It is a disgusting reality that when tragedy strikes, there’s always going to be someone out there trying to take advantage of it for personal gain. That’s what’s happening in the wake of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was reportedly shot down over Ukraine Thursday on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 were killed. [More]
scams
Reminder: Cashing A Check From West Africa Is Not A Legitimate Job
By 7.17.14
Here’s a reminder to everyone looking for a job or for a side hustle in addition to their current job: as tempting as it may sound, receiving a check and depositing it is not a legitimate way to make money. You might have heard this before, but if no one fell for this scam, it would die out. [More]
Did Someone At The DMV Steal This Woman’s Identity? Maybe
By 7.16.14
Over on Reddit, one poster in the the /r/personalfinance subreddit shared the terrible thing that happened to his fiancée when she visited her local Department of Motor Vehicles to change the address on her driver’s license. It’s not clear what happened or exactly how, but what they know is that someone issued a new license with her name and information and a different ID number. This person also has her Social Security number. [More]
Advance Fee Fraudsters Offended When I Use Junk Mail Nuclear Option
By 7.15.14
For some years now, we’ve suggested a nuclear option when a company simply will not sending you unwanted mail. It’s called a prohibitory order, and officially intended for when someone sends you smutty material that you didn’t ask for. Junk mail is pretty offensive, though, right? Yet one company was offended when a reader used this option to end a torrent of junk mail. [More]
Secret Service Warns Against Keylogging Malware At Hotel Business Centers
By 7.14.14
Here’s one that should be added to the earlier list of possible hotel scams. The U.S. Secret Service has sent out a warning to hotel operators, asking them to check shared computers in their business centers for malware that can log keystrokes and steal sensitive information from users. [More]
3 Scams Targeted At Hotel Guests
By 7.14.14
Between all the fees and add-on charges that can come with a hotel reservation, just booking a room for the night can make you feel like you’ve been taken for a ride. But even when the hotel isn’t trying to nickel-and-dime you, there are scammers out there ready to steal your money by preying on common assumptions made by hotel guests. [More]
Phony Payday Loan Brokers Must Turn Over Rolls Royce, Maserati, Ferrari To Feds
By 7.11.14
When someone goes hunting for a payday loan — just looking to get their hands on a small amount of cash to tide them over until the next paycheck — it’s bad enough that they can end up trapped in a hellish debt cycle that sees them taking out loan after loan. But the FTC says a Tampa-based operation preyed upon these already-desperate victims by tricking them into applying for payday loans, only to steal their info and what little money they had. [More]
More Tiny ATM Skimmers That Will Haunt Your Wallet’s Nightmares
By 7.8.14
Would you notice a tiny ATM skimmer that hides just inside the card slot and slurps up your personal data? The European ATM Security Team, a not-for-profit organization that tracks ATM-related crime in different parts of the European Union, recently showed off some new and nearly invisible skimmers that they harvested in an unnamed country. It’s like a horror movie for your bank account. [More]
T-Mobile: We Shouldn’t Be Sued Over Bill-Cramming Because We’re Not Doing It Anymore & We’re Super-Sorry
By 7.1.14
Earlier this afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against T-Mobile, alleging the wireless carrier made hundreds of millions of dollars off of bogus premium text-messaging charges “crammed” onto customers’ bills. The response from T-Mobile CEO John Legere isn’t exactly what you would describe as contrite. [More]
T-Mobile Accused Of Making A Ton Of Cash From Bogus Charges On Phone Bills
By 7.1.14
T-Mobile, a company that has tried to position itself as being consumer-friendly, has been accused by federal regulators of being anything but friendly. The self-described “Un-carrier” has been accused in federal court of making hundreds of millions of dollars off of so-called “premium” text-messaging subscriptions that were often never requested by subscribers. [More]
Debt Collection Scammers Calling Victims’ Family & Co-Workers To Squeeze Money From People
By 7.1.14
A debt collection scam operates on two principles: That lots of us have debt, and that the con artist is good enough at his art to trick some of us into believing we have to pay immediately. But some scammers are bringing outside parties into their grift, contacting victims’ families and co-workers in the hopes that this will result in pressure to pay up on the bogus debt. [More]
Former Delta Employee Accused Of Approving $22 Million In Fake Invoices
By 6.30.14
If you’ve ever worked at a large, profitable company that spends billions of dollars a year, you’ve probably thought about how easily one (but certainly not you!) could sneak fake charges through the system without anyone even noticing. And for nearly 10 years, an employee at Northwest (and then Delta) managed to make that daydream a reality, allegedly siphoning off $22 million through bogus invoices. [More]
900 Stolen Cellphones = $270K Profit + 27 Months Behind Bars For Verizon Employee
By 6.26.14
I’ll admit that when I worked at Dairy Queen in high school, I might have helped myself to the occasional Blizzard or Hot Fudge Brownie Delight, but I wasn’t stockpiling these soft-serve desserts and selling them for a profit. Alas, I lacked the entrepreneurial spirit of the Verizon Wireless employee who saw the potential for big bucks in pilfered hardware. [More]
Companies Settle Charges For Allegedly Scamming Millions With Work-From-Home Schemes
By 6.24.14
If many work-from-home opportunities seem too good to be true, that’s because they probably are. And the Federal Trade Commission put an end to two companies that allegedly scammed millions of dollars from consumers by promising substantial income through home-based businesses. [More]
John Oliver To Dr. Oz: Are You A Doctor Or An Old-West Traveling Salesman?
By 6.23.14
As many of you recall, TV’s Dr. Oz took a spanking last week before a Senate subcommittee that questioned his use of terms like “miracle” and “magic” in the description of unproven weight-loss products and treatments. And on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver suggested a better line of work for the pill-pushing physician, along with a more accurate title for his much-watched talk show. [More]
Don’t Cash Checks From Lotteries That You Never Entered
By 6.19.14
You’ve probably heard this message before, but in our opinion, consumers can’t really hear it too many times. If you receive a mysterious check in the mail, don’t cash it until you determine that its origins are legit. If you hear that you’ve won a lottery that you never entered, you probably never entered it. When you win the real lottery, you don’t need to pay processing fees to get your money. [More]
Dr. Oz: I Thought I Could Call Diet Drugs “Miracles” Because I Wasn’t Actually Selling Them
By 6.19.14
Oprah’s favorite alternative medicine mouthpiece Dr. Oz got little love during Tuesday’s Senate subcommittee hearing on the misleading marketing of diet products, with the TV personality admitting that his use of terms like “miracle” for unproven treatments had provided fodder to scammers out to make a quick buck off people desperate to shed pounds. Last night, the Doc went on Facebook to give his fans his perspective on the issue. [More]
Threatening To Blow Up Store With 3 Hydrogen Bombs Is A Tip-Off You Might Be Bluffing
By 6.18.14
We’ve told you before about the increasing number of morons who attempt to hold up retail stores by threatening to blow the place up if their demands for a few hundred dollars in prepaid debit cards isn’t met. It’s already a dubious ultimatum that is just asking to be called out as bogus, so escalating it by, I dunno, saying you have multiple hydrogen bombs at the ready, isn’t going to help make your case. [More]
