Who Wants To Be Me?

That's strange...a Macy’s bill? I cannot remember the last time I was at a Macy’s. Tearing open the envelope and expecting it to display around $30, which is the usual amount I would charge on the card, the account summary read: New balance = $657.68. Minimum payment due on July 9. Eyes widen taking in the numbers once more...$657.68. As I scroll down, the account details list three separate transactions all on June 14, 2006 at the White Plains store in New York. White Plains? I have never even been to White Pla...Oh my god...I’ve been robbed!

Luggage, Lauren bedding, Baby Phat, Girls 2-14 Furnishings…a list of items I have never purchased were now listed on my account. Immediately I contacted customer service at Macy’s to try to get this matter cleared up but instead, another nightmare was still to come.

After speaking to three different account representatives, I had learned that someone had visited the store in White Plains with a Massachusetts Driver’s License with my name on it. I have never lived in Massachusetts so Macy’s does not have a current or previous address for me there. Why was this driver’s license accepted? No response. Ironically, the bill still came to my Florida address. Guess Macy's didn’t update their computers with my "new" Massachusetts one. Not only was this accepted by Macy’s as valid proof of identification, since the person did not have my Macy’s card, but they allowed her to give an incorrect phone number AND year of birth! To add insult to injury, my new birth year was 1970. At least she could have made me younger, not 8 years older. This imposter also added a password on my account..."Chase". Some sense of humor!

Would have been slightly comforting to know that when the thief went back to the store on 6/27 to place a $1170.00 charge, that it wasn't just denied because it was over the credit limit but because I had already called and alerted them to them to the fraud. Not to mention, the perfect opportunity to catch and arrest this person. Instead, she escaped and vanished.

Livid at the complete disregard for my personal information, I was ready to wage war on Macy’s. They agreed after a 90-day investigation that it was their fault and would take the charges off of my account but that had little resolve for me. I wanted to make sure that this did not happen to anyone else, contacting numerous lawyers, my calls went unanswered. No one wanted to take the case, especially since it was under $1000 and Macy’s took the charge off. But this could happen to someone else since Macy’s obviously does not care about their customer’s safety. My rants feel on deaf ears. Even the police shrugged off my calls. Sure they filed a report and when I picked it up, I could see the traces of raspberry-filling smeared on it.

Trying to put aside my anger, I focused on future safeguards:

1. Pay cash at restaurants and any other stores/services where they take your credit card out of sight to run. Special hand-held devices can store all the card information if swiped or the person can simply write down the information.
2. Shred all bills and documents.
3. Do online banking...and shopping. Many credit card companies still list your credit card account number on each bill you receive. If a bill is misplaced or stolen in the mail, someone now has your name, address and credit card number. Not to mention, your credit limit. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, only 12 percent of identity theft occurs online while 63 percent could be traced to traditional retail shopping. The web addresses should start with https. When online, be wary of phishing through pop-ups or asking you to re-login or re-enter information.
4. Opt-out of preapproved credit offers. More information that can get misplaced in the mail. To opt out, call 888-567-8688. Do not let you bank share information about you with other financial institutions. Call your bank to make sure!
5. Make a photocopy (front and back) of all the cards you carry in your wallet and keep in a secure place. If your wallet is stolen, you have all the information you need to start calling the card companies and closing your accounts and if needed, reissuing new ones.
6. Make sure the credit cards you have offer a zero liability for fraud.
7. Never answer unsolicited phone or email messages about your accounts, even if they sound or look legitimate.
8. Do not disclose your social security number nor carry your card in your wallet. Doctor’s offices almost always ask for your social security number...why? THEY DO NOT NEED IT. They have your insurance information and that is all they need to file a claim.
9. Medical ID fraud accounts for 200,000 ID thefts a year. Protect your insurance card as carefully as your credit cards. Be selective about where you get care- avoid clinics that advertise free exams as they may just want to copy your health insurance information.

If you have been a victim of identity theft:

1. Contact the issuing card bureau of the theft. Make sure they open an investigation and close or freeze your account.
2. Go to ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/ to obtain a list of steps and important resource links.
3. File a police report. Not that anything usually comes from it but your creditors will need to see that you have taken this step. Anyone who has filed an identity theft report with a police agency can have a "security alert" placed on his/her credit bureau file for up to seven years.
4. Order a credit report a few times a year. You are even entitled to one annually from each of the three major credit-reporting agencies: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.
5. File a report with the Federal Trade Commission (877-438-4338).
6. If mail has been stolen, alert your post office.

Approximately 9 million Americans will fall prey to identity thieves this year, and only one in 700 cases will be prosecuted. A risk-reward equation that suggests these kinds of criminals will keep multiplying.("'Tis The Season For ID Theft", Kadlec) Even with safeguards in place, companies that contain sensitive customer financial data can be pilfered by identity thieves. In early 2003, an intruder had gained access to a computer system containing the private records of customers, including credit and debit cards, check’s and driver’s license numbers for The TJX Companies. Unless you have all your money in a shoebox under your bed and pay cash for everything, you are at risk. Best bet is to always keep track of your statements before you find out that someone wants to be your clone!

Other helpful websites:
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse:
www.privacyrights.org
Identity Theft Resource Center:
www.idtheftcenter.org
Internet Crime Complaint Center:
www.ic3.gov

Help Me Race to Save Lives!

Friends,

I am training to participate in a half marathon (13.1 miles) event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. Team In Training raises funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives.

Although I have never done a marathon this of this length, I have found inspiration in my friend Terri Lavelle. A former rugby teammate who took on the 2% odds of surviving Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and has now been in remission for four years.

I'm taking part in this event in honor of Terri and all individuals who are battling these cancers and hope that enough research will expand treatments and one day, find a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society's mission, or get involved by training for an event or volunteering. I believe we can all be heroes, everyday, by showing compassion for one another.

Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress.
Thank you for your support!

http://www.active.com/donate/tntnofl/JennGeiss

Donations are tax-deductible! Tax ID 135644916.

Examining The Laws Surrounding Cyber-Assault

At 13-years old, Megan Meier had her whole life in front of her. Although she had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and was on the antidepressant Zoloft since the third grade due to suicidal thoughts, Megan was harassed into an early grave.

Megan had been conversing via Myspace.com with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. But as the world-wide-web can be a vehicle for people to create false identities and mislead others, six weeks after Megan’s suicide, her parents learned that Josh Evans was an online pseudo-persona created by Lori Drew, 47, who lived four houses down the street.

In Lori Drew’s final message to Megan, she writes, “The world would be a better place without you.” Claiming to create the profile of 'Josh Evans' to win Megan’s trust and learn how Megan felt about her daughter, to whom she had a 'falling-out' with, no charges have been filed against Ms. Drew. St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson, Lt. Craig McGuire, said that what Ms. Drew did “might’ve been rude, it might’ve been immature, but it wasn’t illegal.”

Knowingly harassing and cajoling a minor by an adult via the Internet, is not currently punishable. However, in response to this innocent loss of life, the local Board of Aldermen in Missouri unanimously passed a measure making Internet harassment a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail. Questions arise as to how this measure will be enforced. What if Ms. Drew did not live in the same town as Megan? What if Ms. Drew did not even reside in the United States? Would these laws be applicable to her still?

The first initiative to regulate cyberspace was taken by the federal government in the Communications Decency Act of 1995. The purpose of this bill was to make illegal the circulation of indecent materials through interactive media, placing it under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission. The act criminalized anything indecent or obscene but it was struck down as unconstitutional for being a violation of the First Amendment.

The Child Online Protection Act passed in 1998 with the purpose of protecting minors from harmful sexual material on the Internet. But once again, the federal courts have ruled that the law violates the constitutional protection of free speech, and therefore have blocked it from taking effect. Another issue plaguing the regulation of online content is that cyberspace is a world that exists without regard for physical location. Web users are free to move from web page to web page and server to server, without obstructions. So how do you regulate and enforce laws in cyberspace? And should there be involvement by a governing body?

Extraterritoriality is when a nation’s legal authority extends past its territorial borders. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Hartford Fire case held that the concerted refusal by London re-insurers to sell certain types of reinsurance to insurers in the United States violated the Sherman Act. The re-insurer’s actions in England were legal under English law. But the Court determined that the re-insurers were nonetheless subject to US regulation because their actions “produced substantial effect[s]” in the United States. U.S. law thus regulated the activities of English companies in England at the expense of the non-application of English law. Similarly, had an English court applied English law to adjudge the re-insurer’s acts to be legal, it would have produced ‘spillover effects’ on consumers in the United States . This makes the enforcement of laws extraterritorial.

In Cyberspace, since information flows simultaneously in all territorial jurisdictions, unilateral regulation of the local effects of cyberspace transmissions become near impossible. Information is like air; we cannot just draw a line in the air and stop it from moving and being used by people elsewhere. In this case, however, Ms. Drew was a ‘supposed’ friend and neighbor, residing within the same jurisdiction as the victim of this appalling hoax.

Assault is an attempt to menace; although not directly threatening her, Ms. Drew assaulted Megan through false impersonation. First Amendments right are the cornerstone of this country, but not all speech is protected under the law and online laws to protect children need to be revisited. Not just against sexual predators but all predators looking to harm a child.

Sources:
Topic 9: Sovereignty, Advisor Mitch Kapor
http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/fall98-topics/topic9-sovereignty.html
Topic 10: Democratic Structures, Advisor Mike Fischer
http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/fall98-topics/topic10-govern.html
Child Protection Act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Online_Protection_Act
A Hoax Turned Fatal Draws Anger but No Charges: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/us/28hoax.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

A Taser For Christmas? Marketing Assault With A Deadly Weapon

"It is light, it’s small, it comes in colors…” beams Lynne Rigberg, the host of a Taser party in Scottsdale, Arizona. Show your loved one's how much you care this holiday season with this 50,000-volt gift of false safety. Taser International is marketing these weapons for everyone after only a brief demonstration of its use. You too can render the slightest harasser immobile - “You cut me in line at the supermarket, now you’re going down!”

Tasers deliver a 50,000-volt shock designed to override the subject’s central nervous system, causing uncontrollable contraction of the muscle tissue and instant collapse. Taser International has stressed that Tasers are not designed to stop a target through infliction of pain but work by causing instant immobilization through muscle contraction. However, even officers subjected to a fraction of the normal Taser discharge during training have reported feelings of acute pain.

There are two types of Taser guns, “touch” stun guns for close range and dart projectile mode that has two fish-hook like darts designed to penetrate up to two inches of the target’s clothing or skin. Many ‘victims’ of Tasers have reported burn marks from the guns. Pointing out an obvious question, what is the sanitation of these hooks? They can penetrate two inches of skin, does the amount of voltage prevent disease transfer?

Considering our bodies are 70% water and transfer electricity through all parts of the nervous system, one might believe that 50,000 volts may have long-term effects, especially brain damage, at the slightest exposure. While a Taser gun would be less damaging to an assailant than a bullet-driven gun, both are supposed to be used with extreme caution and as a "last resort".

However, even law enforcement officers are not using Tasers as a last resort. On October 14th 2007, Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, 40, was traveling to join his mother, who lives in British Columbia, when he ended up spending approximately 10 hours in the airport's arrivals area, The Canadian Press said. Needing an interpreter, 4 Canadian Mounties approached the man, at which time he raised his hands and calmed down. With the absence of any threatening gestures, Mr. Dziekanski was Tasered by one of the mounties within moments. Falling to the floor, screaming, Mr. Dziekanski was tasered once again. Unarmed, confused and frightened were his final moments alive in the Vancouver International Airport.

Touting Tasers as a deterrent and not a weapon, people can and will feel compelled to use tasers whenever they want. With no legal limitations on when a person can and cannot use these deadly weapons, we have opened the floodgates for people to Taser each other at whim.

Sources:

“Excessive and Lethal Force?” Amnesty International, http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr511392004

CNN.com/world,
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/11/15/taser.death/index.html#cnnSTCText

This article is featured at NaturalNews.com: A Taser for Christmas? Marketing Assault With a Deadly Weapon

Beyond Repair: Part 2-Redefining the 8th Amendment

Nixzmary Brown…Noah, Mary, Luke, Paul and John Yates…Clyde Bondurant…Kira Walden…An ever-growing list of children who have died by the hands of family members.

Today’s Rant will focus on the newest little casualty, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers. Dubbed “Baby Grace” by police, she was a “fun-loving girl…with a big imagination,” explains Riley Ann’s father, Robert Sawyers. She would play “with a water hose…spraying the whole patio soaking wet.”

Relocated to Galveston with her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor; the body of the then-unidentified toddler was found by a fisherman on October 29, 2007. Her body was stuffed inside a blue storage container that washed up on an uninhabited island in Galveston’s West Bay.

Police arrested Trenor and her husband, Royce Zeigler after Trenor gave a voluntary statement describing her involvement, with Zeigler, in the physical abuse, death and disposal of the remains of her daughter.

According to her statement, both ‘pieces of garbage’ beat the child with leather belts and held her head under water in the bathtub. Zeigler then picked the girl up by her hair and threw her across the room, slamming her head into the tile floor. After her daughter died, Trenor and Zeigler went to a Wal-Mart and bought a Sterilite container which became Riley’s coffin, hidden in a storage shed for “one to two months” before the two carried it to the Galveston Causeway and tossed it in.

A beautiful toddler with wispy blond curls is gone forever. Though nothing the judicial system can do will bring her back, this is my vote to redefine “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Eighth Amendment.

At the time the Eighth Amendment was written, capital punishment was in common use. There also existed punishments that were generally considered cruel and unusual, such as hanging, burning at the stake, and impalement. But now, even lethal injection is under scrutiny. Debating that the convicted might actually feel pain during the procedure and therefore, certain groups and lawmakers arguing that this method is not humane.

What is humane is to do exactly to Trenor and Zeigler as they did to Riley. That would be justice! Unfortunately, that scenerio will never happen with the laws and enforcment of our current judicial system. I can not even hope that these two ‘sickos’ might be ‘neutured’ so that they can never reproduce again. Instead they will clog our courts, use tax payer money for their stay in jail (whatever ridicilously short sentence they get) for two people obviously beyond repair. My only relief is that this happened in Texas…the state with the Death Penalty Express Lane!

Sources:
Police: Mother describes beating of 2-year-old, hiding her body
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/26/body.found.arrest/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_and_unusual_punishment