Bank of America calls the cops on a customer; the Internet strikes back

Consumers have been publicizing their complaints with businesses forever. These take many forms, but ever since the Internet went mainstream, there have been web pages devoted to publicizing consumer complaints. When the Consumerist blog started up last year, it quickly became a repository for consumer complaints. And it gets results on occasion.

Most recently, BoingBoing linked to a SFGate.com article about a scam victim who landed up in jail when he went to Bank of America to see whether the check from the scammer was legitimate or not. Angry BoingBoing readers have pledged to close over $46,500 in protest as of the time of this posting. Surely that isn’t enough to get Bank of America fired up, but perhaps the bad publicity will. BoingBoing is one of the most popular blogs on the Internet.

Consumerist editor Ben Popken recently appeared on 20/20 to talk about this phenomenon. We agree with him: anything that puts power back in the hands of the consumer is good.