If you sell a product that has glowing reviews from dependable expert critics, you’d probably want to point that out to customers. Or… you could just go ahead and make up a bunch of fake “expert” sites filled with fictional reviews. [More]
websites
Lululemon Website Loses Its Flow, Experiences Outage Monday And Tuesday
By 5.23.17
Not that long ago, if the website for a retailer like Lululemon went down for a day or two, most people wouldn’t notice. But the exercise apparel store’s two-day website outage could mean significant losses, and embarrassment for a company trying to bolster its online presence. [More]
Feds Shut Down Telemarketing Scam That Pitched Money-Making Schemes & Bogus Grants
By 10.28.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
As wonderful as it might sound, odds are that no one is trying to call you to give you free money, and anyone who dangles a get-rich-quick scheme in front of you should be quickly ignored. Yet federal regulators say telemarketers tricked seniors and veterans out of their money with these sorts of scams.
[More]
Skincare Marketers Barred Over Deceptive Marketing and Billing Practices
By 10.13.16
A year after federal regulators received a court order temporarily shutting down a group of marketers allegedly using deceptive online “risk-free trials” to entice customers into buying skincare products, the agency officially received orders barring the companies and their operators from using the deceptive tactics to promote their products. [More]
Senators Call On FTC To Do Something About Misleading Fashion Sites
By 4.13.16
It seems that someone in the offices of Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) or Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), or perhaps both senators, has either ordered clothing from a misleading China-based site or read Buzzfeed recently. Both senators announced today that they’ve sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Edith Ramirez, urging the FTC to take action against sites that advertise great deals and don’t deliver what customers expected. [More]
Target Website Crashes, Spoiling Shoppers’ Cyber Monday
By 11.30.15
Savvy holiday shoppers who didn’t want to fight the crowds on Black Friday may still be battling congested online traffic in order to obtain the plethora of Cyber Monday deals today. That’s especially true if you’re trying to score some goodies from Target, as the retailer’s website crashed this morning. [More]
Costco’s Online Photo Services Back Up After Breach, Customers’ Cards May Have Been Compromised
By 9.8.15
If you like viewing and ordering prints of your digital photos from the comfort of your own home and then traipsing to the local Costco to pick up your memories, then we’ve got good news: Costco has finally relaunched its online photo services website after taking the site down upon discovering a breach in July. But there’s also a bit of bad news: some customers’ credit card information may have been captured in the year-long hack. [More]
Costco Pushes Back Relaunch Of Online Photo Services Another Month Following July Hack
By 8.18.15
Fans of Costco’s photo services will likely be waiting another month before they are able to order pictures though its website, as the company that manages the site continues to recover from a July breach. [More]
Amazon Ending Pay-Per-Click Ad Program That Took Shoppers To Other Retail Sites, Creates Text-Only Ads
By 8.12.15
Smaller retailers who pay to have ads appear on the bottom of Amazon search results will soon see less of their products and more text, as the e-commerce giant prepares to shutter a pay-per-click ad program that took shoppers away from its site. [More]
BMW Beat Google To The “Alphabet” Name And Website
By 8.11.15
Yesterday, Google announced a massive reorganization that will put the Internet giant and all its other side businesses under the umbrella of a new company called Alphabet. But don’t expect to visit Alphabet.com anytime soon, unless you want to buy a bunch of BMWs. [More]
FTC Says Some Of Those “Risk-Free Trials” For Skincare Products Are Bogus, Shuts ‘Em Down
By 6.25.15
Sometimes it’s hard to ignore the lure of a “risk-free trial” when it comes with a product that promises to leave your skin youthful, radiant and as soft as a baby’s bottom. But as the Federal Trade Commission once again reminds us, those deals often come with strings attached and hollow promises. [More]
Uber’s Petition Website Hacked To Redirect To Lyft Homepage
By 6.15.15
It’s no secret that ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft have enjoyed a spirited rivalry in recent years. Over the weekend, a security researcher inserted himself into the crosshairs of the two ride-hailing services by exploiting a vulnerability in Uber’s petition website that allowed him to showcase and redirect visitors to Lyft’s homepage, while also changing the content of some petitions. Now he’s warning the company – and others like it – to take precautions when using petition and contest websites, as they might prove to be a welcome mat for malevolent hackers. [More]
Demand For Southwest Airlines Sale Fares Overwhelms Website
By 6.3.15
It’s probably not surprising that when Southwest Airlines announced a summer sale with one-way fares as cheap as $49, travelers were delighted. They were so delighted that they’ve overwhelmed the carrier’s site, making it difficult for customers to book new flights, or to print their boarding passes for travel that’s planned for, um, now. [More]
United Offers “Bug Bounty” Of Up To 1 Million Miles For Hackers Who Find Vulnerabilities In Website, Mobile App
By 5.14.15
While big companies are known to quietly seek out the services of white-hat hackers to test for weaknesses in their networks and websites, it’s not every day that a major airline publicly offers a “bounty” to people who can diagnose vulnerabilities in its systems. [More]
You Can Soon Buy “.Sucks” URLs, But At Prices That .Suck
By 3.16.15
If you’ve ever dreamed of using the recently approved .sucks top-level domain suffix to make fun of companies that annoy you, your chance is coming up when registration opens later this month. However, a .sucks domain won’t exactly come cheap, so be prepared to be outbid by the company you’d love to skewer. [More]
Frontier’s New Reservation System Proving To Be A Headache For Travelers
By 3.13.15
There are bound to be a few hiccups when a company changes software for a program that is integral to business. But customers say the transition for Frontier Airlines’ new reservation system has been full of turbulence. [More]
Park-N-Fly And OneStopParking Confirm Suspected Breaches
By 1.14.15
After looking at the transactions on compromised credit cards, security experts at banks suspected that breaches may have occurred at two airport parking companies: the suspected breaches at Park-N-Fly and OneStopParking. Both companies have since confirmed that they were breached, but that doesn’t mean that the same person or group targeted both companies. [More]
Tumblr Copies Facebook, Experiences Outage
By 9.3.14
UPDATE: Tumblr is back. That was a grueling half hour or so, wasn’t it? Tumblr’s official Twitter account announced the end of the outage, though they failed to explain what happened. There was no error message for many users: they simply couldn’t load the site. [More]
