Month: September 2023

There was a massive jump in credit card fraud in America in 2021 due to the pandemic. According to CNET, fraud involving credit cards jumped 69% from 2020 to 2021, affecting 13 million Americans and costing $9 billion.

In a world where online transactions are part of everyday life, it’s hard to completely protect your information. But, by staying vigilant and monitoring your accounts you can report fraud before it gets out of hand.

A TikTok user by the name of Lauren (@absolutelylauren) from San Diego, California, got a notification that there was a $135 charge on her card at Olaplex’s online store that she hadn’t made. Olaplex sells products that repair excessively damaged hair. Before reporting the charge to her credit card company she asked her family members if they used her card by mistake.

“I don’t wanna shut my card down if it’s just my mom ordering some shampoo,” Lauren said in the video. “Definitely not my two younger brothers, they’ve got good hair but they don’t color it.”

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After realizing the charge was fraudulent, most people would have called their credit card company and had their card canceled. But Lauren was curious and wanted to know who stole her information and used it to buy hair care products. So she concocted a plan to get their information. She called Olaplex’s customer service line asking for the name and address of the purchaser to see if it was made by a family member.

“Hey, can you help me with something?” Lauren asked Tanya, the Olaplex customer service agent. “If I can give you the time and date, purchase amount and card number and whatever could you let me know who placed an order?”

Tanya had no problem helping Lauren with her request.

@absolutelylauren

olaplex customer service is top tier 😤 #creditcardscam

“At this point, I’m willingly giving Tanya enough info to steal my card as well — she could have very well taken advantage of me in that moment but she didn’t,” Lauren said. “She comes back — tell me why she gave me the little scammer their full government name and address.”

Tanya revealed that a guy named Jason in a modest suburb in Texas used her card to buy a gift for his wife. “They also did it on Black Friday so at least they got a deal I guess, it was the gift set,” Lauren continued.

Lauren then called her credit card company and shared the information she had on the fraudster. The card company is currently investigating the situation.

One commenter thought that Olaplex wasn’t supposed to share that information with Lauren. “For some reason, I don’t think olaplex was supposed to give that info,” Arae270 said.

“I definitely gave them the option, but I explained that it was an unauthorized purchase, and if the name did not match anyone that I knew that I would just tell them to cancel the order and refund me, I told the girl that they would probably save everyone, a headache!” Lauren replied.

People should use utmost caution before deciding to track down a credit card thief. But kudos to Lauren for being clever enough to track down the person who stole her card information to help the authorities with their investigation. She didn’t put herself in harm’s way and if someone follows up on the tip, maybe they can prevent the same thing from happening to someone else.

This article originally appeared on 1.11.23

This year’s Burning Man festival has quickly turned into a hellscape. Following storms near the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where Burning Man takes place each year, thousands of attendees were forced to shelter in place and conserve food and water.

While fans are currently in distress, a prolific musician and an esteemed actor/comedian managed to make an escape. Amid the disaster, DJ and producer Diplo shared an update with fans via Twitter, letting them know that he and Chris Rock are safe and well.

“just walked 5 miles in the mud out of burning man with chris rock and a fan picked us up,” he said.

Embedded in the tweet is a video of Diplo, Rock, and a group of fans laughing and having a good time.

However, their escape has sparked mixed reatctions

“Anyone wondering what wealth privilege is? While many are trapped at Burning Man, no surprise the wealthy get out,” said one Twitter user.

“Whats happening at burning man is crazy, and this is right up there with it,” said another.

Other than their brief appearances in the video clip, neither Diplo nor Rock have offered further commentary on the matter.

At the time of writing, over 70,000 attendees are still stuck at the festival grounds.

The Oregon Duck has had to do a whole lot of push-ups over the years. In a tradition that has gone on for some time, the mascot has needed to do one push-up for every point the football team has after each score, and in games where the team really runs it up, it can get a bit out of hand.

Well, the Ducks really let things get out of hand on Saturday evening. In the team’s season opener against Portland State, Oregon ran up the score en route to an emphatic, 81-7 win. That is the most points that the Ducks have scored in the modern era, and they’re the first team since 2015 to put up 80-plus in a game.

The problem is that turns into a whole lot of push-ups. The official tally is 546, and we know this, because the Duck kept churning them out until the game came to its merciful end.

Unsurprisingly, after finishing up, the poor soul in that costume just wanted to lay down.

The mere thought of doing 546 push-ups has just about every muscle in my upper body crying out in agony. Anyway, Oregon threw for four touchdowns, ran for another seven, and converted one field goal. That is, however you slice it, a lot of points.

Attending Burning Man is always a risk — a chance for the well-off to rough it in the desert while Diplo DJs a set from a hot air balloon. (That really happened this year.) Alas, this year’s festivities were rudely interrupted by Mother Nature.

As per SF Gate, on Friday a freak storm turned Nevada’s Black Rock Desert into a muddy hellscape. The conditions have made driving, even biking difficult if not impossible, meaning only emergency vehicles were allowed in or out of neighboring Black Rock City. Burns scheduled for Friday night were cancelled. The gate and airport were closed.

As for the 73,000 attendees, who ventured out to the desert to get away from it all, they were told to shelter in place and to conserve food and water. Some Burners took to prayer, chanting, “Playa gods, please stop, we want to go home.”

Things sound bleak for the many trapped in the desert. One person claimed that the flooding has made it impossible to empty the port-o-potties.

To make matters worse, AccuWeather is predicting the return of rain on Saturday night, and more on Sunday. It’s estimated that even one-hundredth an inch of rain can disrupt the festivities. It’s expected that Sunday alone will bring .33 inches.

Burning Man is scheduled to run through Monday, with the traditional capper being the torching of a giant wicker man.

(Via SF Gate)

The focus after AEW’s All In in London was supposed to be on a historic event for the still young wresting promotion, but instead much of the conversation was about yet another backstage altercation involving CM Punk.

Punk and Jack Perry got into a fight prior to Punk and Samoa Joe’s opening match, with Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reporting recently that Punk went after Perry after a preshow segment and (while there are conflicting reports about the actual actions in the fight) sucker punched Perry and tried to choke him — all in front of boss Tony Khan. (h/t Cageside Seats)

Right after Perry came to the back, Punk went nose-to-nose with him aggressively and asked him if he had a problem. That person said Perry said he was just looking to get heat as a heel. Punk shoved him hard, Perry got in his face and in that version Punk sucker punched him and went for a choke. People immediately broke it up and [AEW owner Tony] Khan was yelling at Punk to let him go.

That person said that once they were separated, Punk lunged in Khan’s direction but a number of people got in his way while Punk was yelling ‘I Quit.’ Monitors were knocked down during all this. Joe was very upset and went to calm Punk down.

After a weeklong investigation into the matter, Khan and AEW announced on Saturday that Punk had been fired with cause following his latest backstage incident, with Khan saying it was in the “best interests” of the talent and staff to let Punk go.

It is a sudden and fairly stunning end to Punk’s tenure in AEW that saw him immediately skyrocket to champion and, unsurprisingly, become a fan favorite as he was in WWE, but included more than a few backstage controversies, headlined by his fight with the Elite last year that earned him a suspension. There were rumblings Punk might end up fired after that but AEW allowed him to return, but it seems this latest incident was the final straw and has led to his firing.

Fans of Megan Thee Stallion were vocally supportive of the “Body” rapper in the case of the 2020 shooting by Tory Lanez, who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison last month. A documentary about the shooting is scheduled to hit Discovery Plus in the UK this Monday, September 4.

In a trailer for the film, which is called Megan Thee Stallion VS Tory Lanez: Five Shots,the case is described as “the biggest case since O.J.” The clip also teases that the documentary will comprise of “two films, two sides.”

Since the trailer circulated online, many fans have taken to social media to express their disdain for the documentary, calling it exploitative.

“y’all be so geeked to profit off of someone’s trauma for entertainment, weird,” said one fan on Twitter.

Another fan likened the documentary to Netflix’s Depp V. Heard and accused streaming networks of profiting from women’s trauma.

“women’s trauma is just clickbait to these studios and they genuinely do not care about how amber and megan were dogpiled by the media just for being honest,” she said, “and i’d go as far to say that they encourage this mistreatment.”

At the time of writing, only a trailer for a UK streaming has made its way onto the internet, as Discovery Plus has since merged with Max to become one platform. Max has not yet shared a trailer on any of their social platforms.

A U.S. air date or streaming date has not been announced.

The Coach Prime era in Boulder is off to the best possible start. Deion Sanders, who made the jump to the Pac-12 last year after a stint as the head coach at Jackson State, led the Colorado Buffaloes into Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon to start their season against the 17th-ranked TCU Horn Frogs.

Despite going into the game as 20.5-point underdogs against the defending national runners-up, Colorado pulled off a gigantic upset, taking down TCU, 45-42. While TCU lost a number of key contributors from last year’s squad, the thought was that the No. 17 team in America would be able to take care of business against a Buffaloes squad that saw a gigantic roster overhaul as part of Sanders becoming their head coach.

A number of those players showed out in big ways. Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son, was magnificent in his Power 5 debut, as the former Jackson State signal caller completed 38 of his 47 pass attempts for 510 yards and four touchdowns.

Four separate Buffaloes went for at least 100 yards through the air: Dylan Edwards caught five balls for 135 yards and three scores, Travis Hunter caught 11 balls for 119 yards, Xavier Weaver had six receptions for 118 yards, and Jimmy Horn Jr. went for 11 receptions for 117 yards and a touchdown. Weaver and Horn were transfers from South Florida, Hunter was a transfer from Jackson State, and Edwards is a true freshman.

Hunter wasn’t just an option on offense. The former No. 1 recruit in America played both ways, and was a lockdown corner for the Buffaloes defense. This included one of the best interceptions you’ll see all season, along with just generally shutting down whatever half of the field he was on.

Next up for the Buffaloes is a renewal of their longtime rivalry against Nebraska. The two teams have not played since 2019, and Colorado is currently on a two-game winning streak in the series.

Donald Trump must be sick of getting indicted on criminal charges, in many ways. For one thing, it gets in the way of his campaigning. For another he has to do things like show up to arraignments and court dates. At least those are voluntary. The former president has decided to skip his arraignment in Georgia, not out of protest but reportedly out of laziness.

As per Raw Story, The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell went on MSNBC Saturday, where he said Trump originally planned to jet up to Atlanta Wednesday to again sit in a courtroom and again be arraigned. Alas, the event is scheduled for 9:30am and Lowell said his team “tells me he just didn’t want to get up at 6am and go to Atlanta.”

That shocked MSNBC host Alex Witt, who said, “Are you saying, did any of your contacts there in Trump world, they suggested the president was willing to appear were it not for an early morning time slot?”

“I mean there is some suggestion, some discussion, according to our reporting about what Trump could do if he were to go,” Lowell replied. “Discussions about maybe we could hold a news conference or some sort of event to get media coverage, which as you know is their primary objective. But I think the lack of feasibility there, plus the fact that Trump simply doesn’t want to get up in the morning, is the major driver.”

Hey, 6am is pretty darn early, especially if you’re about to get on a flight, even a short one. Still, Trump is allegedly fit as a fiddle, a “very young 77 years old,” according to his daughter-in-law. If that’s true, he should have no problem seizing the day by flying to a courthouse so he can get arraigned on criminal charges.

(Via Raw Story)

Fans around the world are reflecting on memories of Jimmy Buffett, who was confirmed to have died yesterday at 76. Several artists have taken to social media to express their sadness and share condolences with Buffett’s family.

President Joe Biden also took to social media to pay his respects to Buffett, and looked back on their friendship.

Biden called Buffett “a poet of Paradise” and recalled how Buffett was able to “bring people together” through the power of music. He concluded his message by sending benedictions to Buffett’s wife and children.

You can see Biden’s full tribute below.

“A poet of paradise, Jimmy Buffett was an American music icon who inspired generations to step back and find the joy in life and in one another.

We had the honor to meet and get to know Jimmy over the years, and he was in life as he was performing on stage – full of goodwill and joy, using his gift to bring people together.

Jill and I send our love to his wife of 46 years, Jane; to their children, Savannah, Sarah, and Cameron; to their grandchildren; and to the millions of fans who will continue to love him even as his ship now sails for new shores.”

While there are plenty of questions that popped up about how the Deion Sanders era at Colorado would go, one thing that was pretty certain was that Travis Hunter would be a superstar. Hunter, the former No. 1 recruit in America who played under Sanders at Jackson State before following him to Boulder, is a rare two-way standout who plays both wide receiver and cornerback for the Buffaloes.

It’s not clear which one is his better position, because the dude is excellent at both. And in the third quarter of Saturday’s season opener against TCU, Hunter showed off his receiver skills while playing corner to prevent what would have been a touchdown to give TCU the lead. Horned Frogs signal caller Chandler Morris dropped back and attempted to find Major Everhart with the ball on Colorado’s 3-yard line. But Hunter managed to read things perfectly, and Morris had no clear he was going to jump this route and pick him off.

Hunter’s skills as a corner (this is a crazy play to see what Morris wanted to do and then jump the route) and a receiver (he went full extension and plucked this with his hands) were on display here. He’ll be playing on Sundays sometime in the not-too-distant future, but for now, he’s going to be a crucial piece of the puzzle for what Coach Prime is trying to build.