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This totally made my day:
A Wisconsin college student filed a class-action complaint against Experian this week, claiming that the company's ubiquitous ads for FreeCreditReport.com led her to believe she could use the site to get a no-cost credit report.
Go figure! Someone believed that FreeCreditReport means you can get a free credit report? What are the odds!?
How this has gone on this long I'll never know. Even after 11,000 Better Business Bureau complaints the most that's been done to date was the very cool FTC spoof videos making fun of FreeCreditReport's TV ads where they did everything short of calling them crooks.
It's such an exquisite pleasure to watch this bogus company go down; let's hope this suit sticks.
Tags: Class Action, Freecreditreport.com, It's About Time
As always happens with current events and especially with relief and aid efforts, scammers come out of their holes to steal money meant for the unfortunate. E-mails and social networking messages will start pouring in and fake relief websites have popped up already. Avoid scams that only make scammers richer and donate only directly to major organizations (such as the Red Cross) or at least do your research first.
The Better Business Bureau has a listing of charities that are in good standing at http://www.bbb.org/us/charity/
For more information about the scams, see the Ars Technica article on the subject.
Tags: Earthquakes, Facebook, Fake Charities, Haiti, Spam
This chart is a little eye-opening. I already knew that a lot of bottled water is actually filtered tap water, but I didn't know (nor am I surprised) that the regulation on bottled water is insufficient. If you want to buy a bottle of water, go ahead, but know what you're getting for the money.
Presented by Online Education
Tags: Aquafina, Bottled Water, Deer Park
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Amazon.com, but this season, it's more hate. I found the gift I'd been looking for on Amazon for about $10 cheaper than my normal favorite, Newegg.com.
However, I suppose nothing cheap comes without strings attached, not at Amazon anyway. Check out this BS:
So not only are they saying that with more than 20 days lead time, they can't get me this item by Christmas and it's not free shipping as was promised, but there's hope! If I sign up for "AMAZON PRIME" I get not only free shipping, but it comes on time. It's only 80 FREAKING DOLLARS should I somehow forget to cancel.
Ok, so I could just sign up and cancel right away, but I shouldn't have to jump through goofy hoops just to buy something and this smacks entirely of deliberate obstacles for the sake of pushing me into their "premium service". I don't do deceptive.
For $10 more, I just kept my business at Newegg.com which has been the most consistently excellent source of electronics research and prices all while maintaining excellent customer service. Be sure to take your business there too.
Update: It's the 11th and my gift already arrived. I wonder why Newegg's free standard ground shipping managed to get me my item in less than 5 days, but somehow Amazon just couldn't do it in less than 20 unless I signed up for Amazon Prime… Hmmm…. It's a mystery.
Tags: Amazon.com, Christmas, Newegg, Shopping Online
One hundred percent of credit cards offered online by the leading bank card issuers continue to include practices that will be outlawed once legislation passed in May takes effect next year.
What this hardly surprising bit of news is saying is that every single bank, because they've been allowed to thus far, uses abusive and deceptive credit practices. It just boggles my mind when people say the market can "regulate itself". I wonder why several hundred years of abuses isn't enough evidence of just how wrong that is.
Tags: Customer Abuse, Dishonest Companies, Lax Regulation, Market Regulation, Regulatory Agencies
Of course this isn't a problem limited only to Facebook, but the FBI issued a warning about the rise of hijacking scams. This is where a bad guy gets your login information through various means and then poses as you on your account. They'll send an urgent request for help or money to all your friends who may be fooled and comply (as in the case of Bryan Rutberg).
Tags: Account Security, Facebook, FBI, Hijacking, Social Networking Sites
I can't really state this often enough. There's only one place to get free credit reports and that's AnnualCreditReport.com. Everywhere else is going to take your money and give you grief.
Freescore is that company that's been advertising with Ben Stein on TV and they've been at the same dirty tricks as all these bogus free credit score places. However, because of a blogger who posted that they're a "predatory bait-and-switch" and also pointed out that the parent company of Freescore is VERTRUE, INC who has a Better Business Bureau score of F for charging people unexpectedly and then hassling them to get their money back (quoted loosely from here).
Freescore decided to file a libel lawsuit that looks surprisingly bogus to Felix Salmon, a blogger at Reuters. Not only did they never accuse the blogger of posting anything false, but the only part of the post that could be considered libelous was a direct quote from Felix's blog in the first place!
Well, this nonsense is no surprise to anyone that's watched these companies taking people's money and providing nothing in return.
Remember, there is only one place to get free credit reports and that's AnnualCreditReport.com. Anyone else that offers you free credit reports is lying or has a gimmick.
Tags: Ben Stein, Freescore, Lawsuit
Sadly, traditional phone call scams still work particularly against those of the previous generation that never had to distrust any callers. This one is targeting military veterans:
"America’s Veterans have become targets in an inexcusable scam that dishonors their service and misrepresents the Department built for them," said Dr. Gerald Cross, VA’s Under Secretary for Health. "VA simply does not call Veterans and ask them to disclose personal financial information over the phone."
Remember that people who call you could be bad guys. Before giving away any sensitive data, find out how to reach them through ONLY public phone numbers available on the official website or in a phone book NOT using any numbers they give you.
Tags: Con Artist, Phone Scam, VA, Veterans Affairs
There are many photoshopped and altered photos on the net. The easiest way to find them is to type "not photoshopped" into Google because people are big fat liars. One that constantly makes the rounds and is often listed as "amazing not photoshopped rabbit" is one of those times.
The photo on the right is very hard to find on the net because the ones showing him at odd angles increasing his apparent size are so much more fun, but the fact is that the rabbit is big, but not THAT big. Whether camera angle, photoshop or both, it's fake and obviously so. Can we please stop spreading the lies now?
Tags: Flemmish, Giant Rabbit, Photoshopped
TJX, the company that is known for having the largest data breach in history (so far), has not implemented better security and might have gotten worse. The employee that blew the whistle on them has been caught and fired for it.
TJX now has a firm that scours the internet to find bad things posted about them, which is how they found the message and fired him for it. Too bad they don't appear to have hired anyone to beef up operational security or to convince people to use strong passwords.
Hey! That probably means they'll find THIS page. Sweet.
If that's the case, then here's my message to them: Stop storing all that personal data about us against our will and you won't have to pay for more security. You can't lose what you don't have, duh!
Tags: Careful What You Post, Data Abuse, Data Breach, Kill the Messenger, TJX, Wireless Security
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