The Grease Blotter: Teens Terrorize Wendy’s With Fireworks; McDonald’s Worker Punched In Face Over Fries

Over the years, we’ve heard about plenty of incidents involving customers-gone-bad, from those who assault fast food employees when their orders are wrong to more extreme measures like setting fire to a store. We can add a few more bad consumers to this list after two separate, but equally disturbing, incidents at a Florida Wendy’s and a Texas McDonald’s. 

Sparking Fast Food

First up, WPLG in Miami reports that a group of young men scared diners and workers at a local Wendy’s store in early July when they threw fireworks inside the fast food joint.

 

According to police, the incident occurred around 10 p.m. July 5 when a group of eight to 10 men opened the location’s front door and threw a firework inside before running away.

Video of the incident shows the firework sparking before turning into a large flare and smoke filled the restraint.

Police tell WPLG that the roman candle-like firework created a seven-inch hold in a wall.

“We are very grateful that no one was injured, and the damage to the restaurant was minimal,” the restaurant’s general manager told WPLG. “We continue to work with local law enforcement as they conduct their investigation.”

Where Are The Fries?

In Texas this week, a disgruntled McDonald’s customer jumped over the counter and punched an employee simply because his fries didn’t arrive promptly, WTVM reports.

The incident, which was recorded on video, shows the man enter the restaurant with his dog and yell at the employee behind the counter.

The man swiped the cookie display from the counter, took off his shirt, and then jumped over the counter. He then punched the employee in the face.

Witnesses tell WTVM that the man was yelling that he had waited two hours for fries.

“I didn’t believe it was happening. I’ve never experienced anything like – of course, I’ve seen videos like that happen on the Internet. But I’ve never actually witnessed something like that,” the witness said.

Police were called to the scene, but no one was arrested, WTVM notes, adding that an investigation is ongoing.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Swimsuits For Babies And Toddlers Sold At Meijer Recalled For Detaching Snaps

It’s nearly the end of summer (where did the time go?) but if your baby or toddler hasn’t outgrown these super-cute swimsuits from Meijer yet, you should know that they’ve been recalled because the snaps can detach, posing a choking hazard.

The suits, in sizes 0-3 months through 24 months, went on sale in January of 2017, and were sold through July. They cost $14, and were available at Meijer stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The four patterns that you see at the top of this post were available: Fish, anchors and stripes, sharks, and a strawberry design.

So far, Meijer has received 11 reports of the snaps at the bottom of the swimsuit detaching. No children were harmed, as far as Meijer and the Consumer Product Safety Commission know.

What to do: Bring the suit to the customer service desk at your local Meijer store for a refund. If you have any questions, contact Meijer at 800-927-8699.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Yes, There Really Is A Starbucks Everywhere You Look, And That’s A Problem For Starbucks

These days, it might feel like there’s a Starbucks on every corner. And while more stores sometimes translate to more customers and better sales, the ubiquity of Starbucks is turning into a bit of a problem for the Seattle-based chain as it struggles to compete — with itself.

Analysts BMO Capital Markets downgraded Starbucks shares today, noting that the company’s sales are struggling because so many stores overlap with each other.

Too much competition

BMO looked at the percentage of U.S. locations with another Starbucks outlet within a one-mile radius as well as the average number of locations within that same area, reports CNBC. Analysts found that 62.5% of U.S. Starbucks locations have another store within one mile — a 4% increase from 2014.

In addition, most locations have 3.6 other Starbucks stores within a one-mile radius, compared to 3.3 stores in 2014.

And the more stores there are in a given area, the more sales are spread around, potentially stymieing sales growth.

“Cannibalization likely has increased,” BMO analyst Andrew Strelzik wrote in a note Wednesday. “Strong new store performance appears to be coming – at least in part – at the expense of existing store traffic.”

What now?

Things could be getting worse, Strelzik warns, as “specialty beverage growth may be nearing saturation among existing customers as the percentage of Starbucks U.S. orders that include specialty beverages declined from year-ago levels.”

Over-expansion is a familiar concern for Starbucks. Back in 2008, the company shuttered 600 underperforming locations, followed by a further 300 stores the following year.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Payless ShoeSource Will Emerge From Bankruptcy This Week

Noodles & Co. Venturing Into Veggie Land With ‘Zoodles’

Health-conscious foodies — and those avoiding gluten — now have another option when looking for a fast-casual restaurant offering veggie fare: Noodles & Company is testing “zoodles” — spiralized zucchini — at some of its restaurants in an attempt to bring in carb-avoiding customers.

Noodles & Co. announced the new addition to its menu today, revealing that it is testing the zucchini noodles at select restaurants in Baltimore and Colorado.

Visitors at the test locations can ask to substitute their desired meal’s base noodle for zoodles for an extra $1.50.

Executives with the company say that the new option provides guests with a “lighter” noodle base for their meals, while attracting customers who follow “gluten-free and grain-free diets, or for those who just wish to change the way they approach vegetables and build healthier eating habits.”

The new option comes at a time when Noodles & Co. has struggled with slipping sales. The company’s first quarter 2017 financial results saw the chain record a net loss of $26.8 million. Comparable restaurant sales decreased 2% compared to the previous quarter.

The Next Kale?

The addition of zoodles to the menu comes as a way for the company to appeal to consumers ditching grain-based foods in search of what they perceive to be healthier options.

The emergence and growing popularity of noodles made from vegetables — you can use carrots, beets, cucumber, and other plants to create the spirals — seems to mirror the once high-demand for kale.

Whether or not consumers’ taste for zoodles is fleeting, only time will tell.

Gluten-Free?

While Noodles & Co. notes that the new vegetable noodles provide customers following a gluten-free diet another option, those who suffer a gluten allergy should still be cautious.

Consumerist has reached out to Noodles & Co. about whether the new meal will be certified gluten-free or if the company will be able to do so in the future.

In the past, some restaurants serving gluten-free options have not been certified. For instance, in 2012, Domino’s gluten-free crust received an “amber designation” by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

While the ingredients used by the company met NFCA standards and staff had received basic training on the topic, there was concern about cross-contamination in the prep kitchen.

NFCA warns “those with celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity should ask questions and exercise judgment when dining at an establishment with an Amber Designation.”

Because Noodles & Co. deals primarily in grain-based ingredients, it’s likely that NFCA would come to a similar conclusion as it did with Domino’s. Consumerist has reached out to NFCA, we’ll update this post if we hear back.

It should be noted that Noodles & Co. includes a disclaimer on its website warning about allergies.

“Fair warning: if you’re highly allergic or intolerant to gluten, check with your doctor before dining here. We’re a noodle restaurant, after all. We simply have too much wheat and gluten present to be able to eliminate the cross contamination on our equipment and food prep areas. But if you’re gluten-sensitive or choose to avoid it for another reason, we have plenty of options to safely satisfy your appetite for global flavor.”

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Report: Monsanto Skipped Important Testing On Weed Killer That’s Now Killing Crops

There’s a problem in farm country this year: Acres of crops are unexpectedly withering away, but it’s not due to drought or natural blight. Instead, the crisis seems to be related to a new herbicide from Monsanto. Users of the recently released plant-killer didn’t realize it would spread beyond their fields, because — according to a new report — Monsanto skipped over tests that would have highlighted this problem.

The product is a new formulation of the chemical dicamba, which Monsanto sells as XtendiMax with VaporGrip. And Reuters reports today that Monsanto went to significant lengths to avoid submitting XtendiMax to testing that would determine how much drifting on the wind it would do.

University Researchers Barred From Looking

Reuters spoke with several of the independent researchers — at universities in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois — who had contracts with Monsanto to test pre-release samples of XtendiMax.

These contracts are common, Reuters explains. When a company like Monsanto is developing a new agricultural product, it commissions tests from independent labs and then submits the results and data to regulators. A company will also provide samples to universities for more testing.

University researchers say they asked permission to study the volatility of XtendiMax — that is to say, how likely it is or isn’t to vaporize and drift across fields on the wind — but were denied. In fact, their contracts with Monsanto explicitly forbade doing volatility testing, several researchers said.

One added that being blocked from doing some certain kind of test was extremely unusual. “This is the first time I’m aware of any herbicide ever brought to market for which there were strict guidelines on what you could and could not do” in testing, a scientist from the University of Arkansas told Reuters.

Monsanto told Reuters that the company blocked the testing because they did not feel it was necessary — and because it would hold up their release schedule.

“To get meaningful data takes a long, long time,” a Monsanto executive told Reuters. “This product needed to get into the hands of growers.”

Who Needs Data, Anyway?

XtendiMax with VaporGrip gained regulators’ approval in Sept. 2016, Reuters notes — without the independent volatility testing.

In a statement made last year, the Environmental Protection Agency said that the XtendiMax formulation showed lower volatility potential — i.e. was less likely to blow around in the wind — than previous versions of dicamba-based products had. And what did the EPA base that judgement on? Data provided by Monsanto.

Monsanto has also sought approval from individual states. Arkansas denied the requests, citing insufficient data, while it approved a similar competitor from BASF because that company did include volatility testing.

Although Arkansas did not approve XtendiMax, however, Reuters notes that it is the hardest-hit by dicamba-related crop injuries. Reuters estimates that approximately 850,000 acres of soybean fields have been hit in Arkansas, more than twice as many in the next-hardest hit state (Tennessee).

The Company Wrote Some “Independent” Roundup Studies, Too

The claims about quashing dicamba testing aren’t the only bad news out there for Monsanto this week.

Another wave of court documents has been released showing that Monsanto employees were involved in ghostwriting “independent” review papers claiming that the company’s blockbuster product, the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) is safe, Bloomberg reports.

An earlier wave of court documents that came out in March seemed to show that Monsanto was involved in papers published in the journal Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacy in 2000.

These new documents, according to Bloomberg, show that Monsanto worked with a consulting firm to publish a review of Roundup’s health effects in a Sept. 2016 issue of the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology.

When the article was published, Monsanto disclosed that it paid the consulting firm to develop it. However, internal emails show that the company’s chief of regulatory science, as well as several other scientists, were “heavily involved in organizing, reviewing, and editing drafts” the outside experts submitted, Bloomberg explains.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Mike Tyson Claims ‘Boxing Hall Of Fame’ Is Making Money Off His Name Without Consent

Whether you remember Mike Tyson from his 1980s glory days as a championship boxer, that time he bit off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear, his cameo in The Hangover, or his three-year prison stint for rape, you are probably very familiar with the man’s face. But that doesn’t mean you can just go slapping his photo and name all over merchandise without his permission.

That’s why Tyson is suing a company called the Boxing Hall of Fame, which appears to operates out of a Las Vegas strip mall but also claims to own “one of the world’s largest collections of boxing display memorabilia.”

According to the lawsuit [PDF] filed this week in a Nevada federal court, BHF is violating Tyson’s trademark by selling apparel and other merchandise with his likeness and his “Iron Mike” nickname.

Tyson says his own name is a federally registered mark, and that while “Iron Mike” is not registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the nickname is “widely known by the general public to be Mr. Tyson’s nickname.”

The lawsuit points to a few examples of T-shirts currently for sale on Amazon.com that allegedly infringe on his trademarks. For example, the below shirts, which are sold by Boxing Hall of Fame:

The complaint alleges that BHF has also entered into agreements with other online vendors — including American Classics Apparel, Macy’s, and Urban Outfitters, which are not named as defendants — “to sell products that are purportedly ‘officially licensed’ and that bear Mr. Tyson’s name, likeness, and marks.”

Tyson hasn’t authorized this use, the lawsuit states.

It’s not only shirts, Tyson claims: BHF allegedly negotiated with vendors to use his name and likeness on other products like energy bars, energy drinks, health-related products, and gaming products, again, without his consent.

According to the lawsuit, Tyson gave defendants notice that such activities infringe on his rights, and ordered them to cease and desist using his name and likeness.

“Defendants have used and exploited the registered trademark MIKE TYSON without Mr. Tyson’s consent or authorization in connection with apparel and other items that Defendants offer for sale directly or through third-party vendors in a manner that is likely to cause confusion or mistake, or to deceive,” in violation of the Lanham Act, the complaint states.

The lawsuit is seeking a trial by jury, as well as an injunction barring BHF from using Tyson’s name and likeness; damages; an award of treble damages — which would mean triple the final amount a jury decides on — and all profits made from the alleged trademark violations; the destruction of the allegedly infringing articles; punitive damages; and attorneys fees and costs.

We’ve reached out to BHF for comment on the lawsuit and will update this post if we hear back.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

New Hampshire Accuses OxyContin Maker Of Stoking Opioid Epidemic Through Deceptive Marketing

As much of the nation deals with the effects of opioid addiction and overuse, some states are attempting to hold the makers of these drugs accountable. Once again, Purdue Pharma, the company behind OxyContin and other opioid painkillers, finds itself in the crosshairs of allegations that it has continued to contribute to this epidemic by deceiving patients and physicians about the safety and efficacy of these drugs.

The latest legal action comes from New Hampshire, where Deputy Attorney General Ann Rice filed a lawsuit [PDF] this week in Merrimack County (NH) Superior Court against Purdue, alleging multiple violations of New Hampshire consumer protection statutes, Medicaid fraud, unjust enrichment, negligent misrepresentation, and creating a public nuisance.

Questionable Beginnings

Purdue launched OxyContin in the mid-1990s, and one of the primary selling points of the new painkiller was that a single dose of Oxy lasted 12 hours, “providing smooth and sustained pain control all day and all night,” per the company’s own marketing materials. The hope presented by the drug was that people with chronic pain could now use an opioid with lower risk for abuse or addiction.

But there were numerous problems with this claim of long-lasting effectiveness. Early testing of the drug found that about half of the test subjects (women recovering from abdominal surgery) reported a full loss of effectiveness before the end of the 12 hours.

A later trial on cancer patients had to be redesigned after test subjects dropped out because they found OxyContin to be ineffective in managing their pain. The revised study allowed patients to take supplemental “rescue” medication between their doses of OxyContin. Yet another study on cancer patients found that 95% of those in the test group had resorted to taking a secondary painkiller at some point during the trial.

What’s more, the FDA official who led the review of OxyContin left the agency to go work for Purdue shortly after the drug’s 1996 release.

READ MORE: Makers Of OxyContin Reportedly Knew For Decades That Pain Pills Could Wear Off Early

Sell It Anyway

In spite of all this early evidence that OxyContin may not be able to live up to its promise of 12-hour relief, Purdue launched the drug with that claim at the heart of its selling points.

“Through marketing that was as pervasive as it was deceptive, Purdue convinced health care providers both that the risks of longterm opioid use were overblown,” notes the New Hampshire lawsuit, “and that the benefits, in reduced pain and improved function and quality of life, were proven… The result was that by the mid-2000s, the medical community had abandoned its
prior caution, and opioids were entrenched as an appropriate-and often the first-treatment for chronic pain conditions.”

The state alleges that Purdue’s aggressive marketing — and constant assurances of safety — created a “cadre of doctors” who look for reasons to prescribe opioids, and an “even broader cohort of patients who expected and required” these drugs.

Purdue was one of a handful of drug companies that has also heavily promoted the concept of “pseudoaddiction” — the idea that patients exhibiting symptoms of addiction (asking for a painkiller by name; desperation; pill hoarding; use of unapproved escalating doses of their meds) are really just not getting enough of their opioid painkillers. One role-playing exercise sponsored by Purdue suggested that in such cases, “The doctor treats this patient by prescribing a high-dose, long-acting opioid.”

The Backlash

In May 2007, Purdue and three of its top executives entered guilty pleas [PDF] for illegally marketing OxyContin as less addictive, and less likely to lead to abuse than other pain medications. That same week, the company reached a $19.5 million settlement with 26 states, closing the book on allegations that Purdue had encouraged doctors to overprescribe Oxy. New Hampshire was not part of that 2007 settlement.

In response to these guilty pleas and settlements, Purdue pledged that it would no longer claim OxyContin’s likelihood of abuse is any different from other Schedule II painkillers. However, the New Hampshire lawsuit contends that Purdue has continued to deceptively market OxyContin in the years since.

Recent Allegations

According to the state, Purdue allowed its former misleading claims about OxyContin safety and addiction risks to go unchallenged, and some of these statements remained on company-sponsored websites for years after the company pled guilty to the federal charges.

“To convince New Hampshire prescribers and patients that opioids are safe, Purdue has continued to deceptively minimize and fail to disclose the risks of long-term opioid use, particularly the risk of addiction,” claims the lawsuit, arguing that the company’s misrepresentations resulted in the “dangerously misleading impressions” that patients can use opioids without a heightened risk of addiction; that signs of addiction are really signs of undertreatment; that there are tests that can adequately identify patients with a genuine high risk for addiction, but that even these patients could still be treated with opioids; that doctors could continue to increase patients’ opioid dosages without increasing the risk to the patient; and that Purdue’s drugs are less likely to result in addiction than other opioids.

Avoiding The Tough Topics

The state claims that when Purdue sales reps made sales calls to New Hampshire doctors, they regularly omitted “any discussion of the risk of addiction from long-term use of opioids.” And those reps that did bring up the topic made claims that the state says were debunked in the 2007 DOJ investigation: That the extended-release formulation of OxyContin provides a steady, smooth dose of the medication without “peaks and valleys” associated with other medications. The lawsuit points out that Purdue’s own training documents show that this description of the drug is “problematic,” but contends that the sales force persisted.

Purdue also continued to promote, through websites like PartnersInPain.com — which was launched in the lead-up to the launch of OxyContin and taken offline at some point in 2016 — the idea that chronic pain is not being adequately treated. Though described in its literature as “an alliance of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers dedicated to pain management and advocacy,” the state alleges that Partners In Pain, which only revealed its connection to Purdue in the footer of the website, was really just a way for the drug company to communicate its pseudoaddiction talking points.

12-Hours…ish

With regard to the “12-hour” assertion that the state says is still vital to OxyContin’s marketing, the lawsuit argues that just because a drug has been approved for 12-hour dosing doesn’t mean it will actually last that long.

To get that 12-hour dosing approval from the FDA, Purdue merely had to show that at least half of the drug trial’s test subjects actually experienced that relief. That means that as many as half the other patients will not experience the full 12 hours. But the state contends that OxyContin’s marketing, and its sales pitches to physicians, plugged the drug as a simple and safe twice-a-day solution for chronic pain.

“Without appropriate caveats, promotion of 12-hour dosing by itself is misleading because it implies that the pain relief supplied by each dose lasts 12 hours, which Purdue knew to be untrue for many, if not most, patients,” reads the lawsuit. “FDA approval of OxyContin for [12-hour] dosing does not give Purdue license to misrepresent the duration of pain relief it provides to patients, which Purdue knew was not 12 hours.”

Former sales reps for the company told New Hampshire investigators that physicians complained to Purdue about patients who were not getting the full promised relief from the drug, and that it was a common occurrence for doctors to tell their patients on Oxy to take the drug more frequently than every 12 hours.

Rather than change its marketing to reflect that the drug could wear off long before the promised 12 hours, the state says that Purdue instead recommended that doctors increase the dosage amount of OxyContin. That way, the patient gets more of the painkiller, but the drug is still meeting the 12-hour marketing claim.

“It is like flying a plane higher, knowing that it will take longer to crash, rather than fueling more frequently to prevent the crash,” notes the lawsuit, “In the context of OxyContin, it means that patients will experience higher highs and lower lows, increasing their craving for their next pill.”

OxyContin, Revised

OxyContin’s extended-release structure meant that a single pill contained a large amount of medication that was intended to be doled out over the 12-hour time period. As addiction and abuse of the drug began to take hold, users realized they could easily crush an Oxy pill to get the full dosage immediately, whether it was through ingestion, snorting, or injection.

In 2010, Purdue reformulated OxyContin in a more tamper-resistant version, and New Hampshire says that reps for the company sold the “abuse-deterrent” (AD) iteration of the drug using false claims like that it couldn’t be crushed and snorted, or that it actually prevents abuse of Oxy.

But New Hampshire points out that this reformulation does nothing to curb abuse from patients who simply take more pills than they should, which is by far the most common form of opioid abuse.

What’s more, anyone who knows how to do an internet search can find any number of ways to defeat the AD Oxy’s anti-tampering measures, like “grinding, microwaving then freezing, or drinking soda or fruit juice in which a tablet is dissolved.”

Screen The Bad Patients, But Not The Bad Doctors

During in-person sales calls, the state says that Purdue reps claimed that urine tests, screening tools (like a five-question survey created by a doctor who’d received money from Purdue), and patient contracts could adequately screen out high-risk patients, but the state argues that the Centers for Disease Control has found that there is no scientific basis for making such claims, and that available screening tools “show insufficient accuracy for classification of patients as at low or high risk for [opioid] abuse or misuse.”

For all of its promotion of patient screening, Purdue is allegedly failing to notify law enforcement about doctors and pharmacies whose prescribing and dispensing behaviors send up red flags.

“Purdue has consistently failed to report suspicious prescribing it observed to authorities,” claims the lawsuit, which says that the company has an internal system that identifies doctors with obvious warning signs like, “excessive numbers of patients, cash transactions, patient overdoses, and unusual prescribing of the highest-strength pills.”

While Purdue has insisted that it cuts off relations with these physicians, the state says that doesn’t really matter when those doctors are still allowed to write prescriptions for OxyContin.

“Purdue failed to cut off these providers’ opioid supply at the pharmacy level,” explains New Hampshire, “meaning Purdue continued to generate sales revenue from their prescriptions-and failed to report these providers to state medical boards or law enforcement.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, a rep for Purdue claimed that “OxyContin accounts for less than 2% of the opioid analgesic prescription market nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology, advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs and supporting access to Naloxone — all important components for combating the opioid crisis.”

The New Hampshire lawsuit comes shortly after Ohio filed similar claims against Purdue and several other opioid producers for their alleged mis-marketing of these highly addictive drugs.

New Hampshire is far from the only state dealing with high levels of opioid abuse and addiction, but the Granite State was recently thrust into the opioid spotlight by President Trump.

According to transcripts of a call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump declared that “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den,” which was taken as a double insult by some in the state, as Trump actually lost New Hampshire by a narrow margin in the general election.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Birchbox Is For Sale, Maybe To Walmart

Birchbox is a site that sells high-end makeup, and $10 sample box subscriptions that entice customers to try new types of high-end makeup. Walmart is a discount mega-retailer that sells lots of makeup, but hardly any of it is high end. Yet Birchbox could join the Walmart family if a rumored deal goes through.

Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp has reportedly been in talks with a few potential buyers, including Marc Lore, one of the founders of Jet.com and now the head of e-commerce at Walmart.

Why sell?

Insiders told Recode that the company is on its way to profitability. While the company has a lot of debt, some of which comes due in 2018, its lenders are willing to refinance, since the company’s future is promising.

2016 was a rough year for the company, though. There’s been an explosion in the subscription box market since Birchbox launched seven years ago, and its $10/month competitor, Ipsy, has actually overtaken Birchbox, with 68% of the market. The company had two rounds of layoffs and angered some customers by drastically changing its system of rewarding customers for reviews.

Maybe a deep-pocketed parent that could encourage Jet customers to try Birchbox subscriptions and buy full-size products would set it apart. Or would that just turn Birchbox into a version of Target’s own subscription beauty box?

Walmart’s Family of Fancy Brands

Walmart’s Jet.com has been acquiring retailers including sporting goods retailer Moosejaw, women’s clothing site Modcloth, and men’s clothing site Bonobos, all of which sell higher-end merchandise than Walmart.

Fashion and beauty products are two categories that Amazon hasn’t yet taken over, though Amazon is making a big fashion push, even marketing a special version of the Echo smart speaker that doubles as an outfit camera that judges what you’re wearing.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Facebook Cracking Down On Scammy Ads Disguised As Legit Businesses

Fraudsters have no shortage of tricks and sleights of hand to make themselves look like a legit business venture. In an effort to root out these scammers, Facebook is rolling out new tools designed to detect when companies disguise their ads as innocent or benign for moderators, but real users see spam. 

What Is Cloaking?

This activity, known as cloaking, is used by spammers to get around a site’s moderators in order to shill their actual products and services — like diet pills or pornography — to users of the site.

To do so, the spammer would disguise the true destination of an ad or post, or the real content of the destination page, in order to bypass the social media company’s review processes. When a moderator clicks on this ad or link, they are taken to a different page than when someone else clicks on the link.

Facebook’s Changes

Facebook announced today that it is collaborating with other companies to stop and find new ways to combat cloaking.

“Over the past few months we have been ramping up our enforcement across ads, posts and Pages, and have strengthened our policies to explicitly call out this practice,” the company said in a statement. “We will ban advertisers or Pages found to be cloaking from the platform.”

The company says that it is now using artificial intelligence and expanded human review processes to help identify cloaking.

Since implementing the new tools, Facebook says it has taken down thousands of offenders.

“We see cloaking as deliberate and deceptive, and will not tolerate it on Facebook,” the company said.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Southwest Employee Personally Drives Missing Bag To Cancer Patient’s Home

A Southwest Airlines employee saved the day for a Pittsburgh woman after the bag containing items she needed for chemotherapy treatment the next day failed to arrive at the airport.

WPXI Pittsburgh reports that a Southwest employee personally delivered the missing bag to the woman — who is battling stage four colon cancer — along with a handwritten note.

The ordeal began when the woman decided to take an earlier flight home from Nashville to Pittsburgh recently. While the airline told her that her luggage would arrive with her original flight, that didn’t happen, as the flight was canceled because of a maintenance issue.

She tells WPXI that panic quickly set in as she realized that the bag — which contained items she would need for an upcoming chemotherapy treatment  — might not arrive before her appointment the next day.

“Anybody who has gone through chemotherapy and is battling cancer knows how important it is to have certain items for chemotherapy,” the woman said.

A rep with the airline assured the woman that they would do everything they could to deliver her bag as soon as possible. However, when the bag finally arrived at the airport late that evening there was another problem: All of the couriers used by the airline to deliver bags were gone for the night.

Instead of waiting until the next day to deliver the bag, the Southwest employee took matters into her own hands. She drove the bag to the woman’s house after her shift.

The next morning, the passenger tells WPXI that she found her bag on the front porch, along with a handwritten note.

“Sorry for the delay getting your bag to you! Myself and my Southwest family are thinking of you and wishing you all the best. Kick that cancer’s BUTT! With love, Sarah from PIT,” the note read.

“She’s a true angel from heaven, she made a huge difference in my life, and I can’t thank her enough,” the woman tells WPXI.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Instagram Will Let You Broadcast Your Video Chats, Because Your Life Is A TV Show

What’s better than one solipsistic Instagram celebrity broadcasting live to their followers as they do their laundry or ramble on about Game of Thrones? How about a new Instagram feature that lets two egomaniacs fight for attention as they blather on about nonsense for the amusement of their fans!

Instagram announced on Tuesday that it’s testing a feature that allows two users to go live with a buddy, in case you’re too intimidated to try it by yourself.

The feature is currently testing with “a small percentage” of Instagram users, but it’ll roll out globally over the next few months.

How it works

To add a friend to your livestream, tap the new double-smiley icon on the bottom right corner of the screen, and then select “Add.” You’ll only be able to invite a guest who’s currently watching your live stream, however.

Once they join, the screen will split into two: You can remove your guest and add someone else at any time, or they can always exit on their own.

Viewers can still like and comment on these double streams just like they would on other live broadcasts.

After you’ve finished gabbing about whether or not [GOT conspiracy theory spoiler alert] Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are going to hook up or if that’s icky because they’re blood relatives, you can save the live stream to your Stories feed — where it will live for 24 hours — or discard it.

What you could use it for

Beyond hanging out with your pals in a video chat, we can think of a variety of ways Instagram users could take advantage of this new feature.

• Politicians could stage remote debates or town halls with opponents where they discuss hot-button issues in front of constituents. Though a town hall could get risky for a candidate; randomly picking someone from the audience to join in your live chat could tempt some users to risk violating Instagram’s community standards and pull some chatroulette-style X-rated pranks.

• Celebrities or Instagram influencers might invite their followers to watch them chat with other famous faces — possibly while pushing products at the same time. However, if a reality TV star wanted to go on about tummy flattening tea with their co-star, they’d have to disclose any sponsorships or paid appearances.

• To that end, Instagram could be targeting advertisers with this feature: A reality competition show like American Idol could host post-show split-screen chats between former contestants without having to get them into a studio together, for example.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Scammer Posing As Starbucks Corporate Convinces Store Workers To Wire $2,600

A fraudster in South Carolina combined the tradition of pranking fast food restaurants with a new variation of the CEO scam last week, convincing employees at a Starbucks to give them all of the money in the store. 

The State reports that employees at a Bluffton, SC, Starbucks unwittingly gave a scammer $2,600 from the register last week.

According to the local Sheriff’s office, a woman called the store Friday evening claiming to be from the chain’s corporate offices.

The caller told the employee that there was an investigation into allegations of embezzlement, and that the store’s district manager had been arrested.

The schemer didn’t ask for bail money for the manager, as one fraudster did at a Subway in Arkansas this spring. Instead, she told the employee that the store was $4,000 short because of the embezzlement, and that the employee would need to take all of the money from the register and safe and close early, the State reports.

The employee was then instructed to have a co-worker take the money from the store and wait for instruction on what to do with the funds. When that man didn’t return after an hour, the employee who first spoke to the alleged scammer contacted police.

While police were at the store investigating, they contacted the location’s district manager, who confirmed he was not arrested.

The State reports that the second employee returned about an hour later. According to police, the employee had received a call from the supposed corporate worker, who instructed him to transfer $1,000 through Walmart MoneyGram and exchange the rest for prepaid cards. The funds and cards were then transferred to the scammer, who was located in Alabama.

 

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Walmart Testing Self-Scanning And Checkout By Smartphone: Yes, Again

If you’d rather not face another long checkout line at Walmart, the mega-retailer may soon have a solution for you: It has resumed tests of an app that would let customers scan items as they shop, using either a handheld scanner or a smartphone app.

Shop, scan, avoid checkout lines

Walmart is currently testing its Scan & Go mobile app in a few states. Here’s how it works: Shoppers use either an app on their phones or a store-issued scanner to scan items as they walk around the store, probably putting them directly in bags instead of bagging them later.

When they’re ready to check out, shoppers bring their pre-scanned items to a self-checkout register, scanning a single barcode on the kiosk to purchase all items in the cart. They can also register a credit card with the Scan & Go app to pay instantly without even having to wait in the self-checkout line.

They show an e-receipt bar code on the phone’s screen to one of the yellow-smocked customer hosts posted at the store’s exit, who checks over the contents of the cart or bag.

There are just a handful of test stores, and they’re located in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Texas.

Budgeting on the fly

One shopper at a Texas test store pointed out that the app helps her to stay within her budget, since the app totals up customers’ purchases as they’re scanned and placed inside the customer’s bag.

“I’m starting to budget, so I’m only getting things that are necessary. So if you’re on a budget like I am, then I think it’s perfect for that,” she told the Waxahachie Daily Light.

“It’s kind of like ‘The Jetsons’,” another shopper observed.

Here we go again

This may sound familiar. It’s similar to the concept behind Amazon’s planned Amazon Go convenience store, sure, and Walmart is also using a similar technology in its Sam’s Club chain of warehouse clubs.

Oh, and Walmart tested a similar system using the same Scan & Go app in a few hundred stores beginning in 2012. That experiment ultimately failed because shoppers found the system confusing, Walmart told the Associated Press a few years later.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Feds: Recent NYC Drug Bust Included Enough Fentanyl To Kill Half The City

As law enforcement around the country continue to battle the opioid epidemic currently raging in the U.S., federal officials say they’ve made a sizable bust in New York City, seizing enough fentanyl and heroin “to kill half the population” of the Big Apple.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, official seized almost 20 pounds of what is believed to be fentanyl and heroin from an apartment building across the street from Central Park last week, as well as from a vehicle. Four people have now been charged in connection with the bust.

The busts

DEA agents were conducting surveillance near the building on Central Park West on Aug. 4 when they saw one defendant leaving with two boxes inside a large shopping back. He got into a vehicle driven by another defendant, an Uber driver, with agents following behind.

Investigators stopped the vehicle, and observed the suspect sitting in the backseat with two boxes: One box was open and they could see a clear plastic bag containing a tan powdery substance inside.

After looking more closely at that box — the larger of the two — investigators say they also saw six large cylindrical packages wrapped in tape and plastic wrap.

RELATED: DOJ Shuts Down Online Dark Market Peddling Opioids, Guns, Hacking Tools

And in the smaller box, officials spotted a large cylindrical package wrapped in tape and plastic wrap, and a clear plastic bag containing a tan powdery substance.

Agents seized the packages, and arrested both the Uber driver and the passenger. Meanwhile, investigators kept watching the building, and eventually observed a man previously identified as a member of a drug trafficking organization exiting with another man. When questioned by agents, he said he lived in the building, and admitted to having a gun and drugs in the apartment.

Officials obtained a search warrant, and a search of the apartment resulted in two large ziplock bags containing about three kilograms of a suspected fentanyl and heroin combination, as well as 1,100 individual dose glassine envelopes that had been filled with powder and stamped with the brand name “UBER.”

Agents also found a loaded pistol, $30,000 in cash, several identification cards for other individuals, multiple cellphones, and ledgers.

Not only that, but supplies and paraphernalia that are consistent with what one would need to mill heroin and fentanyl were discovered, including: Stamps, rubber bands, folding tables, boxes of ziplock bags, a heat sealing device, gloves, masks, and empty glassines branded with names like “McDonald’s,” “Uber,” “Walking Dead,” and “Black Friday.”

The drugs were sent to the DEA New York Division laboratory for testing. While the street value of the drugs is estimated at about $3 million — at least — it could be more, depending on the potency and proportion of fentanyl to heroin.

A very dangerous problem

Fentanyl is about 50 times stronger than heroin, and officials say they’re finding it mixed more and more into the illicit narcotics supply in NYC: According to the city’s department of Health and Mental Hygiene, fentanyl is driving a spike in fatal overdoses, which reached an all-time high of 1,374 deaths in New York City in 2016 – a 46% increase over 2015.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest street drug to ever hit this country,” said DEA Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt. “This seizure alone contains enough potency to kill half of the population of New York City, if laboratory analysis proves it is all fentanyl. Fentanyl is manufactured death that drug dealers are mixing with heroin.”

If he’s being literal, well, the population of NYC is somewhere between 8 and 9 million people. Either way, that’s a lot of drugs.

The opioid crisis is an issue that’s migrated from isolated areas to suburbs and big cities as well. To that end, the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis recently urged the Trump administration to declare a national emergency.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Grocery Stores Jumping Into Meal Kit Market

Your mission? Make a delicious home-cooked meal for dinner. Here are your options: Walk around your massive local grocery store picking up each ingredient piece by piece, or walk into the store, grab a box full of pre-selected, pre-proportioned ingredients and walk out. Which would you choose? Grocery stores around the country are hoping it’s a variation of the latter, as they gear up to compete with online meal kit services. 

For years, supermarkets have offered their own version of a meal kit in the way of displays that match complimentary items together. You’ve probably purchased one without even knowing it: That display with pasta, bread, marinara sauce, and parmesan cheese? Yup, it’s a meal kit, in a sense.

But the rise of meal kit companies like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and others that send fresh, pre-proportioned ingredients to customers’ homes has caused some grocery chains to rethink their in-store meal displays.

“Grocery stores see this as a threat, and they’re going to find ways to fight back,” analyst Mike Vu tells CNBC.

Wading Into Meal Kits

To that end, some chains are already revamping their in-store displays into fresh meal kit-esque exhibits.

Whole Foods, for instance, has created displays that feature a recipe and all the raw ingredients needed to make the meal.

The new meal kit-like option is currently being tested at select stores. A rep for Whole Foods tells CNBC that the company is always looking for new and innovative meal solutions for customers.

Kroger, on the other hand, offers customers the option of picking up an actual meal kit, complete with pre-measured ingredients.

Getting ready to try a new meal kit from @kroger. Look at all the stuff packed in the box. This should be fun! http://pic.twitter.com/guOve6t7bP

— smcwhorter (@smcwhorter) July 26, 2017

The kits, which cost between $7 and $18 depending on the number of servings, are currently only available in select Cincinnati stores.

The chain notes that while customers still have to come to the store to get their box, they can do so whenever they wish, with no subscription required.

The Pros and Cons

While grocery chains are probably the best-situated of any industry to experiment with meal kits — they have a variety of food at their disposal, after all — there are a few drawbacks.

For instance, customers seem to enjoy the convenience of having meals shipped directly to their home. Additionally, most meal kits come with pre-measured ingredients specific to a recipe, meaning there is less of a chance things will go to waste.

Despite these possible inconveniences, however, CNBC reports that less overhead for grocery chains’ meal kits could be a big draw for potential buyers.

If grocery stores don’t ship kits or package them in boxes and plastic wrap, they’re saving money. This, in turn, could be passed down to customers, who might pay less for their meals.

“The number one reason consumers leave the meal kit industry is price,” Rob Wilson, managing director and partner at L.E.K Consulting, tells CNBC. “Convenience and packaging and other things are up there, but it’s price.”

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Google Warns 1,000 Annoying Advertisers That They’ll Be Blocked On Chrome If They Don’t Shape Up

If you’re tired of auto-playing videos with sound, pop-up ads, and other annoying advertising tricks, well, join the club. Google knows how you feel, and is planning to start blocking those by default in both its desktop and mobile versions of Chrome sometime next year. But first, it’s giving publishers a grace period to clean up their acts.

The rumor that Google planned to build an ad-blocker into Chrome first floated in April. Sources confirmed it in June, saying at the time that the tool was more like an “ad filter” designed to block the ads that gave users a bad experience.

To you and me, that means “really annoying things,” like pop-up ads, auto-playing video with sound enabled, and those prestitial full-screen blocks with a countdown timer that you have to wait through before you can read the dang article you came for.

At the time, Google said it would give publishers six months of lead time before the tool went live, with advance notice and tips about how to make their ads not obnoxious. Well, six months apparently starts now: Ad Age reports that roughly 1,000 online publishers are getting notices from Google this week.

Of the 100,000 sites Google says it has reviewed so far, approximately 1% (i.e. 1,000 sites) are in violation. The most common violation by far — 97% of desktop violations and 54% of mobile ones — is pop-up ads, Ad Age says.

What’s in a warning?

Google isn’t explicitly saying what it will and won’t block. Rather, it’s directing publishers to view its Ad Experience Report for their sites, which determines if a site is in compliance with the Better Ads Standards.

Scott Spencer, director of product management at Google, gave advertisers the benefit of the doubt when speaking with Ad Age.

“We are doing this so they have ample time to change their ad experiences so there are no violations or concerns about anything,” Spencer told Ad Age. “We provide the tool that’s just telling people what’s happening on their site and many publishers want to do the right thing, but some might not even know that there are annoying ads on their site.”

Google said it’s testing the biggest websites, basically, where “consumers spend 90% to 95% of their time.” That includes many major publishers, like the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, as well as more focused news sites like Eurogamer or ZDNet.

Who defines “annoying”?

That standard is developed by the Coalition for Better Ads, a group made up of the world’s largest digital advertisers (including both Google and Facebook, who far and away lead the pack).

It may seem strange for an advertising group to want to curtail advertising, but it makes perfect sense as a defense strategy. If ads are too annoying, users will get a third-party tool and block them all. If ads are neutral, users are more likely to just leave well enough alone and use the web as it’s presented to them.

Thus, setting a standard that blocks the most annoying and intrusive ads means you’re more likely to put up with seeing the less-irritating ads, instead of going to a no-ads experience, and the money can continue to flow.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist