Beware & Protect Yourself 01 (May 08 - Dec 08)

[blid2def]

Hahahaahaha... very good

Okay okay, back on track, agriculture sector, sorry sorry. This talk of food should be in Dangerous Food... I'll shift it.

EDIT: Split and merged. Tada!

[winston]

It's Good to Know: Online Job-Hunting Scams

There's no doubt that websites like Monster and CareerBuilder have made job hunting easier. But that ease has also attracted scam artists who target eager job seekers, stealing their identities, draining their bank accounts, and ruining their credit.

Here are some suggestions that can help you recognize sham job opportunities:

* E-mails from prospective employers full of bad grammar and spelling mistakes.

* Messages from job websites claiming there is a problem with your account and asking for your username and password and/or other personal information.

* A potential employer asking for your Social Security number through e-mail.

* Salary and benefits that are way too good to be true for your level of experience.

(Source: Better Business Bureau and Consumerist.com)

[winston]

Nebraska firm recalls beef due to E. coli: USDA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department on Friday said Omaha meat packing company Nebraska Beef Ltd is recalling 1.2 million pounds of beef because it may be contaminated with a particularly dangerous strain of E. coli.

The recall is of beef prepared for shipment to retailers but not yet cut up in supermarket sized portions.

The recall is "Class 1," meaning there is a "reasonable probability" that eating the beef "will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death," the USDA said. It is the most dangerous level of the three classes of recall.

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said the beef was sent to processing establishments and retail stores across the United States and had been produced June 17, June 24 and July 8.

The recall is of primal and subprimal cuts that are larger sections of cows, such as chuck and rib, that can be cut down for individual or family-sized packaging. It also is of "boxed beef" or carcasses that have been partially disassembled for shipping.

Shipping containers and some product labels will bear Nebraska Beef's identifying the establishment number, "EST. 19336," but that number will likely not show up on meat that consumers buy, the USDA said.

The problem was discovered through a joint investigation with state health departments, Centers for Disease Control and the USDA. To date 31 cases of the contamination in 12 states and Canada have been identified in the investigation, the USDA said.

E. coli O157:H7 can cause diarrhea and dehydration. Children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible.

Last month, Nebraska Beef recalled 5.3 million pounds of material used in making ground beef after 40 illnesses were reported in connection with its ground beef.

[winston]

Police say phone scams, crimes against elderly are areas of concern

SINGAPORE: While the overall crime situation in Singapore is under control, police said on Wednesday cheating phone scams, crimes against elderly and thefts from vehicles remain areas of concern.

Phone scam callers make random cold calls to try their luck on the unsuspecting public.

In a mid-year crime report released on Wednesday, the police said the culprits have adopted several new tactics in the first half of this year.

They included lucky draw or lottery scams which persuade victims to make advance payments to claim a prize. A new variation saw culprits using SMS to inform victims that they have won in lucky draws.

There were also cases where culprits claimed that the victims have won luxury cars in lucky draws and asked them to transfer money for administrative fees.

The police said some 180 victims fell prey to these scams in the first six months of the year, and lost about S$2.4 million in cash when they transferred money via remittance houses to various overseas recipients.

Another area of concern was crimes against the elderly, according to the police. Robbery and snatch theft targeting elderly victims increased 25 per cent in the period, from 116 to 145 cases in the first half of 2008.

Generally, elderly victims were robbed at common areas of HDB estates in the day when victims were alone and going about their daily routine.

The police also said that thefts from vehicles was another key crime concern. A 26 per cent rise in theft from vehicle cases was noted in the first six months of 2008.

In most of the about 1,000 cases reported, culprits would smash the side windows of cars or tamper with the rear compartment of motorcycles to gain entry to the vehicles.

Commercial crimes went up by 11.7 per cent, from 1,583 cases to 1,769 in the first half of 2008.

But Singapore remains a safe place to live and work in, said the police. The overall crime rate registered a marginal one per cent increase from the same period in 2007 to some 16,368 cases.

Apart from rigorous enforcement and public education, police said community engagement is an important component in the overall strategy to combat crime.

Increasingly, the police are making use of new media to reach out to the public, such as the launch of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) YouTube channel earlier this year.

The police are also leveraging on technology and forensic evidence to investigate crimes.

[iam802]

I just need to poke fun at this.

Crime targeted at elderly went up.

Crime involving vehicle went up.

And they put up YouTube videos to educate people ???

Hello?!!! Elderly folks here.

And to get drivers attention, won't placing some prominent reminders at the carpark be more useful?

In marketing, one would want to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. I would really want to find out how they would go about measuring this. Did the YouTube videos bring about a 10% decline in crimes?

[kennynah]

i just heard from our local news that several old folks were conned of 1.6mil from such phone scams.

[winston]

Keep Your Cool When Offered a "Hot" Deal
By Charlie Byrne

The plan was nearly perfect.

I'd fly from Florida up to JFK and spend Friday night at my nephew's graduation party on Long Island. Saturday morning, I'd drive up to Boston to spend the rest of the weekend visiting friends, and would then fly back home out of Logan airport Sunday night.

All I needed now was what's called a "one-way" car rental. Pick-up in one city, drop-off in another.

Problem is, they're often VERY expensive. But I'd hit the jackpot. I found a Hertz deal online for about $130 for the weekend. Nice! I jumped on it.

Just one problem...

Sunday night, I'm running late as I hurriedly pull into the Hertz return lot at BOS. The return processor scans the car and prints out the receipt. I grab it and head for the shuttle. But just then... my heart skips a beat. Maybe a few.

$317.43! Gadzooks!

"What the...? There must be a mistake," I thought to myself. But when I looked at the line items on the receipt, there it was... MY mistake.

Mileage Fee: 387 miles @ $0.45 per mile; Extra Miles Fee: $174.15.

I'd made the error of assuming that my rental came, as 99 percent of car rentals do nowadays, with unlimited mileage. But, sure enough, when I pulled out the contract, the mileage fee was there in bold and in plain daylight. Ahhh. So that's why the base rate had been so low.

I was annoyed that my trip was costing about $200 more than I'd thought. I didn't let it ruin my day though, because I realized that might have been the best deal I could have gotten anyway.

Meanwhile, I had relearned a valuable lesson: Whenever you get that "Brother, ain't I smart!" feeling... watch out.

[winston]

Baby snack warning

One baby snack has been found to contain a high level of sodium which is 89 percent more than the international standard, according to Consumer Council.

Pigeon Calcium Seaweed Cracker from Japan has189mg of sodium per 100 kcal (kilocalorie) - 89 percent higher than the CODEX standard.

Healthy Times Honey Graham Hugga Bear Cookies (USDA ORGANIC) from the US is found to contain a sodium level which is 9 percent above the standard.

Excessive intake of sodium can increase blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease. It can bring serious health hazard to infants and young children as their kidneys cannot cope with a large amounts of salt, the council warns.

STAFF REPORTER

[winston]

Bad Bovril recalled

Five batches of Bovril Beef Extract have been recalled due to suspected salmonella contamination.

The Centre for Food Safety today announced that Unilever UK is recalling the following batches:

1. Product weight: 250 grammes (glass jar)

Best before: end January 2010, Batch codes: L8201XX795, L8206XX795, L8207XX795 and L8208XX795;

and 2. Product weight: 600 grammes (plastic tub) Best before: end January 2010 Batch code: L8207XX795.

Salmonella is a pathogen that may cause gastrointestinal discomfort, such as abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The centre has contacted the UK authorities for further information and will continue to monitor the situation closely.

STAFF REPORTER

[winston]

Red Bull drink lifts stroke risk: Australian study
By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Just one can of the popular stimulant energy drink Red Bull can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in young people, Australian medical researchers said on Friday.

The caffeine-loaded beverage, popular with university students and adrenaline sport fans to give them "wings", caused the blood to become sticky, a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems such as stroke.

"One hour after they drank Red Bull, (their blood systems) were no longer normal. They were abnormal like we would expect in a patient with cardiovascular disease," Scott Willoughby, lead researcher from the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, told the Australian newspaper.

Red Bull Australia spokeswoman Linda Rychter said the report would be assessed by the company's head office in Austria.

"The study does not show effects which would go beyond that of drinking a cup of coffee. Therefore, the reported results were to be expected and lie within the normal physiological range," Rychter told Reuters.

Willoughby and his team tested the cardiovascular systems of 30 young adults one hour before and one hour after consuming one 250ml can of sugar-free Red Bull.

The results showed "normal people develop symptoms normally associated with cardiovascular disease" after consuming the drink, created in the 1980s by Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz based on a similar Thai energy drink.

Red Bull is banned in Norway, Uruguay and Denmark because of health risks listed on its cans, but the company last year sold 3.5 billion cans in 143 countries. One can contains 80 mg of caffeine, around the same as a normal cup of brewed coffee.

The Austria-based company, whose marketing says "Red Bull gives you wings", sponsors Formula 1 race cars and extreme sport events around the world, but warns consumers not to drink more than two cans a day.

Rychter said Red Bull could only have such global sales because health authorities across the world had concluded the drink was safe to consume.

But Willoughby said Red Bull could be deadly when combined with stress or high blood pressure, impairing proper blood vessel function and possibly lifting the risk of blood clotting.

"If you have any predisposition to cardiovascular disease, I'd think twice about drinking it," he said.