Morgan would have appreciated it if Time Warner Cable had told him that moving to a different address would give him a different account number. He really would have appreciated it if they had told him his before he moved. And he really, really would have appreciated learning this information before sending six months’ worth of payments into a black hole via auto bill pay. Now his service has been disconnected, and he has to pay a $100 disconnection fee along with paying all of his bills since June over again. Then he might get all of that money he sent to the wrong place back. [More]
account numbers
Fake IRS Fax Demands Your Bank Account And Passport
By 10.10.08
Nick has written in to warn us about a fake IRS scam that lately has been targeting nonresident aliens (e.g. teachers and researchers) working in the U.S., as well as American citizens working abroad. In the scam, which has been going on since at least 2002 (pdf), the target receives a faxed request from the IRS to provide his name, SSN, and pretty much every other bit of data you’d need to take over a person’s financial identity.
UPS Randomly Delivers Unordered, Damaged TV, Charges You For The Pleasure
By 8.30.08
Matt didn’t order a broken 42″ plasma TV, and he didn’t ship one either, but that didn’t stop UPS from plopping a big box with a broken TV on his porch, a service for which they charged $120.12. UPS explained that the TV Matt didn’t ship was being returned to him by the recipient because it was damaged, and it was now his responsibility to arrange for re-delivery. “If I was the shipper,” asked Matt, who lives in Ohio, “why would the package have come from Ontario, CA, not Medina, Ohio?” The TV sat in the rain overnight, and it wasn’t until Matt reached the local depot, where his father worked for 27 years, that he convinced someone to take back the mystery box. Two weeks later, a bill arrived…
Internet Consumer Tip: Don’t Blur Account Numbers
By 1.8.07
BoingBoing picked up a tip from a person claiming to be able to unblur photoshop’s mosaic filters, possibly revealing sensitive info on checks/whathaveyou that you’ve posted to the internet during the course of your consumer blogging.
