Ticketmaster is facing a $50,000 fine and a change in how it does business after an Illinois Attorney General investigation found that the company had not clearly told customers they were paying marked up ticket prices.

As part of the agreement, TicketsNow, owned by Ticketmaster, will also close 100 websites that tricked customers into believing that they were purchasing directly from the concert venue.

Though the $50,000 fine is relatively small (perhaps convenience fees will triple it), the biggest win is for consumers. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan stated, "This agreement will substantially impact how the TicketsNow online brokers market popular event tickets so that consumers clearly understand that they are making purchases from a ticket reseller at marked-up rates."

Here's some creative super-sizing: If you want to rent a Volkswagen Beetle from Alamo Rent A Car, you'll pay the price of a midsize car, despite the fact that VW itself calls the vehicle a compact.

Customers have it bad enough at the rental car counter now that the big companies are slashing inventory to create scarcity and drive up prices. They're also playing fast and loose with definitions.

Christopher Elliott called out the company for re-classifying the Beetle in contradiction of its manufacturer, yet in a way that pumps up Alamo's bottom line. The car rental outfit also considers the Toyota Corolla to be a midsize car, and not a compact or subcompact, the way pretty much everyone else does. The difference between the two categories starts at about $8 per day.

Targeting scams that prey on people vulnerable because of the down economy, federal and state officials announced today a laundry list of legal actions including a lawsuit against a collection of get rich quick schemes that lured "hundreds of thousands" of victims who paid out about $300 million.

The companies allegedly jointly operating the schemes, including John Beck's Amazing Profits and Mentoring of America, marketed them heavily through television infomercials. They sold guides to their supposed systems of quick paths to wealth for $39.95 and charged an additional $39.95 a month after that.

California filed a $222 million lawsuit against the owner of 22 Midas Muffler shops after uncover agents discovered a "massive" scheme in which consumers were charged for unneeded repairs, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced.

"These Midas shops were running a massive bait-and-switch scam, in which customers were lured in with the promise of cheap brake specials and then charged hundreds more for unnecessary repairs," Brown said in a statement. "This investigation revealed a shady and deceptive operation that violated the trust of its customers."

One of the biggest telephone calling card distributors in the country agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the firm of shorting immigrants and lower-income users their promised time -- often by half. Some users also were charged for calls that were never connected, the Federal Trade Commission said.

Clifton Telecard Alliance One and its principal Mustafa Qattous also agreed to pay more than $24 million if the company failed to comply with the terms of the settlement, which require considerably more honesty than the practices described in the lawsuit.

Preying on the widely held dream that someday the lottery will pay all the bills and fuel a hundred fantasies, a new collection of frauds have set up shop in a place better known for vacations than scam. Their goal is to take -- not give -- money.

The Federal Trade Commission and U.S. immigration officials are working with the Jamaican Constabulary Force to bust up telemarketing rings bent on taking cash from duped Americans.

If you are planning a trip to Canada these days there's two important things you should remember -- first your passport and second to turn off all Internet access on your phone and data card.

Failure to do either of these could put quite the damper on your trip and as Adam Savage of Mythbusters found out cost $11,000.

After a recent trip to Canada AT&T sent Adam Savage a bill for a few hours of Internet usage totaling $11,000 and shut off his phone.

Why AT&T couldn't have simply shut off his data connection or sent him a text message in Canada, warning him about the increased fees before he accumulated enough to pay for four years of community college is beyond me.

Even though a kilobyte is a kilobyte is a kilobyte; these data charge horror stories pop up quite often.

Even though you can spit into Canada from several spots in the United States, AT&T has to pay a Canadian company to relay that data and it gets expensive, and quick. According to the AT&T World Packages page, depending on the country you are in and the prepaid plan you paid for, a megabyte of data could cost between $5-$20.

Before you leave the comfort of your hometown to venture off with your Web-enabled phone on any carrier, be sure to double check that you have turned off its data capabilities or you will be in for a big surprise on your next bill.

If you happen to have an iPhone you can check out these usage tips for traveling globally without breaking your bank from AT&T.

UPDATE: AT&T removed the charges from Adam's account after the incident became a trending topic on Twitter.

I recently wrote about the rash of scammers offering 'free' trials of acai-berry weight loss products. Today we learn that some of those taken in by these shady dealings stand to get a little of their money back, as Central Coast Nutraceuticals, Inc. has been ordered by an Arizona court to refund $350,000 to these customers.

Texas officials filed charges against two Californians operating a business under the name Compliance Services that solicits money from small business owners in the name of getting them to comply with the law.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott won a temporary restraining order preventing Compliance Services and principals Selwyn Monarch and Gayle N. Standford from sending the mailings to Texas businesses. Other states, including Massachusetts, Ohio and Florida have warned against this and other similar attempts to solicit money from business owners. Here's an example of one of the mailings.

A group of Florida men who made false promises that they could fix consumers' credit agreed to a $21 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that was reduced to $5,000 apiece because they said they couldn't afford the larger sum, the FTC announced.

The FTC said it would reimpose the higher number, which spokesman said accounts for the gross revenue of the business, if the three defendants fail to pay the $5,000 or they lied about their financial conditions.

Ace Group, Inc., also known as American Credit Experts, Inc., The Ace Group, Inc., The Ace Group, and ACE; and Legal Credit Repair Center, Inc. were the subject of a federal lawsuit filed late last year by the FTC. Also cited were principals Michael Singer, Gerald Roth and Melvin Kessler.

The FTC said they told consumers they could get negative entries on their credit reports removed and charged $60 upfront and then another $60 a month thereafter. Dispute letters sent by the company didn't achieve the promised result, the FTC said.

The men agreed to stop collecting money from people who had signed up for their services and to protect their customers' identities as they dispose of the personal and financial information that had been collected. Two separate judgments were filed in the case: One that covered Singer and Roth and the other on Kessler, who filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws.

The FTC warns consumers that using such services isn't the solution to credit problems. The commission offers advice on its web site on what consumers with credit problems can do to help their situations. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has some additional information on avoid debt elimination scams.

A couple returning home from vacation found their locks re-keyed, the furniture gone and a man living there who claimed to be the legal owner in what has to be one of the most bizarre cases of home theft ever.

Daniel Judd, 66, has said he bought the house from a friend while Tom Decker and his wife Marie McArthur were away for six weeks, according to a Santa Cruz Sentinel story.

When the couple returned and complained to authorities about the man living in their home in Ben Lomond, Calif., Judd showed authorities a deed that is now thought to have falsified. The couple were barred from the property, although they're now back in after the scam was revealed.

As Aaron Crowe explained in his recent post, the new federal Cash For Clunkers program could be a sweet deal for some of you still driving old, inefficient iron.

However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NITSA), which runs the program, warns that scammers are already setting up Web sites to rip off people eager to see if their jalopies qualify.

Here's the deal, people -- go to www.Cars.gov for the real info on this program, the official name of which is the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS- get it?) You do not need to register beforehand for the program!

The true rip-off sites will try to convince you that you do need to register, and attempt to gather as much info about you as possible.

Here's a video news report from myfoxdc.com:

"Bizarre" skulker(s) in Seattle neighborhoods and city parks have been stealing trees, plants and shrubs, to the tune of thousands of dollars worth of public and private property.

One woman and plant theft victim, however, was a Costco shopper. And there was a sale. On security cameras.

Only a few weeks later, her video of a plant thief removing and making off with her new daphne shrub was making the waves on YouTube.

And then she was on NPR, giggling evilly about her new security measures. She's chained her magnolia tree to the fence. The new daphne? It's chained at the base, put the chain through some heavy pottery, and then: barbed wire. April Jahns says, if the thief comes back, "he's going to get poked. A little bonus for me."

When I pass a store sporting a large sign that reads "Going Out Of Business" I presume that it is, well, going out of business.

Not necessarily, however; a Texas businessman, after experiencing the frenzy that these words inspire in bargain vultures, decided to name his ongoing rug business "Going Out Of Business."

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), owner Cyrus Hassankola has done brisk trade in previous locations by going out of business. Unfortunately, the hurmorless, anti-business Texas Attorney General's office has forced him to rename his store, at least temporarily.

I ran into a similar strategy years ago when buying T-shirts for an event. The brand of the shirt stock was "Made In The USA," which meant they could have been made anywhere in the world.

If Hassankola wins his fight with the Texas AG, it could spawn a whole new store- naming protocol. I wouldn't be surprised to find chains adopting names such as:

• "Sheriff's Sale"
• "Divorce Sale -- Hurry, Before He Finds Out I'm Selling All His Toys"
• "I'm Drunk -- Make Me An Offer"
• "Garage Sale Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. -- ????"
• "Stuff Left In Unlocked Cars"
• "Junk I Fished Out Of The Trash"
• "My Son The Fence -- Inventory Reduction"
• "Evicted! Lawn Sale Today Only"
• "IRS Liquidation"
• "We All Went To Lunch And Forgot To Lock The Door"

Grandparents from coast to coast are getting shaken down and being conned into believing their grandchildren are being held in a Canadian jail and need cash to make bail. As unlikely as this scam might seem, it just keeps coming back -- something that happens when people pay up.

The Attorney General's office in Idaho issued an alert warning that people in that state have been targeted. About a dozen complaints were filed before the alert was issued, the office said.

This isn't just an Idaho thing. Grandparents across the nation have reported getting this call -- with some admitting they forked over the cash.

Phonebusters, a consortium of Canadian law enforcement authorities who monitor such scams, first noticed the increase in complaints about this one in the fall. As time has passed, more and more state and local authorities have been hearing the stories of elders being taken. The problem just keeps growing.