Homeowners should be on the alert for businesses using high-pressure or deceptive sales tactics to sell air-duct-cleaning services in Missouri and Illinois, the Consumer Fraud Task Force warns. The Task Force is reporting an increase in the number of consumer complaints about duct-cleaning companies offering low-cost cleaning deals and then billing consumers hundreds or thousands of dollars more for questionable or unnecessary work. Several duct-cleaning operations have come to the attention of area law enforcement, business and consumer groups: Also, the Task Force says that consumers recently have notified BBB and law enforcement that they were called by air duct firms even though they were on a Do Not Call List. Other consumers said the companies claimed they had done duct and vent cleaning work at their homes previously when they had not. Still others said the companies offered them $40 or $50 cleaning services and then surprised them with bills for several hundred dollars or more.

A consumer from St. Louis recently said she believed she was a victim of a bait-and-switch tactic from an air duct firm. “This company kept calling to come out to check the ducts for $39.95” she said. “Before I knew it, the cost was up to $1,000.” The Task Force suggests that consumers contemplating duct-cleaning work contact a trusted heating and air conditioning company before proceeding. The Task Force notes that the United States Environmental Protection Agency says that, despite some claims to the contrary, “Duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems. Neither do studies conclusively demonstrate that (dust) levels in homes increase because of dirty air ducts.” The EPA says that a homeowner should consider cleaning if there is substantial visible mold growth inside your heating and cooling system, if ducts are infested with vermin, or if ducts are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and debris. Consumers also need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of applying chemicals to their systems.

A complete EPA report on duct cleaning can be accessed online at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airduct.html. The Task Force is a coalition of local, state and federal government agencies and nonprofit business and consumer groups in Missouri and Illinois that work together to protect consumer and donor rights and guard against fraud. The group previously has tackled predatory payday loan offers, tax scams, timeshare reselling fraud, credit repair and foreclosure scams, bogus sweepstakes, Internet sweetheart scams, home remodeling and a variety of other issues. To obtain information or to report a scam, you may contact members of the Task Force: Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois – (314) 645-3300; .Federal Trade Commission – (877) FTC-HELP (382-4357); www.ftc.gov.Illinois Attorney General – (800) 243-0618; www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov.Missouri Attorney General – (800) 392-8222; www.ago.mo.gov.U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Missouri – (314) 539-2200; 

www.usdoj.gov/usao/moe.U.S. Postal Inspection Service – (877) 876-2455; postalinspectors.uspis.gov.U.S. Secret Service – (314) 539-2238; www.secretservice.gov.Better Business Bureau in Greater Kansas City – (816) 421-7800;  BBB is a nonprofit, business-supported organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. air purifier with bladesAll BBB services to consumers are free of charge. do air purifiers work with moldBBB provides objective advice, free BBB Business Reviews on more than 5.3 million businesses, 11,000 Charity Reviews, dispute resolution services, alerts and educational information on topics affecting marketplace trust.  dual air cleaner motorcyclesWe're sorry you ended up here.

Sometimes a page gets moved or deleted, but hopefully we can help you find what you're looking for.Foreign telemarketing firms are “harassing” Canadians on the federal do-not-call list, and the CRTC is powerless to stop them, a CBC investigation has found. In an undercover investigation, Marketplace brought hidden cameras into a Karachi, Pakistan, call centre that sells air duct cleaning services to Canadian households. Undercover footage captured a supervisor telling employees to lie to customers, saying there is “no need to worry” about Canada’s do-not-call list (DNCL), which is meant to protect Canadians from unsolicited calls. As a result, some Canadians face constant pestering from the same companies and are feeling helpless. Marketplace spoke to several frustrated victims and has withheld their last names to protect their privacy and prevent further harassment from the aggressive telemarketers. They’re angry at the callers and the CRTC, which can’t do much to stop them.

“I feel as though I’m losing grip on reality, and losing control,” Heather said. “You say, ‘no, no, no, thanks.’ And then eventually you say , ‘F--k you.’ And it still doesn’t work.” “Please, somebody out there, please start taking this seriously.” Someone is taking it seriously, says CRTC compliance and enforcement chief Andrea Rosen. But these telemarketers use a technical trick called “spoofing,” which fools caller ID into displaying a different number than the one actually calling. That makes the telemarketers hard to catch. “The problem with (spoofing) … is that it's very difficult to detect who those people are and find out where they're calling from,” Rosen explains. “If we can’t find them, we can’t act.” The call centres are confident that they’re untraceable, too. In Marketplace’s undercover investigation, a Karachi call centre supervisor was caught on camera reassuring a new hire that they can’t be caught. “There is no need to worry,” he says.

“The customer will not be able to report us. They can’t trace us.” Employees are also told to say they’re calling from Ontario, and the callers used fake names. Being so well hidden, the telemarketers have little to fear, and that impunity can lead to vicious harassment. Andrew’s wife got a taste of that when she tried to complain to one call centre. “The telemarketer said that [my wife] would be able to speak to this person’s manager if she sucked his d--k,” Andrew said. “Sexually harassing people over the phone? That’s disgusting,” he added. He and his wife filed a police complaint over that call, but got no results. That’s another problem: Canadian authorities can’t make it stop. “If you’re the CRTC, how can you let this keep going on?” “You have so much power to prevent this kind of activity and yet you’re doing nothing. Work for the citizen.” The CRTC does have a little power, but only with companies it can find. In October 2012, it fined two Indian software companies a total $507,000 for calling Canadians registered on the DNCL.

Rosen says the CRTC has imposed $3 million in fines since 2008 for similar violations. The difference is that the software companies weren’t concealing their identities. The spoofing call centres are beyond the CRTC’s reach, Rosen says. “No one has the power of changing anything when spoofing is in play,” she adds. “I don't care who the agency is. There's no way to determine who the person is that's calling and from what location, if the number is spoofed.” However, she encourages Canadians to lodge complaints so other agencies might take action. “The do-not-call list is not their only avenue,” she said. “The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is their avenue, the police is their avenue, the Competition Bureau is their avenue, and these should use every opportunity to see whether or not something can be done.” The DNCL is not an avenue at all when it comes to these questionable firms, Rosen says, because they don’t even use it. Legitimate telemarketers are supposed to register and subscribe to the DNCL.