Rao bulletin 15 April 2016 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles
Download 0.88 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Steven A. Cohen
- * Finances * Costco Credit Card Switch ► Impact on Customers
- What do customers need to do to make the switch
- How do the rewards stack up
- Do customers need the new card to shop at Costco
- Will getting a new card affect customers credit scores
- Postal Rates Update 03 ► First Decrease in 100 Years
- Tax Program Leaks ► Cyberthieves’ latest target | Your tax forms
- Credit Card Data Theft ► New Ways of Stealing SCENE 1.
- -o-o-O-o-o- SCENE 2.
- -o-o-O-o-o- SCENE 3
- Saving Money ► Household Cleaners | $300 a Year
- Head-to-head comparisons
- Vinegar: Queen of green clean
- Testing household products
- Other powerful ingredients
Cohen Veterans Network ► Free Mental Health Care Billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen has pledged $275 million to support military veterans and their families by opening up free mental-healthcare clinics across the country. The Cohen Veterans Network officially launched its operations this week. The clinics will treat veterans, free of charge, who suffer from post-traumatic stress (PTS) and other mental health conditions, Cohen and executive director Dr. Anthony Hassan said in a release. "The wounds of war are serious. It is not easy to serve your country in combat overseas and then come back into society seamlessly, especially if you are suffering," Cohen said in a statement. "These men and women have paid an incredible price and it’s important that this country pays back that debt." He continued: "We will treat anyone who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during the war on terror. If you wore the uniform, and you need help, you are welcome at Cohen Veterans Network–period." More than 2.6 million men and woman have served in the military during the past 14 years of war. Around 20% of veterans experience some form of PTS and traumatic brain injury (TBI), while nearly 40% of returning veterans who suffer from mental health issues don't seek treatment, CVN said in its release. Over the next five years, Cohen Veterans Network plans to open 20 to 25 clinics. The first four Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinics, located in New York, Dallas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles, will open by July. The fifth clinic will be in Philadelphia, and it's scheduled to open in the spring of 2017. Cohen will also pledge an additional $30 million or more through Cohen Veterans Bioscience, CVN's sister organization, for research programs. 
Steven A. Cohen On 7 APR, Cohen was honored by the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, an organization that provides free education for the children of fallen Marines and law enforcement members. Cohen comes from a military family. His son, Robert, served in the US Marine Corps in Afghanistan and is currently serving in the Reserves. Cohen's father served in the Pacific during World War II. "My dad taught me to believe that if you worked hard, and took risks, you could succeed in this country. And when my son became a Marine, he taught me that nothing I achieved would have been possible without the men and women of our military," Cohen said during his speech. "Our lives and our hopes rest on the freedom and security that they provide. We owe our veterans a debt that can never truly be repaid." [Source: Business Insider | Julia La Roche | April 07, 2016, 10:24 PM ++] * Finances * 
Costco Credit Card Switch ► Impact on Customers The days of the American Express Costco credit card are coming to an end. American Express said last year its exclusive partnership with Costco would end in 2016. Costco is now partnering with Citigroup, and shoppers can expect to get their new Visa co-branded cards — called Costco Anywhere cards — in May and early June. The new cards double as membership cards. June 20 marks the date the warehouse club officially switches over from American Express to the new Visa cards, Citigroup said. Here are things to know about the upcoming changeover: What do customers need to do to make the switch? Not much. Existing Costco members don't need to apply for the new Costco Anywhere Visa card, which they will automatically receive in the mail. Members should keep using their American Express Costco cards through 19 JUN and then destroy them, Citigroup said. As of 20 JUN — when the new Visa cards start working — American Express Costco cards will automatically be canceled and won't work at any stores. Citigroup said it will have more information for customers who are interested in becoming Costco members on applying for the card in June. How do the rewards stack up? Costco members can earn 4 percent cash back on up to $7,000 spent on gas, as well as 3 percent on restaurants and eligible travel, 2 percent on Costco purchases and 1 percent on everything else. The card doesn't have an annual fee but shoppers will need to pay for a $55 annual Costco membership. The American Express cards provided 3 percent cash back on gas up to $4,000 per year, 2 percent on restaurants and eligible travel and 1 percent on other purchases. That makes the Visa card a "no-brainer" for existing members, but also one of the better cash back cards on the market that could be enticing for people who aren't currently Costco shoppers, said Sean McQuay, credit card expert for Nerdwallet. McQuay worked for Visa while it was negotiating with Costco but said he wasn't directly involved in the project. According to McQuay, no card offers better cash back rates on gas, restaurants and travel, but customers who see the biggest chunk of their credit card bill going to groceries may get more cash back with a different card. Why the increased perks? Costco cardholders tend to be relatively affluent, use their credit cards frequently and make large purchases, making them desirable customers for a credit card company, McQuay said. "It's safe to say Visa wanted to win this deal a lot," he said. Do customers need the new card to shop at Costco? Costco members will be able to use any Visa card to shop at Costco after June 20 and don't have to get the Costco Anywhere Visa card. However, only the Costco Anywhere card will offer the cash back rewards described above. Thus, if you are a current user of NFCU’s Visa Rewards Card which pays 1.5% on all purchases, you would be money ahead to continue to use your NFCU card for all purchases except gas, travel, restaurants, and Costco purchases. Will getting a new card affect customers' credit scores? No — Citigroup said it will not pull a credit report when transferring customers' accounts. What happens to rewards customers earned with American Express Costco cards? Customers won't lose cash back rewards earned on Costco American Express cards up to June 20 — they'll move to the new Visa cards, as will any outstanding balances, Citigroup said. Other American Express membership benefits won't transfer to the new cards, American Express said. [Source: Chicago Tribune | Lauren Zumbach | March 29, 2016 ++] 
********************************* Postal Rates Update 03 ► First Decrease in 100 Years The U.S. Postal Service announced this week that several rate reductions took effect on 10 APR. The former cost of mailing a letter, 49 cents per ounce, fell to 47 cents per ounce. Other rates also decreased:
While this sounds like good news for consumers, the Postal Service says these reductions will cost the independent agency of the federal government $2 billion per year in revenue. The Postal Service’s operations are funded by the sale of postage, products and services, according to a news release. The agency does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses. The reductions, which the press release calls “forced,” mark the end of a temporary surcharge that was granted to help the Postal Service recover financial losses in the wake of the Great Recession. The surcharge started in January 2014 and was due to expire after it generated $4.6 billion in revenue for the Postal Service. The agency is continuing to seek congressional action to reinstate the surcharge and make it permanent, however. Megan J. Brennan, postmaster general and chief executive, says in the release: “To properly compete for customers and continue to meet America’s evolving mailing and shipping needs, the Postal Service needs the financial capability to invest in the future. We continue to seek legislative reforms to put the Postal Service back on a sustainable financial path, and pricing is an important component.” The last time the postage rate for a 1-ounce letter decreased was on July 01, 1919, when the rate fell from 3 cents to 2 cents, according to Postal Service historical data. [Source: MoneyTalksNews | Karla Bowsher | April 08, 2016 ++] ********************************* Tax Program Leaks ► Cyberthieves’ latest target | Your tax forms An email scam targeting companies is putting huge amounts of individuals’ tax information into the hands of criminals, potentially wreaking havoc on the victims’ lives for years. Coming at the height of tax season, when millions of workers are filing their federal and state returns, the “phishing” or “spoofing” scheme is simple and effective: The perpetrator, impersonating a company’s high-ranking executive from a phony email address that appears legitimate, fools staffers in the payroll or human-resources departments into forwarding W-2 forms or other tax information. “It’s huge. It’s just huge,” said Dolores Furniss, manager of state and federal tax programs at the Utah State Tax Commission, which, like other state agencies, is scrambling to deal with the fallout. She said her office was notified on Thursday by a company that it was victimized, and within an hour she had fielded phone calls from 10 employees. Scores of companies employing hundreds of thousands of workers have already disclosed that they have fallen victim to the scam. Weight Watchers International Inc. is one of the latest victims. “In what has, unfortunately, become common, Weight Watchers was targeted by criminals using a phishing scam to obtain personal information about some current and former employees,” the company said in a statement over the weekend. The attackers received information about 434 former and current employees out of a current U.S. workforce of roughly 13,000. Other victims include data-storage firm Seagate Technology PLC in Cupertino, Calif.; Billy Casper Golf, a golf-course company based in Reston, Va.; biotechnology company PerkinElmer Inc.; and Phoenix-based regional grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. Stolen information from these scams is being sold on underground websites and criminals are using the data to file fraudulent tax returns and collect the refunds, according to tax and cybersecurity experts. Even those employees who don’t have their identities stolen could face delays in getting their tax returns or other additional scrutiny, since tax departments will take extra measures to ensure the authenticity filings from employees of companies that experienced thefts. The thefts are especially damaging since they often include Social Security numbers, which can’t easily be canceled and replaced like credit cards, meaning thieves can continue to try to use the stolen information for years, experts say. “Kindly prepare the lists and email them to me asap,” read one such email, according to the Internal Revenue Service, which issued an alert about the scam last month. An employee, thinking the request from a superior is authentic, then sends the W-2 data to the fake email address. An employee’s W-2 form includes a Social Security number, address, salary and other information that thieves could use for identity theft or to file fake tax returns. Tax officials say thieves are targeting companies of all sizes; at least 50 have already reported that they were victims. “We are definitely talking about many, many thousands of employees and I would have to think there are some companies that aren’t confessing to it,” said Verenda Smith, deputy director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, an organization of state tax officials. A spokesman for Seagate said several thousand current and former employees were affected by the deceit, which the company discovered on March 1. “The information was sent by an employee who believed the phishing email was a legitimate internal company request,” the company said in a statement. Seagate is offering two years of credit monitoring to affected workers. “We sincerely apologize for this situation and are working to enhance our controls and make additional investments in protocols, technology and training,” said Donna Egan, spokeswoman for Sprouts Farmers Market, which has more than 21,000 employees and 220 stores. Representatives of PerkinElmer and Billy Casper Golf couldn’t be reached for comment. The trouble comes as the IRS is still recovering from a 2015 attack in which hackers gained access to as many as 700,000 taxpayer accounts. The agency didn’t respond to a request for further comment on the scam. The pervasiveness of the latest scam highlights how easily employees can unwittingly expose important data to criminals. Companies are increasingly warning employees about the risks associated with clicking on unfamiliar email links or responding to unusual requests that appear to come from co-workers. In Georgia, tax authorities received a call on 30 MAR from a company’s chief financial officer who said W-2 information for his 20 employees had been exposed in the email scam. State officials quickly discovered that false returns had already been filed for some of those employees, although refunds had been blocked because the filings seemed suspicious. “We will continue to help those employees for years to come because once the identity is compromised, it is compromised forever,” said Josh Waites, director in the office of special investigations in the Georgia Department of Revenue. Cybersecurity experts also say that the scam shows criminals are more often targeting specific employees who have valuable information rather than hacking into a computer network in a blind search for data. “It’s one-stop shopping. It’s easy and is low-tech,” says Brian Lapidus, managing director in the identity-theft and breach-notification practice at Kroll Associates Inc. He says the investigations firm is receiving multiple calls daily from companies that have released W-2 information to criminals. The scam is a twist on an increasingly popular cyberattack known as “business email compromise” in which criminals impersonate an executive in an email and ask a subordinate to wire money to a bank account. The funds are typically then quickly siphoned into an offshore bank account where they are difficult to retrieve. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said last year that it has tracked more than 7,000 companies that have been victimized in such compromises since late 2013, resulting in more than $740 million in losses. [Source: The Wall Street Journal | Robin Sidel | April 3, 2016 ++] ******************************** Credit Card Data Theft ► New Ways of Stealing SCENE 1. A man went to the local gym and placed his belongings in the locker. After the workout and a shower, he came out, saw the locker open, and thought to himself, 'Funny, I thought I locked the locker... Hmm, 'He dressed and just flipped the wallet To make sure all was in order. Everything looked okay - all cards were in place... A few weeks later his credit card bill came - a whooping bill of $14,000! He called the credit card company and started yelling at them, saying that he did not make the transactions. Customer care personnel verified that there was no mistake in the system And asked if his card had been stolen... 'No,' he said, but then took out his wallet, pulled out the credit card, and yep - you guessed it - a switch had been made.’ An expired similar credit card from the same bank was in the wallet. The thief broke into his locker at the gym and switched cards. Verdict: The credit card issuer said since he did not report the card missing earlier, he would have to pay the amount owed to them. How much did he have to pay for items he did not buy? $9,000! Why were there no calls made to verify the amount swiped? Small amounts rarely trigger a 'warning bell' with some credit card companies. It just so happens that all the small amounts added up to a big one! -o-o-O-o-o-___SCENE_2.'>-o-o-O-o-o- SCENE 2. A man at a local restaurant paid for his meal with his credit card. The bill for the meal came, he signed it and the waitress folded the receipt And passed the credit card along. Usually, he would just take it and place it in his wallet or pocket. Funny enough, though, he actually took a look at the card and, lo and behold, it was the expired card of another person. He called the waitress and she looked perplexed. She took it back, apologized, and hurried back to the counter under the watchful eye of the man. All the waitress did while walking to the counter was wave the wrong expired card to the counter cashier, and the counter cashier immediately looked down and took out the real card. No exchange of words -- nothing! She took it and came back to the man with an apology. Verdict: Make sure the credit cards in your wallet are yours. Check the name on the card every time you sign for something and/or the card is taken away for even a short period of time. Many people just take back the credit card without even looking at it, 'assuming' that it has to be theirs.
SCENE 3: A man went into a pizza restaurant to pick up an order that he had called in. He paid by using his Visa Check Card which, of course, is linked directly to his checking account. The young man behind the counter took the card, swiped it, then laid it on the counter as he waited for the approval, which is pretty standard procedure. While he waited, he picked up his cell phone and started dialing. The man noticed the phone because it was the same model as he had, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then he heard a click that sounded like his phone sounds when he take a picture. The counterman then gave him back his card but kept the phone in his hand as if he was still pressing buttons. Meanwhile, the man was thinking: I wonder what he is taking a picture of, oblivious to what was really going on. It then dawned on him: the only thing there was his credit card, so now he started paying close attention to what the counterman was doing.. He set his phone on the counter, leaving it open. About five seconds later, he heard the chime that tells you that the picture has been saved. Now he was standing there struggling with the fact that this boy just took a picture of his credit card. Yes, he played it off well, but if they had not had the same kind of phone, the man probably would never have known what happened. Needless to say, he immediately canceled that card Verdict: Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Whenever you are using your credit card take caution and don't be careless. Notice who is standing near you and what they are doing when you use your card. Be aware of phones, because many have a camera phone these days. Never let your card out of your sight... check and check again! [Source: VFW Post 6756 Centerline MI | Leo Miller | April 3, 2016 ++] ******************************** Saving Money ► Household Cleaners | $300 a Year You’ve probably heard that you can make cleaning products from ingredients found around the house. But how do they stack up against commercial cleaners? The good and green news is that such products allow you to clean your home effectively, killing germs and bacteria while protecting your health and caring for the environment, for about half of what you’re probably paying now. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent survey of consumer expenditures says U.S. households spent an average of $645 on housekeeping supplies in 2013. Not only do homemade cleaners cut that cost in half, they’re also safer, because many commercial cleaning products contain toxic ingredients, Jessica Kellner, editor-in-chief of Mother Earth Living, tells Money Talks News. Head-to-head comparisons - But do DIY cleaners work? Lifehacker’s Annie Hauser compared homemade cleaners with commercial products. She says she was skeptical at first. The idea that you can clean your house or apartment and dress your salad with many of the same products seems a little weird – and mixing up a fresh batch of furniture polish seems a little “Little House on the Prairie.” But her results were surprising. Here are her four tests and conclusions:
Vinegar: Queen of green clean - Vinegar (white vinegar runs about $4 to $5 a gallon) is an “incredibly effective” cleaner, Kellner finds. It will kill about 90 percent of household germs, according to some estimates. White vinegar typically is used for cleaning. Look for vinegar with 5 percent acidity.
Testing household products - Not everyone is thrilled with the results of homemade cleaners, though. Wellness Mama blogger finds vinegar, basic to many DIY products, smelly and less-effective. Homemade cleaning products didn’t earn the highest marks in a Consumer Reports test either. “Most made-at-home brews often are effective, though they don’t perform as well as the products you’ll find in stores,” CR concludes. CR does give high marks to a glass-cleaning solution of soapy ammonia, water and rubbing alcohol. You can find the recipe in the article at www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/03/7-ways-to-green-clean-and-cut-costs/index.htm. Homemade cleaners may not always beat commercial products for effectiveness, but they are better overall because they are safer for human health and for the environment, Kellner says. Other powerful ingredients - Here are nine more ingredients used in safe, effective green cleaning, along with a few of their many uses. Some can be used alone. Often, they’re combined. You’ll find links to recipes and more uses at the end of this article.
|