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scams

NWV Direct Caught Pulling Bait And Switch, Tries To Backpedal

Joshua caught New World Video Direct trying to pull a bait and switch on him with a recent order, so he canceled it and gave them a bad review on resellerratings.com. They contacted him to ask if he'd remove the rating. Joshua wrote back to decline, but he reminded them that it's actually pretty simple to develop a decent reputation as retailer: "If you want to have anyone trust you as a business you have to only list items you plan to sell for the price you plan to sell them at." More »

8:38 AM on Mon Oct 13 2008
By Chris Walters
46,696 views, 63 comments

Most discussed jchabotte: Never heard of NWV.. all my photog gear, i get from B&H, never had any problems, customer service at the more »

scams

Beware The Grannie Scammers

Watch out, grannie, there's a new scam out there and they've got your number. Like we told you last week, conmen are calling up elderly folk and using social engineering to pose as their grandchildren, and they need money money fast. Usually they say they were traveling in Canada and just got in a car accident and need thousands of dollars for repairs or bail. How do the scammers fool the grandparents? More »

12:31 PM on Mon Oct 6 2008
By Ben Popken
6,425 views, 32 comments

Most discussed elisa: Wait...didn't I read this article very recently on Consumerist? or am I finally starting to imagine things? more »

consumer advocacy

Angry Wiccan Digs Up The Identity Behind Scam Site Fastspells.com

Fastspells.com is a ridiculous website loaded with sexy young lady "Wiccans" who, for anywhere from $40 to $265, will "find you love, give you an abortion, cure your cancer, grant you immortality, and change your sex organs." Terrific, because I need some new sex organs! These are all worn out. Anyway, Trae at TRHOnline.com was annoyed by their expensive and unrealistic promises, and the more he looked into the domain registrations, the more suspicious he became. More »

12:39 PM on Wed Sep 17 2008
By Chris Walters
17,138 views, 85 comments

Most discussed Ein2015: I really hope I don't get disemvoweled for this because I mean it in all sincerity: why would anybody trust more »

bally

Bally Total Fitness Scams College Student By Swapping Contracts

Chanda signed up for a month-to-month membership at a Bally Total Fitness in Montclair, California, but when things went wrong—as they frequently do with this company—Chanda found himself signed up for a 3-year agreement. Their proof? An unsigned contract that doesn't look like the one he was given. More »

5:42 PM on Tue Sep 16 2008
By Chris Walters
17,381 views, 44 comments

Most discussed Meltdown: I always had 1 year contracts... I never heard of a gym, besides Bally, that offers 36 months contracts. more »

vigilantes

Listen To These Vigilantes Scam Nigerian 419 Scammers

Last week, "This American Life" featured a 30-minute piece on people who scam the scammers—in this case, three guys who prey upon small-time Nigerian con men and try to trick them into placing themselves in mortal danger. "This American Life" tells how they almost got a guy to enter a Western Union office in Chad carrying an anti-Muslim/pro-Bush note that announces his intention to rob the place. Whether you think these stunts are funny probably depends on your level of empathy even for criminals, and whether you think the avengers ever fully succeed. But c'mon, getting someone in another country to hold up a sign that's offensive in your language is pretty much always funny. More »

4:26 PM on Mon Sep 15 2008
By Chris Walters
19,568 views, 57 comments

Most discussed mythago: Count me among the folks who have little (if any) empathy for people who get their jollies hurting others, but more »

onthegotickets

OnTheGoTickets Is Just TicketsMyWay In A New Skin

Back in June we mentioned how TicketsMyWay has a reputation for not actually providing tickets—"MyWay" apparently refers to the company and not the customer, and it translates into "no tickets or refunds for you." A customer who learned the hard way about TicketsMyWay sent us an alert that the company is operating under a new banner, OnTheGoTickets.com. More »

2:12 PM on Thu Aug 7 2008
By Chris Walters
5,875 views, 24 comments

Latest by noscamsplease: They're offering 10% off tickets ordered before 8/15. Trying to steal as much $$$ as possible before the big J more »

ebay

EBay & PayPal Phishing Gone For Good On Gmail and Yahoo?

If your email account is with Google or Yahoo, your days of seeing phishing emails from fake eBay or PayPal addresses should be over. Google announced last week that it's now using DomainKeys to verify messages really do come from paypal.com or ebay.com—if they don't, they never even make it to your In Box. This is possible because eBay and PayPal are now making sure "that all their email is signed with DomainKeys and DKIM." Since Yahoo! also uses DomainKeys and DKIM (they developed it, in fact), phishing attacks for Yahoo! Mail accounts should also disappear.

No amount of security will stop a bit of social engineering, but this is a great strike against phishing. Now if only banks would start embracing DomainKeys. More »

8:46 AM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Chris Walters
3,737 views, 30 comments

Latest by KitErechtheus: Im not receiveing alot of my mail cause it says my address does'nt exist.I have'nt received any from e-bay sense more »

Universal TechTronics

It's A Miracle! This Free Digital TV Converter Box Will Cost Me $100

We know you're too smart to fall for this ridiculously fraudulent digital TV converter offer, but maybe you know someone who's not wise to the facts of the upcoming switch to digital TV—specifically that converter boxes cost less than $100, and that you can get a government coupon to offset $40 of that cost. Universal TechTronics—the same scam outfit behind those "Amish" Heat Surge miracle fireplaces—is now conning the less knowledegable with their "free" converter box offer: pay nothing but a warranty and shipping, bringing the total cost to anywhere between $68 and $97. The Los Angeles Times says this is "the first large-scale [converter box] scam the Better Business Bureau has seen." More »

11:59 AM on Wed Jul 9 2008
By Chris Walters
6,913 views, 24 comments

Latest by ThePantsParty: @TVGenius: I work for Infocision Management Corp. (a telemarketing/inbound customer service company) We are the ones that take more »

consequences

Man Sentenced For $3.6 Million Credit Card Fraud

A Californian named Andrew Michael (not pictured at left) was sentenced to four years in federal prison last week for scamming Citibank and credit card companies by fraudulently applying for an $8.5 million commercial line of credit—some $2 million of which he spent on personal goods for himself, including "170 troy ounces of silver, 479 tubes of gold flakes, [and] a Rolex watch." More »

12:56 PM on Mon Apr 21 2008
By Chris Walters
4,982 views, 24 comments

Latest by Interl0per: Amazing how people can put so much effort into being evil/moronic bastards. You would think they would use their savvy more »

spam

Reunion.com Will Scrape Your Address Book, Then Spam Your Contacts

Reunion.com dupes new members into signing up by sending them an email that pretends to be from an acquaintance who's been looking for them (on Reunion.com, naturally). After signing up, the site sucks in your contacts and immediately begins spamming them to join by sending out a similar email. If one of those people then signs up at Reunion.com, their contact list is scooped up and the cycle starts all over again, like a social engineering version of a virus or parasitic infestation. Maybe this is why Reunion.com can claim to register about 1 million new members every month. More »

11:59 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Chris Walters
13,870 views, 43 comments

Latest by CarneyDawgin: Just call me old fool. Im on a fixed income but the 5.00 fee Reunion.com asked for seem fine but more »

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