Scams

Dexter Palmer's third novel, about a fantastical medical hoax, doubles as an exploration of the age-old desire to believe the unbelievable.

Why is it so difficult to get a new pair of glasses or contacts in this country? It's easier pretty much everywhere else.

Meet the new teen-idol ticket scalpers — average guys, no bots.

A document obtained by Motherboard shows how DMVs sell people's names, addresses and other personal information to generate revenue.

Here's what Russia's 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda.

With a lot of dry erase boards, chopsticks for "wands," and no Butterbeer in sight, the event was essentially a Fyre Festival for muggles.

When MyPayrollHR shut down, thousands of companies and a quarter of a million workers were left in the lurch.

The business of positivity has captivated the world with its hopeful promises — and drawn critics for its moralizing, mysticism and commercialization.

The tidying guru helped America clean out its closets. Now she wants to fill them back up.

Each year, doctors order more than a million tests that patients don't actually need. Some are even harmful.

Combatting sketchy gold and silver sellers is a state-by-state game of Whac-A-Mole.

Buying tickets on Ticketmaster continues to be a complete disaster for everyone who doesn't make a living buying tickets.

Adam Joiner's silver-screen dreams were finally coming true. He had a deal with Netflix, a superstar lead and, amazingly, interest from Spielberg. He easily landed a major investment from Korean and Chinese money men. There was only one problem: His entire story was a lie.

The new Netflix documentary "Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator" explores the sexual-assault allegations against Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga.

According to researchers, China has been using an equation to produce fake organ donation data in order to cover up the real way it's obtaining organs.

An investigation found the State Department's Mina Chang made unfounded claims about her education and experience.

She could have hung up when a scammer called claiming to be tech support for Microsoft, but no, she decided to give as good as she got.

The foundation's malfeasance was prosecuted, but most foundation wrongdoing is never even investigated.

A network of fake local news sites generated millions of pageviews as part of an ad fraud scheme.

A single screengrab — and a lack of Facebook reactions — were the likely giveaways.

I spent a week in Provence with Anna March. To me, it was worth it.

The ethical thing to do if you need to cancel a crowd-funded wedding would probably be to return people's money — not buy a blowout vacation.

The real life con man, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in "Catch Me If You Can," explains how he gained the confidence of his marks.

With gabapentin's recent links to overdose and reports of suicide, why is still being used so much?

"I just went into shock."

Tiversa dominated an emerging online market — before it was accused of fraud, extortion and manipulating the federal government.

A leaked email revealed that executives at a skin-care firm showed employees how to post fake reviews. But the FTC settled without a fine or admission of guilt.

The disgraced founder got rich selling a shaky business as a values-driven movement.

Yes, you read that right.

"Full House" star Lori Loughlin and several others parents in the college admissions scam are facing more charges.

The frightening trend of parents going through extreme (and often illegal) means to get their kids into the most elite schools in the country.

Kind of — but not in the way you might think