For credit card customers who are burned out on the complexity of many credit card offers — in particular, costly and complicated fee structures and penalty rates — you might want to consider the simple credit card. Simple credit cards are just what the name implies: straightforward card deals with good interest rates and as few fees as possible. This ... Read More »

Photo via Shutterstock For a long time, we here at SmarterTravel have been recommending plastic as the best way for travelers to spend money: credit cards for big-ticket purchases, debit (ATM) cards for cash. But which cards to choose? Clearly there is no single best card. What’s best for you depends on what you want by way of extras and ... Read More »

Charges were announced last Thursday against seven members of an identity theft ring that allegedly used stolen identities of more than 180 people at major New York City retail stores including Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Kohl’s, among others. The ring of fraudsters resold merchandise and gift cards for a profit after purchasing them under account holders names fraudulently. Allegedly, ... Read More »

For anyone who has spent more than a few minutes on the GetOutOfDebt.org site you easily come to the conclusion that it is primarily about getting rid of debt but getting out of debt is more than just about eliminating your bills. Getting out of debt is also about not getting into overwhelming debt. One way to do this is ... Read More »

When my grandma, god bless her soul, hears about a new scam, fraud or any form of financial trickery she immediately calls me up and warns me to stop whatever I’m doing and take notes. To her knowledge I don’t belong to more than one social media network, I don’t buy items online, I don’t apply for credit cards and ... Read More »

It was announced today that a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) action has banned a payment processor from using a new payment method to debit accounts after allegedly debiting millions from consumers’ bank accounts without their consent. Payment processors provide merchants with the ability to obtain customer payments for products and services via electronic banking. According to the FTC’s complaint against ... Read More »

In early December, Carlton Lewis, a former Ph.D. student was sentenced to 70 months in prison for his role in an identity theft and credit card fraud conspiracy. Throughout the conspiracy, Lewis, who was enrolled as a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia, provided credit and debit card skimming devices to waitresses working in restaurants across the southeastern United ... Read More »

An identity thief was sentenced earlier this month to 12 years in prison for managing and east coast credit card fraud ring. Jonathan Oliveras, used counterfeit credit cards encoded with stolen account information up and down the East Coast of the United States and has been sentenced for this crime. In addition to his 12 year prison term, Oliveras must ... Read More »

Back in May of 2008 David Whitaker pled guilty to an information charging him with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and commercial bribery to which Whitaker admitted to defrauding around 83 business account customers and a credit card processing company of over $10 million. Earlier this month he was finally sentenced to 70 months in federal ... Read More »

Earlier this month word broke when a complaint was issued against four Arizona LLCs and 11 Arizonians that Arizona telemarketers had defrauded almost 5,000 people out of over $6.3 million. These criminals conducted a scam that used victims’ credit-card limits to determine how much to charge them in setting up their very own “web mall” business that they would receive ... Read More »

We are officially one week away from my favorite and most dreaded shopping day of the year. That’s right folks, Black Friday is here! The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has released an excellent Black Friday shopping tip sheet that I urge all of you to read. So here. Read it… “It’s time to start planning your Black Friday, that special ... Read More »

Kara Singleton Adams, from Georgia, was found guilty last week on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, and structuring financial transactions, relating to a $25 million nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme. Already convicted in this scheme are three co-defendants including Adams’ husband, Jason James Eyer, James Adolph Schoenholz, and Brittany Dunphy. All three pleaded guilty to related charges before Adams’ trial and ... Read More »

The state of South Carolina and Bank of America have teamed up together to administer unemployment benefits to South Carolina residents. Unemployment benefits used to come in the form of a check but are now being issued in the form of a Bank of America prepaid debit card. Bank of America claims that it’s good deal for everyone from taxpayers ... Read More »

Amanda Miller’s list of “People I Wouldn’t Suspect of Fraud” just keeps on growing week in and week out! Amongst the already listed TSA employee, postal carrier, United Nations employee and firefighter I now introduce to the list: a newspaper deliveryman. A guilty plea was announced last week by Andre Tyler, a Maryland newspaper deliveryman, to unauthorized use of an ... Read More »

A recent report from Inc. Magazine says at that at least 60 percent of employers run credit checks on potential job applicants at least some of the time. This is a 17 percent increase from 2006. And given the high unemployment rate, this is particularly concerning. With a much bigger pool of candidates to choose from, employers can narrow the ... Read More »