Zombies are all the rage these days, and it can be hard to tell them apart what with all that shambling, shuffling and rotting flesh going on. But one makeup artist’s zombie work is pretty darn distinguishable, from the model’s bright turquoise face with splotches of green to her hot pink eyebrows and carefully painted, leering grin. So how could music artist Lil’ Kim possibly be confused over who owns that image? [More]
rip offs
Funny How The Promo Photo Lil’ Kim Is Using For Her Single Looks A Lot Like Artist’s Zombie Work
By 11.12.13
Don't Let Mario Kart Facebook Scam Spin You Out
By 10.28.11
Those who toil away on free-to-play Facebook games may have built up a false sense of security as they blindly click on all the permission buttons in order to get to the good stuff. But an ad that claims to offer Facebookers access to a free Mario Kart game is a trap, like one of those upside down question blocks in the real version of the game. [More]
6 Reasons Why Designer Sunglasses Are A Rip-Off
By 7.15.10
I don’t know about you, but when I go out in the sun, I’ll only wear a pair of hugely oversized $500 Dolce & Gabbana shades so that I’m easily recognized by the paparazzi. But apparently, says the Wall Street Journal, I need not have spent my entire month’s paycheck on my designer specs. [More]
10 Ways You May Be Getting Hosed
By 5.19.10
Yahoo points out 10 money traps that are easy to fall into. Many are superstitious habits that you can easily shake off, including the one about overpaying for name-brand workout shoes: [More]
Geek Squad Will Plug In Your PS3 For Only $130
By 9.21.09
A Kotaku tipster notified the video game blog that Best Buy’s Geek Squad is offering what can only be described as the deal of the century. Something even better than that awe-inspiring CD ripping service.
Geek Squad Now Offering CD-Ripping "Service"
By 9.17.09
Sticking to its proud tradition of charging for services that take a couple button clicks to accomplish, i.e. HDTV and video game console “optimization,” Best Buy is now offering to rip music off your CDs and transfer it to an MP3 player or DVD.
DeadlyDeal Neither Deadly Nor A Deal, Just Lame
By 9.15.09
Brandon regrets having done business with DeadlyDeal.com earlier this year. He figured he “couldn’t go wrong” with his mystery box purchase—”after all, my dealings with Woot.com had all been more than satisfactory so far.” But DeadlyDeal is no Woot, friends. Well, except maybe in the creative writing department, because there’s no way those DeadlyDeal customer testimonies (“Thanks for my free iPhone!”) are legit.
Gamestop Ruins Yet Another Customer Experience
By 5.12.09
Sometimes we think Gamestop is run by some sort of secret cabal of anti-videogame fanatics, and they use the store as a front to spread hatred of games and game purchasing across America.
3M Steals Viral Image Idea To Avoid Licensing It
By 9.16.08
There is probably nothing more pathetic in the world of marketing than watching a big corporation try to do something “viral”—usually they end up looking like Elaine dancing. But sometimes, they’re so cynical and soulless about it that they don’t just come across as incompetent, but as exploitative cheapskates as well. In 3M’s case, they wouldn’t pay $2,000 to license a well-known photo with its own viral history, and instead recreated a fake version of it to save a grand. We guess they’re just hoping none of the sites and communities that made the photo popular in the first place will notice. Oh wait, this is supposed to be viral or something…
7 Tips On Using Credit Card Rewards Programs And Avoiding Rip Offs
By 6.3.08
Whether it’s because of frequent flier miles that are impossible to redeem, overly complicated terms and conditions or reward credit cards with high APR’s, credit card reward programs are usually a rip off, according to CNN Money. Consumer Reports says that about 85% of American households participate in at least one rewards program which encourage consumers to spend more money but often turn out to be more trouble than they’re worth. To help you wade through the confusion, Consumer Reports has assembled 7 tips to help you make postive use of credit card reward programs. The list, inside…
Faulty Check Valve Sometimes Cheats You, Sometimes Gas Stations
By 4.28.08
Meet the faulty check valve, a little gremlin that lives inside the gas pump. It could be pilfering your pennies. Or it could be pilfering the gas station’s. It really doesn’t care. According to an AP article, a faulty check valve inside a gas pump is difficult to diagnose and often goes ignored. The pricing errors it produces could either be in favor of the gas station or the consumer. How does this work?
Traveling Gas Sellers Rip Off Homeowners In Michigan
By 2.27.08
Universal Gas & Electric, a Canadian company, sends out door-to-door salesmen who lie to homeowners about the imaginary “savings” they’ll enjoy if they switch gas suppliers, when in reality Universal is currently about 50% higher than the default supplier. One former Universal employee says, “I’d have people ask, ‘What am I paying now?’ and they’d look at the bill and it’s right there in front of them and they don’t know where to look and I would avoid telling them that.”
Two Georgia Gas Stations Closed For Shorting Customers
By 2.19.08
Georgia state inspectors closed two large Cisco gas stations just across the state line from Florida last week in what the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture described as “one of the worst cases of shorting gas customers he’s seen since he took office back in 1969.” (Why Ag? Why not?) An inspector found that a five gallon test pump turned up over a quart short at the Cisco Travel Plaza off Interstate 95’s Exit 6, and a similar test revealed a suspiciously similar shortage at another Cisco Travel Plaza off Exit 1.
Bank of America Angers More Customers With Unjustified Rate Hikes
By 2.13.08
More about Bank of America’s inexplicable rate hikes against good customers who never pay late: the Charlotte Observer talks to some recent recipients of BoA’s infamous rate-increase letters from the past few weeks. The first person they talk to is a 60-year-old woman who “had never been late on a credit card payment, just refinanced her home at a lower interest rate, and just been rewarded by her credit union with a lower rate on her credit card there.” Bank of America just raised her card from 13% to 24.99%.
Why Is Bank Of America Raising Interest Rates On Its Good Customers?
By 2.8.08
BusinessWeek has just published an article about Bank of America’s recent surprise mailings in January to some of its customers, announcing “that it would more than double their rates to as high as 28%, without giving an explanation for the increase.” These customers have good credit scores and hadn’t made any late payments, and those who called Bank of America to ask why this was happening weren’t given clear reasons. Industry experts say Bank of America has reached a “new level” of “lack of transparency in raising rates,” beyond anything Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase currently practice, because BoA is apparently using some undisclosed internal metric to determine who gets the rate hike.
Make Your Own Passport Photos
By 1.24.08
If you have a computer and a digital camera, there’s no reason to ever pay a drugstore $8 for a couple of crummy passport photos and lousy customer service. This blogger discovered that he couldn’t even get an in-focus photo from a local CVS: “When we pointed that out, he was like ‘Oh really? don’t worry all photos printed here look like that and no one ever came back because a photo was not accepted.'” If you’re not Photoshop-savvy, just use the free epassportphoto.com website.
The Postal Service #1 on iTunes Music Store
By 1.24.06
There’s one good thing to come out of this Apple/The Postal Service flap: It looks like The Postal Service’s Such Great Heights is dominating the iTunes Video store today. At $2 a download, hopefully they’re getting a little money out of the whole deal. (Thanks, ifdu400!)
Apple’s Lifted Video Provokes Band Response
By 1.23.06
We’re a bit behind on this story, but we figured we’d get our finger on it before it got away from us. Apple straight-up ripped off the video for The Postal Service’s song Such Great Heights to promote its use of Intel chips in its new Macs. (The Postal Service is a band, not our U.S. Mail.) Both videos were directed by the same two people, which makes it unquestionably clear that Apple and their ad agency, TBWAChiat Day, intended to clone the video shot-for-shot from the beginning.
