Considering that laptops are designed to be easily carried and stowed away — and considering just how much important personal and financial information is often stored on them — it’s no surprise that they’re such a target for thieves. But there are some simple things you should do now in case it’s stolen in the future. [More]
crime
Is It Okay To Switch Out Eggs At The Supermarket?
By 2.24.10
Zachery says when he goes to buy a dozen eggs, he wants to make sure he’s not paying for any bad ones, so he opens the cartons and switches them out. He says a fellow shopper told him this was illegal. Obviously this fellow shopper is an idiot, but I thought I’d post Zachary’s question anyway just so readers can share their own supermarket QA methods. [More]
Do Not Steal An ATM, Then Ram A Stolen Truck Into It
By 2.21.10
Police in East Peoria, Illinois say that an unidentified man used a stolen pickup truck to smash through the door and front window of a gas station and dislodge an ATM from the wall it was bolted to. He then hauled the machine to a parking lot where he attempted to withdraw cash by backing the truck into the ATM. He was not successful, and may have stolen another vehicle to leave the area. [More]
Why Did The Strip Club Throw Me In Jail For Not Giving A Thumbprint?
By 2.19.10
Going from strip poles to iron bars in one night, a Consumerist reader says he got tossed in jail when he refused to give a strip club his thumbprint. Their ATM was broken so he had to pay his tab using a credit card cash advance. The club demanded a thumbprint and he refused, so cops that were already there threw him in jail. Was this legal? [More]
It's Probably A Bad Idea To Cash A Check For A Stranger
By 2.18.10
I bet if some guy approaches you on the street right as you’re about to walk into your bank or credit union and asks you to cash a check for him, you’d say no. That’s a good idea. Apparently at least two people in Madison, Wisconsin thought they were doing a good deed and helped the man out. It turns out that the checks were drawn on a closed bank account in Atlantic City, NJ. [More]
If I Can't Check ID's, How Am I Supposed To Prevent Credit Card Fraud?
By 2.18.10
We’ve told you that it stipulates in the contract between merchants and credit card companies that stores aren’t allowed to force you to show ID when you buy stuff, but what about the other side of the story? Alex is a 26-year old small business owner and Consumerist lover, but he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to prevent fraud if he can’t check people’s ID’s. Contrary to what some commenters assume, when a stolen credit card is used, the money gets yanked out of Alex’s bank account and he is unlikely to get it or the missing merchandise back. He gets jacked twice: once by the fraudster, and once by the credit card company. What should he do? Switch to cash only? His story, inside… [More]
Burger King Employees Arrested For Putting Pills In Food
By 2.17.10
Two Burger King workers in Jacksonville, Florida have been arrested and charged with “poisoning food with intent to kill or injure a person,” reports WJXT. One customer took the bun off his fish sandwich to season it and found a blue pill smashed into mayo and lettuce. It turned out to be the painkiller hydrocodone. [More]
Don't Fall For Job Scams
By 2.17.10
The Federal Trade Commission has a website at www.ftc.gov/jobscams with information on the types of scams you’re likely to find in Help Wanted listings. They’ve also put together a short video (below) that describes how scammers try to charge job hunters fees to pay for job certification, or to provide access to executive-level interviews, or to acquire study materials that are supposedly crucial to passing a hiring exam. It’s a good refresher course in what to look out for when you’re answering ads. [More]
75-Year-Old Woman Attacks Convenience Store Robber
By 2.17.10
A man tried to rob a convenience store in Massachusetts while a 75-year-old woman was at the counter buying something. This did not please her. Unfortunately I can’t embed the video directly, but click through to Fox 8 News to watch the woman go all ninja with the price scanner gun. Never anger an old lady with a babushka! [More]
Credit Card Hacker And ID Theft Forum Overlord Sentenced To 13 Years Prison
By 2.12.10
Max Vision, the security consultant who was first sent to prison in 2001 for messing with the Pentagon, has now been sent to 13 years in prison for “stealing nearly two million credit card numbers from banks, businesses and other hackers,” reports Wired. The FBI took a renewed interest in Vision in 2006 after he successfully made a power grab on several competing black market ID theft websites. “I’ve changed,” Vision wrote in a letter to the court, and although he faced life in prison, he was given the shorter sentence partly because he’d cooperated with the government. With good behavior he’ll be back out in 2018. [More]
Comcast Employee Found With Throat Slashed — Just A Workplace Accident
By 2.11.10
Police in Branford, CT say they are no longer investigating an incident where a Comcast employee was found unconscious with his throat slashed inside the fenced-off parking lot of a service center. Apparently, the knife-wound was simply a workplace accident. [More]
Septuagenarian Couple Scammed Inns And Hotels For Four Years
By 2.8.10
The next time you stay at a bed and breakfast and you see a kindly old couple lingering in the common room after breakfast, be suspicious! The Wolffs have been scamming inns, hotels, rented homes, and bed & breakfasts since 2005, reports the Boston Globe. They offer to pay via check, and until recently–when they stayed in one place so long that they were still around when the check bounced–nobody ever thought they might be pulling a fast one. They’re due in court this month for defrauding several inns over the past summer. [More]
Rat Planter Pleads Guilty To Restaurant Extortion
By 2.8.10
Finding frogs in your weight watchers food or snakes in your TGIF or mice in your Pepsi is one thing and alerting the authorities for infomational purposes is one thing, but please don’t plant rats in your soup in the hopes of extorting a half-million. Because you will be caught, like Debbie Miller of Wisconsin. Here brilliant scheme was defeated by a microwave. [More]
Man Opens Fire At Farm King Store In Illinois
By 2.3.10
Update: Chicagobreakingnews is reporting that the standoff is over, and the gunman has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No one else was harmed.
Earlier today a man entered a Farm King farm supply store in Macomb, IL, and opened fire, although so far no deaths have been reported. He left five hostages go earlier–two women, two men and a small child, reports the Associated Press–and two other people left the store earlier in the day.
Woman Says She Was Groped On Disneyland Ride
By 2.3.10
Disneyland’s Tower of Terror lived up to its name in a disturbing way last week, says a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by a man seated next to her on the ride, ABC News Los Angeles reports. The ride’s photo caught the man semi-red-handed, either reaching toward the woman or pulling away. [More]
Rip Torn, Fake CEO Of GE, Found Drunk And Armed In A Bank
By 2.1.10
Rip Torn, who plays the fictional CEO of GE on 30 Rock, was arrested after being found drunk and armed in a bank in his hometown. He has pleaded not guilty, says the New York Post. This sort of behavior is apparently not altogether unexpected. [More]
Alleged ATM Skimmer Crooks Caught Near Boston
By 1.30.10
The Secret Service has apprehended an alleged ring of ATM skimmer crooks in eastern Massachusetts. The group set up skimmers with pinhole cameras on Bank of America and Citizens Bank ATMs in the greater Boston area. According to authorities, when one of the suspects was caught, he had almost $100,000 in twenties in his possession. [More]
Bank Sues Victim To Avoid Replacing $200k In Stolen Funds
By 1.28.10
What constitutes adequate security for a bank? PlainsCapital Bank in Lubbock, Texas says what it currently has is enough, and if after all that some crooks still manage to steal your money, it’s not the bank’s fault. The bank has preemptively sued a business customer, Hillary Machinery, to absolve itself from any liability on what it couldn’t get back from the more than $800,000 that was stolen by foreign hackers last November. [More]
