Holiday scams to avoid this season: Bogus charitable pleas, online sites

Milwaukee– The holidays are a happy time for food, family, and friendship, but they are also a time for fraud. Consumers can fall into any number of traps over the holidays and become victim to identity thieves, hackers and deceptive merchants online. The Better Business Bureau is warning holiday shoppers and donors to look out for five common scams this season.

“While the rest of us are pulling the decorations out of the attic, scammers are blowing the dust off of their tried and true holiday scams,” said Randall Hoth, Wisconsin BBB president/CEO. “We can all help make these holiday scams a ghost of Christmas’ past by not falling for them anymore.”

BBB recommends being on the lookout for the following scams this holiday season:

Scam shopping sites online

We’re all looking for a great deal online, but some sites offer electronics or luxury goods at prices that are too good to be true. Every holiday season BBB hears from holiday shoppers who paid for a supposedly great deal online, but received nothing in return.

BBB advice: Always look for the BBB seal when shopping online and click on the seal to confirm it is legitimate. When shopping on sites that you aren’t household names, check the business out with the BBB before you buy.

Finding the season’s hottest toys and gadgets online

Every year, holiday shoppers fight over the “must have” toy or gadget of the season. When the item is sold out in stores, you can often find it online through sites like Craigslist or eBay—for a much steeper price. The problem is that some sellers will take your money and run.

BBB Advice: Shop locally on Craigslist and conduct the transaction in person—never wire money as payment. When purchasing items on auctions like eBay, research the seller extensively and always listen to your doubts if the deal doesn’t sound legit.

Identity theft at the mall

While you’re struggling at the mall with bags of presents, identity thieves see an opportunity to steal your wallet and debit or credit card numbers.

BBB Advice: Don’t let yourself get bogged down in purchases and lose track of your wallet. Know where your credit and debit cards are at all times and cover the keypad when entering your pin number while purchasing items or getting money from the ATM.

Bogus charitable pleas

The holidays are a time of giving which creates a great opportunity for scammers to solicit donations to line their own pockets. Also beware of solicitations from charities that don’t necessarily deliver on their promises or are ill-equipped to carry through on their plans.

BBB Advice: Always research a charity with the BBB Wise Giving Alliance before you give to see if the charity meets the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability.

Phishing e-mails – Phishing e-mails are a common way for hackers to get at your personal information or break into your computer. Common phishing e-mails around the holidays include e-cards and messages pretending to be from companies like UPS or Fedex with links to package tracking information.

BBB Advice: Don’t click on any links or open any attachments to e-mails until you have confirmed that they are not malicious. E-mail addresses that don’t match up, typos and grammatical mistakes are common red flags of a malicious phishing e-mail. Also beware of unsolicited e-mails from companies with which you have no association. Make sure you have current antivirus software and that all security patches have been installed on the computer.

For more advice on being a savvy consumer this holiday season, visit us online at http://www.wisconsin.bbb.org/consumer-tips-holiday/. Contact the Wisconsin BBB at http://www.wisconsin.bbb.org or 414-847-6000 (metro Milwaukee), (920)-734-4352 (Appleton) or 1-800-273-1002 (elsewhere in Wisconsin).

Deadline for “no call” list today

Madison– The coming days traditionally involve food, football and fighting crowds at shopping centers. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection encourages consumers to take a couple of minutes from all of the hustle and bustle to sign up for the state’s next No Call List and avoid the last-minute rush next week.

“Both forms of registration – telephone and Internet – can be done 24 hours a day, including this Thanksgiving holiday weekend,” said Janet Jenkins Administrator of the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection. “The quarterly deadline is Tuesday, November 30. Consumers who sign up on or before November 30 will be part of the next No Call List which takes effect January 1, 2011.”

Currently, more than 2.28 million phone numbers are included on the state’s No Call List. That is the highest count since the program began in 2003. Nearly half of the numbers registered in this year’s fourth quarter were cell numbers.

“We continue to educate consumers about the cell phone provision which became part of the No Call program in 2008,” added Jenkins. “Many households are giving up traditional landline services for the convenience-factors cell phones provide.”

The No Call List will reduce – but not completely eliminate – unwanted phone calls. Unsolicited calls from charities, poll and survey takers, or on behalf of political campaigns are examples of exemptions. In addition, an increasing number of telemarketing calls are made from outside the country. While these calls violate the law, the state cannot take enforcement action in foreign countries.

Consumers must register every two years to stay on the list. It is updated four times a year (January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1). The registration deadlines are always one month prior to the quarterly updates.

“We want consumers to understand that they can sign up at anytime during the year,” Jenkins concluded. “If they miss a registration deadline, their numbers will become part of the next list update.”

The Wisconsin No Call List is a free service offered by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Registration can be done online at http://www.NoCall.Wisconsin.gov or by calling 1-866-9No-Call (1-866-966-2255).

Note: The PDF attachment includes 2010 No Call Registration statistics.
No call PDF

Winter maintenance of hunting equipment can save a lot of headaches

By Scott “Coach” Stankowski

Wisconsin Rapids–As the cold weather begins to grip our state, life in Wisconsin seems to have taken a turn onto a familiar path.   As we begin this trek of short days and cold, star-filled nights, we realize that this path, although familiar, is quite different than what we have been accustomed to in as recently as just a few weeks.

Some of us are lucky enough to still be hunting deer with the muzzleloader or bow but most of us have to shift it into low gear so to speak.

A quick and simple reminder after this past gun season, now is the time to take care of equipment that you used during the season.  With the moisture that we received, we may currently overlook the importance of proper gun maintenance.  Preventative measures should be taken to avoid unwanted pitting and rusting of your gun.  Running a gun snake down the barrel of your gun may have been sufficient enough after sighting in your gun, but the moisture will probably have gotten into the working mechanisms of it as well.  If you are not well versed in proper gun breakdown, which most of us are not, you may want to consider taking your gun to a gunsmith for a thorough cleaning.  You will more than thank yourself come next season, when a years worth of rust and grime can build up, making your gun less user friendly.

Speaking of maintenance, you are probably also thinking about getting your winter equipment into shape.  If you are like me and procrastinate about some of the aforementioned gun cleaning, you probably have done the same with the winter gear,  whether that be as simple as starting and checking on your snowblower, or to fine tuning and checking your tipups.  If you did not fix them before you put them away, you certainly should do so before starting out.

Last year I was reminded of this as I helped a fellow angler out on an early ice quest to a nearby lake.  I had previously taken care of my power auger and was all ready for it cut through the ice.  As I ‘switched gears’ from hunting to fishing, I felt refreshed to know that a new season was upon me.  As my son and I set out our tip-ups with golden shiners, I looked at the loose fitting line around one of the spools, thinking about how the last time I used this tip-up my son caught a beauty of a northern pike at days end.  But due to the cold weather and fumbling hands I was unable to properly rewind the spool.  I remember thinking to myself that I would take care of it over the next couple of days.  Suffice it to say that never happened.  As we set the last tipup, my son noticed a nearby angler struggling with his auger.  After about fifteen minutes, I went over to offer my drilling in an effort to stop his suffering.  His blistered thumb and sweat dripping brow did not need much convincing.  I drilled more than enough holes for him and his buddy and went back to my area, and began jigging for panfish.  It was a rather slow day, but towards evening we managed to get a few fish for the fryer.  As we were ready to pack up, I noticed one of our tip ups with the tell tale flag sticking up.  We ran over to the tip up excited for what may be lurking under the ice.  As luck would have it, it was the tip up that I had thought about taking care of late last year that went unnoticed until this moment.  As the spool spun, my son set the hook.  He was into a good fish and fought it all the way to the hole, only to have the monofilament break at the hole.  It was no trophy fish, but a well respected one, that would have made it onto the ice, if only I had done my post season maintenance.   Heck, as far as that goes, even if I would have done my preseason maintenance the problem wouldn’t have arisen.

The point is,   go over all of your gear at seasons end.  Be it from as important as your gun to as simple as the sharpening and cleaning of your knife.  In the long run you will be happy that you took the extra time to do it.

Until next time,

Shoot straight

Top ten Cyber Monday tips for staying safe when shopping online

Milwaukee — Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, has officially replaced Black Friday as the most popular day to shop for the holidays. Shopping online means avoiding the crowds, but it also opens the buyer up to attacks from scammers and hackers. In order to fight these online grinches, the Better Business Bureau recommends 10 tips for staying safe when holiday shopping online.

Every year, more people head online — rather than to the mall — to get their holiday shopping done. Last year, 96.5 million Americans shopped online during Cyber Monday while 79 million Americans shopped at brick-and-mortar retailers on Black Friday, according to the National Retail Federation.

“The convenience and ease of shopping online has replaced the hassle of going to the store for many people—but online shopping has its own set of risks,” said Randall Hoth, Wisconsin BBB president/CEO. “Taking steps to avoid the fraud online will result in a much happier holiday for everyone — except, of course, for scammers and hackers.”

Following are the “Top 10 Online Shopping Tips” for holiday shoppers to help fight unscrupulous online retailers, scammers and hackers:

1. Protect your computer – A computer should always have the most recent updates installed for spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a secure firewall.

2. Shop on trustworthy websites – Shoppers should start with BBB to check on the seller’s reputation and record for customer satisfaction. Always look for the BBB seal and other widely-recognized “trustmarks” on retailer websites and click on the seals to confirm that they are valid.

3. Protect your personal information – BBB recommends taking the time to read the site’s privacy policy and understand what personal information is being requested and how it will be used. If there isn’t one posted, it should be taken as a red flag that personal information may be sold to others without permission.

4. Beware of deals that sound too good to be true – Offers on websites and in unsolicited e-mails can often sound too good to be true, especially extremely low prices on hard-to-get items. Consumers should always go with their instincts and not be afraid to pass up a “deal” that might cost them dearly in the end.

5. Beware of phishing – Legitimate businesses do not send e-mails claiming problems with an order or an account to lure the “buyer” into revealing financial information. If a consumer receives such an e-mail, BBB recommends picking up the phone and calling the contact number on the website where the purchase was made to confirm that there really is a problem with the transaction.

6. Confirm your online purchase is secure – Shoppers should always look in the address box for the “s” in https:// and in the lower-right corner for the “lock” symbol before paying. If there are any doubts about a site, BBB recommends right-clicking anywhere on the page and select “Properties.” This will let you see the real URL (website address) and the dialog box will reveal if the site is not encrypted.

7. Pay with a credit card – It’s best to use a credit card, because under federal law, the shopper can dispute the charges if he or she doesn’t receive the item. Shoppers also have dispute rights if there are unauthorized charges on their credit card, and many card issuers have “zero liability” policies under which the card holder pays nothing if someone steals the credit card number and uses it. Never wire money and only shop locally on sites like Craigslist.

8. Keep documentation of your order – After completing the online order process, there may be a final confirmation page or the shopper might receive confirmation by e-mail – BBB recommends saving a copy of the Web page and any e-mails for future reference and as a record of the purchase.

9. Check your credit card statements often – Don’t wait for paper statements; BBB recommends consumers check their credit card statements for suspicious activity by either calling credit card companies or by checking statements online regularly.

10. Know your rights – Federal law requires that orders made by mail, phone or online be shipped by the date promised or, if no delivery time was stated, within 30 days. If the goods aren’t shipped on time, the shopper can cancel and demand a refund. There is no general three-day cancellation right, but consumers do have the right to reject merchandise if it’s defective or was misrepresented. Otherwise, it’s the company’s policies that determine if the shopper can cancel the purchase and receive a refund or credit.

For more advice on staying safe online this holiday season, and to see reports on thousands of online retailers, go to http://www.wisconsin.bbb.org/consumer-tips-holiday/. Contact the Wisconsin BBB at http://www.wisconsin.bbb.org or 414-847-6000 (metro Milwaukee), (920)-734-4352 (Appleton) or 1-800-273-1002 (elsewhere in Wisconsin).

E-Cycle law

The E-Cycle Wisconsin program – the electronics waste recycling law that took effect September 1st – is already showing significant results.

Mark Brown, facility manager for the Brown County Household Hazardous Waste Facility, said in a recent interview that the plant has seen dramatic increases in the amount of electronics recycled, from up to 15,000 pounds per month before the new law took effect to up to 50,000 pounds per month since.

Similarly, the Good News Project in Wausau – a non-profit organization that builds houses for the poor – has seen an uptick in the amount of electronics recycled through its organization, allowing it to further its humanitarian efforts. The Good News Project has been able to hold several recycling drives in multiple cities in Wisconsin as a result of the legislation.

“It’s clear that the e-waste recycling law is having a dramatic impact on our state, even in the short time since it took effect,” said Thad Nation, Executive Director of Wired Wisconsin. “For every computer, DVD player, or other electronic device that’s recycled, we’re able to recover reusable components and prevent hazardous substances from polluting our environment. The early returns look promising for the future of Wisconsin’s ecosystem.”

Governor Doyle signed the e-waste recycling legislation into law late last year. Among the devices covered by the law are computers, printers, video displays, computer peripherals, fax machines, DVD players, and cell phones.

More information on the law and a list of collection sites are available at http://www.dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/wm/ecycle/index.htm.

5 amusing Thanksgiving Day facts

By Brian Kalish

Wisconsin Rapids— I spent countless hours this week doing research in order to bring you the following amazing facts about Thanksgiving.  I think it was time well spent.  Break these puppies out at your holiday party and you’re sure to be the most popular guy/gal in the room.  And that’s a guarantee.

So, without further ado… My 5 amusing Thanksgiving Day facts.

1. There’s more “sleep inducing” tryptophan in cheese than there is in turkey.

Who knew?  According to Andrew Knowlton of Bon Apetit magazine, there’s not enough tryptophan– an amino acid that supposedly makes you feel sleepy– to put you to sleep after your Thanksgiving feast.

“If you find yourself nodding off on the couch after the Thanksgiving feast, don’t blame the poor old turkey. While it’s true that turkey contains tryptophan, there’s not enough tryptophan in roasted turkey to tire you out. In fact, there’s more tryptophan in cheese and chicken breast than there is in turkey. The real reason you’re sleepy? It’s likely the stress of the holiday, the hours spent cooking, the wine and spirits–and all the fat and calories you just consumed.”

Source: _http://shine.yahoo.com/event/holidaymoments/the-5-biggest-thanksgiving-myths-debunked-2411921

2. George H.W. Bush was the first president to pardon a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Don’t act like you knew this one.  A tradition that seems like it has been around forever actually started just decades ago with Dubya’s father.  According to the research I’ve done on the subject, the first pardoning of a turkey is often wrongly attributed to Harry S. Truman.  Some even suggest that the tradition goes all the way back to Abe Lincoln.  Not so.  It appears Bush 41 was the first to actually use the word “pardon” for a turkey.  Bill Clinton kept the tradition alive, as has every president thereafter.

3. The Detroit Lions, not the Dallas Cowboys, started the NFL’s Thanksgiving Day football game tradition.

Most people associate Thanksgiving football with the Dallas Cowboys– traditionally both the Cowboys and the Lions play on Thanksgiving, though the NFL has recently begun cashing in by including an evening game as well– my research indicates that the Lions actually played the first Thanksgiving football game in 1934.  According to one source, The NFL Thanksgiving Day tradition actually dates back to 1920, when the Akron Pros defeated the Canton Bulldogs 7 – 0.   I saw it on the internet, so it must be true.

4. Turkey was not served at the first Thanksgiving feast.

Strange, but apparently true.  According to a report from the Long Island Press (long regarded in media circles as a bastion of truth and journalistic integrity) “even though wild turkeys were around during the first Thanksgiving feast, they were not served. Instead, the Native American Indians and Plymouth colonists feasted on various seafood, deer, corn, eggs, squash, spices, popcorn and squashed cranberries.”  Seafood?  Imagine diving into a bowl of scallops on Thanksgiving instead of carving a turkey.  Blasphemous.

5. Americans eat an obscene amount of turkey on Thanksgiving.

The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys—one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States in 2007—were eaten at Thanksgiving.

In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007.

Source: http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving-facts.

Fine art books on exhibit at UWSP gallery

Stevens Point–The voices of those unable to speak for themselves are represented in a collection of letterpress books at the Carlsten Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Caren Heft, the gallery’s longtime director and a senior lecturer in the Department of Art and Design at UWSP, is the artist featured in “The Arcadian Press: Giving Voice” exhibit, on display through Sunday, December 5.

The exhibit is made up of handmade letterpress books created by Heft since 1983. Heft has self-published 39 books through The Arcadian Press, which she founded.

“The Arcadian Press is the voice of those individuals who are unheard, had few choices or lost opportunities during their lives,” says Heft. Her subjects have included Lavada Durst, an early African-American disc jockey who played jazz and talked jive during the 50s on KVET in Austin, Texas; James Farmer, a prominent leader in the civil rights movement of the 60s, and Osceola Mays, who dreamed of being a school teacher but spent her life cleaning other’s people’s houses, washing their clothes and watching their children.

Her works have been collected by more than 120 private and public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., and museums in Paris, France; Florence, Italy; and London, England. She has exhibited in more than 150 solo, juried and invitational shows and has also written extensively for numerous museum brochures and essays on art.

A Panama City, Florida, native, Heft earned her bachelor’s and two master’s degrees from UW-Milwaukee. Previously she was the director of the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine (now the Racine Art Museum), where she helped inner city children create letterpress books that are now in university collections across the country. In addition to her gallery work at UWSP, she teaches classes in book arts, letterpress printing and contemporary art history.

All DMV offices closed Friday, November 26

Madison–Like many state offices, all Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices will be closed for business on Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, as DMV staff complete another unpaid furlough day. Employee furloughs for all university and state employees are part of the 2009 –2011 state budget.

DMV’s automated phone system will remain available so that motorists can still make road test appointments and have access to recorded information.

Titling and registration services are offered by many third-party partners such as some police stations, grocery stores and financial institutions around the state and can be found at the WisDOT web site.

DMV would like to remind customers that many services like vehicle registration renewal do not require a visit to a service center and are available online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

All DMV offices will resume regular business hours on Monday, November 29.

Opening weekend kill up slightly statewide, in Portage County

By Brian Kalish

Wisconsin Rapids— Here’s the good news: the number of deer killed in the opening weekend of the 9-day gun season both statewide and in Portage County were up from 2009.  The bad news?  That’s not really saying much, considering that the totals from last year were off 25% from 2008 and many hunters considered the entire 2009 season to be the worst for both deer sightings and kills in recent memory.

According to numbers released from the DNR, the 2010 opening weekend harvest was  up 6.3% statewide from 2009.  106,404 deer were registered this year compared with 100,330 last year.  The bump is being attributed to good weather and an increased number of deer sightings over last year.

Here in Portage County, hunters registered, strangely, 6.3% more deer on opening weekend than they did last year, which is the same as the state numbers.

“We want to remind folks that these preliminary numbers come from a staff call-around to deer registration stations,” said Tom Hauge, director of the DNR wildlife management program in a media release. “The final opening weekend tally will likely be somewhat larger, when all the registration stubs are entered into the data base over the next couple of months.”

A breakdown of the harvest by DNR Region and county is available.

“The hunters I talked to opening day were upbeat with most saying they were seeing deer,” said Hauge in the release. “Conditions were especially good in the northwest where they had some snow on the ground improving both tracking and visibility.”

While the opening weekend is the deer hunting event of the year, “there is still a lot of hunting left,” according to Keith Warnke, DNR big game ecologist.

Opening day observations raise questions about deer management

By Scott “Coach” Stankowski

With opening gun hunting 2010 a thing of the past, I thought it best to reflect on the weekend with you.

First, this was my solo gun hunting opener.  Next season I will have my son with me.  It was with trepidation that I sat this weekend, thinking about both the past and the future.  This was the last year of a tradition for me and next year starts a new chapter, one that I am looking forward to.  I reflected on my first season and how exciting it was, and how many deer I was able to see.  The deer herd was definitely out of balance and there were more does than bucks– a good day was over twenty deer seen.  It has changed and will continue to change.  As I look to next year, I will have more conversation, experience and shared excitement with someone else.  It will beat the 18 hours I spent on stand this weekend.  I did see some deer.  In fact, I was having a good opening morning, having seen a couple bucks before nine thirty.   But the sightings as well as the shooting tapered off as the deer found quiet areas to hide.  Sunday was a different day.  Misting rain all day made for some quiet woods.  Couple that with the Packers playing and I think the deer might think the season is over.

Not surprisingly, this season is met with a significant amount of controversy surrounding deer numbers.  Personally, I count the number of shots that I hear opening morning.  I am sitting on top of a large rise that is surrounded by miles of area that is lower, so that may impact my ability to hear shots.  I am conservative in saying that I heard over five hundred shots by 9 am.  None of which were extremely close and made me jump out of my boots, but they were within earshot.  The surprising information in regards to this is the inequality in direction.  I would estimate that between 8 and 9 shots for every ten were heard to the east and north of where I was perched.  In trying to scientifically hypothesize why this happened, I considered several factors, including wind direction, etc.

I hunt on property that has two management zones divided by a highway.  One of the zones, 62B, is a herd reduction zone, while the other, 62A, had a limited number of doe permits that sold out rather quickly.  I will give you one guess as to which direction was north and east.

Zone 62B.

So what does this potentially tell us?  I would reasonably think within a margin of error for that number of shots is equated to number of deer shot at and potentially harvested.  Although not 100% accurate, if we boiled it down, we could extrapolate some sort of fancy formula that would support this.  That being said, and even if I overestimate, I think it is safe to say a 70%-30% difference in deer shot at.  The habitat is the same, the areas are similar.  Does this then mean the difference in the total number of deer in these two zones are wildy different? If you go according to the data, that answer is yes.  Are deer smart enough to know what side of a zone to hang out in, when it is the edge?  I could understand if the numbers were showing this discrepency within the center of the units, but not on the border.

Here is what I think.  I think that in the area that I hunt there is a relatively equal number of deer between my hearing distance in both zones. Through bow hunting and game cameras, I am confident in supporting this.  I am also confident in saying that the buck to doe ration is pretty close to 50/50, which is what is desired-a healthy herd.   I think if given the opportunity, hunters overall will shoot the first deer they see, no matter what the sex.  I also believe that they will continue to shoot and take shots that are lower percentage shots.  I believe this would potentially result in more unrecovered deer and more wounded deer.  One zone provided these opportunities and the other did not.  This zone has historically been one with extra tags, earn a buck and no limit shooting, it is hard to break the habits of someone who has been doing this for the past fifteen years. Ask them personally to stop shooting everything that moves and the idea of not having venison on the table.

The consequences of this slaughter has been going on in other parts of the state for the past several years.  Hunters are dissatisified and not seeing deer.  In areas that once had plenty of deer and countless tags available.  I believe that the area that I hunt will not be able to support this for much longer and will become like the rest of the state, where a hunter is lucky to see one or two deer while on stand all day.

It makes me wonder what my son’s future of hunting has in store for him.  I truly hope that it does not involve me having to venture out west with him so he can experience a quality deer hunt.  Playing pinball with a deer and using hunters as flippers and bumpers has to stop.  Let us hope that the DNR gains the proper guidance to do so.

Until next time,

Shoot straight