It’s a common, legal practice to protect seafood with a layer of ice before packaging it up for retail sale. It’s also apparently a common practice to add that ice into the total weight of the seafood, and in some cases to add more ice than necessary just to bump up the total weight, which isn’t legal and which defrauds the consumer. The National Conference on Weights and Measures recently investigated seafood packaging in 17 states and pulled more than 21,000 packages of seafood from store shelves, noting that in one particularly bad case ice made up 40% of the total listed weight. [More]
fraud
Don't Believe The Phone Call That Says Your Card Has Been Deactivated
By 3.22.10
Nick received an automated call from some scammy outfit this morning that told him his debit card had been deactivated. The scam looks simple enough, but it’s probably worth looking at as a reminder to others. [More]
Chase Thinks Boston Non-Smoker Bought $100 Worth Of Smokes In Florida
By 3.11.10
Now that Chase has reversed their initial decision and issued a refund to the retiree they accused of credit card fraud, maybe they can take a look at a rather similar case, but on a smaller scale. Reader P tells Consumerist that Chase ruled that he is responsible for some uncharacteristic purchases he purportedly made thousands of miles away from where he was at the time. [More]
Chase Returns Retired Teacher's Stolen $6,200
By 3.10.10
For some reason, Chase bank decided to take a second look at the $6,200 an unidentified person removed from Bronx retiree Ernest Nitzberg’s checking account. It just might have been the outcry after he shared his story with a global audience on the Huffington Post. [More]
Don't Buy Your Crack With Monopoly Money
By 3.10.10
If there’s one thing every crack dealer hates, it’s being paid in Monopoly money. A 33-year-old man in Wichita, KS, was pulled over by officers last week and found bleeding from the head. He told police he’d just been tricked by his angry crack dealer into coming over to his house, whereupon the dealer pistol whipped his face. According to the police report, the victim told them that “a couple of weeks ago he bought several hundred dollars of crack-cocaine with Monopoly money and now the dealer was ready for pay back.” [More]
How Do I Protect My Gullible Grandma From Psychic Scams?
By 3.10.10
Last week, Jon wrote to us asking how he can help protect his grandmother from falling for any more direct mail scams. She’d answered a piece from psychic Maria Duval, and subsequently her mailing address was sold to all sorts of scammers who thrive on easy marks. We suggested filing a prohibitory order via the USPS, but the core problem remains: how do you convince someone who wants to believe in psychics that she’s being lied to? [More]
Monoprice Not Taking New Orders During Fraud Investigation
By 3.10.10
Popular a/v cable site monoprice is back up but is not taking any new orders while it investigates the potential theft of banking information from its customers. Monoprice took its site offline this weekend after a few customers complained that credit cards they used at the site had fraudulent charges. [More]
Chase Tells 44-Year Customer He Fits Fraud Profile, Stole $6200 From Himself
By 3.7.10
Over at the Huffington Post, retired teacher Ernest Nitzberg blogged about the experience that made him sever his 44-year banking relationship with Chase. He writes that Chase accuses him of using a debit card that he was never issued to buy $6200 worth of merchandise that he was unlikely to want or need. Makes perfect sense to us, too. [More]
Boston Bridal Show Was Massive Scam That Duped Over 6,000 Victims
By 3.3.10
This weekend was supposed to be the Boston 411 Spring Home & Bridal Show, but it was cancelled at the last minute. Now police are saying that the entire thing was an elaborate scam that pulled in money from attendees and vendors, raking in more than $150,000 over the past five months. The scammers used a website, Facebook page and Twitter account to promote the event, used PayPal to accept payments, sold fake hotel room reservations and issued fake conference passes. Boston police and the FBI are investigating, but so far nobody has been taken into custody. [More]
FTC Shuts Down Multi-Million Dollar Cramming Business Inc21
By 3.2.10
Inc21 supposedly sells web hosting and other Internet-related services, but the FTC says that in reality it contracted with offshore telemarketers who helped it cram charges onto unsuspecting customers’ phone bills, earning $19 million over the past five years. Customers who complained about the charges said they were either never contacted in the first place, were promised a free trial, were told that the telemarketer was just verifying business information, or explicitly refused Inc21’s offer and were charged anyway. [More]
Some Madoff Victims May Have To Give Money Back
By 3.1.10
Some of Madoff’s investors took money out of the scheme — not knowing it was a scheme. Now it seems those people might be out of luck — and will have to pay the money back, says Reuters. [More]
DMV Staffers Made $1 Million Selling Fake IDs To Criminals, Sex Offenders, Undercover Cop
By 2.24.10
It’s bad enough that so many of the people at the Department of Motor Vehicles treat you like so much gum stuck to the bottom of their shoe, now comes a report that a handful of DMV employees in New York have been getting rich selling fake ID — not to minors trying to score beer or get into R-rated movies — to convicted felons, sex offenders and just about anyone who could come up with the cash. [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]
Top 9 Scams Of 2009
By 2.17.10
The National Consumers League released their top 9 scams of 2009 findings, based on the scams that get reported to their fraud center. An interesting trend is that business opportunity and fake scholarships scams made the list this year, no doubt capitalizing on the recession. [More]
Oh Snap: NY AG Sues EX-Bank Of America CEO For Fraud
By 2.5.10
Andrew Cuomo has announced a lawsuit against Bank of America’s former CEO Kenneth D. Lewis, its former CFO Joseph L. Price, and the company itself, for “duping shareholders and the federal government in order to complete a merger with Merrill Lynch.” Uh oh! [More]
Update On Woman Sent To Jail For Using Gift Cards At Best Buy
By 2.4.10 — Updated: 3.13.15
Last month, New York City’s NY1 news channel produced a news segment on the woman who was arrested for paying with AMEX gift cards at a Best Buy. If you read our earlier post with Ilona’s email, you already know most of the basics, but you can see the problematic gift cards and hear Ilona describe the experience in her own words. It turns out that after she was released, she went back to Best Buy for either a refund or the DVD player, but had to leave without either one–she was told she’d have to contact American Express to resolve the problem. [More]
ING Cancels Debit Card, Repeats 'There's Nothing We Can Do' Refrain
By 2.4.10
UPDATE: ING Got Noah a new debit card. [More]
