Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Earp, California is an unincorporated townsite in San Bernardino County in the Sonoran Desert close to the California/Arizona state line at the Colorado River in Parker Valley. It is named for famed western lawman Wyatt Earp who settled in the area with his second wife, Josephine Sarah Marcus. Earp was living in Vidal in 1906 and staked claims for both copper and gold mines near the base of the Whipple Mountains that same year. Earp spent the winters of his last years working the claims, and died in Los Angeles on January 13, 1929. Though there was never an actual town on the site of Earp, there is a post office near Earp's mining claims at the eastern terminus of Highway 62 near Parker, AZ signed as "Earp, California" with a ZIP code of 92242. For amusement only there is a tiny cemetery showing the fake grave of Wyatt Earp. In regards to telephone communications, the entire region on the California side falls under area code 760. Its location in relationship to the county seat makes Earp the farthest point from the county seat at more than 220 miles (350 km) away. Unofficial alternate names of the area are listed as Drenna and Drennan.