Want to come upstairs and see my credit score?
Posted: Tuesday, August 19 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
When should you do it? On the third date? After meeting her parents? Half-way through the first date? When it just feels right? One thing is certain: you shouldn’t wait until you get married.
The idea of asking a new significant other about his or her credit score probably makes you squeamish, but it’s a subject that ultimately unavoidable. Just as you inherit in-laws when you tie the knot, you inherit credit history too. But unlike family ties, it can be nearly impossible to sever yourself from bad credit.
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Spam campaigns target msnbc.com, CNN
Posted: Wednesday, August 13 at 01:55 pm CT by Bob Sullivan
Spammers have upped the ante in their efforts to trick news consumers, switching from e-mails with tabloid-style headlines to impersonating major online news services. On Wednesday, e-mails that appeared to be from msnbc.com landed in inboxes worldwide, promising breaking news and confusing some recipients.
The spam unleashed Wednesday follows a massive campaign last week in which spammers impersonated CNN.com. That campaign saw 250 million spam messages sent in one intense 24 hour period, according to spam-fighting firm MX Logic Inc. Those e-mails appeared to include links to CNN's top 10 stories, but Internet users who were tricked into clicking on those links were sent instead to Web sites overseas that were booby-trapped with malicious software.
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Did PIN thieves grab hacking's Holy Grail?
Posted: Tuesday, August 12 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Could a hacker steal enough information from a store you’ve shopped at to print up fake debit cards in your name and withdraw cash from your checking account at an ATM? Even if you’ve never told a soul your PIN code?
In fact, said the Justice Department last week, it’s already happened, possibly to millions of people.
Buried in last week’s indictments of 11 alleged international computer hackers accused of stealing 40 million credit and debit account numbers from U.S. retailers was something far more unsettling: At at least one retail chain, the indictments accuse the group of swiping encrypted versions of debit card PINs, decrypting them, then using the information to print debit cards and get cash from ATMs.
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JetBlue, welcome to the Gotcha Hall of Shame
Posted: Friday, August 8 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Feeling fleeced by hidden fees, surcharges, fine print and other “Gotchas”? That's because you are getting fleeced. Sneaky pricing has become the American way of doing business in the past decade. But don't look now -- things are going to get much worse before they get better. Tough times and shrinking profits will spur on cash grabs the likes of which we've never seen. Like a wounded animal, I expect many a desperate corporate boardroom to authorize unconscionably tricky tactics, aiming to stave off a bad report to shareholders for one more quarter by sucking more quarters out of your wallet.
In this spirit, today we open up a new institution to memorialize all this chicanery: The Gotcha Hall of Shame. The first inductee is so deserving that it actually inspired creation of the award: JetBlue Airlines and its $7 pillow.
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Athletes, families hit by Olympic ticket scam
Posted: Tuesday, August 5 at 12:09 pm CT by Bob Sullivan
Lynette Lim's family might not get to see her swim in the Olympics after getting caught in an Internet ticket scam.
Ramon Mena Owens/The Press-Enterprise
The heartbreaking impact of a worldwide Internet ticket scam is only now becoming clear, as victims arrive in Beijing without the Olympics tickets they thought they had purchased months ago. Among the victims is a California man who may now be unable to watch his 16-year-old daughter compete in swimming events. The father of a U.S. softball team player also says he was scammed after he paid $3,500 for tickets to the opening ceremony.
The victims thought they had purchased their tickets from a Web site named BeijingTicketing.com. The authentic-looking site has been selling Olympics tickets for months before it was shut down this week. The site was named in a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by the International Olympic committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee on July 22.
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Credit Card 'Bill of Rights' inches forward
Posted: Tuesday, August 5 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Legislation that would ban many unpopular credit card company tactics has been passed by a congressional committee, opening a path for the so-called "Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights" to be considered by the full House of Representatives.
The bill, which was approved by the House Financial Services Committee last week, would prohibit many triggers that cause consumers to pay fees and higher interest rates. For example, it would stop card issuers from imposing higher rates retroactively on outstanding balances in some situations. The legislation was approved by a healthy 39-27 majority despite spirited lobbying against it by the banking industry.
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Why would Nigerian scammers steal books?
Posted: Friday, August 1 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Sue Brown was excited when an order for 60 books came in a few weeks ago. Brown works for The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York, one of the nation's largest agencies devoted to drug addiction research. The e-mail order from “Dr. Scott Smith” was for copies of the book "High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It."
Brown often receives bulk orders when a professor is teaching a new class or a new support group is starting. Each one represents a small victory in the agency's effort to spread understanding about addiction.
But this order was different. For starters, the writer insisted on very speedy delivery. He wanted the books delivered to him overseas within three to five days. And the destination for the books -- Lagos, Nigeria -- gave her pause. Still, this was nothing like the Nigerian scams she'd heard about, involving e-mails promising millions of dollars in inheritances, so she began filling the order.
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Are airline kiosks safe?
Posted: Tuesday, July 29 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Airline travelers may want to think twice about swiping their credit cards at airport self-service check-in kiosks following the possible theft of credit card account numbers from the kiosks at Canada's largest airport in Toronto.
One Canadian airline, WestJet, already has suspended use of credit cards for check-in at the Toronto kiosks in the wake of the investigation by Visa and MasterCard, which was revealed last week. Fliers can still use the machines, but now must use other methods – by swiping frequent flier cards, entering confirmation codes or using their passports.
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T-Mobile sued over 'mandatory' text fees
Posted: Friday, July 25 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
When Marco Zaldivar purchased four T-Mobile cell phones for his family a few years ago, he had no interest in text messages. They came anyway, and by 2007 unwanted texts were adding $20 to $30 to his bill every month, he claims. When he asked T-Mobile to shut off text service, the firm said that was impossible. Instead, he was given a Hobson's choice -- either sign up for a bundled text message plan with a monthly fee, pay $800 in early termination fees to cancel the service or turn the phones off for the remainder of his two-year contract.
Zaldivar decided on a fourth option -- he's suing T-Mobile for violating consumer protection laws. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, got a small green light last week from a U.S. District Court in Seattle, which rejected T-Mobile's motion to dismiss the case.
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Time to speak up about new credit card rules
Posted: Tuesday, July 22 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Hate hidden fees and other “gotchas” from credit cards and banks? You have until Aug. 4 to sound off about it.
In May, the Federal Reserve proposed a sweeping set of rule changes that would ban a wide set of consumer-unfriendly bank practices. The rules would prevent credit card issuers from charging retroactive rate increases on outstanding balances, for example, and ensure that bills are mailed at least 21 days before the balance is due. It would also make it harder for banks to change overdraft fees in some cases, and clarify a wide set of bank practices that sometimes seem like booby-traps designed to cost consumers.
The proposed rules are now open to public comment, but only until Aug. 4. Consumers who would like to make their opinions known about the new regulations can simply fill out a form on the Fed's Web site and leave comments there. Here's a link. Scroll about two-thirds of the way down the page and look for the words “submit comment.”
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