Instagram already has a lot of reasons it can employ to justify closing a user’s account: hacked feeds, spammers, lawbreakers, bullying, etc. But dozens of Instagram users are raging against the Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform today, saying they were locked out of their accounts without any reason or explanation. [More]
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CenturyLink Employee Says She Was Fired After Alerting CEO To Wells Fargo-Like Scam
By 6.16.17
Most of us have looked at a cable or phone bill and questioned a random charge we felt shouldn’t have been there. Usually this is an error, but a former CenturyLink employee claims that some workers at the telecom company were deliberately adding these charges to pad their sales figures. What’s worse, she says she was fired after bringing this possible scheme to the CEO’s attention. [More]
Anova Reverses Mandatory Accounts For Some Cooks Using The App
By 4.18.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Anova, maker of a popular sous vide cooking device, recently irked many of its customers by requiring that they create accounts — and share personal information — with the company just to use the cooker’s companion app. Anova has apparently heard these complaints and decided to drop this requirement… soon. [More]
Twitter Temporarily Limiting Reach Of User Accounts Sending Abusive Tweets
By 2.16.17
If you planned to send out a mean, abusive Tweet, it might not get very far. Just a week after releasing a trio of tools aimed at dealing with abuse and trolls, Twitter is temporarily limiting the reach of certain messages deemed to be abusive. [More]
Feds Order MasterCard, RushCard Owner To Pay $13M Over Oct. 2015 Outages
By 2.1.17
Nearly 15 months after tens of thousands of users of the prepaid RushCard were cut off from their funds because of an apparent technical glitch, the company behind the card, UniRush and its payment processor MasterCard have been ordered to pay $13 million in refunds and penalties. [More]
Wells Fargo Overhauls Teller Pay System After Fake Account Fiasco
By 1.11.17 — Updated: 1.23.17
Shortly after federal regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million for its decades-long fake account fiasco perpetrated by employees who opened more than two million unauthorized accounts in order to meet high-pressure sales goals, the company said it would ditch the incentive system. Now, the bank has finally outlined its new approach to compensating employees that shifts the focus away from upselling add-on products and toward improved customer satisfaction. [More]
New Account Openings At Wells Fargo Drop 44% A Month After Fake Account Fiasco
By 11.18.16
Since Wells Fargo’s decade-long fake account fiasco came to light in September, analysts have warned that revelations about bank staffers opening millions of unauthorized accounts would result in consumers shying away from Wells. Those analysts may be right, with the bank confirming that new customer accounts fell dramatically during October. [More]
My Bank Overdrafted My Account By Putting Two Holds On One Deposit; Doesn’t Care
By 10.25.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
Imagine that you do everything you can to avoid overdrafting your bank account, only to find that your bank has gone ahead and pushed you into the red — and that it doesn’t really care. [More]
4 Things Former Wells Fargo Workers Revealed About Pressure To Meet Sales Goals
By 9.19.16 — Updated: 9.30.16
On Tuesday morning, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf will face the Senate Banking Committee to answer questions about how the bank’s high-pressure sales goals led a number of employees to fraudulently open up millions of unauthorized accounts. In advance of that hearing, a group of former Wells employees shared their insider views on this scandal. [More]
Lawmakers Want Answers On Walmart Prepaid Card Glitch That Left Thousands Without Funds
By 6.28.16
When a prepared credit card system goes down, millions of unbanked American lose their ability to access funds needed to pay bills, buy groceries, and make other purchases. This scenario was illustrated last month when customers using Walmart-branded Green Dot prepaid debit cards said they had been stranded without their funds for several days, and in some cases weeks. Now, a pair of lawmakers wants to understand the debacle better and work to prevent something similar from happening again. [More]
Twitter Looking Into Rash Of High-Profile Hackings
By 6.7.16
Days after the king of the modern internet — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — found several of his social media accounts in the hands of hackers, similar attacks have befallen the NFL and other high-profile Twitter accounts, leading the social network to investigate. [More]
RushCard To Pay $19M To Customers After Weeks-Long Glitch Last year
By 5.13.16
Last October, thousands of unbanked consumers who rely on prepaid RushCards were unable to access their funds because of a technical glitch. After toying with the idea of creating a compensation fund for those customers, RushCard announced Thursday that it will pay at least $19 million to card users affected by the weeks-long outage. [More]
Banks Attract New Customers, New Fee Income With Check-Cashing Services
By 4.14.16
Instead of imposing new fees on their existing customers, banks have an exciting new idea: attract new customers and charge them fees. Specifically, banks are looking to low-income and lower-middle-income people who might normally use check-cashing stores or check-cashing services in retail stores to gain immediate access to their money. These customers may not make large deposits, but what customers who want access to their cash right away do generate are lots of fees. [More]
Google Testing Password-Free Account Login System
By 12.22.15
Could a smartphone be the new password? That’s the idea behind a new login option being tested at Google. [More]
RushCard To Create Reimbursement Fund For Customers Unable To Access Money
By 10.29.15
The thousands of unbanked consumers who rely on prepaid RushCards but have been unable to access their funds because of a technical glitch, may receive compensation for the issue. [More]
After RushCard Fiasco, Consumer Advocates Urge More Oversight Of Prepaid Cards
By 10.26.15
For the better part of two weeks, thousands of unbanked consumers who rely on prepaid RushCards have been unable to access their funds because of a technical glitch. While the company run by Russell Simmons continues to fix the issue, consumer advocates are pointing at the incident as evidence that federal regulators need to do more to protect prepaid cardholders. [More]
Technical Glitch Locked Customers Out Of Prepaid RushCard System For The Past Week
By 10.19.15
While prepaid credit cards can serve as a lifeline for millions of unbanked Americans in need of an alternative to traditional banking, Russell Simmons’ RushCard recently left thousands of consumers stranded without their funds because of a technical glitch. [More]
Instagram Will Let You Filter Comments On Your Photos
It’s always nice to get positive, and even constructive, feedback on your Instagram photos. It’s not so nice when someone takes the time to hurl insults or make threats in the comments. Soon, Facebook-owned Instagram will give users new anti-harassment tools that let them hide unseemly messages left on their photos. [More]