Author: Chris Morran

In a joint statement from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission, investors have been warned today about the possibility of investment scams being operated by companies claiming to be involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Reads the statement: “While some of the companies touting their role in the cleanup may be legitimate, others could be bogus operations that are only looking to clean out unsuspecting investors.”

In its attempt to alert consumers to the warning signs of a possible scam, the SEC and FINRA has stated to watch out for companies claiming one or more of the following:

• Products or technologies effective in remediating oil spils or restoring the ecosystem;

• Contracts or expected contracts with BP

• Technical expertise provided to BP or government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency

• Quick, exponential sales growth.

Slick promotions: Don’t get conned by oil cleanup investment scams [Consumer Reports]

It’s been a rough few weeks for United Airlines. First, they try to incinerate an Olsen Twin, then they left a blind passenger on board after they’d let everyone else off the plane. Now, Continental’s betrothed is having to explain how they managed to not notice a sleeping passenger who remained on board her plane for four hours after it touched down.

That four hours is about four times as long as the passenger spent in the air on her United Express flight from Washington’s Dulles airport to Philadelphia.

The flight landed shortly after midnight, but no one noticed Rip Van Winkle until a cleaning crew woke her up around 4 a.m.

We’re reminded of the Air Canada passenger earlier this year, who fell asleep on a flight to Vancouver and woke up several hours after arrival in the hangar at the airport.

Sleeping passenger left on plane for 4 hours after it lands in Philadelphia [Chicago Tribune]

While his government wallows in massive debt, the Prime Minister of Greece has his own problem — the telephone company turned off service to his home phone earlier this week.

Turns out it was all an error, as Prime Minister George Papandreou’s home phone number was nearly identical (all but one digit) to that of a delinquent customer whose service was to be disconnected/

Of course, as soon as the phone company, which is 20% owned by the Greek government, learned of their mistake they dispatched techs to fix the error.

The Prime Minister should be glad he doesn’t live on this street in Texas.

Hello? Hello? Greek PM’s Phone Cut off by Mistake [ABC News]

Usually when we write about taxi-related horror stories, it’s cab drivers trying to scam passengers out of cash. But this time the tables have been turned in big way, after a driver in Ohio was stiffed on a $1,427 fare.

According to the driver’s complaint filed with the police, he picked up a couple in Jackson, TN, and dropped them off over 10 hours later in Lorain, OH. News reports put the distance at around 500 miles, but Google Maps estimates it at more than 600 miles.

Regardless, the driver said the couple had agreed to pay the $1,427 fare for the drive, even signing a billing statement to that effect. The woman passenger had told the driver they were going to Lorain because of a family emergency.

While he waited for his passengers to pay up, they instead hopped into a minivan and drove off without handing over any cash.

As of yesterday, no charges had been filed and no specific suspects had been named. According to reports, police spoke to a woman at the address the couple had originally given the driver. That woman said the female passenger was her niece, but that she had no way of contacting her.

Not Fare! Cabbie Stiffed After 500-Mile Trip to Lorain [Fox8.com]

Only days after the Center for Science in the Public Interest ruined everyone’s dinner plans with their list of the worst meals available at U.S. restaurants, the muscle-bound dudes over at Men’s Health Magazine have released their own list of the worst drinks in America.

Topping the list is the PB&C shake from Cold Stone Creamery, which in the 24 oz. (aka “gotta have it”) size contains 2,010 calories, 131 g fat (68 g saturated) and 153 g sugars. The Men’s Health people put it in perspective, equating one shake to 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies and claiming it has as much saturated fat as 68 strips of bacon.

Also on the Men’s Health Worst Drink list:

* Smoothie King Peanut Power Plus Grape (large, 40 fl oz):
1,498 calories; 44 g fat (8 g saturated); 214 g sugars

* McDonald’s Triple Thick Chocolate Shake (large, 32 fl oz):
1,160 calories; 27 g fat (16 g saturated, 2 g trans); 168 g sugars

* Krispy Kreme Lemon Sherbet Chiller (20 fl oz):
980 calories; 40 g fat (36 g saturated); 115 g sugars

* Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Soda (vanilla ice cream and cola) (large, 28.6 fl oz):
960 calories; 40 g fat (25 g saturated, 1.5 g trans); 136 g sugars

To see all 20 belly-busting beverages on the list, head over to Men’s Health.

20 Worst Drinks in America 2010 [Menshealth.com]

The people of England may need to upgrade their plumbing — Taco Bell is coming to the UK later this summer.

As part of parent company Yum Brands’ plan to increase their foothold in Jolly Ol’ England, it is attempting to slowly insinuate the not-exactly-Mexican taco chain into the fast food fabric there. Yum has already expanded the numbers of their KFC and Pizza Hut stores in the UK in recent months.

“This is a major step in our international expansion, and Lakeside is just the start of our plans in this country,” said Nick Dawson, general manager, Taco Bell UK and Europe.

In the late ’80s, Yum made an unsuccessful bid to bring Taco Bell to England, opening up four eateries, all of which closed within a few years.

But, pointing out that the market for Mexican food in the UK has increased by 9% in just the last two years, Yum thinks the timing is right for a Taco Bell invasion.

“UK consumers are looking for choice and value for money,” said Mr Dawson. “Taco Bell, whose offerings are priced between 79p and £3, offers both.”

Taco Bell to open in the UK [FT.com]

Are you in the need for some butt floss but don’t have the extra cash to buy a new thong? You’re in luck, because American Apparel is now handing out thongs for free!

All you have to do is A) be over the age of 13 (and isn’t that a bit young to be thonging it?) and B) sign up for the American Apparel mailing list on their web site.

Upon signing up for the mailing list, you’ll get a follow-up e-mail where you can tell them your size (available in XS to XL) and where the thong needs to be shipped.

If you’re in a rush, you might want to scrape up some cash because it will take a couple of weeks for your shiny, new, barely there undies to arrive.

American Apparel Newsletter Sign Up Form [via WalletPop]

After decades playing second (and often times third or fourth) fiddle to Microsoft, Apple finally moved to the head of the class yesterday, passing the software behemoth to become the most valuable tech company in the world.

Yesterday, the value of Apple on Wall Street stood at $222.12 billion, a few billion more than Microsoft at $219.18 billion. In addition to making Apple the #1 tech company in terms of total value, it also made the iPhone maker the second-highest American company overall next to Exxon Mobil ($278.64 billion).

What has finally pushed Apple — previously viewed as a niche computer manufacturer — over the top has been the company’s focus on portable personal electronics.

The turnaround started almost a decade ago with the introduction of the iPod — and of course the iTunes store, which has since gone on to sell much more than music.

Then of course came the iPhone, which has added billions in revenue to the Apple coffers since its introduction in 2007. Additionally, Apple has lined its pockets with money from the iPhone (and now iPad) App Store, the only place that users can purchase and download applications for the device.

Explains the NY Times:

And Apple is in the right place at the right time. Although it still sells computers, twice as much revenue is coming from hand-held devices and music. Over all, the technology industry sold about 172 million smartphones last year, compared with 306 million PCs, but smartphone sales grew at a pace five times faster.

Microsoft loudmouth Steve Ballmer pish-poshed the changing of the guard. “No technology company on the planet is more profitable than we are,” he said. “On any given day, the stock market is a voting machine… in the long run is it a weighing machine.”

Apple Passes Microsoft as No. 1 in Tech [NY Times]

Despite the NBA postseason being in its 13th month, basketball fans are still hungry to see their favorite teams. And now they can feed that hunger, literally, as the NBA has licensed the use of team logos on everything from pizzas to toast.

With the recession causing a crimp in $150 official jersey sales, the NBA is looking for more creative ways to squeeze revenue from its licenses. So they’ve sold off rights to put officially licensed NBA logos and images on just about any item possible.

Says the NBA’s head of global merchandising, “As key licensing categories have matured, it’s an ongoing goal of the NBA to expand the brand into places that may attract new customers.” So why branded pizzas? “A lot of people watching NBA games on TV tend to eat,” he explains.

USA Today rounded up these details on the edible products:
•Pizza. The logos, to be available next season for all 30 teams, are made of sugar, starch and food coloring. They’ll add about $5 to the pizza price.

•Toaster logos. Priced at $34.99, NBA Pro Toast Toasters are specially made to “burn” golden brown team logos onto bread as it toasts.

The company that makes the toasters says they also plan on releasing team logo panini sandwich presses.

NBA cooks up edible logos to make mark on pizza and toast [USA Today]

In not-so-depressing news about the economy, the Commerce Dept. announced this morning that sales of new homes in April had jumped up 14.8% from March — the highest level in nearly two years.

But before you break out the trombone to start playing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” it’s believed that the bump in new home sales was the result of buyers needing to sign contracts by April 30 in order to take advantage of a federal tax credit.

Here’s how some analyst guy explains it to Reuters:

That is a big number, but my sense is that while this is great news, we’re drawing last-minute incentive sales from the future… We’ll probably see a few months of soft patches to make up for this.

In order to qualify for the credit, contracts needed to be inked by April 30 and closing has to happen by the end of June.

However, points out Reuters, the demand for loans to buy homes was still at a 13-year low as of last week, while mortgage applications to refinance home loans hit a seven-month high as rates neared record lows.

And while there was a spike in new home sales in April, the median sale price for a new home dropped to $198,400 — down 9.7% from the previous month and the lowest since Dec. 2003.

New home sales at 2-year high [Reuters]

After nearly a decade on the market, someone has finally gotten beer-goggled enough to plunk down the cash to purchase Pabst Brewing Co. According to reports, the deal went down for an ice-cold $250 million, though for only a dollar more they could have gotten a shot of Jameson to go along with it.

Pabst, which not only has the loved/loathed Pabst Blue Ribbon brand, but also Schlitz, Old Style, Lone Star and Colt 45, had been owned by the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, but federal law prohibits charities from owning for-profit businesses for more than five years.

The Foundation had been ordered to sell the company by 2005, but got a 5-year extension from the IRS.

The reported buyer of the brewer — the #5 suds supplier in the U.S. — is C. Dean Metropoulos, who has made his name managing big-time brands like Bumble Bee Tuna, Vlasic Pickles, Chef Boyardee, Duncan Hines and Ghirardelli Chocolates.

Woodridge-based Pabst Brewing to get new owner [Chicago Breaking News]

Even though the company that manufactures the Kindle e-reader for Amazon has already developed color screens that still utilize the Kindle’s E Ink technology, the e-tailer’s CEO says a full-color Kindle isn’t on the immediate horizon.

Talking to shareholders at a meeting in Seattle yesterday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos commented that the technology needed for a colorized Kindle is “still not ready for prime-time production” and that any plans to release their e-reader with a color screen are “still a long way out.”

The lack of color in Kindles has been one of the main reasons some consumers have selected products like the Apple iPad, whose LCD display operates in full color.

Color Kindle still ‘a long way out’ says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
[NY Daily News]

Every year, the Center for Science In the Public Interest releases their Xtreme Eating Awards list, where they single out the most carb-heavy, fat-saturated, salt-laden calorie bombs available on the market. This year’s round-up of gut-busters covers everything from breakfast through dessert and contains some items that may surprise you.

In no particular order…

1. Five Guys’ Bacon Cheeseburger
Before you put a single topping on it, the bacon cheeseburger from this rapidly growing chain will set you back 920 calories and 30g of fat. Throw in anywhere from 620 to 1,460 calories for Five Guys’ generous portions of fries and you’ve got yourself a calorie, fat and salt bonanza.

2. The Cheesecake Factory’s Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake
Weighing in at 3/4 lb, this chocolate lover’s dream will cost you 1,670 calories and 48g of saturated fat. Yikes… and yum.

3. California Pizza Kitchen’s Tostada Pizza
The picture basically looks like a salad on a pizza crust. But even without any meat, this pie packs 1,440 calories and 2,630mg of sodium. Add grilled steak to the mix and ratchet up the calories to 1,680 and throw on almost another 700mg of sodium.

4. The Cheesecake Factory’s Pasta Carbonara
The Factory’s second entry on the list is another item where appearances could be deceiving to the undiscerning diner. It’s just spaghettini with chicken, peas and bacon in a garlic cream sauce; how bad could that be? Try 2,500 calories (blam!) and a whopping 85g of saturated fat. Finish that off with the Truffle Cake listed above and you’re in 4,000 calorie country.

5. P.F. Chang’s Double Pan-Fried Noodles Combo
1,820 calories is a lot to consume. But where this dish really excels is in the salt department — 7,690mg of sodium! According to the CSPI, that’s 3 whole teaspoons of salt… for one dish.

6. Outback’s New Zealand Lamb
Equal to eating about 8 individual lamb chops, this entree from the not-Australian steakhouse packs a pretty hefty calorie punch. Including the garlic mashed potatoes and veggies (which have so much butter they alone bring 7g of saturated fat to the plate), you’re looking at 1,820 calories, 80g of saturated fat and 2,600mg of sodium. As the CSPI points out, you’d be better served ordering the 16 oz. prime rib at Outback which, even with the same sides, betters the rack of lamb in all three categories.

7. Chevys’ Crab & Shrimp Quesadilla
Again, a slightly stealthy calorie bomb here, as the cheese, flour, sour cream and guacamole greatly outnumber the titular seafood filling. At 1,790 calories, 63g of saturated fat and 3,440mg of sodium, the Crab & Shrimp Quesadilla even beats the restaurant chain’s Carnitas & 3-Cheese Quesadilla.

8. California Pizza Kitchen’s Pesto Cream Penne
Another entry from CPK. The menu says “Basil pine nut pesto cream sauce, sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese,” but the nutritional info says “1,350 calories, 49g of saturated fat, and 1,920mg of sodium.” And that’s before you add any chicken or shrimp to the mix.

9. Bob Evans’ Cinnamon Cream Stacked & Stuffed Hotcakes
Forget the IHOP wannabe. This here’s the real deal. This is how CSPI described it: “So he takes two pancakes and stuffs them with either good stuff (like blueberries or bananas) or garbage (like cinnamon chips made of sugar and oil). Then comes a layer of vanilla cream cheese (it’s more like cream than cheese) and a sugary topping (like cinnamon cream), with whipped topping as the coup de grease.” And all that will set you back around 1,380 calories, 27 g of saturated plus 7g of trans fat, and 27 teaspoons of sugar.
Can you think of a better way to start your day?

Xtreme Eating 2010 [CSPI]

Being a Netflix customer requires a certain amount of trust in the US Postal Service — that they’ll deliver your movie promptly and without stomping on it and that they’ll return it in the same condition. But a former postal worker in Texas violated that trust, and has admitted to swiping Netflix discs before they got to their intended destinations.

This all goes back to 2008, when Netflix security noticed an anomaly — 114 discs had not been delivered to the 77373 zip code in the town of Spring, Texas, on the outskirts of Houston.

An investigation was opened and the postal worker’s bosses kept a keen eye on him until he was eventually spotted taking a Netflix disc straight from a mail bag and placing it in his personal backpack.

The 38-year-old now faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ya know, he probably wouldn’t have been so easily caught if he’d just watched and returned the discs. Just sayin’.

Houston postal worker pilfered Netflix movies [Houston Chronicle]

A Consumerist reader wrote into us today to tell us how he ended up with $132 in overdraft fees, not because he went on a spending spree and didn’t manage his finances correctly, but because his eager beaver roommate went ahead and deposited his post-dated rent check almost a full week early.

Here it is straight from the reader:

I gave my roommate my rent check to turn in for the summer since he would be around taking summer courses. I told him not to cash the check before the 30th of May because I did not have enough money in the account, but being the idiot he is, he ended up cashing it yesterday on the 24th of May even though it was dated for the 30th. I did not have enough money in the bank, and the check overdrafted my account, and a few small charges I made over the weekend processed that day too so now my account is over drafted and Wachovia has hit me with 132 dollars in overdraft fees. I called Wachovia and talked to a supervisor to explain the situation and the most they could do is refund 32 dollars of the overdraft fee.

The reader wants to know if there’s anything else he can do in terms of getting Wachovia to reduce or refund the overdraft fees. Unfortunately, he’s out of luck. The reason: Just because you post-date a check doesn’t mean it can’t be deposited early.

Here’s how the Dept. of Treasury explains it:

National banks are permitted to pay checks even though payment occurs prior to the date of the check. A check is a negotiable instrument—the payee, the person to whom the check is written, may negotiate it through the banking system at any time.

If you have incurred damages because a check has been negotiated before its date, you should directly pursue the payee for restitution.

So if the reader wants restitution, he should be talking to his “idiot” roommate who deposited the check six days before he was supposed to.

Answers About Cashing Checks [Treasury Dept.]

With the recent announcement that Apple has taken mercy on all TV watchers and finally put a bullet in the head of the “I’m a Mac” ad campaign, along with with McDonald’s’ decision to keep longtime front man Ronald McDonald, in spite of a push to have him put out to pasture, we want to know from you which TV ad character/spokesthing you think should be next in line for retirement.

To help you along, we’ve whittled it down to a handful of candidates.

FIrst, there’s the overly enthusiastic, overly made-up Flo, from the Progressive Insurance ads:

Next, there’s the always-creepy Six Flags old guy, who has only been made creepier this summer by the addition of a pint-sized sidekick, Little Six:

In spite of a failed sitcom attempt, the Geico Cavemen continue to haunt the airwaves in commercials that have increasingly little to do with car insurance:

Then there’s Dan Hesse from Sprint, who obviously thinks he’s making a difference with his plain-spoken black and white ads:

And of course there’s the Burger King, whose ghoulish, unspeaking face is the stuff of nightmares:

Surely some of you remember the item we posted last month about a towing company in Michigan that had filed a $750,000 slander and libel lawsuit against a college student because he’d created a Facebook page for people to voice their complaints about the company. Well, that move appears to have backfired for the towing company, which has since lost a good chunk of business.

Since launching in February, the Facebook page for Kalamazoo Residents Against T&J Towing has garnered over 11,300 members and made this local towing company an object of national derision.

According to reports, T&J has lost half of its commercial towing accounts, including the apartment complex from which the creator of the Facebook page had his car towed in January.

Says a lawyer for T&J about the company’s owner:

He has wrongly become a pariah in the eyes of many people in the community… He’s lost upwards of 15 accounts because of the hostility this situation has created.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the student claim they are now using the complaints posted to the Facebook page to identify others who believe they’ve been wronged by T&J, with the purpose of possibly filing a class-action suit against the towing company.

Fight with student may wreck tow firm [Freep.com]

This Sunday, May 23, was to have been the final day for grease and salt lovers everywhere to get their hands on the KFC Double Down, which for the two of you just waking from comas is a bacon and cheese sandwich that uses fried chicken as the bread. But before you go and unclog your arteries, KFC has just announced that the Double Down ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Says some guy who works for the Colonel:

This truly an example of ‘popular demand’…Our plans were to feature the product only through May 23, but millions of Double Down fans have spoken and we won’t disappoint them. You’ll continue to be able to get the Double Down at KFC this summer.

KFC says it expects to sell its 10 millionth Double Down later this month.

After months of test-marketing in pockets around the country, the much-discussed sandwich hit the streets on April 12. It has spawned several imitators and spin-offs, including:

* The Krispy Kreme Double Down
* The Vegan Double Down
* The Diabetes-Friendly Double Downs

KFC Double Down Fans, Rejoice: Your Favorite Bunless Chicken Sandwich is Staying on the Menu!

It’s being widely reported that Continental Airlines and United Airlines, who have flirted with the idea in the past, could announce merger plans as early as Monday. If so, the deal would make the combined entity the largest airline in the world. But is that a good thing for travelers?

Writes Reuters:

Analysts have trumpeted such a deal as good for all U.S. carriers and the 700 million passengers they fly each year due to expectations the merged entity would remove excess capacity and prompt greater efficiency.

That’s what the experts say, but do you agree? While having both airlines under one umbrella might increase efficiency and decrease overhead, will that be given back to travelers as lower fares or improved service?

Vote here and tell us your thoughts in the comments.

U.S. would likely approve a UAL/CAL merger [Reuters]

Unless you don’t have a TV, you’ve probably seen the new ads for General Motors where GM CEO Ed Whitacre touts the amazing rebound of the car manufacturer, and how they repaid their “government loan in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule.” Yeah, well that might not be exactly true.

Points out Daniel Howes in the Detroit News:

What he doesn’t tell viewers is that a) the repayment of $4.7 billion came from taxpayer funds advanced to GM and b) that the feds still hold 61 percent of GM — valued at something like $43 billion.

The ad has also caught the attention of those on Capitol Hill. Yesterday, Rep. Darrell Issa wrote a letter to Whitacre expressing his misgivings:

We are concerned that GM, under your leadership, has come dangerously close to committing fraud, and that you might have colluded with the United States Treasury to deceive the American public.. If someone relies on your statements in the future… your false statements may expose GM to millions of dollars in damages, further reducing the value of the taxpayer-owned company.

But an unnamed GM exec defended the TV spot to the Detroit News. “We do have to walk a fine line,” said the executive. “You’re right: In the ad, we did not say we repaid the loans but we still owe $40 billion…. We didn’t say anything false.”

Do you think the ads are intentionally misleading?

GM ad glosses over the reality [Detroit News]