Proving that a guilty conscience can be a powerful thing, a convenience store clerk in South Carolina shamed an armed man who was trying to rob the store into backing out of the dastardly deed. [More]
Crime & Fraud
Former StarKist Tuna Executive Pleads Guilty To Price-Fixing
By 6.29.17
Of all the industries to be rocked by scandal, you probably never expected that Big Tuna would be a hotbed of conspiracy. And yet, another fishy exec has agreed to plead guilty to his part in a price-fixing scheme that resulted in American shoppers paying more at the store. [More]
Scammers Use Counterfeit Cash At Victoria’s Secret, Get Upset When They Get Their Fake Money Back As Refund
By 6.29.17
The entire point of having counterfeit cash is to get it out of your hands by purchasing things or swapping it out with genuine legal tender. So it doesn’t help if you scam a store into accepting your faux bills and then get greedy by trying to con them a second time, only to end up with the counterfeit money you had in the first place. [More]
2 Years After Being Sentenced, Egg Execs Behind Massive Salmonella Outbreak Are Finally Going To Prison
By 6.28.17
In April 2015, a federal judge sentenced the father and son former executives of the inaccurately named Quality Egg — the company behind a salmonella outbreak that sickened around 60,000 people — to three months in prison, but neither of the two men have begun to serve their sentence, hoping the U.S. Supreme Court would see things their way. But now that the Supremes have snubbed the eggs-executives, it’s finally time for them to do their brief stints behind bars. [More]
Here Are Some Insightful Things That People Said About The Theft Of A Jimmy John’s Meat Slicer
By 6.27.17
Deli meat slicers are expensive pieces of equipment, and useful ones if you want to run a sandwich shop. Police in Indiana are looking for someone who cut through the ceiling of a Jimmy John’s sub shop and took a meat slicer, the store’s video surveillance system, some aprons, and… that’s pretty much it. [More]
Company Stops Selling Cladding Linked To Deadly London Apartment Tower Fire
By 6.26.17
A type of lightweight aluminum cladding made by Arconic (formerly known as Alcoa) has been discontinued after being linked to the deadly fire that claimed at least 79 lives at the 24-story Grenfell Tower in London. [More]
Report: Instagram Influencers Continue To Ignore Warnings About Stealth Ads
By 6.26.17
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission issued dozens of friendly reminders to brands that they were potentially breaking advertising/endorsement rules by compensating Instagram “influencers” without being transparent about this sponsorship. According to a new report, this message apparently didn’t influence the influencers, many of whom continue to stealth-advertise to their followers. [More]
People Stealing Stuff From Stores Reaches All-Time High
By 6.22.17 — Updated: 6.27.17
Retailers are spending less on loss prevention, and maybe that’s not such a good idea. In 2016, the rate of “shrinkage,” or inventory that goes missing for any reason, increased to 1.44% of all sales, or a total of almost $48.9 billion. [More]
Armed Robber Forces Family To Take Him Shopping At Target
By 6.22.17
A North Carolina family went on a very scary shopping trip on Tuesday, after Durham police say a man knocked on their door to ask for money, and then forced them at gunpoint to take him shopping at Target. [More]
Cop Dressed As Batman Stops Walmart Shoplifter With Copy Of ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’
By 6.21.17
In Texas, there’s a real-life cop who moonlights as a superhero. While off-duty, he dresses as characters including Batman, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk, and visits children in hospitals. While he was visiting a safety event at a Walmart store, though, he foiled a real-life crime. [More]
Customs Officials Put The Kibosh On Literal Snail Mail
By 6.20.17
It doesn’t have to be a slow news day to get a chuckle out of the news that U.S Customers and Border Protection officials recently stopped a shipment of literal snail mail from entering the country. [More]
Man Admits He Helped Steal 94,000 Credit, Debit Card Numbers From Michaels Stores
By 6.20.17
If you can stretch your memory all the way back to the spring of 2011, before data breaches seemed commonplace, perhaps you will recall when Michaels warned customers that PIN pad information at some of its stores might have been exposed. Now, a California man has admitted his role in a conspiracy to swipe 94,000 credit and debit card numbers from customers at around 80 Michaels stores. [More]
The Acting Chairman Of The FTC Does Not Want Your Bank Info
By 6.20.17
While you may be flattered to receive an email that’s purportedly from Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, we’ve got to break it to you: She isn’t going to email you, and even if she did, she would definitely not ask you for your bank account information. [More]
As Opioid Hospitalizations Soar, Report Claims Imprisoning Drug Offenders Doesn’t Affect Overdoses Or Use
By 6.20.17
Since 2005, the rate of opioid-related emergency room visits has doubled and hospitalizations are up 64%. At the same time, many states are sending more people to prison for drug-related offenses. However, a new analysis contends that there is no apparent link between drug imprisonments and reining in the problems associated with the ongoing epidemic. [More]
Lawmaker Calls For Ouster Of 12 Wells Fargo Board Members
By 6.19.17
Since Wells Fargo’s fake account fiasco came to light in Sept. 2016, the top executive at the bank has “retired,” other executives have departed, and many have lost bonuses. Despite this, there are many holdovers from the years when employees opened millions of unauthorized accounts. To this end, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for the ouster of 12 Wells Fargo board members. [More]
Clothing Retailer Buckle Had A 6-Month Malware Infection
By 6.19.17
Buckle is a denim-centric clothing store that sells “medium to better–priced” clothes for men and women. It may not be a household name, but there’s probably a store near you, with around 450 locations in 44 states. The chain admitted over the weekend that its payment systems were infected with malware from Oct. 2016 to April 2017, potentially compromising customers’ payment card data. [More]
Fake Breast Cancer Charity Must Shut Down, Pay $350K To Real Charities
By 6.16.17
A purported charity called The Breast Cancer Survivors Foundation existed for six years, raising money through direct mailers and soliciting donors over the phone. It took in about $3 million per year, spinning heartwarming tales in its mailings of helping patients. This turned out to not actually be true, and those millions went to the professional fundraiser who ran the operation. [More]
Skin Cream Scammers Keep Stealing YouTube Personality’s Post-Botox Face
By 6.16.17
Skin cream ads on social media boast that their products are “better than Botox,” and they use impressive “before” and “after” images of a purported customer. The problem: The woman in the pictures didn’t give permission to use her image, and the pictures are from before and after her injections of actual Botox. [More]
