bobsullivan.net

Consumer and cybercrime news

THE RED TAPE CHRONICLES

Technology has hidden side effects -- we reveal them here

  • About Bob
  • Cybercrime / Privacy
  • Gotchas / Consumer
  • Bob Sullivan’s podcast projects
  • Bob Sullivan music
Home2024November

Month: November 2024

Cybercrime / Privacy

Flying this holiday? Sitting down will cost you extra. We are losing the war against Gotcha Capitalism

November 26, 2024 Bob Sullivan 0

Airline tickets* for sale!  (*Seats cost extra). Major U.S. airlines brought in an extra $12 billion during 2018-2023 by charging seat fees, a Gotcha Capitalism practice that deserves its own wing in the Hidden Fee Hall of Fame.  I’m sorry for those of you traveling this busy week, but it’s [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Facebook acknowledges it’s in a global fight to stop scams, and might not be winning

November 21, 2024 Bob Sullivan 0

Facebook publicly acknowledged on Thursday that it’s engaged in a massive struggle with online crime gangs who abuse the service and steal from consumers worldwide. In a blog post, the firm said it had removed two million accounts just this year that had been linked to crime gangs, and was [Keep reading]

Gotchas / Consumer

Big Tech ‘banks’ like Venmo now subject to fed oversight; for now, anyway

November 21, 2024 Bob Sullivan 0

If it acts like a bank, works like a bank, makes money like a bank — and when things go wrong, it can wreck lives like a bank — it should have to follow the same rules as a bank.  That’s the logic behind a new rule established Thursday by [Keep reading]

No Picture
Cybercrime / Privacy

ACLU: Digital dragnet ensnares millions of innocent driver

November 20, 2024 Bob Sullivan 0

ARCHIVE, JULY 17, 2013 — Drive down many highways, boulevards or small side streets in America, and your movements are being noted by electronic cameras. Eyes in the sky controlled by local police departments snap photos of every passing license plate and store the data, sometimes forever. Even the smallest of [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Suicide after a scam: One family’s story

November 4, 2024 Bob Sullivan 0

It’s my birthday today, and while that might sound like a desperate plea for attention…it is. This week, we interviewed an adult daughter and son whose father took his own life after becoming embroiled in a crypto/romance scam. “When he had to accept that this is a world where this [Keep reading]

Sign up at Substack

Bob Sullivan Music

Search

About me

BOB SULLIVAN is a veteran journalist and the author of four books, including the 2008 New York Times Best-Seller, Gotcha Capitalism, and the 2010 New York Times Best Seller, Stop Getting Ripped Off! His latest, The Plateau Effect, was published in 2013, and as a paperback, called Getting Unstuck in 2014. He has won the Society of Professional Journalists prestigious Public Service award, a Peabody award, and The Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness award, and been given Consumer Action’s Consumer Excellence Award.

Bob Sullivan