All it took was a few stolen key designs and computer codes for a biker gang to successfully steal more than 150 Jeep Wranglers — valued at $4.5 million — from the U.S. and relocate them to Mexico in a years-long heist. [More]
Crime & Fraud
Motorcycle Gang Members Used Key Codes To Boost $4.5M Worth Of Jeep Wranglers
By 6.2.17 — Updated: 6.9.17
Digital Rights Advocates Sue Justice Dept. To Learn More About FBI Paying Off Best Buy Informants
By 6.1.17
A child pornography case in California has grown into a strange thing over the years, as lawyers for the defendant argued — and later proved — that the FBI had been paying Best Buy employees after they found illegal content on customers’ devices. Now the EFF is suing the Justice Department to find out just how the feds found, recruited, and trained these informants, and just how widespread the practice is. [More]
Literal Hamburglar On The Loose: Guy Accused Of Selling $20K Worth Of McDonald’s Food To A Bodega
By 6.1.17
A delivery driver tasked with trucking around food for McDonald’s is a real-life Hamburglar in the eyes of the law: Police say instead of dropping off his haul where it was supposed to go, he diverted $20,000 worth of the chain’s food to a local bodega to line his own pockets. [More]
Kmart Victim Of Second Hack Attack In Three Years
By 6.1.17
Even with fewer stores and sales floors full of boxes, Kmart is still an attractive target for ne’er-do-wells: The retailer has found itself on the receiving end of another hack attack, just three years after its last security breach. [More]
HHS: Taxpayers May Have Overpaid $1.27 Billion For EpiPens
By 5.31.17 — Updated: 6.1.17
Even though drug company Mylan agreed to pay $465 million to quickly settle a Justice Department investigation into allegations that it deliberately overcharged Medicaid for its EpiPen emergency allergy injector, a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that taxpayers may have overpaid more than twice that amount over ten years. [More]
Feds Say Trampoline Company Used Phony Reviews From Bogus Trampoline Experts
By 5.31.17
If you sell a product that has glowing reviews from dependable expert critics, you’d probably want to point that out to customers. Or… you could just go ahead and make up a bunch of fake “expert” sites filled with fictional reviews. [More]
Schemer Claims Subway Manager Needs Bail, Scams $200 From Employee
By 5.31.17
Combining the juvenile tradition of pranking fast food restaurants with the “your relative is in jail” wire fraud scam, someone managed to trick employees at a Subway restaurant to fork over $200 to a complete stranger. [More]
Passenger Kicked Off Southwest Flight Tries To Run Back On Plane, Gets Tackled Instead
By 5.30.17
A man who was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight last night was not going to take no for an answer, and apparently thought he could somehow run his way back onto the plane. He was mistaken. [More]
Online Eyeglass Vendor Who Threatened Customers Arrested Again For Running Another Bogus Store
By 5.26.17
You may remember the bizarre tale of Vitaly Borker, the man who served three years in prison for trying to boost his Google search ranking by harassing his customers online. Federal prosecutors say he’s back at it, once again selling eyewear on the internet, and allegedly bullying customers who dare to ask for refunds. [More]
American Airlines Passenger Tries To Bite Flight Attendant Before Jumping To Tarmac
By 5.26.17
An American Airlines passenger has been charged with interfering with flight crew members after he allegedly bit a flight attendant and jumped from the plane to the tarmac at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Thursday. [More]
Customer Accuses Chipotle Of Covering Up For Manager Who Put Spy Cam In Bathroom
By 5.25.17
A woman in Texas claims that not only did a manager at her local Chipotle repeatedly install spy cameras in the restaurant’s female restroom, but that the restaurant and its corporate office covered up the peeping; a charge the Chipotle HQ denies. [More]
Judge Issues Arrest Warrant For Bikram Yoga Founder
By 5.25.17
If you’ve ever done hot yoga, you’ve probably heard at least in passing of Bikram Choudhury, founder of the international Bikram yoga empire. While more than 650 studios worldwide teach his technique, Choudhury himself is on the lam, teaching in Mexico while a judge in California has issued a warrant for his arrest. [More]
Feds Shut Down Alleged Scam Promising Student Loan Relief & Forgiveness
By 5.25.17
A federal court has shut down a Florida-based operation that charged customers $1,200 up front and $50/month with allegedly false promises of getting their student loan payments reduced or forgiven, sometimes in the impossible timeframe of only three years. [More]
Psychiatric Hospital Chain Reportedly Under Investigation For Allegedly Holding Patients Longer Than Needed
By 5.24.17
Investigators from the FBI and the Department of Defense are reportedly looking into allegations that Universal Health Services — the nation’s largest provider of inpatient psychiatric care, with nearly 200 facilities in 38 states and Puerto Rico — is padding its bottom line by deliberately holding patients longer than is medically necessary. [More]
Feds Shut Down Multimillion-Dollar Debt Relief Scam
By 5.23.17 — Updated: 5.25.17
A phony debt relief operation that bilked tens of millions of dollars from individuals — including the disabled and elderly — based on the promise it could lower their debt burden is out of business after a federal court temporarily halted the scheme. [More]
Target Will Pay $18.5M To 47 States To Close Investigations Into 2013 Data Breach
By 5.23.17
Just like those embarrassing Facebook photos of you with your ill-advised “Macklemore” hairdo, Target’s massive 2013 data breach continues to haunt the retailer. Today, the company reached an agreement to pay $18.5 million to close the book on investigations by 47 states (and D.C.) into the month-long attack that exposed information for more than 60 million payment card accounts. [More]
Cancer Faker Who Raked In $130K In Donations Gets 6-Month Sentence
By 5.23.17
After lying about having terminal breast cancer and collecting almost $130,000 in donations for her treatment, a woman pleaded no contest to grand theft and has been sentenced to six months in county jail, 30 days of community labor, and five years of felony probation. She also has to repay the fraudulently obtained donations. [More]
People Whose Names Were Used In Anti-Net Neutrality Spam Want FCC To Investigate
FCC Chair Ajit Pai recently shrugged off concerns about the hundreds of thousands of bogus, identical anti-net neutrality comments filed with the Commission, saying it was something for his IT folks to look into. But the real human beings whose names were used on those fake filings are not as indifferent, and are calling on Pai to investigate. [More]