There are your everyday ATM skimming schemes, and then there are global hacking operations that allegedly siphoned $45 million from ATMs around the globe in just a few hours. It’s kind of like a flash mob, said one former prosecutor, and the ease with which it was apparently carried out has got those in the security world a little bit nervous. [More]
bad consumers
Add “Hijacking Customers’ Internet To File False Tax Claims” To List Of Cable Installation Worries
By 5.8.13
While there are plenty of cable servicemen doing awesome things like saving kittens and well, the normal business of installing Internet so we can read about kittens getting saved, one contractor kept himself involved in his customers lives in a less than savory way. In order to file a bunch of fraudulent tax returns, totaling about $91,000, he simply hooked himself up to customers’ Internet service after he’d installed it. [More]
A Bucket Of Chili Proves Useful In Thwarting Would-Be Robbers At Chicken Joint
By 5.6.13
Silly would-be robbers — if you haven’t learned by now not to try to steal from a restaurant with an abundance of hot stuff around, well, things probably won’t work out for you. Police Down Under say a man attempting a heist at a Sydney chicken shop left with a faceful of hot chili flakes instead of cash, due to a quick-thinking employee. [More]
Man Surprised That Store Called “Finders Keepers” Actually Wants Him To Pay For Stuff
By 5.3.13
Newsflash: A store’s name is not always meant to be taken literally. That’s news to one man who claims he was just abiding by the name of a Massachusetts retailer, Finders Keepers. By his reasoning, he found stuff he wanted on the store’s porch, sitting out there for anyone, and he kept it. Cops and the store’s owner disagree with his logic. [More]
Punching A Cashier In The Face Won’t Make A Free Ice Cream Coupon Any Less Expired
By 5.2.13
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: staying calm and reasonable will get you so much farther than getting all violent and punchy. Although it’s still all in the Land of Alleged, police say a Long Island man punched a Carvel worker in the face after she refused to honor his expired coupon for a free ice cream cone. Sigh. [More]
Suspected Peeping Toms Crash Through Ceiling Of Women’s Bathroom At Movie Theater
By 5.2.13
Here’s the thing: If you don’t want people to suspect you of being a peeping Tom, don’t crawl around in the ceiling above a women’s bathroom. But if you do happen to fall through such a ceiling, like two men did in Georgia? Cops will probably accuse you of spying on ladies. Which is what happened just recently. [More]
Returning To Pay Restaurant Check A Week Later Is A Nice Move Unless You Decide To Pick A Fight
By 4.29.13
It’s not always easy to do the right thing, but one man’s conscience apparently kicked in a week after he’d walked out on a restaurant bill. He came back to pay the bill which is great, good for him and all of that — but then allegedly got belligerent with the eatery’s staff while doing so. [More]
Maybe Man Accused Of Stealing Whitening Strips, Condoms & Weight-Loss Pills Had A Hot Date
By 4.26.13
Police in Colorado are on the lookout for a guy who’s probably having a really great time now, or is at least looking quite dashing and dapper while doing so. Authorities say a “well-groomed” suspect waltzed into several Walgreens stores and boosted more than $2,600 worth of teeth-whitening strips, weight-loss pills, probiotics, condoms and Rogaine, as well as other hair-growth products. [More]
Restaurant Learns Instagram Isn’t Intended For Hurling Racial Slurs At Bad Tippers
By 4.25.13
Someone at a restaurant in Delaware missed the class where they explain that the usual place to vent racially biased frustration at a customer is on the receipt, as the eatery is now having to do a lot of apologizing for things that showed up on its Instagram page. [More]
Man Gets 15 Months In Jail For Plane Hoax, Has To Write 38 Apology Letters To Passengers
By 4.22.13
Just in case you ever need a really good reason not to call in a fake bomb threat to an airplane, look no farther than the incident last year where armed agents swarmed a tarmac at Philadelphia International Airport, arrested one guy on the U.S. Airways flight and freaked out a whole bunch of travelers: Turns out the call was made by another man, jealous of a Facebook photo of his girlfriend that the other man had posted. He’s in big trouble now. [More]
Off-Duty Cop Gets Impatient At McDonald’s, Pulls Gun On Customer
By 4.18.13
When we write about customer disputes at fast food joints, it usually involves the cops showing up to put an end to things. But here’s a tale of an impatient police officer who has been accused of pulling his gun on the car in front of him at the McDonald’s drive-thru. [More]
Cops On The Lookout For Guy With An ATM That Doesn’t Belong To Him
By 4.9.13
Anyone living in North Carolina — if your friend lets you use his “personal” ATM, perhaps in the living room or backyard, it’s probably not his. We say that because police are currently on the hunt for a suspect who first stole an excavator from a construction site and then used it to boost a 2,000-pound ATM nearby. [More]
You Could Steal A Lot In The Time It Takes To Read This 7-Eleven Anti-Shoplifting Sign (But It’s Worth It)
By 4.8.13 — Updated: 4.10.13
Usually, the signs you see posted at stores intended to identify, shame and/or deter known shoplifters are nothing more than a Polaroid with a name, maybe height and age. But this poster at a 7-Eleven store takes shaming up a notch, and introduces us to our new favorite phrase “sub sandwich erection.” [More]
Nobody Move Or The Spaghetti Will Be Ruined: Woman Robs Bank With Tomato Sauce “Bomb”
By 4.8.13
We’ve seen our share of consumers gone wrong, people who rob banks and maybe get caught, maybe don’t. But never before have we seen someone risk their dinner during a heist. A woman accused of robbing a bank in Michigan got away with a heist recently by claiming she had a bomb in a bag. In no world is spaghetti sauce an explosive device, unless maybe Gallagher and his mallet are involved. [More]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Ask Concertgoers To Say No No No To Using Their Phones During Show
By 4.8.13
Since it seems that people can’t stop using their phones for even a few moments to enjoy a live concert, the members of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs are taking the proactive step of telling fans to put their stupid smartphones away so they can remember what it was like to have a good time in 2005. [More]
Cops Track Down Stolen TV Based On Suspicious Activity On Owner’s Netflix Account
By 4.5.13
Somebody’s watching you — and it might just be your Netflix account. Which turned out to be a very good thing for the owner of a stolen TV in Raleigh, N.C. who had linked up his Netflix account with the device. Police not only recovered the TV in question but a cache of allegedly stolen goods at another home. [More]
Woman Files Insurance Claim For Stolen Items Using Receipts From Store That Didn’t Exist
By 4.4.13
It’s quite awful to have more than $116,000 in jewelry, electronics and high-end accessories, including a Lois Vuitton purse, stolen from the back of your dad’s Lexus. Awful! But if those items perhaps never even existed and you file an insurance claim on them using receipts from a store that wasn’t open on the date of the receipts… Don’t expect any sympathy from police. [More]
Enraged At Wrong Sauce, Customers Attacked Dip-Hurling Pretzel Stand Worker
By 4.2.13
It’s every snack lover’s nightmare: you get your pretzel, dip it in the provided dipping sauce, and discover that the idiot behind the counter at Auntie Anne’s pretzels gave you the wrong sauce. Only they wouldn’t replace it for free because the snackers had already used the offending sauce. [More]
