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With Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast approaching, California Attorney General Kamala Harris this week issued consumer tips for safe shopping this holiday season.
The holidays are a festive time of the year that unfortunately leave consumers vulnerable to monetary scams and online hackers.
This season’s online holiday sales are predicted to reach a record $83 billion, with consumers spending a combined $6 billion online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Attorney General Harris offers the following tips for consumers to protect themselves during the holiday season.
Tips for safe shopping
– Review your bank and credit card statements frequently for unusual transactions. Call your bank or credit card company to immediately report any suspicious activity.
– In the event of a security breach involving your debit or credit card, monitor your account and contact your bank promptly if you see any suspicious transactions. If you have been breached, you are also entitled to place a free initial fraud alert with one of the three national credit reporting companies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax); the reporting company must then notify the other credit reporting companies of the potential fraud.
– If the security breach involves your debit card, the best way to protect yourself is to immediately cancel the card and get a replacement card with a different number.
– If you receive a call from your credit card company that requests you to verify your account information for security reasons, ask to call the credit card company back and then call the telephone number listed on your credit card.
– Shipping e-mail scams are becoming increasingly common. Be wary of e-mails that appear to be from shipping companies that contain an attached file; this is a good indication that you have received a fraudulent e-mail that contains a virus. Also, during the holiday season, theft of packages becomes more common. If you do not have a secure area for delivery companies to leave a package, consider requiring a signature for packages or having packages held for pickup at a nearby shipping center.
– Parents and grandparents should be wary of scam artists who pretend to be a child or friend of a child who has encountered a medical or legal emergency and needs money immediately. Scammers are able to get personal information from social media to make the calls sound legitimate. A good way to avoid this situation is to have a secret word the child would use in an emergency situation.
– Scammers can use handheld scanners and counterfeit credit cards to use gift cards that they do not actually have. Only buy gift cards that are kept behind the store’s customer service counter or activated upon checkout. Before buying the card ask for it to be scanned to show that it is fully valued.
Online safety basics for the holidays
– Shop only on secure websites. One indicator of a secure Web site is the presence of a yellow padlock icon in the browser bar. Another indicator is “https” (as compared to “http” with no “s” at the end) in the Web address.
– Avoid making online purchases in public Wi-Fi hotspots, such as a coffee shop, which can put your credit card numbers and other information at risk.
– Never send sensitive personal or financial information, such as a Social Security or bank account number, through e-mail. Legitimate companies will not ask you to do so because this is not a secure way to transfer sensitive information.
– The Internet has many legitimate websites that offer vacation homes. However, scammers also put listings on vacation Web sites. If the price is too good to be true, it usually is.
– Scammers can use phone apps and games to steal your personal information. Do not download apps unless they are from a known source and have third-party reviews that verify their legitimacy.
– If you are receiving text messages on your cell phone saying you have won a prize or gift card, do not click on the link in the message – it is most likely a scam and may install a virus on your phone.
– Consider implementing a two-step protection process for your email account, which pairs “something you know,” like a password or PIN, with “something you have,” like your cellphone or a physical token. This adds an extra layer of security to prevent access to your personal information. For example, after inputting your password, you will then receive a text on your cellphone, giving you a one-time-use code to log into your email account.
Information on how to set up this two-step protection strategy for each of the following email providers can be found here:
– Outlook: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/two-step-verification-faq ;
– Gmail: http://www.google.com/landing/2step/ ;
– Yahoo: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/account/two-step-verification-extra-account-security-sln5013.html .
Additional consumer resources
The California Attorney General’s consumer tips on identity theft and other privacy issues can be found at https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/info-sheets .
Consumers can file a complaint with the Department of Justice by using the following form: http://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company .
If you have additional questions or comments, call 800-952-5225.
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SANTA ROSA, Calif. – State Sen. Mike McGuire, chairman of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, and Assemblyman Jim Wood, committee vice-chair, are hosting a hearing focused on the delayed opening of the Dungeness crab season.
“The California Dungeness and Rock Crab Fishery: Public Health, Ocean Conditions and Maintaining a Strong Coastal Economy” will take place from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, in the main room of the Steele Lane Community Center, 415 Steele Lane, Santa Rosa.
State and federal agency representatives, fishing industry representatives, leaders from the Dungeness Crab Task Force, North Coast county elected officials and more will participate.
The legislators will be focused on public health issues, ocean conditions and the coastal fishing economy.
A panel of experts will discuss the current status, ocean conditions, what to expect in the weeks ahead and impacts of the season delay.
In early November, just as the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab seasons were set to open, unsafe levels of domoic acid were found in local crab.
“We know that the North Coast is crab country – it’s a top industry here – and the decision to delay the opening did not come lightly,” McGuire said. “This forum will bring all of the industry experts together in one location, focused on protecting the public’s health, ocean conditions and our crab dependent coastal economy.”
“This hearing will provide an important opportunity to bring together industry leaders, and decision makers,” said Wood. “It is crucial that we know what we to expect for the rest of this crab season, and what to be prepared for in the future.”
The closure will remain in effect until the Director of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in consultation with the Director of the California Department of Public Health, determines that domoic acid levels no longer pose a significant risk to public health and no longer recommends the fisheries be closed.
The Dungeness crab fishery is in the top tier of California’s commercial fisheries. Values have exceeded $95 million per year and long-term averages of nearly $60 million.
For more information on the health advisories and the commission’s decision to delay the recreational Dungeness crab season, visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/fishing/ocean/health-advisories .
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COBB, Calif. – Have you, or your business been impacted by the Valley fire?
WorkforceLake is hosting an informational meeting with representatives from SBA and other local funding service providers to assist in the rebuild of Lake County.
The meeting will take place beginning at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Black Rock Golf Course, 16451 Golf Road in Cobb.
Please RSVP to Debra Walker at 707-530-2322.
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EMERYVILLE, Calif. – As the fall and winter holiday travel season gets under way, Californian motorists continue to benefit from relative savings in the price of retail gasoline month-over-month.
According to the latest AAA Fuel Gauge Report, the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular ticks in at $2.84 per gallon, a savings of $1.01 from last year’s prices at this time.
The current average price in Northern California is $2.74 a gallon, a drop of $0.06 from AAA’s last Fuel Gauge Report issued on Oct. 13.
The least expensive fuel continues to be found in Marysville, where the average price for a gallon of regular is $2.47.
The highest price is in San Francisco, where the average price is $2.89 a gallon for unleaded regular gasoline.
The latest data from the U.S. Department of Energy puts gasoline production and the overall utilization rate at virtually the same levels as prior weeks.
Chevron’s refinery, located in Richmond, Calif., is reportedly undergoing the largest turnaround work in history, which also reported a major unit shutdown.
Prior to news of the unplanned outage, the refinery was in the midst of work estimated to last around 80 days. The work included maintenance to the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracker.
“Gasoline demand typically retreats during the month of November, offsetting any major spikes in price due to supply shortages,” said Cynthia Harris, AAA Northern California spokesperson. “But unplanned outages could create volatility and put pressure on the state and national average in the near term.”
Both crude oil benchmarks, Brent and West Texas Intermediate, closed out this past week with three days of losses due to reports of a strengthening U.S. dollar. This further fueled expectations that the market’s current oversupply will continue in the near term.
OPEC’s secretary recently issued comments stressing the cartel’s success at sustaining its market share in light of a lower price environment and stated the expectation that the market will return to balance in the coming year. The cartel plans to convene on Dec. 4 to discuss its strategy moving forward.
WTI opened this week trading higher, following news that the U.S. oil rig count fell for the tenth consecutive week.
This offsets some of the losses seen last week after WTI closed Friday’s formal trading session on the NYMEX down 91 cents at $44.29 per barrel.