A few million current and former AT&T wireless customers can look forward to a bit of a well-timed holiday surprise this year: money! AT&T promised to refund customers at least $80 million as part of a settlement it reached with the FTC over unlawful wireless bill charges, and the Commission announced those checks started going into the mail today. [More]
Crime & Fraud
CA Man Who Posed As Immigration Lawyer Charged With Defrauding Consumers
By 12.8.16
Two weeks after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, along with a number of immigration advocates, warned all consumers about the possible increased risk of immigration fraud following the recent presidential election, his counterpart in California charged the owner of one such operation that allegedly defrauded countless immigrants. [More]
Wells Fargo Already Playing Its ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ Card To Avoid Lawsuits Over Fake Accounts
By 12.7.16
Wells Fargo is facing multiple lawsuits from customers and employees over the long-running fake account fiasco that saw more than two million bogus, unauthorized accounts being opened in customers’ names. Even though lawmakers and consumer advocates have repeatedly asked the bank to not sidestep its liability by using an often-ignored clause in its customer agreement, lawyers for Wells Fargo have already begun to play that “get out of jail free” card. [More]
Activists Emphasize Walmart’s Crime Problem In TV Ads Airing In 4 Cities
By 12.7.16 — Updated: 12.16.16
A number of Walmart stores around the country have been called out for being the epicenters of disproportionate levels of criminal activity and calls to the police. Now a union-backed labor advocacy group is using this information against the nation’s largest retailer in an TV ad campaign highlighting Walmart’s alleged high crime rates — and its cost to local taxpayers. [More]
Makers Of ‘As Seen On TV’ Products Sue Amazon Over “Rampant” Counterfeiting
By 12.7.16
Companies like Allstar Marketing, Ideavillage Products, and Ontel Products aren’t household names, but you probably recognize the names of their signature products: they’re the companies behind the Snuggie, Copper Fit compression apparel, and Veggetti spiral slicers. These three makers of as-seen-on-TV doodads have sued Amazon, claiming the e-commerce giant allows vendors to sell counterfeit versions of their products — and that those counterfeit items can be found in Amazon’s own warehouses. [More]
These Toys Don’t Just Listen To Your Kid; They Send What They Hear To A Defense Contractor
By 12.6.16
Kids say a lot of random, unsolicited, or just plain personal things to their toys while playing. When that toy is stuffed with just fluff and beans, it doesn’t matter what the kid says: their toy is a safe sounding board. When their playtime companion is an internet-connected recording device that ships off audio files to a remote server without even notifying parents — that’s a whole other kind of problem. [More]
Customers Complain When Walmart Won’t Honor Pricing Error That Listed 70″ TV For $99
By 12.5.16
If you see a TV that normally sells for $2,000 suddenly listed for sale at $99, you probably know it’s either stolen, worthless, or — most likely — a pricing error. You’re free to try to take advantage of that goof, but you don’t really have much of a legal leg to stand on if they realize the error and cancel your order.
[More]
United Gets Off Easy, Pays $2.4M Penalty For Using Planes To Chauffeur Airport Exec To Vacation Home
By 12.5.16
Last year, United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek abruptly resigned amid a federal investigation into allegations that the airline had provided illegal special favors to an official in charge of Newark Liberty International Airport — including relaunching a route to South Carolina that just happened to be near a home owned by that official. United has now agreed to pay $2.4 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into these allegations — just a tiny portion of the financial benefit the airline received as a result of this back-room dealing. [More]
Walmart Employee Arrested For Attempts At Killing Coworkers, Setting Store On Fire
By 12.5.16
Authorities don’t know exactly what led a 24-year-old Walmart employee of an Arizona Walmart store to turn on her coworkers, but say that she had a series of potentially deadly plans for them that fell through. What began as a dispute inside the store could have turned tragic when she returned with a rifle, ammunition, a knife, and a torch. [More]
Couple Claims Car Dealership Employee Stole Intimate Photos, Sent Them To Swingers’ Site
By 12.2.16 — Updated: 12.5.16
The thing about private photos is that they’re supposed to be just that: private. But a couple in Texas says not only did a car dealership employee swipe intimate photos from one of their phones, he then emailed them to a site for swingers. [More]
Visa And Mastercard Push Chip Card Deadline For Gas Pumps Back To 2020
By 12.2.16
Americans get to face another three years at higher risk of having our payment card numbers scooped up by criminals while we fuel up our cars. The major credit card networks, Visa and Mastercard, have given gas stations an extension, pushing the deadline for them to install payment terminals with chip (EMV) readers back to October 2020. [More]
No Pizza Is Worth Crawling Through Ventilation Duct To Steal
By 12.2.16
Listen, I get it. Pizza is delicious, and you may be tempted to go to extremes to be near it. But it is not a good idea to crawl through a pizzeria’s ventilation system in an effort to burgle the restaurant that makes it. [More]
Intoxicated Best Buy Worker Can’t Hold Store Liable For Letting Him Drive Home, Crash His Car
By 12.2.16
If you show up to work so overly medicated that you won’t remember it the next day, it’s pretty likely that your employer is going to notice and send you home (and maybe tell you to never come back), but if you wreck your car on the way home, can you hold your employer responsible for letting you drive away? [More]
Scammers Ran A Fake U.S. Embassy In Ghana For A Decade Before Being Shut Down
By 12.2.16
The U.S. Embassy in Ghana is a large, secured office building in the bustling West African port city of Accra, but for a decade scammers convinced some folks that their humble two-story structure — without security fencing, U.S. military guards,… or Americans of any sort — was indeed the office of the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana. [More]
Foxconn Employee Accused Of Stealing & Reselling 5,700 iPhones
By 12.2.16
This sounds like something from a TV episode, or maybe even a novel or film: an employee who works with sensitive, high-value technology manages to sneak test units out of the job for years and sell them for a fat wad of cash. In a movie, he’d take the money and retire quietly to a nice tropical island where the drinks come with umbrellas in them. In reality, however, he is now being indicted by Taiwanese authorities for the theft. [More]
For-Profit College Industry Eyes Resurgence Under Trump Administration
By 12.2.16
At its height, the for-profit college industry represented about 25% of all federal student aid, even though these schools only accounted for about 8% of U.S. college students. Meanwhile, these schools were spending the large majority of their money on advertising instead of education, and their students were defaulting on loans at double the rate of other borrowers. Since then, several education chains have shuttered due in no small part to federal investigations and regulations, but investors are seeing sunnier days ahead under a business-friendly Trump White House. [More]
Proposed “Justice For Victims Of Fraud Act” Would Take Away Wells Fargo’s Get Out Of Jail Free Card
By 12.1.16
Wells Fargo has admitted that millions of its customers were victimized by bank employees who opened unauthorized accounts in these customers’ names, but those fake account fiasco victims can’t file lawsuits against the bank because of clauses buried in their account contracts. A newly introduced piece of legislation would prevent Wells Fargo from using that clause to minimize its responsibility under the law. [More]
Thief With Impeccable Timing Grabs Bucket Of Gold Flakes Worth $1.6M From Armored Truck
By 11.30.16
He only had about 20 seconds of distraction, but that’s all it took for one thief to walk off with about $1.6 million worth of gold flakes on a busy New York City street. [More]
