Sure, some bartenders might serve you a beer a few hours before your official 21st birthday, but that’s a far cry from growing 40 marijuana plants under the assumption that your state is going to legalize pot at some point in the near future. [More]
Crime & Fraud
Victim’s FitBit Data Plays Part In Husband’s Arrest For Her Murder
By 4.25.17
A murdered Connecticut woman may not be able to point out the person who killed her, but police say data obtained from her FitBit fitness tracker helped lead to the arrest of her husband. [More]
Federal Appeals Court: After 11 Years, There’s No More Reason For Big Tobacco To Delay Warning Ads
By 4.25.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
It’s been more than a decade since a federal court ruled against the tobacco industry and ordered the nation’s largest cigarette producers to produce a new series of warning ads. Those warnings have yet to happen, as Big Tobacco has repeatedly appealed just about every aspect of the ruling. Today, one federal appeals panel handed the industry some very minor concessions while basically telling the companies to quit it already with all the legal butt-dragging. [More]
Court Says Eatery Was Wrong To Fire Server Who Called Boss A “Mother$%*!^r” On Facebook
By 4.24.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
If you go on Facebook today to call out your boss, using 12-letter profanities that imply your supervisor has carnal knowledge of their mother, and you also insult your boss’s spouse and kids, you probably won’t have a job to go to tomorrow. Yet a federal appeals court has ruled that a catering service at a well-known Manhattan landmark was in the wrong when it fired a server for this sort of Facebook rant, because that rant was ultimately about a bigger-picture labor dispute. [More]
Scammers Buy Stuff With Your Card, Then Trick You Into ‘Returning’ Items To Them
By 4.24.17 — Updated: 4.26.17
Because there is apparently no limit to the amount of effort someone will put in to being dishonest, scammers are constantly evolving their tricks. For example, it’s no longer enough for someone to just steal your credit card number to go on a shopping spree. Now they have to involve you, by tricking you into actually shipping the fraudulent purchase on to them. [More]
Supreme Court: General Motors Can’t Use Bankruptcy To Avoid Lawsuits Over Deadly Ignition Defect
By 4.24.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The Supreme Court has denied General Motors’ legal efforts to use its 2009 bankruptcy to block lawsuits over injuries and financial losses related to the carmaker’s long-ignored ignition switch defect. [More]
Dentist Accused Of Medicaid Fraud, Pulling Teeth While On Hoverboard
By 4.21.17
Going to the dentist is often unpleasant enough without worrying that your doctor will perform a procedure while riding a hoverboard, but prosecutors in Alaska say one dentist not only defrauded the state out of millions, but he apparently did so while moving around on motorized wheels. [More]
NutriMost ‘Ultimate Fat Loss’ System Slammed With $32 Million Judgment For Overblown Weight Loss Claims
By 4.21.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The marketing for the NutriMost Ultimate Fat Loss system claimed that users could drop 40 pounds, or more, in just 40 days, and without having to fret about calories. However, the Federal Trade Commission says that this $1,900 program is not backed by any science, actually requires a starvation-level diet, uses before-and-after examples from people related to the company, and forces customers to sign agreements that prevent them from saying anything bad about the program. [More]
American Airlines Workers Targeted In $16.7M Hearing Aid Scheme
By 4.21.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Thousands of American Airlines employees unknowingly became the targets of a multi-million dollar insurance fraud scheme carried out by a father-son duo who claimed to provide the airline workers with free hearing aids for simply taking a test. [More]
Wells Fargo Adds Another $32 Million To Fake Account Settlement; Will Cover Customers Going Back To 2002
By 4.21.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Wells Fargo recently reached a $110 million deal that it hoped would close the books on a variety of class action lawsuits related to millions of fake accounts opened by Wells employees trying to game the bank’s system of sales quotas and incentives. That settlement was intended to cover affected Wells customers going back through 2009, but it’s now been expanded by $32 million to add compensation for bank accounts as far back as 2002. [More]
Federal, State Agencies Accuse Ocwen Of Mortgage Errors, Illegal Foreclosures
By 4.20.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
We may be years removed from the robo-signing, foreclosure free-for-all that ensued following the collapse of the housing market, but mortgage servicers continue to screw things up. Today, federal and state regulators sued one of the nation’s largest home loan companies, alleging widespread errors that caused borrowers to lose money, and in some cases their homes. [More]
Vacation Deal Scammer Ordered To Pay $6 Million To Delta For Impersonating Airline
By 4.20.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Another scam artist caught pretending to represent a major airline has been hit with a huge judgment. This time, it’s a Florida businessman who has been ordered to pay $6 million for using Delta Air Lines’ name and logo to lure victims into buying bogus vacation packages. [More]
Bank Regulator Knew Of Problems At Wells Fargo In 2010, Did Nothing
By 4.20.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Now that Wells Fargo has completed its internal investigation into the fake account fiasco that resulted in millions of bogus accounts being opened in customers’ names, one federal banking regulator is admitting that it was aware of hundreds of related complaints nearly a decade ago, but failed to do anything to correct the problem. [More]
Wells Fargo CEO Claims Employees Can Call Ethics Line Without Fear Of Losing Jobs
By 4.19.17
In the six months since Wells Fargo’s fake account fiasco came to light dozens of employees have come forward claiming that their attempts to shed light on other employees’ bad behavior by calling the company’s ethics hotline ended in their termination. But the banking institution’s new executive says that’s no longer a worry. [More]
Breach At Holiday Inn Owner InterContinental May Include More Than 1,000 Hotels, Not 12
By 4.19.17
InterContinental Hotels Group, which operates chains like Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, recently admitted that the payment systems in some of its restaurants and bars had been compromised, and released a list of 12 affected locations. It turns out that the list was short by well over 1,000. [More]
Judge Says Uber Can’t Use “Deficient” Sign-Up Process To Strip Users Of Their Right To Sue
By 4.18.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Can Uber use some contractual language that users never actively acknowledge to force wronged customers out of the courtroom and break up class-action lawsuits? Currently, that depends on which federal judge you ask, with yet another court ruling that Uber may not be doing enough to tell users that they are giving up their right to a day in court. [More]
Man Stole $11,000 In Stuff From Home Depot, Then Returned It All For Refunds
By 4.18.17
Most practitioners of the “hot exchange” — the retail grift where a fraudster steals an item then “returns” it to the store for a refund — are happy to chisel away a criminal living, earning $50 here, $100 there. But one Texas man was thinking big when he stole — and then returned — more than $11,000 from Home Depot stores. [More]
Now The Federal Government Is Warning Against Scammy Nintendo Switch Emulators
By 4.18.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Almost immediately after Nintendo released its new Switch gaming console, videos and banner ads touted emulators that could let you play Switch games on your PC, meaning you don’t have to pay the $300 retail price. Problem is: There currently aren’t any freely available, legitimate emulators. This hasn’t stopped hopeful Switch fans from downloading these apps anyway. After multiple warnings from journalists and tech security companies went unheeded, the Federal Trade Commission is officially advising gamers to not fall for this con. [More]
