Investigations

—>When agents raided Gibson Guitar's manufacturing facility earlier this week, some articles pointed out that the company's CEO Henry Juszkiewicz was on the board of the Rainforest Alliance, a group that certifies businesses to sell their goods under an environmentally sustainable label. Now the group has postponed its annual certification of Gibson Guitars, and Juszkiewicz is temporarily stepping down from the board.  More Â»

—>We're always making fun of companies who overuse the phrase "taking it seriously," but it looks like Wendy's isn't playing around. An anonymous tipster found a chicken bone in his Wendy's sandwich, and got taken very seriously when he reported it.  More Â»

—>One of Toyota's execs said today that the company isn't covering up information about its suddenly accelerating cars, but the Department of Transportation doesn't seem to agree.  More Â»

—>The FAA has been investigating American Airlines for a while now over allegations that it wasn't repairing its planes properly, and yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that the agency may widen its investigation, and even bring charges against individual employees who signed off on substandard repairs.  More Â»

—>South Park managed to combine the late Billy Mays, the unfortunately still around Ghost Hunters, and the beloved Chipotle chain in their latest episode, with surprising results.  More Â»

—>Since 2007, the FBI and authorities in Egypt have been running an investigation they've called "Operation Phish Phry," sigh, and this week it paid off with 53 charges against U.S. defendants and 47 against people in Egypt. Three of the 53 in the U.S. have been arrested, and the FBI are looking for the other 50. To prove you're not one of the remaining 50, please send the FBI your login credentials to your bank. Ha ha, we kid.  More Â»

—>An excellent piece of investigative journalism by NBC Los Angeles catches valets all over the city putting up fake no parking signs, jamming meters, and using customers' cars to shuttle valets around.  More Â»

—>Consumer watchdog George Gombossy this morning filed a 1st Amendment lawsuit against his former employer, Tribune-owned Hartford Courant. There's some gangbusters stuff in the filing, like the part where he says the new owners told him to "be nice" to one of their key advertisers:  More Â»

—>We're not at the "full body latte" stage just yet, but Grab-n-Go Espresso in Everett, Washington has apparently taken us right up to that edge with their espresso stands where baristas show skin while serving coffee. Now five Grab-n-Go baristas have been charged "with multiple counts of prostitution and violating the city's adult entertainment ordinance."  More Â»

—>Erik has been patiently trying to get his stolen Xbox Live account back for a month and a half now, but all Microsoft has done to help is lie and fail to follow up on phone calls or emails. Oh, and there was that one point where they sent "how to get your account back" instructions to the person who had stolen the account, which sort of defeated the point.  More Â»

—>New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office is gathering information in order to file fraud charges against some BoA executives over what they knew, and what they hid, when they acquired Merrill Lynch & Co. a year ago. Earlier this week, his office subpoenaed 5 board members to find out "what they knew regarding the mounting losses and bonus payments at Merrill before the deal closed on Jan. 1 and what role they played in deciding whether to disclose that information to shareholders," according to the Associated Press.  More Â»

—>Fox 11 News in LA went undercover with an intentionally damaged hard drive to find out whether online complaints about Data Recovery Corp, Inc. were true. Can you guess what the result was?  More Â»

—>Since we posted our feature investigation into their business practices, Cash4Gold has been busy sending out one new press release per day.  More Â»

—>Uh-oh, the FCC is getting serious about doing its job, which probably means more memos like the one Apple posted last week from companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Yesterday the FCC announced three "Notices of Inquiry"—all unanimously voted for by a full, bi-partisan commission—that will look at different aspects of the cellular industry.  More Â»

—>Apparently, Apple didn't reject the Google Voice application for iPhone. They "[continue] to study it." Yesterday, Apple, AT&T, and Google all turned in their responses to the FCC's questions as part of the investigation into the bannination of Google Voice from the iPhone App Store.   More Â»

—>Buried in the controversy surrounding the exit of consumer reporter George Gombossy from the Hartford Courant was his article that looks at complaints against mattress company Sleepy's. We though this bit of wisdom from Sleepy's COO was worth repeating:  More Â»

—>Almost half of all employers use credit reports to judge job applicants, even though credit histories have no relation to job performance. Personal finance goofs are only relevant for jobs that deal directly with money—cashiers, account managers, and the like. For everyone else, negative credit reports keep otherwise capable people from securing a job to help avoid further financial problems. So why do so many companies still ask for credit reports?  More Â»

—>Apple (and AT&T) may have finally pushed too far with this week's rejection of the Google Voice App from the iPhone App Store, for no reason other than it "duplicated functionality" already offered—for a price—by AT&T. According to mocoNews, the FCC has asked Apple and AT&T to provide answers about how apps are approved, why they're denied, and particularly how much say AT&T has over things iPhone-related.  More Â»

—>Best Buy will face stiff competition if it ever tries to penetrate the UK market, as this hidden camera investigation into peeping tom computer repair shops reveals.   More Â»

—>NetworkWorld published its findings on the suspicious histories of the men behind new cellphone company Zer01 just two days ago, but they clearly sent someone behind the scenes scrambling. This afternoon they reported that Zer01's parent company "has stripped its Web site down to only basic information," and that "new details have also come to light suggesting a past connection between two of the involved companies, despite claims to the contrary."  More Â»

—>ZER01 is a new cellular service launching soon that promises unlimited calling and unlimited, fast data connectivity for $70 a month. There's another unique twist: you can sell the service to your friends for $10 monthly credits. That's right, it's a multi-level marketing mobile virtual network operator—an MLM MVNO. NetworkWorld smelled something fishy, so they researched the companies behind the offering and found that there's a lot of sketchy looking stuff. We put the highlights of their investigation into a chart.  More Â»

—>In 2006, five states launched an investigation into DISH Network's crummy sales practices after hundreds of complaints from consumers. Now the company has agreed to pay $5.9 million to 46 states in a settlement announced today—and at least some of that money is earmarked for DISH customers.  More Â»

—>Earlier this week, a Congressional investigation revealed that several insurance companies rely on a database from Ingenix that deliberately underestimates the cost of medical services, reports the Associated Press. The result is that "American consumers have paid billions of dollars for health care services that their insurance companies should have paid."  More Â»

—>U.S. Fidelis, the auto warranty company that's currently being investigated by 40 state attorneys general for questionable business practices, has hired the law firm headed by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. The firm won't represent the company in litigation, but is supposed to provide an internal review of their practices. They'll also provide draping cloths for any immodest statuary, and wiretap kits for employees of interest. Hey, it's hard to do topical humor on someone who's been out of office for 4 years.  More Â»

—>The Washington Post says that a hacker encrypted 8 million patient prescription records from a Virginia state website last week, deleted the backups, and replaced the home page with a ransom note. If the state doesn't pay $10 million within 7 days, the hacker has threatened to sell the data to the highest bidder.  More Â»

—>The Today show recently aired a terrifically entertaining exposé of US Fidelis, one of the biggest companies behind the auto warranty racket that you've probably encountered via junk mail, telemarketing, or even on TV. They start by looking at an individual who spent $3,180 on one of their auto warranties only to be left stranded when her car overheated and they refused to pay.  More Â»

—>Here's seven different sneaky ways companies snag your cash, a little series CBC is calling "The Seven Sins Of The Marketplace." There's the sin of Addition, Omission, Creation, Salvation, Assurance, Persuasion, and Deception. What do those mean? Well, for instance, the Sin Of Creation is when a company invents a need you never knew you had, and then sells you a product to fulfill it. For the rest of 'em, check out CBC's cool video.  More Â»

—>A woman in Atlanta bit into a blue peanut M&M and discovered a tiny, blackened bone, probably from a nut obsessed animal who crept into the M&M to eat the peanut, then died of remorse. A Mars rep told the customer it was probably just a peanut twig. Whatever; by our estimations, this animal is most likely smaller than a peanut M&M, but has a comically wide and very short neck. Hmm, maybe we should instead ask an expert to deduce where this bone came from, which is what the customer did.  More Â»

—>NPR spoke with Daniel Roth, a senior writer at Wired Magazine, over the file sharing fiasco that Comcast found itself in about a year ago—the one where a Comcast customer discovered that the company was secretly impersonating his computer to interrupt bittorrent transmissions.  More Â»

—>The U.S. Secret Service has arrested three men in Florida on "hundreds of counts of credit card fraud" for using fake gift cards imprinted with account info stolen from Heartland Payment Systems last year. The Secret Service still thinks an Eastern European group is behind the Heartland breach, and that the Florida guys are smaller-time crooks who most likely purchased a subset of the stolen data.  More Â»

—>FBI agents raided the Georgia plant suspected in the current salmonella peanut butter outbreak that has been linked to 600 illnesses and eight deaths in 43 states. The company is accused of knowingly shipping the tainted products.  More Â»

Are you a New Jersey resident who was screwed out of Springsteen tickets by the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow "technical glitch"? The state's Division of Consumer Affairs would like to hear from you. There's a small box on the lower right corner of the home page that will take you to a complaint form. [NJ Consumer Affairs via MetsPolice]  More Â»

—>Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D) of New Jersey has asked the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and its reseller website, TicketsNow, after consumers who tried to buy Bruce Springsteen tickets encountered technical problems that prevented purchase, and were then redirected to TicketsNow where prices were "hundreds of dollars above face value" (actually, more like "thousands of dollars," based on our check just a few minutes ago).  More Â»

—>SmartMoney's Anne Kadet looked into the process by which the three major credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—investigate and correct errors on credit reports. What she found was that the process is "almost entirely automated," and that "many lenders respond by simply rereporting the erroneous data." Here's how it works, and your meager options when something goes wrong.  More Â»

—>President Obama has had it up to here with poor FDA oversight, particularly of salmonella-infested peanut factories, and he's called for a review of the underfunded organization, according to U.S. News & World Report.  More Â»

—>Responding to FDA reports that the company responsible for the salmonella-tainted peanut butter that has infected over 500 people knew its products were contaminated, two members of Congress have called for a criminal investigation into Peanut Corporation of America .  More Â»

—>The news about Peanut Corp. of America's complete abandonment of food safety gets worse: now it seems that the company knew its peanut butter had salmonella, but shipped it anyway. When the product tested positive, the company shopped around for another lab to provide "acceptable" results.   More Â»

Remember the father and son team who cut in line at Walmart, then threatened an off-duty police officer with bodily harm, then were arrested? They've been charged with battery, and the off-duty cop has been cleared. A police investigator said, "The [Walmart] video supports [Officer] Kirby's version of what happened." [Indy Star] (Thanks to David!)  More Â»

After an eight-month investigation, the Humane Society of the United States accused Petland, the national pet store chain, of selling dogs bred under appalling conditions at puppy mills around the country.  More Â»

—>KNBC undercover cameras caught local JiffyLubes and EZ-Lubes upselling customers to buy engine-flushing and fuel-injection cleaning services, services which have been forbidden by auto-manufacturers because they're unnecessary and can severely damage your engine. One guy's engine died while he was driving on the highway, and it cost him $5,000 to replace his engine.  More Â»

—>Check me out on On The Money tomorrow night. I acted as their on-screen reporter in their piece about the Robert Allen get rich in real estate Institute. Catch it Friday at 9pm eastern on CNBC. Bloggers are reporters and they're on TV, baby!  More Â»

—>UPDATE: CNBC is holding my piece tonight because Robert Allen himself has agreed to talk to them on-camera. So maybe we'll see it next week. Stay tuned.  More Â»

—>I wanted to find out what Robert Allen's "get-rich-quick in real estate with no money down" promise was all about, so when I saw a full page ad in the Daily Post advertising one of his free seminars recently, I went and checked it out. I'll give you a full run-down later, but here's the quick and dirty, and what I can tell about how the darn thing seems to function.  More Â»

—>The national wireless carriers have responded to the Senate's request for information on why its text-messaging fees have doubled over the past three years. Their collective response: they haven't gotten more expensive, they've gotten cheaper—and your public suspicion of our business practices has led to lots of class action lawsuits!   More Â»

The Nash Finch stores Avanza, Food Bonanza and Wholesale Food Outlets add the 10 percent charge to food at the register and specialize in serving Hispanics, according to store workers.  More Â»

“Who would have thought, after 30 years, that we’d be a flying 7-Eleven,” Becky Gilbert, a three-decade veteran of the industry told me during a break in our training session in Fort Worth.  More Â»

—>If you're getting dental implant work done, you may want to ask if they outsource to other countries. A KPHO investigation bought 13 crowns from labs in China, Thailand and the US. Ten of them came back positive for lead, with levels from 110 parts per million to 240 parts per million. The problem may be from the surface stain used to whiten and brighten the teeth. Throughout history, lead has been used in paints because it's bright, cheap, and highly durable.  More Â»

—>Here's a mystery story to distract you from the U.S. Banking Apocalypse. UltimateBet.com, "one of the top 10 poker sites," has admitted that employees manipulated the software to cheat from at least January 2005 to January 2008, when some players started noticing an unusually high rate of wins for a certain user name. An Australian player mapped that user's wins against accounts that had played a similar number of hands, and realized that "NioNio's" wins were "less likely than 'winning a one-in-a-million lottery on four consecutive days.'" But NioNio is just one part of the mystery.  More Â»

—>Verizon, which has no problem helping the government spy on its customers, suddenly turned stupid in June when a police department asked them for help finding the body of a woman who had been abducted on camera. Despite pleas from the woman's parents, the police, and the FBI, it was four days before a technician was sent out to the appropriate cell tower. When that technician gave the police the location info, they found Kelsey Smith's body within 45 minutes. Verizon won't respond to requests for an explanation of why they couldn't help sooner.  More Â»

—>Fastspells.com is a ridiculous website loaded with sexy young lady "Wiccans" who, for anywhere from $40 to $265, will "find you love, give you an abortion, cure your cancer, grant you immortality, and change your sex organs." Terrific, because I need some new sex organs! These are all worn out. Anyway, Trae at TRHOnline.com was annoyed by their expensive and unrealistic promises, and the more he looked into the domain registrations, the more suspicious he became.  More Â»

—>A two-year investigation has concluded that most Verizon FIOS installations fail to meet national safety standards, and could cause fires or electrocutions. FIOS is famous for house fires, but New York's Public Service Commission first started its investigation back in 2006 after several inspectors discovered improperly grounded installations.  More Â»

Hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties submitted phony Medicare and Medi-Cal bills for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeless patients—including drug addicts and the mentally ill—recruited from downtown's Skid Row, state and federal authorities allege.  More Â»

—>Scammers love to tap into national trends to put a new face on an old scam, and the "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Equity Prize Draw" scam spotted by the Louisville, KY BBB is no exception.  More Â»

Google now helps catch criminals. The FBI identified a Citibank PIN thief by cross-referencing security camera footage with an ICQ handle and personal photos on ham radio enthusiasts sites. [Information Week]  More Â»

—>Wired has been covering the ongoing investigation into recurring ATM pin thefts from Citibank accounts, and their latest article tracks how Ukrainian immigrants, a ringleader back in Russia, a hacked company named Fiserv that runs Citibank-branded ATMs in 7-Elevens, and an online payment service that also offers money laundering for a small fee all come together to steal your money. It's an amazing look at how the U.S. tries to combat the threat of ATM-related theft.  More Â»

Over 400 people have been charged in the government's national mortgage fraud probe, called "Operation Malicious Mortage," which dealt with individual rather than corporate fraud. [Reuters]  More Â»

—>If you own an HP Pavilion Notebook and you've had problems with it—specifically overheating, problems with the power supply, and an inability to update the BIOS—then you might want to contact this law firm and tell them your story. We know class actions rarely help the individual consumer, but they do succeed in punishing the offending company occasionally, and we can't think of a computer company more in need of a good class action smackdown than HP.  More Â»

Unless you're willing to risk being stranded with 14 other passengers several stories underground in a cattle car elevator on a hot summer day, or plunging at extreme speeds down an escalator with a broken chain, you might want to steer clear of NYC's subway system lifts. The New York Times has published the results of an extensive investigation that includes tales of daily breakdowns, comically undertrained mechanics, and about $1 billion spent over the past decade.  More Â»

Expired items are lurking on store shelves. A Fox5 investigation followed around the Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs and found evaporated skim milk and diabetic medicine on the shelf that expired over a year ago. At a dollar store, they found the manager was cutting the expiration dates off boxes of expired toothpaste and still selling them. The Stop and Shop was fined $1450 for selling expired goods, the dollar store, $13,225 for 529 items. Don't forget to check the expiration date, the store, or the Consumer Affairs Office, isn't always going to do it for you.  More Â»

—>Bill, whose small business checking account had been inappropriately drafted $1500, sent us the following email late last night:  More Â»

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—>Last week a Florida journalist busted Burger King VP Stephen Grover for using his tween-aged daughter's email account to slam a farm workers group—but that wasn't the only weird email event related to this story. Now Burger King is taking steps to officially distance itself from Grover's actions and the other internal emails by announcing it's launched an "internal investigation" into all three.  More Â»

—>A Denver TV crew unseated a RAM chip and then took it to seven different repair centers for a diagnosis. The resulting displays of incompetence were pretty evenly distributed, with two Best Buy Geek Squads, one Circuit City Firedog, and one locally owned repair center (CTI) all failing miserably ("It's the motherboard!" they each said). Of the three locations that correctly diagnosed and fixed the problem, Action Computers charged $50, Geek Squad charged $30, and the Firedog tech who hands-down won the challenge "reinstalled the memory cards in less than two minutes, free of charge."  More Â»

—>Wachovia, you old rascal! As soon as you wrap up one unsavory scandal, a new possible scandal comes to light. U.S. justice authorities are investigating the bank for possible money laundering through Mexican and Colombian money-transfer businesses. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that "the bank is possibly facing a deferred-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice that would subject it to 'extensive federal oversight,'" but Wachovia denies that any such discussion has taken place.  More Â»

—>Cablevision responded to our post chastising their attempt to force customer to upgrade to digital service by pointing to an unrelated FCC mandate. Cablevision admits that there is no connection between their unilateral business decision to cut channels and the FCC-mandated transition to digital television, but their statement leaves several questions unanswered. Read Cablevision's statement and our response, after the jump.  More Â»

—>Update: Cablevision responds.  More Â»

—>In regards to a headline grabbing AP investigation that found the drinking water of major cities contained trace amounts of an array of pharmacopoeia, the deputy commissioner of New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, "A person would have to drink one million glasses of water to get the dose of even one over-the-counter ibuprofen tablet or the caffeine in one cup of coffee...Even at eight glasses of water per day, this would take the average person over 300 years to consume." So for those of you hoping to replace your medicine cabinet just by draining the Brita, sorry Charlie. However, there are no studies on the long-term effects to human of small exposure to a vast array of drugs, although, the Times notes, they have been shown to cause mutations in fish.  More Â»

—>Internet service providers are actively tracking 100,000 users, reading every email they send and every website they visit, according to the Washington Post. The report coincides with a damning Associated Press investigation of ISP contracts which finds that they reserve broad rights to read essentially anything you view on the internet without any intervening supervision or regulation.  More Â»

Judge Thomas P. Agresti of the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh on Tuesday approved an inquiry into "the impact of Countrywide's bankruptcy procedures on the integrity of the bankruptcy process" by the Office of the United States Trustee, a Justice Department arm that polices bankruptcy filings.  More Â»

—> Most corporate credit card data theft happens at the database level, like the massive T.J. Maxx breach. But Hannaford has notified investigators that the recent theft of 4.2 million accounts was caused by malware that was installed on the servers at each of its 300 locations. The software "intercepted data from customers as they paid with plastic at checkout counters and sent data overseas," reports CNET.  More Â»

—>When personal finance magazine Kiplinger asked the Geek Squad about our video that caught one of their technicians stealing porn from our harddrive (peeping tomism, hardly limited to Geek Squad, is just as rampant in the computer repair industry as the photo developing industry), an unidentified Geek Squad spokeswoman ingenuously responded, "We have been the target of a blog that prefers to focus on the exceptions to our service and not the overall, vast majority of successful services we provide to clients." That's like saying dirt is unfairly targeted by a broom. Where there's a valid complaint, we'll post. Where there's a consumer whose rights aren't respected, we will defend. We don't have a vendetta against the Geek Squad, or any other company. We have a vendetta against bad customer service. That's our bottom line. After the jump, the original undercover video...  More Â»

—> Comcast is now claiming that the FCC "has no legal power to stop the cable giant from engaging in what it calls 'network management practices' (critics call it peer-to-peer traffic blocking)," reports Ars Technica. In an amazing display of spin, Comcast writes that letting the marketplace "maximize consumer welfare" has been "enormously successful" as proven by the "Comcast customer experience"—seriously, we're not making up these phrases. On a less humorous note, the filing in which Comcast makes these claims also seems to imply that it will sue the FCC if it tries to enforce any changes on how Comcast blocks P2P traffic.  More Â»

—>The commercial says you can win a free Craftmatic bed, but all you're likely to win is a salesman worming his way into your home. An Inside Edition investigation revealed some shady high-pressure tactics by Craftmatic bed salesmen targeting the elderly. Typical sales tactics involve starting with a high price, $5,000 and then using a series of phony price drops to get the person to buy today. The salespeople say the bed is so great that it will solve acid reflux and heart disease! And at a seminar where you learn to be a better Craftmatic bed salesperson, a hidden camera showed instructor Carolyn Nilson talking about the lengths she would go to to close a deal, saying "I've done it all. Dug checks out of the garbage that they didn't shred...reactivated credit cards, gone to the bank." Most contests are just "lead-generation" opportunities for the businesses. Warn elderly friends and family about the sleazy tactics of the Crapmatic sales force.  More Â»

—> The FBI has opened an investigation into Countrywide for suspected securities fraud, reports the New York Times. The Justice Department and FBI "are looking at whether officials at Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, misrepresented its financial condition and the soundness of its loans in security filings." So far everything is unofficial because nobody has been authorized to discuss the case, and a Countrywide spokeswoman says, ""We are not aware of any such investigation."  More Â»

—>A soup of pharmaceutical waste spews from the faucets supplying drinking water to 41 million Americans, according to a disturbing study from the Associated Press. At least 24 major cities are affected, including New York, Washington, Boston Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:  More Â»

—>KNBC went undercover and found a bunch of vets are more sales people than pet doctors, using fear to sell more treatment than is necessary. They took pets with minor ailments, checked out by a vet, to several different vets. Instead of getting the minor fixes they should have been recommended, these vets advised expensive extra tests, procedures, and medicines geared more towards lining their pockets than healing the pets. One dog had an upset stomach but was recommended a $300 "eyelid scraping," despite his eyes being perfect. When confronted, the vet said she had done nothing wrong, and "eyelid scraping is not done in the states, but she used to do it in Austria." She also admitted there was nothing the matter with the dog's eyes. The report says that if you get recommended an expensive procedure, get a second opinion.  More Â»

—> If you're an HSBC customer, check your account, as there may be a wave of fraudulent activity hitting your bank. Two days ago we wrote about the guy in the U.S. who discovered his account had been drained by someone in Bulgaria. Later that day we received an email from Emily in NYC who was having similar problems, only her fraud-buddy was in California and Canada making withdrawals on her account.
 
Emily's fiancé wrote back to us today with an update, and according to Emily, the HBSC Fraud Investigator who spoke to her "said that their fraud department was so overwhelmed, it was 'still in the developing stage of how we're going to handle' it. I asked if she knew how many customers were affected and she stated 'We don't even know.'"  More Â»

—>KNBC did an undercover investigation into tech repair services and found that, yep, they routinely overcharge customers, charge for services not rendered, make shit up, and look through your personal videos and pictures. They tested Circuit City, Fry's, some local repair places, and Best Buy. Surprisingly enough, Best Buy is the only place that correctly diagnosed the problem and didn't peek through their pictures (Probably because bossman Robert Stephens had vowed to fry peepers with the giant laser he has hidden on top of the Geek Squad HQ if any more techs got caught).  More Â»

—>The New York Times says that the FBI has begun an investigation that includes almost the entire mortgage industry—from the lenders to the brokers to the Wall Street banks who packaged the loans as securities. They're cooperating with the SEC and wouldn't name which firms they're targeting, but the Times said that it includes 14 companies.  More Â»

—>Hey St. John's Dairy Queen workers, you forgot to make your Facebook group private. Now your hilarious little videos of each other mooning the drive-thru and waging indoor snowball fights are all over Canadian television. They just don't understand your jokes about "using meat the next day that wasn't kept overnight in the cooler." Neither do the health inspectors.  More Â»

—>CBC Marketplace did an undercover investigation into buying a condo, and found that it's rife with risk for the buyer, while the sellers completely protect themselves. You get lured in by the model condo they set up, all spacious and with stunning views and stainless steel appliances and breakfast bar and all that jazz, but contractually, there's no guarantee that you will get that space. The contract pretty much says everything is subject to change, the floorplan included doesn't have any measurements or square footage, and there's clauses that say that any sales material or verbal promises made don't count at all. One contract lawyer says that any relationship between what you're told you're buying and what you end up with will be a "coincidence." Watch the video to learn more about protecting yourself from the condo bait-and-switch squeezeplay.  More Â»

—> You may want to write your own letter from Santa to the kids this year. Canada Post has temporarily shut down their popular "Write to Santa" program, which delivers over a million letters to kids in Canada and elsewhere, while they track down the volunteer who's been sending out obscene letters to kids.  More Â»

—> WBAL news in Balitmore did the usual investigation into Home Depot's notoriously crappy contractors and were hit with a tsunami of similar complaints after the story aired.  More Â»

—> The odds aren't in her favor—in recent years, only 16% of employees who filed complaints with the Labor Dept.'s Occupational Safety & Health Administration won—but OSHA has agreed to open an investigation into Chalace Lowry's claims that after she reported suspicious activities at her Wal-Mart headquarters job as she'd been trained to do, she was outed to her boss as the whistleblower, and when she asked to be moved to a new position she was told to look for one herself and that Wal-Mart would make no guarantees about her job security.  More Â»

—>The latest episode of PBS's Exposé shows local new investigators uncovering three different chasms in airport security. At one airport, a graveyard shift security guard lets in employees and delivery guys without doing a security screening, how easy it is to walk up to a regional commercial jet, and a woman with a IED taped to her leg getting past the TSA. The full show is available for free online.  More Â»

PREVIOUSLY: Sting Op Of 10 Different Computer Repair Companies Finds 70% Don't Know What They're Doing  More Â»

—>You might think you're saving a buck by going with their advertised cheap services, but they're bidding without insurance, worker's compensation, or training. MSNBC's new investigative series "Home Wreckers" tapes a police sting operation aimed at snatching up sketchy contractors. One of the guys is accused by several homeowners of low-balling bids, which then end shoot up in price over the course of the project. He also takes customer's money and then never finishes the repairs. The police search his car and find ecstasy hidden in it. The police show off pictures of other contractors who were found to be convicted child molesters, on probation for attempted murder, registered sex offenders, on a state's 10 most wanted list, and on Megan's List. They advise to only hire licensed and bonded contractors, as they have to go through background checks and drug tests. You wouldn't want to let some ex-con in your house, or around your kids.  More Â»

—>More than a third South Florida's gas station pumps have failed the state's accuracy test in the past three years. An analysis of state inspections reveals that slightly more than half of the broken pumps err in favor of the consumer. The state inspects all pumps every 12-18 months.

The Sun-Sentinel analyzed state inspection reports from 2004 to 2006. The analysis found 580 of more than 2,500 stations in South Florida had at least one pump dispensing more gas than customers paid to purchase, while 477 provided less fuel than they should.  More Â»

Verizon may have admitted it gives out customer info without warrants, but AT&T and Qwest both refused to give Congress any information on their participation in the government's wire-tapping activities, saying they needed permission from Bush administration first. [Reuters]  More Â»

—> Qwest, Verizon, and AT&T have until October 12th to provide information on how the government went about asking for private customer records, and how the three companies provided the information. The Committee on Energy and Commerce opened an official investigation Tuesday. "If reports about the government surveillance program are accurate, Congress has a duty to inquire about whether such a program violates the Constitution, as well as consumer protection and privacy laws," said committee chairman Rep. John Dingell.   More Â»

—>This '05 KNBC investigation uncovered a rogue industry of pirate tow truck drivers in Southern California. A system of spotters kept watch for any driver who left the premises attached to a parking lot, and got paid $25-50 for calling in targets. In some cases, drivers were gone from their cars for less than 15 minutes.   More Â»

—>In a damning 18-page report, Bloomberg exposes how the insurance industry's systematic use of sleazy scare tactics cheat vulnerable policyholders.  More Â»

—>Fisher-Price has a shoddy track record when it comes to reporting defects and "injuries from defects" to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.  More Â»

—>Here's how we rigged our computer to make a video of itself and caught the Geek Squad stealing porn from it.  More Â»

UPDATE: Why We're Not Telling Geek Squad CEO Which Agent Stole The Porn  More Â»

It's coming so very soon. Technology, the politics of delegation, in-vain attempts at perfection, all these slowed what we thought was gonna be a lot quicker. Sorry for the delay, we know some of you've been antsy. Bear with us!  More Â»

—>Central pieces of evidence have gone go missing when U-Haul gets sued, LAT reports in the 3rd part of its investigation into the do-it-yourself moving company. In 11 out of 10,000 lawsuits filed against the company since 1998, items such as faulty tires and rims at the core of the cases have vanished before or during trial.  More Â»

—>Part 2 in a LA Times investigation into U-Haul's business practices and safety record isn't any less bleak than part 1. The LA Times investigation has uncovered that U-Haul fails to properly maintain their aging fleet of vehicles while mechanics "hang paper" (forge safety inspections and repairs) to keep the trucks and the money rolling.

During a yearlong investigation, Times journalists surveyed more than 200 U-Haul trucks and trailers in California and other states and found that more than half were overdue for a company-mandated "safety certification," a check of brakes, tires and other parts typically required every 30 days.  More Â»

—>U-Haul knowingly rents unsafe tow trailers that have the potential to kill customers. A yearlong investigation by the L.A. Times found that U-Haul's practices unnecessarily expose customers to the dangers of trailer sway.

Traveling downhill or shaken by a sharp turn or a gust of wind, a trailer can begin swinging so violently that only the most experienced — or fortunate — drivers can regain control and avoid catastrophe.

Still working on the video. Here's a small taste of what's to come...  More Â»

—>Ten years ago, the FDA tried and failed to identify the driver of the deadly Chinese Poison Train. The investigation started when diethylene glycol produced by a state-owned company was mixed into fever medicine, killing 88 Haitian children.

The F.D.A.'s efforts to investigate the Haiti poisonings, documented in internal F.D.A. memorandums obtained by The New York Times, demonstrate not only the intransigence of Chinese officials, but also the same regulatory failings that allowed a virtually identical poisoning to occur 10 years later. The cases further illustrate what happens when nations fail to police the global pipeline of pharmaceutical ingredients.

—>Next week, we will bring you the dramatic results of our sting operation into a company who has appeared many times on this blog.   More Â»

While reporting the results of our undercover investigation into IDT-Energy through one of their marketing outfits, a battle waged in the background between us and the current owners of the DS-MAX trademark.  More Â»

—>In case you missed any of 7-part undercover report on IDT-Energy, Midtown Promotions, and the fabulous worlds of energy resale and multi-level-marketing, here's a recap:  More Â»

—>After only three days with Midtown Promotions, I could already tell that I'd wait weeks, maybe months or a full year before coming upon hard evidence of fraud, if I found any evidence at all. After leaving James and Doreen in the Bronx, I took the afternoon off and went to work on these diaries.  More Â»

—>From the moment I met up with James, and Doreen, who was going our way, things began to fall apart. Eric told me to follow James, not Carl, who was going solo. I was to listen to James' instructions, follow his example, and go to wherever he decided we should spend the day. Today was Mt. Vernon, NY, almost 90 minutes from the offices of Midtown Promotions.  More Â»

—>If you're just now tuning in, we've been doling out daily pieces of our multi-part investigation into IDT-Energy. They're an energy reseller in the New York area and we've received multiple complaints about their salesperson's dressing as ConEd workers and doing other funny stuff at the door to get people to sign over. So we sent in Brian Fairbanks undercover to get hired at Midtown Promotions, a direct-sales marketing company IDT-Energy contracted to get subscribers.  More Â»

—>Before the morning meeting started, I left my man-purse on a set of boxes right by the blackboard, with the microphone discreetly poking out of the pocket.  More Â»

—>I staggered into Midtown Promotions at 10am on Wednesday. Seeing as how people were only trickling in for the morning meeting, the receptionist and another office assistant gave me some papers to fill out and sign. (Note: all spelling errors/typos are as they appeared...)  More Â»

—>While scanning the collateral Brian picked up in his investigation, we nearly choked on this gem buried in their terms and conditions: it says that you'll get 7% savings for the first two months, but after that, there's no telling whether your bill will be higher or lower than what it would be with ConEd (click to enlarge image).  More Â»

—>I sat in the offices of Midtown Promotions, watching the receptionist field calls from job prospects, still surprised at having been one of those callers not even twenty-four hours prior.  More Â»

—>Midtown Promotions has no yellow pages entry, no website, and no apparent internet job postings. Cruising their profile on Rip Off Report, a site where, natch, consumers file complaints against companies they feel ripped them off, I found a number for Midtown Promotions main office. It took several discussions with the editor of The Consumerist before we felt we nailed down the approach to the first phone call...  More Â»

—>For months, readers have told The Consumerist of fake Con Edison employees showing up on their doorstep. The story is always the same; they open their door to find people in Con Ed outfits almost demanding that the customer sign a form to save 7% on their bills. The "Con Ed" employee then demands to see the bill and thrust their fingers at the part where it says you can save by switching to an alternate energy supplier. But they don't actually work for Con Ed; in fact, they work for IDT Energy.  More Â»

The results were varied and shocking:  More Â»

—>A group of Benedictine nuns in Texas are shocked that Walmart considers them a threat and ordered a "threat assessment" from their crack security team. The nuns had filed a shareholder resolution that was critical to Walmart. "The Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas have written a letter to Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's chief executive, to say they were "deeply disappointed, appalled and shocked."   More Â»

—>Yesterday we followed up on reader's bad experience at Crunch Gym by calling 2 of their locations, the corporate office and interviewing Angie, our reader.   More Â»

—>Sprint gave Seth a terrible plan when he tried to activate an old phone onto his account. Seth had enjoyed a $105 per month retention plan that provided unlimited text messaging and 2,000 minutes. In November, Seth noticed several charges for text messages. He called Sprint and spoke with Kiyana, who made several changes and gave Seth her direct number in case there were any additional problems.

In December, my bill came in at $450. I called Kiyana's direct line, which was actually a number for a sheet metal company or something similar.

I called Sprint and spoke to Jason, he offered a 28 day credit to keep my service from being cancelled. I wanted an investigation - something wasn't right. I scanned the bill while on hold and noticed something: nights and weekends weren't mentioned at all. Jason, there's no way Sprint would charge me for nights and weekends, right? No, sir. Sprint doesn't offer a plan that charges for nights and weekends, but it looks like that's what's been happening. That's why I was 1500 minutes over each month — because they were charging me for free minutes. When Kiyana changed my plan around back in November, she left off nights and weekends completely — and nobody had noticed until now.

—>We seek an investigative reporter with balls for assignment in New York area.  More Â»

It's also possible to intercept unencrypted or poorly encrypted messages directly as they're broadcast over cellular channels. (If the network uses sophisticated encryption, you might be out of luck.) To steal messages with your phone, you would need to upload illegal "firmware" onto your phone. This essentially turns your phone into a radio and allows it to pick up all the texts broadcast on a given channel—instead of limiting you to the ones addressed to you. You'd also need to know the network for the target phone—Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.—and you'd have to make sure that both your phone and the target are within range of the same base station. This method isn't too expensive since you don't need much more than a computer, a phone, and some firmware that any serious techie could find online for free.

—>For some inexplicable reason, you can get any box of cereal right now for $1.79 at the Rite Aid in Grand Central in Manhattan. These normally run $6-plus. $4-plus.  More Â»

Now, NBC4 has heard from customers in 22 states and from insiders from across the country, who have given NBC4 a paper trail of internal documents, suggesting the company overcharges customers on window and siding installations, kitchen remodels and on roofing jobs."

As Linda alludes to at the end of the newscast, the real problem lies in that Home Depot customers are forced to pay for their services in full, upfront. Typically, contractors don't get full payment until the job is completed to the customer's satisfaction. By denying customers this crucial check and balance, Home Depot encourages sloth and incompetence.  More Â»

—>The office was decidedly busier on our callback. [Editor's note: this material was written prior to today.] One person was being interviewed while another waited next to us on the sofa. More at ease, we enjoyed our second look at the office. The waiting room walls were covered with pictures of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. "Bigger. Better." or something like that. The receptionist had a giant stack of papers on her desk and was busy on the phone as pop music blared in the background....  More Â»

—>Thanks for all of the excellent feedback to, "Consumerist's Job Interview With IDT Energy's Scammy Marketing Firm." Here are a few answers to your questions:  More Â»

—>115 West 30th Street is the unassuming address for an unmemorable building that serves as the headquarters of Midtown Promotions, a "marketing solutions" company that solves markets for IDT. We interviewed with them as part of Consumerist's continuing efforts to expose IDT's deceptive practices.  More Â»

The state attorney general's office has started an investigation into whether Best Buy maintains a secret intranet site that may have been used by some salesmen to deny customers discounts that appear on the company's public Internet site.

Nothing makes for fresh produce like sewage, open urination by workers, and storage next to rat-infested garbage and Port-A-Potties. That's what a hidden camera investigation by Joel Grover found at a So-Cal produce processing area found at the Seventh Street Produce Market in downtown LA. The market services thousands of SoCal restaurants and stores.  More Â»

—>We're looking to purchase a button-hole video camera, but need some help. This type of camera has a lens that can be disguised behind a button and the rest of the apparatus worn on the body. There's so many to choose from on the web and we're not sure where to start.  More Â»

Reader J. used his powers as recruiter to mine through the resumes on Monster. He found two companies that seem to have run door-to-door campaigns for IDT Energy.  More Â»

—>Broadway Photo is a New York area camera cabal infamous for ripping customers off. First they lure in people with camera kits below market value. Then they try to upsell customers on all sorts of accessories and try to make them believe their gear won't work without it. People have experienced unauthorized charges and report being verbally abused when they try to dispute the charges.  More Â»

The reason why we're having such a hard time finding a job with IDT Energy as a door to door salesman might be because they outsource these jobs.  More Â»

We want to get our intern a job as a door to door salesman with IDT Energy, the energy reseller that's scamming New Yorkers into switching over from ConEd.  More Â»

—>20/20 conducted a three-month investigation into the wacky world of debt collectors and what they found will revolt you. They've got several recordings and transcripts up.  More Â»

—>GM sold cars to Hitler, enjoyed it, then tried to cover it up, contends the investigative report, "Hitler's Carmaker" by Edwin Black. Much of the piece describes the relations between James D. Mooney, head of GM's overseas operations, and Adolph Hitler.   More Â»

—>A little bird told us that Walmart's products don't ring up for the same price they are listed as on the shelves, so we went and tested one of their stores.  More Â»

We talked about this back in May, but now there's an excellent YouTube compilation of all four of the NBC4 LA's hidden camera investigation into Jiffy Lube.  More Â»

—>How easy is it to buy prescription drugs online? One Houston Press reporter undertook an investigation into the Vicodin and Viagra airdropping world and found out. Then the DEA showed up at his office and confiscated all the drugs.  More Â»