Category Archives: Latest In Consumer News
Why Procrastinating With Your Tax Return Could Cost You
by Jonnelle Marte, Washington Post
“It’s even more important this year to file early,” says Melissa Labant director of tax advocacy for the American Institute of CPAs. “The later [people] wait, the more they increase the chances of having a criminal file on their behalf.” Take a look at what happened last year. On Feb. 5, Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, temporarily stopped processing state tax returns after noticing a surge in suspicious filings. Some states later reported that fraudulent activity had multiplied by nearly 40 times — and it was only a little more than two weeks into the filing season. Read More ›
Wendy’s Probes Reports Of Credit Card Breach
by Brian Krebs, KrebsOnSecurity
Wendy’s, the nationwide chain of fast-food restaurants, says it is investigating claims of a possible credit card breach at some locations. The acknowledgment comes in response to questions from KrebsOnSecurity about banking industry sources who discovered a pattern of fraud on cards that were all recently used at various Wendy’s locations.
Bob Bertini, spokesperson for the Dublin, Ohio-based restauranteur, said the company began receiving reports earlier this month from its payment industry contacts about a potential breach and that Wendy’s has hired a security firm to investigate the claims. Read More ›
Order Could Lead To Release Of E-Mails Between Brown’s Office, CPUC
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
The state Public Utilities Commission must justify its refusal to release e-mails that could reveal a behind-the-scenes role for Gov. Jerry Brown in a multibillion-dollar deal with two utilities that shut down a Southern California nuclear power plant, a San Francisco judge ruled Monday. … A lawyer challenging the $3.3 billion charge to the utilities’ customers is seeking the e-mails as potential evidence of intervention in the shutdown negotiations by the governor’s office and top commission officials. The state attorney general’s office is also seeking the e-mails as part of its corruption probe of the agency. Read More ›
California’s Four Largest Health Plans Could Owe State $10 Billion In Back Taxes
by Tracy Seipel, San Jose Mercury News
Blue Shield and Blue Cross already lost a key round in a state appellate court. The case against Kaiser and Health Net heads to a Los Angeles court Friday. At the heart of the debate is a century-old section in the state constitution that requires almost all insurers to pay a 2.35 percent tax on the premiums they collect each year. The tax is paid in lieu of almost all other state taxes. Yet for decades, industry critics say, Kaiser, Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Health Net have managed to avoid paying the premium tax on the majority of their business. Read More ›
Internet Providers Want To Know More About You Than Google Does, Privacy Groups Say
by Brian Fung, Washington Post
“An [Internet service provider] has access to your full pipe and can see everything you do” online if you aren’t taking extra steps to shield your activities, said Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor at the University of California Berkeley. … Privacy and consumer groups are now calling on federal regulators to fast-track rules … governing when and how an Internet provider may gather and share personal information. Read More ›
Smart TVs An ‘Inevitable’ Path For Hackers To Attack Home PCs: Experts
by Herb Weisbaum, NBC News
“Smart TVs, like computers, host numerous software programs and apps that are susceptible to being compromised,” [One expert said]. “Both security researchers and criminals have figured out that you can jump from the smart TV or an app on that TV to the laptop or desktop or any other computer on the home network.” … While most users have security software on their computers, there is no anti-virus software specifically made for televisions. Read More ›
Stolen Uber Accounts Worth More Than Stolen Credit Cards
by Harriet Taylor, CNBC
Uber, PayPal and even Netflix accounts have become much more valuable to criminals, as evidenced by the price these stolen identifiers now fetch on the so-called “deep Web,” according to security company Trend Micro. … A quick search for tweets with the hashtag #uberaccounthacked reveals a number of complaints related to “ghost rides,” in which users claim their Uber accounts have been charged for rides they did not take. These are often in far flung locations across the globe. Read More ›
Our Privacy Is Losing Out To Internet-Connected Household Devices
by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
Roughly 5.5 million devices are hooked up to the Internet of Things every day. … “As with many emerging technologies, security is not effectively built into most connected devices today,” [one online security consultant] said. “The primary development priority for most manufacturers of connected devices is to build functionality first and foremost.” … [Another analyst] predicted that control of smart-device data will be the focus of aggressive industry lobbying in years ahead. “You can see this being painfully legislated,” she said. Read More ›
California Regulators Fine Uber $7.6 Million
by Bryan Goebel, KQED/California Report
California regulators slapped Uber with a $7.6 million fine Thursday, voting unanimously to affirm an administrative judge’s ruling that found the ride service company in contempt for failing to meet reporting requirements. … The detailed information that Uber failed to provide in 2014 had to do with driver safety, access for people with disabilities and how it was serving neighborhoods by zip code. Regulators have said Uber defied the reporting requirements and that the zip code information the company initially submitted was “useless.” Read More ›
PG&E Management Allegedly Ordered Papers Destroyed After Blast
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
A former Pacific Gas and Electric Co. official hired after the San Bruno gas-pipeline explosion to clean up the company’s records said management ordered her to destroy documents, and that she found a telltale preblast analysis of the pipe in the garbage, according to a federal court filing. … PG&E’s alleged “pushback” against [the employee’s] recommendations … “is direct evidence of PG&E violations of record-keeping regulations, and explains how PG&E did not genuinely attempt to address its known record-keeping deficiencies,” prosecutors said. Read More ›
FTC Is Falling Short In Protecting Consumers’ Data Used By Businesses
by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
In California, businesses are required to report a data breach only if it’s “reasonably believed” that unencrypted data has fallen into the hands of hackers. Since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, nearly 896 million consumer records have been put at risk by more than 4,700 known data breaches. The actual number of breaches, said Beth Givens, the advocacy group’s executive director, “is almost certainly much higher but never were reported.” The FTC has asked Congress for more authority to regulate privacy matters. So far, Congress has ignored the agency’s requests. Read More ›
California Regulators Are Urged To Scrutinize Health Insurance Mega-Mergers
by Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times
There’s a lot at stake for families and employers if the deals go through and leave three health insurers in control of nearly half of the U.S. commercial insurance market. … Much of the debate centers on whether insurers should be required to limit rate increases for a time, expand their provider networks and make other pledges to improve patient care in order to win regulatory approval at the state level. … Consumer advocates say they fear that existing problems over affordability and access to care will get worse as insurers consolidate market power. Read More ›
In Reversal, Some Drivers Ditching Uber And Lyft For Cabs
by Jon Brooks, KQED
[One taxi driver] drove on the side for both Uber and Lyft for about a year, but stopped around seven or eight months ago. The main reason: the extra cost and “wear and tear” of using his own car to do business. … Customers became angry at the inflated fares they had to pay during a surge pricing period and slammed [the driver’s] car door so hard he had to have his automatic windows repaired. But hadn’t those customers agreed to accept the surge price when they ordered the ride? “[Passengers] are still mad, even though they know in advance,” he said. Read More ›