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December 2008 Archives
It's been an eventful first year for Criminal Charges, my weekly look at what happens when criminals and credit cards meet. To celebrate the impending end of 2008, I've decided to put together a look back at some of the unusual and audacious crimes involving plastic that have been included in this blog column so far. Hope you enjoy re-connecting with some of our favorite fraudsters.
This week's roundup is a smorgasbord of post-holiday tips and lessons and personal finance versions of holiday poems.
Xidian University in China needs a loan, and they want to sign you up for a credit card to get it. And oh, they don't see anything wrong with that either.
The credit card thieves featured in this week's collection of items wanted a taste of the good life, they just didn't want to pay for it themselves. From a Texas customer service representative to a Louisiana mayor to a Pennsylvania credit union manager, the stories below show that all sorts of criminals see stolen plastic as a way to live it up at someone else's expense.
As the deadline for buying gifts for all your loved ones tiptoes closer, some of us need advice on surviving the mayhem more than ever.
As the economy nosedives, consumers are looking for new ways to manage their finances. One of those ways is with a prepaid debit card, which gives its users some of the benefits of having a bank account with none of the strings attached.
This week's credit card crimes once again prove that the truth is often stranger than fiction. We've got a coroner's office employee who used a dead man's credit card at the local strip club, a cross-dressing purse snatcher and a con-artist who enjoyed the high life on his boyfriend's corporate card.
Old: Go out of the way, meet with friend, drink, complain and leave.
New: Buy friend a drink from home on your computer. Call it a night.
On this date in 1791, after much debate between America's founding fathers, The First Bank of the United States opened in Philadelphia, which helped build the U.S. economy. If only one bank could solve our problems today!
When men compulsively overspend, new research asserts, we're not simply being irresponsible. We're also responding to instincts our caveman ancestors developed to win mates. And it still works.
It this edition of Criminal Charges, we've got a collection of female credit card criminals, including fraudsters who stole credit cards by drugging men and abducting them from bars, a Spandex-clad thief who enjoyed the plastic fruits of a car burglary, a worker who swiped money from a sewer authority and a mother who falsely opened a credit card in her son's name while he was serving in the Marines.
The experts say to pay cash for gifts this holiday season, but if you pay cash, you lose the purchase protection provided by credit cards if the item you buy is damaged or broken.
On this day in 1901, Walt Disney was born. In this week's credit card roundup, we celebrate Disney's hundreds of inspiring and heartwarming films that defined many of our childhoods.
For those of you interested in the connection between plastic and terrorism, head on over to U.S. News & World Report's Alpha Consumer blog, which has kindly featured my guest blog post, "Why the Mumbai terrorists used credit cards."
PayPal has begun offering a service to help parents manage their child's online spending.
A few weeks ago in the Criminal Charges column, I brought you credit card crimes related to the ordinary staples of life -- cigarettes, bread and booze. This week's batch of alleged credit card crooks has in common the exotic, including a Mustang, chartered planes, wine and roses.
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They're the pieces of plastic we love, and love to hate. Get the latest news, tips, research and more from the CreditCards.com staff.
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