Today’s Members Only report takes the Justice Department’s rent-pricing case down to the only question you have: How does this affect my rent?

That reporting runs in every issue, and Elliott Confidential PRO subscribers get all of it, plus Backchannel, the vault and my books. Don’t miss out.

Catch up on the latest stories from the Elliott Report

Help! Amazon said “yes” to a $179 refund — and then it said “no”
Andrew Greenman bought $179 sneakers from a third-party seller on Amazon and injured his ankle before he had worn them out. An Amazon agent emailed him a written promise of the money back within 48 hours, and the company’s executive customer relations office later ruled that its own agent’s promise didn’t comply with policy.

Why did Dollar charge me $1,858 for a car they didn’t have?
Dennis Drake returned a Jeep Compass to Dollar at the Albuquerque airport and flew home to Texas the same afternoon. Dollar’s system logged the car as still out, and the bill that followed came to $1,858 on top of insurance he had declined at the counter.

Help! Budget says I smoked in my car — but these photos prove nothing!
Ray Oswald and his wife returned their rental to Budget at O’Hare after a family funeral and left with a clean receipt for $312. The company billed them $450 for smoke residue five days later, citing photos of a cup holder that could have been taken in any white Mazda.

How AI bots are deceiving travelers—and what to do about it
A Baltimore engineer booked a Hershey, Pa., hotel on reviews praising its upscale amenities and attentive service, then found a broken air conditioner and dirty sheets. He checked the timestamps and saw the reviews had all posted in the same week.

Why I turned down a $15,000 case
A Pennsylvania carpenter says a fraudulent Western Union transfer cost him $15,000, and my team couldn’t take the case. It’s also the peg for our relaunched podcast, which opens on another file we lost and the twist that brought it back two years later.

JetBlue, Southwest and a week that changed everything
JetBlue announced a domestic first class cabin on Sept. 1, and the next morning Southwest said it’s opening airport lounges in four cities. For 25 years these were the two airlines that did it differently, and that ended in about 24 hours.

How to find $4,762 when Comcast says it’s gone
A San Francisco reader meant to pay her credit card and sent $4,762 to Comcast by mistake. The refund came back on a prepaid debit card, and by the time she checked the balance it read $82, with no transaction list anyone could produce to explain it.

Gerri Hether and her husband keep finding fraudulent Medicare claims under their names for urinary catheters and equipment neither of them ordered, and the most recent one carried the name of a physician practicing in their own city, a doctor they had never met. She checks the Medicare summaries every month and reports each claim, and so far none of the money has been clawed back. What can a beneficiary do when the billing keeps reappearing under a new company name? Here’s what our team said on Backchannel.