Posts Tagged ‘fraud’
Groupon Makes A Small Acquisition, Buying The Social Search Experts At Campfire (GRPN)
Groupon has acquired stealthy startup Campfire Labs, TechCrunch reports.
The acquisition is for talent. The founders, former Google Sakina Arsiwala and social search expert Naveen Koorakula, are married. Campfire Labs was reportedly building a social networking service to improve engagement.
Groupon is a pretty social service itself, so adding anyone with expertise in social is a smart move.
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Here Are The 5 Most Shocking Stories Of 2011
Shock·ing (shkng) adj.
1. Highly disturbing emotionally.
2. Highly offensive; indecent or distasteful.
3. Very vivid or intense in tone: shocking pink.
True to the dictionary definition, GlobalPost’s Top 5 Most Shocking Stories of 2011 offers intense takes on unexpected stories.
1) China: The economics of killing someone by Kathleen E. McLaughlin in Beijing
A person accidentally hits someone on the road. It happens everyday. The driver speeds off. Sadly, that too happens everyday. What doesn’t happen everyday, however, is the driver returning to the scene of the crime to run over the person again, making sure to kill him or her this time. Why would they do such a thing? It’s simply cost-effective. When a person is dead, they’re dead. When they’re alive and injured, there is always the potential that an unpaid medical bill might come knocking on your door.
And what’s worse? It’s trend in China. In the past two-and-a-half years, Chinese media have reported around a dozen hit-and-run cases where the driver is believed to have intentionally killed someone or knowingly let them die after first accidentally running them down.
Video shows van hitting a toddler and then bystanders walking by the child.
See the other 4 shocking stories at GlobalPost >
This post originally appeared at GlobalPost.
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Here’s What Happens To Your Bag After You Check It At The Airport
Delta Airlines released a video showing exactly what happens to your bag once you check it at the airport. This is smart, especially after the negative publicity airlines got when a baggage handler told Fox News what really happens to bags in airports — like how they get lost and “Fragile” stickers are a joke.
In any case, this video — which was made with six cameras — is pretty cool, even though Delta probably took extra care with this particular bag.
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3 Things To Watch Out For When Someone Promises To Rescue You From Mortgage Hell
With no end to the foreclosure crisis in sight, it’s no wonder consumers are still falling for shady mortgage relief scams.
They’re desperate to keep a roof over their head and even banks are struggling to keep up with their needs.
Just this week, six defendants agreed to hand over a combined $6 million to settle FTC charges they ran bogus businesses claiming they’d help consumers claw their way out of foreclosure.
Call it an FTC victory or whatever you like, but the case highlights how just how susceptible homeowners can be to fraud when they find themselves on the brink of losing their homes.
The victims who fell for this scam missed several red flags along the way.
First of all, the defendants claimed their companies were part of a government-backed mortgage relief program called “U.S. Homeowners Relief.”
Although the Obama administration did launch a relief organization for struggling homeowners in March 2010, a simple web search would have shown them it was never called U.S. Homeowners Relief.
It was part of the Making Home Affordable program, which offered consumers loan modification assistance through the Federal Housing Administration.
The next red flag was that the so-called “relief” company declared a 90 percent success rate. That’s a big no-no since the FTC made it illegal to sway consumers with misleading advertising.
Now for the kicker: They also asked for $4,250 upfront from their clients–before they even rendered services. That’s also illegal.
Once you’ve handed over that check, the damage is pretty much done. Sure, they’ll promise to refund the cash if they don’t get your payments and interest rates lowered, but by the time you realize they’re a fake, they’ve already taken off.
In this case, the defendants cut their phone lines, stopped answering their clients’ emails and changed their business’ name.
If you believe your home was foreclosed in error, it’s not too late to submit to the government’s independent foreclosure review. It’s open to 4.5 million homeowners and all submissions are due by April 2012.
If you’ve dealt with a loan modification business you feel is up to no good, alert the FTC or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
Now meet the neighbors from hell that can seriously trash your home value >
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Student Loans Company warns of phishing attack
The Student Loans Company is contacting customers who it believes may have had their personal details compromised as a result of a phishing attack.
The email attack was designed to steal students’ personal details and the company is advising students that a genuine email from the company would never ask them to divulge personal or financial information such as bank details.
The Student Loans Company handles government loans taken out by students at UK universities and colleges, to support them in their studies.
It has not confirmed how many customers may have been affected by the latest scam, which follows a number of earlier phishing attacks.
Attacks often take place in September, January and April, the months when most students pay the instalments on their loans.
Heather Laing, fraud prevention and detection manager for the Student Loans Company, said: “We are currently contacting a number of students by telephone who we have identified as being at risk of having their details compromised, to advise them of the necessary security steps they should follow to ensure their details are protected”.
Earlier this week it was announced that the Metropolitan Police Service has arrested six people over a phishing scam which targeted UK students in August.
The suspects are believed to have stolen more than £1 million through the scam which involved an email asking the Student Loan Company’s customers to update their loan account details.
A link in the email directed the students to a bogus website which appeared genuine but allowed the phishers to steal personal details and take large sums of money from bank accounts.
The suspects were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, for money laundering offences and under the Computer Misuse Act.