UPDATE: As predicted, the obviously fake BofA page has been pulled down by Google, because why should anyone be able to have fun at the expense of Bank of America? More »
Even if you've never seen the 1989 comedy Weekend At Bernie's — or its inexcusable 1993 sequel — it's likely you're at least familiar with its tale of two morons lugging around a dead body and hilariously pretending it's still alive. And while it's all fun and games when you see the film at 4 a.m. on TBS, two men in Denver found out it's not only not-funny to do the same thing in the real world, it could also land you in jail. More »
A bartender at a Houston-area restaurant is without a job today because he apparently thought it was giggle-worthy to leave a "Happy Sep" message — complete with cartoon plane about to hit the Twin Towers — on the to-go container of a Muslim customer. More »
Rap artist The Game pulled a Twitter prank Friday by posting the Compton sheriff's station phone number, encouraging his 580,000 followers to call the department if they wanted to apply for an internship. The station was bombarded with hundreds of phone calls for hours, and is now working on an official complaint it will file with prosecutors. Potential charges are "annoying or harassing phone calls via electronic device or the Internet whether or not a conversation ensues, delaying or obstructing a peace officer in the performance of their duties, and disrupting or impeding communication over a public safety radio frequency." More »
While a number of websites and mailing lists have fallen victim to attacks intent on stealing personal information or just proving that the hack was possible, whoever managed to penetrate the security of the Hershey's Chocolate website had a much more insidious goal: changing recipes. More »
On the list of people likely to be growing marijuana on their property, an 84-year-old mayor doesn't rank near the top. But federal agents found the illegal plant growing on the woman's property in central Florida. The incident forced her to defend herself at an Oak Hill city commission meeting, at which she said she suspects a political enemy tried to set her up. More »
On two occasions over the span of eight days, someone has left large white bags filled with 30 pounds of vomit in the parking lot of a Bed Bath & Beyond in a Philadelphia suburb. Employees called police and had them removed by a business that handles biohazard waste collection. More »
Sony PlayStation and Nintendo have more company in the hacker gaming attack club, as Sega announced on Sunday that 1.3 million customers have had their info stolen from its database. More »
This royal wedding souvenir mug from Guandong Enterprises Ltd. could be either of two things. It could be a Chinese company hoping to capitalize on global royal wedding mania and sell a few overpriced, unauthorized souvenir mugs without doing enough research beforehand. Or it could be something even more interesting: a cynical prank mocking outsourced manufacturing, cultural ignorance, and the globalized economy. More »
After yet another massive letdown of a season by the Cincinnati Bengals, two brothers in Ohio have decided not only to not renew their season tickets but to invoice the team's owners for past games and related expenses. More »
The proprietors of a satirical dating site culled info from 250,000 public Facebook profiles (including real names) to construct mock dating profiles in what they claim is an effort to expose the social networking giant's dark side. More »
UPDATE: This post was based on a hoax perpetrated by the corporate pranksters/filmmakers the Yes Men, who put out a fake press release under the Chevron name. The quote attributed to Chevron in the post came from the fake release. Thanks to Sara for pointing this out. More »
A man in Huntington Beach, CA, says he was just trying to let his neighbors know about a spate of recent robberies when he placed a 3'x10' banner reading "We have a thief in the neighborhood" on his house. But now he's facing flack from some locals who say the sign only draws negative attention, especially if one is trying to sell one's home. More »
We love football player/reality star/social media whore Chad Ochocinco (nee Johnson), even if he plays for he Bengals. In fact, we'd buy his Ochocinco's cereal if it were available here in NYC. Alas, it's not... And now it's being taken off shelves at grocery stores in Ohio because a phone number intended to push people to a kids charity actually belongs to a phone sex line. More »
As if parents didn't have enough of a reason to hesitate to give their 10-year-olds cell phones, now they have to worry that the devices will be loaded with images that are quite a bit more graphic than what kids will see in elementary school sex-ed videos. More »
If you have a grudge of some sort against your local fast food establishment, there are probably better methods of expressing yourself than pulling up to the drive-thru window and throwing a live snake at the employee inside. More »
In just the last few months, Zug.com writer Bayan Rabbani has tested his own limits — as well as those of the employees — with his 24-hour outings to Walmart and Starbucks. Now, he's gone to the next most logical location: 24 Hour Fitness. More »
Woe to those unfortunate souls who work in the London offices of British Petroleum. An angry soul in Brooklyn is marshalling an army of like-minded souls and arming each man, woman and child with the most deadly of instrument — the vuvuzela — for an impromptu concert outside your building. More »
Brian McCrary in Bluff City, TN received a $90 speeding ticket in the mail earlier this year, thanks to an American Traffic Solutions speed camera the police department turned on in January. McCrary says when he looked up information to call the police department with questions about the ticket, he discovered something else: that their website's domain registration was about to expire. So he bought it. More »
With the heathen sports fans in Chicago going a little overboard in celebrating their first Stanley Cup finals in something like 128 years, they recently decked out the famous statue of Chicago Bulls basketball biggie Michael Jordan in a Chicago Blackhawks uniform, complete with a pair of Reebok skate blades attached to his Air Jordans. But somehow, over the weekend the Reebok logo was suddenly stickered over with the Nike "swoosh" logo. Is this good-natured pranksterism or cold, greedy brand management? More »
While the world continues its nearly decade-long hunt for terrorist Osama Bin Laden, the folks at British Airways have him located comfortably in first class — seat7-C to be precise. More »
Thomas Salme was working in maintenance at Scandinavian airline SAS, when he decided he wanted to move up into the cockpit. So, he did what any clever and ruthless crackpot would: He practiced on a flight simulator until he thought he was ready to fly, and then printed a fake pilot's license at home. He got a job at European airline Air One, and spent 13 years flying passengers around Europe until being caught in March. The heavy hand of justice: a $2,500 fine and a one-year grounding. More »
He used the Force to search for rebel bases and track his errant son. And now Darth Vader can help you locate the nearest interstate — if you're willing to take a detour to the Dark Side first. Tom Tom has rolled out its first Star Wars GPS voice module, and everyone's favorite Sith Lord is ready to help you calculate every possible destination. Or, in Ani's own words: "Go around the roundabout. The circle is now complete." More »
A prank involving some sort of smoke bomb recently sent four employees of a Maryland McDonald's to the hospital and has authorities on the hunt for suspects. More »
If there's any lesson to be learned from this story it's this: When you decide to take a bunch of clothes into a store's changing room with the intention of voiding your bladder all over them, do not leave your wallet behind. More »
Over at Zug.com, Bayan Rabbani shares all the details — good, bad, and ugly — of the 24 consecutive hours he spent wandering around — making friends, eating food, getting a manicure — in a Super Walmart in Texas "with absolutely no regard for my hygiene or sanity." More »
In one of the more inane attempts at viral marketing, a man in New Zealand was almost shot by police as he roamed the streets of Auckland scaring the bejeezus out of bystanders with his toy gun. More »
Forget about those unreadable termsheets that come with your credit-card bills and warn you that your home is on the line if you miss a payment by 30 seconds. If you really want to experience the worst consequence of skipping the fine print in a customer agreement, head over to Gamestation.co.uk. The web retailer has an "Immortal Soul Clause" in its terms, and now owns the souls of over 7,500 customers. More »
Remember in Sept. 2008, when Washington Mutual went from being the sixth-largest bank in the U.S. to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history? Well, newly released documents show just how reckless and money-grubbing WaMu was in its final months — and how some employees were reaping huge rewards as the bank sunk into the quicksand. More »
Last week, people in New York started noticing some rather odd products showing up on the shelves of their local stores, like "Nose Job in a Can," "Happiness" beer, "Bankos" cereal — featuring the logos of AIG, BofA, Chase, Citi and others — and the misspelled, but very Snickers-like "Bulemia" candy bar. More »
Last year, demand for ThinkGeek's April Fool's Tauntaun sleeping bag was so intense that the company began selling it for reals. This time around, the site is taunting visitors with a "Want these products for real?" survey. We, however, don't want to limit our wish-fool thinking to one site, so we want to know: Which of this year's gag products would you most like to see in the wild? More »
Macy's got punked. The fliers announced performances in Missoula, Montana, by Dave Matthews Band and other bands as a special "reinvesting in the community" "Goodbye Celebration" by Macy's and Smurfit-Stone, two longtime businesses that had recently shut down and laid off hundreds of workers while top company executives received millions in bonuses. But Dave and his band would not be there, nor would Michael Franti or Slightly Stoopid. Nor the Mayor or the Governor. And there definitely would be no $5,000 prize drop. It was all a hoax hatched by angry ex-employees trying to draw attention to the negative economic impact the businesses' departures would have on the community. More »
If you're trying to pirate the Japanese erotic manga game Cross Days—and I don't care what people say, I love that I live in a world where I can type that phrase—you should know that the game's developers are wise to you, and they're going to do their best to shame and embarrass you. More »
While it may not be as egregious as the Domino's Pizza employees who videotaped themselves desecrating their work kitchen, a Burger King employee in Michigan is in hot water after blabbing on Facebook about spitting in the food. More »
Remember the New Jersey teen who was recently busted for announcing over a Walmart PA system that "all the black people should leave the store now"? Well, you probably won't be shocked to find out it wasn't the first time he'd done it. More »
Someone who was fed up at Chase made a special deposit on the floor of one of their ATM vestibules in NYC a couple of days ago. Fortunately for the clean-up crew, it looks like it was manure and not actual human poop. More »
The police in Washington Township, N.J. have tracked down and arrested the alleged perpetrator of last weekend's unauthorized PA announcement of "Attention Walmart customers: All black people leave the store now." It will surprise absolutely no one that the suspect is a 16-year-old boy. More »
Some car dealerships and lenders have equipped cars with devices that disable the ignition or make the horn honk nonstop when payments are late. We wrote about this last year, but didn't realize that the interface has fantastic potential for pranks. And that's how a laid-off car dealership employee was allegedly able to disable the ignitions of more than 100 cars purchased from the dealership. Or set off their horns in the middle of the night. More »
Much like the burglars in New Jersey who cut a huge hole in the roof to steal laptops, a crew of crooks in Brooklyn made their way into the safe-deposit room of a Sovereign Bank. But unlike the Best Buy burglary, these thieves didn't take anything. More »
The El Con Mall in Tucson has an upside-down message etched into it, apparently thanks to the work of a wily architect or contractor in the late 1960s. I reported the silly story in my day job at the Arizona Daily Star. More »
Taking a page right out of the screenplay for the 1996 Tom Cruise hit Mission: Impossible, some nimble crooks managed to descend from the ceiling of a Best Buy in New Jersey and help themselves to a $26,000 jackpot of Apple laptops — without ever touching the floor. More »
Here at Consumerist, we're constantly writing about online frauds, scams and misleading deals. But for all our writing, we're not a federal agency. That's where the Federal Trade Commission comes in. The good folks over at the FTC have just put together a short video demonstrating how easy it is for you to file a complaint with them on their site or over the phone. More »
You're stuck in a almost-vacant airport overnight during a blizzard — What are you going to do to entertain yourself? The answer was simple for one young potential victim of boredom... Turn the empty gate into her own personal playground and capture it all on video. More »
In a little less than 12 hours, over 300 skeptics throughout the U.K. will protest the homeopathic medicine industry there by deliberately overdosing on full bottles of homeopathic pills, which technically don't contain any molecules of the active ingredient. The group's goal is to highlight the fact that homeopathic cures are about as scientifically valid as your horoscope. I'm all for stunts, but don't they know that they'll likely suffer from the memory of an OD? That's how this stuff works, you know. More »
So, a TSA employee allegedly planted a small bag of white powder in a college students carry-on, then pretended to "find it." As a joke! Or something! He's such a kidder! More »
—>It's probably a bad idea to market to consumers by tricking them with practical jokes. It's definitely a bad idea to make a consumer fear for her safety over a five day period because she thinks a stalker is coming after her. That's why a woman in Los Angeles is suing Toyota for $10 million after being on the receiving end of a Punk'd-style stunt to promote the Toyota Matrix. More »
—>This will probably come as a surprise to no one, but the fake McDonalds memo that went viral last month was written by David Thorne, the same guy who tried to pay for a bill with a drawing of a spider. He is a very silly man. More »
—>Mickey D's down under wants everyone to know that the parody McDonald's letter making the rounds is indeed prankaliscious. Corporate Communications Manager Bronwyn Stubbs writes: More »
—>Remember that Domino's Pizza, the one in North Carolina where Kristy and Michael recorded themselves doing gross things to the food? The Charlotte Observer has reported that the location has gone out of business, at least for now—"closed signs have been placed in the windows and the phone has been disconnected." More »
—>Those wily Yes Men, pranksters of the business and political worlds and comedy documentarians who masquerade as big business honchos to create "gotcha!" moments, were gotten themselves by the cops when they tried to disrupt the U.N. Security Council Summit. More »
—>What do you do with your pennies? Consumer Reports suggests saving them and depositing them in your bank, or exchanging them for a full-value gift certificate in a Coinstar machine. But Jordan had a much better idea. He tried to use them to pay the impound fee after his car was towed. Video inside. Remember: it's not a real prank until the cops show up. More »
—>John Hargrave of comedy site Zug.com tracked down the personal info of Verizon's CEO, then showed up with a bullhorn to illustrate what a lack of privacy feels like. "Ivan Seidenberg! I'm here on behalf of Verizon customers. PLEASE DO A BETTER JOB PROTECTING YOUR CUSTOMERS' CELL PHONE RECORDS! Everyone has the right to privacy, including you Ivan! When we don't have privacy, then freaks with bullhorns start showing up on our front lawn." More »
—>Remember Thomas Bender? He was the Wendy's employee in West Virginia who garnished a police officer's sandwich with a ball of pubic hair earlier this year. He's just been sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years probation. More »
—>We're no fans of fake customer reviews here at Consumerist, it's true, but obviously goofy reviews are one of my very favorite things. (The reviews for this gallon of milk are an Internet classic.) More »
—>Kristy Hammonds, the woman who filmed her friend Michael doing inappropriate things to the food they were supposed to be preparing, needs a job to feed her two kids. She says she's been trying to get work at other fast food restaurants, though, which might be part of the problem. More »
—>The saga of Kristy and Michael, the two (former) Domino's employees whose on-the-job shenanigans made it to YouTube earlier this week, continues. Now there are warrants out for their arrests, and Domino's says it plans to sue them. Seriously, if you work in the food industry and are nursing some grudges, just... try to hold them in until you can find a job better suited to you. More »
—>Of all companies, ThinkGeek should know that you never taunt a sci-fi nerd with something movie related unless it really exists. Yesterday the company revealed its annual page of fake products to trick customers, including squeezable bacon spread and a "Unicorn Chaser" soft drink. The best product of all, however, was this Tauntaun sleeping bag (check out the tiny lightsaber on the zipper pull!), which sparked so much demand that the company is looking into selling it for real. More »
—>Sure, we have to admit that it's kind of funny, but our official position is that you should not use your immense technological skills to modify a radio to broadcast on the Taco Belldrive thru's frequency. Sadly, we did not get this important message out to two teenagers in Sedalia, Mo. More »
Here's an unverified walkthrough of the "I Am Rich" iPhone app. [TUAW] More »
—>Perhaps you recall the strange story of Bob Dougherty, a Home Depot customer who sued the retailer after being glued to a toilet seat at their Louisville, CO location. Mr. Dougherty contended (before the case was dismissed) that the incident gave him post-traumatic stress disorder and that he developed diabetes as a direct result of Home Depot's negligence. Now, nearly 4 years after Mr. Dougherty became affixed to the Home Depot toilet, a Mr. Haywood R. Rosales of St. Louis, MO has filed a similar lawsuit, claiming that Home Depot was negligent in allowing a "copycat" incident to happen to him. More »
JH: You know why? Because you're not captive on a plane.The obvious next evolution is that customers can opt to sit in a part of plane that doesn't have hear the credit card offers, provided they pay a small additional fee. More »
—> Sometimes parents like to drive their kids crazy by showing up on Facebook, or listening to rap music, or professing that Zac Efron is a cutie-patooty, but Grad Money Matters suggests a whole new level of annoyance: use their Halloween candy to teach them about money. Here's how: on Halloween night, you buy all their candy off of them, then give them a pre-set limit of how much they can spend each day to buy choice pieces back, and as the days go along, you drop the "prices" on the candy so that they can purchase more if they want or forego the sweets in order to increase their savings. More »
Had some trouble getting them, apparently me doing this 2 other times has sparked the interest of the management and they've received an e-mail not to let anyone do this anymore. I'd like to think this is solely because of me because this was an original idea of mine. I'm sure someone may have done this before, but I have not heard of anyone else doing such a thing. In any case, I was informed about not being able to do such a thing last night when I tried, my mom went in a quite a rage and I told her we'll just try again today and hopefully it will be like when Hillary did it for me the 2nd time with no questions of whether or not you can do it. Nikki (left) was more than happy to, we got to around 38 when another cashier recognized me from last night, she said we couldn't and she called up the manager. The manager tried telling us that we couldn't do this without us even giving a say in the matter. Thats when my mom became upset again and she pointed out how often we come here and how much we spend, and that she had talked to the number they gave us last night to give it approved and they said it was okay. The manager was silent after that, I wanted to laugh, but I held it in.
Sp3nc3 in the comments on another telemarketer foiling device pointed us towards the Telecrapper 2000. It's an open source software that you can install on your computer to trap telemarketers in an endless loop on your computer and then record the results. Here's an amusing Flash animation reenactment of the Telecrapper 2000 in action, found here.. More »
—>Even Paris Hilton can't get a discount at the Hilton. Well, at least when not requesting one for no specific reason and failing to identify herself over the telephone. More »
—>Atop the stony peak of Britain's highest mountain, the 4,418 foot Ben Nevis, climbers are scratching their heads and pondering a mystery: just how did this fucking piano get up here?More »
