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.
Ramona is a town in Washington County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 564 at the 2000 census. The town began as Bon-Ton, but changed its name to Ramona in 1899 in honor of the Helen Hunt Jackson novel of the same name. The town is one of four communities that makes up the consolidated Caney Valley School District. Ramona was an oil town and was also a stop for the Santa Fe railroad. When the oil dried up, there was no other industry to support Ramona, so the town began to die out. Very little business remains in the town, aside from a garage, a bank, a medical clinic, a small grocery, and sundry other small businesses. For 30 years the town was under the jurisdiction of the Washington County Sheriff's Office after the police department disbanded and the former Chief of Police was sentenced to prison. Under the leadership of the former mayor, the late Roman Ward, the police department was reinstated, the water lines were repaired/replaced, and a grant was accepted from the Cherokee Nation to repave the streets. The town also supplies natural gas service to the Wal-Mart distribution center 5 miles north of town.