I’ve stopped shopping at the two large drugstores in my neighborhood because they’ve put all the antiperspirant behind plastic flaps, like bagels at a supermarket. When you lift the flap to grab a Right Guard or Speed Stick, an alarm goes off that makes it clear to everyone in the store that you’re a potential criminal with stinky pits. My guess has been that this embarrassing anti-theft deterrent is needed because there’s almost no staff at either store anymore, and a new retail survey and a couple of loss prevention experts seem to back that up. [More]
theft
Chase Tells 44-Year Customer He Fits Fraud Profile, Stole $6200 From Himself
By 3.7.10
Over at the Huffington Post, retired teacher Ernest Nitzberg blogged about the experience that made him sever his 44-year banking relationship with Chase. He writes that Chase accuses him of using a debit card that he was never issued to buy $6200 worth of merchandise that he was unlikely to want or need. Makes perfect sense to us, too. [More]
Do Not Steal An ATM, Then Ram A Stolen Truck Into It
By 2.21.10
Police in East Peoria, Illinois say that an unidentified man used a stolen pickup truck to smash through the door and front window of a gas station and dislodge an ATM from the wall it was bolted to. He then hauled the machine to a parking lot where he attempted to withdraw cash by backing the truck into the ATM. He was not successful, and may have stolen another vehicle to leave the area. [More]
Bank Sues Victim To Avoid Replacing $200k In Stolen Funds
By 1.28.10
What constitutes adequate security for a bank? PlainsCapital Bank in Lubbock, Texas says what it currently has is enough, and if after all that some crooks still manage to steal your money, it’s not the bank’s fault. The bank has preemptively sued a business customer, Hillary Machinery, to absolve itself from any liability on what it couldn’t get back from the more than $800,000 that was stolen by foreign hackers last November. [More]
Is Bringing Your Dog To Work At PetSmart "Theft Of Services?"
By 1.19.10
A former PetSmart employee says he was terminated for “theft of services” after he brought his dog to work on an overnight shift that he was doing as a favor to the store manager — and left the dog in the pet day care facilities. No other employee was working at the time, so he was supervising his own pet. Should this count as “theft?” [More]
Redbox Customer Rents Blank Disk
By 1.8.10
Russ says he rented a movie from Redbox and ended up with a blank disc. He also says he can’t get an answer from Redbox on what to do next.
I rented three DVDs for my kids at a San Antonio, TX location, then drove back home with them to Austin. When I took one of them out of its case, I noticed that it was a just a blank CD-R. The previous renter had taken the I.D. label from the original DVD and messily placed it on the CD-R.
T-Mobile Wants Family To Pay $1500 In Bogus Charges On Phone Stolen From Special Needs Customer
By 1.7.10
Jennifer wrote to us about the trouble a family in South Carolina is having over a huge T-Mobile bill: “Zeb, a special needs adult living with his parents, had his cell phone stolen just prior to Christmas. By the time the theft was discovered, $6000 in calls and text messages had been made to Honduras.” The good news is that T-Mobile hasn’t asked the family to pay the full $6,000. The bad news is that they do want them to pay a fourth of that. Update: T-Mobile has let the family off the hook. [More]
Customer Knows Her Stolen iPhone Is Being Sent To Apple, But Apple Says They Can't Return It
By 12.31.09
Alisa was robbed on the subway a couple of weeks ago, and now someone else has contacted Apple about replacing the phone due to a software malfunction. Alisa found out about this because her email account is still associated with it, but neither she nor the police can persuade Apple to return the phone to her once the other party sends it in for replacement. [More]
28-Year-Old Pleads Guilty To Stealing Over 130 Million Credit And Debit Card Numbers
By 12.29.09
Albert Gonzelez pleaded guilty today to “conspiracy to engage in wire fraud for his role in stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from Heartland Payment Systems,” reports Boston.com. [More]
College Students Arrested For Refusing To Pay Tip
By 11.19.09
Should you be required by law to pay a gratuity if you don’t think the restaurant’s service was worth it? The police in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania think so, and they arrested two college students for refusing to pay a $16.35 tip over what they claim was poor service. Update 11/23/09: the charges will be dropped.
Store Theft In The US Jumped 8.8% Last Year
By 11.13.09
Maybe this is why stores seem to be getting more and more aggressive about shoplifting: CNN says that retail theft in the US jumped 8.8% over the past year, versus only 1.5% in the prior year. But you may be surprised (only if you’ve never worked retail) to see where most of the theft occurs.
MoneyGram Agrees To Pay $18 Million Back To Fraud Victims
By 10.20.09
MoneyGram International announced today that it would pay $18 million to the FTC to settle charges it allowed wire fraud to happen between 2004 and 2008. MoneyGram’s press release notes that they disagree with the FTC’s view of the matter, but $18 million is a hell of a lot of money to pay if you don’t think you were in the wrong. The press release from the FTC, on the other hand, provides plenty of detail illustrating MoneyGram’s negligence, as well as the criminal behavior of some of its employees who were in on the frauds.
Ameriprise Bans "Customer Advisor" For Posting Link To Consumerist
By 9.21.09
Hey, we helped get an Ameriprise customer banned from the financial company’s consumer advisory panel! Sorry about that, Brendan.
Software Rescues Stolen Laptop From Porn Lover
By 9.17.09
When Florida businessman David Krop’s two laptops were stolen from his car back in February, he didn’t have much hope of getting them back. But he decided to try to log in using some remote access software he had installed on one of the computers. The software, LogMeIn, let him in, and he soon found himself seeing the world through new eyes. “Unaware that Krop was spying on his activities, the user of the Toshiba laptop visited porn site after porn site, taking breaks to check e-mail … and place ads to Craigslist.com for what Krop said appeared to be some kind of female modeling business, ” PC World reports. “My eyes just lit up,” Krop says. “Just the fact he was online at that moment was amazing.”
Video: Guy Installing Skimmer On ATM
By 9.14.09
LiveLeak has posted surveillance video footage from earlier this month of a guy in Brazil installing a skimming device onto a bank ATM. The second half of the tape shows him being arrested and officials revealing the device, which just reminds us that the next time we use an ATM, we’re first going to take off a shoe and hit everything on it like it’s covered in giant ants. See the video below.
Do Not Sign For Your Neighbor's Packages, Then Pawn Them
By 9.12.09
Fedex delivered a Florida woman’s new laptop computer when she wasn’t home. It was okay, though—her neighbor signed for it. Then, allegedly, he pawned it. Somehow, authorities tracked him down. Maybe it was the part where he signed his name.
Beware Fake Theme Park Passes
By 9.11.09
Everyone knows that you should never purchase gift cards on eBay or Craigslist, but it turns out that theme park passes in the form of gift cards are just as likely to be fake.
