A tipster writing to David Pogue claims to work at Verizon, and he explained his own moral frustration with the problem:

"The phone is designed in such a way that you can almost never avoid getting $1.99 charge on the bill. Around the OK button on a typical flip phone are the up, down, left, right arrows. If you open the flip and accidentally press the up arrow key, you see that the phone starts to connect to the web. So you hit END right away. Well, too late. You will be charged $1.99 for that 0.02 kilobytes of data. NOT COOL. I've had phones for years, and I sometimes do that mistake to this day, as I'm sure you have. Legal, yes; ethical, NO.

"Every month, the 87 million customers will accidentally hit that key a few times a month! That's over $300 million per month in data revenue off a simple mistake!

"Our marketing, billing, and technical departments are all aware of this. But they have failed to do anything about it-and why? Because if you get 87 million customers to pay $1.99, why stop this revenue? Customer Service might credit you if you call and complain, but this practice is just not right.

"Now, you can ask to have this feature blocked. But even then, if you one of those buttons by accident, your phone transmits data; you get a message that you cannot use the service because it's blocked–BUT you just used 0.06 kilobytes of data to get that message, so you are now charged $1.99 again!

"They have started training us reps that too many data blocks are being put on accounts now; they're actually making us take classes called Alternatives to Data Blocks. They do not want all the blocks, because 40% of Verizon's revenue now comes from data use. I just know there are millions of people out there that don't even notice this $1.99 on the bill."

Pogue notes that others have written in who are on different networks that have experienced similar problems. So this shady data charge scam might not be exclusive to Verizon—although they do have have a reputation for pricing policies that many would deem "excessive." So, my question is, how many of your monthly bills from Verizon include erroneous data charges? Have you experienced similar problems on another carrier? [Pogue's Posts via Consumerist Image via PhoneArena]

He told Commonwealth Club of California forum attendees that he recently responded to an email that appeared to come from his bank, stopping only when he was asked for his password. Using his experience as an example, he went on to speak about the ever increasing threat of cybercrime. One smart-ass citizen responded to his warnings thusly:

"I'm not worried about a teenage hacker reading my e-mail. I'm worried about you reading it."

Ballsy—I'll give him that. But it appears that we have little to worry about as far as Muller is concerned. He's too busy reading every email in his inbox that's from Zimbabwe or in all caps. [SFGate]

Because iTunes' gift codes are so easy to crack, hackers can often only get 1% of the supposed value of their codes (so a $200 gift code could only sell for $2). In an effort to increase that percentage, some pirates have started contacting iPhone app developers, offering to "purchase" their app as many times as desired in exchange for a 50-50 cut of Apple's per-purchase pay.

This kind of tactic undermines what's so cool about the App Store— a nobody can make something hundreds of thousands of people will love, and make money doing it, just on the merits of the creation. That's rare in the software industry, where software is pirated almost on principle, and it'd be a shame to see the App Store corrupted. [AppleInsider and Ars Technica]

Since it showed up in November 2008, there have been variants of the virus released. Conficker has begun updating itself, which has been dubbed Conficker.e. Conficker.e is installing Waledac, a spam bot. In turn, it'll spam you to remove it for a certain price. The original Conficker virus was supposed to activate on April 1 with the potential of infected Windows computers everywhere doing its bidding. Instead, it lay dormant. Not all Conficker nodes have been acting the same, so what's really going on? [PC World]

I have never been so appalled as when I called Cablevision to activate BASIC cables service for an apartment in Brooklyn. I called Cablevision on behalf of my boss's 95 year old uncle. He currently has rabbit ears providing his television signal at his fathers house. He asked me what would happen as of February 16th. I told him that if he was using an antenna to get his local channels that it would cease working as of that date. He asked me to call Cablevision and ask them to provide BASIC service as of that date.

I called Cablevision and after entering the correct prompts, I was routed to the sales department as a new customer. I gave the sales rep the address that I needed service at. After he verified that Cablevision serviced that particular building, he told me that iO service was available. I informed him that I only needed BASIC cable, channels 2-12 only. He told me no problem, I would even receive HBO and Starz free for 90 days. Again reiterated that I ONLY wanted channels 2-12. I said that I did not need a box, I only wanted to hook up signal to a cable ready tv. After talking over me, he said that Cablevision requires a box no matter what. I told him that was incorrect and that a box was not needed for local channels if you have a cable ready tv. The rep then told me that I was "disrespecting" him and that he knows what he is talking about. I then asked to speak to a supervisor as this guy had no idea what he was talking about.

I am a communicatons installer and my company not only specializes in telephones, we install and set up home theater systems as well. I could not believe what I was going through to get simple basic service from Cablevision. After waiting on old for two or three minutes a supervisor came on the line and I basically said that after speaking to your rep, he tried to sell me a box and a service that was not necessary. I didn't want a box or digital service, I just wanted BASIC service. He asked me if that was all and I said yes. He put me on hold and in another two or three minutes went by and the original representative came back on and told me that a supervisor had "approved" my request to have basic service without a converter. We finished the order and after hanging up I was absolutely floored that they would try to sell their iO service and a monthly box rental after SPECIFICALLY asking for only local channels and saying that I did not want their "free" channels. A supervisor has to "approve" having local service only??? How many people are they scamming with this obviously unfair and illegal sales tactic.

This is specifically the reason why I dumped this horrible company for Verizon Fios at my home. I would rather pay more that even give a dollar to Cablevision.

A cable company trying to scam DTV converts? Why, cable companies are known for their ethical sales practices—much like car salesman and Best Buy. I am shocked and appalled. UPDATE: It has come to our attention that some neighborhoods do require a box—but the fact that this request was eventually "approved" without a converter still raises questions. [Consumerist]

It wouldn't make sense for Walmart to be in any kind of dealings with a company like Friendship Star International Limited, whose knockoff media players look much like the one above, and it's even more unlikely that they'd permit such blatant copyright and trademark infringement in their stores. What has most likely happened here is that some enterprising young individual purchased an iPod, replaced it with a much cheaper knockoff and returned it to the store for a full refund.
Our tipster tried to explain this to the staff at the store, but didn't have much luck. It'll resolve itself when the unfortunate teenage girl who buys the "iPod" brings it back after she gets tired of watching the Chinese language bootlegs of Two and a Half Men that came on it. -Thanks, Mitchel!

There are actually open source versions of this I-Doser app (which they might have even taken a few assets from), so you can try it out before you sink some cash into this. Their shady looking site also has a disclaimer that says "I-Doser makes no medical, psychological, physical or otherwise, claims to the effectiveness of the I-Doser application, Simulation CDs, and MP3s," which leads us to believe that it's quite bogus and most likely does nothing. Don't you think that if you could get high from a SOUND, kids would have been all over this years ago? These kids sniff cat pee! [I-Doser via JPostvia T3]

The first comes from the University Village AT&T store at
4626 25th Ave NE, Seattle, WA (Phone 206-729-7184). When buying the iPhone yesterday, the store said all customers must by two accessories with an iPhone, but the accessories could be returned, opened, without a restocking fee. Add to that the fact that the salesman didn't even know a charger was included and tried to upsell a different charger to the reader.

The second, at the Hawthorne California AT&T Store at 5249 W. Rosecrans in Hawthorne California (Phone 310-725-9902), the store manager said customers were required to buy a "bundle" of accessories. The bundle, written up with magic marker on an unofficial sign, listed the 4GB bundle at $650 and the 8GB bundle at $750. The manager told the customer that they couldn't buy the phones without the bundle and that they could leave the store if they didn't want it. When asked if he could return the items, they said yes, but only tomorrow (today).

The third store, at Pike Street in Seattle, forced people to buy $60 worth of accessories (a case and car charger), and if you didn't, you'd get a voucher and the iPhone would be mailed to you some time next week. The reader eventually went to the Apple Store nearby, and eventually his friend (who stayed at the AT&T store) told him they stopped pushing the accessories.

One is a fluke, two is a coincidence, but three? And possibly more? That, my friends, is ridiculous.

If this happened to you, send a tip to us at tips@gizmodo.com.

Update: Joel says the AT&T store on broadway near city hall in NY was doing the same until some guy told them it was "illegal".

Scott says the 4th Street store in Santa Ana had 20 phones, and after 10 people went in they announced everything was sold out. They then told the remaining customers that throgh a "special deal", they could order an iPhone and receive it within 2 business days. The special deal? To buy 3 accessories that night.

Update 2: A reader tells us if an AT&T rep doesn't sell between $60-$65 worth of accessories for each phone sale and $20-$30 worth of features, he can be written up and terminated if sales don't improve within 45 days. If customers came and bought iPhones without accessories, this would have caused a big downwards drag on their record. Each accessory sold will count toward a rep's sales goals, even if it's returned the next day, plus he gets six cents on the dollar.

Even weirder: regional managers had side bets on Friday with stores and had perks for reps that sold an X amount of accessories. The reader says they basically acted like used car salesmen.

Update 3:Not forcing the accessories on people, but the store on Bridford Parkway in Greensboro, NC sealed the phones in with the accessories anyone purchased so they could charge the 10% restocking fee even if the iPhone box was unopened.

[via TechEBlog]

How are readers faring on eBay? Deal or no deal? – Jason Chen

EBay is Decadent and Depraved [Crunchgear]