For a pre-paid one month economy car rental for $632.03, on January 16th Hertz rented me a 2007 Blue Chevrolet , Lic#5981AVB in good condition at the Los Cabos airport. I declined to purchase insurance. Late on the night of January 20th, during a rainstorm, a tire blew out on the vehicle; so, after exchanging the tire with the spare the following morning, on January 21st, I returned the vehicle to the agency at their suggestion and wrote a full report. The agency assured me there would be no problem of any charges.
fraud
Mexican Hertz Charges $499.48 For A Flat Tire
By 3.14.07
Statistically Speaking, His Check Was Fraudulent
By 3.12.07
Checking systems’ vagaries make them susceptible to scams, so we can understand why Walgreens might want to protect themselves against our reader by denying his drug purchase.
Two Years Later, WaMu Unable To 'Integrate' Acquired Card Division's Support System
By 3.12.07
Here’s some insight into why WaMu was screwing Marty so hard last week when he had his credit cards stolen overseas. If you recall, Marty canceled all his cards but still saw $5800 in fraudulent charges rung up on his WaMu card. When he called, WaMu was most unhelpful, refusing to help him as the “Consumer Lending Department” was closed for the weekend.
Crunch Gym Is Notoriously Corrupt
By 3.12.07
Crunch Gym is notoriously corrupt. In the course of running this blog, it’s only natural that we get quite a few similar complaints about the same company. Sears Home Repair People never show up on time. Verizon’s customer service people are mean. Stuff like that. It becomes really troubling when we receive many complaints about a company refusing to stop taking money out of an ex-customer’s account. Those are the complaints we receive about Crunch Gym. Remember Jacob? He was canceling his membership after Crunch tried to charge him extra for adding a boxing ring to the gym.
Phishing Scams More Costly Than Bank Robbery
By 3.12.07
The amount of money taken typically is fairly small and will not dent a bank’s bottom line. Further, bank robbers are apprehended in almost 58 percent of cases, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics. Only murder has a higher rate of clearance by arrest.
So what do banks worry about? Phishing scams.
WaMu Screws Customer Stranded Overseas After Credit Cards Stolen
By 3.9.07
Marty was stranded in Greece after his credit cards got stolen on the metro. He called WaMu to cancel his cards and then when he tried to confirm they were closed, he got transferred from department to department. In the meantime, thieves continued to run his bill up to $5800. Marty’s cellphone minutes continued to drain. No one could help him because the Consumer Lending Department “was closed over the weekend.” WaMu must believe that identity theft is only committed during the weekday.
ID Stolen? Get an ID Theft Passport
By 3.9.07
Several states have started programs, often called “ID Theft Passport” programs, to help victims of ID Theft regain control over their information and establish their innocence of any crimes that may have been committed under their ID.
How The Stop & Shop Thieves Stole Credit Card Info From Right Under The Cashier's Nose
By 3.9.07
In the Stop & Shop case, police say that late at night — after shopping crowds had thinned and the staff was whittled to a skeletal crew — four young men entered several stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, distracted employees and replaced several card-swiping machines with devices that looked similar. The thieves’ systems, however, housed mini circuit boards that recorded customers’ data and PINs.
Arrests Made In Stop and Shop Data Theft
By 3.1.07
Police in Rhode Island have arrested four people in connection with a recent security breach at Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos.
Vonage Calls Customer "Stupid" After They Signed Her Up For An Account She Didn't Want
By 2.27.07
This one sounds like fraud to us…A potential Vonage customer called in response to a advertisement, but after giving her name and address and other info, decided that since she didn’t even use email, maybe VOIP wasn’t right for her. Several months later, she unexpectedly bounced a check. What happened?
Ripped-Off Mom Gets Resolution From Comcast After We Intervene
By 2.23.07
David’s Mom just got her refund check, nearly bringing her issue with Comcast billing and harassing her for cable that was never installed to a close.
419ers Scambaited Into Recreating Monty Pyton "Dead Parrot" Sketch
By 2.20.07
What’s interesting is that the “dead parrot” they use is actually a metal duck. Once a scammer, always. — BEN POPKEN
Cardavenue Doesn't Respond To Fraud Claims or Emails?
By 2.15.07
The idea behind Cardavenue is interesting. If you get a gift card you don’t like, you can trade it for another using their site. They charge a fee and ostensibly offer some protection against fraud. They don’t, however, answer their emails or process their claims, and that makes us sad.
Man Tries To Sell Fake LCD TVs Made of Wood To Police
By 2.7.07
Buying an LCD TV from a strange man on the street is not a good idea, but it’s a better idea than selling a fake LCD TV made of wood to a couple police officers, as one Indiana man found out. What went wrong?
Presidential Proclamation: It's Consumer Protection Week
By 2.5.07
During National Consumer Protection Week, citizens are urged to learn more about the risks of fraud and identity theft and take precautions to protect themselves from these crimes.
Report Fraud To Law Enforcement Agencies With Consumer Sentinel
By 2.1.07
Consumer Sentinel is
“a one-stop, secure investigative cybertool and complaint database, on a separate restricted-access secure web site, that provides hundreds of law enforcement agencies immediate access to Internet cons, telemarketing scams and other consumer fraud-related complaints.”
Oh, a cybertool! The database is maintained by the FTC and currently holds over a million complaints.
Inside Organized Credit Card Fraud
By 1.30.07
It was November 2002, and Thomas, then a 44-year-old Texan, was in Washington to collect more than $30,000 in merchandise that a Ukrainian known as “Big Buyer” ordered from Outpost.com with stolen credit card numbers. His job was to collect the goods from a mail drop, fence them on eBay and wire the money to Russia, pocketing 40 percent of the take before moving to another city to repeat the scam.
