Author: Chris Morran

After this morning’s revelation that Blippy.com — the site for people who think foursquare isn’t enough oversharing — had somehow leaked users’ credit card numbers to anyone with Google, the company wants everyone to know that the problem is not as big as it seems and, yes, they are taking it seriously.

From the NY Times:

In a phone interview Friday morning, Blippy’s co-founder, Philip Kaplan, said the card numbers in question belonged to four Blippy users. He explained that when people link their credit cards to Blippy, merchants pass along their raw transaction data – including some credit card numbers – and the site scrubs that information to present just the merchant and the dollar amount spent. But several months ago, when Blippy was being publicly tested, that raw transaction data was present in the site’s HTML code, where it was retrieved by Google.

And then over on Blippy’s official blog:

Here are the details:

* Say you buy lunch at Quiznos. Your credit card statement shows a complex entry like “Quiznos Inc Store #1234 San Francisco.” But Blippy cleans this up to only show “Quiznos.” We refer to these as the “raw data” vs the “cleaned up data.”

* Raw data is typically harmless. But it turns out that some credit cards (4 out of thousands in this case) show the credit card number in the raw data. For example, “Quiznos Inc Store #1234 from card 4444….”

* Many months ago when we were first building Blippy, some raw (not cleaned up, but typically harmless) data could be viewed in the HTML source of a Blippy web page. The average user would see nothing, but a determined person could see “raw” line items. Still, this was mostly harmless — stuff like store numbers and such. And it was all removed and fixed quickly.

* Enter Google’s cache. Turns out Google indexed some of this HTML, even though it wasn’t visible on the Blippy website. And exposed 4 credit card numbers (but a scary 196 search results).

* We’re working with Google now to remove Blippy from their cache, and they inform us it will be completed within a couple of hours.

Not once, but twice in their blog post does Blippy emphasize that they are “taking it seriously.”

Also, Blippy says that having your credit information splashed over the web to billions of people isn’t such a horrible thing. “You’re never responsible if someone uses your credit card without your permission,” they say. “That’s why it’s okay to hand your credit card over to waiters, store clerks, and hundreds of other people who all have access to your credit card numbers.”

We’d sure love to hear from some of the people whose card numbers have been seen by a few million people to see how they feel about this.

Blippy And Credit Card Numbers [Official Blippy Blog]
When Over-Sharing Leads to Problems [NY Times]

Are you a racist looking for a luxury hotel in Florida? Then the Ritz Carlton in Naples might just be the place for you. A lawsuit filed this week claims that when guests of the hotel asked to not be served by “people of color” or with “foreign accents,” the management agreed to their demands.

The suit, filed by a Haitian-born waiter at the Ritz Carlton, alleges that a British couple who were staying at the hotel made such a request with regard to the staff attending to them.

According to the plaintiff, the request was noted in the hotel computer, adding that the couple is “very very” prejudiced. The request for whites-only service was then relayed to other members of staff, including the plaintiff who says in the suit that on March 12 he was attempting to do his job when “he was prevented by his immediate supervisors from doing so… because they [the guests] did not want to be waited on by a black person per the instruction of [the hotel’s director].”

Not shockingly, the hotel wouldn’t talk to the press about the lawsuit but did say, “The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company does not tolerate discrimination from our employees or our guests.”

Here’s a PDF of the lawsuit

Waiter sues Ritz-Carton Naples, claiming discrimination [News-Press.com]

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.

That’s what police in Cape Coral, FL, allege a 22-year-old woman did at her local Walmart.

According to authorities, employees saw the suspect take $163 worth of clothing from the racks into the changing room, where she apparently decided to test their urine absorption capacity.

She made it easy work for the police to find her by leaving her wallet, complete with driver’s license, in the room with the pee-drenched pile of clothes.

The woman has been charged with criminal mischief and property damage and has been released on $500 bail.

We’re going to assume that the clothes were not immediately put back on the sales floor.

Police arrest woman suspected of urinating on clothes at Cape Coral Walmart [News-Press.com]

Thanks to Ron for the tip!

A few weeks back, before KFC had even unleashed their bacon, fried chicken and salt concoction known as the Double Down, vegan website Vegansaurus had already come up with their own animal-friendly version. But while it might not harm any of your furry, feathered, scaly or insecty friends, the vegan Double Down certainly isn’t a diet item.

According to Vegansaurus’ own numbers, here’s how the concoction breaks down, in terms of calories and fat:

* 2 Gardein Chick’n Scallopini patties: 180 calories, 4g fat
* 2 Tbsp Vegenaise: 180 calories, 18g fat
* 25 percent of the batter recipe (plenty for one sandwich): 225 calories, 25g fat
* 2 oz Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack: 140 calories, 14g fat
* 3 strips Smart Bacon with cooking oil: 60 calories, 8g fat
Grand total: 785 calories, 69g fat

So how does that stand up against the real thing? Well, that depends on who you ask.

If you go by KFC’s numbers — 540 calories, 32g fat — then the vegan version should make the list of foods worse for you than the Double Down.

But then there are the folks who claim that the number should be closer to 1190 calories. If that’s the case, then the vegan version is a little friendlier to your waistline, though still on the same level as a McDonald’s Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese.

We still haven’t found anyone who has done a side-by-side taste test of the two versions. Any volunteers?

Calorie count cage match: KFC Double Down vs. Vegan Double Down [Vegansaurus.com]

When Massachusetts announced their cash-for-clunker appliance rebate program, Consumerist bet it would last one day before the rebate cash ran dry. We were wrong — it took less than three hours.

The program, which launched this morning at 10 a.m. and was supposed to go until May 5, got a mammoth response from consumers, who instantly flooded its website and phone lines. Many people were locked out because of the overload.

According to reports, the initial $5.4 million in rebates were gone by 11:52 a.m. and the $2 million wait list was gone by 12:25 p.m.

Similar programs in other states have likewise had short life spans. Florida’s only lasted two days and the rebate money in Illinois was gone within 11 hours.

State appliance rebate program runs dry [Boston Herald]
Thanks to Adam for the tip!

Remember a few weeks back when a bunch of airlines asked the FAA for a temporary exemption to the new rules about how long planes can wait on a tarmac? Earlier today DOT secretary Ray LaHood told them to go take a flying leap.

“Passengers on flights delayed on the tarmac have a right to know they will not be held aboard a plane indefinitely,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement released today. “This is an important consumer protection, and we believe it should take effect as planned.”

The rule, which goes into effect on April 29, “prohibits U.S. airlines operating domestic flights from permitting an aircraft to remain on the tarmac at large and medium hub airports for more than three hours without deplaning passengers.”

JetBlue had requested an exemption from the rule for New York’s JFK Airport until the main runway there is reopened on Dec. 1.

Delta and American also made exemption requests for JFK. Continental tried to double up with exemptions at both LaGuardia Airport and Newark International Airport. And U.S. Airways asked for a delay in observing the rule at Philadelphia International Airport.

Here’s the DOT’s rationale:

In denying the requests, the Department concluded that airlines could minimize tarmac delays by rerouting or rescheduling flights at JFK to allow the airport’s other three runways to absorb the extra traffic. The Department also noted that it has the ability to take into account the impact of the runway closure and the harm to consumers when deciding whether to pursue enforcement action for failure to comply with the rule and the amount of a fine, if any, to seek as a result of non-compliance.

Under the rule, airlines can be fined up to $27,500 per passenger for violations. Some have argued that this will actually result in longer waits for passengers by punishing the airlines and not air traffic control, while proponents maintain that only a small number of flights will make it all the way to three hours.

DOT Press Release

Is it too late for WellPoint to get into the Worst Company In America competition? A new report says the insurance giant and its subsidiaries have been deliberately targeting policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer and going to great lengths to have their policies nullified.

According to Reuters, WellPoint, who cover 33.7 million Americans through its numerous subsidiaries, “used a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies.”

After being singled out by the computer, their policies were canceled “based on either erroneous or flimsy information.”

WellPoint has been singled out before by Congress for being a major practicer of “recission,” the process of weeding out policyholders after they’ve been diagnosed with a medical condition that could cost the insurer a significant amount of money.

In a statement to Reuters, WellPoint said that “various specified criteria trigger rescission investigations, including certain types of medical claims.”
WellPoint swears, hand-on-heart, that it changed its rescission practices to ensure they are handled appropriately after a 2006 review.

To show just how much they care about the health of their policyholders, WellPoint even went so far as to add a doctor to the committee that makes decisions on recissions.

In recent months, another insurance company, Assurant was caught targeting and then dropping HIV-positive policyholders.

Of interest: Assurant lost out in the first round of Worst Company in America to Anthem Blue Cross Blue shield, which is a major subsidiary of WellPoint.

Exclusive: WellPoint routinely targets breast cancer patients [Reuters]

A fellow in the UK was recently sentenced to 12 months in the clink after using a broom handle to heist a bag of burger buns from his local Burger King.

With a deadly broom handle at the ready, the master criminal talked his way into a then-closed BK and, say the local police, threatened a staff member “he would hit him with the broom handle unless he stayed still… Fearing he would be hurt, the member of staff complied, at which point [the robber] snatched a nearby bag of burger buns and fled.”

The absolute inanity of the theft wasn’t lost on the police:

Why he felt the need to intimidate and threaten someone to that extent simply for a bag of burger buns is beyond comprehension and we welcome the one year prison sentence handed down to him.

The robber entered guilty pleas to charges of robbery, possession of an offensive weapon, and obstructing police.

Croydon Burger King bun robber jailed [Croydon Guardian]

For some reason, the ad sales peeps at ABC and Fox don’t think this TV ad for some sort of new lingerie from Lane Bryant is appropriate for airing in prime time.

According to a post on the Lane Bryant blog, they had tried to get this ad played during the ratings bonanza that is Dancing With the stars, but they were told it would have to be aired only during the final moments of the show.

Similarly, they claim that Fox “demanded excessive re-edits and rebuffed it three times before relenting to air it during the final 10 minutes of “American Idol,” but only after we threatened to pull the ad buy.”

Take the mic, Lane Bryant:

We knew the ads were sexy, but they are not salacious. Our new commercials represent the sensuality of the curvy woman who has more to show the world than the typical waif-like lingerie model. What we didn’t know was that the networks, which regularly run Victoria’s Secret and Playtex advertising on the very shows from which we’re restricted, would object to a different view of beauty. If Victoria’s Secret and Playtex can run ads at any time during the 9pm to 10pm hour, why is Lane Bryant restricted only to the final 10 minutes?

While it’s no secret that Victoria’s Secret “The Nakeds” ads are prancing around on major networks leaving little to the imagination, steaming up t.v. screens and baring nearly everything but their souls, our sultry siren who shows sophisticated sass is somehow deemed inappropriate. The network exclaimed, she has “too much cleavage” Gasp!

Starting as early as this week, baseball-loving PlayStation 3 owners will be able to watch live streams of almost every Major League Baseball game through MLB.tv… for a price, of course.

For either $99.95 or $119.95 per year (depending on the package), users can subscribe to MLB.tv and get access to out of market games and an archive of all the games. The service is already available via your computer, iPad, some mobile phones and set top boxes. MLB is hoping to increase its subscriber base substantially by tapping into the 12 million PS3 owners in the U.S.

“It continues our path of making sure that our content is available to the fans,” said some guy with a long job title from MLB.

PlayStation to Stream Pro Baseball [NY Times]

After two years of offering free streaming video to its users, a new report says that Hulu is ready to move forward with their plan for charging a subscription fee to access much of the site’s content.

According to the L.A. Times:

Under the proposal, Hulu would continue to provide for free the five most recent episodes of shows like Fox’s “Glee,” “ABC’s “Lost” or NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” But viewers who want to see additional episodes would pay $9.95 a month to access a more comprehensive selection, called Hulu Plus.

The owners of Hulu (a joint effort of NewsCorp, NBC Universal and Disney) haven’t exactly been starving, having made more than $100 million from advertisements that run during the videos. The site has also made an operating profit in the last two quarters.

But obviously Hulu thinks it can generate even more revenue with the subscriptions.

Question is, will you be willing to pay for it?

Hulu pushes forward with $9.95 subscription service [L.A. Times]

Now that the iPad is upon them, Amazon has finally made a deal to unleash their popular Kindle e-reader to the bricks-and-mortar retail market. Amazon has made a deal with Target that will have Kindles in some of their stores as early as this Sunday.

The first stores to get the Kindle will be in south Florida and the chain’s flagship store in downtown Minneapolis. These stores should start selling Kindles on April 25.

Target says it plans on rolling out the device for sale in all its stores, but gave no specific time line as to the whens and wheres.

Says a dude from Target, hopefully with a cool Minnesota accent:

We’re excited to be working with Amazon to help even more readers discover Kindle, in-store only at Target… We strive to enhance our product offerings to include surprising products and services at great values so we’re proud to be the first brick-and-mortar retailer to sell Kindle, allowing our guests to feel how lightweight and easy on the eyes Kindle is.

Is this going to be enough for Kindle to maintain its E-reader market share? Or does its lack of color and it singular use put it at a disadvantage?

Target Stores to Sell Kindle, Amazon’s Revolutionary Wireless Reading Device [MarketWatch]

As with many great technological advances, at the forefront of people’s desire for unfettered access to the Internet lies… in porn. Just ask the thousands of Chinese web users who have networked together and shared their collective ingenuity in recent weeks, all in the name of accessing the Twitter page of a Japanese porn star.

When China-based fans of adult film star Aoi Sola heard that she’d started her own Twitter page a few weeks back, the hunt was on for a successful way to vault over, tunnel under or blast through the so-called “Great Firewall” the Chinese government has set up to forbid citizens from accessing Twitter and other sites.

And so Aoi fans began sharing and distributing their hacks for getting around the blockade. There is now an e-mail address, [email protected], that provides an auto response e-mail with instructions on how to access Twitter pages.

“In China you can get anything you want on the Internet, you just have to want to bad enough,” said David Wolf, a Beijing-based tech industry expert tells AOL News. “It’s simple for someone with some minimal technical acumen” to scale the Great Firewall… But that means that it’s too difficult for most of China.”

Aoi now has over 50,000 Twitter followers; it’s not known how many of them are from China. Additionally, it’s likely that many people are checking her Tweets without actually becoming “followers.”

Josephine Ho, coordinator of the Center for the Study of Sexualities at Taiwan’s National Central University, explains the lure of Aoi’s Twitter and other similar sites thusly:

The reason there’s such eagerness is because there’s such a strong clampdown on sex and sex-related information, not only in China but also in Taiwan and Hong Kong… Sexual information is hard to get at, and Japan just happens to have a sophisticated porn industry.

Porn Star Prompts Chinese to Jump ‘Great Firewall’ [AOL News]

A woman in California lived for free in a hotel room for two years — a $55,000 bill — by pretending to be an IRS agent. Of course, now she’s been caught and has to pay it all back.

According to reports, the woman actually began living in the hotel in Novato, CA, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, in 2002. That’s also when she began telling hotel employees her made-up tale about being an agent for the Internal Revenue Service.

However, she apparently had no problem paying for her room on time until 2008, at which point she told a hotel co-owner that she would not be paid again until the completion of her current (nonexistent) investigation for the IRS. She even told them to write letters to the IRS — which she promised to delivery — explaining their need to be paid.

It all caught up with her earlier this year, when the woman ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of impersonating a federal officer. But rather than send the woman, now in her 60s and diabetic, to prison, she was given five years of supervised probation and ordered to pay the $55K to the hotel owners.

Fake IRS agent told to pay $55,000 hotel bill [SF Chronicle]

A few weeks back, Consumerist readers voted overwhelming in favor of requiring parental consent for children using tanning beds, and a new study linking regular tanning to addictive behavior may back up your sense of caution on the matter.

In a study published in Archives of Dermatology, researchers say that, much like with other addicts, there are some people who will continue to tan even after experience the negative effects of too much tanning.

Researchers talked to 229 students who use indoor tanning beds and around 30-40% of those polled met the psychiatric diagnostic criteria for addiction. In addition to feeling compelled to tan, the study found that these people also claimed to have more symptoms of anxiety and admitted to a higher level of alcohol and marijuana use.

“I think there’s growing evidence that it can be addicting for a minority of individuals,” says Catherine Mosher, a clinical psychologist and one of the study’s authors. “Addiction is a very complex phenomenon, and it will take evidence from multiple sources to validate the idea that it is an addiction.”

ABC News spoke a 27-year-old woman whose uncle died from skin cancer but who continued to tan regularly until she was diagnosed with a melanoma:

“I absolutely believe that I was addicted to tanning,” said 27-year-old melanoma survivor Kristi Setzer, who said she began a tanning regimen to look good for her wedding in 2006.

“I felt that I would look thinner and not blend in with my wedding dress,” Setzer, now a law student, recalled.

After going tanning, she estimates, almost every day for a year before her wedding, she continued afterward, despite better than average knowledge of its possible effects.

“I knew that melanoma had serious consequences,” Setzer said. “My uncle actually died after a battle with melanoma, but even though I knew that, I felt compelled to go tan.

“Even after my wedding I continued indoor tanning until August of 2008, when I received my diagnosis of melanoma,” she said.

Despite the anecdotal data, many doctors are cautious to label tanning as addictive without further research.

“It takes a long time to formally classify something as an addiction,” said Suzette Glasner-Edwards, a clinical psychologist and researcher at UCLA. “Typically it takes a lot of research studies to see if all the symptoms… really conform to how we understand addiction to other things. It’s a pattern of progressively losing control over a behavior… If they don’t have impairment in their life as a result of it, then they won’t get that diagnosis.”

Study Shows Links Between Tanning and Addictive Behavior [ABC News]

For anyone who has ever thought that they were being singled out by Comcast’s cruddy customer service, or that wealthy and famous people somehow managed to get non-cruddy service from the Kabletown folks, World Series-winning manager of the Chicago White Sox wants you to know that just isn’t so.

According to his Tweets, the outspoken baseballer spent all day waiting for a Comcast tech to show up at his house.

“Waiting for comcast people to show up in my house godddddd please take a little longer is not free,” he Tweeted this morning, followed by, “Its amazing to me how u have to wait for cable. As if I was getting it for free. 8 am they said wow.”

Unfortunately, Ozzie’s wait ended in a way that will seem familiar to many Comcast subscribers:
“Comcast is now saying they came to my house. They suck. Its not free they r not the only cable company.”

Guess we know who Ozzie will be voting for in tomorrow’s Worst Company In America showdown.

Ozzie Guillen’s Official Twitter

Thanks to Coe-Stanza for the tip!

Eating out is supposed to be a good thing, whether it’s romance, business, family, friends or just enjoying a nice al fresco meal on your own. But how many times has your pleasant evening been tainted or even ruined by a fellow restaurant patron who does something that just gets under your skin? That’s why the Chicago Tribune has put together this list of 10 of the most irritating people you can encounter while dining.

1. People who sit far from their table and won’t move up when you need to squeeze by.
2. People who stuffing tiny bottles of jam into their pockets or purse.
3. People who bring their own salt.
4. People whose conversations are so loud everyone in the restaurant can hear them.
5. People who linger forever over empty glasses of wine even though they can see others are waiting for a table.
6. People who chew with their mouth open.
7. People who talk loudly on their cell phone.
8. People who take a ton of flash photos in the restaurant
9. People who let in all the cold air from outside (or let the cool air out during the summer) by holding the door open for too long.
10. People who use a cloth napkin to blot their lipstick and people who blow their nose into their napkin at the table.

Do you agree with the Tribune’s list? Who did they miss?

Ten at 10: Most Annoying Habits of Restaurant Diners [Chicago Tribune]

While everyone’s been raising a hoot and a holler about Spirit Airlines’ recent decision to begin charging for carry-on bags, the budget carrier has quietly been rolling out planes with “pre-reclined” seats. At least you don’t have to worry about being chided by a flight attendant to sit up while the plane prepares to land.

In the last month, Spirit has put two Airbus 320 planes into service featuring the fixed seat backs. Both planes fly to Ft. Lauderdale; one from Washington, D.C. and the other from LaGuardia Airport in NYC.

A company rep says two more Airbus 320s will be added this summer and both will have the pre-reclined seating, which isn’t exactly winning rave reviews.

“I hate sitting upright,” said one passenger. “It felt cheap and uncomfortable.”

Of course, the rationale behind the fixed seats is cost. These seats weigh less (meaning fuel savings) and have fewer moving parts (meaning maintenance savings).

Is this a reasonable compromise for lower fares? Or is this a dealbreaker?

New Spirit Airlines planes have seats that don’t recline [Sun-Sentinal]

Thanks to John for the tip!

Two of last year’s WCIA Final Four return to square off as Bank of America, who thumped Time Warner Cable in the Elite 8, goes up against Ticketmaster, fresh off its victory over Anthem BCBS.

Which of these companies has earned a spot in the finals?

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2010 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Print the bracket, here.

It’s not exactly Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion, but the Securities And Exchange Commission has charged a Florida businessman with operating a $900 million Ponzi scheme, telling people they were investing — risk-free and at interest rates upward of 26% — in his grocery business, when in fact he was just using the money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

According to the SEC filing, Nevin K. Shapiro, the founder and president of Capitol Investments USA, Inc., “lured investors by falsely touting Capitol’s securities as a risk-free investment with extraordinarily high returns… He used his prominence and prestige to gain investors’ trust in funding Capitol’s grocery diverting business, but behind their backs he diverted their money to enrich himself.”

The SEC says that, in spite of the influx of investment money, Capitol began operating at a loss in 2004 and “had virtually no operations by 2005 when, in a classic Ponzi scheme manner, Shapiro began using funds from new investors to pay principal and interest to earlier investors.”

Here are some of the SEC’s allegations against Shapiro:

* He falsely told investors their funds would be used as short-term financing to purchase and resell groceries for Capitol’s business.

* He falsely touted Capitol’s financial success as well as his own.

* He falsely assured investors that their principal was secure because Capitol would not broker the sale of the goods without first obtaining a purchase order from a buyer.

* He falsely told investors that Capitol would pay the principal and interest from the profits it received when it resold the goods.

* He misappropriated at least $38 million of investor funds to enrich himself and finance outside business activities unrelated to the grocery business, including a sport representation business and real estate ventures.

According to the filing, Shapiro owned a $5 million home in Miami Beach, a $1 million boat, luxury cars, expensive clothes, high-stakes gambling, and season tickets to premium sporting events.

He has been charged with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks a permanent injunction, sworn accounting, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and financial penalties against Shapiro, who surrendered to authorities today.

SEC Charges Prominent Miami Beach Businessman in $900 Million Ponzi Scheme[SEC.gov]