Bank Debt X

Bank of America finds itself the target of a new lawsuit filed by a woman in Pittsburgh who alleges that the bank not only improperly seized her home and damaged her other property, but also kept her parrot hostage even after they admitted making a mistake.

According to the lawsuit, after mistakenly believing that the property was in default, BoA instructed Snyder Property Services to “enter, seize, padlock, ‘winterize’ and take possession” of the plaintiff’s home. This included turning off the water, cutting power lines, filling her drains with antifreeze… and confiscating her parrot.

As the plaintiff had been paying her mortgage on time, she was shocked to arrive home one day to a house with new locks, damaged furniture and carpets, scattered belongings and a missing parrot.

At first, says the lawsuit, Bank of America acknowledged the seizure and told the plaintiff that they knew of the parrot’s whereabouts. But when she continued to call, she says BoA reps told her to stop calling, hung up on her and said they were “tired of hearing from her.”

After about a week of banging her head against the wall (metaphorically), BoA relented and confessed that they had “made a mistake.” They told her where the bird was being held and she made the 3-hour round trip drive to get the bird back.

The suit alleges that BoA was “knowingly deceptive and lacks a policy to check the validity of its foreclosures or stop wrongful ones from happening.” A Bank of America spokeswoman declined to comment.

BoA did make an offer to repair some of the damage caused during the seizure, but only after she retained a lawyer.

Woman says Bank of America wrongly repossessed home [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Here is a video of the Food Network’s Sandra Lee telling people to mix cream, lemonade and vodka to make a “delicious, sweet treat.” From the look on her face, we suspect this is a lie. Also, when you put accidentally put cream in tea that has lemon — it curdles (sigh). This leads us to further suspect that someone hates Sandra Lee.

Anyhow, the moral is: Don’t try every recipe you see on the Food Network. Although if you do try this, and you make awesome faces like Sandra, send us pictures.

Sandra Lee’s Nasty Cocktail [BuzzFeed]

Does the milkaholic baby named Lindsay in the latest E*TRADE commercial remind you of a certain celebrity? Lindsay Lohan says it’s supposed to be her and is a jab at her own milkaholism, and she’s suing the company for $100 million and seeking an injunction to get it off the air. I agree that the baby playing the milkaholic doesn’t give a very good performance, but I always assumed it was supposed to be Lindsey Buckingham.

The ad agency says it was actually the name of someone on the account team, who probably should sue her employers for implying that she’s a functioning milkaholic.

“Lindsay Lohan sues E-Trade over ad baby” [USAToday]

If you’re looking for any sort of sign that the economy might not be as ill-fated as it occasionally appears, here’s something for you. A new study shows that, while the job market may be flat, the number of millionaires in the U.S. is on the rise, with the number of households worth at least $1 million up 16% from last year.

According to a Spectrem Group study, there are now 7.8 million millionaire households in the U.S., a big increase from last year’s total of 6.7 million households. This is a total net worth of the household that includes the value of all assets except their primary residence.

This comes only a year after a 27% drop in the previous year, which followed a record high of 9.2 million households in 2007.

Additionally, there was an increase of 17% in families worth at least $5 million and a 12% increase in households worth $500,000 or more.

U.S. millionaire ranks up 16 percent last year: study [Reuters]

Replacing an iPhone is expensive, which is why this guy decided to buy a heavily used and damaged one and clean it up himself. You might find the screen replacement side too daunting, but the procedure for turning a dull, scratched case into a glossy smooth one is something pretty much anyone can do.

“[DIY] Restoring an Iphone ( Front and Back)” [Macrumors via OhGizmo!]

Poor Newegg. They said yesterday they are dropping one of their suppliers after they inadvertently sold a bunch of fake Intel Core i7-920 processors.

[H]ard|OCP, the site that first reported the story, says that Newegg is sending the following letter to people who may have bought the fake processors:

Dear Valued Customer,

It’s been brought to our attention that you may have received a Demo Version of the Intel Core i7 Processor you recently purchased. We would like to first and foremost apologize for any confusion this may have caused you. Please take a moment to examine the product you received thoroughly to determine if you in fact received the wrong product. The Demo Version of these CPUs were purchased between March 1, 2010 through March 4, 2010 and will have FPO/BATCH# 3938B006 printed on the product’s packaging. Additionally, the Part Number on the heat sink will read CNFN936612 and there will be no wiring on the heat sink itself. If you have determined that you received the wrong product, please except(sic) our deepest apologies. To resolve this matter immediately, simply forward this email to both Aaron.A.Aragonez@newegg.com and Scott.A.Renwick@newegg.com and state which of the two following options best suit you: Full Refund - We are more than willing to issue an RMA for a full and complete Refund. Replacement for the Correct Product - If you are still interested in the product, we will issue an Advanced Replacement RMA to get the product to you immediately. We would like to once again extend our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience and we appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Kindest Regards.

Once You Know, You Newegg.

Your Newegg.com Customer Service Team

The company also announced on their Facebook page that they would be dropping the supplier that sent the fakes, and that later called them “demo units.” Intel says they are investigating where the so-called “demo” units came from.

A series of photos posted on the overclockers.com forum show what appears to be a fairly well executed fake. We especially like the part where they printed the “factory sealed” stuff on the actual box and just put clear tape over it. (Shown above)

Anyhow, the moral of this story appears to be: Don’t buy stuff with typos on it. It’s a pretty good indicator of a fake product. Not that this would have helped people ordering stuff on the internet — but you can apply this knowledge to like, toothpaste at the dollar store.

Newegg Sticks with “demo boxes” - Intel Counters [[H]ard|OCP]
Newegg probes shipments of fake Intel chips [CNet]
Reported fake Intel CPU sold at Newegg [Overclockers]

A 19-year-old was pulled over at a traffic stop in Colorado a few weeks ago and quickly found himself arrested on an outstanding warrant. The charge? Not drugs or murder or even tax fraud. No, the perp was picked up because of an overdue DVD from his local library.

The suspect had checked out the 2004 martial arts epic House of Flying Daggers from a Littleton, CO, public library and never returned it. He claims he inadvertently packed it up with his belongings during a move last year.

The library valued the DVD at $31.45, just over its $30 threshold for charging offenders with theft. They claim to have sent multiple notices and two court summonses to the teen, and it was only after he was a no-show at court for a second time that they put in for an arrest warrant.

No shock here, the teen and his family deny ever getting any of the notices or the summonses and call the whole thing a “clear violation of his right to due process.” They say the notices were sent to the wrong address, and point to the “return to sender” stamp on some of them as proof.

The city of Littleton claims that they lost $7,000 worth of items from that particular library last year.

“I understand the library’s need to get their property back, but it is bothersome to me that they would go to such extremes,” said the teen’s father, who also happens to be a firefighter in Littleton.

After all the brouhaha surrounding the arrest, the city has changed its cost threshold on overdue DVDs. Additionally, they have decided to reimburse the teen’s family for all the costs pertaining to his arrest, which is being expunged from his record.

So was the library in the right pressing charges against the delinquent DVD borrower? Is there a difference between not returning a library DVD and stealing one from a video store?

Got An Overdue Book Or Movie? Go To Jail [The Denver Channel]

People stood up for themselves and went to the Business Bureau 10 percent more often in 2009 than they did in 2008, according to BBB’s figures, which also say complainers focused their ire on cell phone companies and banks.

From the BBB report:

“Amidst the housing crisis, high unemployment rate and the chaos on Wall Street, the last year has not been easy on consumers and the increase in complaints to BBB reflect this troubled economy,” said Stephen A. Cox, President and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “Now more than ever, struggling families should rely on BBB to find businesses they can trust and to help their voice be heard in the marketplace.”

The cell phone industry received the largest number of complaints in 2009 with 37,477, a 2.1 percent increase over last year. The cable & satellite TV industry ranked second with 32,616 complaints, an 8.7 percent increase over the previous year. Rounding out the top three, banks received 29,920 complaints, a 42.3 percent increase over the previous year.

“For the second year in a row, banks experienced a significant increase in complaints coinciding with 140 bank failures in 2009,” said Cox. “Trust in the financial sector is already extremely low and the dramatic increase in BBB complaints against banks reflects the growing discord between consumers and the industry.”

What did you go to the BBB about last year, and how did the process work out for you?

Complaints to Better Business Bureau Up Nearly 10 percent in 2009 [Better Business Bureau]

If you’re using the Energizer Duo battery charger, and have connected it to your PC to check the charge levels of the batteries, you may have inadvertently exposed yourself to a program that could give hackers access to your computer. The charger has been discontinued, and Energizer recommends removing the software along with the file that enables the backdoor.

Energizer reports in a press release:

Energizer has discontinued sale of this product and has removed the site to download the software. In addition, the company is directing consumers that downloaded the Windows version of the software to uninstall or otherwise remove the software from your computer. This will eliminate the vulnerability. In addition CERT and Energizer recommend that users remove a file that may remain after the software has been removed. The file name is Arucer.dll, which can be found in the Window system32 directory.

Energizer is currently working with both CERT and U.S. government officials to understand how the code was inserted in the software.

CERT (the U.S. government’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team) provides more tips, including changing firewall rules that could allow access to your computer.

Software-vendor Symantec also has some advice, and warns that the exploit may have been out there for a while — and also speculates that the code was included by the developer who built the software installer for Energizer:

The fact that the temp file created by one of the commands has the prefix “liu” is interesting, since the name “Liu hong” appears elsewhere in the code. Not only that, but other programs that are part of the installation package for the USB Charger software also take in the parameter “-liuhong”. Could it be that he was the creator of the installation package?

We were interested in finding out how long this file had been available to the public. The compile time for the file is May 10, 2007. It is impossible to say for sure that this Trojan has always been in this software, but from our initial inspection it appears so.

Although Energizer has discontinued this product, if you’re really into watching batteries charge in real-time, the company is releasing a new program that will allow you to watch paint dry via a webcam. Just kidding.

US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#154421 [CERT]
Energizer Announces Duo Charger and USB Charger Software Problem [Energizer Press Release]
Back Door Found in Energizer DUO USB Battery Charger Software [Symantec]

After Mark made a purchase on Amazon, the site suggested a rather insulting PayPhrase: “Mark’s Unprofitable Existence.”

If his existence is indeed unprofitable, it stands to reason that Amazon isn’t helping the matter by tempting him with such a diverse array of click-to-own products.

Speaking of PayPhrase, if you use the passive identification system to buy stuff, let us know how that’s working out for you.