When you suspect infidelity in your relationship it can be difficult to determine whether or not your suspicions are valid and if so, what to do next. The following graphic displays the six major signs of a cheating spouse, what to expect in an infidelity investigation and other statistics on infidelity and marriage. Contact A2Z Investigations if you think your spouse is cheating on you
Signs of a Cheating Spouse
In today’s technology landscape, people are becoming increasingly aware of security issues. It has almost become second nature for people to understand the importance of keeping their computers and laptops safe from unauthorized access and malicious attacks. In recent years, the advent of the smartphone has taken center stage as people have been enticed by the convenience of having all the power of a desktop computer in their pocket. According to Plateau, a telecomm provider, an estimated 96% of the US population currently uses cell phones.
Every year, 1 in 4 Americans will lose their cell phone
Source: Intuit, 2012
Some smartphones can cost an upward of $500 and yet are quite an easy little item to steal. The information that you keep on your device can be worth more than money. Therefore, it is increasingly important for people to educate themselves on the safe use of smartphones and how to secure their personal data kept therein.
The following are tips and hints to help you keep your smartphone protected from physical theft, data theft, access, and more.
A good password will have at least 8 characters or many more, contain both capital and lower case letters, a number and a special character (ex: # or !).
Password protect your voicemail and general entry into your phone. And, do not use your date of birth or dog’s name as these are the first passwords someone who knows even a little bit about you, (or find out about you on social media), will try. A good password will have at least 8 characters or many more, contain both capital and lower case letters, a number and a special character (ex: # or !).
If you use a pattern password on your touch-screen phone, be sure to change it often. Drawing a pattern on your phone’s screen over and over again will create small scratches which will eventually show the pattern.
Be sure to utilize a reputable smartphone antivirus such as Avast® (www.avast.com) or Lookout™ (www.lookout.com). Kapersky™ (www.kaspersky.com) is also an excellent provider. You wouldn’t imagine using your laptop without an antivirus so why would you neglect putting one on your smartphone which is essentially a tiny computer?
Many smartphones and their carriers include a tracking solution. Several of the smartphone antivirus programs also offer a tracking option for lost and stolen phones. Double check that your phone is covered by one of these programs and TEST IT!
Backup your phone data regularly (personal information, bank and medical information which could be on your phone, contact information, photos, etc.). Make the backup automated and store it in a secure cloud which is encrypted. Test the restoration process.
In the Unites States, approximately 113 cell phones are lost or stolen every minute.
Source: Plateau, 2012
You will want to be cautious with which applications you install on your smartphone. Some are malicious and many ask that you approve a list of permissions. Read the entire list of permissions and use common sense as to whether they are logical. Why would a flashlight application need access to your email contacts? Some apps ask permission to be able to write or delete information on your SIM card. Stick to the iPhone App Store and Android Market for trusted and screened applications.
Use protective apps with encryption that also give remote access. Some of the smartphone antivirus programs include remote wipe capability software which can be used clear the phone’s data if the phone is lost or stolen. If only we could do this to the contents of a stolen wallet!
When walking down the street and talking on your phone, be aware of your surroundings. It’s quite easy for a thief to see you distracted and just nab it out of your hand and run. Having a wrist strap on your phone and using it can also help make this method of theft more difficult.
Be aware of your surroundings when using public transit. Cell phone users are a great target and thieves have an easy getaway when the subway or bus stops. Don’t even take out your phone as this would advertise how nice the phone is to any potential thief.
1 in 5 school-aged children have had their mobile phone stolen
Source: Plateau, 2012
Don’t leave your phone lying around. Don’t leave it in plain sight in your car or home near a window.
Turn off the geo-tagging feature which usually is automatically setup on the cell phone at the time of purchase. Any photos taken with the geo-tagging feature turned on can disclose the location in which the photo was taken; your office, home or even specific room in the house. Anyone searching your social media page can likely find more about your than you suspected by using photos taken by your cell phone.
$7 Million worth of smartphones are lost daily
Source: Plateau, 2012
$30 Billion worth of smartphones are lost each year in the United States alone
Source: Intuit, 2012
If your phone is lost, make it easier for it to be returned. You can add contact information to the lock-screen. Just don’t list the number to the phone itself! Perhaps you can include a work number or non-primary email address.
Document your phone’s serial number and IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) and store it in a safe place. That information will be imperative to have for an insurance claim or police report.
Turn off the feature on your cell phone which automatically connects it to a wireless network. Having that feature on allows anyone to be able to nab your logins and passwords right off of your phone as you walk by-phone in use or not. With the auto-connect WiFi feature, your phone will continue to search for a local connection and allow authToken information on your phone (which stores your login details for frequently used sites such as social media sites, online banking, etc.) vulnerable for hackers.
for more information about security – visit www.a2zinvestigations.com
source of article: http://www.pinow.com/articles/1475/how-to-keep-your-smartphone-secure
photo courtesy of HER Nashville
To the uninitiated, a private investigator’s job conjures images straight out of classic crime fiction: old fedoras, a frosted office door, a chatty babe answering phones, and, most important of all, the client—a mysterious dame, long on trouble but short on cash.
Except for the unpaid bills (a timeless concern, from Sam Spade to Rockford), the life of a modern-day PI doesn’t particularly imitate art. No fedora, no dimly-lit office, no blonde-bombshell receptionist. And in the case of my colleague Renee Waters, the mysterious dame is the private eye.
Tall, blonde, and confident, Waters has been a private investigator for more than a decade. She not only loves the work; she feels that she’s doing something that matters. “What makes me good at what I do is what I call a little chip on my shoulder and a lot of passion in my heart,” says Waters, sipping a cocktail at Patterson House, a speakeasy-inspired bar that does rather evoke the era of Chandler and Hammett.
Waters’s passion is helping young mothers collect the child support payments they are legally owed. And the chip on her shoulder comes from the fact that she was one of those young mothers 20 years ago, holding down two jobs and struggling to raise her 6-year-old on her own.
“My son’s backpack came from Goodwill every year,” she says, without bitterness. “He wasn’t thrilled about it, but that’s the way it was … it’s a stigma.”
Her ex-husband told the courts he couldn’t make his support payments because he wasn’t working, but Waters suspected otherwise. She ran across a phone number she thought might be his work number, and (in those dark days before the Internet) searched every listing in the Millersville directory until she found a match … and an address.
“So I borrowed my parents’ Polaroid camera and went to that address,” she explains. “And 45 minutes later, I had pictures of him up in a bucket trimming trees.”
“When I finally figured out what a private investigator was,” says Waters, “I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s how I can help.’”
With proof of his prevarication in hand, Nashville Judge Muriel Robinson told Waters’s ex (as recounted by Waters): “Here’s how it works. When you get your paycheck, you pay your child support, and if there’s anything left after that, then you get to eat.” And then Judge Robinson had him hauled out of her courtroom in handcuffs.
Waters’s hard-won evidence so impressed Judge Robinson that she then called Waters back to the stand. “And she told me that I did a good job, that I had done something that most young mothers don’t have the wherewithal to do,” Waters recalls, emotion rising in her voice. “And when I left there, that pat on my back, I still have it. I left there knowing what I was gonna do.”
Waters knew she wanted to turn that same dogged resourcefulness towards helping other single parents in situations like hers. At the time, she didn’t know what form that help would take. “When I finally figured out what a private investigator was,” says Waters, “I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s how I can help.’”
Not all of her clients are single moms (and sometimes dads) seeking the child support owed them. But Waters is drawn to those cases, and mothers in need seem to seek her out.
She recognizes them on sight. “They’re devastated,” she says. “They don’t know what to do. They have two or three sick children, it’s the middle of winter, vehicles don’t run, they’re barely getting by with just the money they bring in themselves.
“It’s not just a financial struggle,” Waters adds knowingly. “It’s emotional. They feel like they’ve been abandoned. They feel like nobody understands. They’re embarrassed.
“And so I want to help,” says Waters. “I have to help. I think that’s what I was put here to do.”
source: http://pursuitmag.com/who-we-are-renee-waters-deadbeat-parent-finder/
for more information – visit http://www.a2zinvestigations.com
Think about the last time your surfed the net for discount boots or delicate medical conditions: Every site you browsed was tracked and stored in memory. You’ve been profiled—your interests dutifully recorded and cataloged, all in the quest for your almighty click.
After all, someone has to make money somewhere…and the price may be your privacy.
Take heart. Even as you surf under the murky shadow of Google’s Big Brother presence, it IS still possible to evade its lurking clutches.
Here’s how:
This global search behemoth has revolutionized the way we learn and share information, and how we shop, interact, and converse. Its reach is mind-boggling—hence, the need to protect our privacy from its Eye of Sauron.
There are ways to search cyberspace, all the while keeping your identity to yourself…or at least tagged as “anonymous.” Try installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser add-on in your Google account. You can also clear your web history, or try tracking the trackers using services like Ghostery.
Cookies (or “small text files”) are used by website owners to glean information about who you are, what sites you browse, and other personal information. Sure, they’re great for marketers, website owners, and advertisers; but they’re not so great for users.
To remove and clear your browsing history (without leaving crumbs for cookies to follow), go to the Internet Explorer ‘tools’ menu at the top of your computer screen, click on ‘Internet Options,’ then proceed to the ‘General’ tab. Look for your ‘Browsing History,’ where you can delete your web history and thwart any further disturbances from those pesky little nuisances.
This internet tool is a free download that promises the browser online privacy. Developed for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as part of an onion-routing project, it was originally intended to protect government communications. Now, anyone can use it to keep their online movements private.
One of the benefits of Tor is its hidden services, which allow website owners and internet users to surf without revealing their location. This is an essential tool for journalists or contract workers in foreign countries who may want to contact family members but need to avoid revealing their location, for safety or national security reasons.
The internet is a great tool. It’s a free ticket to a nearly cosmic quantity of information. (There’s a reason it’s called “cyberspace,” after all.) But there is a price to pay for all this knowledge: your privacy.
Protecting your anonymity online is a perpetual cat-and-mouse game, and the trick is to stay one step ahead of the trackers. Use good sense about allowing your personal information online, clear your web history often, and experiment with tools like Tor, and maybe you’ll stay under the big Google radar.
source: http://pursuitmag.com/protect-your-privacy-while-surfing-the-net/
for more information visit http://www.a2zinvestigations.com
Psst, Your Amazon Kindle Is Spying On You
For literature lovers, nothing beats spending the evening alone with a good book. But for owners of Kindles and other e-reading devices, that tradition is no longer as easy as sending the kids off to a sleepover.
In all, the foundation pored through the privacy policies of nine of the most commonly used e-reading options. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), which makes the industry-leading Kindle, is among the most egregious. Not only does the company’s policy give it the right to keep an eye on searches, purchases and what you’re reading, it also says Amazon may share information outside the company without your consent. And if you regret searching for that Ayn Rand book back when people were still taking about Paul Ryan, you’re out of luck. Amazon grants you “no right to access or delete search and purchase history,” according to EFF.
Amazon isn’t the only e-reading offender, however. The book retailer Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) engages in many of the same practices with customers who own its Nook. Ditto for Sony (NYSE: SNE) and its Kobo reader.
A comprehensive chart published by EFF contains the full breakdown of each e-reader. According to its website, EFF is a nonprofit civil-rights organization founded in 1990 in response to proto-Internet data tracking by the U.S. government. Today the organization is a fervent proponent of “do not track” mechanisms that curb online tracking by companies and advertisers.
Of course, aggressive data collection is hardly news to anyone who’s been on the Internet for the last 15 years, but the seemingly innocuous facade of e-readers, which simulate the solitary experience of book reading, may lull users into a false sense of privacy. This concerns privacy watchdogs like EFF’s Cindy Cohn, who told the Wall Street Journal in July that companies such as Amazon should be more open and flexible about their policies.
“There’s a societal ideal that what you read is nobody else’s business,” she told the paper. “Right now, there’s no way for you to tell Amazon, I want to buy your books, but I don’t want you to track what I’m reading.”
So if you were planning on curling up alone with a good e-book this weekend, choose your reading material carefully. Unless, of course, it’s Orwell — then by all means.
source: http://www.ibtimes.com/psst-your-amazon-kindle-spying-you-925439
Android Devices in US
Android devices are now attacked more often by malware than PCs, according to a report released Tuesday by a cyber security software maker.
The 2013 Security Threat Report from Sophos revealed that almost 10 percent of Android devices in the U.S. have experienced a malware attack over a three-month period in 2012, compared to about 6 percent of PCs.
The situation is worse in Australia, where more than 10 percent of Android devices have been attacked by malware, compared with about 8 percent for PCs.
With 52.2 percent of the smartphone market in the United States, Android has become a tempting target, Sophos reported. “Targets this large are difficult for malware authors to resist,” the report said. “And they aren’t resisting – attacks against Android are increasing rapidly.”
Sophos noted that the most common malware attack on Android involves installing a fake app on a handset and secretly sending expensive messages to premium-rate SMS services.
Cyber criminals have also found ways to subvert two-factor authentication used by financial institutions to protect mobile transactions, according to the report. They do that by planting eavesdropping malware on a handset to obtain the authentication code sent to a phone by a bank to complete a transaction.
During 2012, the report said, hackers showed ambition by attacking more platforms – social networks, cloud services and mobile devices – and nimbleness by rapidly responding to security research findings and leveraging zero-day exploits more effectively.
In addition, hackers attacked thousands of badly configured websites and databases, using them to expose passwords and deliver malware to unsuspecting Internet users, the report noted.
More than 80 percent of all “drive-by” attacks on unsuspecting Web surfers occur at legitimate websites, according to the report.
It explained that attackers hack into legitimate websites and plant code that generates links to a server distributing malware. When a visitor arrives at the legitimate site, their browser will automatically pull down the malicious software along with the legitimate code from the website.
The Sophos report also identified the five riskiest and safest countries in the world for experiencing malware attacks. Hong Kong was the riskiest country, with 23.54 percent of its PCs experiencing a malware attack over a three-month period in 2012. It was followed by Taiwan (21.26 percent), the United Arab Emirates (20.78 percent), Mexico (19.81 percent) and India (17.44 percent).
Norway (1.81 percent) was the safest country against malware attacks, followed by Sweden (2.59 percent), Japan (2.63 percent), the United Kingdom (3.51 percent) and Switzerland (3.81 percent).
“Security really is about more than Microsoft,” the report said. “The PC remains the biggest target for malicious code today, yet criminals have created effective fake antivirus attacks for the Mac.
“Malware creators are also targeting mobile devices as we experience a whole new set of operating systems with different security models and attack vectors,” it added. “Our efforts must focus on protecting and empowering end users – no matter what platform, device, or operating system they choose.”
Insurance fraud agents get shotguns, fast cars
In recent months, the unit has bought new police cars, shotguns, uniforms, badges, body armor and other equipment for the seven-member unit, and some are asking why.
“There’s no reason for John Doak to be rolling up to a business or any other area in a SWAT-style vehicle mounted with shotguns,” said state Sen. Harry Coates, R-Seminole. “That’s insanity.”
Doak’s duties are really pretty simple – regulate insurance companies and protect consumers – and anything involving higher order police work should be left to sheriff’s deputies and police officers, Coates said.
Coates said he had no issue with giving bulletproof vests and handguns to insurance investigators, but the level of weapons and the vehicles Doak is buying are not justified.
“This whole idea of wanting to act like they’re a branch of the Department of Public Safety or a branch of law enforcement is insanity. They’re not. They’re in the stinking insurance oversight business,” Coates said.
Former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson said he was also puzzled by the purchases.
“I’m trying to think what the justification might be, and I can’t think of any,” said Edmondson, when the expenditures were described to him by the Tulsa World.
Edmondson said he hasn’t discussed the spending with state Insurance Commissioner John Doak, but his years in state government have proven to him that the anti-fraud unit’s work is exclusively in white-collar crime.
The investigators are certified police officers, who have long carried weapons and used body armor, and have arrest authority, but Edmondson said that when arrests have been made, the uniformed officers on the scene came from local agencies, except when the suspects simply surrendered.
When the department originally went to purchase police cars this summer, an Insurance Department purchasing agent and then officials in the state central purchasing department questioned whether the vehicles were authorized.
State law restricts the purchase of police cars under a state group purchasing program to authorized law-enforcement agencies, which includes the Insurance Department, although some state purchasing officials were puzzled by that.
Insurance Department emails show Doak was personally involved in the details of the purchase, including the design of logos to go on the side of the vehicles.
When a state purchasing agent held up the vehicles out of concern about authorization in August, Doak sent an angry email to state Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger asking him to call “ASAP.”
“I am available any time and cannot believe this is how government works in Oklahoma,” Doak’s email says.
The purchase would be “fighting fraud with fraud funds,” and Doak asks, “Who in your (department) can just put a hold in items?”
“Please get back to me as this is probably a lifelong bureaucrat trying to overstep their authority and cause undue work for all of us.”
In September, a state Insurance Department purchasing agent sent a message to a car dealership manager saying: “We are still on hold from the Capitol. Some there believe we do not have the authority to buy. We now have State (representatives) weighing in.”
The concerns over the department’s authority were finally cleared, and two Chevrolet Tahoe four-wheel-drive vehicles and five Dodge Chargers – all equipped with “police equipment package” – were ordered at a total cost of $170,960.
Kelly Collins, spokeswoman for the Insurance Department, said the police equipment package is extra wiring to accommodate communications equipment and stiffer suspensions.
In a letter to the Tulsa World accompanying a reply for public records, Michael Copeland, director of the agency’s anti-fraud unit, said, “While the majority of the crimes we investigate are white-collar, they can still be dangerous.”
Last year, two insurance fraud investigators were fatally shot in Louisiana while serving cease-and-desist orders to an insurance agent, a common task for the Oklahoma anti-fraud unit, he said.
“That incident, more than anything else, led to the purchase of the weapons, equipment and vehicles that would better protect our investigators in the line of duty,” he said.
In a separate statement, Doak said funding the purchases is legitimate and comes from the department’s anti-fraud revolving fund at no cost to taxpayers.
“Our anti-fraud unit investigates claims of embezzlement, exploitation of the elderly, fraud and more,” he said.
The investigators travel the state protecting Oklahoma consumers, he said.
“They find criminals and bring them to justice,” Doak said. “They need the proper training and tools to do that and protect themselves.”
After the Louisiana deaths, Doak said he realized his investigators weren’t equipped to protect themselves.”
“As much as we want to stop these criminals, we also want our personnel to come home safely,” he said.
In a subsequent statement, Doak said he has reached out to legislators who have criticized the purchases to explain the need for the equipment.
“Most people just don’t understand why we have a law enforcement unit and exactly what it does. I’m happy to speak to any lawmaker or citizen who has a concern,” he said. “I’m confident that once they understand what we’re doing, their fears will be put to rest.”
The Insurance Department also offered the names of other legislators who support the department’s efforts, statements of support from former state Attorneys General Larry Derryberry and Mike Turpen, and statements from Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelan and state Sen. Bill Brown, R-Broken Arrow, chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee.
Brown said he supports the department’s efforts completely.
“People need to understand that insurance crime is serious,” Brown said.
“Those behind it stand to lose a lot of money if they’re found out, so they can be very dangerous.
“We have to do all we can to protect our law enforcement officers including the members of the Oklahoma Insurance Department’s anti-fraud unit,” Brown said.
Collins, spokeswoman for the department, defended the purchase of the shotguns as “standard pieces of equipment for every law enforcement agency in the county.” She said the body armor purchases were necessary because old equipment had passed expiration dates.
She pointed out that the purchased vehicles replace non-police cars that the department had been leasing from the state fleet.
But Coates questioned if the real motive of the effort was protecting the fraud investigators or raising Doak’s public image for political purposes and intimidating insurance companies into complying with state investigators.
“John Doak has visions of himself … running for the U.S. Senate or something,” Coates said. “He’s paying for all these ads with someone else’s money.”
Collins said that the equipment was paid from the department’s anti-fraud revolving fund, which is funded by fines obtained in insurance-related crimes, settlements related to misconduct by insurers, late fees and penalties.
No tax money was used, she said.
In fiscal year 2010, enforcement brought in $1.2 million, of which the Insurance Department got to keep 17.6 percent, or $295,000. The remainder went to the state general fund and the Attorney General’s Office.
While the funding may not come from taxes, Coates said there is still plenty of reason for Oklahoma voters to be concerned about it.
“It’s still coming out of somebody’s pocket in the industry and the end result is the cost of your insurance and my insurance is going to go up,” Coates said.
source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20121209_16_A1_ULNSon774687
for more information – visit http://www.a2zinvestigations.com
Your Amazon Kindle Is Spying On You
For literature lovers, nothing beats spending the evening alone with a good book. But for owners of Kindles and other e-reading devices, that tradition is no longer as easy as sending the kids off to a sleepover.
That’s because e-book readers are never really alone — at least, not according to a new report by the digital rights defenders at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Released last month in advance of the holiday shopping season, the report reveals how privacy policies of virtually all e-reading devices allow the companies that make them to monitor the activity of their users. Such monitoring, the foundation found, can include recording your search habits, sharing your data, tracking purchases you’ve made from other sources, and even monitoring what books you read after you’ve purchased them.
In all, the foundation pored through the privacy policies of nine of the most commonly used e-reading options. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), which makes the industry-leading Kindle, is among the most egregious. Not only does the company’s policy give it the right to keep an eye on searches, purchases and what you’re reading, it also says Amazon may share information outside the company without your consent. And if you regret searching for that Ayn Rand book back when people were still taking about Paul Ryan, you’re out of luck. Amazon grants you “no right to access or delete search and purchase history,” according to EFF.
Amazon isn’t the only e-reading offender, however. The book retailer Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) engages in many of the same practices with customers who own its Nook. Ditto for Sony (NYSE: SNE) and its Kobo reader.
A comprehensive chart published by EFF contains the full breakdown of each e-reader. According to its website, EFF is a nonprofit civil-rights organization founded in 1990 in response to proto-Internet data tracking by the U.S. government. Today the organization is a fervent proponent of “do not track” mechanisms that curb online tracking by companies and advertisers.
Of course, aggressive data collection is hardly news to anyone who’s been on the Internet for the last 15 years, but the seemingly innocuous facade of e-readers, which simulate the solitary experience of book reading, may lull users into a false sense of privacy. This concerns privacy watchdogs like EFF’s Cindy Cohn, who told the Wall Street Journal in July that companies such as Amazon should be more open and flexible about their policies.
“There’s a societal ideal that what you read is nobody else’s business,” she told the paper. “Right now, there’s no way for you to tell Amazon, I want to buy your books, but I don’t want you to track what I’m reading.”
So if you were planning on curling up alone with a good e-book this weekend, choose your reading material carefully. Unless, of course, it’s Orwell — then by all means.
source:http://www.ibtimes.com/psst-your-amazon-kindle-spying-you-925439
for more information – visit http://www.a2zinvestigations.com
12 ways to avoid cons and fraud this shopping season
In song, the gifts of Christmas include partridges, turtle doves and French hens. But scammers seek a different type of bird — pigeons who’ll fall for their holiday-themed hoaxes. To commemorate those lyrical dozen days, here are 12 tips to avoid getting plucked this holiday season.
1. When doing online searches for names of popular gifts — or even words like “toys” and “discount” — never click on links before you carefully read the website’s address.
Beware of unfamiliar vendors or ones whose addresses have missing letters, misspellings or other tweaks of a legitimate company’s name (such as www.tiffanyco.mn instead of the legit www.tiffany.com). Click on these bum addresses and you may be steered to a scammer-run site that unleashes rogue programs known as malware onto your computer. Or you may be taken to a “cybersquatting” site that poses as a legitimate company’s online outpost to sell cheap counterfeit goods and collect credit card numbers.
2. Before ordering, check the site’s “Contact Us” page for a phone number and physical address and a “Terms and Conditions” page for return policies and such. Bogus websites often don’t have those pages at all or have crude imitations (being loaded with grammatical errors is one tip-off).
3. When buying gifts online, don’t provide your credit card or other information unless the page’s address begins with “https://” The “s” is for “secure.”
4. Never trust offers that come after you lose a bid in an online auction. You may be told you can get the same thing offsite. It’s probably a scam.
5. At online marketplaces sites such as Craigslist, deal only with sellers who provide a phone number. Call the number and speak with the person. Don’t rely solely on email correspondence. Assume that any request for wire-transfer payment means a scam.
6. Don’t believe “too-good-to-be-true” prices from sellers who claim to be soldiers needing a quick deal before deployment overseas or cite hard-luck stories. They are common tricks to get advance payment — and you’ll likely get no merchandise.
7. Get gift cards only at a store’s staffed customer service or check-out counters or at its website. Don’t get them at untended display racks in the store, where fraudsters can peel off stickers or use scanners to glean codes. The crooks use the codes to make purchases after you buy the card and have it activated.
source: http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-12-2012/avoid-holiday-shopping-scams.html
for more information – please visit http://www.a2zinvestigations.com
New law bans your boss from spying on your Facebook account
Good news for anyone who’s ever been tagged in a Facebook photo doing something less-than work safe: It’s now illegal in California for your boss to demand access to your Facebook page.
Gov. Jerry Brown took to Twitter and Facebook, appropriately enough, to announce Tuesday that he had signed two new Internet privacy bills aimed at protecting employees and students from social media snooping by employers and Universities. The first bill, AB 1844, was introduced in the state assembly by San Jose’s Nora Campos, makes it illegal for employers to require job seekers and employees to provide the username and password to their social media accounts. The second, SB 1349, prohibits universities from doing the same to students and prospective students.
“Today I am signing Assembly Bill 1844 and Senate Bill 1349, which prohibit universities and employers from demanding your email and social media passwords,” Brown wrote in his Facebook post. “California pioneered the social media revolution. These laws protect Californians from unwarranted invasions of their social media accounts.”
While it’s not clear how widespread the practice of companies requiring employees to give up their login details is in California, it’s come up in other states. Facebook itself has been an outspoken opponent of the practice, threatening to sue companies that do it because it violates Facebook’s terms of service and user privacy.
For more information please visit http://www.a2zinvestigations.com – Private Investigator serving New Jersey / New York area.
source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/12/04/employer-social-media-spying-banned.html
