I heart you iPhone…

December 20th, 2008 by Jason Lowmiller

I just got a new phone this season.  It happens to be an iPhone.  The apps are nothing short of amazing.

I used the Google app voice search for the first time tonight.  The commercials Apple runs, don’t do the phone justice.  It’s really all those commercials and so much more.  With SSH and RDP clients available for the iPhone, and with all the killer features.  I’m half tempted to get rid of my laptop….

… half tempted.

A different type of scam…

October 24th, 2008 by Jason Lowmiller

Hello Everyone,  sorry for the delay.  A reader recently notified me of a different type of scam being run by the same person, but for this time World Series Tickets.

From: Bold Dreamer
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 12:14:52 PM
Subject: RE: Phillies Tickets

Hello

The tickets are still available.
My name is Amelia and I am in Manchester, United Kingdom. I work for the Travel Agent Holidaysplease in Manchester and I am selling the tickets for my company. My company will pay for the delivery fee and we will use the overnight delivery service to get you the tickets in less than 2 days.
We bought the tickets because we tried to make these a part of a vacation package and sell the tickets along with a vacation to US.
Unfortunatelly the ideea didn’t catch up so we are now selling the tickets.
If you are still interested I am ready to move forward with this sale as soon as we reach terms.
We at Holidaysplease are specialists in providing tailored holiday deals to the best and most exotic holiday destinations. We are experts at romantic holidays such as honeymoons and weddings abroad. We can also find fantastic holidays ranging from relaxing spa breaks to action packed adventure holidays. This is our motto and we like to try and offer our customers different things.
Obviously we need a safe way to complete this deal, one that will allow each one of us to make sure we receive what we are after as fast as possible and as easily as internet deals can be.
I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the tickets in less than 2 days, if you can take care of your part of the deal the same day as well.
The solution is provided by the shipping company TNT which is similar to Fedex, DHL or UPS, and they will handle and delivery of the tickets as well as the payment part.
With this procedure I will only receive the payment for the tickets after the game, after you receive and use the tickets.
Please click on the link below to the TNT website to see how we can complete the deal safely and fast directly from the website of the company where the procedure is explained:
http://freightnt.com/about.tnt/index/details.html

Like I said, we will pay for an overnight delivery so you will receive them in time.
Let me know what you think.
Amelia

——————————————————————————–

Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:55:07 -0700
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Phillies Tickets
To: sale-886978367@craigslist.org

Hey.

I’m local and very interested in your tickets so I can see the Phillies beat Tampa!!!  Are your tickets still available?

GO PHILLIES!

Thanks

Reply to: sale-886978367@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-10-20, 8:07PM EDT

I have for sale 4 tickets for Phillies v Rays, world series game 3 on Sat. The seats are for sec 131, row 23, field box over Rays dugout. The price is $350/each

Location: philadelphia
it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 886978367

If anyone can get me the X-originating from or all of the email headers, they would be most useful.  Thank you.

from a reader… HELP! Chase Bank is Raping Me

September 2nd, 2008 by Jason Lowmiller

Dear Consumerist,

Approx. 4 Months ago I found my dream home, however, my dream home is more than likely far less extravagant than what most people might consider their dream home, as I’m a recent college graduate and as of 2 months ago, a newlywed. That being said I don’t have much money, but I managed to find a decent older 2 story home that I loved. More importantly my at the time wife-to-be loved it as well. Needless to say we purchased the home as soon as we could.

We were approved in no time to purchase our $60,000 dollar home. We of course chose Chase as our mortgage lender because my wife had previously done all her banking through them and they seemed to have their act together, boy was I ever wrong. We did everything cautiously. We hired a top notch inspector to come out and check everything out, despite the home being 90+ years old everything was in tip top shape, save for a few windows here and there. No problem.

This is where things get interesting. Because of a previous home we had looked at that had fallen in a flood plane we were certain to write in on our offer that if the home was found to be in a flood plane we withdrew our offer. However, we were happy to find that the house was in the clear. We closed on the home May 29th.

One fine day whilst sitting at my dinner table eating lunch with a friend of mine and my soon-to-be wife (at the time), my soon-to-be wife began screaming in the other room (where our mail came in). I ran in to see what the problem was, and there in her hands she held a note from Chase stating that they were “Sad to inform (us) that your home NOW lies in a flood plane and requires flood insurance.” (my own emphasis added) We were shocked and devastated. However, life goes on right?

I went to my insurance agent a few days later to get things taken care of (mere weeks before my wedding). When I went in to talk to him we discovered that chase was demanding we carry $185,000 worth of flood insurance. I was blown away… There was no way i could afford that sort of coverage which came out to be around 200 a month.  I immediately began investigating. Within a few days of investigating I discovered that there had been no changes to the FEMA flood maps in my area since 2002, which means there was no way my house had JUST been put in a flood plane, it had been in one all along but Chase failed to tell me so before I closed on the home. I decided to look into how they could make such a mistake, turns out they were using a flood map from 1990 to determine if I was in a flood plane or not… a map that was over 18 years old. How could they do such a thing? I was Irate.

After some talking with some “higher ups” at Chase I agreed I would pay flood insurance on the home at $60,000 worth of coverage which ran me around 45 a month. I only agreed to this because they told me nothing else could be done.

Fast forward 2 months-

I’m now happily married, and I thought things were going great until…

I received yet another letter from Chase stating that we failed to purchase an appropriate ammount of flood insurance and that we needed $185,000 worth of coverage….

I’m at my wits end, I cant afford that much insurance and I never would have purchased the home had i known it was in a flood plane… Its neither my wife or I’s fault that our home is in a flood plane, so how can Chase be doing this to us? Adding that much extra a month to our bills will seriously put us in a financial strain. We both are recent college graduates and both have student loans to repay, hence why we went after such a cheap home. Please help us get this out there and in the public eye.

Sincerely,

Avid Reader, Nate Smith

P.S. PLEASE help me get this out and in the public eye my wife and I (both 23 years old) need as much help as we can get. We’re hoping to talk to a lawyer but we do not yet know if this is the proper course of action… HELP!