Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
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La diff?rence entre les poker classiques et les casinos virtuels est que les casinos virtuels vous permettent de jouer sur Internet.
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
Minnesota’s attorney general became the third attorney general to file suit against two California companies that allegedly sold inappropriate living trusts and annuities to seniors. Last year, state attorneys general in Pennsylvania and North Carolina filed suit against the same companies. In 2006, the North Carolina attorney general won an order preventing the companies from selling products in the state while the lawsuit against it is pending.
According to the lawsuits, the two companies, both run by a father and son from California, convinced seniors they were receiving impartial investment advice when in reality the companies were pushing their own products. The lawsuits allege that sales agents convinced seniors to purchase living trusts that were not necessarily in their best interest and were not tailored to their individual needs. After consumers agreed to purchase the living trust plans, the agents allegedly persuaded them to exchange or convert their investments for annuities, even if the annuity would have a negative financial impact or tax consequence.
In one case, an 85-year-old Pennsylvania man was allegedly sold a 10-year deferred annuity with his first payout not coming until he turned 95. In North Carolina, according to the attorney general’s charges, an agent convinced a couple in their seventies to cancel an insurance policy, cash in their investments, and put all of their savings into an annuity that he promised would earn 7 percent interest. The agent didn’t tell them the interest rate was guaranteed for only one year and they would face steep penalties if they needed to withdraw their money. Another North Carolina woman cashed in an IRA to purchase an annuity after the sales agent allegedly told her the IRA would run out of money in five years. He allegedly didn’t tell her that the annuity would cut her monthly income from $1,700 to less than $300. There are a number of steps you can take to avoid getting scammed, including avoiding high-pressure sales tactics and highspeed sales pitches, not trusting companies that say the AARP is selling or endorsing their product, and making sure a living trust is properly funded. In addition, to help older adults and families make better decisions about annuities, the Healthcare and Elder Law Programs Corporation (H.E.L.P.) has created a Web site, www.annuitytruth.org. The site features H.E.L.P.’s new seven-part “Special Report: Annuities and Older Adults,” as well as a list of federal and state agency contacts for making complaints if a person has been sold an annuity in unsuitable circumstances.
Of course one of the most important things you can do is make sure you get estate planning advice from a qualified elder law attorney.
http://www.ctseniorlaw.com/download/pro_news_mayjun07.pdf
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
Figuring out how to plan your estate can be a big job. Here are some common questions and answer that may help you.
What is an estate plan?
An estate plan is a systematic plan for the accumulation, conservation and distribution of an estate. A good estate plan minimizes taxes and accomplishes the owner’s goals efficiently and effectively. When the owner dies, the estate plan distributes the estate with minimum administrative costs. The sooner an estate plan is made, the more effective it can be.
Should I have a will if I don’t have children?
Everyone should have a will, including you and your spouse. Believing that everything the two of you own will pass automatically to the surviving spouse when one of you dies is a risky proposition. Your property could be distributed according to the state’s inheritance laws instead of going directly to the surviving spouse.
Should I set up a trust, or do I even need one?
It depends on the size of your estate and the purpose of the trust. If your estate is under the current estate tax exemption amount ($2 million for 2006 through 2008, and $3.5 million for 2009) and small enough to qualify for quick and inexpensive probate in your state, you might not need one. However, a trust can help you avoid a court hearing if you become incompetent or unable to provide for yourself, or if you want to provide for grandchildren, minor children, or disabled relatives. What happens to my 401(k) account when I die? If you designated beneficiaries when you signed up for a 401(k) account, they receive the money in your account when you die. Otherwise, your estate automatically becomes the beneficiary. If your beneficiary is your spouse, he or she has most of the same options that you would have if you were leaving your company to take another job.
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
With the enactment of SB 1018 (Simitian), which requires all bank employees to report all suspected cases of elder financial abuse going into effect today, the California Bankers Association has compiled a list of tips to help consumers be more vigilant in keeping seniors safe.
“More and more, California’s seniors have become the targets of unscrupulous fraudsters who want nothing more than to part seniors from their hard-earned money,” said CBA president and CEO Janet W. Lamkin. “While law enforcement, along with California’s financial institutions, work hard to make sure that suspected cases of elder financial abuse are reported and investigated, we want to remind all Californians that we all have a role to play in keeping our seniors safe.”
Elder financial abuse is a somewhat unique crime in that, oftentimes, it is a member of the family, close friend or caregiver who ends up perpetrating the crime, making it that much more difficult to detect.
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
By Mary Frances Gurton Staff Writer
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
PASADENA - Tommie Brown said he worked hard, paid his bills on time and kept his credit clean all his life, only to fall victim this year to a $350,000 mortgage fraud scheme.
The longtime Pasadena resident said he became aware of the scam after a mortgage lender who had befriended him used his personal information to purchase two homes in Georgia unbeknownst to him.
“I went to purchase a used car in El Monte last July,” said Brown, 60, sitting in the dining room of his modest Pasadena home. “When they ran the credit check, I found out there are loans in my name on two houses in Georgia.”
Embarrassed and uninformed as to how to handle the problem, Brown said he has yet to contact police and avoids calls from creditors at Washington Mutual and other financial services corporations asking for payment on the notes.
“I told them I had no part in stealing the money,” said the retiree, who spent 27 years in the shipping and receiving department of a local Vons market. “I just want to get through this and come out the way I was before.”
Various types of identity fraud, ranging from bait-
and-switch scams, pyramid schemes, variable annuity sales, online escrow fraud and charity scams, are perpetrated against seniors each year - and are continually evolving, according to experts.
In 2005, there were 8.9 million identity theft cases reported nationally, with about 1 million of those in California, said Melanie Bedwell of the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Seniors are especially vulnerable, according to Petra Niles, director of the Elder Abuse Prevention Program at Wise Senior Services in Santa Monica.
“On a day-to-day basis, we get several calls on all kinds of cases,” said Niles. “This is happening all over the state.”
Niles said it is common for perpetrators to build relationships with numerous seniors, all the while testing for those who may be easy prey for a tried-and-true scam. Continue Reading »
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
In 1993, two-year-old Jerome Campbell started a fire with a disposable butane cigarette lighter he took from his mother’s purse. The fire killed him, his mother, and his brother; it also resulted in a lawsuit against Cricket Lighters, the manufacturer.
Last year the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out a strict products liability claim brought by a representative of the victims’ estates, but the Pennsylvania Superior Court recently ruled that the plaintiff can pursue claims for breach of warranty and punitive damages. (Phillips v. Cricket Lighters, 852 A.2d 365 (Pa. Super. Ct. June 10, 2004).) Continue Reading »
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
Many people do not realize how easily criminals can obtain our personal data without having to break into our homes. In public places, for example, criminals may engage in “shoulder surfing” watching you from a nearby location as you punch in your telephone calling card number or credit card number or listen in on your conversation if you give your credit-card number over the telephone to a hotel or rental car company.
Even the area near your home or office may not be secure. Some criminals engage in “dumpster diving” going through your garbage cans or a communal dumpster or trash bin — to obtain copies of your checks, credit card or bank statements, or other records that typically bear your name, address, and even your telephone number. These types of records make it easier for criminals to get control over accounts in your name and assume your identity.
If you receive applications for “preapproved” credit cards in the mail, but discard them without tearing up the enclosed materials, criminals may retrieve them and try to activate the cards for their use without your knowledge. (Some credit card companies, when sending credit cards, have adopted security measures that allow a card recipient to activate the card only from his or her home telephone number but this is not yet a universal practice.) Also, if your mail is delivered to a place where others have ready access to it, criminals may simply intercept and redirect your mail to another location.
In recent years, the Internet has become an appealing place for criminals to obtain identifying data, such as passwords or even banking information. In their haste to explore the exciting features of the Internet, many people respond to “spam” unsolicited E-mail that promises them some benefit but requests identifying data, without realizing that in many cases, the requester has no intention of keeping his promise. In some cases, criminals reportedly have used computer technology to obtain large amounts of personal data.
With enough identifying information about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual’s identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: for example, false applications for loans and credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, fraudulent use of telephone calling cards, or obtaining other goods or privileges which the criminal might be denied if he were to use his real name. If the criminal takes steps to ensure that bills for the falsely obtained credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals, are sent to an address other than the victim’s, the victim may not become aware of what is happing until the criminal has already inflicted substantial damage on the victim’s assets, credit, and reputation.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html#whatcommonways
Published by admin on 20 Dec 2007
“But he that filches from me my good name/Robs me of that which not enriches him/And makes me poor indeed.” - Shakespeare, Othello, act iii. Sc. 3.
The short answer is that identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. These Web pages are intended to explain why you need to take precautions to protect yourself from identity theft. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims’s names. In many cases, a victim’s losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.
In one notorious case of identity theft, the criminal, a convicted felon, not only incurred more than $100,000 of credit card debt, obtained a federal home loan, and bought homes, motorcycles, and handguns in the victim’s name, but called his victim to taunt him — saying that he could continue to pose as the victim for as long as he wanted because identity theft was not a federal crime at that time — before filing for bankruptcy, also in the victim’s name. While the victim and his wife spent more than four years and more than $15,000 of their own money to restore their credit and reputation, the criminal served a brief sentence for making a false statement to procure a firearm, but made no restitution to his victim for any of the harm he had caused. This case, and others like it, prompted Congress in 1998 to create a new federal offense of identity theft.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html#whatis
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