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News Roundup
This is a roundup of news and other interesting pieces that I’ve come across over the last few days. Travel secrets from the man who has traveled 23 million miles, Amazon Prime lawsuit, Ritz-Carlton Reserve debuts in China, get paid $10K for 10K steps, and rise in credit card theft due to illegal piracy streaming services.
He has flown 23 million miles. Here are his travel secrets
His name is Tom Stuker — a 69-year-old New Jersey car dealership consultant — and he’s the biggest mistake United Airlines ever made.
In 1990, United offered a lifetime pass for $290,000. Stuker jumped on it and has pretty much lived in seat 1B — his favorite — ever since. He once went 12 straight days without sleeping in a bed. Just kept jetting from Newark to San Francisco to Bangkok to Dubai and back again, the equivalent of four trips around the world, leaving the sky only for the airport lounge.
Amazon duped millions of consumers into enrolling in Prime
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has accused Amazon.com of enrolling millions of consumers into its paid subscription Amazon Prime service without their consent and making it hard for them to cancel.
Amazon has used “manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions,” the FTC said as it seeks civil penalties and a permanent injunction to prevent future violations.
Consumers who attempted to cancel Prime were faced with multiple labyrinthine steps to accomplish the task of cancelling, according to the complaint.
Rissai Valley, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Rissai Valley, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, the latest resort in the prestigious Ritz-Carlton Reserve portfolio, was unveiled today in Jiuzhaigou, a valley on the edges of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in China’s Southwestern Sichuan province. The region is an area of exceptional natural beauty with spectacular alpine mountains soaring above a fairyland of forests, lakes, and waterfalls, and has been inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and World Biosphere Reserve. In this spellbinding setting, Rissai Valley — its name a transliteration of the Tibetan word for “village” — is an intimate luxury hideaway that offers guests rare insights and immersive connections with the natural surroundings and culture of traditional Tibetan village life.
Fitness company wants to pay you $10,000 to walk 10,000 steps in a single day
For the new company’s first hire, GymBird is choosing one lucky person to walk 10,000 steps in one day for $10,000, according to its site.
Accepting the offer requires the CSO to train for a month until they feel comfortable walking 10,000 steps in a single day. The CSO who lands the job will get a smartwatch from the company to track their progress.
Piracy Subscription Services Drive Credit Card Fraud
Internet users that use a credit card to sign up for illegal piracy streaming services to gain access to movies, TV shows, and games face a serious risk of having their card run up with charges they didn’t authorize, according to a new Digital Citizens Alliance investigation.
The report titled, “Giving Piracy Operators Credit,” details how a Digital Citizens investigator’s credit card was targeted for $1,495 in illicit purchases. The purchases were purportedly for grocery delivery, women’s apparel, computer software, a cash advance, and a large mystery charge of $850 that, fortunately, wasn’t processed. The charges appear to originate from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Lithuania.
Guru’s Wrap-up
Let me know if you enjoyed these articles and comment with any opinions you might have. You can also share any other interesting articles about deals, travel, credit cards and more.
