Archive for October, 2008

It isn’t just Disney that receives high scores for creativity in Orlando, Florida. Identity crooks also seem to be getting so creative that some are asking what could they really achieve if they put their creative minds to do good work instead of thievery and crime.

The story that received so much attention involved a Wal-Mart store in Orlando, where a strange box with an antenna was found, resulting in the store being evacuated and the police bomb squad being called in. The box didn’t contain a bomb at all, but surveillance cameras and further investigation showed that it contained a spy-cam that was seemingly focused on customers making credit card transactions inside the store. It’s suspected that the spy-cam captured the credit card numbers of unsuspecting Wal-Mart customers and beamed those credit card numbers via the wireless video device to thieves waiting in a van in the store parking lot. Though it’s not yet known if any of these customer credit card numbers have yet been used by the crooks or other accomplices, it certainly is expected that these thieves set up this elaborate scheme to perpetrate credit card fraud and identity theft. Police and Wal-Mart authorities are attempting to alert customers of the potential for further unauthorized activity.

There’s no doubt that some of these crooks could use their creativity and skills in a much more productive way. And even if they aren’t interested in helping others, they could help themselves by turning their technical ability into a high-paying technical career that might include helping organizations secure their sensitive data, much in the same way that perhaps one of the most famous identity crooks, Kevin Mitnick, does today.

Normally when we think of identity theft, we think of the many high-tech ways in which victims precious names are stolen and their bank accounts and years of their financial future drained with it. While it’s true that organized criminals are beginning to take more interest in perpetrating identity theft, the typical identity crook isn’t some high-tech computer hacker but rather an unsophisticated criminal who’s prowling for victims and taking advantage of how difficult it is to prosecute identity theft crimes.

Still, who’d think that a razor blade and some glue could be the tools of the trade? Some identity crooks are resorting to credit card shaving, a process whereby the crooks might purchase valid credit card numbers from other crooks and then manufacture a “new” card with that number. They don’t need an elaborate scheme and a fancy production system. They simply purchase a valid number for only a few dollars, then use the razor blade to shave appropriate numbers off of gift cards or expired credit cards and glue them onto another card — essentially manufacturing a card that resembles the valid credit card.

But wait a minute! How about that magnetic strip on the back of the card that’s supposed to hold matching information for the credit card? Well, that’s a simple security measure to avert. They scratch it so that it’s unreadable. Bring back any memories when you were making a valid transaction with your credit card and the card reader couldn’t read your card? Let me give you a hint: If the reader fails to read your card, the clerk takes a few extra seconds to key in the credit card information via the keypad.

To make it worse, being the victim of identity theft via credit card shaving might mean that it’ll take longer for you to detect. Credit card shaving isn’t going to be the method used if the crook physically possesses your credit card. That means your card is likely going to be comfortably tucked away into your wallet and you won’t be aware that there’s a fake duplicate out there being used to make purchases.

Under certain circumstances, credit card shaving could pose a real and increased identity theft risk to you. However, if you make a point to go through your credit card statements very thoroughly, you should be able to notice that unauthorized activity, report it to your credit card company and likely be responsible for only a small portion of that unauthorized activity.

Topsy-turvy financial markets. Bank bailouts, industry bailouts and at least one nation ⎯ Iceland ⎯ on the verge of national bankruptcy. We’re all caught in the middle, watching prices rise on everything from groceries and gas to common petroleum-based household products. Amidst all the turmoil, there was, of late, one small silver lining since July’s record-high oil prices ⎯ crude oil dipped to $78 a barrel today, offering drivers some relief at the pumps. That price is 41% off the July record high of $147 a barrel.

As the recession appears more global than local, most of us have made abrupt lifestyle changes in response to high prices and the uncertainties raised by the global liquidity crisis.

OPEC members announced they would meet November 18 to discuss cutting output. The oil cartel’s president, Chakib Khelil, said OPEC was “very likely” to cut oil production, Bloomberg reported. Most members of the cartel want to see prices remain in the $80 to $100 a barrel range. Iran and Venezuela, it’s been said, would like to see production cuts so as to raise prices while Saudi Arabia has resisted doing so. OPEC controls about 40% of the world’s oil output.

So, come November, will they be kicking us when we’re down?

One has to wonder what Henry Ford would think if he were around today. When it was introduced on October 1, 1908, the Model T was affordable ($825) and was soon mass-produced; Americans weren’t just buying an automobile, they were buying freedom and independence. Today, the gas-powered, internal combustion engine may be approaching the end of its useful life, and continued dependence on oil to run our cars, and much of our country, seems more like a ball-and-chain than freedom.

What does energy independence mean to you?

High oil prices are making it hard to clamp down on household costs and many of the basics, from food to gasoline and home heating oil. So you’re going generic at the grocery store to save a few bucks. You’ve been forewarned that the oil delivery guy expects cash on delivery. And you’re nursing your old car along for a few more years so you can more easily finance the new one you’ll eventually need. Think you’ve got your bases covered?

Think again.

It seems that “fuel surcharges” are popping up on all sorts of bills ⎯ from your home contractor, the guy who mows your lawn, your local UPS driver and that cruise you took to the Bahamas last winter.

Take my electrician. He tacked on a flat rate $10 fuel surcharge after he installed a bathroom light fixture, even though before he arrived, his office called to tell me he was running late at a job less than a mile from my home.

Airline fuel surcharges take the “ouch” factor to new heights; they now add up to $170 to roundtrip domestic flights, more for international trips. (I notice that while oil prices have dipped recently, those U.S. airlines that charge fuel surcharges are still charging the same fees.)

It’s the kind of fee I’m guessing most people don’t challenge because everyone can relate to rising gas prices. Or could these fees, which are spreading to more and more industries, simply be an opportunistic way to hike prices without ticking you off enough to go elsewhere next time?

Look, I don’t know about you, but when I’m quoted a price for something, I want to know the total price, not the sub-total minus various fees that are tacked on later.

Have you been socked with fuel surcharges? Do you just gulp and pay up, or have you ever challenged them?

Fact-checkers who rated the vice presidential contenders’ truthfulness following the debate a week ago pointed out that Sara Palin stretched the truth a bit when she said a new, $40 billion natural-gas pipeline in Alaska was a done deal.

If Palin can come to an agreement with natural-gas producers to fill the pipeline, it will be good news for the Lower 48, but an exceptionally good deal for Utah.

That’s because, while the rest of us nervously eyeball yo-yo oil prices at the pumps, Utah residents are enjoying super-cheap natural-gas prices that are the equivalent of 87 cents a gallon.

According to a September 2 piece in the New York Times , the cheap prices have created something of a buzz in the Beehive State as residents there travel beyond state lines and gladly pay a premium to buy used natural-gas cars. Or they spend thousands to convert their conventional gas-powered vehicles to natural gas, often using illegal conversion kits to do so. Opportunists are quickly scooping up whatever natural gas cars they can find, then quickly reselling them for profit.

The only U.S. car company that produces natural-gas cars is Honda, with its Civic GX model. Elsewhere in the United States, most natural-gas vehicles are used in van or bus fleets.

But Utah is an unusually natural-gas-friendly state, for several reasons. It already has a pre-existing infrastructure of natural-gas fill-up stations. It has state-controlled natural-gas prices. And it has unusually high oil prices.

Do you see natural-gas-powered vehicles as part of the solution to our nation’s oil crisis?

Americans aren’t the only ones struggling with recessionary times and bank bailouts. British candy makers hope to soothe worried consumers with the ultimate comfort food ⎯ chocolate. The upscale British department store Selfridges has introduced a new chocolate candy called “Credit Crunch.”

Brits consume more candy weekly ⎯ an average 8 ounces ⎯ than anyone else in the world. (Americans average 5.6 ounces weekly.) Presumably, this might help to explain the Brits’ top world ranking for bad teeth, with annual dental care totaling $140 million, according to Time magazine.

The candy, made of chocolate and crunchy honeycomb, could cheer you up, even when your savings and investment account statements won’t.

If you had to come up with a snack or candy treat that describes the state of your current personal finances, what would you call it? Peppermint patsies, anyone?