The job of a retail loss prevention officer is pretty clear — don’t let people steal stuff, and if you see someone who is, call the cops. But one Target security worker claims that after he reported a shoplifting suspect who may or may not be a police officer, he was fired. [More]
Crime & Fraud
Target Security Worker Claims He Was Fired For Reporting Shoplifting Suspect Who Might Be A Cop
By 7.14.14
Throwing A Gumball Machine At Restaurant Staff Is No Way To Resolve A Pizza Dispute
By 7.14.14
In the annals of customer service requests marked down over time, there is no entry about getting your way that starts with, “Pick up a gumball machine and chuck it.” And after a pizzeria customer allegedly did just that, nothing is going to change. [More]
3 Scams Targeted At Hotel Guests
By 7.14.14
Between all the fees and add-on charges that can come with a hotel reservation, just booking a room for the night can make you feel like you’ve been taken for a ride. But even when the hotel isn’t trying to nickel-and-dime you, there are scammers out there ready to steal your money by preying on common assumptions made by hotel guests. [More]
Police: Hey, Knuckleheads — The Bathroom Of Chuck E. Cheese’s Is No Place To Be Smoking Heroin
By 7.11.14
Not that there’s anywhere you should be doing illegal drugs, but public places are exceptionally awful venues for such activities And ratcheting up the inappropriate level to 11? Smoking heroin in the bathroom of a Chuck E. Cheese, as police say two “knuckleheads” decided to do in California. [More]
Phony Payday Loan Brokers Must Turn Over Rolls Royce, Maserati, Ferrari To Feds
By 7.11.14
When someone goes hunting for a payday loan — just looking to get their hands on a small amount of cash to tide them over until the next paycheck — it’s bad enough that they can end up trapped in a hellish debt cycle that sees them taking out loan after loan. But the FTC says a Tampa-based operation preyed upon these already-desperate victims by tricking them into applying for payday loans, only to steal their info and what little money they had. [More]
Former Town Official Gets Five Years’ Probation For Stealing $460K In Quarters
By 7.10.14
An ex-inspector for a New Jersey town who pleaded guilty to stealing $460,000 in quarters — yes, that’s 1.8 million coins — from the city’s parking meters has been sentenced to five years’ probation. The inspector apologized, and will have to pay back almost half of what he stole. [More]
Bar Worker Returns $200 She Stole From Bar Owners She Worked For 15 Years Ago
By 7.9.14
While it’s always better to not do bad things in the first place, there’s always the “better late than never” approach to making up for past misdeeds. Like a bar worker who sent her former employers $200 to compensate for money she’d swiped from the business 15 years ago, complete with an apology note saying she regrets doing it. [More]
More Tiny ATM Skimmers That Will Haunt Your Wallet’s Nightmares
By 7.8.14
Would you notice a tiny ATM skimmer that hides just inside the card slot and slurps up your personal data? The European ATM Security Team, a not-for-profit organization that tracks ATM-related crime in different parts of the European Union, recently showed off some new and nearly invisible skimmers that they harvested in an unnamed country. It’s like a horror movie for your bank account. [More]
Impersonating A Sheriff And Pulling People Over While Test Driving A Car Ends Predictably For Oregon Man
By 7.8.14
There are surely plenty of signs to alert even the most unobservant person that someone is impersonating an officer of the law. A really bright red flag? When said person tries to pull a fellow motorist over while test driving a car. [More]
Group Of 20 Thieves Hit Samsung Factory, Grab Millions Worth Of Electronics
By 7.8.14
Like one of those heist movies starring a well-dressed, smirking George Clooney and his BFF Brad Pitt, a group of about 20 thieves overpowered workers at a Samsung factory in Brazil and managed to make off with about 40,000 phones, tablets, computers and other electronics. [More]
Cops: Driver Who Fled Scene Of Crash Was “Too Busy Drinking” To Take A Breath Test
By 7.7.14
There are many ways you can get in trouble for drinking and driving, and refusing the take a test to prove otherwise because you’re too busy guzzling booze, well, that might be one of the most direct routes to incarceration. [More]
T-Mobile: We Shouldn’t Be Sued Over Bill-Cramming Because We’re Not Doing It Anymore & We’re Super-Sorry
By 7.1.14
Earlier this afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against T-Mobile, alleging the wireless carrier made hundreds of millions of dollars off of bogus premium text-messaging charges “crammed” onto customers’ bills. The response from T-Mobile CEO John Legere isn’t exactly what you would describe as contrite. [More]
T-Mobile Accused Of Making A Ton Of Cash From Bogus Charges On Phone Bills
By 7.1.14
T-Mobile, a company that has tried to position itself as being consumer-friendly, has been accused by federal regulators of being anything but friendly. The self-described “Un-carrier” has been accused in federal court of making hundreds of millions of dollars off of so-called “premium” text-messaging subscriptions that were often never requested by subscribers. [More]
Police: Man Swipes 72 Pounds Of Whole Frozen Chickens, Drops’Em Off At Day Care
By 7.1.14
Let’s get one thing straight — day care is meant for children, not for stashing things you don’t have time to take care of at the moment. For example: 72 pounds worth of whole, frozen chickens that police say one man swiped from a truck and decided to hide at a local day care. [More]
Debt Collection Scammers Calling Victims’ Family & Co-Workers To Squeeze Money From People
By 7.1.14
A debt collection scam operates on two principles: That lots of us have debt, and that the con artist is good enough at his art to trick some of us into believing we have to pay immediately. But some scammers are bringing outside parties into their grift, contacting victims’ families and co-workers in the hopes that this will result in pressure to pay up on the bogus debt. [More]
Bank Closes Temporarily After Customer Calmly Leaves A Few Steaming Deposits On The Floor
By 7.1.14
A branch of Barclays bank in the U.K. had to shut down temporarily yesterday, after a customer walked in and reportedly made a few stinky deposits. Fine, I won’t dance around it: He pooped. On the floor. Multiple times. [More]
Former Delta Employee Accused Of Approving $22 Million In Fake Invoices
By 6.30.14
If you’ve ever worked at a large, profitable company that spends billions of dollars a year, you’ve probably thought about how easily one (but certainly not you!) could sneak fake charges through the system without anyone even noticing. And for nearly 10 years, an employee at Northwest (and then Delta) managed to make that daydream a reality, allegedly siphoning off $22 million through bogus invoices. [More]
Former Chick-fil-A Worker Accused Of Robbing KFC Drive-Thru Window At Gunpoint
By 6.27.14
Either something’s afoot in the world of chicken fast food restaurants, or it’s just a coincidence that a man accused of robbing a KFC at gunpoint happened to be an ex-employee of another chicken joint, Chick-fil-A. [More]
