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scams
scams
Septuagenarian Couple Scammed Inns And Hotels For Four Years
The next time you stay at a bed and breakfast and you see a kindly old couple lingering in the common room after breakfast, be suspicious! The Wolffs have been scamming inns, hotels, rented homes, and bed & breakfasts since 2005, reports the Boston Globe. They offer to pay via check, and until recently--when they stayed in one place so long that they were still around when the check bounced--nobody ever thought they might be pulling a fast one. They're due in court this month for defrauding several inns over the past summer. More »
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Ripoff Video Maker "Vision Media Television" Renames As "Great America HD"
"Vision Media Television," after getting exposed in a NY Times story as a ripoff production company, has changed its name to "GreatAmericaHD" and is back to its same tricks. The way it works is they call up non-profit organizations with an alluring pitch: a chance to be featured in a nationally-broadcast PBS show anchored by established broadcaster. In this case, Hugh Downs. What they don't tell you is that you'll have to front upwards of $20,000 in production costs, and the "program" they shoot will never see the light of day. More »
Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell
A scammy robocaller had spoofed Rodger's phone number and angry recipients of the calls were calling him incessantly, but now it's over. With AT&T's help, he realized that the autodialer had spoofed his new work number, which was being forwarded to his cellphone. So he disabled the call forwarding, kept his cellphone number, and just had his new work number changed. Victory. More »
RoboCaller Spoofed My Cell, Now Angry People Call Me Nonstop
(psd)
Rodger is screwed. A telephonic bot is using his cellphone number as the caller ID as it spam calls thousands of people. It's probably a scam, too, because the message it leaves tells people that if they've had their credit card canceled recently, to press "1" and then enter their credit card number. Rodger knows exactly the message that's left because loads of these people are angrily calling back his cellphone.
UPDATE: Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell More »
UPDATE: Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell More »
Mass Homeopathic Overdose Planned For Tomorrow!
In a little less than 12 hours, over 300 skeptics throughout the U.K. will protest the homeopathic medicine industry there by deliberately overdosing on full bottles of homeopathic pills, which technically don't contain any molecules of the active ingredient. The group's goal is to highlight the fact that homeopathic cures are about as scientifically valid as your horoscope. I'm all for stunts, but don't they know that they'll likely suffer from the memory of an OD? That's how this stuff works, you know. More »
NY AG Guns For "Discount Clubs" Webloyalty, Affinion And Vertrue
(Photo: saebaryo)
New York's Attorney General has subpoenaed 22 retailers as part of an investigation into the allegedly deceptive practices of internet "discount clubs" Webloyalty, Affinion and Vertrue. "We want it stopped. We believe it is a classic consumer fraud,'' said Cuomo. More »
Kiefer Sutherland Roped Into $869k Bovine Ponzi Scheme
(Photo: tyger_lyllie)
Actor Kiefer Sutherland has lost $869,000 to a con-man who roped him into a bum cow investing scheme. Shyster Michael Wayne Carr had a plan to buy cows in Mexico and sell them in the US for a profit, but allegedly never bought the cows and sold cows that weren't his. More »
Don't Let An Unknown Caller Talk You Into Downloading Software
(Photo: stuartpilbrow)
In the wide world of scams, this combination of a phone call and computer malware is sort of a novel twist. Jay likes to string phone scammers along to waste their time, so he managed to get quite a few details about how this particular scam works. If you've got naive family members with access to computers, either take away their computers or tell them never to download software from a stranger on the phone. More »
Is This Captcha Code Trying To Tell Us Something?
A Consumerist reader writes, "So it's been a while. I'm starting to get desperate. Why don't I check out a new dating site I just heard about? My first concern is always, 'Is it a scam site or is it real? What happens to my credit card info if it is a scam?' So in the process of signing up, I received this warning." Look on the bright side, OP, at least it didn't make you type "Herpes."
Check Your Phone Bill For Bogus Charges From OAN
(Photo: Don Fulano)
Check your phone bills for the past few months for a bogus $14.95 charge (+$.46 tax) from "OAN Ideal Savings Now." A message on our voicemail hotline tipped us off, and online complaints, like these 188, echo our reader's grievance. It's called cramming, and it's illegal. More »
Spammer Forgets To Fill Out Personalization Fields
(Photo: icanhascheezburger)
I got this spam recently. Looks like our spammer forgot to fill out his form fields! "Whatsup My parents are from #CSVFIELD(3)# too! Are you 100% sure you wish to get rid of this #CSVFIELD(2)#?"I love how vague and modular it is, it's like spam madlibs! More »
Lexicon Puts $500 Blu-Ray Player In New Case, Charges $3000 Markup ...And Gets Caught
(Photo: Lexicon)
If you've always suspected that high-end audiovisual equipment is sort of a ripoff, the folks at Audioholics have confirmed some of your suspicions. In their review of the $3500, THX-certified Lexicon BD-30, the site just came out and said it: the player is another manufacturer's very nice $500 Blu-Ray player slapped inside a new case and sold with a $3000 markup. More »
2 Rules That Will Help You Beat Telephone Scammers
(Photo:amyadoyzie)
Recently, someone I know was scammed on the telephone. This person said to me, “But the scam was very convincing.” I replied, “Yes, that is how scams are.” They don’t ride up to you on a giant horse with SCAM painted on it, wearing a huge cowboy hat and shooting six-guns into the air. More »
Check Fraudster Strikes On Craigslist
(Photo: laurenatclemson)
Hopefully most of you know better than to ever accept a check from a stranger, but I think it's always good to share horror stories like this one to remind people of why it's a bad idea. The problem is, if you deposit a check that turns out to be fake, you're the one who will be held responsible for it. Unlike credit card theft, there's no law or rule in place to protect you from check fraud or advance fee fraud--and your bank doesn't want to be left holding the bag any more than you do. More »
Redbox Customer Rents Blank Disk
Russ says he rented a movie from Redbox and ended up with a blank disc. He also says he can't get an answer from Redbox on what to do next.
More »I rented three DVDs for my kids at a San Antonio, TX location, then drove back home with them to Austin. When I took one of them out of its case, I noticed that it was a just a blank CD-R. The previous renter had taken the I.D. label from the original DVD and messily placed it on the CD-R.
U.S. Fidelis Stops Selling Useless Car Warranties
Remember US Fidelis, one of the nation's leading companies in the useless auto warranty market? Since the company's anti-consumer practices were uncovered this spring in a Today Show exposé, they haven't been doing very well. The company has laid off over half of its employees, and now has stopped selling new service contracts altogether. More »
Scams That Came Of Age In 2009
(Photo: bubble dumpster)
Get-poor-quickly schemes abounded in 2009, and Mark Huffman Consumer Affairs sifted through the best of the best to come up the top 10 scams of 2009. More »
Visa Cuts Off Payments To Unrepentant Scammers
Photo: Largeprime
That "local mom" trying to sell you her secret formulas for weight loss and tooth whitening in Internet ads may need to find a new job. Visa cut off payments to 100 merchants. The culled companies were the fine folks behind the "free sample" negative-option scams that Consumerist has written about extensively in the past. More »
How Cons Steal Your ATM Card
The Real Hustle shows two methods fraudsters can use to jack your ATM card and PIN. The first is the skimming method most of us are familiar with. The second is a lo-tech distraction-based method that, while interesting, seems a little higher risk than most card thieves are willing to put up with. More »
FTC Online Mall Teaches Tweens About Online Privacy, Scammers
Photo: afagen
This month, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled You Are Here, a virtual mall where kids can learn to avoid online scams, spot misleading ads, and learn good habits to be smart consumers. More »
