Crash Of The US Economy
Slowing US Economy
Companies will be forced into bankruptcy. And so their valuations and stock prices are falling down across the board. There will be belt tightening this coming year for workers and their dependents.
The heart of financial system of America will announce a painful write-off of loan accounts. Hedge funds will be closing its doors and equity funds will have a disappointing report on returns. Interest rates are set by people who run financial institutions — Central Bank.
Is the US economy aging? Slowing down? Is this the beginning of the crash of US economy? Are the US economic planners to blame? The one that benefited from this is the Bush Family, who is with an insider government connection — Carlyle Group.
The US economy, weighted down by the subprime credit crisis that started in the middle of the year. The global investment banks ended on losses, disastrous note, layoffs and marred by profit warnings. The signs are clear, indeed there is slowing and aging of US Economy.
There is a slowdown in the US economy and one of the reasons is the tight competition among exporters. There is an anemic performance of exports in the first 10 months, short of meeting the target. Government should protect our exporters.
There should be overhaul and reform to get back our economy on the right tract. The real cause of this crisis is monetary. Income assurance policy should be set-up for the benefit and welfare of every citizen of this country. Or should we say “In God We Trust”.
Happy New Year to All!
Property Agents: True Bugs
Do you have problem with property agents? There are reports of countless complaints from helpless property buyers. And believe me it is on the rise. Because of fierce competition, overly aggressive property agents promise the earth and the moon just to capture or close the deal with prospective buyers. Pertinent information are deliberately withheld or not explained properly during the selling process. Do we have enough laws as a shield for these grieving buyers?
Do these property agents have completely abandoned the concept of value for money? Many Americans tend to buy almost they were blindfolded. This is what we call buying without researching. There are several reasons for this, and one of these is some buyers are too busy to bother about the details. Another thing is that others were intimidated by the legal gobbledygook in the sales contract. More and more Americans are more than willing to stretch their finances to the limit to have a home of their dreams.
Should you buy properties or just rent for the rest of your life? The property should be valued by at least three separate estate agencies. If you have suspicion that the valuation seems too low or too high, steer well clear. Believe me it is notoriously difficult time-consuming and difficult to prove that property agents have deliberately undervalued a property for the agent’s own gain or interest. To those who are interested to join a sealed bid, be sure that you are present or your representative is present at the moment the sealed bids are opened.
If you are interested in buying properties from subdivisions, you should first see and carefully read the Public Offering Statement filed with the Division of Land Sales that are required by law. Public Offering Statement discloses the physical characteristics of the subdivided lands and its material features or circumstances. This includes the location, size of the land and any other information with regard to zoning, restrictions affecting the value and use of the land.
Online options to check the different aspects of the property you want to invest for:
- Websites of government agencies can be checked by buyers for the plans or the projects that may affect the value of property
- Use Google Earth. Check the location of the property. Buyers can check the actual distance and accessibility. Maps provided by property agents are some times not accurate
- The buyer can approach a bank for possible valuation or assessment of property within the locality. You can get information online on the appraisal and how to get a loan with lower interest rate as well
- The buyer must check a list of registered companies, real estate brokers and property agents. This can be done online too
- Websites of other real estate firms can be checked to verify the prices of nearby properties. There are helpful online information that the buyer can get especially if the you are planning to rent out or to sell out your property in the future
There is lying to would-be buyers and dodgy deals with prospective customers. Buyers and sellers of flats, apartments, real estate and condominiums should be aware of the secret world of property agents’ dirty tricks.
Eyes Looking at You
Security measures have a quantum leap from what we knew before. This is a result of increasing paranoid world where the fear of terrorist attack looms.
Today, there are many kinds of surveillance devices available. They sound straight out of science fiction but they are, in fact, very real and are actually being used especially here in America. This includes covert video surveillance cameras, video transmitters, recorders, monitors, wireless security camera systems and remote video surveillance technology.
Here, we use the “backscatter x-ray machines” that can enable a person to see through truck walls to detect weapons, explosives, bombs, drugs or even illegal immigrants trying to cross our boarders. Extreme surveillance such as the infrared thermal imaging cameras are being used as security accessories to government, commercial, law enforcement agencies and even residential houses.
In Great Britain, the government has saturated the nation with closed-circuit TV cameras (CCTVs). An average visitor to London gets captured on surveillance video about 300 times in a single day. Would you believe that there were more than four million CCTV cameras all over Great Britain? This will translates to around one CCTV camera for every 15 people! Huh!
Surveillance cameras are not just to deter terrorism or a crime. They can also help with employee quality assurance, productivity and traffic flow. By having these cameras management can make decisions about safety, compliance and the best service to their customers.
BIOMETRICS: Highest Security for your Business
Companies of today use the state-of-the-art technology or computer systems that identify and verify authorized personnel to access their facilities. This system is called biometrics.
Here at Meeks Management, Inc., we employ biometrics to give authorized personnel access to our facilities or data centers. Information are kept in confidential and in high-performance and high-speed computers.
This advancement in biometric technology that we use is the same as the ones used by banks to prevent unauthorized access to or fraudulent use of automated teller machines. It can be used during transactions conducted via Internet and telephone (e-banking and e-commerce). This is the same technology used in mobile phones, smart cards. We use biometrics on our desktop personal computers, workstations and computer networks.
There are various types of biometric techniques for real-time identification and verification that you can use. The most popular are the face recognition and fingerprint matching system. In addition, there are other systems that use retinal scan and iris, facial recognition, hand geometry and speech.
So, why not say goodbye to the primitive and the traditional methods of identification, the use of passwords and Personal Identification Number (PIN). Here are my reasons using biometrics system in our workplace:
- Point-of-verification. On our time-clock and work stations, the person authorized to access the facility is required to be physically present.
- Biometrics avoids the need to remember a password or carry a token. This token-based method of identification, such as driver’s licenses or passport may be forged, stolen or lost.
In this information age and increased use of computers, we need to restrict access to sensitive data, company secrets, financial information and other data confidential and important to our line of business. This biometric system is either a verification system or an identification system. I suggest that in designing the system, it is important to know where, when and how you will use this system that counts.
The road less traveled
I chose banking as my career. I rose from the ranks and have achieved senior position in a banking institution. Still, did I choose to stay long? What is the significance that I built my career around a theme that is fast disappearing today — bank.
Alfred Meeks, a professional, an achiever and a banker, and in his time — it was the road most traveled.
My father, my mentor, a traveler who passed a road only few others negotiated successfully. And stand after all that arduous struggle.
I progressed on the back of this fine man through my whole history of banking career. Proud in what he has accomplished and satisfied in what he has helped to build. The man who demonstrated hard work, excellence, a strong will to succeed and the stamina to see the whole thing through to take the road less traveled. It is because of him that I did not grow and prosper accidentally as a banker.
My career and my future achievements shall be measured against the high standard that my father has set as a banker. It reflects on the discipline and intelligence needed to perform well. Find within him the qualities and example as both inspiration and challenge.
With the values that enabled success that gets transmitted from one generation — my father, to the next — to me, through his achievement and journey. I am looking to life outside this journey. This is my choice, I am so sorry Dad… to follow your journey… the road less traveled.
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How to avoid Telemarketing Fraud
Are you a victim of crime of persuasions, schemes, scams and frauds — Telemarketing fraud?
What is Telemarketing Fraud? Telemarketing fraud is defined simply by the principle medium of contact used to perpetrate the fraud. Legitimate businesses use the same “tools” to sell their products, so consumers need to know the warning signs associated with telemarketing fraud. They should not be, but are often confused with legitimate telemarketing operations. At present, The Federal Trade Commission estimates that there are more than of 14,000 fraudulent telemarketing businesses operate in North America alone.
Operations may consist of a single individual in a makeshift and portable office facility set up with a bank of phones. There are two kinds of calls namely:
- Outbound calls. When calls have not been preceded with promotional materials but are made from lists of leads or at random.
- Inbound calls. If consumers are encouraged or induced to call a number on their own.
A number of these operations take extraordinary measures to increase the difficulty of successful investigation and prosecution. These measures include
- Using cell phones. It is sometimes in conjunction with prepaid “calling cards”, which can be discarded after several weeks of intensive use.
- Using stolen identity cards. These stolen cards are being used to open mail drops for receipt of payments that victims mail to them
- Using multiple mail drops. Shuttle victim-related mail through multiple destinations
- Impersonation of FBI and Customs agents or RCMP officers. To make victims believe that law enforcement is already aware of their losses
- Contracting with other telemarketing “boiler rooms”. Are small sales offices that can spring up and close down overnight. The only desk furniture is a telephone
- Laundering. Laundering of fraud proceeds through foreign bank accounts.
Targets tend to be poor, often elderly people and those with a lot of debt and little chance of obtaining credit. Their names may appear on “sucker” lists. These are people with bad credit and heavy debts — lured by the promise of a new card. Companies buy and sell these names.
Detailed below are how to avoid becoming a victim of telemarketing fraud:
- Ask for written information. Salespeople may not explain the complete details of the product and the cost. Legitimate companies will send you the details upfront and never insist that you act immediately.
- Don’t give your credit card or bank account information. There is no reason why the company would need that information for any other purpose.
- Watch out for imposters. Crooks may pretend to be calling on behalf of well-known company or government agency and request payment for product or services rendered, when they have absolutely no connection with them at all and will simply pocket your money.
- Add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry. This will reduce the chance that you will be contacted again as your name is sold to other scam artists.
Unwanted telemarketing calls are often triggered by responding to unwanted paper junk mail. Reduce unwanted junk mail that lead to a number of unwanted telemarketing calls. If you will pay your credit card, do not pay for that item on your credit card bill until you’ve received, examined and are satisfied with your product or price.
Remember that unsolicited telemarketing sales are not final until you have received written confirmation of the sale and you have three days after you receive your written confirmation to cancel an unsolicited telemarketing sale. The good news is, you may be able to undo the damage. Beware!
Hello Wallet Phones, Goodbye Plastic Cards
Credit Cards and Smart Cards and their plastic presence seem to be on their way out, overtaken by virtual-wallet technology available in Mobile Phone.
I believe that mobile phone is the gadget of choice for today’s modern man. Most people never leave home without their mobile phone. It can replace your wallet and what you carry in it: cash keys, access cards, photos, drivers license and even company IDs. Mobile phone has captured the wallets of millions of people all over the world.
My Panasonic P506iC wallet phone has it all. And what am I without it? It contains my credit cards, entrance ticket, train tickets, air tickets, employee ID card, and most other stuff I carry in my bag. It includes my digital cameras, portable TVs, e-mail and streaming video downloads. I can perform electronic banking transactions with my mobile phone. My P506iC wallet phone can be used off-line or even when it is out of range of radio waves. The JAVA application in my phone can check the electronic cash balance or show my transaction record.
Money is stored on the phone is like a virtual wad of cash. All I have to do to make payments with my wallet phone is to swipe the handset next to a special terminal set up at stores. It need not even be opened when making the payment. I simply wave it at the corresponding display devices in vending machines, stores and restaurants. A tinkling sound means the purchase has been successfully debited. It’s fun to pay things this way!
Check Fraud Happens
Will you allow yourself to be a victim of a Check Fraud? Want to lose your hard earned money to criminals? If your answer is yes, stop reading here.
Criminals today can defraud you quite easily with a blank check taken from your check book, a canceled check found in your garbage, or a check you mailed to pay a bill.
Fraud professionals have become increasingly skilled and sophisticated. Technology has made it increasingly easy to criminals. Readily available technology like a personal computers, scanners and color photocopiers can be used by criminals to defraud you. To avoid if not eliminate Check fraud is one of the largest challenges facing account holders and financial institutions as well.
Fraud schemes involving checks take many forms, checks may be:
- Altered, either as to the payee or the amount. This fraud occurs after a legitimate maker creates a valid check to pay a debt. A criminal then takes the good check and uses chemicals or other means to erase the amount or the name of the payee, so that new information can be entered. The new information can be added by typewriter, in handwriting, or with a laser printer or check imprinter.
2. Counterfeited. Checks are presented based on fraudulent identification or are false checks drawn on valid accounts.
3. Forged, either as to signature or endorsement.
4. Drawn on closed accounts.
5. Used in a variety of schemes. Example of this is the Telemarketing fraud, wherein it appears that the account holder has given permission to have money withdrawn from his or her checking account to pay bills for goods and services.
Preventing or avoiding such Check Fraud is not only the responsibility of the account holder alone but also by the bank as well. A combination of precautions that an account holder might undertake could greatly reduce the likelihood of check fraud. A simple negligence or carelessness in handling of personal checks may lead these criminals to copy, steal, alter and forge checks.
It is important to follow a common-sense, logical approach with the way you use and store your checks. Store your checks and canceled checks in a secure and locked location. It is suggested that a reconciliation of bank statement shall be made within thirty (30) days of receipt in order to detect any irregularities. Be aware of unsolicited phone sales and never give your account number to people you do not know. Destroy old canceled checks and account statement, unless needed for tax purposes. Account all check orders and issuance and report missing checks to your bank at once. The longer it takes to detect any of your checks have been taken, the more time the criminal has to use them successfully.
If you cannot eliminate Check Fraud, you can prevent or reduce it by being cautious and being well informed. Make check fraud difficult by complicating the criminal’s task.
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