Credit Union SECURITY and TECHNOLOGY News

10 Most Annoying Restaurant Trends

2012-01-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

The time has come! to give you the latest batch of restaurant-world developments that really get under our skin. Which one of these irks you the most?
1. Dogs in Cafes/Outdoor Restaurants
Sometime during the early aughts, toting around your dog in your purse became acceptable social behavior (along with texting during dinner and talking about Twilight). As a result, it seems more and more restaurants started bending health code rules to please overly entitled "pooch pushers" who insist on dragging their smelly mutts around with them 24/7.

2. Tables Ridiculously Close Together
Unless you have a 22-in. waist à la Lara Flynn Boyle, squeezing out of your seat is nigh impossible in most restaurants these days. We appreciate that eateries are often dealing with high rents, tiny spaces and a need to squeeze as many seats into a space as possible - but seriously, guys, could we space the tables out a little here?

3. Overzealous Wine Pouring
If there’s one thing we definitely don’t need help with, it’s pouring our own alcohol. We hate when servers are constantly topping off our glasses (clearly in an effort to sell more booze) when they’re already mostly full - leaving our wine/beer to get warm and stale in the process.

4. Designer Ice
While bigger, fewer ice cubes help keep drinks cool without watering them down, we're really not a fan of those giant ice blocks that knock against our teeth as we’re sipping.

5. Enormous Wine Glasses
What’s with the humongo glasses? We realize a bigger glass makes for tastier wine, blah blah blah, but when the table is barely 12 in. across, those gigantic wine glasses leave little room for the more important stuff - the food!

6. Ketchup Snobbery
We don’t care if your homemade ketchup was hand-squished from eight different types of artisanal heirloom tomatoes. With a burger and fries, just give us good old-fashioned Heinz.

7. Sparkling, Flat or Filtered Tap?
Is this a trick question? We realize that the dreaded water question must be asked - but seriously, there’s gotta be a better way to phrase it, because restaurants that make their servers say this seem to be trying to trick their customers into ordering a pricey bottle of water.

8. Unisex Restrooms
Restaurants with unisex bathrooms are just asking for a lawsuit (or some raunchy bathroom situations at the very least). It’s one thing if it’s a unisex, single room kind of situation, but personally it really weirds us out when we’re doing our business in the stall and we see a member of the opposite sex washing their hands just outside. Awkward!

9. Excessive Punctuation/Lower-Case Letters in Restaurant Names, Menu Items
Wh.at is up wi.th all the pe.ri.ods? When you’re trying to look up a restaurant name that happens to have a few extra periods thrown in, the excessive punctuation can make it a little bit tricky.

10. Wood-Infused Food
Lately "wood" is having its moment in the spotlight as some rustic New American restaurants are offering dishes prepare using various "wood infusions," some going as far as to spotlight a different type of wood each day. Interesting idea, but in reality the food comes out half-cooked and smelling like a humidor.

iPad a solid education tool

2012-01-24T17:20:00.000-08:00

More and more schools are jumping on the digital bandwagon and adopting iPads for daily use in the classroom. Apple's education-related announcements last week will no doubt bolster the trend, making faculty tools and student textbooks more engaging and accessible.
But today another data point emerged, demonstrating that the iPad can be a valuable asset in education. In a partnership with Apple, textbook publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt performed a pilot study using an iPad text for Algebra 1 courses, and found that 20% more students (78% compared to 59%) scored 'Proficient' or 'Advanced' in subject comprehension when using tablets rather than paper textbook counterparts.

The study was conducted at a Riverside, California, middle school from Spring 2010 to Spring 2011 using HMH's Fuse: Algebra I app. Similar pilot courses and iPad programs have cropped up all over the country, primarily in private and boarding schools, and select universities. In the public school sector, more than 600 school districts have adopted a 1:1 iPad program.

Read more about iPads in schools: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tech/innovation/ipad-solid-education-tool/index.html

Working Through Lunch

2012-01-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

Imagine being fired, like this Chicago woman was, for working too much.

A report on Time magazine's website tells the story:

"Back in January 2010, Sharon Smiley, who worked as a receptionist and administrative assistant at a Chicago real estate company, clocked out of work but stayed at her desk to finish a project assigned by her manager. Another manager told her to she had to leave her desk and go to lunch. But she said no and continued working. That turned out to be a bad move. She was fired.

The company required that all hourly non-exempt employees take a 30-minute lunch break, and the issue was complicated by the fact that, as a receptionist, Smiley’s desk was at the front door of the company’s office. It seems that her managers felt it was unprofessional for her to eat in front of clients and potential clients who walked through the door."

When she tried to get unemployment benefits, she was denied them because she had been fired for cause. She fought that decision, and last week an appeals court ruled she could receive unemployment because she was not fired for gross misconduct.

Many people work through their lunch break. A good many of them eat at their desks, too. Maybe it's due to a special project; maybe they need to leave 15 minutes early, or maybe it's the only way to get all their work done and still get home at a decent hour.

Do you work through lunch, and/or eat at your desk? And does your employer have some kind of policy on such behavior?

Top Spelling Blunders

2011-12-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

Increase Your Credibility by Watching Out for These Commonly Misspelled Words

Grab your dictionaries and flip on your spell-checkers, because we are in for one exciting ride! We recently collected the most common spelling mistakes even the most credible expert authors make.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will present these pesky misspellings to you in order to help you maintain your credibility and build confidence in your writing skills. Without further ado, we give you: The Top 5 Spelling Blunders!

"loosing"

Loosing is the number one, most prevailing spelling blunder! It often occurs when the author intended to use the present participle of the word lose, as in losing weight and mistakenly adds a second o. The root of this blunder stems from the confusion between the words: lose and loose.

Here's the difference: Lose means loss and loose means something is, or has been, released (or something not firmly held in place).

Example: Sam tightened his loose belt after losing weight.

Key: What do winning and losing have in common? Both have only two vowels (winning = ii, losing = oi).

"todays"

Today can be defined as in the course of present time or this present time. The word today can be used as an adverb (qualifies or modifies an adjective) or a noun (person, place or thing). For the sake of brevity, we are going to concentrate on the noun: today.

Here's our issue with todays: it is a noun, sorely missing its good old friend the apostrophe. In order to form the possessive form of a singular noun, no matter what the last consonant is of the noun, you must always add an 's. To do otherwise, you will end up with the plural form of the noun (e.g. dog's vs. dogs, cat's vs. cats, etc.)

Example: John was featured in today's newspaper!

Key: If you state todays, you are essentially stating many present time, which would suggest a bend in the space-time continuum - present time overlapping present time... To fix this, simply add the apostrophe before the s: today's.

"everytime"

Unless you are referring to the Britney Spears pop song "Everytime", every and time should be written as two separate words. The confusion often occurs when writers think about compound words, such as everywhere. Compound words take on a whole new meaning than if they were separated. For instance, everywhere (all places) = every (each, all, any) where (place or position).

Example: Every time you publish an article, your exposure increases.

Key: Everyone, everywhere, should add a space every time.

"aircrafts"

Here's the deal with aircrafts: Whether it be singular or plural, the word aircraft is spelled the same way. Similar words include: moose, fish, and species.

Example: The aircraft are positioned on the carrier. Please watch your step when entering the aircraft.

Key: The pilot of the aircraft won't land when other aircraft are on the runway.

Alternately, this issue with aircrafts may be similar to our previously discussed issue of the possessive form: todays vs. today's.

Example: Please watch your step when descending the aircraft's staircase.

"ect"

No "ifs, ands, or buts," ect is not the correct abbreviation for et cetera. Et Cetera is a Latin expression meaning and so forth or and other things. Its correct abbreviation is etc.

Example: Writing supplies may include pens, pencils, paper, etc.

Key: Don't forget to pack eggplant, carrots, tomatoes, etc. in your lunch.

There you have it - the top 5 most common spelling blunders!

Israel ’s new ‘Cutting Edge’ Airport Security

2011-12-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners. It's an armored booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your person.

Israel sees this as a win-win situation for everyone, with none of this stuff about racial profiling. It will also eliminate the costs of long and expensive trials.

You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement: “Attention, all standby passengers. El Al is proud to announce a seat available on flight 670 to London . Shalom!”

Record Crowd at "Reaching Your Members in the 21st Century"; Next Year - Orlando, FL, Nov. 8-11

2011-12-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

More than 125 credit union attendees from across the country participated recently in the conference program in Palm Springs, CA on "Reaching Your Members in the 21st Century. Key programs included:

Reaching the Senior Market
Sizzling Marketing in the 21st Century
Selecting and Developing the Right Talent
Gens X, Y and Z - The Future of Credit Unions
The Right Business Models
Trends in Retail Service
The Hispanic Growth Opportunity
Cales Cultures
Today's Social Media Opportunities

If you weren't there, you missed a great educational opportunity. Mark your calendar for next year in Orlando for November 8-11, 2012.

Rather than tell you more, here's some photos from the conference.

Postal Cuts to Slow Mail Delivery

2011-12-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

Facing bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with unprecedented cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.

The estimated $3 billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail on Monday, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress.

The changes would provide short-term relief, but ultimately could prove counterproductive, pushing more of America's business onto the Internet. They could slow everything from check payments to Netflix's DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order prescription drugs, and threaten the existence of newspapers and time-sensitive magazines delivered by postal carrier to far-flung suburban and rural communities.

That birthday card mailed first-class to Mom also could arrive a day or two late, if people don't plan ahead.

"It's a potentially major change, but I don't think consumers are focused on it and it won't register until the service goes away," said Jim Corridore, analyst with S&P Capital IQ, who tracks the shipping industry. "Over time, to the extent the customer service experience gets worse, it will only increase the shift away from mail to alternatives. There's almost nothing you can't do online that you can do by mail."

The cuts, now being finalized, would close roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March. Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards for first-class mail that have been in place since 1971.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/postal-cuts-to-slow-delivery-of-first-class-mail/article_17a16f10-1650-5a75-918e-1453b9135e2f.html#ixzz1fclJ9IYA

TSA still frustrates 10 years later

2011-11-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

Removing shoes, retrieving laptops, displaying bags of liquids: all are part of the airport screening process and all are cited by air travelers as top issues with flying.

In a survey by the U.S. Travel Association (USTA), the nation’s largest travel trade group, 600 Americans who traveled in the last 12 months were asked to list their top five grievances with air travel. Four of the five issues named by the majority of the respondents involved the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) security checkpoints.

The survey was released to mark the 10th anniversary of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created TSA in November 2001.

Top Five Frustrations Cited by Air Travelers:

1.) People who bring too many carry-on bags through security checkpoint (72.4%)

2.) Uncomfortable seats on airplanes (70.4%)

3.) Wait time to clear the TSA checkpoint (68%)

4.) Having to remove shoes, belts and jackets at the TSA checkpoint (62.3%)

5.) TSA employees who are not friendly (42%)

However, TSA also received some positive feedback from the survey. About 66 percent of air travelers said they are somewhat or very satisfied with the organization’s overall performance.

For frequent travelers, that satisfaction rate was 54.6 percent.

Additionally, nearly 75 percent of travelers said they were somewhat or very satisfied with TSA’s recent announcement that it will eventually stop forcing passengers to remove their shoes through the security checkpoints.

Bill would scrap checked baggage fee

2011-11-24T07:15:00.000-08:00

Fliers hate baggage fees, and the long lines at airport security screening that are made worse by passengers carrying on more bags than they did in the past.

So just before the the busiest air travel day of the year, Sen. Mary Landrieu has introduced legislation to try to put limits on airlines charging for checking in bags.

Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, has two different proposals. One would prohibit airlines from charging for the first checked bag.

The other would allow the fees, but raise taxes on airlines that charge for baggage. That proposal would raise the $260 million that the Transportation Security Administration estimates it needs to handle the extra carry-on bags going through the screening process.

The TSA estimates that the number of checked bags has decreased by 26% since 2009, while carry-on bags increased by 87 million in roughly the same time period.

"Many airlines consider checking a bag not to be a right, but a privilege -- and one with a hefty fee attached," said Landrieu. She said her first legislative proposal "will guarantee passengers one checked bag without the financial burden of paying a fee, or the headache of trying to fit everything into a carry-on."

The second, she added, would at least make sure taxpayers are made whole for the stresses more congestion at security places on the system.

Not surprisingly, the airline industry's trade group objects to both proposals.

The Air Transport Association says its own survey shows only one in four passengers now pay a baggage fee, either by carrying-on bags, choosing an airline that won't charge a fee or having the fee waived due to the credit card they use or the frequent flier perks they receive.

Southwest Airlines (LUV, Fortune 500) doesn't charge for bags and has made the lack of a fee part of its marketing campaign. Jet Blue (JBLU) doesn't have any fees on the first bag. On the other extreme, low-fare carrier Spirit Airlines (SAVE) charges even for carry-on bags.

"Customers do have choice today," said Steve Lott, spokesman for the association. "In terms of fairness, you pay for the services you get. Under what the senator is suggesting, some people would be paying for a service they aren't using."

Airline consultant Michael Boyd said he believes if the fees were banned, fares would rise instead. That could cost customers even more due to the excise tax they pay on fares and not on fees.

"I hate the fees like everyone else," said Boyd. "When American Airlines (AMR, Fortune 500) initiated a bag fee, I thought they were doomed. But the consumer didn't blink an eye, they just got out their wallet."

25 "Worst Passwords" of 2011 Revealed

2011-11-23T06:04:00.000-08:00

If you see your password below, STOP!

Do not finish reading this post and immediately go change your password -- before you forget. You will probably make changes in several places since passwords tend to be reused for multiple accounts.

Here are two lists, the first compiled by SplashData:

1. password

2. 123456

3.12345678

4. qwerty

5. abc123

6. monkey

7. 1234567

8. letmein

9. trustno1

10. dragon

11. baseball

12. 111111

13. iloveyou

14. master

15. sunshine

16. ashley

17. bailey

18. passw0rd

19. shadow

20. 123123

21. 654321

22. superman

23. qazwsx

24. michael

25. football

Last year, Imperva looked at 32 million passwords stolen from RockYou, a hacked website, and released its own Top 10 "worst" list:

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. Password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

If you've gotten this far and don't see any of your passwords, that's good news. But, note that complex passwords combining letters and numbers, such as passw0rd (with the "o" replaced by a zero) are starting to get onto the 2011 list. abc123 is a mixed password that showed up on both lists.

Last year, Imperva provided a list of password best practices, created by NASA to help its users protect their rocket science, they include:

It should contain at least eight characters

It should contain a mix of four different types of characters - upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters such as !@#$%^&*,;" If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.

It should not be a name, a slang word, or any word in the dictionary. It should not include any part of your name or your e-mail address.

Following that advice, of course, means you'll create a password that will be impossible, unless you try a trick credited to security guru Bruce Schneir: Turn a sentence into a password.

For example, "Now I lay me down to sleep" might become nilmDOWN2s, a 10-character password that won't be found in any dictionary.

Can't remember that password? Schneir says it's OK to write it down and put it in your wallet, or better yet keep a hint in your wallet. Just don't also include a list of the sites and services that password works with. Try to use a different password on every service, but if you can't do that, at least develop a set of passwords that you use at different sites.

Someday, we will use authentication schemes, perhaps biometrics, that don't require so much jumping through hoops to protect our data. But, in the meantime, passwords are all most of us have, so they ought to be strong enough to do the job.

My Blackberry Is Not Working

2011-11-17T19:13:00.001-08:00

http://www.flixxy.com/my-blackberry-is-not-working.htm

If your PC or blackberry is not working, check this out. LOL

Airline fined $900,000 for lengthy tarmac delays

2011-11-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

The Department of Transportation said Monday it has fined a regional affiliate of American Airlines $900,000 for keeping hundreds of passengers cooped up for hours on planes in Chicago earlier this year, a clear warning to airlines on the eve of the holiday travel season that similar incidents won't be tolerated.

American Eagle Airlines had tarmac delays of more than three hours on 15 flights arriving at O'Hare International Airport on May 29, the department said in a statement. A total of 608 passengers were aboard the delayed flights.

The airline must pay $650,000 of the fine within 30 days, the department said. But up to $250,000 can be credited for refunds, vouchers, and frequent flyer mile awards provided to the passengers on the 15 flights, as well as to passengers on future flights that violate the three-hour rule, the department said.

The department implemented a new rule in April 2010 limiting tarmac delays on domestic flights to three hours. After that, airlines must either return to a gate or provide passengers who wish to leave planes with some other means of safely getting off. Airlines that violate the rule can be fined as much as $27,500 per passenger.

When Was the Last Time You Wrote Something?

2011-11-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

I heard a rumor that schools will no longer be teaching handwriting in classes - no more cursive lessons. I have yet to confirm or deny this, but it really has me thinking. My son is going to be growing up in a world that is totally different than mine.

The way he communicates with friend, the way he learns, the way he views the world, will be totally different thanks to technology. It's not a bad thing, but it's definitely different. I guess there's no need to write when you can type. Call me old fashioned, but I miss the days of hand written letters. There's just something to be said of going to the mailbox and pulling out a letter addressed to you. You know the person that sent it once held the same paper your holding and took the time to sit down and pen a message. It's a person's time and effort for YOU right there in the palm of your hands.

So, this week, I sat down and wrote letters to a few friends. I said the same things I would have said in an email, but on paper. I'm sure they thought I was crazy, but I'm also positive it put a smile on their face to get a piece of mail from me.

Moms, when was the last time you sat down and wrote a letter?

More smartphone buyers prefer Apple's iOS

2011-11-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/7444302.html

A latest survey released on Monday showed that iPhone is the top choice for nearly half of North American consumers who plan to purchase a smartphone in the next three months.

According to the survey conducted by ChangeWave Research in June, 46 percent of respondents prefer a device running Apple's iOS, the mobile operating system powering the iPhone. The number increased by two percentage points compared to a similar poll conducted in March.

The survey mainly focused on the North American smartphone market.

Among the 4,163 respondents, 89 percent were from the United States and 11 percent outside the country.

Around 32 percent of prospective smartphone buyers said they will choose a device powered by Google's Android operating system, which is up one percentage point compared to the poll in March.

The gains of Apple and Google's market shares came at the expense of Blackberry phones developed by Research in Motion. Only 4 percent of planned smartphone consumers want to buy a Blackberry, which is down one percentage point since March and the lowest share ever seen in a ChangeWave poll. In September 2008, some 32 percent of consumers said they prefer Blackberry.

The survey also took a look at the potential impact of Apple's iCloud service which will become available this fall. Some 29 percent of Apple product owners said the upcoming iCloud service makes them "more likely" to buy Apple products in the future.

ChangeWave said the result shows the new iCloud service is enhancing existing customer loyalty and will generate customer demand for other Apple products.

Apple's iCloud, introduced in early June, will automatically store music, photos, apps and documents, and wirelessly push them to any Apple device to enable access for uses anytime and anywhere.
For customer satisfaction, iPhone had the highest satisfaction rate in the industry with 70 percent of users "very satisfied" with the iOS.

Some 50 percent of Google Android users said they were "very satisfied" with the operating system. Only 26 percent of Blackberry users said they were satisfied with the system.

Meanwhile, the poll found that 57 percent of consumers using Windows Phone 7 said they were "very satisfied." However, "the higher Windows Phone 7 rating has yet to produce a sustained momentum boost for Microsoft in terms of buyer preference," according to the survey.

Top Scams of 2011

2011-10-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

Where there is money to be had, there will always be con artists looking for new ways to scam you. Listed below are five top scam complaints to protect yourself against:

• Skimming is on the increase this year. Banks have been reporting a huge increase in ATM rigging. Criminals attach a device to the ATM that collects the card information or traps the card so they can use it. When using an ATM, always check around the machine for anything unusual before placing your card into the slot.

• Along with other economy related scams, such as loan modification and foreclosure rip offs, work-from-home scam complaints are becoming more prevalent. Con artists will state that the job requires the purchase of materials to begin working and claim you'll be reimbursed on your first check. Legitimate employers do not charge you for information, start-up kits, software or anything else related to the position. A few popular types of work-from-home scams to avoid are assembly, marketing and stuffing envelopes.

• Internet phishing is still a fast growing complaint with the advancement of more sophisticated malware and hacking of social networking accounts. These phishing scams steal your identity and financial information. Never open emails or links from unknown senders. It's also a good practice to change your passwords often.

• The simple, and less sophisticated, "doorstep" scams are easier to spot. Fake contractors, utility workers, charity collectors and others make the rounds from neighborhood to neighborhood. Simply ask the individual for ident ification, license number or a supervisors name and phone number to verify their identity.

• Vacation and travel related scams mainly target those who journey abroad. Fraudulent companies will book the traveler in sub-standard accommodations or disappear with their money altogether. Be wary of unsolicited offers and promotions as well as unknown callers. Only use established, well-known company websites. If you are suspicious of a deal, research the company and offer before giving out your credit card information.

Bank Fees Fuel Consumer Anger

2011-10-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

People are angry at the proposed debit card fees and nearly one-in-three consumers say they will take their money elsewhere.

According to a new study by The Research Intelligence Group, 30% of banking customers say they will leave their institution should the bank start charging a monthly fee for debit card use. This anger is even more pronounced with younger (35%) or more affluent (37%) consumers.

Another 43% of consumers said they would choose a different method of payment. 28% said they would pay by cash, while 15% claimed they would use a credit card.

Regions and SunTrust have already started assessing a monthly fee on debit card usage. Bank of America will begin charging a $5 per month fee in 2012. Chase (one state) and Wells Fargo (five states) are testing this fee in various areas.

The survey was performed by The Research Intelligence Group from a representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults in early October.

Consumers do not like paying a monthly fee for using their own money. These fees are also being assessed by some banks that we, the taxpayers, bailed out a few years ago.

Lawmakers are also upset.

After Wells Fargo announced a 21% increase in their third quarter profits, Senator Dick Durbin sent a letter asking the bank’s CEO to explain the need for a new debit fee. Durbin had previously sent a letter to Bank of America, reprimanding the bank after it announced plans to charge consumers for debit card usage.

Changing banks is a hassle that banks may count on

2011-10-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Customers frustrated by banks' controversial new fees are finding out what industry insiders have known for years: It is not so easy to disentangle your life from your bank.

The Internet banking services that have been sold to customers as conveniences, such as online bill paying, serve as powerful tethers that keep them from jumping to another institution.

Tedd Speck, 49, a market researcher in Kent, Conn., was furious about Bank of America's planned $5 monthly fee for debit card use. But he is staying put after being overwhelmed by the inconvenience of moving dozens of online bill paying arrangements to another bank.

"I'm really annoyed," he said, "but someone at Bank of America made that calculation and they made it right."

Former bankers and market researchers say that it's no accident. The steady expansion of online bill paying, they say, has emboldened Bank of America, as well as rivals such as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and SunTrust, to turn to new fees on customer accounts as other sources of revenue dry up. The fees have caused an uproar among consumers and drawn sharp criticism from politicians, including President Barack Obama.

"The technology locks you in, and they're keenly aware of it," said Robert Smith, who was chief executive of Security Pacific when it was bought by Bank of America in 1992. "It's very hard for consumers to just ditch that."

For years, banks have openly sought to attach as many loans and services such as credit cards, mortgages and mobile phone banking as they can to a customer.

What they haven't mentioned are marketing studies such as the one commissioned by Fiserv, which develops online bill paying systems, showing that using the Internet to pay bills, do automatic deductions and send electronic checks reduced customer turnover for banks by up to 95 percent in some cases.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York have also jumped on the debit card fee as one more example of corporate greed. And activists are calling on account holders to switch to nonprofit credit unions en masse on Nov. 5, which they have named Bank Transfer Day; a Facebook page devoted to the effort has drawn more than 38,000 supporters.

As a result, the question of whether consumers will indeed vote with their feet is being closely watched by the banking industry, consumer advocates and legislators. The banks don't release detailed data on customer defections.

9 Things That may be Gone in our Lifetime

2011-10-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery.. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

All we will have that can't be changed are Memories.

Data Breaches Top List of Fraud Threats

2011-10-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Data breaches have overtaken the theft of physical assets as the No. 1 fraud type, with most data theft occurring in the financial services industry, according to Ken Otsuka, senior risk consultant for CUNA Mutual Group.

To avoid crippling financial damage and loss of member trust, credit unions must implement measures to prevent data breaches and have a solid mitigation plan if one occurs.

Otsuka, addressing CUNA Mutual’s Online Discovery Conference Tuesday, cited the 2010 Annual Global Fraud Report by the risk management consulting firm, Kroll.

The study indicated the information-rich financial services industry led the way in data theft incidents at 42% in 2010, up from 24% in 2009.

“Data breaches have quickly become a top concern,” Otsuka said. “They are increasing in frequency and severity in terms of number of records breached and recovery costs.”

Breaches can involve electronic data or paper and occur in many ways, including:

Lost or stolen disks, laptops, and other data-bearing devices;
Dishonest employees;
System intrusions by hackers;
Negligent disposal of data; and
Breaches at third-party vendors housing confidential personal member data.

A data breach can be devastating for a credit union, Otsuka said. A 2010 Ponemon Institute study stated the average cost to repair a compromised record was $214. For financial institutions, that cost was $353.

10 technological changes in 10 technological years

2011-09-30T18:21:00.000-07:00

Have you realized how much things have changed in a mere decade.

My goddaughter is now of an age where she can talk, understand, and learn pretty well. She’s six, so she’s pretty on the ball with things already. The things that she experiences and sees are so different to mine, and she’s only 16 years younger than me. Times change quickly, I know, but it hit me like a wave of elderly welfare benefits disguised as a petrol tanker last night.

The differences between her generation and mine, even though separated by a few years, are stark and somewhat terrifying in hindsight.

1. There were nine planets in the solar system.

For years it was always nine planets and then one day, they decided it was either going to be eight, or about twenty. They chose eight. After seven years of primary education, the world I knew it was, well gone actually; they had just declassified it as a planet.

2. A BlackBerry was a fruit, and so was Apple.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if people heard either “blackberry” or “apple” and genuinely thought of the fruit. But I cannot seem to shake the association now built with my mobile device. People say, “have at least one of your five a day”, whilst I have my BlackBerry in my hand making a call. I’d say that counts, right?

3. To load up a program, you’d have to slam in a cassette tape and wait 20 minutes for it to load.

My first computer, a CPC-464. It was so heavy you could have used it as a concrete block in a mafioso novel. A ten year gap is a bit of an exaggeration but I knew people still word processing back then on green-screened computers. When the 5″ floppy disk came out, we saw that as a mini-revolution in itself.

4. You had to dial into the Internet.

You couldn’t just have the Internet flowing in and out of the computer like an out of control waterfall. No, you had to tell it to dial another computer and information would be sent to and fro through, what was essentially a computer-to-computer phone call. What’s even more weird is that it’s still available, even today.

5. A single gigabyte hard drive simply couldn’t be filled, through no will of trying.

My first computer bought for the family at Christmas 1996 (yes, it had Windows 95) had a 64MB memory and a single gigabyte of storage. My dad said, “we will never, ever fill that”.

6. Video tapes the size of Bibles would be the only way to record a television programme, and even then it’d only be able to record an hour and a half at best.

Even though I’m far too young to remember the Betamax vs. VHS war, I most certainly remember hoping to watch back an episode of The Simpsons which I’d recorded on the oldest VCR in the world, and it failing miserably with tape lodged and jammed in every bit. It was heartbreaking.

7. The only porn we could find was the shredded remains of a dirty magazine under a bush in the local park.

This generation of Internet kids has seen more porn than any other generation of children, ever. When I was a lad, one morning you’d be lucky enough to find a shred of it near where the local dirty old man sleeps in the evening. “Kids having kids… blame the parents”: no, blame the Internet.

8. There was only one computer in the house, and if there were more, only one would connect to the Internet at a time.

No such things as wireless back then. The only wireless you’d know of was the radio, and that would have been a main source of entertainment. It may sound like wartime England, 10 years ago wasn’t that far away. Windows XP hadn’t come out yet, I was still in a school uniform and the computers we used were running Windows NT.

9. There were no such things as flat screen televisions.

At least commercially, anyway. I come from a generation where our eyes are slightly closer together yet facing slightly the opposite way from being transfixed by a CRT television for all these years. And I laugh now at the “radiation warnings” from the sticker on the side of the box…

10. Twitter was called “text messaging” and the “tweet” only went to one other person.

Yes, a new phenomenon which many don’t realise that was basically text messaging. While sending a text is still far more popular than Twitter, the days where news would slowly seep its way through a friendship group (nowadays a “social network”), whereas now you can update literally anyone and everyone in the space of 160 characters.

A lot can happen in ten years.

HR-4646, The Debt Free America Act, Proposed a 1% Tax On All Financial Institution Transaction-Mostly Truth! But Never Passed!

2011-09-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Summary of the eRumor:

This is a forwarded email that says President Obama's finance team is planning to impose a 1% tax on all transactions conducted in financial institutions and that they plan to sneak it in after the November election.

The Truth:

There is a Congressional House Bill, HR-4646, the Debt Free America Act, that was introduced in Congress on February 23, 2010, but we have not found any evidence that the bill is being snuck in by any finance team members as the eRumor alleges.

Details at: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/debt-free-America-act.htm

Do You Complain When You Get bad Service?

2011-09-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

We've all been there -- ignored by a waitress, given the "wait a second" gesture by a clerk finishing a phone call. But instead of enduring it, you should let the management know about it. A report in Time magazine says that consumers experience disrespectful treatment about once a month.

And I am willing to bet that most of us do exactly what the magazine reports. (It's exactly how I react.)

Instead of complaining to a supervisor after being treated poorly, most disgruntled customers just go home and gripe to family and friends about their experience. The customer who was the initial target of the employee’s bad behavior is less likely to return to that business in the future. If they’re angry enough, they may abandon the brand entirely, and they’ve given their circle of acquaintances a heads-up to avoid it, too.

I avoid one big-box retailer at all costs because I've encountered too many surly clerks and gum-snapping cashiers. A department store is on my "don't shop there" list because I can never find an employee, and when I do, it seems they are usually on what sounds like a personal call and too busy to answer my question.

Even though it's been many years, I worked in retail for two years at a big box discount store in high school. Just as there are rude clerks and cashiers, there are rude and obnoxious customers, too.

When you get poor service or bad treatment in a retail business or restaurant, do you complain to a manager? Or do you endure it as a part of life? Is there one particular bad behavior that will send you in search of a manager?

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/talk-of-the-day/article_89524822-e83f-11e0-b885-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1Z5nbS0uJ

‘Extravagant’ Spending, $16 Muffins Found at U.S. Meetings

2011-09-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

U.S. Justice Department agencies spent too much for food at conferences, in one case serving $16 muffins and in another dishing out beef Wellington appetizers that cost $7.32 per serving, an audit found.

“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending,” the Justice Department’s inspector general wrote in a report released today.

The inspector general reviewed a sample of 10 Justice Department conferences held between October 2007 and September 2009 at a cost of $4.4 million. The Justice Department spent $73.3 million on conferences in fiscal 2009, compared with $47.8 million a year earlier, according to the report.

The muffins were served at a conference of the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the beef Wellington was offered at a meeting hosted by the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. A conference of the Office on Violence Against Women served Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars at a single break, costing $32 per person, according to the report.

The report is a follow-up to one from 2007 that found the Justice Department had few controls to limit the costs of conference planning, food and beverages. That audit cited a reception that included Swedish meatballs costing $5 apiece.

What Do the Dress Descriptions Like “Business Casual,” “Summer Wedding,” “Cocktail Attire,” and “Black Tie” All Really Mean?

2011-09-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Fashion etiquette isn’t what it once was, but that doesn’t mean dress codes don’t apply. You probably won’t be shunned for wearing white after Labor Day, but showing up to a wedding sporting the latest Lady Gaga style probably isn’t a good idea. It can be hard to know just what the rules are for all of the various codes you see on invitations. To take the guesswork out of your next invite, just follow the basic rules in this helpful little primer.

Black Tie

Men don’t have actually have to wear a black tie, but they should wear a tux-- and the powder blue one with the ruffled shirt they wore to the prom back in 1976 won’t cut it. Women should wear a fancy-shmancy cocktail dress or long formal dress.

Formal

In most cases this means a monkey suit for the man again. If the invitation is to an uber hip party, where trendy counts, a tux with an expensive shirt but no tie might be acceptable. For women, the same rules as Black Tie apply.

Black Tie Optional

This is Black Tie with an out for those who can’t afford a tux or can’t fit into the one they have anymore. Men should go with a dark suit if they’re sans tux. Women should wear a nice cocktail dress or long gown.

White Tie

For the ultra high class party, the invite might designate White Tie. If someone puts this on their invitation, they mean it. Men should wear a white tie and vest with their tuxedo and women should wear a long formal gown. No cocktail dresses.

Semi-Formal

Semi-Formal means men are free of the tuxedo requirement but should wear a nice suit. A dark colored suit is preferred for evening events. Women don’t have to trip over long formal gowns for this one-- a cocktail dress in the evening or a nice dress during the day will suffice.

Business Formal

Business Formal has the same rules as Semi-Formal for men, but women should opt for more business-appropriate attire like a well-tailored suit.

Cocktail Attire

Dark suits for him and that little black dress for her.

Informal

Don’t let this one fool you. It does not mean come as you are, ripped jeans and all. It’s just another way of saying men should wear a suit and women should wear a dress. Think Cocktail or Business Formal.

Dressy Casual

Men should choose nice slacks and a sports coat. Women should wear a dress or nice pants suit.

Business Casual

Men can drop the blazer if they want, but should still wear nice pants and an oxford-style shirt. Women can wear dresses or skirts as long as they’re not too short or a nice pair of pants and blouse.

Casual

Finally, you can take out those jeans. You shouldn’t wear the stuff you clean your yard with, but something clean and without too many holes will do. These are your running errands or going to the movie clothes.

More information at: http://www.weisstoyotanews.com/Articles/Dress_Descriptions/

Coins Costing Taxpayers?

2011-09-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

Federal government mints coins that nobody uses.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/coins-costing-taxpayers-14076274

Presidential One Dollar Coins. Pretty dumb.

Can the Post Office Survive the Digital Age?

2011-09-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

An article earlier this year asked, "Is email killing the post office?" Well, the post office is not dead yet, but it's not helping from the looks of it. The U.S. Postal Service doesn't have the money it needs to pay its bills, and email and the web are clearly major factors.

Can the post office survive the digital age?

A report from the New York Times is all but predicting the U.S. Postal Service's demise. "The agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances," the report says.

"If Congress doesn't act, we will default," Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe is quoted as saying.

When the subject was discussed , Bloomberg BusinessWeek had put out a lengthy report looking at the decline of the USPS and its contributing factors. While touching on email, it looked more at comparison of USPS performance versus that of FedEx, UPS and DHL, as well as their international counterparts.

Despite talk that social media might one day kill email, email has proven time and time again that it is still a vital part of the Internet. A report from Pew Internet recently found that email (along with search) is the top activity online adults engage in on the web - way more than social media (though that's growing significantly).

Facial Recognition is Unreal

2011-09-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Do you think this technology will make the perpetrators think a bit before starting riots? Or maybe they don't think - that is the point.

This is the crowd before the riot in Vancouver. Put your cursor anywhere in the crowd and double-click a couple of times and then use the scroll button in the centre of your mouse to zoom in . . . all the way in.

You can zero in on one single face. The clarity is unbelievable.

This is the photo taken by Port Moody photographer Ronnie Miranda that appeared in our Tri-City News on Friday (24-June).

This is actually scary. You can see - perfectly - the faces of every single individual - and there were thousands!

Privacy? Just think what the police and the military have at their disposal.

http://www.gigapixel.com/image/gigapan-canucks-g7.html

Available for your credit union? Yes, indeed. Many financial institutions - banks, credit unions, investment organizations, etc. already use this technology. It's called "Facial Recognition." Do a search on Google.com using FACIAL RECOGNITION.

Also check out the following:
Credit union lauds facial search application
http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/credit-union-lauds-facial-search-application

Members 1st VP: 'It really improves your relationship with a police force'
MECHANICSBURG, Pa.—Does facial recognition technology work? For Chip McBreen, vice president of fraud and security services at Members 1st Federal Credit Union it does. “It’s allowed me to gather additional information that I might not know is out there,” he said. “In a strict date and time search, I’m looking for a specific event and that’s what I’m getting. With the addition of facial recognition, I’m able to do an enterprise-wide search, allowing me to gather evidence that I just didn’t know about.”

http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/credit-union-lauds-facial-search-application

Credit Unions at the Crossroads (Must Reading)

2011-08-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Janine Williams, Vice President of Marketing
UVA Community Credit Union
434-964-2008

“Credit Unions at the Crossroads Symposium” Held at University of Virginia’s Darden School

August 25, 201l, Charlottesville, VA…The University of Virginia hosted 65 credit union leaders and academics from across the nation Aug. 10-12, at a unique gathering designed to help chart a course for the movement's future.

The Credit Unions at the Crossroads Symposium encouraged candid discussion on how to address the system's most-pressing issues, including slow growth in market share, reaching today's youth, addressing capital needs, key regulatory issues, and cooperation within the system.

"We all see the harsh realities of the marketplace," said Alison DeTuncq, CEO of the University of Virginia Community Credit Union, one of the Symposium's sponsors. "Many of us are painfully aware that our memberships are aging, that our regulatory burdens are growing, and that the traditional credit union business model poses its own unique challenges. The Symposium sought to lay a foundation on which we can build a research-based framework that answers the question: What's next for America's credit unions?"

During the coming months, the event's co-sponsors -- the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and the McIntire School of Commerce -- will work with the Filene Research Institute to analyze information and audio recordings from the event, identifying current research from Filene that best speaks to the "credit union of the future," as well as topics that beg for new or additional research.

"Credit unions emerged from the financial crisis and the recession with a sense of urgency to better position themselves as a force within the financial services industry," said Dr. Ronald T. Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. "The consumer finance landscape was changing long before the turmoil of the past few years; that change will only accelerate, forcing financial services providers to prove themselves by being innovative, responsive and adaptable. The credit union industry seems eager to accept that challenge and test its own limits."

Symposium presenters and panelists covered a wide variety of topics, including financial and market share trends for credit unions, the characteristics of top-performing credit unions and community banks, current credit union research that best speaks to the system's future, legislative and regulatory issues, credit unions' ability to adapt to the marketplace, marketing, the role of credit union service organizations and trade associations, staff development, governance and more.

Symposium participants were also strongly encouraged to offer their own unique insights on the system's future, and to examine and analyze their own ideas and opinions about the credit union system with a more informed and critical eye.

"The credit union industry has matured to a point that it needs answers to fundamental business questions," said Dr. George A. Overstreet Jr., a professor at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. "Some of the industry's core values are being challenged; its business model faces real and significant threats; and credit unions are struggling for relevance among the next generation of Americans. Credit unions understand the stakes, and fortunately, there's neither a shortage of passion within credit unions, nor a shortage of capable leaders ready to blaze the trail for the industry's future."

-------------------

Comments from a former League President:

THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE IS VERY APPROPRIATE. CU'S HAVE BEEN AT THE CROSSROADS FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, MANY HAVE TAKEN THE WRONG ROAD.

BACK IN THE "OLD DAYS" OF THE MID 90'S I WAS A MEMBER OF CUNA'S "RISK COMMISSION". IT WAS A HIGH LEVEL THINK TANK OF CU LEADERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY CHAIRED BY ADMIRAL JOE SCOGGINS, FORMER CEO OF NAVY FEDERAL. ( NEVER DID FIGURE OUT WHY I WAS ON IT.) WE MET EVERY 6 MONTHS OR SO TO IDENTIFY THE KINDS OF RISKS THAT COULD POSSIBLY BRING DOWN THE SYSTEM. E.G. FAILURE OF HUGE AMERICAN BANKS, FAILURE OF U.S. CENTRAL, FAILURE OF EUROPEAN MONETARY SYSTEM, STOCK MARKET CRASH, HUGE POWER FAILURES, ETC. ALL GLOOM AND DOOM.

WHILE ALL KINDS OF EVENTS WOULD SEVERELY DAMAGE CREDIT UNIONS, AT THE TOP OF OUR LIST--EVERY TIME WE REPORTED TO THE MOVEMENT--THE GREATEST RISK TO THE CREDIT UNION MOVEMENT WAS ...IF WE LOST OUR SENSE OF PURPOSE. THE NON-PROFIT, MEMBER FOCUSED PURPOSE OF A CREDIT UNION WAS FUNDAMENTAL TO SURVIVAL. TOO BAD THE MOVEMENT DIDN'T HEED THE ADVICE OF OUR COMMISSION.

CREDIT UNIONS NEED TO RETURN TO FUNDAMENTALS. GO BACK TO BEING MEMBER DRIVEN--NOT REGULATOR AND BOTTOM LINE DRIVEN.

THEY NEED TO RE-LOOK AT THE SIGNS AT THE CROSSROADS... AND CHOOSE THE RIGHT ROAD.

HAGERBAUMER on Interest Rates

2011-08-05T15:04:00.000-07:00

Comments from Jim Hagerbaumer, Economist

Concluding remarks and food for thought.

• It now becomes inconceivable that the Fed will hike anytime before 2013.

• Monetary and fiscal policy are out of ammo. There will be no cavalry riding to the rescue.

• The Dow has wandered all over the reservation today – a sign of confusion and of what to expect in the months ahead.

• The country is bereft of any leadership whatsoever that understands what is going on.

• Growth of 2% or less the next year and beyond absolutely implies a rising unemployment rate.

• You are going to see a flurry of badly-designed, incoherent, counterproductive policies floated by this White House and Congresspersons on both sides of the aisle who want more than anything to get reelected as the reality of what I am saying here sinks in.

• Never in your business career has it been more important to access the creativity of your own brain and those of your staff. Hard prudential running of “the bank” will be well served and complemented by ideas you never entertained before. But so it must be to prosper in an environment you never before have experienced either!

Jim Hagerbaumer, Ph.D.
hagerbm@tampabay.rr.com
813-792-7624

Voice Biometrics Planned at Desert Schools FCU

2011-08-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

This set-up screen asks the member to call in and make the initital recording of the voice to be verified later. The $2.8 billion Desert Schools FCU in Phoenix is the first financial institution to use a new voice biometrics solution from Finivation Software of New York City.

The VoiceVerify solution can be used to verify a caller’s identity either through an IVR or when working with a live agent, and will be used for high-risk transactions such as wire and ACH transfers and password re-sets, the company and credit union said.

“We plan to use VoiceVerify in several ways – initially for 24/7 password resets for online banking followed by out-of-band authentication for transfers. We also hope to leverage the technology to make it faster for members to authenticate in the contact center while simultaneously reducing the chance for social engineering,” said Gary Laieski, CIO for the 342,000-member Desert Schools FCU.

“Voice biometrics’ advantage over other biometric and security solutions is the fact that a person can be verified remotely, so it is perfect for the contact center as well as online and mobile banking,” said Finivation CEO Brian Bodell. “Users don’t need any special hardware or software, and they don’t need any training to use their voice.”

Desert Schools said it plans to begin using the service this fall. The added security also will help it meet new FFIEC guidance for expanded authentication, the company and credit union said.

Firms enlist smartphones to provide cyber security

2011-08-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Companies are enlisting smartphones as another layer of protection, say security professionals, because they are cheaper and their widespread popularity makes it easier for firms to reach a broad swath of customers.

“People can forget their keys and lunch at home, but no one forgets their phone,’’ said Ward Howell, director of security solutions consulting at Q2ebanking, an Austin, Texas, firm that provides banking services to regional banks and credit unions.

Software can turn smartphones into security tokens that spit out new passwords frequently like RSA’s popular SecurID key fobs.

Companies are taking a closer look at how they guard access to data after hackers broke into RSA, Hopkinton-based EMC Corp.’s security division, and used the stolen information to hack into computer networks at defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

Adding to the urgency are new federal guidelines that require financial institutions to tighten security around online banking.

Lenders, such as Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., already send texts to consumers on their mobile phones.

These messages may notify credit card users of account activity or flag big ticket purchases; consumers may also use their smartphones to pay bills.

But a smartphone can do more, say security professionals. Using one like a security key fob is as simple as downloading an app, said Brendon Wilson, a senior product marketing manager of user authentication at Symantec Corp., a computer security software maker in Mountain View, Calif. “And for the company, there’s no expenditure on a separate token.’’

This allows companies to do away with traditional physical tokens, such as SecurID key fobs. After the March data breach, RSA offered to replace a portion of the SecurID tokens or provide security monitoring. The company said some customers are showing an appetite to replace their security tokens with virtual ones on smartphones.

The cyberattack on RSA had a silver lining. It fueled “new conversations with customers, and it’s not a conversation on just security tokens - it’s a conversation on security,’’ said Sean Brady, director of RSA’s identity management and protection group. “We are at a market inflection point for companies as they review user identification strategies.’’

Read more at: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/08/03/firms_enlist_smartphones_to_provide_cyber_security/

Words of Wisdom: Holding a Glass of Water

2011-07-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading and explaining stress management to an audience; with a raised glass of water, and everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'..... she fooled them all... "How heavy is this glass of water?", she inquired with a smile.

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding stress longer and better each time practiced.

So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night... pick them up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment. Relax, pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it and the now 'supposed' stress that you've conquered!"

1 * Accept the fact that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue!

2 * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

3 * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

4 * Drive carefully... It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker..

5 * If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague

6 * If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it..

7 * It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

8 * Never buy a car you can't push.

9 * Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

10 * Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

11 * Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.

13 * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

14 * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

15 * You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

18 * A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

6 Major Office Distractions

2011-07-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Sound Design

When it comes to creating a productive office environment—it’s more than just four walls. According to a Cornell University study, even low-level noise in open-style offices can result in higher levels of stress and lower task motivation. If you’re going to go with an open office plan, be sure to think about where you place employees who operate at higher decibel levels. Also keep in mind placement of loud appliances such as copy machines.

Tech Intrusion

Nearly 60 percent of work interruptions are—you guessed it—thanks to the Internet. Yes, you can blame Fail Blog for not getting your work done. And don’t forget the time spent on social media, e-mail, and switching back and forth between on-screen applications. According to a survey by market research firm uSamp, while social media use can encourage coordination among employees, there’s no denying it’s a huge distraction

Watch That Dial

Room temperature can directly influence productivity at work. Cornell University studied the effect of increasing temperatures in the workplace from 68 degrees to 77 degrees. Errors at the company fell by 44 percent and typing output increased 150 percent with the increased temperatures. Another study indicates that an office can also be too hot—with a loss in performance at temperatures higher than 75.2 degrees.

Social Butterfly

Telephone calls, walk-in clients, that talkative colleague across the way: Unplanned conversations can have a dramatic affect on productivity in the workplace. Phone calls, talking with co-workers, and impromptu meetings make up 43 percent of work interruptions, according to a market research survey.

Sitting Pretty

The design of office workstations is often linked to health, comfort, and productivity in the workplace. Chairs that are not adjustable and desks that are too small can cause sore backs and contribute to carpal tunnel syndrome. A study coordinated by Health and Work Outcomes, an independent health research and consulting company for office furniture manufacturer Steelcase, found that individuals who received office ergonomic training and sat in a highly adjustable chair increased average productivity by 17.8 percent after a year.

Space Matters

The Wall Street Journal recently published findings from a number of worldwide studies suggesting the space around your workstation could affect not only your productivity, but the style of work you accomplish. Low ceilings encourage analytical thinking, while high ceilings can encourage abstract thought and creativity. Color and light can also change the way we think. Surrounding workers with red walls could stifle creativity, but fuel inside-the-box thinking for tasks that call for small details and accuracy.

Transfer to Technology

2011-07-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

Don’t think you can afford a top tier online banking platform yet? Consider the alternatives. A recent FMSI study indicates teller labor costs have increased by 64% in the last ten years, while transaction volumes have decreased 31% in the same timeframe as customer preferences changed and new technology options became available.

From online knowledge databases to online banking and remote tellers, technology takes some heat off front line staff, reduces staffing demands, and allows you to focus on a better member experience and streamlined performance with those you do have on the clock.

Read a lot more at: http://www.creditunions.com/article.aspx?articleid=4510&wt.mc_id=II071911

Celent Study Finds Small CUs 'Overwhelmed'

2011-07-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.cutimes.com/2011/07/15/celent-study-finds-small-cus-overwhelmed
By Jim Rubenstein

A new study issued this week by Celent, the Boston financial research and consulting firm, is finding small credit unions “overwhelmed” by the complexity of technology and competition.

The study, “Tipping Scale: Credit Union Consolidation”, is based on NCUA data from 2010 and found CUs under $50 million “are disappearing”, though the industry as a whole appears to be adjusting to the new environment.

“What is driving this change?” asked the report co-author, Bart Narter, senior vice president. “Competition driven by demand for mobile banking, consumer and business remote deposit capture and branch capture.”

The study found that smaller CUs “don’t have the scale to create these offerings and even the larger credit unions dwarfed by the size of their bank competitors are finding it difficult to keep up.”

In the past, “credit unions simply required a branch or two, a core banking system and ATM but in the past 10 years “Internet banking, bill pay, know your customers and office of foreign assets control compliance” have all become “table stakes,” Narter said.

In reporting on the CU diminishment, the study noted that the number of CUs in the U.S. “is declining rapidly from 10,316 at the end of 2,000 to 7,330 at the end of 2010.”

The vast majority of this consolidation “is taking place in the smaller credit union with assets under $50 million. However, CUs over $500 million “are vastly outgrowing any other category relative to their tier,” the Celent report said.

Celent, which has done most of its work on the banking sector, said this is the third recent report on credit unions, with the previous two covering core data processing at both large and small CUs.

It's Been a Rough Year

2011-07-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

But not everyone is as lucky as I am ......

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

I ordered a burger at McDonald's, and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds," you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them.

Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ‘ouncer’.

Parents in Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children's names.

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

Congress says they are looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

And, finally...

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

At 101, Harry Hahn retires from CUs

2011-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

ERIE, Pa. After 60 years associated with credit unions, Harry Hahn, 101 has finally decided to retire, according to Erie Times-News (July 10).

Hahn, who will turn 102 on Aug. 9, formally retired last month as a nonvoting director emeritus of the Erie (Pa.) FCU to spend more time with his bride, Theresa, age 92, whom he married late last year.

Hahn--described by Erie FCU CEO Mary Beth Wilcher as having a "little hearing problem" but as "sharp as a tack"--also worked with Hammermill Employees FCU, where he served as board director, treasurer and supervisory committee member, before its merger with Erie FCU.

He also was active in the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA) and served on its board of directors for 15 years. He received its Lifetime Achievement Award and was its Volunteer of the Year.

Jim McCormack, president/CEO of PCUA, described Hahn as humble, low-key and sincere. Hahn was a mentor to many, he said. "I owe so much to him, and a lot of people in Erie and the state would say the same thing," he said.

Conference: Serving Your Members in the 21st Century

2011-07-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Have you marked your calendar yet?

Nov. 7-10, 2011

Palm Springs, CA

http://cuconferences.com/11Reach/2011%20Reaching%20Final6_17_11.pdf

“Reaching Your Members in the 21st Century” brings you new ideas with practical results. More details coming your way.

Guest Presenters

Tom Glatt, Jr.

Glatt Consulting, LLC

Sean McDonald, VP Marketing

Hudson Heritage FCU

Paul Robert, CCO

FI Strategies, LLC

Kevin Blair, Pres.

NewGround

June News and Views Published Below

2011-07-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

CU SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY News - Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security and technology issues for credit unions - Plus some interesting and fun web sites . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Lax Hotel Network Security Leads to Credit Fraud

2011-07-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what happens to your credit card information after it’s swiped at the hotel front desk? New York Times reporter Joe Sharkey knows. Sharkey told petergreenberg.com that he discovered a small unauthorized merchant charge on his credit card the same day he checked out of the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. It wasn’t the first time. Earlier, Sharkey reported in The New York Times that he and his wife had their credit card accounts compromised following hotel stays. In both cases, hackers made multiple small unauthorized purchases. Why were the charges small, you might ask? That’s how hackers check whether card holders are paying attention and whether credit card accounts are vulnerable.

Hackers Are the Hotel Industry’s Frequent Uninvited Guests

According to a 2011 Global Survey Report released by Trustwave SpiderLabs, Sharkey has plenty of company. The report shows that one in ten of the data breaches that Trustwave investigated in 2010 happened in the hotel industry. If you’re a frequent hotel guest, that’s not good news.

Hotel hacking that leads to credit fraud seems to be as easy as shooting ducks in a barrel. The reasons: Point of sale devices are vulnerable; there’s huge volume of credit card transactions; and credit card information is retained for reservations and loyalty programs.

Unsecured hotel wireless networks at hotels have also proven to be an ideal place for hackers to commit a variety of other crimes. At the luxury Thompson Hotel chain, a hacker captured embarrassing emails belonging to guests and staff members that were transmitted over its wireless network and threatened to make them public.

In many states across the country, hackers staying at hotels or parked nearby have used the anonymity of hotel wireless networks to download kiddie porn.

Guests looking to use their hotel’s wireless Internet may face another security threat. In 2010, The CBS Early Show had an ethical hacker set up a fake WiFi access point at a New York City hotel, calling it “Best Free Public WiFi.” Before long, dozens of unsuspecting wireless device users tried to log on. When an unsuspecting hotel guest connects to a rogue WiFi access point like that, his sensitive financial information can be harvested by a hacker.

How to Hide From Hotel Hackers

Remember, staying at a nice hotel with good security doesn’t guarantee that your financial information will be safe from hackers. Here’s what you can do to protect your most valuable possession – your identity.

• Find out what your hotel is doing to protect your credit card information. Ask whether its wireless network uses WPA (WiFi Protected Access) encryption. It requires a password to get onto the network and encrypts all the information transmitted on it. This prevents eavesdropping over wireless. But it may not stop other guests connected to the same hotspot from stealing your information.

• Watch out for Evin Twins. Some WiFi networks you spot at hotels may look like the real thing. They may even contain your hotel’s name. But they can still be rogue access points created by hackers to steal your data. Check with the establishment to make sure which network is the real one.

• Always assume you’re not alone on any public WiFi network. Disable file sharing; and never send Social Security numbers or financial information when over a wireless connection.

• Use a credit card instead of a debit card at hotels so your bank account will be protected.

• Use a VPN (virtual private network) like Private WiFi to ensure that the information transmitted over your WiFi connection is invisible to hackers.

Jan Legnitto is an investigative journalist and documentary producer who writes about criminal justice and intelligence issues.

Five Things You Must Know about Airport Security

2011-06-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here are five things you must know about airport security; this list will help keep things in perspective next time you hear another outrage story, plus it may even help you have a quicker and easier security experience.

1. Airport Security Mistakes Happen.

TSA screeners are human; they will make mistakes. However, the vast majority of these men and women are simply following the rules they are bound by. If you don’t like the rules, and I for one think they could use a huge dose of common sense, take it out on the politicians, not the screeners. (Click on photos to enlarge)

2. Airport Security Mistakes are Few

Stories of outrage make news: when a former Miss USA described her pat-down as “molestation”, people paid attention. Still, in the United States alone, 2 million people get on planes every day; that’s almost three-quarters of a billion a year. The number of “outrages” is miniscule in comparison.

3. Know the Security Checkpoint Requirements

Passengers have security responsibilities too, and following them will speed your time in the line; know what you can and cannot bring through the security checkpoint. Forget arguing about it; you will not win.

4. Security Changes are Coming

By the end of 2011, the TSA hopes to have a “trusted traveler” program in place, or at least in testing-mode: participants who agree to background checks and interviews will supposedly breeze through security. According to the U.S. Travel Association, a majority of passengers say they’d pay for this service, up to $150 a year. Would you pay for quicker security?

5. Airport Security Will Never be Completely Hassle-Free

If you yearn for the good old days of zipping through the airport, forget it. We’ll never go back. The people behind 9/11 saw to that. All we can do is make the best of a difficult situation. Yes, report any outrages you see, but also do your part to make the security experience a smooth one for you and all the people in line behind you.

How to Get Your Messages Read

2011-06-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

The first challenge in the 3 R’s – get your prospects to rip it open is one of the toughest. It’s no wonder. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we lay down to sleep, we’re bombarded with advertising messages.

The real question is, “How do you get past that so your message stands out from the rest?”

Get ready to see your sales explode with this unique dynamite tube. Just include your sales message inside and it's guaranteed to be included in the A-Pile of mail.

One strategy that we find to be very effective, and again we’re going on the assumption that you have a semi-qualified list, is lumpy mail. Lumpy mail is a term I use to describe mail that is unusual shape or size and makes you want to open it just to find out what it is. It will actually overcome the first of those main problems, which is just getting the stuff opened.

6 "Lumpy Mail" ideas to get your offer opened

There are so many fun and wonderful strategies that you can get it opened. One thing that you can do is, as we say, “Add a lump and get a bump in response.” You can actually make the carrier unusual. Here are six of my favorites:

1. Send your marketing in a mailing tube.

There are several different things you can do with a tube. You can make it like a dynamite stick and have a little wick sticking out with a message that says: Get ready to see your sales explode! We actually got a call from this right after 9/11. It was very funny. I was giving a seminar and it was a week and a-half after 9/11. This guy stood up and said, “I just used your stuff,” and 250 people turned to the back of the room. “I sent out a dynamite stick last week after 9/11.” Jon, I have to tell you, it’s the best response I’ve received in my life.”

2. Be creative. Mail a watermelon?

One of the lumpiest of all mailers that we sent, which got us quite a bit of attention, generated more than a 90% response rate. We sent a watermelon. We placed a clear envelope on the outside of the watermelon with a bunch of stamps and sent it. It’s expensive to mail, but I want to illustrate how you can be creative in direct marketing.

Think your message will get noticed if you sent it with a watermelon? You bet it will! If you would like to know more about this or any other creative Lumpy Mail idea give us a call toll-FREE at 800-805-1220.

3. Tie it to a balloon and watch your response rate soar.

We once did a mailing that got a 31% response for IBM. It was a pre-show mailer to sell exhibit spaces. One of the things that we sent was a box that was about 18 inches wide. When you open the box, a helium balloon rises up tied to a string and a package of Red Hots candy. (If you’re interested in doing this, check with us first. When balloons are shipped over the Rocky Mountains, all the helium deflates so we have two distribution centers on both sides of the Rockies to handle the shipments.)

4. Put your message in a bottle and send it out.

This mailing has generated 60% response rates. Just include your message in the bottle and you'll get noticed right away!

Another popular promotion is what we call, “Message in a Bottle.” The package looks like a wine bottle. The message is rolled up inside and attached to the cap so it can be pulled out easily by the prospect. The message begins by saying, “Don’t get left stranded…” or “Enclosed is your treasure map…” I’ve seen this get 60% response rates for seminar mailings.

5. A briefcase makes a terrific high-end package.

One client, Info Now that has products with an average sale of $100,000, actually sent a metal Halliburton briefcase to CIOs, CEOs and CFOs at Fortune 500 Companies. When you opened the briefcase, a laptop inside automatically started running a video presentation. Next to the laptop was a Nokia cell phone. At the end of the presentation, it said, “Press send.” The promotion generated a 55% response rate and of those, 50% converted to a sale.

6. Handwritten address with a live stamp ... simple, but effective!

Simply address the envelope with what looks like a handwritten address and add a commemorative stamp – not a bulk mail stamp. The problem with handwritten addresses is that they can be slow and expensive, but after nearly two years of searching we finally found software that looks just like the real thing! This is important because 83% of your prospects will open a hand-addressed envelope. Tip: don’t include a return address when you use a handwritten address. It will be intriguing enough that people will have to open it.

Automated Deposits Twice as Fast

2011-06-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

Banks and credit unions continue to look for new ways to build their brands through improved customer service. NCR Corporation is seeing significant momentum from financial institutions around its new ATM technology that makes automated deposits twice as fast. You've likely heard (or written) about Wells Fargo and Chase's deployment of NCR's scalable deposit module -- but banks and CUs both large and small are turning to this technology.

NCR has already received orders for 7,000 ATMs with SDM in the U.S., and are in the process of rolling out this technology in other countries. NCR also announced today that many major ATM networks have completed their certification testing of SDM on their systems.

Another Cell Phone Scam

2011-06-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

There's a number of solicitations making the rounds these days in an effort to obtain your cell phone number. These are scams and opens the door for viruses to attack your cell phone. Here's a good one. Pule is a friend of mine so I recognize his name, but as soon as the pop-up asked for my cell number, I canceled the transaction. It's fake.

BIG Phone Scam in the Works

2011-06-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

What's the weakest link in your security? You are! When your phone rings don't believe anything you hear. That Microsoft employee you're talking to could be eating sardines and swigging vodka while he helps remove you from your money.

Evidently computer viruses and trojans are working so well, it seems scammers have enough time to launch a new form of attack. Getting up front and personal they are now attacking us through our phone. Posing as Microsoft tech support, they gain personal and financial information by instructing you, their victim, to setup and allow remote access under the guise of removing computer threats.

If people would only stop and think a minute they would realize that Microsoft doesn't know if their computer has a virus, and they certainly don't know their phone number. When everyone else is charging for even a moment of their time, do you think Microsoft is going to give you free trouble shooting by remote access. Obviously these crooks are counting on the most vulnerable in our society. They don't mind that 85% of the people they call hang up on them. It's the 15% that are paying their bills.

For you and I remote access is commonplace. We know how to do it and we know to be careful when allowing it. Some major companies use remote access now to help their customers with wireless connections and setting up home networks. For those less wary the offer of remote access seems genuine. Remote access is exciting, until they see their credit card bills. Then the fun is gone along with their money.

For now the scam is taking place in English speaking UK and North America. The scammers advise the victims that their computers are infected, show them bogus errors, direct them to a website, and walk them through making a purchase and installing tracking software. The average loss exceeds $800.00.

This has been a huge and surprisingly successful scam and Microsoft expects it to get even bigger and spread to other nations and languages.

Fortunately in my case, I hung up on the thief at the other end, but not everyone is that guarded. The Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Team did a survey of the involved area and discovered that out of 7000 people, more than 1,000 had received this type of call. Of the 1,000, 234 fell for the scam and followed the instructions. Of those, 184 actually lost money to the crooks. This means you have a 1 in 7 chance of being called. How do you like that for a phone campaign?

A problem this big requires that you be prepared ahead of time in order to avoid losing your hard earned cash. It requires only one rule and I'm putting it in bold below. Follow this one rule and all attempted phone scams are stopped dead.

Ohio CUs Hit by Debit Card Fraud Contain Losses on Own

2011-06-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

Ohio Credit Union League spokesman Patrick Harris said the Northeast Ohio credit unions reportedly hit by a debit card fraud have managed to contain their fraud losses on their own.

According to police reports from the North Olmsted Police Department, criminals made fraudulent purchases from six accounts at the Cleveland-based, $311 million, Century Federal Credit Union, two accounts at the Cleveland-based, $180 million Firefighters Community Credit Union, two accounts at the Parma, Ohio-based $100 million PSE Credit Union, one account at the Cleveland-based, $36 million Steel Valley Federal Credit Union and one account at the Akron, Ohio-based, $180 million GenFed Credit Union.

Century’s president/CEO, Tony Coniglio, told Credit Union Times that approximately 200 accounts were hit at his 26,000-member credit union.

Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer newspaper listed two other credit unions that were hit by the breach: The $34 million First Class Credit Union Employees of Cleveland and the $98 million Best Reward Credit Union of suburban Walton Hills.

Best Reward President/CEO John Shirilla told Credit Union Times that there was no breach at his credit union.

Fraudsters reportedly made purchases using counterfeit debit cards containing stolen account information. Thieves are said to have stolen as much as $4,000 from a single account and the spending sprees reportedly took place at retailers across the U.S. and in several other countries

Are You Technology Driven?

2011-06-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

Forrester Research notes that the Internet is now an integral part of a young person’s life (just as previous generations came to depend on the automobile and television). And just as cars and television triggered significant social shifts, Forrester suggests that what it calls the “Net-Powered Generation” will come to expect certain privileges as consumers.

Credit union application: Stop talking about technology products and start implementing them. These include live chat support, account to account transfer (outside your institution), text alerts/messaging, and mobile banking among others.

Credit Unions Increasing Membership and Deposits

2011-06-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

Credit unions added 725,531 new members and $39 billion in new deposits during the 12 months ending March 2011.

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. (June 13, 2011) – A new analysis from Market Rates Insight (MRI, http://www.marketratesinsight.com/ ) reveals that credit unions have increased their membership base as well as their deposits volume during the 12 months ending March 2011.

Total membership increased from 90.2 million to 91.0 million – an increase of 725,531 new members at an average operating cost of $149 per new-member acquisition. The average membership per credit union increased from 12,035 to 12,475. The incremental increase in the average membership per credit union occurred despite a decrease in the total number of credit unions from 7,498 to 7,292 - a decrease of 206 institutions. The absolute increase in the average number of members per credit union was 439. The average same-store increase, which excludes mergers and acquisitions, in the number of members was 97 new members per credit union.

Total deposits (savings) at credit unions increased from $773 billion to $812 billion in the 12 months ending in March 2011 - an increase of $39 billion. The average deposits per member increased from $8,568 to $8,923 over the same time period - an increase of $355 per member. The greatest increases in deposits occurred in regular shares accounts (savings), which increased by $23 billion, followed by Money Market account up $15 billion and share drafts (checking) up $10 billion. The greatest decreased occurred in share certificates (CDs), which decreased by $12 during the 12 months ending March 2011.

“The credit union segment of the banking industry is very dynamic,” said Dan Geller, Ph.D. Executive Vice President at Market Rates Insight, “the increases in membership and in balance volume are an indication of broad appeal to and acceptance by the marketplace.”

Unique Travel Resource

2011-06-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

If you want to retrieve just the best airfare for your upcoming travel, try Hipmunk (hipmunk.com) for a different visual approach. We think you will find this website interesting.

http://www.hipmunk.com/

Social Media

2011-06-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

Portion of small businesses (50 employees or fewer) with company Facebook pages:

In 2009: 27%

In 2010: 41%

(Source – AT&T small business technology poll)

The Global Workplace

2011-06-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

Segment of employees who say they are dissatisfied with their job: 58%

Segment of employees who plan to stay at their job: 70%

Custom Logos for Your CU

2011-06-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Some business owners maintain that it’s worth paying up to thousands of dollars for a global from a professional design firm. But if you don’t have that kind of budget, you can get one for less by holding a global contest. On sites such as 99designs and HatchWise, you describe what you are looking for, and designers submit entries over a few days. (Most contests receive from 20 to 100 submissions.)

You give constructive feedback and select a winner. At Hatchwise, it costs $29 to post a project, plus a prize of at least $100 for the winning designer. At 99designs, the cheapest global package is $295, which includes the winning designers prize. Typically, the larger your prize, the more design submissions you receive.

Taxpayer identity theft is soaring

2011-06-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Larry Margasak, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Imagine filing your tax return and learning that someone else got your refund. With your name and Social Security number, no less.

The IRS is grappling with a nearly five-fold increase in taxpayer identity theft between 2008 and 2010, a Government Accountability Office official plans to tell a House hearing Thursday. There were 248,357 incidents in 2010, compared to 51,702 in 2008.

The GAO findings, obtained by The Associated Press, don't begin to describe the pain for a first-time victim, who must wait for a refund while the IRS sorts out which return is real and which is a fraud.

Many identity thieves don't get prosecuted, according James White, director of strategic issues for the GAO..

"IRS officials told us that IRS pursues criminal investigations of suspected identity thieves in only a small number of cases," White says in testimony prepared for a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.

He said that in the 2010 fiscal year, the IRS criminal investigations division initiated just over 4,700 investigations of all types — far less than the identity theft cases alone.

"We want to know why this problem is apparently getting much worse," said Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee. "By bringing these issues to the public as quickly as possible, the committee hopes to give citizens the necessary information so they can protect themselves from such identity theft."

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, in his prepared statement, defended the criminal investigation record. He said his criminal division concentrates on schemes of national scope and added that 95 percent of those prosecuted for refund-related identity theft go to prison.

Tax identity thieves typically submit returns for refunds early in the filing season. The legitimate taxpayer usually files later, and only then learns from the IRS that two returns were filed using the same Social Security number.

Some thieves steal a name and Social Security number to obtain a job. The employer will report the thief's wage information to the IRS, as would the legitimate taxpayer's employer. The victim then would receive an unwelcome IRS notice that he or she failed to report everything that was earned. The victim would then need to work with the tax agency to sort things out.

Shulman said the IRS can significantly increase its protection after someone has been victimized the first time.

Tax form 14039, the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, allows the agency to mark an account to identify future questionable activity. A task force of the IRS and other agencies established a website, STOPFRAUD.gov, which tells taxpayers what to do if they suspect identity fraud.

The main IRS website includes "Ten Things the IRS Wants You to Know About Identity Theft."

If the IRS receives multiple tax returns for the same individuals, the taxpayer usually must substantiate identity with a federal or state-issued identification such as a driver's license or passport — together with a copy of a police report or the IRS affidavit.

This past January, the IRS developed a pilot program designed to lessen delays for victims who deserve a refund.

Victims are issued an "identity protection personal identification number," which the IRS will use to process future returns. A new PIN will be issued each year the taxpayer's account has been marked for potential fraud.

Apple Working on Smart TV

2011-05-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Apple is rumored to be working on "Smart TV." Turns out "Dumb TV" had already been invented.

It's called "TV."

Fraudsters in my Mailbox; Get the Hell Out

2011-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

The following was in my mail box this morning along with a lopsided logo of ATT. I wish I could hang these people up a tree. Some people will actually respond to this bogus request. I get a petty steady stream of these from a variety of locations. Do they really think a logical person will just send off their name and password . . . and what does "occupation" have to do with doing business with ATT. O boy.
- - - - - - - - - -

Dear Sir/Ma,

Due to the congestion in all users and removal of all unused Accounts,We would be shutting down all unused accounts,You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Info below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

User Name:
Password:
Date Of Birth:
Occupation:
Country Or Territory:

After Following the instructions in the sheet,your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

Copyright © 2011 At&t Inc. All rights reserved
At&t Customer Care
Case number: 8941624
Property: Account Security

NCUA advises CUs on security breach prevention

2011-05-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

Following a number of recent high profile security breaches, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has reminded credit unions of the appropriate security incident prevention and detection steps needed to protect and secure member information.

The agency in a Tuesday release noted that federally-insured credit unions "should have robust enterprise risk management practices in place to maintain member data integrity and confidentiality," including "risk assessment, risk mitigation and controls, and risk measuring and monitoring."

Credit union risk assessment activities should include reviews of information security programs. The NCUA warned of the many ways that hackers and other criminals can attack credit unions through "phishing, spear-phishing, drive-by malware injection, and other malicious techniques." These types of attacks can be used to directly access sensitive information or set up viruses that will ease access to sensitive information. "The increasing sophistication of the tools and techniques attackers use often includes stealth or other means that make their detection more difficult," the NCUA added.

The NCUA said that credit unions could increase their preparedness for these types of attacks by reviewing recent releases by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team's (US-CERT) Early Warning and Indicator Notice (EWIN). The advisories cover the controls needed to restrict and monitor outside access to sensitive information, systems, and control components, and cover web domains that are associated with incidences of malicious activity.

Click here for more info from NCUA.
http://www.ncua.gov/news/express/xfiles/11-RA-03.pdf

Arizona State Credit Union First to Launch Remote Deposit Service for Consumers

2011-05-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

Credit Union members can now deposit checks from home with eDeposit

Arizona State Credit Union is the first credit union in Arizona to offer eDeposit, a remote deposit solution that allows new and current members the option to deposit checks from the comfort of their homes.

“Member service is a core value for the Credit Union, and we will continue meeting members’ needs with responsive service and convenient access as part of our commitment to the communities we serve.”

The free service allows members to scan checks from their personal home computers and scanners for deposit into their Arizona State Credit Union checking or savings account. Members will save time and money and never be constrained by branch hours as eDeposit’s 24/7 online access lets them decide when to deposit their checks.

The eDeposit process is quick, simple and secure. With a step-by-step guided process and the same high quality security that Arizona State Credit Union promises with all of its electronic services, a check is deposited within minutes.

Arizona State Credit Union also offers eDeposit for Businesses, which allows businesses to scan multiple checks from the office, view past deposits and maximize the availability of deposited funds. eDeposit creates efficiency in organizations and is another great addition to the Credit Union’s wide array of business deposit solutions.

Mobile Banking Surges as Emerging Markets Embrace Mobile Finance

2011-05-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

• Over 50% of consumers in rapid growth economies* want to use mobile phones for greater access to financial services

• Mobile phones set to become the ‘virtual debit card’ in rapid growth markets where demand exceeds developed markets by 18%

Global use of ‘mobile finance’ surged in the past year as the spread of new technology and mobile banking infrastructure drove a huge increase in take-up rates around the world, new research from TNS, the world’s largest custom research company, reveals today.

In countries as diverse as China, Brazil and Kenya the number of new users of mobile banking soared over 100% in 12 months, as banks leapfrogged traditional service models and moved directly to mobile. The increases were not restricted to emerging markets alone though: take-up rates also surged in the UK, USA, Singapore, South Korea and Sweden where banks offered customers new services via their mobile handset. For example, people can manage their money from the mobile phone handset, via SMS message or smartphone app, and check their balances, move money between accounts, pay bills and, increasingly, buy goods and services.

Analysing the findings, James Fergusson, Global Technology Sector Head at TNS, said: “Mobile finance technologies have the tremendous capacity to be transformational in rapid growth markets, empowering consumers by giving them greater access to financial services.

“The necessity, marked interest and the blossoming mobile finance infrastructure means that countries such as Brazil and China have the right ingredients to drive mobile finance growth, not just in their own markets, but globally as well.”

The research has been released as part of TNS Mobile Life, an annual report on mobile consumer usage, and reveals a wealth of opportunities for banks, retailers and mobile service providers to develop for existing and potential customers.

To view the percentage increase in mobile banking usage from 2010 to 2011 and read more on mobile banking, click here: http://www.adoimagazine.com/newhome/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7007&catid=1&Itemid=5

Patting Down Baby at Airport

2011-05-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, kid you not. TSA patting down baby. Maybe they think there is more that the usual in that diaper.

Reaching Your Members In The 21st Century

2011-05-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

Reaching Your Members in The 21st Century

November 7 - 10, 2011

Riviera Resort

Palm Springs, California

Does this sound like you? Day after day, it seems that you’re merely going through the motions reaching out to your members. Maybe it has even gotten so bad that you are beginning to think a mildly-skilled monkey could adequately perform your duties. We’re here to tell you that we’ve all been there and it’s not a fun place to be!

While your perception is valid, the reality is YOU ARE TERRIFIC AT YOUR JOB! I’m certain that no matter how skilled this monkey may be, you have forgotten more than that primate could ever learn about your job. The issue here isn’t your ability to do the tasks necessary to function in your role; it’s your level of excitement about doing them!

So the question is: how can you revive the passion for your work? There are quite a few ways. You could take a course related to your job, attend a credit union networking group with other like-minded professionals in your field, you could find out more about the movers and shakers in the credit union movement and try to model their behavior.

These ideas are all good, but the problem is that they are extremely time-consuming. Courses can take months to complete and then, of course, there’s the homework involved. Networking groups are usually a great idea but it may be difficult to find a credit union one that’s industry-specific in your area. Meeting the “who’s who” of your profession is always an option, although most people aren’t just going to be able to pick up the phone and call the top people in their field — it just isn’t done.

So the question remains, how do we bring passion back into our work? The next idea here is a great one; it’s absolutely the best one yet. Why? Because it incorporates all the previously mentioned ideas and builds upon them.

Attend a conference!

Conferences offer opportunities to expand your knowledge base, improve your personal skills and network with others in credit unions. You’ll find out what your Credit Union peers are doing, what the new trends in the financial industry are, and where there’s room for movement and improvement.

At these events, you’ll participate in break-out sessions specifically designed to stimulate your personal and professional growth. They will help you increase your ability to step up as a leader, influence others through powerful communication skills and develop a personal brand that is distinctly your own while vastly improve your chances for success.

Best yet, you’ll have the opportunity to meet other Credit Union execs in your field. You’ll get to ask them what keeps them motivated and rejuvenated on the job. Through them, you’ll glean valuable insight on their journey to the top. The conference is your golden opportunity to cultivate relationships with these Credit Union superstars – what could be more motivating than that?

Attending a conference is one of the most exciting, accessible opportunities for breathing new life into a job that’s beginning to feel dull and mundane. You can be assured you will arrive at the conference with a job, but leave with a refreshed outlook and a vibrant career.

The speakers are being lined up, the hotel is booked. Mark your calendar for:

Reaching Your Members in The 21st Century

November 7 - 10, 2011

Riviera Resort

Palm Springs, California

Presented by:

CU Conferences

William Rogers & Associates

http://www.cuconferences.com

Michigan Coupole Files Suits Against CUs on ATM Fee Disclosures

2011-04-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

A Michigan couple--who drive around looking for ATMs without proper fee-notification signs and then file class action lawsuits against financial institutions without the signs--filed four more lawsuits over ATM disclosures last week in Michigan. The latest batch are all against credit unions.

The couple, Nancy Kinder and Ray Harrison of Fowlerville, Mich., claim in the lawsuits that nondisclosure of fees charged for transactions at ATMs violates Regulation E, the Electronics Funds Transfer Act, which has required institutions to post a notice in a prominent place on the ATM about fees. Court records indicate they travel the state by car and photograph ATMs without legal signage.

They have sued 36 credit unions and bank in two years, according to Associated Press Newswires (April 22). Similar suits have been filed by others in other states as well.

Kinder is involved in at least 11 cases the past two years, filed on her behalf by an attorney from Chevy Chase, Md., Geoffrey Bestor. The most recent cases--filed on April 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit)--are against:

•Lenco CU, Adrian, Mich., with $51 million assets;

•Michigan Schools and Government CU, Clinton Township, with more than $1.04 billion assets;

•Jackson (Mich.) Community FCU, $29 million assets; and

•Northwood CU, Royal Oak, $20 million assets.

Other suits she has filed against credit unions include: ELGA CU, based in Burton, Mich., with $260 million assets, filed on April 16, 2010, and Sunrise Family CU, based in Bay City, Mich., with $90 million in assets, filed July 8, 2009. The case against Sunrise Family was closed on Oct. 21, 2010. Court records said the case "is dismissed with prejudice and without costs, sanctions or attorneys' fees awarded in favor or against either party."

Kinder also has filed against these banks:

•United Bancorp Inc., filed Feb. 3, 2011;

•Paramount Bank, filed June 29, 2010;

•Bestbank, filed June 29, 2010 and closed Feb. 1, 2011;

•Dearborn Federal Savings Bank, filed June 29; and

•Community State Bankcorp, filed June 29, 2010, and closed Dec. 23, 2010.

The American Bankers Association told the Associated Press that the lawsuits are frivolous.

In January, CUNA Mutual Group warned its policyholders of a "significant" spike in lawsuits against credit unions related to ATM fee disclosures. Twelve suits were filed between mid-December and the January (News Now Jan. 14). At that time, the insurance company said many credit unions sued erroneously believed that a fee notice sign was not necessary since the fee was disclosed on the terminal screen of the ATM. Some suits were prompted when institutions changed their fees but not their signs.

Reg E requires credit unions to post a sign--in a prominent, conspicuous location on and at every ATM they own or operate--stating that a fee will or may apply. It does not require the actual fee to be placed on the sign. It also requires disclosing the fee on the terminal screen or paper notice before the consumer is committed to paying the fee. The fee should also appear on the transaction receipt.

CUNA Mutual warned credit unions to develop and write procedures for inspecting their ATMs regularly to ensure the signs are intact, and to photograph the ATM at the time of inspection, maintain an inspection log for all ATMs and have management review the log. The log should include the location inspected, date, status of the sign (missing or present), action taken (replaced the sign) and initials of the employee performing the inspection. Also keep a supply of signs or stickers to replace missing ones, and periodically test the ATM with a non-credit-union-issued ATM network card or debit card to confirm the fee appears on the screen.

How's Your Brain?

2011-04-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get to the office.

New Guy at the Office

2011-04-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

It's hard being the new guy in the office.

Guard against data-breach phishing scams

2011-04-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Double-check that spam filter: The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is alerting consumers to the first phishing e-mail it says stemmed from a massive data breach earlier this month (WalletPop April 8).

E-mail marketing firm Epsilon reported the breach on April 1 after hackers stole e-mail addresses and names from the company's databases, exposing millions of consumers to potential phishing scams.

Phishing occurs when scammers send e-mails that appear to be from legitimate companies in an attempt to acquire your personal information, such as account numbers. The scams can become even more deceptive--and convincing--when crooks obtain and use your name to target messages directly to you. This is known as "spearphishing."

According to the BBB, many more phishing attacks are likely to follow as a result of the data breach. Take these steps to protect your personal information:

•Avoid links. If you receive a suspicious e-mail, don't click on any links contained in the message. You could be directed to a fraudulent website or to dangerous malware.

•Don't share information. Legitimate companies will never ask for your personal information via e-mail. Don't respond to requests for financial account numbers, Social Security numbers, or other information.

•Talk it over. Make sure all family members with an e-mail address know how to spot a phishing e-mail. Kids and older adults often are more susceptible to these types of scams.

•Get secure. Before submitting credit card numbers or other sensitive information online, make sure the website is secure. A secure website starts with https at the beginning of the URL.

•Watch for errors. E-mails that contain frequent spelling mistakes or poor grammar usually signal a scam.

•Don't wire money. Never wire money in response to an e-mail request or to anyone you don't know. You'll be sending funds to a crook--and you'll be out the money when the scam is discovered.

•Shield your computer. Update and run antivirus programs regularly.

Reduced debit swipe fees may hasten shift to phone payments

2011-04-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

The "mobile wallet" is coming, a smartphone application that consumers can use to tap their deposit accounts at checkout, bypassing the current card system. (AP photo)

The era when you could get a little gift back every time you swiped your debit card may be coming to an end - and the brave new world of mobile payments may be ready to replace it.

Last year, Congress ordered the financial industry to get ready for a substantial reduction in interchange fees - the price a merchant pays each time a customer swipes a debit card and the source of revenue that paid for those debit card rewards. In December the Federal Reserve recommended that Congress slash swipe fees by more than 70 percent, to 12 cents per transaction.

Banks were livid at the recommendation, which promised to erase millions of dollars from their bottom line, and they pledged to fight it. Wayzata-based TCF Financial takes that fight to court next week, trying to overturn the new law on constitutional grounds.

But some of the nation’s largest institutions - including Wells Fargo Bank - indicated they are ready to move on, announcing in the last two weeks that they would stop or curtail the rewards programs that they have used to boost debit card usage.

Those banks’ willingness to drop rewards is an acknowledgement that the programs did their job, said Jerry Rossow, a bank marketing consultant in St. Paul.

“People have already adopted debit cards,” Rossow said. “They’re comfortable with them.”

Young consumers have grown up in an electronic, card-based world, he said, and for many older consumers, the rewards program worked. “You tell people that they’ll use the card five times in a month and get a price reduction on something else and they’ll start doing it. It’s an easy habit to form.”

Payment data tell the same story. Debit card usage grew rapidly during the last decade: Transactions reached 37.9 billion in 2009 - half of them from a checking account. Paper checks made up just 30 percent.

Rossow, who advises community banks, said small banks probably will continue debit rewards for a while. Under the federal rule changes, banks with under $10 billion in assets will be allowed to charge a higher swipe fee on debit card payments. Meanwhile, industry representatives for community banks and credit unions have said that they think the marketplace will end up forcing their members to match the lower fees the large banks charge.

For the rest of the story, visit: http://finance-commerce.com/2011/04/reduced-debit-swipe-fees-may-hasten-shift-to-phone-payments/

E-Mail Stastics Galore

2011-04-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Email is the preferred method of commercial communication by 74% of all online adults. - Merkle "View From the Digital Inbox 2011" (2011)

63 % of mobile email users check the account a minimum of once per day. - Merkle "View From the Digital Inbox 2011" (2011)

In 2010, 43% of online population believe that email is 'fun', compared to 55% in 2008. - Merkle "View From the Digital Inbox 2011" (2011)

In 2010 30% of total email time was devoted to commerical emails, compared to 17% in 2005. - Merkle "View From the Digital Inbox 2011" (2011)

Only one percent of 500 surveyed retailers are sending a welcome series to engage new email subscribers. - Listrak "Creating an eCommerce Welcome Series to Increase Subscriber Engagement and Email ROI" (2010)

94% of daily email users subscribed to marketing messages - ExactTarget "Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: The Social Profile" (2010)

67% of US internet users say the motivation behind giving their email address to a company is to receive discounts and promotions. -ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)

55% of US internet users say the motivation behind giving their email address to a company is to get a "freebie" in exchange for my email address. -ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)

Only 14% of US internet users say the motivation behind giving their email address to a company is to interact with the brand. -ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)

57% of internet users worldwide said they are more apt to buy a product in a store after getting a marketing email. - e-Dialog, "Global Perspectives: a Study of Consumer Attitudes to Digital Marketing" (2010)

In the United States, only 4% of internet users said marketing emails made them decide not to buy a product. - e-Dialog, "Global Perspectives: a Study of Consumer Attitudes to Digital Marketing" (2010)

In China, 75% of internet users said they had made a purchase in-store or over the phone because of a marketing email. - e-Dialog, "Global Perspectives: a Study of Consumer Attitudes to Digital Marketing" (2010)

58 percent of consumers start their online day by reading their emails. Meanwhile, 20 percent begin on search engines and 11 percent check their Facebook pages. -ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)

Women are more likely than men to sign up for emails in order to obtain deals and promotions (67% compared to 57%). -ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)

88% of women indicate that promotions have motivated them to subscribe to email marketing messages, compared to 70% of men - with 65% of women having subscribed to email marketing messages in return for a "free" product, compared to 44% of men. -ExactTarget "Email X-Factor Study" (2010)

79 percent of US consumers surveyed stated that the marketing messages that they opt into are sent to their primary personal account. e-Dialog "Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance" (2010)

Overall just 12 percent of US consumers report to have a dedicated e-mail account for marketing messages as compared to 20 percent of UK consumers. e-Dialog "Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance" (2010)

59% of US and UK Internet Users said the reason for not regularly opening/reading email marketing messages is that they come too frequently. e-Dialog "Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance" (2010)

55 percent of consumers stated they do not open and read messages regularly because they don't match their areas of interest e-Dialog "Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance" (2010)

13.4% of mobile subscribers, use the Web via a mobile device at least monthly in 2010. - eMarketer (2010)

75% of daily social media users said email is the best way for companies to communicate with them, compared to 65% of all email users. - MarketingSherpa (2010)

49% of Twitter users said they made an online purchase because of an email, compared to 33% of all email users. - MarketingSherpa (2010)

If email was a country, its 1.4 billion users would make it the largest in the world. Bigger than China, bigger than the populations of the USA and European Union combined. - Email Marketing Reports (2009)

181: the number of marketing emails it would take to produce enough revenue to buy one share in Microsoft. - Email Marketing Reports (2009)

59% of email users spend more than 20 minutes a week with permission email and 27% spend an hour or more weekly. - Merkle Interactive Services (2009)

Permission-based email accounts for 26% of time spent with email. - Merkle Interactive Services (2009)

74% of Internet users age 64 and older send and receive email, making it the most popular online activity for this age group. - Pew Internet and American Life Project (Feb 2009)

More than 90% of Internet users between 18 and 72 said they send and receive email, making it the top online activity just ahead of search engines, according to the non-profit research group. - Pew Internet and American Life Project (Feb 2009) The number of marketing emails sent by U.S. retailers and wholesalers this year will hit 158 billion and grow 63% to 258 billion in 2013. - Forrester's US Email Marketing Volume Forecast (2008)

Nearly one-quarter of Internet users surveyed said they were most likely to check their email upon waking. - AOL/Beta Research Corporation (June 2008)

More than one-third said they checked throughout the day. - AOL/Beta Research Corporation (June 2008)

More than seven out of 10 employed respondents also said they checked their personal email at work - and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day. - AOL/Beta Research Corporation (June 2008)

$5 ATM Fees Coming

2011-04-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

J.P. Morgan Chase and other banks are trying to recoup approximately $30 billion a year in lost overdraft fee income by testing $5 ATM fees, Consumer Action spokesman Joe Ridout told CNBC.

These banks have "historically been reliant on overdraft fees," he said, so they're "coming up with new ways to make up the difference." He said higher ATM fees and other rising costs penalize small depositors.

Nessa Feddis, spokeswoman with the American College of Consumer Financial Services, agreed there are "enormous pressures on banks because of lost revenue."

But she insisted that "most people don't pay ATM fees. Only non-customers who otherwise pay nothing to contribute to the cost of providing the ATMs pay the fee. That is fair because otherwise they are not contributing to the cost of providing the service."

She blamed "price controls that the government is imposing" for drastically limiting debit card interchange fees.

"Those debit card interchange fees — and you’re talking about a penny on the dollar — basically not only provide value to the merchant but they also support the cost of providing debit cards and checking accounts. Until now, we’ve been lucky with (banks offering) a lot of free accounts. I think we will see that go away."

Ridout said the banks are exchanging in political brinksmanship by using the threat of higher ATM fees to "encourage" pressure on the Federal Reserve to "tamp down what this interchange cap is going to be." The Fed issued draft interchange fee rules in December.

Ridout said no one is forcing the banks to charge higher ATM fees, and consumers have other choices if they don't want to pay them.

Credit unions don't charge fees, he said, because they "don’t aim to turn a profit, they have not relied on overdraft fees that gouge consumers and they don’t pay their executives eight-figure salaries or multi-million-dollar bonuses and they don’t have to come up with rinky-dink fees to support these irresponsible levels of compensation."

This DISCLAIMER Will Blow Your Mind

2011-03-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

The following is the Disclaimer posted at this site: http://www.felonspy.com/. Believe it or not.

Disclaimer

We here at FelonSpy.com will never invade anyone’s privacy at all, but we do strive with daily passion and vigor working by the hour to insure that regular, non-criminal citizens (such as you and me, people who can vote an hold public office) have the best information possible to insure we have the knowledge we need to make qualified decisions about our own safety, our neighborhood, how closely we should be on the lookout against the criminal element around us, and our overall well being. We value our children as idyllic idols of the future in the same way we know you do, and it’s with these concerns in mind that we have put together this site. Thanks to us, you’ll always know what criminals live around you and how to protect yourself from this societal scum.

We hope to continue rolling out coverage city by city, state by state and nation by nation, but there are many places where we run in to obstacles. Some of these obstacles are “legal challenges” from the likes of attorneys, courthouses, law enforcement, those A-Holes at the ACLU and “the law” in general.

Apparently we care more about your well being than your own politicians and their stupid laws do, but that probably doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to you. Give money to anarchy societies anonymously, it’s the only way to protect yourself.

So here are some of the many ways we have to disclaim ourselves and this site:

Our data is not guaranteed, nor “official”, nor legally binding. Still, I think you know it’s pretty good, because it is. You can see how much work we dedicated to making it right, so we’re pretty solid, but not “guaranteed”.

Some municipalities and counties provide incomplete, outdated or inaccurate data from which we cull our information, so there may be places where addresses are incomplete or less-than-perfectly accurate, or the crime listed may be out of date, incorrect or otherwise since sealed, appealed or voided. We do our best, but we don’t always have access to the latest and best information, but winning in an appeal doesn’t mean the guy didn’t do it, does it?.

You should never use this site as cause to be a vigilante, even if you have been a victim and have a good 30-oz bat or unregistered firearm handy. Everyone loves a hero, there is no denying that, but if you rely on government records to put your hit-list together, it’s going to come back around to bite you in the butt every time, no thanks to “the man”. Use the database collection from this site instead as a general guideline and nothing more, and that’s our “disclaimer” (wink, wink).

When you see properties listed in the water, those are either incorrect addresses provided by your local government, or locations where the crime actually took place. We can’t correct all of them, but we do our best.

When you see an address listed in the middle of declared park lands, that is likely the last known location where this person committed a crime, or the last place the person was known to have been located.

None of the data we provide can be used in court, on television, radio or print media, or for any purposes other than your own curiosity and general information, unless otherwise stipulated in writing by one of our principal directors or data miners.

We do our best to provide safety and security for you, and we’ll keep doing it until the government sues us out of existence, which will sure as hell happen soon. Since we can’t actually promise our continued services we can only promise to flood you with arbitrary, unverified information so you can make some other decisions for yourself based accordingly. We’re only trying to help, and we work night and day to do just that.

It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know

2011-03-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

A favorite pastime of Internet users is to share their location: services like Google Latitude can inform friends when you are nearby; another, Foursquare, has turned reporting these updates into a game.
But as a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, recently learned, we are already continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts.

The results were astounding. In a six-month period — from Aug 31, 2009, to Feb. 28, 2010, Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times. It traced him from a train on the way to Erlangen at the start through to that last night, when he was home in Berlin.

Mr. Spitz has provided a rare glimpse — an unprecedented one, privacy experts say — of what is being collected as we walk around with our phones. Unlike many online services and Web sites that must send “cookies” to a user’s computer to try to link its traffic to a specific person, cellphone companies simply have to sit back and hit “record.”

“We are all walking around with little tags, and our tag has a phone number associated with it, who we called and what we do with the phone,” said Sarah E. Williams, an expert on graphic information at Columbia University’s architecture school. “We don’t even know we are giving up that data.”

Tracking a customer’s whereabouts is part and parcel of what phone companies do for a living. Every seven seconds or so, the phone company of someone with a working cellphone is determining the nearest tower, so as to most efficiently route calls. And for billing reasons, they track where the call is coming from and how long it has lasted.

“At any given instant, a cell company has to know where you are; it is constantly registering with the tower with the strongest signal,” said Matthew Blaze, a professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania who has testified before Congress on the issue.

Mr. Spitz’s information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail.

Mr. Spitz, a privacy advocate, decided to be extremely open with his personal information. Late last month, he released all the location information in a publicly accessible Google Document, and worked with a prominent German newspaper, Die Zeit, to map those coordinates over time.

“This is really the most compelling visualization in a public forum I have ever seen,” said Mr. Blaze, adding that it “shows how strong a picture even a fairly low-resolution location can give.”

In an interview from Berlin, Mr. Spitz explained his reasons: “It was an important point to show this is not some kind of a game. I thought about it, if it is a good idea to publish all the data — I also could say, O.K., I will only publish it for five, 10 days maybe. But then I said no, I really want to publish the whole six months.”

In the United States, telecommunication companies do not have to report precisely what material they collect, said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who specializes in privacy. He added that based on court cases he could say that “they store more of it and it is becoming more precise.”

Do you use ATMs regardless of fees?

2011-03-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

When I need to get some cash, I invariably head to the ATM at my bank in my hometown to replenish the always dwindling supply.

I can count on three fingers the number of times I've had to use an ATM not affiliated with my bank, and pay the fees that come with that convenience.

But I know some people who will use whatever ATM is handy, fees notwithstanding. They might change their behavior if they see higher fees coming their way.

CNN reports that some of the nation's biggest banks are testing out higher fees -- as much as $5 for non-customers. Add on the $2 or $3 that your own bank charges for going out of network, and a withdrawal of $20 could cost you closer to $30.

I know the location of at least a dozen of my bank's ATMs within a 10 or 15-mile radius of my home. Those 'little' $2 or $3 fees can add up quickly, and I'd rather head to my bank's ATMs and avoid them.

But not everyone is that lucky. Do you think before you get cash from an ATM? Or do you just figure that an extra $10 or $15 a month in 'convenience' charges are acceptable? And would a $5 charge stop you from getting cash from an out-of-network ATM, while a $2 or $3 charge doesn't?

FTC Releases List of Top Consumer Complaints in 2010

2011-03-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

FTC Releases List of Top Consumer Complaints in 2010; Identity Theft Tops the List Again
The Federal Trade Commission today released the list of top consumer complaints received by the agency in 2010. The list showed that for the 11th year in a row, identity theft was the number one consumer complaint category. Of 1,339,265 complaints received in 2010, 250,854 – or 19 percent – were related to identity theft. Debt collection complaints were in second place, with 144,159 complaints.

The report breaks out complaint data on a state-by-state basis and also contains data about the 50 metropolitan areas reporting the highest per capita incidence of fraud and other complaints. In addition, the 50 metropolitan areas reporting the highest incidence of identity theft are noted.

For the first time, “imposter scams” – where imposters posed as friends, family, respected companies or government agencies to get consumers to send them money – made the top 10. The FTC also has issued a new consumer alert, “Spotting an Imposter”, to help consumers avoid imposter scams.

Rank Category Number of Complaints Percentage

1 Identity Theft 250,854 19%

2 Debt Collection 144,159 11%

3 Internet Services 65,565 5%

4 Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries 64,085 5%

5 Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales 60,205 4%

6 Imposter Scams 60,158 4%

7 Internet Auctions 56,107 4%

8 Foreign Money/Counterfeit Check Scams 43,866 3%

9 Telephone and Mobile Services 37,388 3%

10 Credit Cards 33,258 2%

More information is at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/topcomplaints.shtm

Hackers steal $527,000 from LES FCU account at bank

2011-03-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

BATON ROUGE, La. (3/8/11)--Computer hackers from the Ukraine made unauthorized transfers totaling nearly $527,000 from LES FCU, Baton Rouge, La., in September 2009 through the credit union's commercial account with Capital One, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Thursday.
The hackers transferred the money by slipping an e-mail attachment with malware past a credit union accountant, according to the complaint filed against Capital One by the credit union's insurer, Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland. The insurer reimbursed LES FCU for $321,873.

More than $200,000 of the siphoned funds were recovered before they could be claimed by the criminals at wire transfer locations worldwide, the court documents said.

Capital One is alleged to have permitted the unauthorized transactions after an LES FCU accountant received an e-mail purporting to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) around Sept 14, 2009, according to the complaint.

The e-mail was from "a den of thieves," who directed the accountant to "an official-looking" website, said the complaint filed Thursday. At that website, a "key logger program" was secretly downloaded to the accountant's computer. The program allowed the thieves to obtain the credit union's Capital One user IDs and passwords.

On Sept. 16, the accountant accessed the credit union's Capital One account and noticed that nine unauthorized transfers had been made Sept. 15. Capital One mailed notifications to the credit union regarding the nine wire transfers processed, but did not attempt to contact the credit union directly. At 9:15 a.m. Sept. 16, LES FCU contacted Capital and reported the unauthorized transfers

Your Television is Watching You

2011-03-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people's TV-viewing behavior with other personal data—in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers—and using it to help advertisers buy ads targeted to shows watched by certain kinds of people.

At the same time, cable and satellite companies are testing and deploying new systems designed to show households highly targeted ads.

The goal: emulate the sophisticated tracking widely used on people's personal computers with new technology that reaches the living room.

One of the most advanced companies, Cablevision Systems Corp., has rolled out a system that can show entirely different commercials, in real time, to different households tuned to the same program. It can deliver targeted ads to all the company's three million subscribers concentrated in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

In an early test of Cablevision's technology, the U.S. Army used it to target four different recruitment ads to different categories of viewers.

One group, dubbed "family influencers" by Cablevision, saw an ad featuring a daughter discussing with her parents her decision to enlist. Another group, "youth ethnic I," saw an ad featuring African-American men testing and repairing machinery. A third, "youth ethnic II," saw soldiers of various ethnicities doing team activities. An Army spokesman declined to comment.

Read more on how TV is watching us at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288304576171251689944350.html

To help all of you true lexiphiles

2011-03-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

To help all of you true lexiphiles (lovers of language and the art of crisp idea expression), here are some wonderful new phrases . . . or maybe a repeat of some old ones.

Here they are:

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.
A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.
When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.
The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.
The batteries were given out free of charge.
A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.
A will is a dead giveaway.
If you don’t pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I’ll show you A-flat miner.
You are stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.
Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.
A boiled egg is hard to beat.
When you’ve seen one shopping center you’ve seen a mall.
Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
Did you hear about the fellow whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.
If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory.
A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired.
In a democracy it’s your vote that counts; in feudalism, it’s your Count that votes.
When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.
Acupuncture: a jab well done.

Convert PDF to Word; Free and No Downloading

2011-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

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25 Ways to Waste Your Money

2011-03-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Has your budget sprung a leak?

Nearly everyone has spending holes. And as with other kinds of leaks, you may have hardly noticed them. But those small drips can quickly add up to big bucks. The trick is to find the holes and plug them so you can keep more money in your pocket. That extra cash could be the ticket to finally being able to save, invest, or break your cycle of living from paycheck to paycheck.

Here are 25 common ways people waste money. See if any of these sound familiar, then look for ways to plug your own leaks:

1. Carrying a balance. Debt is a shackle that holds you back. For instance, if you have a $1,000 balance on a credit card that charges an 18% rate, you blow $180 every year on interest. Get in the habit of paying off your balance in full each month.

2. Overspending on gas and oil for your car. There's no need to spring for premium fuel if the manufacturer says regular is just fine. You should also check to make sure your tires are optimally inflated to get the best gas mileage. And are you still paying for an oil change every 3,000 miles? Many models nowadays can last 5,000 to 7,000 miles between changes, and some even have built-in sensors to tell you when it's time to change the oil. Check your manual to find the best time for your car's routine maintenance.

3. Keeping unhealthy habits. Smoking costs a lot more than just what you pay for a pack of cigarettes. It significantly increases the cost of life and health insurance. And you'll pay more for homeowners and auto insurance. Add in various other expenses, and the true cost of smoking adds up dramatically over a lifetime -- $86,000 for a 24-year-old woman over a lifetime and $183,000 for a 24-year-old man over a lifetime, according to "The Price of Smoking" (The MIT Press).

Another habit to quit: indoor tanning. There is now a 10% tax on indoor tanning services. As with cigarettes, the true cost of tanning -- which the World Health Organization lists among the worst-known carcinogens -- is higher than just the price you pay each time you go to the salon.

4. Using a cell phone that doesn't fit. How many people do you know who have spent hundreds of dollars on fancy phones, and then pay hundreds of dollars every month for the privilege of using them? Your phone is not a status symbol. It is a way to communicate. Many people pay too much for cell phone contracts and don't use all their minutes. Go to BillShrink.com or Validas.com to evaluate your usage and see if you can find a plan that fits you better. Or consider a prepaid cell phone. Compare rates at MyRatePlan.com.

5. Buying brand-name instead of generic. From groceries to clothing to prescription drugs, you could save money by choosing the off-brand over the fancy label. And in many cases, you won't sacrifice much in quality. Clever advertising and fancy packaging don't make brand-name products better than lesser-known brands

See 20 more money savings tips: http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/112202/25-ways-to-waste-your-money?mod=bb-budgeting

Online crime at second highest in decade

2011-03-04T05:30:00.000-08:00

CUNA - FAIRMONT, W.Va. (3/4/11)--Just how pervasive has Internet crime become? In 2010, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 303,809 complaints--the second-highest total in IC3's 10-year history and an average of 25,317 complaints per month.

IC3, a repository for victim complaints, is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). It has received more than two million Internet crime complaints since it was established in 2000.
The three most common complaints:

Nondelivery of payment or merchandise (14.4% of complaints);
Scams using the FBI's name (13.2%); and
Identity theft (9.8%).

Others included: computer crimes, 9.1%; miscellaneous fraud, 8.6%; advance fee fraud, 7.6%; spam, 6.9%; auction fraud, 5.9%; credit card fraud, 5.3%; and overpayment fraud, 5.3%.

Of those with dollar losses reported, 21.1% related to non-delivery of payment or merchandise; 16.6% were identity theft, 10.1% were auction fraud, and 9.3% were credit card fraud.

Text scams, other fraud reported by CUs

2011-03-04T05:26:00.001-08:00

CUNA - MADISON, Wis. (3/4/11)--Credit unions in several states are reporting recent text, e-mail, and telephone scams urging consumers to divulge their account numbers. Also, two credit unions reported counterfeit checks, CUNA Mutual recently alerted credit unions about unauthorized wire transfers through the Bredolab Trojan malware, and one credit union reissued debit and credit cards after a theft at a gas station.

Among the reports:

In Pennsylvania, someone posing as Beaver Valley FCU, Beaver Falls, is texting people and asking for personal debit and credit card information (Associated Press Newswires March 3). Police began receiving calls about the scam Tuesday and called the numbers given in the text message. One goes to North Carolina and another to Massachusetts. Two people fell for the scam and gave account information but no fraudulent transactions have occurred yet. On Thursday New Brighton police reported six such calls. Scammers are contacting people with cell phone numbers in the 724 area code (TimesOnline.com March 3).
ARC FCU in Altoona, Pa., told the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association recently that members received automated phone messages advising them of a problem with their debit/credit cards and instructing them to call in and enter their card number. Caller ID screens show the calls came from 1402, a number that is not associated with the credit union (Life is a Highway Jan. 31).
In North Carolina, a text message purporting to be from Tarboro-based Telco CU informs recipients their account has been suspended and asks them to call a telephone number to verify account information. Several people who do not have Telco accounts contacted the Asheville Police Department after receiving the text (Asheville Citizen-Times March 3).
Similar e-mail scams claiming something is wrong with an account are targeting Mobiloil CU members and nonmembers in Beaumont, Texas, said the Beaumont Police Department (Beaumont Enterprise Feb. 9).
West Community CU, O Fallon, Mo., cancelled and reissued about 250 cards whose numbers were compromised when a credit card machine was stolen from a Mobil station in St. Louis. (KSDK.com Feb. 21).
Security Service FCU, San Antonio, said that in January hundreds of people received automated calls from a 1-888 number about deactivated accounts and asking for account numbers (WOAI.com Jan. 31). The messages claim recipients' cards have been blocked and they must enter their account number and personal identification number to reactivate them. An example: "(888-891-2538) Hello. Call us now at 817-350-4570. Security Service FCU." Neither number belongs to the credit union.

Two credit unions--in Kansas and Pennsylvania--reported counterfeit checks circulating with their names.

Lenexa, Kan.-based CommunityAmerica CU's name is used on counterfeit cashier's checks, said an alert from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. CommunityAmerica does not issue cashier's checks; it issues official checks. The bogus checks include a routing number, 011007092, assigned to Boston (Mass.) Safe Deposit & Trust Co. The credit union's official checks are through Moneygram Payment Systems Inc. and use an account held in the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co. The fake items display a security feature statement embedded within darkened top and bottom borders, and the word "CASHIER'S CHECK" in the top center. Authentic checks have a blue cubed background,dark blue top border, and a security feature statement centered above the bottom order. Seven arrows precede the numeric dollar amount.

Also, Allegheny-Ludlum Brackenridge FCU in Brackenridge, Pa., said fraudulent checks with its name, address and ABA number are in circulation and use an account number from a closed account (Life is a Highway March 3). The check--from GALA GLOBAL in Andover, Mass.--is for $980 and is enclosed in a letter about GALA's Member Pulse Survey 2011 for a Walmart evaluation exercise. It asks the recipient to deposit or cash the check "preferably at your bank and NOT at any Walmart location (so the employees at Walmart won't be tipped off)."

Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail

2011-03-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Your name, address, and buying habits are a commodity that is regularly sold & traded on the open market. These days organizations you deal with virtually all sell your name unless you specifically ask them to stop. Here are some general techniques:

Whenever you donate money, order a product or service, or fill out a warranty card, write in large letters, "Please do not sell my name or address". Most organizations will properly mark your name in the computer.
Product warranty cards are are often used to collection information on your habits and income, for the sole purpose of targeting direct mail. They are not required in most situations - avoid sending them.

On the telephone, ask "Please mark my account so that my name is not traded or sold to other companies".
Your credit card company probably sells your name the most often -- keep reading for techniques to stop it.
"Contests" where you fill in a little entry blank are almost always fishing expeditions for names. If you fill one out at a football game, for example, expect to get a catalog of football merchandise within a few months. Avoid these if you don't want the mail.
Select a false middle name or initial for each charity or business you deal with. Keep track of which letter goes with which organization. You can also select a false road designator, "avenue, place, circle, street, highway, parkway, etc.". This step can be very revealing. Some guides recommend changing the spelling of your name, but this can lead to duplicate mailings.

Free Babysitting Provided in Wells Fargo Vault

2011-03-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Recently, a fourteen-month-old baby spent four long and frightening hours surrounded by safe deposit boxes after she was locked inside a Wells Fargo Bank vault in Conyers, Georgia.

Picture This. . . .

A little girl and her mother arrive at Wells Fargo Bank to visit with her grandmother, a bank employee. While mom and grandmother visited, the toddler wandered unnoticed into the safe deposit vault. As bad luck and poor security procedures would have it, the vault door time clock was set, the door was shut and the toddler was now locked inside. The baby immediately started to cry when the lights went out and was detected by a security camera monitoring the inside of the vault.

Police and fire department personnel arrived quickly. They pumped oxygen into the vault while awaiting for a police escorted vault door locksmith. After four tense hours of drilling through solid steel, the toddler was returned unharmed to her frantic parents and grandmother.

History Repeats Itself

A few years earlier, at another Wells Fargo (San Francisco) branch on Christmas Eve, the same “free overnight accommodations” were provided to another unsuspecting consumer. Daniel Goldberg, an 81-year-old attorney spent two nights (more than 40 hours) locked inside the bank’s vault. Fortunately for Wells Fargo, the attorney took it in stride and decided not to sue. Had he chosen to do so, Wells Fargo Bank might now be known as Goldberg National Bank.

Other Nationwide Lock-Ins

Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. They are only two of many such vault lock-in horror stories. There have been others nationwide, including a sweet 86-year-old lady from Tacoma, WA, a Georgia bank president, an eighteen-month-old baby boy and several other elderly box renters. One lock-in victim was even a dog belonging to the Chairman of the Board. The dog was in the facility on a Saturday afternoon when he decided to play hide-n-seek with his master. You can easily guess where he decided to hide. Each of these cases could have resulted in serious liability, injury or even death, all of which would mean significant losses for these institutions.

10 states with astronomical cell phone taxes

2011-02-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

Nebraska tops the list, with total taxes of 23.69%. Oregon has the lowest rate, 1.81%.

Just how much do we love our cell phones? So much so that, in most places across the United State, we're willing to put up with astronomical taxes to stay connected.

An analysis of cell phone taxes by the Tax Foundation finds that the levies on the devices are significantly higher than many other common consumer items.

And while we tend to complain about the IRS, in this case the tax damage is more local.

The average U.S. wireless customer pays taxes and fees of 16.26%, says the Tax Foundation, with state-local charges accounting for 11.21% of that overall amount.

Worse, the Washington, D.C.-based tax research group found that state and local governments often hide or obscure the fees. In fact, my home state of Texas even sued Sprint because the company listed a state tax as a line-item in its bill, rather than hiding it from customers.

So where does your state rank on the cell phone tax list?

Nebraska is the biggest cell phone taxer. Its combined federal-state-local average tax rate is 23.69%. Four other states -- Florida, Illinois, New York and Washington -- have total cell phone tax rates of more than 20%.

Here are the top 10 highest cell phone taxing states, with their combined average federal, state and local cell phone tax rates:

•Nebraska, 23.69%

•Washington, 23%

•New York, 22.83%

•Florida, 21.62%

•Illinois, 20.90%

•Rhode Island, 19.67%

•Missouri, 19.28%

•Pennsylvania, 19.13%

•Kansas, 18.39%

•Texas, 17.48%

Overall, 23 states and the nation's capital have average state-local wireless taxes and fees in excess of 10%.

Locally, Baltimore, Md., imposes a $4 per line per month tax on wireless users. The Charm City assessment is on top of federal and state charges. The Washington, D.C., suburb of Montgomery County, Md., charges cell phone users a monthly $3.50 per line tax.

And where is making a mobile call not so costly? Head west, cell phone users.

Oregon's state and local tax rate is just 1.81%. Nevada's rate is 2.02%. In Idaho, cell phone users pay 2.20% in state and local taxes.

From those three low-tax states, the cell phone state and local rates jump to 6.03% (that's in Montana) and just keep climbing.

February News and Views Published Below

2011-02-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

CU SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY News - Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security and technology issues for credit unions - Plus some interesting and fun web sites . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Credit Union Vendor Information No Longer Public

2011-02-26T13:18:00.000-08:00

From Gigi Hyland, NCUA . . .

Several months ago, I was made aware of a concern regarding identifying the software solution credit unions use in the “Credit Union Online Profile” section of the NCUA website. The concern included worry that hackers or former employees of the software vendors could use their knowledge of the particular system weaknesses to compromise the credit union’s system. The agency looked at the issue extensively and decided to make an important change to publicly available credit union information.

Beginning with the June 30, 2010 Call Report cycle, we removed vendor names from the public view in Credit Union Online and the 5300 Call Report Quarterly Data Files. Similarly, effective in the near future, this vendor information will no longer be available to query from the NCUA website.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for vendor data will be denied. The information security threat landscape has changed significantly in recent years. Further, new threats continue to emerge at an alarming rate. Hacking techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated and their damage more devastating. The financial services industry has been a target in this escalating threat environment.

Restricting vendor information will reduce the exposure of credit unions’ operational and member information to external security risks. NCUA will continue to collect vendor names through Credit Union Online, as they provide useful information in case of a disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina; when a vendor failure appears likely; and as a measure of potential systemic risk, present when one or a few vendors dominate the market for credit union data processing systems.

Credit unions wishing to perform due diligence over current or prospective vendors may be able to obtain existing customer contact information from the vendors themselves.

10 Great Error Messages

2011-02-19T06:14:00.000-08:00

A good computing day is an error-free day. Unfortunately, those are rarer than we would like. Have you seen any of these funny and original error messages lately?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/219998/10_great_error_messages.html

Leadership 101

2011-02-15T05:47:00.000-08:00

Posted by Charles Bruen
http://www.cbruen.com/blog/

The February 9th Credit Union Times editor's column written by Sarah Snell Cooke is worth reading. Cooke covers several topics but this one in particular caught my attention:

"... during a webinar recently hosted by our Credit Union Leadership Forum, 77% of attendees responded that the NCUA's requlation definitely will help or will help some to the question, "Do you think that the latest NCUA regulations on FCU directors will help credit unions to function more effectively in the future.?"

"Beam me up Scotty!" Are you serious? These credit unions (77%) were just waiting around for the NCUA to mandate what they should do next. Is this great credit union leadership.

If this training requirement was so important to this group of credit unions, then why didn't they just implement it long ago. It is a sad state of affairs when credit leadership amounts to sitting back and waiting for the regulator tell us what the next step is to become "more effective in the future."

PayPal and Attorney Team Up to Rip off Baseball Historic Society

2011-02-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

PayPal Refuses to Help Identify Card Clearing Bank, Partners With Bank to Cheat Historic Society

St. Louis, MO, February 15, 2011 - The 27 year old St. Louis Browns Historic Society says they’ve been ripped off by a Skokie, Illinois attorney using his credit card through PayPal. The attorney, Irving Funk, purchased a St. Louis Browns replica baseball jersey from the Society. He paid for the merchandise and turned around and canceled the transaction with his bank about a month later. Now three months later, the Society is still trying to have its merchandised returned.

Society President, Bill Rogers, says the baseball jersey was exactly as pictured at their blog site at http://brownsmerchandise.blogspot.com/ . “The cost of the sale does not warrant filing a lawsuit, but it does warrant spreading the word about the ethics of Mr. Funk. We have sent numerous e-mails, made numerous phone calls, and also sent post office mail but all go unanswered. All we’re asking for is either payment of the Jersey ($72) or return of the merchandise. It’s that simple. We have no idea why Mr. Funk changed his mind.”

Mr. Funk advised his bank to stop payment of the purchase. His bank notified PayPal who refunded the money back to Mr. Funk. A call for help to PayPal has fallen on deaf ears. Rogers said, “I have talked to PayPal several times requesting they advise us as to Mr. Funk’s bank name and/or the credit card number used for this fraudulent transaction. PayPal refuses to co-operate citing privacy reasons. PayPal has become a party to this fraud.”

A Google search on “PayPal Problems” turned up over 97,000 websites. Rogers said he noted comments at http://headkeys.com/screw-paypal.com that provides help to those who got ripped off by PayPal.

One person commented, “Had an email off PayPal this morning. The buyer has filed an 'item not as described’ dispute, even though it was exactly as described and the lovely people at PayPal have now seized the money involved and frozen my account! I am going to have to go through all this dispute bovine excrement now, not knowing whether I will even get MY money back from them at the end of it all. Not sure what’s going on. Have I been the victim of a scam? Do you think?”

Rogers said, "If you have a PayPal account, be aware they are not a bank and have a completely different set of rules. While we may continue with PayPal, we're withdrawing our funds to work off a near-zero balance account."

About St. Louis Browns Historical Society

The mission of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society is to preserve the history and memory of the St. Louis Browns baseball team. The Browns played in St. Louis from 1902 through the 1953 season. The fan club was organized in 1984 and has more than 315 members today.

To learn more about the Browns, visit their Internet sites at:

http://www.thestlbrowns.com/
http://thestlbrowns.blogspot.com
http://brownsmuseum.blogspot.com/
http://brownsmerchandise.blogspot.com/
http://stlbrowns.qbstores.com/

Contact

Bill Rogers, President/COO
St. Louis Browns Fan Club
P.O. Box 510047
St. Louis, MO 63151-0047
Telephone: 314-892-8632
E – mail: STLBrowns@SWbell.net

It's Just Getting Too Complicated

2011-02-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot."

P.S. I know some of you are not over 50. I posted this to allow you to forward it to those who are. Us senior citizens don't need anymore gadgets. The tv remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.

Identity fraud dropped 28% during 2010

2011-02-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

Credit unions that have applied more stringent criteria to authenticate users and determine credit risk will be happy to learn their efforts work. The number of identity fraud victims in 2010 dropped by 28% to 8.1 million U.S. adults--the largest single-year decrease since 2003. And the total amount decreased to $37 billion--the smallest amount in eight years. However, consumers out-of-pocket expenses rose significantly--63%, said a new study.

The survey, independently produced by San Francisco-based Javelin Strategy & Research and whose results were released Tuesday, is the nation's longest-running study of identity fraud. It was sponsored by Fiserv, Intersections Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co. (Business Wire Feb. 8), and is based on 5,004 telephone interviews. Intersections Inc. is a CUNA Strategic Services provider.

The 8.1 million fraud victims were three million fewer than in 2009, and the total amount decreased from 2009's $56 billion to $37 billion. Javelin said consumers' costs rose significantly due to the types of fraud that were successfully perpetrated and an increase in "friendly fraud."

The study defined identity fraud as unauthorized use of another person's personal information to achieve illicit financial gain.

"Identity fraud underwent a marked decline and shift over the past year. This great news is a testament to the significant efforts businesses, the financial services industry and government agencies are making to educate consumers, protect data, and prevent and resolve identity fraud," said James Van Dyke, Javelin's president and founder. "Economic conditions also appear to have contributed to this year-over-year decline, as well as increased security measures and some significant law enforcement successes."

He noted the increase in out-of-pocket costs "carries a warning: Consumers cannot put their finances on autopilot or ignore important safeguards. Simple safeguards may dramatically reduce fraud risk, such as frequently monitoring banking, credit and other financial activities, securing computers and paper records, and activating electronic alerts to help prevent fraud and address the situation quickly when it occurs."

More on this subject at: http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/11/system020811-10.html

NCUA Outlines Board Financial Education Requirements for FCUs

2011-02-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

Board members of federal credit unions must be able to examine a credit union balance sheet and explain its meaning and importance and must learn how to do that within six months of joining a board, according to a letter to credit unions sent today by NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz.

She wrote that the director should understand if the value of a line item is changing over time and what is the significance of that change. The director must also understand the credit union’s activities and both the potential risks and benefits.

In the letter, she emphasized that the agency’s goal is not to “increase examiner scrutiny of the financial skills of particular directors. Rather, examiners will evaluate whether the credit union has a policy in place to make available the appropriate training to enhance the financial knowledge of the directors.’’

She wrote that the FCU’s policy for financial education must include options for training for board members, including funding information and a summary of the timetable required.

The letter implements the regulation that the NCUA Board approved last year.

Social media gets new focus at NCUA

2011-02-07T08:03:00.001-08:00

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), known already to "tweet" on Twitter, is enhancing its outreach through social media and has brought on a new employee to lead the charge.

The NCUA says it wishes to ensure a "vibrant and active presence in the social media sphere," which includes a presence, not only on Twitter, but Facebook, YouTube and other forms of electronic communications as well.

Kenzie Snowden is the NCUA's new social media and outreach specialist. She started in that position a week ago.

NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz said of the development, "The Social Media and Outreach Specialist position is about the future. NCUA is continuing to explore all avenues to enhance communication with consumers, the credit union industry, and other audiences. I look forward to NCUA reaching new audiences, and new levels of transparency, through the outreach that will be initiated by our Social Media program."

Prior to joining the NCUA, Snowden did a stint in social media development with the public affairs office at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Did you dream about cards replacing cash? You dreamed too small.

2011-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

by Ron Daly

Maybe we've aimed a little low...

Granted, most of us didn't see the change coming - "Smartphone? What the heck is a smartphone?!?" we said in disbelief. Sure, we had Blackberries, but the iPhone surfaced and struck a mighty blow to the way we think about our cell phones. Maybe the phone wasn't the important part. Maybe the smart is where the new money is.

And boy, is there ever money in smartphones. Not only in the app market, mind you, but in the transfer of money between a buyer and a seller. There are mobile banking apps, of course. There are PFM apps. There's even a device from Square that allows a person to swipe a credit card on their phone. That's pretty mind-blowing. But Starbucks - that's right, Starbucks - has just invented their own way to pay for things via smartphone.

From the Transaction Directory:

"Today, one in five Starbucks transactions is made using a Starbucks Card and mobile payment will extend the way our customers experience and use their Starbucks Card," said. Brady Brewer, vice president of Starbucks Card and Brand Loyalty.

Last year, Starbucks customers loaded $1.5 billion onto their cards, a 21 percent increase from 2008.

In a related story, CNN Money reports on the growing popularity of “mobile currency,” whereby customers use their mobile phones in place of cash or credit cards.

“There’s a lot of money at stake if it’s done right,” said Omar Green, director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit.;

For years, we've talked as an industry and as a society about the end of cash, the next wave of finance, and what the future had in store for our money. And maybe we were dreaming small - we just figured debit use would increase and cash would start to drop off as a form of payment. We weren't counting on smartphones to be the next step. Were we?

Well, as recently as a year ago, Newsweek was predicting that the cell phone would edge its way in as a payment method, as did creditcards.com. And here we are, seeing one of America's most interesting businesses jump in and get wet.

While we are fighting the Interchange battle, who's watching this critical shift in the payment system? No more checks, no more Visa, no more MasterCard OR Interchange income...

January News and Views Published Below

2011-02-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

CU SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY News - Providing a brief summary of news and information related to security and technology issues for credit unions - Plus some interestingand fun web sites . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Changes Are Coming: Things We'll Be Saying Goodbye To

2011-01-31T17:47:00.000-08:00

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider.

In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. All we will have that can't be changed are memories.

Four Unusual Dates this Year

2011-01-28T16:09:00.000-08:00

This year we will experience 4 unusual dates.... 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 .... Now, if you take the last 2 digits of the year you were born, and add the age you will be this year, it

WILL EQUAL TO 111...

Just think about it. Never before and never again.

CU Times Parent Company Files for Bankruptcy

2011-01-27T06:43:00.000-08:00

Summit Business Media, parent company to Credit Union Times, said this morning it filed a pre-packaged bankruptcy with an existing plan with its creditors to restructure its debt.

Summit Business Media has joined the ranks of publishers seeking to reorganize and slash debt through a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The reorganization plan, which received approval from 83 percent of Summit's lenders (less than 100 percent approval forced Summit to go through the courts), will cut outstanding debt obligations by half, or $135 million. Summit expects to emerge from Chapter 11 in the first half of 2011.

If the plan is approved, Summit will use its bank balances (currently more than $10 million in cash) and cash flow from its existing operations to meet working capital needs. The company says any pre-filing advertising, subscription and event contracts will be honored. Lenders have also agreed to offer a debt-in-possession credit facility of $5 million to support the company's additional working capital needs.

At School, Children are Rarely Taught About Finances

2011-01-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

Do you value your child's education? Do you want your children to have a financial head start in life? Are you willing to take an active role to make that happen? At school, your children learn many valuable concepts, yet they are rarely taught anything about finances. Imagine if you had been taught about money and, more specifically, about what the rich know about money - that the way to wealth is through cash flowing assets. How would your life be different today if you'd learned these concepts at an early age?

You can give your children the financial head start you missed out on. The Rich Kid Smart Kid website provides games and resources that provide young people with an introduction to the financial concepts that place them on the right financial footing for a secure future.

Here's an excellent web site for children of all ages that teaches them how to handle money. Please check it out and try it for yourself.

http://richkidsmartkid.com/

http://college.richdad.com/

What should you REALLY be afraid of?

2011-01-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Fear, as Franklin Roosevelt noted in 1933, paralyzes those who succumb to it. And much of what we worry about today is based on hype rather than reality. Yes, media headlines are partially to blame. But some things (sharks) are just downright scary. Using the most recent U.S. data available, we hereby present a list of unsettling threats and their far riskier counterparts.

Murders (2008) – 14,180
Suicides (2006) – 33,289

Children Abducted by Strangers (1999) – 115
Children who drown in pools (2006) – 288

Burglaries (2007) – 2.2 million
Identity Thefts (2005) – 8.3 million

Shark Attacks (2009) – 28
Dog Bites (annual averages & estimates) – 4.5 million

Americans Killed by Terrorist Attacks Around the World (2008) – 33
Americans Who Die from the Seasonal Flu – 36,171
(annual averages & estimates)

Deaths by Allergic Reaction to Peanuts – 50-100
(annual averages & estimates)
Deaths by Unintentional Poisoning (2006) – 27,531

Women Who Die From Breast Cancer (2009) – 40,170
Women Who Die From Cardiovascular Disease (2006) – 432,709

Fatal Airline Accidents (2005) – 321
Fatal Car Crashes (2008) – 34,017

American Audited by their IRS (2009) – 1.4 million
U.S. Deaths (2007) – 2.4 million

Volunteer Techies Give Free Support

2011-01-12T12:27:00.000-08:00

Volunteer techies give free advice on common computer problems at http://fixya.com/. Can't beat the price.

Save on Printer Ink

2011-01-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Save on printer ink by using the Century Gothic font, which a recent study showed consumes about a third less ink than industry-standard Arial. That saves about $20 a year for a home user printing 25 pages a week.

A Simple Swipe on a Phone, and You’re Paid

2011-01-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

It’s always thrilling when somebody looks at the Way Things Have Always Been Done, and then asks: Why?

And then goes on to change the world forever.

1967: Why is it necessary to wait in line for a human teller if all you want to do is withdraw cash?

1974: Why shouldn’t your document on the computer screen look the same way it will when it’s printed?

1991: If shampoo always settles to the bottom of the bottle, why is the cap on top?

Recently, a San Francisco company has been asking an equally groundshaking question: Why can’t everyone accept credit cards?

Look, credit cards are great. There’s a paper trail, there’s fraud protection, there’s incredible convenience — just swipe and go. But why is it that only companies accept them?

Why can’t we use them to pay the piano teacher, the baby sitter, the lawn-mowing teenager, even first graders at their lemonade stand? Why aren’t credit cards accepted at garage sales, food carts and PTA bake sales? Heck, when your tipsy buddy wants to borrow $20 for a cab home, why can’t you eliminate the awkwardness and future conflict by just running his Visa card on the spot?

“Well,” you’re surely spluttering, “because — well, just because! That’s just how it is. Only actual companies take credit cards, everyone knows that!”

Yeah, but why?

The company asking that question is called Square. Its chief executive is Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter — heard of it? Square is not only asking why, it’s proposing to change that rule for good.

There are actually some good reasons individuals don’t accept credit cards; the whole system is a nightmare of fees and red tape.

To become a credit card merchant, you have to buy the card-reading equipment, which costs several hundred dollars. You generally pay a setup fee, and you commit to a one- or two-year contract with the processing company. You pay $15 to $25 a month, and minimum transaction fees of $25 a month, even if you had no sales at all.

The Square Up system, on the other hand, eliminates that stuff. All of it. It makes the barrier to entry into the credit card world so low, there’s virtually nothing to stop you, the little guy, from taking the leap.

First, the equipment: you need an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or an Android phone. Why buy a fancy authorizing machine, when you already have a computer in your pocket?

Unfortunately, Apple steadfastly refuses to add a card-swiping slot to the iPhone. So Square provides you with a tiny half-inch reader attachment that snaps into, of all things, your phone’s headphone jack. The reader has a slot where you can swipe a credit card.

(The name Square, of course, refers both to the shape of the little reader and to what it does — as in, “are we square?” Cute.)

The Square plug is free. In other words, not only are you spared the contracts, the minimums and the monthly fees, but your equipment cost is zero. For all Square cares, you can keep your reader in a drawer somewhere and use it once a year.

For each transaction, Square charges you 2.75 percent of the total, plus 15 cents. That’s a lot simpler, and usually cheaper, than actual merchant accounts, where you might pay 3 or 4 percent, depending on the kind of card, plus 30 cents a transaction.

So let’s say someone from Craigslist comes over to buy your old junk. You snap the Square reader into your phone or tablet. You tap in the amount of the purchase; it could be $1 for a yo-yo, $25 for a box of old records or $12,000 for a used car (there’s no maximum amount). You type a description if you like, and maybe even take a photo of what you’re selling.

Now you swipe the customer’s card, which may take you a couple of tries. Your happy customer signs the phone’s touch screen with a finger (a coming software revision will make this step optional). If you like, you can tap in the customer’s e-mail address; the receipt is then sent automatically, complete with a little map showing exactly where the transaction took place.

The software is beautiful and dog-simple. To sign your name, you scrawl with your finger where it says “sign here.” Think you can handle this?