The U.S. Department of Justice is said to be investigating allegations that Wells Fargo discriminated against black borrowers, offering high-interest, subprime mortgages that seemed geared to lead to default. [More]
INVESTIGATIONS
AA Cancels Flight, Leaves Seniors En Route To Wedding To Fend For Themselves
By 7.13.11
Two days before they were to fly to Arkansas for a family wedding and reunion, American Airlines canceled the flight of five seniors, reports CBS Sacramento. They were handed back the frequent flyer miles they had used to buy the tickets, miles they spent years racking up, and told to find another flight on another airline. The only way to do it was for each of them to buy a $1083.40 last-minute ticket. They feel AA should have found them another flight or should reimburse them for the tickets, but according to both law and policy, they have no recourse. [More]
Travel With Your Own Scale To Avoid Baggage Weight Overcharges
By 7.11.11
The scales at airport check-ins take a beating. Bag after bag, rollies, Louis Vuitons, and duffles filled with too many clothes get put on and off, all day long. Usually the magic number is 50 lbs, and after that, you have to pay a fee. Rules are rules, but in order to fairly enforce them, the scales have to be accurate. Oftentimes, they’re not, the result of lax maintenance. [More]
Martha Stewart Tables Are Still Exploding Glass In Your Face
By 6.27.11
FOX31 reports a family in Colorado was just chilling on the porch during a barbecue when all of a sudden their Martha Stewart glass table exploded, sending shards of tempered glass flying all over the place. The son and his girlfriend bled from cuts and lacerations after they were hit by the glass. This is a line of tables that have racked up similar exploding glass complaints for years and though they are not being sold any more, there are some still out there in people’s homes, ticking glass bombs waiting to go off. [More]
Walmart Caught Shortchanging Customers With Gift Receipts
By 5.13.11
Next time you return an item to Walmart using a gift receipt, make sure to check your change. You could be getting less than you deserve and not even know it, reports CBS Sacramento. The problem is if the item goes on sale after it was bought. Poorly trained cashiers will refund the sale price instead of the original price. And because gift receipts are generally set up so that they don’t list the price the item was bought for, the person making the return isn’t even aware that they should be getting more back. [More]
BofA Loses Check That Would Have Saved House From Foreclosure
By 5.11.11
CBS 13 has the story of a man who fell behind on his mortgage payments who was told by Bank of America that unless he sent them $4,175 he would lose his house that he had spent years putting work into. So he managed to put together the money and sent it in as a cashier’s check. Then the bank lost his check. [More]
Prisons Get Big Kickbacks For Phone Contracts, Prisoners' Families Pay The Price
By 5.6.11
A investigation by Prison Legal News exposes how prisons are getting fat kickbacks from telephone companies in order to land exclusive service contracts, which they then use to charge sky-high calling rates. There’s usually a connection charge of $3.00 or more and it can cost upwards of $.89 a minute. That means a 15-minute collect call can end up costing $10-$17. Compare that to the $.05 or $.10 most customers pay. Because the calls are often collect, it’s the prisoners’ families that end up paying the price. [More]
Tire Shop Spits On Investigative TV Crew
By 5.5.11
When CBS Sacramento’s Call Kurtis went to investigate consumer complaints that a tire shop was advertising super low prices and then jacking up the price with the final bill, the store didn’t do a very good job of living down their reputation. Especially when they spit on the camera crew twice and gave them the middle finger. I also enjoyed the part where Kurtis asks who owns the store and the guy behind the counter says, “your mom.” [More]
Chinese iPad Workers Forced To Sign "No Suicide" Pledge
By 5.5.11
A new investigation by two NGO’s into working conditions at two major Chinese factories run by Foxconn responsible for pumping out iPads might make you angrier than a bird trying to destroy a bunch of green pigs, reports The Guardian. Among their findings was that after a rash of suicides at the factories, workers were forced to sign pledges promising not to commit suicide and to instead “treasure their lives.” [More]
FBI Busts "B-Girls" For Luring Miami Tourists To Rack Up Huge Bar Bills
By 4.18.11
The con was pretty straightforward. Sexy eastern European women working the South Beach strip in Miami would pick up guys at hotels who looked like they had money and entice them back to private clubs with champagne bottle service. The man would think that he was paying a couple of hundred dollars, but actually his credit card was getting swiped for thousands. In one instance, the bill came to $43,000. Now the FBI has swooped in and arrested 17 people connected to the “b-girl” scheme, reports the Miami Herald. [More]
Federal Grand Jury Investigates App Makers Over Privacy Issues
By 4.5.11
Pandora and other app makers received subpoenas related to a criminal federal investigation in which prosecutors are looking into claims that smartphone apps violate users’ privacy by illegally collecting and transmitting info. [More]
Despite Raising $18 Million, Madonna's Malawi Charity Implodes With School Unbuilt
By 4.4.11
Madonna’s planned academy for girls in the African country of Malawi has been abandoned, despite the foundation behind it, “Raising Malawi,” raising a reported $18 million in donations since 2006 and spending $3.8 million on the school itself. Newsweek combed through the numbers and is asking why only $850,000 of that was paid out in Malawi and nearly $3 million was spent by the L.A. office of Kabbalah Centre International, one of the project’s partners. [More]
Abuse Swept Under Rug At State-Run Homes For Developmentally Disabled
By 3.17.11
Employees at New York state-run homes for the developmentally disabled who sexually abused, beat and taunted residents are infrequently fired, reports a New York Times investigation. Instead they are mostly just transferred to work at another group home. [More]
U.S. Investigating Morgan Stanley Subsidiary For Unlawfully Foreclosing On Military Families
By 3.14.11
A Morgan Stanley unit is under investigation by the Justice Department for foreclosing on nearly two dozen military families without a court hearing, a violation of Federal law meant to protect active duty service members. [More]
Feds Investigating TSA Agents For Allegedly Failing To Screen Luggage
By 3.3.11
According to a federal probe, at least 27 TSA agents in Honolulu took it easy on the job, routinely letting un-screened baggage through on early-morning flights. [More]
FTC Looking Into Kids Racking Up In-App Purchase
By 2.24.11
After stories came out like the 8-year-old girl who ran up a $1400 iTunes bill buying Smurberries inside the “Smurf Village” game for iPad, the Washington Post reports the FTC has said that it is going to look at how in-app purchases are marketed and delivered. [More]
