uMan Charged With Operating Debt Collection Scheme That Targeted, Defrauded Spanish-Speaking Consumersr

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• 

  Adam Fagen

  Deceiving consumers is a trademark for most unscrupulous operations attempting to collect debts that aren’t actually owed. Shady collectors have been known to lie about debts, misrepresent themselves as officers of the law, threaten lawsuits and, in the case of one operator, threaten Spanish-speaking residents with deportation.

  The Department of Justice announced today that it had charged the owner of Fonomundo FC with fraud and attempted extortion for allegedly defrauding Spanish-speaking U.S. residents through a series of threats and false accusations.

  A grand jury in Miami indicted Cesar Luis Kou Reyna with 33 counts including: conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and attempted extortion stemming from an operation he ran via call centers in Peru and Miami.

  According to the Justice Department, Fonomundo FC and its affiliates in South America used Internet-based telephone calling services to place cold calls to Spanish-speaking residents in the United States.

  The callers falsely claimed to be attorneys and sometimes claimed to be government representatives. Callers claimed that victims had failed to pay for or receive a delivery of products, although the victims had not ordered these products.

  Often the callers claimed that victims would be sued and that the companies would obtain large monetary judgements against them.

  At times, victims were threatened with negative marks on their credit reports, imprisonment or deportation unless the person immediately paid “settlement fees.” As a result, many of the victims made payments to the company.

  “The Department of Justice is committed to addressing the noted increase in fraud schemes targeting specific communities of U.S. residents,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mizer. “As this case and other recent examples show, we will track down those responsible for defrauding American consumers, no matter where the fraudster resides, what language the fraudster uses or which population he or she targets.”

  Peruvian Man Charged with Leading Conspiracy to Defraud and Extort Spanish-Speaking Consumers through Call Centers [DOJ]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uConsumerist Friday Flickr Findsr

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• Here are eleven of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

  

  (Rainer Schund)

  

  (Jason Cook)

  

  (Paul McCarthy)

  

  (Darren Sethe)

  

  (Scott Akerman)

  

  (Karen Chappell)

  

  (Scott Akerman)

  

  (Great Beyond)

  

  (Michael)

  

  (Joel Zimmer)

  

  (Nicholas Eckhart)

  Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uCascadian Farms Recalls Frozen Green Beans From 2014 For Possible Listeriar

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• 

  (Chris Rief)

  We have really terrible news for anyone out there who was planning to make a turkey bacon and green bean sandwich on whole wheat or multi-grain bread, even though that has probably never been a sandwich that a real person would eat or make. All three of those foods have been recalled in the last few days, now including green beans from Cascadian Farm.

  These beans may potentially be contaminated with Listeria bacteria, and the affected products are more than a year old. Freezing doesn’t kill Listeria, and it causes an illness that can potentially cause severe illness, death, stillbirths, or miscarriages. No one has reported any illnesses, and the contamination was found when one package was tested.

  Here’s what you need to look for: recalled packages will have “better if used by” dates of 10APR2016 and 11APR2016. They were manufactured in March 2014, and sold nationwide sometime after that.

  Consumers should throw away the frozen beans and call Cascadian Farms for replacement veggies at 1-800-624-4123. You can also call that number if you have any questions about products you own or about this recall.

  General Mills Voluntarily Recalls a Limited Quantity of Frozen Cascadian Farm Cut Green Beans [FDA]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uAllegiant Airlines Plans To Inspect All Planes After Yet Another Flight Disturbancer

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  (Brian Brodeur)

  Last month, federal regulators announced they had stepped up scrutiny of budget carrier Allegiant Airlines after a string of in-flight disturbances and accusations from a pilot’s union of poor safety standards. Now, after yet another issue, the airline says it plans to inspect its entire fleet.

  ABC 7 News in Chicago reports that the Las Vegas-based airline announced it would inspect all planes after a flight headed to Illinois experienced trouble during takeoff.

  As the flight, traveling from Las Vegas to Peoria, was speeding down the runway, the nose lifted too soon.

  According to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident, the jet began to lift off from the runway before it was moving fast enough for a normal takeoff, and the front of the plane stayed up even as a pilot adjusted the controls in a way that should have kept the nosewheel on the runway.

  Bloomberg reports that pilots abruptly halted the takeoff while the plane was traveling at about 138 miles per hour. The airline blamed a fault in the elevator – the part of the tail that helps an aircraft climb or descend.

  Allegiant’s decision to inspect all of its planes comes after the airline has faced several issues in recent months.

  Just last month, a flight carrying 150 passengers declared an emergency in order to land at a closed airport because it was running dangerously low on fuel.

  To make matters worse, the airline had been informed that the airport was closed to passenger jets prior to takeoff and the company’s executives – Greg Baden, its vice president of operations, and Michael Wuerger, director of flight safety – were the ones manning the aircraft.

  The July 23 incident involved a plane flying from Las Vegas to the Fargo, ND, airport, which was closed for the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels aerobatic jets to practice. The airline says the flight was allowed to take off because dispatchers believed the FAA notice meant the airport was still open for passenger airlines.

  Other recent issues included a plane diverting because of a wasp’s nest on a sensor and passengers using emergency exits to climb on a jet’s wing after landing when a fuel leak sent fumes into the cabin.

  At the time the FAA announced its increased scrutiny, a spokesperson for Allegiant said that the airline generally has a high number of diversions – although, he didn’t specify a number – because it doesn’t have mechanics in most cities it services.

  “That presents a unique challenge when it comes to customer service, but if anything, it’s an example of our focus on safety,” he said.

  Allegiant To Inspect Planes After Flight To Peoria Aborts Takeoff [ABC 7 News]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uAmazon Lays Off Engineers Behind Fire Phone, Reorganizes Hardware Divsiionr

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  (Danny Ngan)
  

  You’ve probably never heard of Lab126, but you’ve definitely heard of their parent company and their products. They’re a division of Amazon, started in Silicon Valley eleven years ago to create the e-reader that we now know as the Kindle. They also created some projects that haven’t caught on quite as well, like the Fire Phone, and engineers who worked on that projects have reportedly been sent on their way.

  The Wall Street Journal reports that “dozens of engineers” have been laid off from Lab126 (A and Z are the 1st and 26th letters of the alphabet… get it?) recently, and they were part of the team behind the doomed Fire Phone. Lab126 is also responsible for other Amazon hardware like the Echo, Kindle and Kindle Fire, and FireTV, and has about 3,000 employees.

  There wasn’t anything wrong with the phone, exactly, and the company couldn’t blame its unpopularity on a lack of promotion: the device just failed to catch on, even when it was available for only 99 cents, because a tiny 3-D screen is not a compelling enough reason for most people to buy a smartphone. Amazon wrote off $170 million on the whole enterprise, and we don’t know whether they plan to try again and create another phone.

  Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uTesla Model S P85D Breaks Consumer Reports’ Ratings Systemr

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• This story was first published by our sister publication Consumer Reports, which is experiencing temporary difficulties with its servers.

  The all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S P85D sedan performed better in our tests than any other car ever has, breaking the Consumer Reports Ratings system.

  The P85D is brutally quick, with instant acceleration. The car’s thrust is forceful and immediate. Its near-instant g-forces can otherwise be achieved only by leaping off a building—literally.

  That this electric car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds without an engine’s roar makes it frighteningly eerie in its silent velocity. It’s so explosively quick that Tesla has created an “insane” driving mode.

  With a six-figure price tag, the P85D is expensive, meaning its virtues will be experienced by a rare few. But its significance as a breakthrough model that is pushing the boundaries of both performance and fuel-efficiency is dramatic (even more so because it is coming from the factory of an American startup company). The Model S precedes additional electric cars coming from Tesla Motors. The Model X crossover is due to arrive in 2016, followed in 2018 by a more attainable compact sedan, named Model 3, targeted to start at about $35,000.

  

  The P85D also has better braking and handling than our top-scoring standard Model S. And yet it’s more energy-efficient, getting the equivalent of 87 mpg.

  Despite its sharper focus on performance, the P85D also maintains its practicality and luxury.

  In rating it, however, we faced a quandary: The Tesla initially scored 103 in the Consumer Reports‘ Ratings system, which by definition doesn’t go past 100. The car set a new benchmark, so we had to make changes to our scoring to account for it. Those changes didn’t affect the scores of other cars.

  To be clear, the Tesla’s 100 score doesn’t make the P85D a perfect car—even at $127,820. It has imperfections. The interior materials aren’t as opulent as other high-ticket automobiles, and its ride is firmer and louder than our base Model S.

  
  What’s more, a lengthy road trip in an electric car with a 200-plus mile range can be a logistical hurdle if a quick-charging station isn’t along your route.

  It’s also important to note that our Rating doesn’t include the Tesla’s reliability. The Model S has average reliability, according to our owner-survey responses.

  That said, the Tesla Model S P85D is an automotive milepost. It’s a remarkable car that paves a new, unorthodox course, and it’s a powerful statement of American startup ingenuity.

  Check out more photos from the Consumer Reports test track:

  

  

  
  

  

  

  
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by consumerist.com via Consumerist

uInstagram Decides It’s Not Hip To Only Be Square, Will Now Allow Rectangular Images & Videosr

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  (Instagram)

  If you’ve ever had to take a screenshot of a rectangular photo on your phone just so you could crop it into a square to post on Instagram, you’ll be glad to hear this news: the photo-sharing app announced Thursday that it’ll now allow landscape and portrait photos and videos instead of only square-shaped media.

  Instagram explains the choice to give up allowing squares exclusively by saying that the “visual story” users are trying to tell “should always come first.”

  After all, notes the company, almost one in five photos or videos posted on the aren’t in the square format, acknowledging that folks likely use workarounds to get their content posted to the platform.

  Now users can tap the format icon to choose an orientation. Once the photo is shared, the full-sized version will appear to followers “in a beautiful, natural way.”

  You know what this means? Wider shots of feet standing in interesting places and a better idea of exactly how bad your friend is at photographing food in an appetizing way. With the good comes the bad, eh?

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist