FROM YOUR HEALTH CLUB TO AL QAEDA
The Boston Globe has a story detailing accusations that a personal trainer at a Bally's Health Club in Cambridge stole members' personal information and sold it to a friend linked to the guys convicted of trying to blow up Los Angeles Airport to celebrate the millennium. (The mastermind of that plot had ties to Osama bin Laden.) The trainer, who members said also taught a great spinning class, apparently used a hand-held skimmer to access and store information from magnetic strips on credit cards. The Bally's members' info was then used to open bank accounts, credit cards accounts, green cards, a fake Canadian passport, and citizenship papers, the Globe reports. One woman found out only when a credit card company called to ask her about some suspicious charges on her account. She said she didn't have an account.

So let me say it again, one way to stop identity theft from escalating is to periodically request your credit reports. You need to spend $25 once a year and send out that letter to the three main credit companies and review your file. Those folks at the health club had no idea that someone was downloading their SSN while they were upstairs sweatin' to the oldies.

- posted by Amy @ 1/31/2002 09:13:00 AM

 

EXPLOSIVE RESIDUE FOUND ON SHOE AT AIRPORT
Security officers at San Francisco Airport this morning detected traces of explosive material on a man's shoe, but he fled into the crowd and escaped. The terminal was closed and flights halted.
- posted by Amy @ 1/30/2002 12:13:00 PM

 

FTC MULLS TELEMARKETING RESTRICTIONS
The Federal Trade Commission is considering the creation of a national do-not-call list for telemarketers, aimed at telemarketers who call across state lines. Editor & Publisher reports that only 20 states have laws that allow residents to add their phone numbers to a do-not-call registry to block telemarketers.
- posted by Amy @ 1/30/2002 11:59:00 AM

 

EVEN EL AL MISSES GUN
Even super-strict Israeli airline El Al has a few holes in its security. An Israeli passenger said he accidentally had a gun in his carry-on luggage during a flight from Tel Aviv to New York. The incident came to light when he turned it into the Israeli Consulate when he got here, worried he'd get arrested for having a gun in NY.
- posted by Amy @ 1/29/2002 10:18:00 AM

 

ENRON IN PERFECT HINDSIGHT
All the non-financial media critics are weighing in with their nonsense about who-knew-what-when on Enron. In December, Heesun Wee at Business Week Online looked in her own rear view mirror and made an assessment of what could have been done. The story is a good read, and from someone who knows, since she's been covering energy companies for a couple years. The story has a Dec. 19 date, but it's a lot better than some of the media criticism coming out just now.
- posted by Amy @ 1/29/2002 10:09:00 AM

 

AIR PARTS FIRM MAY BE LINKED TO CRASHES
The BBC reports that the November plane crash in New York may be linked to an Italian company under investigation for possibly selling used aircraft parts as new. BBC quotes a police spokesman who said three Italian companies "obtained, reconditioned and sold a large quantity of aeronautical material" to airlines in Europe and the United States. AP had something on it over the weekend and Reuters had a brief on the arrests in Italy but didn't raise the link to New York.
- posted by Amy @ 1/29/2002 08:31:00 AM

 

WSJ REPORTER MISSING IN PAKISTAN
In December, it was reported that CIA agents may be posing as reporters to collect information in Afghanistan. The CIA refused to comment and the mere possibility was condemned by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Now a group with possible al Qaida ties claims it is holding a Wall Street Journal reporter hostage because they think he is a CIA agent. Daniel Pearl, 38, has been a reporter for the WSJ since 1990, according to the paper. An e-mail was sent to several news outlets over the weekend with attached pictures that claims to show Pearl shackled and with a gun to his head. Reports can also be found in the Journal (subscription required), AP, the Los Angeles Times, BBC and Reuters.
» SWEDISH JOURNALIST KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
» FOUR JOURNALISTS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
- posted by Amy @ 1/28/2002 09:33:00 AM