Ripoffs and Scams

If you were one of the thousands of shoppers who purchased a new computer since June 26 and are expecting a free upgrade to Windows 7 you may find yourself paying to get that "free" upgrade. Mouseprint.org dug through the fine print of the free Windows 7 upgrade offers and found out that while the...

Publishers Clearing House is known for its prizes. You've seen the commercials. The prize patrol is driving around, looking for you, hoping to give you a big fat check for entering its sweepstakes. Well, television consumer reporter John Matarese, very well known in my neck of the woods...

They call them "rebate" cards. But they're hardly a rebate. Instead, they are a mechanism to take millions of dollars due to consumers and give them back to the companies. "Rebate cards are a colossal ripoff because sellers who long ago figured out how to make rebates difficult to obtain have now...

The airlines have some mighty long sleeves. How else can you explain all the dirty tricks they're able to pull out of them? The newest one: Almost all of the legacy carriers in the United States have, within hours of each other, decided to charge you another $10 if you fly on the year's busiest...

Being someone who tries to steal from people through scams means having to come up with some believable proposition with the potential to get the person on the other end to give up money or private information. The latest scam in this never-ending series is targeting those who served the United...

Here's a hint; if you can't go five minutes without checking on your Facebook page, don't take up burglary as a career. According to the Martinsburg, W. Va. Journal, 19-year-old Jonathan G. Parker took the time, while in the midst of a home invasion, to log into his Facebook account on his victim's...

Last week we looked at Webloyalty's steps to address the flood of consumer complaints that helped trigger a Senate Commerce Committee investigation in May. This week we'll look at Vertrue, subpoenaed by the committee in late July when it didn't comply with Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-W. Va.) request...