Giving The Fingerprint: Home Law Raises Concern

Sellers Will Be Required To Provide Thumbprint Before Deal Is Approved Reporting

13 March 2008

Mike Puccinelli CHICAGO (CBS) ―

Real estate certainly has its risks and fraud is a growing problem, but now there's a new law that's supposed to protect buyers. As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports the new law will also place an unusual burden on the seller.

Fingerprinting is something we often associate with crime. So the fact that Cook County home sellers--and homeowners across the state--will soon have to provide a thumb print left some people shocked.

"I wouldn't like that at all. I don't think that's necessary," said Chicagoan Donald Hayes.

"I don't know what I think about that. Not very good, I think, said Jenny Armstrong of Lake Villa.

The new law, which is set to go into effect June 1, 2009, will force anyone selling property in Cook County to provide a thumbprint from their right hand.

"No more so than any law abiding citizen walking down the sidewalk should be fingerprinted; just for selling my house, that's ridiculous," said Gerald Cain of Land Acquisitions, Inc.

Cain has been in the real estate consulting business for decades. He says the law is intrusive and threatens to create fraud when it's designed to prevent it.

Cain has been notarizing documents for more than a quarter century, but he says unless the fingerprint rule is revoked, he plans to get out of the business.

"I would probably just quit; liability for me is too much," Cain said.

Joseph Rogul of the Professional National Title Network isn't worried about the law and rather welcomes it.

"We're in favor of it. Fraud has been a big problem for title companies like us. We don't think it will add too much of a burden on us," said Rogul.

Rogul says consumers will likely have to pay a little more, but he believes the benefits will outweigh the costs, because widespread fraud in the industry means widespread costs, which are typically passed on to the consumer.

The law specifies that consumers can be charged up to $25 to cover fingerprint processing costs.

Unless it's reintroduced, the thumbprint rule is set to expire in 2013. Cain is calling on lawmakers to repeal the provision.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Mike.Puccinelli.fingerprint.2.957819.html

The Problem


More and more each day competitors, ex-associates, new start-up ventures, and unscrupulous individuals are using electronic eavesdropping as a way to gather information that could seriously damage your business.

"Bugs" telephone taps and video transmitters (above) are readily available that can compromise your business secrets for as little as $30.00.

The manufacture, sale, installation, and monitoring of these devices is a multi-billion dollar industry in North America.

Unless you are a law enforcement agency with an Order or Warrant for a wire tap, it is a criminal offence to record the conversations of two or more persons without their consent.



? Confidential information seems to be getting out to competitors.

? Competitors seem to be just one step ahead all of the time.

? Your office was broken into yet very little or nothing was taken.

? Sockets or switches show signs of being moved slightly, ie: the wallpaper may be disturbed.

? Vehicles parked near to your premises, that appear to be empty.

? Your telephone rings but no one speaks or you just hear a short tone.

? Unusual sounds (crackling, clicks, volume changes) on your telephone handset.

? Indications that your handset may have been exchanged, ie: numbers in memory may be lost.

? Repairers or utility companies turn up to carry out work when they have not been called.

? Furniture or items appear to have been disturbed.

? Interference on your radio or television.

? Unexplained brick or plaster dust on floor.


The most commonly and widely used of all the devices is the RF (Radio Frequency) transmitter bug. These devices are inexpensive easy to use and require no specialized receiving equipment a simple AM or FM radio can be used to monitor the bug. Due to their low cost, there is very little incentive to recover these devices once planted.



The Spectrum Analysis is used to detect RF devices is capable of monitoring frequencies up to 36 Gigaherts. This will also include very low frequency (VLF) devices which transmit on frequencies down to 15 Kilohertz.


The next method is often known as the "wire tap" or a "hard wire bug". The wiretap will use any existing wiring in the home or office ie: the electrical plugs (see photo above), alarm systems or even the telephone wiring.

This is similar a typical baby monitor situation where you plug the transmitter into one room and the receiver in the other.


Many think that telephones are only a security risk when being used but a simple modification to the handset can leave the microphone connected, even when the phone is not in use.

Wired and wireless transmitters must be physically connected to the line before they will do any good. Once a wireless tap is connected to the line, it can transmit all conversations over a limited reception range. Wired taps, on the other hand, need no power source, but a wire must run from the line to the listener or to a transmitter.

An 'Infinity Transmitter' or 'Harmonica Bug' must be installed inside the phone. When someone calls the tapped phone it rings, blows a whistle over the line, and the transmitter picks up the phone via a relay. The mike on the phone is activated so that the caller can hear all of the conversations in the room.




The telephone line analyzing equipment is used during the sweep (photo above) is capable of determining illegal taps, defective phones, room listening devices, splices, VLF devices, infinity triggered devices, and selectively targeted phones in situations where a tap has been placed in a wire closet or a telephone room.

A signal is generated from your phone right to the Bell Canada Phone Centre (or the main phone centre of your particular State or Province). The purpose is to evaluate the current in the line and to discover if any device has been placed on the line that might be causing a drop in the current.

Here are some interesting videos of an actual Counter Electronic Sweep being conducted by a Private Investigation agency in Ontario Canada.

Keeping up with customer debts, as well as maintaining an accurate record of payments received, are fundamental business elements.

Often there are logical reasons for accounts not being paid and which are falling past the 90 days due date.

Our company would be pleased to assess your accounts receivable problems, with what we call our Proactive-Reactive Program. Below are just a few examples of what you can expect in our assessment.

The Proactive Approach

Assessing the problem on a proactive level involves allowing us to make recommendations and set up systems and policies to stop collection problems from occurring in the first place. This is our fundamental goal in any assessment.

It is essential, for example, to set up proper customer information and to have on file application forms with the data necessary to help you find your customers easily, if they renege on payments, go out of business or simply disappear.

Often extending too much to your customer in the way of product or service can result in a customer being unable to pay an account that was out of their league in the first place.

But how can you be sure of how much of your product or service you should extend?

When do you extend to the limit and when do you start asking for deposits or retainers?

We will work with you on setting up a safe credit application program to make sure you are not extending too much of your product and service, to prevent the risk of not getting paid in full. In some cases this may involve working with the major credit bureaus.

How many times has a company gone out of business leaving you with nothing but an outstanding account and a disconnected telephone number?

You try to collect, but if the company is out of business, how do you get your money? You try suing in court but because the company is an incorporated entity you are not allowed to sue or collect from the business owner personally.

You spend thousands in legal fees only to obtain a worthless uncollectable judgment and an expensive legal bill.

What you may not know is that as a business owner you have the right to incorporate ?personal guarantee? policies into your customer accounts on incorporated companies.

This simply means that if the company goes out of business, the business owner can be held personally responsible for his account with you. This policy has to be set up properly when you open a customer account. It must also be set up sensitively, in order to gain a customer?s confidence, rather than hesitancy, in his transactions with you.

The Reactive Approach


Assessing the problem on a reactive level involves exactly that ? reacting to the existing problem at hand.

We are not a collection agency and we do not collect. But we will set a system in place to help you collect. First, however, we will enable you to have the right frame of mind about collections.
Here are some suggestions:

• Third party collection agencies make telephone calls and send letters. That is all they are licensed to do. They may report the debt into the customer?s credit bureau file. But even if they do actually collect for you, they are going to take 1/3 to 50% of every dollar they manage to collect. If you are lucky, they might manage to negotiate post-dated cheques over time. In many cases, you will send off your accounts and you will hear nothing back from them. Collection agencies generally have only about 20% success.
  
  If your company is a member of the credit bureau, you may be able to report your outstanding account into a customer?s credit file to leave a ?black mark? in their credit history, making it harder for them to get credit while your bad debt sits in their credit file.
• If you want a skip trace to find the customer, or you want that customer to be sued in court, that collection agency, lawyer or skip tracer will be asking you for a deposit and perhaps a big one.

Keep in mind that millions of people are awarded judgments from the court that they can?t collect, simply because the customer has no assets. They spend and spend, trying to collect, but with no success.

A secretary or admin person could perform a lot of these collection tasks with right knowledge and/or the right software. Many companies hire in-house collection clerks on a part-time or contract basis. Many companies handle all their collection problems in-house.

Even Small Claims court documents can be downloaded from the Internet. You don?t necessarily need any legal knowledge to go after your account in Small Claims court, if the debt is a simple, cut-and-dried issue. Small Claims court recognises that people who come into their court may not have any legal knowledge, and the court can be somewhat accommodating.

Many companies handle simple Small Claims court matters themselves. They merely send a secretary or an employee from their accounting department to prove that the debt is outstanding.

Our objective is to evaluate your collection problems and determine what aspects could be handled most cost-effectively in-house, under a program we would design for you. We would also recommend which concerns should be looked after by third-party agencies, based on your budget and our assessment of how collectable we consider the debt to be.

www.corporatefactors.net

A company known as Verichip Corp www.verichipcorp.com/ appears to be leading the way in this technology which is already in use.










by Ezra HaLevi










(video)
http://www.verichipcorp.com/files/CN...orn_013106.wmv

While I admit to joining the klan of facebook.com I find the site very dangerous in the way of personal privacy and people should be very concerned and warned.

I have written articles and even did a tv show on how impersonation is out of control. People who have had their lives destroyed because someone got a hold of their personal information and applied for credit in their name.

I interviewed a lady on my tv show who woke up one morning to a collection agency phone call. She discovered that someone impersonated her identity and managed to purchase two houses in her name in Gretzky?s home town of Brantford Ontario. She had no idea that someone had used her identity by applying for credit in her name.

It took years for her to get her life back.

Yet people who register on facebook post their name and their date of birth right out in the open for anyone to see.

Many on facebook will argue they use their privacy settings and only close friends see personal information. This is great for those who actually use their privacy settings.

There are networks after networks of interest groups that allow people who you may not directly know to see your personal information. They are allowed to see it because your privacy settings have allowed people in the same network to see your personal data.

Many assume because they have an interest in common with someone, skiing, music, church, city events that a person in that network is not going to compromise their data. Do you really know everyone in your network?

Yet bigger city networks like ?Toronto? or joining a network where in the city where you reside can be a great place for would be fraudsters to take your personal information and apply for credit.

Your Name & Date of Birth is all it takesPeople need to realise that all it takes is your name and date of birth to steal your identity.



Facebook A Great Place To Harvest

The word to be aware of is ?harvesting?. Right now I can go on facebook and within less that an hour I can harvest names and dates of birth of dozens after dozens of people. If I really tried I could probaby average 100 names and dates of birth in an hour. People who I don?t know, who are not in any network.

Personal data out in the open makes you vulnerable to attack by fraudsters to get your data to apply for credit in your name. Problem is people don?t realise just how bad the problem is. There is no recourse, you?re on your own trying to clean up your life if you?re impersonated. Don?t expect the police to do it for you and don?t expect that the fraudster will actually get caught. Act proactive rather then reacting to a crisis later.

Impersonation fraud is the biggest growing crime on a world wide level. If you have a home you could also be a victim of mortgage fraud or have your house sold right from under you with the aid of the data you gave up on facebook.com

Teenagers and children are the best targets. Kids who have not yet established credit ratings. A nice clean name, date of birth and address is all a fraudster needs to start applying for credit in your child?s name.

The Federal Trade Commission just did a warning to the public that over 400,000 children and have already had their identity stolen and many don?t even know it yet. This will include teenagers.

If your address is posted all the better. If they get a hold of your Social Insurance Number or Social Security Number you?re done like dinner you may never get your life back.

You?ll spend years trying to clean up your credit rating convincing creditors and collection agencies that you?re you and not the fraudster who managed to swindle thousands from banks and credit agencies using your name.

There was just a news article recently where a victim of impersonation was reported dead to the government, yet he was alive and well. He spent months just trying to convince the government he was not dead and his problems continue.

You could find the IRS or Revenue Canada knocking on your door or even the police or perhaps immigration.

The answers to virtually all verification questions asked by a bank or credit agency to prove you are you can be answered on facebook.com

Let?s start with the most common question that all credit card companies ask to verify you? ?What?s your mother?s maiden name?? Your dog?s name, where did you attend school. Your previous addresses. Take a look at the verification questions used by web based email services like hotmail.com when you sign up.

Many of these questions could be answered by looking on facebook.com.

There may be those who may want to use your name and date of birth to commit a crime or get a job when they don?t have status to work in the country.

Ask yourself could someone easily recreate your resume from facebook depending on the information you posted?

I am fascinated by those who post their resume. Where you went to school, what degrees you have, your past jobs, your marital status. Your interests, where you volunteer, you associations and degrees. Even your religious beliefs.

What about child predators seeking to hurt and exploit children.

People continue to post pictures of their children, some have posted where they go to school or daycare and even what time they are picked up. Your toddler could even be at risk.

The security risks to openly posted personal data are endless.

If you give away too much personal information your jugglar vein is exposed waiting for the kill. If you?re impersonated there are only two things in the world that can prove you?re you. Your DNA and your fingerprints. You?ll spend a lifetime trying to get your life back.

Be careful what personal information you give up on any website.