ScamsOnline

Class action lawsuit filed against music industry

People have complained about the price of recorded music for decades. It's always seemed a little fishy that there was no price competition between the labels, and that CDs have always remained more expensive than cassettes, even though the discs are now dirt cheap to make. When music went digital, why did we see so few price points for individual tracks? Today, why are all the major labels simultaneously making noise about wanting Apple to offer variable pricing? The whole situation fueled paranoid claims about industry collusion and price-fixing that later turned out to be totally justified.

Now the sheep are waking up.

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PIN Scandal "Worst Hack Ever;" Citibank Only the Start

The unfolding debit card scam that rocked Citibank this week is far from over, an analyst said Thursday as she called this first-time-ever mass theft of PINs "the worst consumer scam to date."

Wednesday, Citibank confirmed that an ongoing fraud had forced it to reissue debit cards and block PIN-based transactions for users in Canada, Russia, and the U.K.

But Citibank is only the tip of the iceberg, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner research vice president. The scam -- and scandal -- has hit national banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual, as well as smaller banks, including ones in Oregon, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which have re-issued debit cards in recent weeks.

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Woman Googles her date - finds him on Most Wanted List

"He was the nicest guy you could possibly want to meet," Pam Smith thought of Fain after they met on her birthday, February 24. "Now, I feel like a fool."

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You have been admitted to UCBerkeley Law school - NOT!

This is not a scam. It is a pure case of human error, more properly known as user stupidity.

Edward Tom, director of admissions at the University of California, Berkeley, law school, was training a new office worker last week when it happened...

AT&T Overcharging Troops

Here is an article on how AT&T overcharges our troops in the middle-east. The overcharging of American soldiers for calls from Iraq and Afghanistan, as first reported in The Prepaid Press in January 2005, has caught the eye of a powerful organization: the American Legion.

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Now it's official: the Internet is looming large...

Now it's official: the Internet is looming large in all aspects of American life, even crime.

According to the "Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data" report, just released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), identity theft was the most commonly reported complaint last year, representing 255,000 (37%) of the total 686,683 complaints filed in 2005.

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Man Gets $3,800 Check To Become Mystery Shopper

There is a scam that involves a cashier check that could lead to criminal charges. 5 On Your Side Consumer Specialist Angie Lau reported a local man got an official-looking check, but it was really part of an elaborate scam. Sam, which is not his real name, got a call last week about becoming a mystery shopper. He didn't think anything of it.

Visa USA Comments on Cyber Thefts

Some scam artists have ripped VISA credit card numbers and havebeen using them to purchase gasoline at a Sam's Club in Washington D.C. Luckily, VISA cards are insured against fraud so the victims of this scam will not lose a dime.

Visa USA credit card company has released the following statement:

Is It Time To Say Goodbye to Paper Money?

For 15 million Japanese, paper money and checks are a thing of the past, according to the Japan Research Institute. No longer solely used for online purchases, e-money, accessed via a smart card or mobile phone, has become a way of life for many consumers in Japan.

The reasons usually given are for convenience and security: paper money and paper checks are too easily lost or stolen.

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Tax scam alert: Don’t be fooled by fake IRS queries

Common sense says the IRS doesnt e-mail taxpayers offering tax refunds in exchange for confidential personal information. And yet, every year people are fooled by those and other bogus tax schemes.

If somebody comes to you and says "What's your bank account number," its probably not us, Internal Revenue Service spokesman Anthony Burke said. We contact taxpayers by U.S. mail first and provide a toll-free number to call the agency.

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