The offer of free money is hard to pass up, but, as we’ve warned before, those promises of hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards, a free car or trip, and other too-good-to-be-true offers are just that. The latest version of this scheme involves a $250 Walmart gift card. [More]
it’s a trap
Man Sets Porch Pirate Trap With Giant Box Of Dog Poop
By 12.9.16 — Updated: 12.15.16
Packages left unattended on porches and stoops are low-hanging fruit for thieves who comb neighborhoods looking for something to steal. You can keep parcels safe by setting up a locked drop-box, having packages delivered to a safer address, asking for items to be held for pickup — or you can teach them a lesson with the help of a box full of dog turds. [More]
Seagate Employee Falls For CEO W-2 Scam, Sends Everyone’s Personal Information
By 3.7.16
Snapchat isn’t the only technology company that has fallen victim to the tax-season variation on the classic CEO e-mail scam, where a scammer impersonating the boss asks for all employees’ tax information. An employee at hard drive company Seagate fell into the same trap, sending 2015 tax information for thousands of current and former employees to unknown scammers. [More]
Park Ranger Drives 12 Hours To Remove Fake McDonald’s “Opening Soon” Sign From Middle Of Australian Desert
By 8.17.15
Like some kind of fast food mirage rising from the middle of an Australian desert, a McDonald’s sign sat towering over the emptiness, beckoning travelers with the promise implied in its golden arches. Upon closer inspection, the sign noted that a restaurant would be “opening soon.” But almost a month after pranksters installed the sign 124 miles from the edge of the desert, the South Australian government says it sent a park ranger on a 12-hour trip to take it down. [More]
Police Free Man Trapped Inside Mall Wall After He Accidentally Floods Restaurant, Hotel Lobby
By 12.10.14
An alleged squatter’s paradise inside a Denver mall became a prison Tuesday night, when police say a man hiding in the ceiling fell, tripped a water main that then flooded a restaurant and hotel lobby below, and got stuck inside a wall. [More]
Comcast Thinks $5 Discount Is All Customers Need To Give Up 95% Of Monthly Data Allotment
By 8.1.13
More than a year after Time Warner Cable somehow began suckering people into severely limiting their broadband usage to only 5GB/month — the equivalent of a few HD Netflix movies — for a mere $5 drop in monthly rates, Comcast has decided it wants in on this sucker’s bet too. [More]
Are Prepaid Cards Improving Or Are They Still A Confusing Mess Of Hidden Fees?
By 7.30.13
First, the good news: Our wiser, elder siblings at Consumer Reports have ranked the best and worst prepaid cards for the very first time, and it seems many cards have lower fees and act a lot like traditional bank accounts. But now for the bad news: Fee information can still be tricky to find and many cards don’t come with the guarantees you can get with a regular debit card. [More]
Comcast Lures Me Back With Promotion Only To Later Deny It Ever Existed
By 12.19.11
Feeling like you’re forced to do business with Comcast because of a dearth of other options is a bad way to start things off, as Consumerist reader M.K., says, “I would never deal with Comcast if I felt that I had the choice not to.” But after checking out a Comcast offer that was priced right, M.K. decided to take the leap. [More]
Chase Sets Early Payment Trap For Mortgage Customers, Too
By 1.27.10
Chase’s statement cycle trap isn’t just set for credit card customers. Mortgage and loan customers can be charged a fee for paying too early, too. Serves you right for trying to be proactive and plan ahead! Dana says that Chase punished her for setting up her automatic monthly payment to send on the 30th of the month instead of the 1st, and charged her $52.96 for two months’ transgressions. [More]
Kodak: Your Camera Has A Beach Mode, So Don't Take It To The Beach
By 11.21.09
Brandy’s Kodak digital camera comes with several pre-set modes, one of which is “beach.” However, when her camera stopped working after a trip to the beach, she reports that Kodak’s mystifying response to her service request was that just because a digital camera has a setting for taking photos at the beach, that doesn’t mean that you should actually take it to the beach.
Genius TSA Officer & Baggage Handler Caught Stealing From Decoy Luggage
By 7.15.09
Two workers at JFK airport fell into a trap set by Delta Airlines and the TSA, says the Daily News. The two men are accused of stealing a Macbook Air and a T-Mobile Sidekick from decoy luggage. The first man, a TSA officer, was videotaped rummaging through a Miami-bound suitcase in an airport screening room while a baggage handler watched.
