Consumerist
nigerian 419
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storm8
iPhone App Developer Sued For Stealing Users' Phone Numbers
For secretly stealing users' phone number by exploiting a backdoor iPhone vulnerability, app developer Storm8 got slapped with a class action lawsuit. More » -
you may already be a winner
Sweepstake Scammers Impersonate FTC
Fraudsters frequently pretend to be from official or official-sounding organizations and companies to perpetuate their scams, but one group has kicked the chutzpah level up to a whole new level. More » -
party crashers
Tavern On The Green Plays Halloween Trick On Thousands Of Partiers
Melissa is one of thousands of people who showed up at the bankrupt Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park on Saturday night for a ticket-holders-only Halloween party. She was forced to wait outside at the front of an increasingly agitated mob because the restaurant had sold too many tickets, or because someone had sold fake ones, it's still unclear. The Daily News says one reveler waited 5 hours before he was finally let in, just before 1:30 am—which was when the party was shut down by police. Now they all want their money back, but Tavern on the Green and the party promoters are blaming each other. More » -
sucky government
Inspector General Admits SEC Pretty Much Sucks At Its Job
The SEC's inspector general has released a jailhouse interview in which his royal Ponziness, Bernie Madoff himself, explains that he got away with his scheme because the SEC basically sucks. More » -
ponzi schemes
Madoff Victims Receive First Repayment Of $534 Million
The trustee who's liquidating Bernie Madoff's firm has released $534.2 million in repayments to some of his victims, reports Bloomberg. The half-billion is a drop in the bucket of total verified losses, which are now more than $21 billion. But hey, those 1,558 victims whose claims were approved for this partial payout are probaby pretty happy—which is more than you can say for the 2,500+ Madoff customers who may be sued to return fake profits.
"Madoff Trustee Advances $534 Million to Customers " [Bloomberg]
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give me your money
PayPal Links Account To Mysterious Email Address, Won't Unlink Or Explain Why
PayPal has locked Jessica's account and won't release her funds until she pays off the negative balance in her other account. That's fine, except that she doesn't have another account. Whatever they linked her to, it's not hers. Of course, this being PayPal, they won't give her any information about the other account. She can't even access it to see what the balance is or who it belongs to. More » -
fraud
Chase Thinks Reader Has Amazing Bilocating Credit Card
Chase's fraud department apparently thinks that Jake is lying. A few weeks ago, they called him about some suspicious activity on his credit card. Jake and his wife verified that the transactions were neither his nor his wife's, the Chase representative instructed them to destroy their cards, and that was that. Until a week and a half later, when a fraud specialist called them back to deny their fraud claim, claiming repeatedly that his story "doesn't jive." More » -
wire transfer fraud
MoneyGram Agrees To Pay $18 Million Back To Fraud Victims
MoneyGram International announced today that it would pay $18 million to the FTC to settle charges it allowed wire fraud to happen between 2004 and 2008. MoneyGram's press release notes that they disagree with the FTC's view of the matter, but $18 million is a hell of a lot of money to pay if you don't think you were in the wrong. The press release from the FTC, on the other hand, provides plenty of detail illustrating MoneyGram's negligence, as well as the criminal behavior of some of its employees who were in on the frauds. More » -
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crime
Just Because Someone Tries To Sell You A Building Doesn't Mean They Own It
Meet Mr. Vargas. He would like to sell you his stake in some commercial property, a triangular lot just north of Central Park, at Lenox and St. Nicholas Avenues, in NYC. You would like to buy this property, because it's apparently awesome. Unfortunately, after you give Mr. Vargas the money — you find out that the property is owned by an entirely different person. More » -
cash4gold
Cash4Gold Hit With Racketeering And Fraud Class Action Lawsuit
A class action lawsuit (PDF) was filed against Cash4Gold in California federal court last Friday, accusing the company of a "massive scheme to defraud tens of thousands of consumers throughout the nation," and racketeering. More » -
drag me to jail
Fortune Teller Arrested For Selling Thousand Dollar Body Wash At The Mall
Fortune tellers are sort of like the con-artist version of the website Significant Objects—the more interesting the story, the higher the price you can fetch for an otherwise cheap piece of crap. Unless, of course, the police arrest you for "fraudulent accosting" at the mall and ruin your con. More » -
phishing
FBI Charges 100 People In Phishing Investigation
Since 2007, the FBI and authorities in Egypt have been running an investigation they've called "Operation Phish Phry," sigh, and this week it paid off with 53 charges against U.S. defendants and 47 against people in Egypt. Three of the 53 in the U.S. have been arrested, and the FBI are looking for the other 50. To prove you're not one of the remaining 50, please send the FBI your login credentials to your bank. Ha ha, we kid. More » -
marketing
Expense-A-Steak Receipt Generator Makes Fraud Easy
Midtown Manhattan steakhouse Maloney & Porcelli's tongue-in-cheek "Expense-a-Steak" tool generates remarkably realistic-looking expense friendly receipts for whatever amount you enter into the website (supposedly the cash you dropped on their fine hunks of meat.) Is it aiding and abetting fraud? Who knows. More » -
online dating scams
Love In The Time Of Internet Fraud
Online dating has resulted in many happy relationships out here in the real world, but also provides a unique opportunity for different kinds of scammers to quickly gain your confidence and manipulate your emotions in order to get past your normal scam-detecting defenses. So how do you protect yourself? More » -
not real
Fake McDonald's Letter Is Totally Fake, Burger Pusher Confirms
Mickey D's down under wants everyone to know that the parody McDonald's letter making the rounds is indeed prankaliscious. Corporate Communications Manager Bronwyn Stubbs writes: More » -
funny
(Parody) New Profit Center For Australian McDonald's: Fraud?
Note: This memo is a parodic spoof.
You know when you leave a fast-food restaurant, look in your bag, and notice that something small is missing? Like, one of your drinks, or an apple pie? Maybe that's not the result of error. Maybe your local McDonald's is the center of a criminal conspiracy. More »
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ripoffs
Bally Sends Fake Past Due Bills To Ex-Members To Get Them To Rejoin
Reader Jordan writes in to share a past due "bill" that he received from Bally Total Fitness, where he had previously been a member. It turns out that the letter, which specified the amount Jordan owed and threatened to report Jordan to a collection agency if he didn't pay, was actually a sneaky solicitation to get him to renew his contract. More » -
