uDon’t Fall For The Mail-Order Puppy Scamr

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  This is the message sent by the scammer trying to explain why the dog had not been delivered, even though $490 had been sent.

  Getting a dog from a breeder can run you thousands of dollars, so it might be tempting when someone offers to sell you a baby puppy for a fraction of that. But if that seller is just some random person who demands that you wire them a cash payment, you’re probably getting rooked.

  A woman in Indiana found this out the hard way, reports WCPO-TV (NOTE: auto-play video at link).

  She was trying to find a puppy pal for her pug, but couldn’t afford to spend upwards of $5,000 at a breeder.

  That’s when she discovered someone claiming to be from Missouri who was selling a newborn pug online for much less — $370 for the puppy plus $120 for the flight to Indiana.

  She sent the seller a MoneyGram for the costs; with fees for the service, it totaled $511. She was supposed to get the dog the next day, but nope.

  When the dog didn’t arrive, the seller claimed that he was “at the agency now, trying to make the finalization,” whatever that means. He urged patience, but pushed his luck by then demanding another $500 for insurance.

  That’s when the buyer realized she’d been fleeced.

  “I was spitting nails,” she says about her reaction to being scammed.

  The woman filed a police report, but — and this will probably not surprise regular readers — the scammer was not Missouri-based, but located in a foreign country and having a good time with the hundreds of dollars she’ll never get back.

  This just serves as a reminder to never send cash in advance of a purchase to someone you don’t know. We don’t really recommend buying anything from a stranger online, but at least with credit and debit cards there are protections against fraudulent transactions and defective merchandise.

  And if you want a puppy, there are plenty of shelters and rescues out there chock-full of perfectly fine pooches in need of a good home. Sure, they may not have papers showing they are direct descendants of 1922 Westminster best-in-show winner Ch Boxwood Barkentine, but they’ll still play fetch and drool lovingly on your carpet.

  [via Credit.com]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAbercrombie & Fitch Agrees To End On-Call Schedulingr

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  (Prayitno)

  Following in the footsteps of fellow retailer Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch announced that it will no longer use the on-call method of scheduling, which required workers to be available for a shift at a moment’s notice. Or, on the other hand, find out they’d be staying home for an upcoming shift, not getting paid.

  In April, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman warned 13 major retail companies, including Abercrombie, Target, Sears and Gap, that some stores may be violating state law by using on-call scheduling systems.

  It seems Abercrombie was listening, as the company says it’s working on phasing out on-call work schedules, where employees may only have a few hours notice before they’re expected to be at work — or to find out whether they’ll be at home, not getting paid.

  “Over time we will discontinue the use of call-in shifts throughout the United States, and will begin that process in New York this September,” a spokesperson for Abercrombie told CBS MoneyWatch. “We believe that this change is beneficial to our store associates, and reflects our commitment to creating a positive work environment.”

  The retailer’s hourly and shift workers won’t have to keep a spot open in their schedules for shifts they might not end up working, and will receive a list of their scheduled shifts a week in advance, the company said in a letter to Schneiderman’s office.

  Because there are some people who might appreciate a last-minute shift, Abercrombie says it will ask workers if they’d like to get email alerts notifying them when a shift pops up unexpectedly. Even if staffers choose to get those alerts, they won’t be obliged to work those suddenly available shifts.

  Abercrombie & Fitch to end on-call work schedules [CBS MoneyWatch]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uGoogle, Samsung, And LG To Start Pushing Monthly Security Patches That You Still Won’t Getr

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  (Karlis Dambrans)

  There have been a number of very high-profile security flaws in Android phones this summer. The good news is, the makers of the hardware and software are now pledging to roll out updates to everyone more often. The bad news? “Everyone” doesn’t actually mean “everyone.”

  Reuters reports that Google, maker of the Android operating system, as well as Samsung and LG, makers of many of the most popular phone and tablet lines, will begin pushing regular, monthly security updates to owners of their devices.

  That news comes on the heel of a vulnerability in Samsung Galaxy phones that left an estimated 600 million users vulnerable to hack attack, as well as another flaw endemic to all Android phones that affected the better part of a billion users.

  Samsung and Google have both been responsive to learning of their security flaws; Samsung had an update ready for their Galaxy phones two days after the exploit became widely known, and Google had already identified and patched their Stagefright vulnerabilities by the time stories about it hit the media.

  However, both companies, along with LG, are now trying to be more proactive and less reactive in the wake of the high-profile exploits. Instead of throwing patches out after everyone has said, “holy crap, a billion phones?!,” they will now be deploying monthly security updates to all users.

  But here’s the catch: if you bought your phone from a wireless company, as so many millions of us do, you’re not the “user” who gets the update. Your carrier is. And it’s anyone’s guess how long AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon will sit around waiting before pushing updates over the air to their subscribers.

  A Samsung executive confirmed to Reuters that his company had no way of forcing the carriers that buy devices in bulk actually to install the fixes, and said that some companies might only do it for high-end users. “If it’s your business customers, you’ll push it,” he told Reuters.

  The hundreds of millions of us who are not large corporations, on the other hand, will have to continue to wait our turn.

  Google, Samsung to issue monthly Android security fixes [Reuters]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uSmall Business Owners Say DirecTV Installation Errors Result In Collections Lawsuitsr

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  (Ángel Raúl Ravelo Rodríguez)

  If a small business, like a bar or restaurant, lies to a cable company and orders residential service instead of the more costly commercial offerings, it would make sense that the pay-TV provider might sue to collect the money it should have received. But what if the reason for the gaffe wasn’t intentional deception but a mistake by an installer?

  That’s the question that a number of commercial DirecTV customers are asking after being sued by a law firm representing the satellite giant (which is coming under the ownership of AT&T). They claim this is just a money grab and that they never meant to deceive anyone.

  The Dallas Morning News’s Dave Lieber has spoken to some business owners and reviewed others’ claims of being on the end of DirecTV collections complaints.

  A lawyer representing several of these businesses alleges that a New York-based law firm that collects on DirecTV’s behalf trained the satellite company’s auditors to seek out small, often rural business owners who may be using residential accounts.

  Even after DirecTV said it would stop paying the auditors to do this sort of search, the law firm went out of pocket and paid for the audits because each collection action could result in substantial amounts of back subscription fees being paid by the defendant.

  The lawyer also contends that this collection firm deliberately targeted businesses with minority owners under the assumption that they would be less likely to challenge the action in court.

  Lieber learned of these disputes when covering the story of a Garland, TX, restaurant that was facing a collections bill of $15,000 from DirecTV. Even after the third-party installer admitted that it had erred and that DirecTV should show some mercy on the restaurant owners, the company refused to relent.

  The restaurant attempted to sue DirecTV over the dispute, and 18 other businesses attempted to combine their legal actions with this case, but because DirecTV’s agreement for commercial customers [PDF] has a clause that requires all disputes are resolved through binding arbitration, each business was ordered by the court to enter into the arbitration process individually in their respective home states.

  For its part, DirecTV denies allegations that it’s deliberately targeting small businesses to make money off collections actions.

  “The allegations are completely false,” a company rep tells the Morning News. “These business owners were violating federal law, our customer agreements and taking unfair advantage of neighborhood bars and restaurants who are paying legitimate commercial rates for programming. We are confident these baseless claims will ultimately be rejected.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uReport: Hackers May Have Breached Sabre Reservations Systems, American Airlinesr

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  (Pixteca | Len & Pix【ツ】)

  Another day, another report that says hackers have been busy plundering major companies. Insiders say the same group of hackers believed to be behind security breaches at Anthem Inc. and the U.S. government’s personnel office have two more victims: Sabre Corp., which processes reservations for hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels, and American Airlines.

  The group of hackers believed to be connected to China is behind this latest spate of attacks, reports Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the investigations.

  Both companies were hit during the wave of attacks that targeted Anthem (records of 78.8 million breached) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (21 million people affected), those insiders tell Bloomberg of the recent cybersecurity probes.

  Sabre confirmed that its systems were breached recently, and American says it’s looking into whether or not its computers were accessed by the same hackers, who may have hopped over from Sabre. The two companies share some infrastructure, as Sabre used to be a subsidiary of American until it was spun off in 2000.

  This is the same group that is also believed to have hacked United Airlines recently (warning: link has autoplay video), an attack that could’ve exploited passenger manifests and other airline records.

  These latest hits haven’t previously been reported, but they could potentially mean trouble for many, many Americans: Sabre has records on more than a billion travelers per year across the globe, the company says, and American Airlines is the world’s largest carrier, meaning it’s got a treasure trove of information as well.

  Both companies contacted security experts within the last month to investigate.

  “Based on our deep and extensive investigations with the help of outside cybersecurity experts, American has found no evidence that our systems or network have experienced a breach like those at OPM or Anthem,” an American spokesman said, adding that the company is looking into whether or not hackers entered its systems, but that it hasn’t confirmed anything yet. “We are working closely with our partners to further investigate.”

  Sabre says it “recently learned of a cybersecurity incident” and was investigating, but didn’t elaborate on what data could’ve been stolen.

  “We are not aware that this incident has compromised sensitive protected information, such as credit card data or personally identifiable information, but our investigation is ongoing,” Sabre said in a statement.

  Though sources are linking the hackers to China, a spokesman for that country’s embassy called any accusations that China was involved in the hacks “unfounded” and “counterproductive.”

  “The Chinese government and the personnel in its institutions never engage in any form of cyberattack. We firmly oppose and combat all forms of cyberattacks,” he said.

  American Airlines, Sabre Said to Be Hit in Hacks Backed by China [Bloomberg News]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uCould Avian Flu Hurt McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast Plans?r

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  (Morton Fox)

  McDonald’s has been testing an all-day breakfast menu in various pockets around the country, and it’s reportedly planning on going nationwide with the concept in the fall. But could the ongoing avian flu problem — and the high egg prices that have resulted from it — scuttle this long-awaited change?

  McDonald’s isn’t saying, but some restaurant chains have already begun to scale back on egg use as prices remain high.

  In June, Texas-based Whataburger trimmed its breakfast hours to cut down on the number of eggs it went through. Dunkin’ Donuts has already scrapped an eggy promotion it had on the calendar for later in the year.

  Some supermarkets are saying the high retail prices for eggs (wholesale prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year and are expected to keep going up) are keeping retail demand down, but if McDonald’s suddenly needs to significantly increase its egg-buying to make sure it can meet McMuffin demand, it could drive the price even higher.

  The question is whether huge buyers like McDonald’s are feeling the same price-tag pain that egg-loving consumers are.

  CNBC notes that a company likes McDonald’s most likely has contractually locked in its price for eggs for the near future, but these agreements are not for the long term.

  “Most are only going to contract three to six months because it’s a volatile commodity, and you never want to get yourself locked into all of it,” one analyst explains to CNBC.

  Another analyst says some chains haven’t seen any change yet to their egg-buying ability, while others are paying more, and yet another group is “completely exposed to the open market… struggling to source full need.”

  Ultimately it will come down to whether McDonald’s egg suppliers’ birds are impacted by the flu, which may spread during the upcoming migratory season.

  As sales at McDonald’s have continued to sink, the hype about all-day breakfast has been the one potential bright spot for the company’s future. So it might be the case that McDonald’s will have to suck up any higher egg costs now to make all-day breakfast a reality that could help the company later.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uSomeone Transfers $917 To Man’s Bank Account, No One Will Tell Him Where It Came Fromr

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  (Xavier J. Peg)

  Here’s a change of pace: After seemingly countless stories of mysterious debits and charges on consumer’s accounts, here’s a story of a man who found that his checking account suddenly included $917 he knew didn’t belong to him.

  “When looking at transactions online yesterday, we noticed there was a deposit of $917.11 from Capital One,” he explains to the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Teresa Dixon Murray.

  Trying to do the right thing and get this money back to where it was supposed to go, the man called his bank, Fifth Third. A customer service rep told him they could see the deposit, but couldn’t tell him the source.

  The bank rep suggested he call Capital One, but that was a dead-end too. No one at the company could help him because he didn’t have an account of any sort or any information other than what little was given in his online statement.

  After the Plain Dealer got involved and escalated the issue at Fifth Third, the origin story of the $917 came out.

  Turns out that the man’s sister-in-law had accidentally transferred it to his checking account from her Cap One account. She had previously transferred funds to this account and it was still stored as a transfer option. So instead of transferring funds from her Cap One account to another account that belonged to her, she inadvertently moved the money to her brother-in-law.

  Why couldn’t anyone have told him this to begin with?

  A regional president for Fifth Third tells the Plain Dealer that he should not have had to get the media involved, that the rep he spoke with should have been able to provide him more information.

  He advised that any customers faced with a similar problem ask to be escalated to speak to a supervisor or a manager.

  What you shouldn’t do is spend money that you know isn’t yours, just because someone goofed and hasn’t noticed it yet.

  “If money shows up in your checking account and it’s not yours, you should find out where it came from,” says the Fifth Third exec.

  Fifth Third Bank customer finds $917 mysteriously deposited in his checking account and no one will tell him why: Money Matters [Cleveland.com]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist