| Beware of e-mail scams this holiday season
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Just in time for Cyber Monday and the online holiday shopping rush, high-tech Grinches are cranking up their fraud attacks with a new round of bogus e-mail, identity-theft experts say.Have you won $2 million in a Christmas sweepstakes held by Coca-Cola in the United Kingdom? Can you make big bucks just by cashing checks for an Irish researcher, Chinese exporter or rich oil consultant in Dubai? Is there a problem with your account at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, eBay or PayPal?No. But you might think so if you fall for some of the recent e-mail scams infesting the Internet.And they always peak this time of year, as millions of shoppers spend more time on the Web. Online shopping has grown at a double-digit pace in recent years. More than 70 million are expected to surf the Web this year for presents.“We do see e-mail and phone scams picking up during the holiday season," said Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a watchdog group based in San Diego.
Deciphering the disk drive conundrum
Issues of privacy, information security and identity theft are concerns for all organizations, big and small. Individuals and corporations alike find themselves increasingly vulnerable to the destruction and corruption of sensitive data, including transaction records, banking details, password files, digital photos and even video clips. .
DCF supervisor charged in theft of $1.5 million from Plantation office
A supervisor at the Florida Department of Children & Families office in Plantation has been charged, along with two alleged accomplices, with stealing more than $1.5 million in state welfare money.
The supervisor gained access to a welfare recipient's account and authorized that additional money be placed in it — money that was later withdrawn by the supervisor and one of the alleged accomplices.
Violet Jones, 41, of Miramar, worked for the social services agency for 22 years with an annual salary of $37,600 but on Friday was terminated, officials said. She was arrested Thursday night and remained in the Broward County Jail late Friday on $600,000 bail.
.
Black Friday not bleak, Retail Council says; NY shoppers "resilient"
Barbie is still big with girls. Spider Man is a hit with boys. And boys and girls both love the Nintendo Wii. Those were among the hot ticket items Nov. 23-25, according to the Retail Council of New York State. The council said door-buster specials and other discounts during Black Friday weekend surprised retailers this year. More than 60 percent of the merchants surveyed by the Retail Council said they were pleased with their stores' sales last weekend. Nearly 80 percent of the surveyed merchants said their sales for the weekend were the same as or better than their sales over the same period last year, the council said. "Despite a lot of doom-and-gloom in advance of the season, this Black Friday weekend proved just how resilient New York state's consumers can be," said Retail Council president and CEO James Sherin.
Wilson will lead boys hoops club
So much for secrecy. Of course, when you have been starting on the varsity squad since your freshman year, you're bound to get lots of attention. And his statistics aren't bad, either. Wilson, a first-team All-Portage Trail Conference County Division first-team performer and honorable mention pick of the Northeastern Ohio District all-star team, averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds last season. As a result, Wilson led his team to a 12-9 overall record and a 10-4 mark in the County Division. Streetsboro finished in a tie for third in the County Division. Windham won the division last season. The Rockets' 2006-07 season came to an end when they lost a heartbreaking 53-52 decision to Aurora in the opening round of the Division III playoffs.
Seminar provides tips to prevent identity theft
If knowledge is power, Carryl Grubbs has the upper hand.Grubbs, accompanied by her husband, Glen, was among a crowd of about 25 cautious Lake Saint Louis residents eagerly awaiting the start of a seminar Tuesday on how to prevent identity theft.The hour-long presentation, hosted by the city's police department, was meant to address the area's need for a heightened awareness of the dangerous issue, one that Grubbs said she now feels better prepared for."No one wants to think something is going to happen, but it's obvious that it happens before you know it," she said.That's what instructor Joan Crenshaw wanted her audience to remember most: When it comes to identity theft, it's all about prevention. So much so, said Crenshaw, senior vice president of New Frontier Bank, that she has been to dozens of church basements, organizations and homes in St.
Power Industry 2000-2004
Between 2000 and 2002, sales increased at the rate of 32-34% per year, and RAO's physical power sales, like the energy market volume, increased 5-6% in four years. Out of 915 billion kWh of electricity generated in Russia in 2003, RAO accounted for 635 billion kWh (about 600 billion in 2000). Finally, despite the opposition of many government structures, both RAO and Rosenergoatom reached a stable level of profitability. But all of these successes were owing to people whose main goal was to break up the Unified Energy System of Russia.
History: 2000-2004
RAO UES of Russia, the Russian electric power monopolist, has solved two contradictory problems. It had to prepare the market for a large-scale change of owners and rules of the game, but without giving up control over its own property.
|
