After years of tricking New Jersey residents into paying millions of dollars to bogus “travel clubs,” a husband and wife scammer team have entered guilty pleas, and at least one of them will probably spend a few years behind bars. [More]
scams
Scammer Sells iPhone Boxes With Actual Apples In Them
By 8.2.13
If you’re going to buy an expensive electronic device from someone you met online or in a gas station parking lot, don’t close the deal until you’ve opened up the boxes and made sure that they really contain an iPhone, and not rocks, pieces of wood, or… fruit. There’s a report out of Australia that a woman bought two iPhones and opened the boxes to find apples instead. [More]
So What Actually Happens If I Fall For ‘Free Airline Voucher’ Scam?
By 8.2.13
We’ve told you before about scammy letters falsely claiming to be from Travelocity and something called “United Airways,” alerting recipients that they have won free travel vouchers worth hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. Our readers were too savvy to fall for these scams, but not everyone is. [More]
$11 Million Penalty Apparently Wasn’t Enough To Stop Scammy Telemarketers
By 8.1.13
Back in 2007-8, the Federal Trade Commission shut down a sketchy telemarketing company called Suntasia Marketing, Inc., for defrauding consumers and charging their bank accounts without consent programs they never enrolled in, like memberships in discount buyer’s and travel clubs. Two of the defendants behind the scam were hit with $11 million settlements and barred from getting involved in these sorts of shenanigans in the future, but that apparently wasn’t sufficient penalty to set them on a righteous path. [More]
No, JetBlue Is Not Giving Away A Vegas Vacation Via Facebook
By 8.1.13
Lots of companies offer promotions and giveaways through Facebook, so it’s completely plausible that JetBlue might be offering a free vacation if you share and like a photo or “like” their brand page. You should do a little checking before you hit “share,” though. Like making sure that the page you’re sharing really belongs to the brand. [More]
TGI Fridays Franchisee To Pay $500,000 For Selling Cheap Booze As Top-Shelf Stuff
By 7.31.13
Back in May, New Jersey officials undertook “Operation Swill,” raiding 29 restaurants and bars in the state — including 13 TGI Fridays locations — accusing them of misleading consumers by putting less-expensive liquor in bottles for top-shelf brands. Today, the owner of those Fridays eateries agreed to settle with the state and pay a $500,000 fine. [More]
‘Winning In The Cash Flow Business’ Scammers Banned From Polluting Airwaves With Infomercials
By 7.31.13
Do you need money? Everybody does, am I right? But not everyone has time to become a Wall Street lawyer. That’s why you need a simple, 3-step system to guide you through the process of making millions from the comfort of your own home. Unfortunately, you won’t be hearing about that system from Russ “Winning in the Cash Flow Business” Dalbey or his wife Catherine, as they have been banned from stinking up your late-night TV watching with any of their infomercials. [More]
Tiny Bluetooth Gas Pump Skimmers Are Here To Gobble Your Credit Card Info
By 7.30.13
In the above picture, on the left you see a brand-new credit/debit card for gas pumps. On the right is the same device with a card-skimming device placed in the conveniently empty slot. How can consumers avoid having their card information skimmed by crooks using similar devices? You probably won’t even know until the fraudulent purchases hit your account. [More]
Minnesota Hopes New Background Checks Will Deter Scammy Coin Dealers
By 7.29.13
As the prices of precious metals began to take off in recent years, so did the number of less-than-legitimate buyers and sellers of coins. These scammy individuals, often ex-cons, tarnished the industry by misleading people into selling their valuable coins for a fraction of what they were worth, along with instances of theft and fraud. This week, Minnesota begins implementing a new law that hopes to discourage these people from getting into the business by requiring criminal background checks. [More]
Nearly 1-In-5 Funeral Homes Found Violating Consumer Protection Rules
By 7.24.13
In 1984, the Federal Trade Commission enacted the Funeral Rule, a set of consumer protection guidelines for U.S. funeral home operators covering everything from pricing transparency to casket-handling fees. And every year, FTC investigators go undercover to spot-check the funeral home industry to see if folks are abiding by the rules. According to the latest report, a significant number of them are not. [More]
Man Sentenced To 8.3 To 25 Years For Scamming Customer Out Of $5 Million Lottery Ticket
By 7.23.13
At the time he won a $5 million lottery jackpot on a scratchoff ticket, a Syracuse, N.Y. man says that he was buying a lot of lottery tickets and also using crack. He claims that the store owner’s sons took the ticket and held on to it for six years. Now one of the sons has been convicted and sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison for criminal possession of stolen property. [More]
Scammy Pedicab Drivers Using Smartphone Credit Card Device To Overcharge Customers
By 7.22.13
For reasons I’ll never be able to comprehend, some visitors to New York City enjoy being chauffeured around in pedicabs, which combine the slow pace of a horse-drawn carriage with the discomfort of a rickshaw. But what these people don’t enjoy is when they find out they have been scammed out of money from pedicab drivers who use a smartphone credit card scanning app to tack on hidden fees. [More]
Feds And Colleges Now Blacklisting Student-Aid Scammers
By 6.24.13
More than 12 million U.S. college students applied for federal aid for the school year starting this fall, but around 126,000 of these applicants have been flagged by schools and the government as potential scammers looking to cash aid checks without ever intending to get an education. [More]
It’s Completely Legal To Spoof Phone Numbers
By 6.21.13
At some point in your life, you’ve probably received a call where the name and/or number that showed up on caller ID was not the actual name/number of the caller. It’s known as spoofing, and many people assume it’s illegal. Those people would be wrong. [More]
Scammer Uses Counterfeit Cash To Buy Motorcycle, Calls Victim To Warn Against Using Bogus Bills
By 6.20.13
Most people who end up with a wad of counterfeit cash don’t find out until they take it to the bank or try to use it at a store that checks for funny money, but a woman in the St. Louis area says the man who bought her husband’s motorcycle using bogus bills later called to let them know they’d been had. [More]
Prepaid Funeral Service Was Actually A Massive Ponzi Scheme
By 6.19.13
It’s a good idea to lay out your plans and wishes for your funeral ahead of time, either in writing or with a trusted funeral director. It keeps your family from second-guessing some very expensive decisions at the same time they’re grieving. [More]
Fannie Mae Fires Head Of Office At Center Of Kickback Scandal
By 6.14.13
A few weeks back, we told you about the Fannie Mae office in Irvine, CA, where some employees have been accused of taking kickbacks from real estate brokers in exchange for priority access to the bailed-out mortgage-backer’s lists of repossessed properties. Now comes news that the head of that office has been given the boot “for performance issues.” [More]
No One Bought You A Free Medical Alert Device, Don’t Listen To Robocallers
By 6.12.13
For me, two types of crimes deserve extra-special ire: robocallers and people who rip off the elderly. These two terrible consumer crimes have combined in the “free medical alert device” scheme now plaguing the nation. [More]
