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Elizabeth Arden was running a promotion that advertised a free gift of $350 value with any purchase of $65 or more. Anyone who's familiar with the vagaries of beauty advertising knows to expect a certain amount of inherent deception in the Free Gift — seriously, it's like there's a special photographic lens that only makes dinky little sample-size mascaras look full size, and ugly clown-colored lipsticks appear suitable for everyday human wear. But some are calling Elizabeth Arden's free gift swindle a downright bait-and-switch. More »
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Recently elected (appointed?) Miss America Laura Kaeppeler hasn't been shy about her dad's jail time. In fact, some now allege that her compelling personal story of a parent in prison actually helped her win. And victims of his Ponzi scheme aren't too happy. More »
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Here's a pro tip: If you're trying to score a few more days off, don't pretend you're the victim of one of the most devestating tragedies a person can go through. And, if asked to provide documentation on said tragedy, definitely make sure all your fonts match. More »
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A woman in New Zealand brought an absurd soap opera cliche to life when she faked her pregnancy for nine months, then tried to steal a baby from a maternity ward. Police say Neha Narayan told her partner she was overdue and needed to be taken to the hospital to be induced. For some reason he left her to deliver on her own, and she spent the next two days prowling around the hospital looking for snatchable babies. One mom caught Narayan holding her two-day-old baby, and she claimed he'd been crying and she was just comforting him. Then a hospital staffer handed her another infant, assuming she was the mother. She tried take the baby to the parking lot, where a car was waiting for her, but luckily the parents saw everything and were able to stop her before she ran off with their child. More »
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If you've never actually met the guy you hooked up with on an online dating site and were surprised to find that he has a British accent when you first talked on the phone, we might have some bad news — particularly if he asked you to send him some money so he could fly out to see you, then claimed that all flights out of Seattle have been canceled indefinitely. Since people have caught on to the fact that any Nigerian prince worth his salt can take care of his finances without help from random Americans, online crooks have turned to "romance scams." They're now spending months building relationships with potential victims, then convincing them to drain their bank accounts. More »
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Did an Anthropologie enthusiast create a "personal shopping service" to scam trusting readers out of their money? That's what some are claiming — and their accusations have rocked the weird world of "Anthro-blogging." More »
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A Massachusetts man is accused of seducing women on dating sites, then conning them out of thousands of dollars. He used his ill-gotten gains to buy Nazi paraphernalia, among other bizarre purchases. More »
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Maybe you're one of the internet-savvy folks who have seen one of those ubiquitous "tiny belly" ads but never bothered to click one. You sensed that the "weird tip" was probably bullshit. If so, you were right… and lucky: the Federal Trade Commission claims the ads are part of a three-step scheme. And unfortunately, the scam was very successful. More »
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Beauty products are far less regulated than you might think, and now several popular companies are being sued over their use of the word "organic." While manufacturers claim their products are more natural than that of their competitors, a watchdog group found many products don't have the required amount of organic ingredients, and some even contain potentially toxic chemicals. More »
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She is "the 100-pound blonde who had come to embody all the ills of America's latest age of greed" - so why are we so obsessed with Ruth Madoff? Well, a few reasons: More »
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Today Good Morning America featured the "Brassage," a bra with bumps on the sides which massage the lymph nodes to prevent cancer. Shockingly, it actually does nothing, and now women are angry. Clip at left. More »
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According to the New Yorker, the fallout from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme has flooded the market with the jewelry of his wealthy victims. More »
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Your "friends" are probably telling you not to read the indictment. (You know what indictment! The one charging your Ponzi sheming ex, Raffaello Follieri. Look, only 18 pages. It's not a script) And let me tell you something, Anne, and this is beside the point, but those same fucking friends avoiding the topic, telling you reading all the press will only be "painful" are also secretly ordering your light Frappuccinos REGULAR, and marking the side of the plastic cup with their own sharpies so that you THINK they're light even though they taste "deceptively" high fructose. Okay, maybe they're not, but the point is, I bet you are perceptive enough to distinguish a real Frappuccino from a Splenda-sweetened one but the man you loved held himself out to be the CFO of the Fucking Vatican and the whole time he was nothing but a uniquely shameless Italian con artist living in a $90,000 a month apartment with a $60,000 housecleaning service you NEVER KNEW THE DIFFERENCE. You, Anne, are kind of stupid; this is your intervention; most pretty girls in this country never get one so consider yourself blessed. Not that I know you, I am just speculating, not on the basis of the fact that you just likened making out with Steve Carell to a "yummy lollipop" but on the basis that you once called "charity work" such an "aphrodisiac," which would be an idiotic thing to say if your boyfriend was the Pope himself, but ha ha, no, you probably just thought he was friends with the Pope. Which brings me to my very fave part of this indictment: More »
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