I have been meaning to write this post since Thanksgiving but never got a chance. Reminded of it, again, today when I saw this little article on Washington Journal about U.S. Mint facilitating free airline miles, unintentionally of course. Here is how it worked:

At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.

Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.

I am surprised U.S. Mint didn't put a limit on the number of purchases per household on these items. That would have prevented this little scam.

Anyway, I was recently made aware of a risk of leaving your car with a valet that I never thought about. Whenever you leave your car keys with a valet you're essentially leaving your house key and directions to your house with the valet. Most of us leave a garage door opener in our cars and our navigators know how to get us home. All a thief has to do is hit the "Home" button on a car's navigator and he will be home and back before you! Think about it next time you leave your car keys with someone. It's almost exactly like writing down your home address on your key-chain except it is not as explicit. One way to reduce such risks is to setup a password for your cars navigator or label a friend's address as "Home" and let the friend know why you did so.

• U.S. Mint to Resume Selling Some Gold Coins (online.wsj.com)
• The Count: When a Coin Doesn't Pull Its Own Weight (nytimes.com)
• Free Money From The U.S. Mint: Scheme, Scam, Or Gamble? [U.s. Mint] (consumerist.com)