Some usefull info I thought I would share

   Subject: Hotel Magnetic Key Cards

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?

A. Customer’s name

B. Customer’s partial home address

C. Hotel room number

D. Check-in date and out dates

E. Customer’s credit card number and expiration date!

When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is
there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the
hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and
using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop
computer and go shopping at your expense.

Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until
an employee re-issues the card to the next hotel guest. At that
time, the new guest’s information is electronically “overwritten” on
the card and the previous guest’s information is erased in the
overwriting process. But until the card is rewritten for the next
guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR
INFORMATION ON IT!

The bottom line is:

Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.

NEVER! Leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER
turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They
will not charge you for the card (it’s illegal) and you’ll be sure
you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it
that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card
reader.

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you
still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport
trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up,
especially through the electronic information strip!

Information courtesy of: Pasadena Police Department

 

Found by David Schulkin

When bargain is too good to be true, its too good to be true

The subject line reads “Urgent Business Request,” and in the body of the message a seemingly desperate person asks the recipient to help transfer money out of Nigeria and into the U.S. The message, in broken English, is sprinkled with words like “top secret,” “trapped funds,” “utterly confidential,” and promises a cut of the funds in returnMost people who get these messages know it’s a common scam referred to as the “Nigerian e-mail scam” — officially called the “419 scam” and also called the Advance Fee Fraud — and they delete them.But others are falling for the 90-year-old trick, and it’s costing them hundreds — even thousands — of dollars.

Mary Winkler, the woman accused of killing her pastor husband in Tennessee, was said to have been duped by the scam, causing tension in her relationship with her husband. Her family members just this week claims she was abused by her spouse.A 76-year-old woman in Port Charlotte, Fla., recently reportedly lost $42,000 to the scam; she wired $30,000 to a person in New York and $12,000 to alleged employees of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a local paper in Florida reported.The number of people falling for the scam is steadily increasing, with 55,419 lodging complaints in 2005 of at least receiving an e-mail that appeared to be a scam, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That’s almost three times the amount received in 2002, which was 21,616.Because the scam takes so many forms and affects so many industries, it’s impossible to nail down exactly how much money is lost to the fraud, according to Patricia Armstrong of the Postal Service Inspection.But Audri Lanford, co-director of

Scambusters.org, a service that helps fight Internet fraud, estimates that $200 million a year is lost to the Nigerian e-mail scam or variations of it.There are three types of people who fall for Nigerian e-mail scams, according to Lanford, who says she has heard from hundreds of victims. Many who fall for it are typically under extreme financial difficulties.“They’re at the end of their rope,” Lanford said. “They look at this as a potential saving thing for them.”

The next group of victims typically expects something for nothing, she continued.

“They haven’t heard of it before, which at this point is surprising, and they’re excited that they can get this money for nothing — and they don’t wonder why someone’s going to give them millions of dollars.”

Lastly, she said, people affiliated with religious groups tend to fall victim to the scam. Frauds often target ministries, Lanford explained, because they are hoping to give large amounts of money to charity. “It isn’t for personal gain,” Lanford said.

Church leaders will receive an e-mail saying that the sender’s deceased spouse wanted their estate to go to a good cause, and the sender has picked this particular parish after praying to God. Then the minister or church leader is asked to send money to cover wire transfer costs and other incidentals.

Kim Bruce, spokeswoman for the U.S. Secret Service — the agency charged with investigating the fraud — said it’s nearly impossible to prosecute the scammers because they live in other countries.“It’s very prevalent,” Bruce said. “It’s out there, because we get word of it all the time. There aren’t a lot of arrests because it’s in other countries.”The Secret Service once kept a branch office in Lagos, Nigeria, to help investigate financial fraud stemming from that African country, according to the FTC.

The Nigerian government says the country is a hotbed for scammers because of mass unemployment among an educated population and large extended families for whom people have to provide for, according to an advisory issued by the Secret Service.

One of the reasons people are still getting swindled, Bruce said, is because there are several new twists to the same old scam.

Last month, an e-mail circulated posing to be from FBI Direct Robert Mueller, telling recipients they’ve inherited a large sum of money, and in order to retrieve it, they must obtain a special FBI-approved certificate. Of course, responders must send money in order to get the certificate.In another scam, instead of claiming to have inherited a large sum of money, some potential swindlers will pose as soldiers from Iraq needing to transfer money to a U.S. bank account. Then, just like the traditional scam, they will ask victims to wire them money to cover endless transfer fees, promising a cut of the final amount. Of course, there is no final amount. If a check is ever sent, it’s sure to be counterfeit.Another new trend, Bruce said, comes with the rise in popularity of auction Web sites.

“It’s very prevalent on Ebay, and people selling things online,” Bruce said.

Scammers will bid on an item for sale and tell the seller the check is in the mail. The seller ships off whatever he is selling — a $1,500 laptop computer, in the case of one trusting New Yorker, as reported by the New York Daily News — before receiving money for the purchase. Or the victim may do receive a check, but it bounces when cashed.

“The person will send the item, and then find out the check is counterfeit,” Bruce said.

Another trend involves classified ads. Scammers will post fake job ads, and interested parties are asked to fill out an application, complete with personal information that includes date of birth and Social Security number — everything the scammer needs to swindle the victim.

In the Iraq scam, the swindler poses as soldier needing to transfer money into a U.S. account. The victim then is asked to send money to cover the transfer fees.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command recently issued a press release warning people stationed overseas against e-mail scams. But Christopher Grey, chief of public affairs for the command, said the warning was only precautionary, and that soldiers aren’t being targeted by the scam.

“It is intended to assist our Army families. We just wanted to make sure we protect our force,” Grey said, adding that there are “very few, less than a handful” of reported cases of fraud in the Army.

This is as real as it gets folks

I am sure you saw the tape of “Kramer “doing his comedy routine and lost his professional cool and went ballistic on a black gentleman because of his comments about the show not being funny.

Which he had every right to do so, just as the comic had every right to work as a professional and would like a little respect from the audience. I am sure everyone would agree, that if someone came to your job and told you how poor of a worker you are and you are doing a shitty job you might have done worse and maybe even use physical force. I found this on the Internet and though I need to share it to broaden people horizons about people acting hypocritical towards each other.Please try to be civilized and think about this deeply before you comment.

Were you ever in that situation when you had to be a racist?

You can only be honest with yourself and in your heart you know if you did or did not, you dont have to tell us if you feel ashamed.

Someone finally said it. How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc. and then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me “Whiteboy”,”Cracker”, “Honkey”, “Whitey”, “Caveman” and that’s OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towelhead, Sand-Nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink you call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund.

You have Martin Luther King Day.

You have Black History Month.

You have Cesar Chavez Day.

You have Yom Hashoah

You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi

You have the NAACP.

You have BET.

If we had WET(White Entertainment Television) we’d be racists.

If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists.

If we had White History Month, we’d be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to “advance” our lives, we’d be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that?

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we’d be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were “White colleges” that would be a racist college.

In the Million-Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?

Holidays are near and bargainshaq is ready

I just wanted to let people know that I am almost done with my virtual mall portal. I got aproved by major companies to give me referals special deals. You will find copmanies like Dell, Radio Shack, Wal-Mart, NBA, ESPN, NBC, NHL, NETFLIX, Fijitsu, Toshiba, Calvin Kline and many more. get all your gifts delivered right to your home. I am not sure where you live, but when I lived in NYC and Denver it was a crazy time trying to go shopping and ever a bigger challenge finding a parking spot. I am also working on building a complete new portal with SOBI category manager that will make it so much easier to search for bargains. Its a complete system that allows users search for an exact item they are looking for. I will keep everyone updated on when I am going to launch it.

Weight gain means lower gas mileage

10/25/2006, 4:49 p.m. ETBy LINDSEY TANNER The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That’s the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage.

Using recent gas prices of $2.20 a gallon, that translates to about $2.2 billion more spent on gas each year.

“The bottom line is that our hunger for food and our hunger for oil are not independent. There is a relationship between the two,” said University of Illinois researcher Sheldon Jacobson, a study co-author.

“If a person reduces the weight in their car, either by removing excess baggage, carrying around less weight in their trunk, or yes, even losing weight, they will indeed see a drop in their fuel consumption.”The lost mileage is pretty small for any single driver. Jacobson said the typical driver — someone who records less than 12,000 miles annually — would use roughly 18 fewer gallons of gas over the course of a year by losing 100 pounds. At $2.20 per gallon, that would be a savings of almost $40.

Outside experts said that even if the calculations aren’t exact, the study makes sense.

“If you put more weight into your car, you’re going to get fewer miles per gallon,” Emory University health care analyst Kenneth Thorpe said Wednesday.

The same effect has been seen in airplanes. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that heavy fliers have contributed to higher fuel costs for airlines.

The obesity rate among U.S. adults doubled from 1987 to 2003, from about 15 percent to more than 30 percent. Also, the average weight for American men was 191 pounds in 2002 and 164 pounds for women, about 25 pounds heavier than in 1960, government figures show.

The study’s conclusions are based on those weight figures and Americans’ 2003 driving habits, involving roughly 223 million cars and light trucks nationwide.

HIV/AIDS Needles hidden under gas pumps

In Florida and other places on the East Coast a group of people are putting HIV/AIDS infected and filled needles underneath gas pump handles, so when someone reaches to pick it up and put gas in their car, they get stabbed with it. 16 people have been a victim of this crime so far and 10 tested HIV positive. Instead of posting that stupid crap about how your love life will suck for years to come of you don’t re-post, post this. It’s important to inform people, even if you don’t drive, a family member might, and what if they were next? CHECK UNDER THE HANDLE BEFORE YOU GRAB IT!!! IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE! Tell as many people as you can about this serious issue!!!!

Bargains On The Net (Pt.3)

This is the final part of the series about ID theft and Internet fraud. This will be more or less an overview and a tutorial on how to prevent, or take proper step to lessen your chances of getting your personal information compromised. Being a victim of such a crime , I devoted myself to letting the public know how to avoid the pitfalls and stay away from scum. Usually, in most cases the criminal impersonates the individual rather then removes his identity for personal financial gain. I trusted a few people that came from my country to help me get a great business going with unlimited potential and I got screwed in the process.

Ways to steal your ID.

• stealing mail or rummaging through rubbish (dumpster diving in the USA)
• eavesdropping on public transactions to obtain personal data (shoulder surfing)
• stealing personal information in computer databases
• infiltration of organizations that store large amounts of personal information
• impersonating a trusted organisation in an electronic communication (phishing)
• Spam (electronic): Some, if not all Spam requires you to respond to alleged contests, enter into “Good Deals”.

You have to ask yourself, how does this impact our economy or services? You will see unbelievable statistics in a few lines.Many of us are ignorant to the fact that we are not as savvy as we think we are. The are people that devote themselves to the life of crime, and the first thing they thin about when they wake up is how am I going to get all the money that someone has or buy goods for myself without paying for them. For these “outstanding citizens” it is a regular job just like you and me going to work everyday.

In 2006 the loss due to fraud rose to over $56 billion, and the average fraud per person rose from $5300 in 2003 to almost $6400 in 2006. Some of these guys are living in Hawaii I bet, or in Mexico living it up on honest peoples expense. Does this effect you physically or physiologically? A survey was conducted by ITRC and here are the results below.

The 2003 survey from the Identity Theft Resource Centre found that :

• Only 15% of victims find out about the theft due to a proactive action taken by a business
• The average time spent by victims resolving the problem is about 600 hours
• 73% of respondents indicated the crime involved the thief acquiring a credit card
• The emotional impact is similar to that of victims of violent crime.

I am too smart to get my identity stolen, I take good care of my personal information, Everything in my house and bank is secure. Do any of these quotes sound familiar? If anyone has been a victim of fraud, they will tell you that there is always someone that is clever enough to beat the system or get information that they need, especially with the Internet emerging as the number one source of information to the general public. Here are some of the ways to avoid becoming a prey to these “animals”.

The following precautions are recommended by the US Federal Trade Commission ^[12] :

• Shred documents and paperwork which contain personal information before you discard them.
• Don’t give out personal information unless you know who you are dealing with.
• Never click on links in unsolicited emails; instead, type in a web address which you know
• Use firewalls, anti-spyware, and anti-virus software to protect your home computer;
• Don’t use obvious passwords like your birth date or your mother’s maiden name
• Keep your personal information in a secure place at home
• Be alert for discrepancies in your financial bills and statements and query them immediately
• Report fraud as soon as you detect it

The following have also been recommended

• Collect delivered postal mail as soon as possible.
• Use reliable ATM’s at reputable sites only.
• Look for any suspicious attachments to an ATM and if in doubt, do not use the ATM but report the problem.
• Be aware of your surrounding when using an ATM. Hide what you type on a keypad from others.
• Limit the amount of personal information you publish on the web.
• When shopping on-line, make sure the company is reputable and displays an approved security symbol.
• When handing over your credit card, do not let it out of your sight.
• If you are traveling, tell the post office to hold your mail until your return or have someone you trust collect it

The following are specific to the USA :

• Protect your Social Security number. Don’t carry your Social Security card in your wallet or write your Social Security number on a check. Give it out only if absolutely necessary or ask to use another identifier.
• Don’t order checks pre-printed with your driver’s license or social security number.
• Don’t carry your social security card unless absolutely needed. In states where your driver’s license number is your social security number, be equally careful about who sees your license.
• Freeze your credit, if available in your state so that no one can open any form of credit in your name.
• Request your own credit report each year and check the reports for inaccuracies and new lines of credit issued that you did not request.

Hopefully this article will help a few people and if I can help just one person to avoid this drama and a terrible experience then I have done my job as a good Samaritan and a kind human being.

Bargains on the Net (fraud Pt.2)

Good Monday to all bargain hunters. This is the second part of our fraud series. Fraud is crippling our economy and causes tremendous losses in the retail industry. Not only does this drive up prices, but also puts the consumer in the state of fear to use credit. I hope that everyone is aware that criminals are not compassionate people and usually don’t care about the victims. There are steps that were taken to hurt this criminal element and hopefully discourage others. I will discuss this later in this article.

In 2006 the US Bureau of Justice Statistics for the federal Justice Department, drawing on interviews with members of 42,000 randomly selected households over the last half of 2004, claimed that 3.6 million US households were victims of identity theft during that period – in contrast to a Federal Trade Commission study that estimated 9.3 million victims. It estimated the identity theft-related loss to households at US$3.2 billion.These statistics may I remind you only pertain to USA, you can only imagine what the numbers are worldwide.Now lets chat a bit about the other three ways to scam credit cards.

Forth way is called mail non-receipt fraud where a thief intercepts the replacement or a new card sent to a legitimate owner. This is the reason why most credit card companies urge you to call from your home when activating a new or a newly replaced card. The called ID will verify that the person calling matches the home number information on the original application. The other ways they verify is by social security number, mothers maiden name, where you first got the card and home address.

Another creative way to scam a credit card company is chargeback, this is where a legitimate card holder makes a purchase on goods or service, but then claims that they never authorized the transaction . This is also called first-party fraud.

The last fraud that we are going to talk about is very personal to me, since that is how I got frauded. Its called skimming, this is where an employee of a legitimate merchant manually copies the credit card information, or uses a card reader to copy the magnetic strip information. Cards that contain smart chip can not be copied by a magnetic strip reader.

Now we ask, how do we protect ourselves, and what is being done about it. Well folks the help is on the way and it came as a white knight riding with a huge sword called “Operation Cyber Sweep” . They are the angels that took down a small ring of crooks that I trusted with my company information as well as personal information. I started one of the first Wireless Broadband companies in Southern California just to be shattered by these crooks. They were part of a huge sting, but you can read about it more in detail by clicking on this link .

We are all looking for the best deals on the Internet.

How do we tell a great deal from a bogus one? One thing I did learn growing up in different countries and areas of our great country of United States of America is that in the capitalistic setting everyone is trying to make a profit without actually using any ethics or care for the customer. Throughout the years me being a salesperson and a customer, I have seen many companies use great marketing techniques and phone sales pitches to push their product. As the Internet became more popular many retailers jumped on the e-commerce market, which catered to all whom had a plastic credit card and a CVS code. This “e-trend” created a brand new market and an evil playground for credit card fraud. Speaking from personal experience and being a victim of my business identity being stolen I realized how careful you have to be when dealing with merchants in person or on the web.
First thing to remember is to realize that when the deal is too good to be true, it is too good to be true. If you have not seen a price even close to what they are offering you in the store, catalog, or the Internet be vary weary about this merchant.
Second there are what is called Phishing website. What these brilliant criminals do is create a perfect copy of a very popular web sites. Then they buy a list from a list company with the targeted company as criteria. Then they mask the return email to look like its coming from the authentic source. Once you decide to open the email and click on that coded link it will take you to, what I called the “info-black-hole”. This is where any information that you provide inside the form provided is sent to a server that could be in another country and going through a “proxy” server that can hide the thief’s identity. If USA does not have the authority to check logs, records or the company that hosts the server does not cooperate you are basically out of luck.
Third and final lesson for today’s post is not to judge the book by its cover.
There are those really “smart” people that you don’t see during the day, and most likely will not see them at night, because when everyone is sleeping or closed they are lurking
trying to open your “e-wallet” to get your personal information, SSI number, account numbers and passwords. You will be surprised what these people look like. They can be a 12-year-old kid or that transient picking through your garbage can. A rule to follow is “DO NOT TRUST ANYONE WITH YOUR PERSONAL DATA.”
There are plenty of clever ruthless people that will try to prey on the weak and the elderly. Make sure you shred all your documents, statements, anything that has your personal information, account numbers, PIN, passwords.
One of the new comers to change that is http://bargainshaq.com. This site is getting a full work over this weekend and by Monday will be much more organized. Easy to find bargains including various categories and a special section for Super Hot Bargains that will be updated daily.

Please check in now and then for a complete list of merchandise and categories.
http://bargainshaq.com/”

This is Part 1 of a series regarding protecting the consumer from fraud and identity theft.
By,

Vinnie