More than 100 million Americans have plans that allow them to see doctors who are not part of their insurance network. For more than a decade, insurers submitted data to Ingenix to determine the typical cost for care received outside their networks.

But congressional investigators say companies would deliberately skew data to underestimate the costs of medical services, leaving patients to pay more in out-of-pocket expenses.

[...]

In one case, Aetna allegedly eliminated the highest 20 percent of medical charges before sending the data to Ingenix, according to expert court testimony cited by congressional investigators. Once the data was handed over to Ingenix, officials there "scrubbed" the numbers again to further curb charges, according to the testimony.

Ingenix is owned by UnitedHealth Group, which the Associated Press says has admitted no wrongdoing but has agreed to close the database and fund a new one.

"Senator: Use of faulty insurance data 'pervasive'" [Associated Press]
(Photo: Subconsci Productions)

"U.S. Fidelis hires Ashcroft firm" [St. Louis Business Journal]

Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.

[...]

Whitley Ryals said the state discovered the intrusion on April 30, after which time it shut down Web site site access to dozens of pages serving the Department of Health Professions. The state also has temporarily discontinued e-mail to and from the department pending the outcome of a security audit, Whitley Ryals said.

Here's the full text of the ransom. Why can't hackers be a bit more elegant and well spoken in a James Bond Villain sort of way?

ATTENTION VIRGINIA

I have your shit! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(

For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password. You have 7 days to decide. If by the end of 7 days, you decide not to pony up, I'll go ahead and put this baby out on the market and accept the highest bid. Now I don't know what all this shit is worth or who would pay for it, but I'm bettin' someone will. Hell, if I can't move the prescription data at the very least I can find a buyer for the personal data (name,age,address,social security #, driver's license #).

Now I hear tell the Fucking Bunch of Idiots ain't fond of payin out, but I suggest that policy be turned right the fuck around. When you boys get your act together, drop me a line at hackingforprofit@yahoo.com and we can discuss the details such as account number, etc.

Until then, have a wonderful day, I know I will ;)

"Hackers Break Into Virginia Health Professions Database, Demand Ransom" [Washington Post via Slashdot] (Thanks to Chris!)
"Over 8M Virginian patient records held to ransom, 30 Apr 2009" [Wikileaks]
(Goblin statue: tanakawho)

"It's the biggest scam I ever got involved with," she told Today. She eventually got her warranty refunded after threatening to report US Fidelis to her state's Attorney General; this may have something to do with the fact that 40 state Attorneys General are currently investigating the company for misleading consumers.

The Today show goes on to point out that the company has 1100 complaints with the St. Louis Better Business Bureau. The St. Louis BBB president told Today, "In my 35 years of experience I've never seen this kind of activity on a company, where so many people have told us that this company is using deceptive practices and misleading advertising."

One hilarious detail pointed out by Today is that US Fidelis calls itself a "faith based" company and incorporates a halo in its logo. A halo! They must be trustworthy, then. On a related note, they point out that founder and president Darain Atkinson served time in prison in his 20s.

Still not convinced the company is crooked? (We know, you probably don't need any more convincing, but it's fun to talk about this stuff.) Here are a couple of interviews with former US Fidelis employees from the exposé:

Here's the capper: ex-con Atkinson is currently building a $17 million dollar mansion in Missouri. The only things missing from it are bats flying out of the uppermost tower.

Watch the full story here:

"Do extended car warranties protect you?" [Today Show]

How not to fall prey to the seven sins of the marketplace [CBC Marketplace]

The professor who helped her out proved why you never go to a professor if you want to be coddled:

"It's definitely bone, and it came from some type of mammal," Blumer told FOXNews.com. "This isn't [a] tail vertebra - it's something higher up, and the reason I'm certain for that is because it's hollow. The nerve cord would run through there."

Blumer could not identify exactly what type of animal the vertebra came from but said that, because of the smoothness of the material, it had likely been dead for some time.

"It doesn't look like there's even a remnant of flesh on this," Blumer said. "This has either been out in the environment for a while and it got into that container, or it went through some organism's digestive tract first. For example, you might find something like this in an owl pellet," Blumer said, referring to the indigestible material regurgitated by the animal.

Despite that initial no-big-deal response from a Mars rep, the company now says it's asked for the product to be returned so it can investigate further, and blah blah blah food safety is of the utmost importance to us you know the drill.

What's most frightening about this whole story, however, is the FDA's response: "The FDA takes every complaint it receives very seriously and looks into it." Oh no. They've gotten to you, too, FDA.

"Atlanta Woman Finds 'Mammal Bone' in Blue M&M" [FOXNews.com] (Thanks to Matt!)
(Photo: Blane Bachelor)

If you missed the story the first time around, here's a two-minute recap that will fill you in on what Comcast was doing, how they were caught, what the FCC had to say about it, and the consequences of the whole ordeal. (Hello download caps and tiered packages!)

"The Die is Cast" [On the Media @ NPR]

RELATED
our posts on the scandal
(Photo: Comcast)

One thing that's new about the case is the use of Visa gift cards—they're easy to shoplift, and then the stolen account info can be encoded onto the magnetic strip on the back. It's also harder to catch fraudulent use via gift card, and there are fewer ID restrictions. The men were caught because they used the stolen data for too long and it began to go bad—near the end, Walmart's system was catching and flagging accounts that had already been deactivated, which was what alerted them to the fraud.

"First Heartland Arrests, With New Twist To Bogus Gift Card Scheme" [StorefrontBacktalk]
(Photo: ToOb)

CNN says the plant has been sealed off by federal agents and the company, Peanut Butter Corporation of America, is not answering their phones.

A "senior congressional aid" told reporters that the FBI also had warrants for the company's headquarters in Lynchburg, VA.

FBI raids peanut butter plant suspected in outbreak [CNN]
FBI raids Ga. plant at center of salmonella scare [AP]

Update: Bruce Springsteen speaks out against the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow stunt, and reminds everyone why a Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger would be very bad. We've reprinted his letter below.

"I am troubled by how quickly tickets priced exponentially higher became available on the secondary market to thousands of rejected fans, many who also endured unfortunate technical problems on Ticketmaster.com," Pascrell said in a letter to U.S. investigators.

The real problem, beyond the eternal nuisance of scalping, is that TicketsNow began offering overpriced tickets almost immediately after they went on sale through Ticketmaster, and while Ticketmaster apparently lacked the technology to handle what should have been a predictable surge in customers, that was not a problem for TicketsNow resellers:

"There is a significant potential for abuse when one company is able to monopolize the primary market for a product and also directly manipulate and profit from the secondary market," [Pascrell] wrote. "The speed with which tickets were made available on Ticketmaster's official resale site raises questions about whether TicketsNow brokers were given preferential treatment."

About 30,000 tickets to the two Izod Center shows were sold in a little over an hour Monday morning. Many fans said they encountered error messages at the Ticketmaster website that prevented them from purchasing tickets before they were sold out.

Others were outraged that within minutes of the sale, hundreds of tickets were being hawked at TicketsNow.

"This burns me up. It's reprehensible," Pascrell said. "There has to be a deal cooking between the two companies, Ticketmaster and TicketsNow. One has no tickets and the other is selling them at three and four times the (original) price."

Nefarious under the table scheming? Incompetence? Whatever the explanation, we're sure if Ticketmaster and Live Nation merge then all of these problems will go away.

Here's the letter posted to Bruce Springsteen's official website today:

A LETTER TO OUR FANS:
We know there was much confusion regarding Ticketmaster and TicketsNow during last Monday's on-sale dates. We were as confused as you were, as we were given no advance notice of the major changes in the Ticketmaster-TicketsNow world. (Bear in mind that we are not clients of any ticketing company, and that all those arrangements are between venues and ticketing companies.)

Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice.

We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest. Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.

We know the many cynical arguments some make in favor of the Ticketmaster system: There are rumors that some artists or managers participate in Ticketmaster charges—we do not. There are rumors that some artists or managers are receiving a percentage of the amount above face value at secondary outlets like TicketsNow—we do not. Some artists or managers may not perceive there to be a conflict between having the distributor of their tickets in effect "scalping" those same tickets through a secondary company like TicketsNow—we do.

While many of you have sent notes to us and your local promoters, you may also send accurate informational letters to Albert Lopez of Ticketmaster and he will try to address your questions.

A final point for now: the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing. Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives.

The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours.

Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team

"Springsteen Sellout Leads to Call for Probe of Ticketmaster" [Bloomberg]
"Lawmaker: Investigate Springsteen ticket sales" [NJ.com](Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
(Photo: alexik)

So how do mistakes show up on your credit report in the first place? Some problems can be attributed to false matches by algorithms, and human error by data entry employees:

If the name or Social Security number on another person’s account partially matches the data on your file, the computer might attach it to your record. The credit bureaus also employ contractors who gather tax lien and bankruptcy data from courthouses and government offices. If these workers transpose a digit or misread a document, their error winds up on your report.

Many of the remaining errors come from mistakes made by lenders or other businesses that report information to the credit bureaus (like a bank that assumes you're dead, in one real life example used in the article).

Bureaus usually contact lenders whenever there's a dispute—but to save money, they funnel the disputes through outsourced data processing centers where actual human workers are expected to spend a fraction of an hour on each case:

Here’s where the trouble begins. Rather than call the lender or send it the consumer’s letter and supporting evidence, the bureaus zap the documents to a data processing center run by a third-party contractor. This system yields considerable savings. Equifax reduced its per-dispute cost from $4.50 to 50 cents by outsourcing the work to Costa Rica and the Philippines, for example. But consumer advocates say these workers are under enormous pressure to process disputes and forward them to lenders as quickly as possible. While the bureaus say quality is the overriding factor, employees deposed in civil suits describe a harried pace. One TransUnion manager testified that workers were expected to complete up to 22 cases an hour. An Equifax worker estimated she was allotted four minutes per dispute. To process the letters so rapidly, the workers summarize every complaint with a two-digit code selected from a menu of 26 options. The code “A3,” for example, stands for “belongs to another individual with a similar name.” The worker can also add a single line of commentary. The two-digit code and short comment is the only information the lender receives about the dispute.

Consumer advocates say these summaries omit the background banks need to understand a complaint, and banks agree.

Currently, there are only a couple of ways to get around this broken robot system. The first is to contact your lender directly, which can be hit or miss because they're only required to investigate the dispute if a credit bureau asks. The second is to try to bump your case up to VIP treatment—where it might actually receive some human oversight—by getting a politician, judge, lawyer, celebrity, or member of the media involved.

We frequently suggest you should read the full linked article when we write about something, but in this case, you really should, because it has so much illuminating, infuriating info about the credit bureaus that will remind you of just why we need to change the laws governing credit reporting.

"Why the Credit Bureaus Can't Get It Right" [SmartMoney] (Thanks to Chris!)
(Photo: hassan1980)

Obama said Americans should be able to count on the government to keep children safe when they eat peanut butter, and that includes his 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, the AP reported.

"That's what Sasha eats for lunch probably three times a week," Obama said. "And you know, I don't wanna have to worry about whether she's gonna get sick as a consequence to having her lunch."

"Obama Orders Review of FDA in Salmonella Outbreak" [U.S. News & World Report]
(Photo: lucianvenutian)

In a letter to the acting Attorney General, Senate Judiciary Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn) write:

Through its investigation, the Food and Drug Administration has determined that Peanut Corporation of America knowingly distributed potentially contaminated product after samples tested positive for salmonella more than a dozen times in the past two years to more than 100 consignee firms, for use as an ingredient in hundreds of different food products. In addition to knowingly selling these tainted products, Peanut Corporation of America also shopped for a laboratory that would provide the acceptable results they were seeking after initial tests found their products to be contaminated. This Salmonella outbreak involving peanut butter products is now linked to eight deaths and has sickened approximately 500 people across the country, forcing one of the largest food recalls in history.

It is clear that the behavior of the Peanut Corporation of America was egregious – harming hundreds of Americans and endangering many thousands more. We believe it is critical to determine whether the actions and omissions of this company rose to the level of criminal conduct. If crimes were committed, those responsible must be identified and held accountable.

This probably won't satisfy some of our commenters, who have called for Chinese-style punishment for PCA's directors, but we're hopeful that justice will be served.

Leahy Calls for Criminal Investigation Into Peanut-Salmonella Outbreak

Now, senior congressional and state officials are calling for a federal probe into whether these actions were criminal, according to USA Today.

The company's actions "can only be described as reprehensible and criminal," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who oversees Food and Drug Administration funding, told USA Today. "Not only did this company knowingly sell tainted products, it shopped for a laboratory that would provide the acceptable results they were seeking. This behavior represents the worst of our current food safety regulatory system."

In a statement on its website (warning: PDF), Peanut Corp. denies the charge:

PCA uses only two highly reputable labs for product testing and they are widely used by the industry and employ good laboratory practices. PCA categorically denies any allegations that the Company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products.

"Officials want criminal probe of Peanut Corp. for shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter" [NY Daily News] (Thanks to Daniel!)

RELATED
"Salmonella Peanut Butter Plant Repeatedly Violated Health Codes"

After an eight-month investigation, the Humane Society of the United States accused Petland, the national pet store chain, of selling dogs bred under appalling conditions at puppy mills around the country.

While puppy mills aren't illegal, they're also not places where dogs are treated as anything more than merchandise—and the Humane Society says that the 21 Petland stores they investigated mislead buyers on where the dogs actually come from.

From Weaver's article:

"They are buying from puppy mills where these dogs are not treated like pets," Michael Markarian, an executive vice president with the Humane Society, told a news conference. "They're treated like a cash crop, where mother dogs live in wire cages, sometimes stacked on top of each other in filthy, dirty, cramped conditions, where they receive little socialization or human interaction or exercise."

Among the poor conditions cited, investigators found puppies in commercial breeders "living in filthy cages reeking of urine, with inadequate care and socialization," according to the release. The Humane Society says dogs at the mills were found in cages with wire flooring so large that the puppies' paws and even the paws of the mother dogs would fall through.

Petland did not return calls to Weaver about the allegations, but she notes that their website seemingly absolves them from corporate responsibility by stating that each store is independently owned and individually "responsible for choosing healthy pets offered to Petland customers."

While that may be true, there's no reason for Petland to offer such an unrestricted, hands-off policy to its franchisees. By way of example, this week Subway asked one of its franchisees to rescind a corporate-branded donation to California's anti-gay "Yes on 8" campaign, citing that their agreement prohibits using "the Trademark in a manner that degrades, diminishes, or detracts from the goodwill of the business associated with the Trademark."

So, uh, how come you don't protect your brand like that, Petland?

"Investigation ties pet chain to puppy mills" [MSNBC]
(Photo: Getty Images)

Engine-flushing is supposed to clean out the gunk and deposits in your engine, but breaking these up is like dislodging a blood clot - they can jam up other sensitive components. Honda calls fuel-injection cleaning an "improper repair procedure" as it can damage other injection parts. They and other makers have sent notices to repair shops telling them not to perform them. Despite this, KNBC received complaints from across the country from consumers with cars damaged after getting upsold into the potentially dangerous service. See more in their video report, below:In a statement, both JiffyLube and EZLube say it wasn't acceptable for employees to lie and say services were recommended by the manufacturer when they weren't, and the employees caught would be fired.Could This Damage Your Car? [KNBC]

• Promises of fast and easy money
• The person who brings you in gets a cut of your profits, and then you get a cut off new people you bring into the system
• Requires large upfront fees before you really understand what's going on

Buyer Beware [On The Money]

Be sure to catch me in my debut as a "real journalist" of the small-screen, doing a special report on the Robert Allen real estate program, on CNBC's On The Money program Tuesday night, 9pm eastern. I'll be the reporter in the piece, and talking with Carmen Wong Ulrich on set. Set the DVR to "posterity," it's a special Consumerist/On The Money tag-team you don't want to miss!

On The Money [Official Site]
RELATED:Consumerist Attends Robert Allen's Get Rich Quick In Real Estate Seminar
Despite Subprime Implosion, Robert Allen's Troops Still Pitch "Get Rich Quick In Real Estate With No Money Down"

The way they're able to set up people who have no job or money down or credit score or clue what they're doing is to avoid the banking system entirely. Instead, they have a book of private lenders who will invest in your deal. These lenders are themselves "graduates" of the Robert Allen institute. According to the presenter, these graduates just have made so much money in real estate that they don't need to deals anymore, they just need places to invest their money.

The whole thing hinges around you finding properties in preforeclosure and then negotiating with the desperate owner and the lender to get a short sale. Then you're supposed to clean up the curb appeal and turn around and sell it for a little bit more. Basically the good ol' fix n' flip scenario. But wait, you ask, how do I find houses in preforeclosure?

Luckily the Robert Allen institute has a database they give you access to that shows you all the houses across the country in preforeclosure status. They charge $240 a year for this database, but you can get it for a year free if you sign up for a 3-day workshop class. The 3-day workshop costs $3995. Except today you can get a one-time discount of $1000. And if you get a friend or companion to sign up with you, they get 50% off. The presenter encouraged us to put it on Mastercard and only pay $40 a month. Within 4 months, he promised we would close a deal with a net profit of tens of thousands of dollars, and we could just pay off the Mastercard then. He had this overworked manner of emphasizing the syllables in polysyllabic words. Mastercard became Master-Card. He said things like "that strat-e-gy was very at-trac-tive."

The presenter talked about how important it was to put together the perfect short-sale package with all the right forms in the right order. He clasped that blue plastic binder and believed in it like it was the newly discovered epistles of Jesus. But I felt pretty confident that whatever was in that binder, or in his special CDs packed with legal documents, I could find for free online.

So what was in the seminar? Very basic information that teased to the prospect of learning more basic information at an inflated price tag, along with a pitch to join the Robert Allen multi-level-marketing real-estate pyramid, just like I figured. I'll give a more thorough analysis in a future post.

RCRWireless reprinted part of T-Mobile's response:

“Although your letter states that carriers’ prices for text messaging appear to have increased since 2005, the opposite is true,” states Robert Dotson, president and CEO of T-Mobile USA Inc. “Since 2005, the prices that T-Mobile charges for text messages — 90% of which are purchased in texting package plans — have fallen by more than half.

AT&T came right out and (almost) blamed Senator Kohl for the spate of lawsuits:

“As you probably know, since your letter was made public, 20 class-action lawsuits have been filed around the country against AT&T and other national carriers, specifically alleging price-fixing for texting messaging services. All but one of these cases cite your inquiry as one of the bases of alleged collusion. We are therefore eager to clear up any misunderstanding,” said Timothy McKone, executive VP for federal relations at AT&T.

If fees for text messaging bundles have dropped, while fees for single-serve text messages have shot up 20 cents, then in a way both sides are right—but if that's the case, we think the carriers are being intentionally dense about the true meaning of the Senator's line of questioning, which (we think) is an attempt to determine whether the carriers colluded to hike individual rates enough to drive customers into more profitable bundle services.

Wireless carriers counter antitrust concerns over rising costs of texting [RCRWireless]
(Photo: Getty Images)

The Nash Finch stores Avanza, Food Bonanza and Wholesale Food Outlets add the 10 percent charge to food at the register and specialize in serving Hispanics, according to store workers.

However, the Nash Finch stores Sun Mart Foods, Econo Foods, Family Fresh Market, Pick N Save and Prairie Market stores do not charge extra at the register and do not cater to Hispanics, according to the store workers.

"Jim," a store manager, told the news station that the fee is to offset other costs, but it's clear that the 10% charge is at least partly a way to offer steeper "discounts" throughout the store that are effectively removed when you pay.

Nash Finch denies it's doing anything skeevy or illegal with its unclear pricing, but 9News points out their attempt at full disclosure is confusingly worded, perhaps deliberately so:

"The 'shelf-plus' pricing program is only used in certain store formats. These stores tend to be located where consumers are more price-conscious, as compared to our more conventional supermarkets," said Brian Numainville, Public Relations for Nash Finch Company. "The pricing policy is explained, not just in English, but also in Spanish, so that no customer is caught unaware at the cash register."

The stores do advertise that they are going to add a 10 percent fee in signs posted across the store, on the store shelves below the price of a food item on the store shelf and in flyers and circulars. However, the wording is confusing to many. For example, the flyers read, "A great way to save - Plus 10 % at the Register."

What do you think—is this an acceptable way to price groceries? In a series of questions Nash Finch answered for 9News' story, they claim that they're not the only chain to do this, and that it's not just Hispanic markets. Here's their final justifaction for the practice:

Question 9: Wouldn’t it be more honest/up front to just add 10 percent to the price of all of the products—so that people can see the actual price on the shelf and on the sticker?

Answer: The grocery industry is extremely competitive. Stores vie for customers. Customer loyalty is highly valued. Given the need to attract and retain customers, our stores cannot afford to alienate its customers by charging unexplained fees or unanticipated mark-ups. Our pricing is attracting customers—rather than losing them—demonstrating that the pricing policy is in fact fair, obvious, and well-understood by our shoppers.

"Some grocery stores add 10 percent fee" [9News.com] (Thanks to Randy!)

“Who would have thought, after 30 years, that we’d be a flying 7-Eleven,” Becky Gilbert, a three-decade veteran of the industry told me during a break in our training session in Fort Worth.

The author, Michelle Higgins, captures the dramatic shift from what was once a career loaded with perks—free travel, flexible schedules, plenty of time off, and even a bit of cachet—into a job that puts you on the front line of the war most airlines are carrying out against their paying customers.

At the start of one flight, for example, the crew is told the plane is moving to a shorter runway, and they have to carry out a quick count of the number of children on board to see whether the plane meets the suddenly-reduced weight limit—otherwise they will have to kick off passengers. (And those passengers will hopefully write to The Consumerist.)

We've no doubt that there are bad employees in the skies—the bigots, morons, burn-outs, and despots who provide us with so many infuriating stories—but it's revealing to see the level of stress that today's good flight attendants have to deal with, and something worth keeping in mind the next time you fly and want to reach out and hurt the person telling you there are no more blankets or cookies, or that you'll almost certainly miss your connecting flight.

"Flying the Unfriendly Skies" [New York Times]
(Photo: FaceMePLS)

Some Dental Work May Contain Lead, Tests Show [KPHO] (Thanks to Nicole!) (Photo: dental ben)

As the players continued to dig, they concluded that NioNio was at the center of a web of accounts that were able to change user names with ease, making it harder for victims to detect the cheating.

UltimateBets launched an investigation when the players brought this to their attention, and in March of this year they issued a confirmation that certain players had been cheating by taking advantage of malicious code that had been inserted by prior employees.

As of September, no one has been named in the scandal, although some players have named a poker pro. Two other poker pros visited him in person, with a lawyer present, and now say they're no longer sure he was the culprit—or at least not the main culprit.

Another problem is that the company that claims ownership of UltimateBet—"Tokwiro Enterprises, headquartered in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory in southern Canada"—may be a front for Blast-Off Ltd., which has filed an $85 million claim against UltimateBet. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has ordered an investigation of UltimateBet, but that's not comforting some victims:

[Tokwiro] has issued some refunds and promised to repay any players who lost money once an outside investigation is completed. But many players who haven’t received credits remain fearful they will never see a dime.

"Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit" [MSNBC] (Thanks to Patrick!)

The Johnson County District Attorney, Phill Kline, told Fox News that Verizon not only seemed unhelpful, but possibly incompetent:

We did have a problem with Verizon. We're talking about 3 hours afterwards, they [the police] were already pushing for this information, with the sergeant speaking to Verizon directly at 2:30 a.m., demanding that this information be provided and it wasn't.

There was a lack of understanding on their end of what they were incapable of doing. I was on the conference call with Verizon, and we had three technicians telling us different things and using different terms, and we can't guess their mind. We've got a girl that's missing. We have a girl that's missing, we have a likely abduction, we need to find her.

Everyone involved in the search has made it clear that Verizon's incompetence had nothing to do with Kelsey's death, but it could have made the search a lot shorter, and saved a lot of people unnecessary grief. Unfortunately, when Verizon's president met with Kline and Kelsey's parents two months later, he brought three lawyers with him for protection.

Kelsey's mom told Fox, "If [Verizon] brought them because you think we're here to sue you, that's not what this is about." Says Kline, "They didn't realize that they have an opportunity... to establish a course that leads the way that is right and responsible, and instead they chose a different posture, and that's unfortunate."

Kelsey's mom:

We almost didn't get to say to goodbye to Kelsey, because of her body decomposition from being out there so long.

Kelsey's dad:

We never did get a why, that was the thing that was so frustrating, why can't you do this. That question was never answered.

"Why Did It Take So Long to Find Kelsey Smith?" (video) [MyFoxKC.com] (Thanks to Albert!)

Trae eventually managed to dig up a potential cuplrit behind the site, and he pretended to be a broken-hearted teenager with poor judgement (and spelling) to see what he could find out. What he found was someone named Brittney Reynolds, a member of the pro-anorexia movement and someone with possible connections to an earlier scam on MySpace called the "themilliondollarpiggybank."

So why did Trae feel the need to get so sleuthy? Because Fastspells.com was running ads on his site, and he didn't like the idea of a fake-Wicca site trying to prey upon his readers. Fastspells may still pop up via Google's Adsense, but they're probably not going to drum up a lot of business from TRHOnline anymore.

Where does this leave us. We know that she must have been in on the Million Dollar Piggy Bank scam, as they used her e-mail address. We know that at one point a Facebook page was made using that e-mail address for a "Kevin Reynolds" from Virginia. We know that the young woman has had an eating disorder, and likely a rocky adolescence. We also know that everything Fastspells.com says on their website is a lie.

"More FastSpells.com Insanity" [TRHOnline.com]

PSC staff said FiOS "may form an electrically conductive path" and could create an electrical hazard. PSC spokesman James Dean called the public safety risk "minimal - however, there is a potential risk."

Under a plan submitted to the PSC last month, Verizon would review all of its fiber-optic installations to ensure connections are properly grounded and correct violations.

The company also said it would issue credits of up to $20 to customers for installations after Aug. 18 unless it meets standards at least 95 percent of the time. The credits would "compensate such customers for the inconvenience of the inspection (and, where applicable, remediation) process," according to documents filed with the PSC.

Verizon added that they take the Public Service Commission's concerns "very seriously."

Verizon offers plan to inspect FiOS wiring [Albany Times Union]
Violations cited in LI FiOS installations [Newsday]
(Photo: Getty)

Hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties submitted phony Medicare and Medi-Cal bills for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeless patients—including drug addicts and the mentally ill—recruited from downtown's Skid Row, state and federal authorities allege.

City attorneys began investigating after receiving reports back in 2006 that hospitals were dumping homeless patients on Skid Row streets. What they found, they say, was that some hospitals were using conditions such as dehydration, yeast infection, and exhaustion as reasons for keeping homeless patients in beds for "as long as three days" in order to maintain full patient loads and collect money from the government.

Agents arrested Rudra Sabaratnam, CEO of City of Angels hospital, and Estill Mitts, operator of a Skid Row health assessment center, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. They were in federal custody and were scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

The city attorney's office said it filed a lawsuit against the corporate owners of the three hospitals — along with Sabaratnam, several doctors and others — in connection with the alleged scheme.

Representatives of the hospitals did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment. Los Angeles Metropolitan and the Tustin hospital are owned by Pacific Health Corp., and Los Angeles-based Intercare Health Systems owns City of Angels.

"FBI: LA hospitals used homeless in medical fraud" [Associated Press]
(Photo: Getty)

The faxed scam says, "We are happy to info you that you have emerged a winner under the F&F EQUITY DRAW, which is part of a promotional draws organized by all crediting lending partners to enable home owners who owned a home all over the United States of America have more money, and at the same time buy more homes in the area where they live. The funds were drawn from part of the total Fifty Billion US Dollars ($50 Billion) release to the financial institutions and creditros by the Government and other donor nations who have so much interest and investments in the United States of America."

Here's the BBB's report on investigating the scam:

After faxing my official “Equity Draw” information sheet to a number in Idaho, I called the 778 number and had the pleasure of speaking to “Jorge Marcelo”, at Fannie n Freddie Prize Headquarters. He said he had my fax right there in front of him, which is interesting since I never told him who I was nor did he ask. But he did tell me that to collect my big prize I was required to wire a “processing fee” of $850 to the Vegas address in my documents via Western Union, call him with the WU control number and then I could collect my riches.

Obviously I’m excited, so I invited the FBI to share in my excitement. I’m not sure if there’s anything here worth law enforcement pursuit, but that’ll be up to them. My guess is Jorge is probably not in BC, and that the WU office in Vegas will forward my $850 to another location, and it may be bounced several times.

Fraudsters have a core set of scams that they just keep putting new hats on old scams to fit the zeitgeist. Most of us wouldn't fall for this iteration, rife with spelling and grammatical errors. But a few, like the desperate, elderly, ignorant, non-native-English-speaking, or some combination thereof, might. The scammers, will, however, try another variant on the lottery scam. For them, it's all a numbers game, and their auto-dialers just keep ringing up one more.

(Photo: ptaff)

[The] undercover operation... at one point had Eastern European hackers chasing a female FBI agent through the streets of New York, trying to mug her for ATM-card-programming gear.

"Stakeouts, Lucky Breaks Snare Six More in Citibank ATM Heist" [Wired Threat Level] (Thanks to Robbie!)
(Photo: Getty)

HPNotebookClassAction.com
(Photo: Tahmid the ~) Sensor`BurnEr (~)

Unless you're willing to risk being stranded with 14 other passengers several stories underground in a cattle car elevator on a hot summer day, or plunging at extreme speeds down an escalator with a broken chain, you might want to steer clear of NYC's subway system lifts. The New York Times has published the results of an extensive investigation that includes tales of daily breakdowns, comically undertrained mechanics, and about $1 billion spent over the past decade.

Probably the most disturbing finding is that the subway's mechanics are released into the system with 4 weeks of training, compared to 4 years for elevator repairmen in the private sector. By contrast, mechanics hired by Washington, D.C. metro system now receive 4 years of training, and those hired by the San Francisco metro system receive 2 years of training.

The worst offender is the 181st St station for the 1, 9 trains. As passengers familiar with the station know, you have to take giant elevators several stories underground to reach the subway lines, and they suffered over 100 breakdowns last year. The article highlights one breakdown where 15 people, including two women who began to suffer from asthma attacks, were trapped for 40 minutes last summer. The same elevator "had broken down five times in the eight days leading up to the event. Each time, mechanics came, made minor adjustments and put the machine back in service — only to have it break down again." After the 15 people were let out, the elevator was put back in service, only to break down again later that afternoon.

But it sounds like it's the plunging escalators you really have to watch out for—or at least have strong ankles and the ability to leap and roll when you reach the bottom:

On June 6th, during the evening rush, the chain snapped with a bang and the escalator stopped moving. People began walking down the escalator. The last person on was Magaly Diaz, a pregnant woman on her way home from work.

Suddenly, the escalator sprang back to life. Freed from the hold of the drive chain, the steps began freewheeling downhill, quickly picking up speed. It all went so fast that Ms. Diaz cannot even remember if she screamed.

“It felt like a roller coaster,” said Ms. Diaz, 40. “You know how it feels when you’re at the top of a roller coaster going down? That’s the kind of momentum it had.”

Most people jumped or stumbled off at the bottom. But a friend standing in front of Ms. Diaz fell at the bottom and Ms. Diaz landed on top of her. Both women were taken to the hospital. Ms. Diaz had two badly twisted ankles, though she was grateful that a sonogram showed no injury to her fetus.

Coming soon: the MTA will use this as a reason to call for fare increases.

"$1 Billion Later, Subway Elevators Still Fail " [New York Times]
(Photo: Pro-Zak)

Expired items are lurking on store shelves. A Fox5 investigation followed around the Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs and found evaporated skim milk and diabetic medicine on the shelf that expired over a year ago. At a dollar store, they found the manager was cutting the expiration dates off boxes of expired toothpaste and still selling them. The Stop and Shop was fined $1450 for selling expired goods, the dollar store, $13,225 for 529 items. Don't forget to check the expiration date, the store, or the Consumer Affairs Office, isn't always going to do it for you.

Expired Items [FOX5]

After another battle with a branch manager today—who insisted that money couldn't be returned and that I needed to fill out a fraud report—I went over her head.  After a heated, uh, discussion, the main downtown Seattle branch put the $1,500 back in my business checking account.  The $7 fee was refunded a few hours later.
 
Some bad PR in Consumerist no doubt helped. Thank you!

We're not sure we posted the story in time to have an effect on the outcome, but we'll take it.

RELATED
"WaMu Presents Random $1500 Check On Someone Else's Account, Then Calls It Fraud"

[Update: WaMu has returned the money.] Bill's small business account was hit with a $1500 check written by an unrelated third party to another third party—both completely unconnected with his account. He was also penalized with an insufficient funds fee, although the money was debited from his account. Now WaMu's saying they have to investigate for fraud before they can return Bill's fees.

I received a returned check notice from Washington Mutual last week. Not unusual for a small business — until I opened it.

The check in question was a $1,500 private party check written to another private party. The check wasn't written by, or issued to, my business.

Simple mistake? I visited the WaMu branch across the street from my office and got the stunning response from the branch manager that they'd have to do a fraud investigation. I raised hell again today, and the money, plus a $7 returned check fee, still hasn't been returned to my account.

I'm considering going to go to small claims court — or swear out a theft complaint against WaMu — to get my money back. The only fraud is that WaMu or KeyBank (the check in question was written on a KeyBank account) screwed up and they're taking it out of my hide. I'm the innocent bystander.

Maybe WaMu is trying to cover its losses by randomly reassigning bounced checks to accounts that have money in them and hope no one notices.

Why can't WaMu assume the $1500 loss while they investigate what was probably a clerical error, instead of forcing the problem onto their customer? Maybe WaMu should amend their new ad slogan to "We've got your back... unless we're covering our own asses."