U.S. Market Closes On A Volatile Note; Utilities Rise
The U.S. market ended the week’s trading on a mixed note amidst instability in Europe, a plethora of corporate earnings and protests in the streets of major U.S. cities.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.22 percent or 25.43 points to close at 11,796.16. The Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. composite index slipped 0.60 percent or 15.49 points to close at 2,572.50. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 0.04 percent or 0.48 points to close at 1,215.65. Among other major indices, the New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 0.20 percent or 14.24 points to close at 7,290.72. The American Stock Exchange composite index was up 0.24 percent or 5.33 points to close at 2,241.89.
Hot Stocks of the Day: HNZ, EK, ANN, CAT, BA
HJ Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) reported net income of $237 million, or $0.73 per share in its fiscal 2012 second quarter versus $251 million, or $0.78 per share last year. Analysts had forecasted EPS of $0.80 for the company. Full Post…
Ray Jessel – ‘Identity Theft’
At Birdland with Jim Caruso – 2010
Wakulla County Students’ Social Security Numbers Exposed
Wakulla County School Board said the Social Security numbers of students were accidentally placed on a public website. The glitch was found when a parent searched their child’s name and found their FCAT scores and Social Security numbers available on a public site.
The schools Superintendent, David Miller said the School Board immediately launched an investigation and within seventy two hours the public file had been removed.
David Miller sent letters to the parents of 2400 plus students in grades fourth through tenth whose information was accidentally exposed.
The letter notifying parents of the data breach was sent out on November seventh. Miller recommends parents watch for anything unusual that may point to inappropriate use of their child’s personal information.
Identity Thieves Don’t Learn Their Lesson
Sadly, and disturbingly, a lot of identity thieves don’t learn their lesson the first time, even after they have served jail time for their crimes. For example, Robert Delgado of California was already on parole for identity theft when police found personal information for over 300,000 individuals on his computer. He came up with quite a scam, on which he was recently convicted and sentenced. He forged credit cards and government identification – so he could ‘prove’ that the cards were his of course – and used the cards to purchase expensive items, which he would later resell.
Even with all this planning, this hero to identity thieves had a fatal flaw: he listed his real cell phone number on his Facebook page. With this information, and one of his victims as an informant, authorities were able to track his location using the GPS on his phone. That is what led them to his computer. They also had video surveillance footage from a Lowe’s store that helped prove Delgado had committed his crimes.
Two lessons of note from this story. The first i
Did You Know? You Can Access “Specialty” Reports – All About YOU – for Free?
By the AllClear ID team
Vanessa here with AllClear ID. You may know by now that you can get your credit reports for free each year from each of the three major credit bureaus. We can thank the Fair Credit Reporting Act ;”>FCRA) for that. However, you may not know that the FCRA also gives you the same free access to other “specialty” reports as well. There are several “consumer-reporting agencies” that don’t create credit reports but do collect your data into what are commonly referred to as “special reports”
These agencies collect information about you from a variety of sources, including:
- Public records of criminal or civil cases
- Your credit history
- Bankruptcy filings
- Companies with which you have an existing or prior business relationship, such as insurance companies or banks
- Your medical information
- Driving records
From this information, the agencies compile reports based on the requirements of targeted users — insurance companies, employers, and landlords – who want to know about you before they do business with you.
Unfortunately, most consumers are in the dark about the very existence of specialty consumer reports. Usually they learn