Are videocameras at traffic lights meant to make roads safer? Or just serve as an easy way for states and municipalities to dish out tickets and raise revenues? Considering the serious money generated by cameras—as much as $480 …
Scams
How to Get the Government to Cover Your Cell Phone Bill(s)
Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for …
How Computer Geeks Aim to Put a Stop to Fake Online Reviews
A collection of five-star ratings can do amazing things for a business. It’s not all that surprising, then, that hotels, restaurants, local services, product manufacturers and even doctors and dentists are known to plant glowing …
9 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Trust Online Reviews
You shouldn’t believe everything you read. And if you’re reading online reviews of products, hotels, restaurants, or local businesses or services? Then you should believe even less.
Woman Gets Nearly $10K Suing Honda For Misleading About Civic Hybrid’s MPG
Fifty miles per gallon? That’s what Honda claimed. But Heather Peters’ 2006 Civic Hybrid never did better than 41, maybe 42 mpg. And when Honda “fixed” her battery, the car dropped below 30 mpg. Instead of agreeing to take part …
Now There’s Even More Reason to Distrust Online Reviews
The latest sham doesn’t exactly pay customers to write up positive online reviews of products. But it’s more than a little sketchy when a company offers to reimburse people for their purchases if they post a review on Amazon.
ICANN’s New Top-Level Web Domains Could Spell Dot-Trouble For Businesses
Do you have $185,000 lying around? If so you can apply to purchase one of the web’s new addresses via the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which runs the web’s domain-name system. The new generic …
Feds Charge ‘Rudy’ — Yes, That ‘Rudy’ — With Stock Fraud
This time, Rudy got sacked.
Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, best known as the indomitable underdog who realized his dream of playing football at Notre Dame, was charged with deceiving investors Friday by the Securities and Exchange …
Financial Scams Target Boomers
Baby boomers are still looking out for their parents, even as they have fallen into the crosshairs of financial con artists themselves. It’s a bona fide boomer nightmare: they are becoming their mom or dad—at least as it …
Don’t Cry for Goldman Sachs, Despite ‘Bad’ Year and Partner Exits
Has Goldman Sachs lost its lustre? The Wall Street powerhouse is wrapping up its worst financial performance since 2008, with profits down more than 40% so far this year. As a result, end-of-year bonus payouts are sure to be …
You’ve Won 89¢! Just Send in $20 to Collect
Apparently, it’s totally legal to scam people, so long as you inform them they’re being scammed in the fine print. How brilliant! And how evil!
5 Ways to Recognize a Financial Scam
With a tough economy making timely retirement less likely for many folks, retirement-related financial scams may be on the upswing. Here are five ways to know if you are being played.
