29 March 2010

News release

Guidance on boundary between financial planning and advice

The Securities Commission has issued guidance for the financial advice sector on the boundary between financial a planning service and financial advice.  This will help advisers prepare to meet the requirements of the Financial Advisers Act when it comes into force, says Commissioner for Financial Advisers, David Mayhew.

The Act requires advisers providing a financial planning service to be authorised by the Commission, whereas those advising only on a narrow range of financial products, such as bank term deposits, credit card and most insurance products (‘category 2 products’) will need to be registered but not authorised.

“The Commission is responding to industry concerns about the intersection of the work required when giving financial advice with that required by a financial planning service as defined by the Act.  We want to clarify the boundary between a financial planning service and advice on category 2 products and where this sits in the context of advisers’ obligations,” says Mr Mayhew.

“It is important advisers recognise the limits of their own capabilities and act in the interest of their clients.  It would be unacceptable for unauthorised advisers to deliberately restrict their inquiries, and the standard of care, diligence and skill the giving of advice demands, just to avoid being seen to provide a financial planning service.

“If advisers think their business model might involve stepping over the category 2 boundary and into financial planning, it is best for them to seek authorisation from the Commission.”

The guidance note is available on the Commission’s website www.seccom.govt.nz

Ends

Contact: Roger Marwick ph 04 471 7659

Securities Commission Release: Guidance on boundary between financial planning and advice.

Daniel Balsam, who started suing spammers even before he graduated from law school in 2008, filed suit against Trancos Inc., a Redwood City advertising company, over a series of ads that showed up in his personal e-mail in-box in 2007.

Read the rest here S.F. lawyer awarded $7,000 from e-mail spammer.

It is always great to see someone taking a stand.

I talked to consulting client of mine that bought a course on twitter (not mine). And his twitter account was suspended permanently.

So I asked him some questions on how he used twitter.

What I learned clearly shows why his account was suspended permanently.

via How To Get Banned By Twitter | Business on Twitter.

Man abused schoolgirls he met online | Stuff.co.nz

An online predator used social networking site Bebo to prey on schoolgirls, sexually abusing two he befriended through the internet.

Police said the pool of potential victims was growing by the day as more children turned to social networking sites and showed the ease with which predators could strike.

Douglas Charles Segetin, 23, was sentenced in Wellington District Court after pleading guilty to three charges of unlawful sexual connection with underage girls.

Both Wellington girls were 14 when the offences took place in April and July last year.

Police E-Crime manager Maarten Kleintjes said sexual predators were stalking victims on Bebo, which was popular with teenage girls.

“They can do it from the comfort of their own home and stalk anyone they meet on the internet. It makes the possible victim pool a lot larger,” Mr Kleintjes said.

Judge Susan Thomas said in court that Segetin met his first victim through Bebo. On April 25 he picked her up and drove her to an isolated spot near the Hutt River, where he smoked cannabis. Later he sexually assaulted her. The next day he took her to another area where they had sexual intercourse in his car.

Segetin also met the second girl on Bebo. On July 4 he went with her to a bottle store before driving to Kaitoke Regional Park. He then took the girl to a secluded area at the Hutt River.

“At this stage the girl was extremely intoxicated. Sexual intercourse then took place,” Judge Thomas said. “You knew she was just 14 and went to college.”

Segetin was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention, community work of 150 hours, and ordered to pay reparation totalling $4500. He must live with his parents and is not allowed to have a computer or mobile phone that can access the internet.

He is also banned from associating with anyone under the age of 15 without permission from his parole officer and must complete a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for sexual offenders.

One of his victims told The Dominion Post she was disappointed with the sentence.

“Just because he has home detention doesn’t mean anything. He will just be able to go out and do it again.”

Her mother also had doubts about the sentence.

“If I had a guarantee that he would never do this to anyone else then I’m happy. But if I find that he does this again once his home detention is finished, then I would be gutted.

“I don’t want anyone else’s family to go through this.”

She also doubted Segetin’s use of the internet during his detention period could be monitored.

via Man abused schoolgirls he met online | Stuff.co.nz.

The article continues with a victim impact statement of both the victim and her mother.What follows below is too late for the victim and her mother but hopefully it will contribute to preventing others from becoming prey to these horrible practices. Take some time with your child / teenager and discuss this all, for their sake and yours.

Online Networking and Child Safety

(This post was originally written and posted here>>>)

Over 80% of the Kiwis have Internet access and over 45% of the people using the internet are active or less active in some way on social networking sites like Facebook,  Myspace,  and the many others that are around. For New Zealand youngsters Bebo seems to be a favorite.

Social Networking sites have become places where the young hang out to meet new people and to chat with friends, to share content such as pictures and videos. As such there is nothing wrong with that. Our daily lives more and more have a virtual reality to them, that is just part of the technological and social developments. There are good reasons to promote online networking activities and participation in interest groups and networking sites online. John Stephen Veitch of Adapt to Experience, a Christchurch consultant and acquaintance, offers some valuable insights on the benefits of active participation in the online world as well as helpful advise on how to get started.

But there is another side to this as well especially where it concerns the safety  of your child.  In a recent Crime Scene documentary (TV1), researchers posing as 14 year old teenage girls started to hang out on (social networking) sites to find that within the shortest period of time they were receiving sexually explicit texts and images as well as invitations to meet.

In my personal opinion, it is important that we as society but especially as parents, we make our children aware that there is a darker side to the internet and that abuse, especially of younger people (children/teenagers) is a realistic possibility.

Teenagers, having the hormones raging through their bodies, usually have better computer skills than judgment capabilities.Although there are indications that younger people get more savvy and alert, one victim is still too much.

Child Abuse Online

The rise in online networking has made life considerably easier for those with less noble intentions, also for child abusers.

Online sexual offending in broad terms can be categorised in three groups:

• Grooming: engaging in sexually explicit chat with a view to meet for sexual purposes
• Sexual exploitation short of real life meeting  (cybersex chat with underaged people)
• Child Pornography:  Sending explicit material to children,  luring or forcing children into providing sexually explicit material  of themselves or others,  the distribution of such material.

Higher Victimisation Risk Groups

Overseas studies of arrested offenders have found that many of them had relationships with children. These predators know exactly what too look for just like fraudsters know how to spot an easy mark.

Children with a higher risk of being a victim of such abuse are most often found to be:

• from dysfunctional and/or impoverished backgrounds
• socially alienated
• depressed or suffering from other mental or emotional issues
• maladjusted

Besides that, youngsters are found to not always be aware of the risks. A study that was published in the February 2007 issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine reported on the assessment of 9 types of behavior that are generally associated with higher risks such as giving out personal details, talking with strangers. sexual behavior and peer to peer downloading of files.

It was found that 75% of the youth interviewed admitted to engage in at least one category of the assessed behavior. 20+ percent admitted to being involved in four or more risk enhancing behaviors, which would mean an eleven times higher change of becoming a victim.

The Water Bed Effect

With MySpace having set of on a new course by appointing a Chief Security Officer, hiring a police liaison officer, setting off public service announcements together with the NCMEC, the deletion of already well past  a quarter of a million profiles that do not comply with the user policies (too young, too explicit) some are looking for other alternatives and that is where sites with less strict policies or less strictly enforced policies come in like Stickam (www.stickam.com) or LiveLeak or Daily Motion.

The Downside of Enhanced Security Features

Where these social networking sites make life a lot easier for predators, we see at the same time that life gets harder and harder for those that are involved in investigating these types of crimes.

We see a vast growth in tools that make it possible to hide or spoof identities and IP addresses, decentralised P2P networks, encryption,  and so on. Virtually every day new tools appear on the market that it harder and harder to obtain investygatuive results.

Some safety tips
Here are tips to enhance your safety and more importantly that of your child:

• Most importantly be open and make sure your child can talk with you, make sure it knows it is being loved
• Be clear in the agreements with your child in what is and what is not allowed and what to do in case of an incident
• Explain the risks of online sexual solicitation and the risk of talking to strangers
• Discuss the risks of meeting face to face and be very cautious about it
  • Do some checks first before you give your ok
  • Make sure meetings if any are in public places
  • Make sure that you know where your children are
• Teach your children to be very careful with sending and posting personal information
• Install firewall, filtering software, anti spy ware, anti virus software and monitor what is going on on the internet
• Be open about that and discuss your worries
• Encrypt wireless networks at home
• Discourage downloading games and other media that could contain undesired content
• Supervise contacts and friends the same way as in real life
• Monitor on line activity of your children regularly
• Set security settings high of your software (windows, browser and email) high
• Understand and approve used screen names and ensure they don’t guve away too much private details
• Make sure that children post only what they and you are comfortable with when others see it
• Discuss the need of posting a photo in profiles
• Discuss that flirting with strangers can be risky and even dangerous
• Trust your gut feeling if you are suspicious or uncomfortable
• Report suspected behavior

Resources:
www.dia.govt.nz
www.ecpat.org.nz
www.netsafe.co.nz
www.safenz.org

Also relevant still is to this post one that I did some time ago on another blog.

TWENTY FIVE MINUTES WITH YOUR CHILD

In the US, a new National Child Safety Campaign was launched today by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The new campaign TAKE 25 encourages families to take 25 minutes to talk with their children about safety and abduction prevention
The following is 25 safety tips were found on the website aimed at enhancing child safety, please read them over and discuss them with your children. Personally I thought this was a great initiative.

AT HOME

1. Teach your children their full names, address, phone number, and cellphone number. Make sure they know your full name.
2. Make sure that your children know how to reach you at work or on your cell phone.
3. Teach your children when and how to use 911. In New Zealand this would translate to 111.
4. Make sure your children have a trusted adult to call if they’re scared or have an emergency.
5. Instruct children to keep the door locked and not open the door to talk to anyone when they are home alone. Set rules with your children about having visitors over when you’re not home and how to answer the telephone.

On a personal note: consider whether it is  good idea to leave your children alone at  home at all.

1. Choose babysitters with care. Obtain references from family, friends and  neighbors. Once  you have chosen the caregiver, drop in unexpectedly to see how your children are doing. Ask your children how the experience with the caregiver was and listen carefully to responses.

ON THE NET

1. Learn about the internet. The more you know about how the web works, the  better prepared you are to teach your children about potential risks.
2. Place the family computer in a common area, rather than a child’s bedroom. Monitor their time spent online and the websites they’ve visited.
3. Use privacy settings on social networking sites to limit contact with unknown users.
4. Make sure screen names don’t reveal to much information about your children.

On a personal note: Even though I am disgusted at times with what I see is accessible I would like to say that we should at all times prevent painting a picture that makes your children shy away from this otherwise good opportunity. There is also a lot of valuable information and opportunities out there.
AT SCHOOL

1. Don’t display your child’s name on clothing, backpacks, lunch boxes, or other properties. When names are visible, it may put them on a first name basis with someone who means them harm.
2. Remind kids to take a friend whenever they walk or bike to school.
3. Walk the route to and from school with your children, pointing out landmarks  and safe places to go if they’re being followed or need help. If your child ride a bus, visit the bus stop with them to make sure they know which bus to take.

OUT AND ABOUT

1. Take your children on a walking tour of the neighborhood and tell them whose homes they may visit without you.
2. Tell your children to get you if they come across a dangerous object or situation.
3. Teach your children to ask permission before leaving the house and to tell you where they’re going.
4. Remind your children not to walk or play alone outside.
5. Teach your children not to approach any vehicle, occupied or not, unless they know the owner and are accompanied by a trusted adult.
6. Remind your children it’s ok to say NO TO ANYTHING ( JD: or anyone) THAT MAKES THEM FEEL SCARED, UNCOMFORTABLE, OR CONFUSED
7. Don’t confuse your children with the concept of “strangers”. Children do not have the same understanding of who a stranger is as an adult might. The stranger-danger” message is not effective, as danger to children is greater from someone you know than from a stranger. There may also come a time when your child may need help from someone they don’t know when you’re not around.
8. Set up “WHAT IF” situations and ask your children how they would respond. “What if someone asked you to help them find a lost puppy? What would you do?”
9. During family outings, establish a central, easy to locate spot to meet for check-ins or should you get separated.

On a personal note: make sure you have at all times an eye on your children.

1. Teach your children to check in with you if there is a change in plans.
2. Teach your children how to locate help at theme parks, sports stadiums, shopping malls, and other public places. Also, identify those people who are safe to ask for help, such as police officers, security guards, and store clerks  with name tags.
3. Practice safety skills so that they become second nature to your children. While you don’t want to scare your children, it is important to make sure they are aware of potential risks and dangers and assist them in being prepared to avoid  them or confidently deal with them as they happen.

Via: MAKE THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOUR CHILD’S SAFETY! « The Desk of the Renaissance Man.

Research by the financial organisation revealed that the losses from online banking fraud totalled £59.7m in 2009. It said the increase was due to criminals using malware to target online banking customers rather than the banks’ own systems, which are more difficult to attack.

The research also revealed there was a 16 percent increase in the number of phishing incidents reported during 2009.

“Although online banking fraud losses have shown a year-on-year increase, card fraud remains a main focus of criminal activity,” said David Cooper, chairman of the Fraud Control Steering Group.

Read the full article here Online banking fraud surges by 14 percent.

Cant had pleaded not guilty to offering and allotting securities related to the Gables Proportionate Ownership Scheme to members of the public without a prospectus or an offerer’s statement. Two companies of which he is a director, Investment Management (IML) and Combined Financial Services, both faced the same charges.

Following a three-and-a-half day hearing in the Timaru District Court, Judge Paul Kellar found all six charges proven against Cant and the companies yesterday.

The problems with the investment offer began in early 2006 when the Securities Commission decided the information supplied to prospective investors did not comply with the Securities Act. Cant and fellow director Rhys Morgan contacted a lawyer who rewrote the documentation.

Those documents were not completed until less than 24 hours before the settlement date for the purchase of a $2.5 million Auckland property at the centre of the investment deal, May 23.

While Cant had told the court he visited 14 of the 15 investors over a 24-hour period beginning on May 22, taking the offerer’s statement to them, Judge Kellar found he had not.

He could not exclude that Cant had gone to Christchurch on May 22 as he told the court, but the judge said it did not make sense that one investor faxed an application form to Cant’s Timaru office around 1pm the following day, if Cant had met the man the night before, given him an offerer’s statement and had him fill out an application form, which Cant claimed he took away with him.

The judge did not accept that the South Canterbury and North Otago investors had received the offerer’s statements on May 23 as Cant claimed.

Cant’s phone records showed only two calls to investors on May 23. He did not accept the others had called Cant to set up appointments for that day.

If investors had time to review the offerer’s statement they would have seen the investment was different from the scheme they had earlier been asked to invest in, as it did not contain a share component, which would have altered the returns. If he did deliver the statements, then Cant had not drawn the change to their attention, the judge said.

He accepted Cant was under immense pressure to have the deal go through but it was not enough to say he could not comply with the legislation because he ran out of time.

A nominal sentencing date of May 11 was set, although the judge indicated sentencing might occur in Oamaru. Herald Staff

Adviser guilty of cutting corners | Stuff.co.nz.

The paintings are made in China and available via the internet for a fraction of this price, police warn.

Lyttelton detective Michael Ford said the man and woman arrived in the country on tourist visas on February 26 and had been driving a Toyota Prius licence plate YF4903 and knocking on doors on Mt Pleasant’s Major Hornbrook Drive.

Ford said immigration officials were also keen to find the couple as they were breaching the conditions of their tourist visa.

Any information to Detective Ford on 03 378 0204

Source: Israeli art scam operating in Christchurch | Stuff.co.nz.

Don’t get us wrong, we love the whole location-aware thing. The information is very interesting and can be used to create some pretty awesome applications. However, the way in which people are stimulated to participate in sharing this information, is less awesome. Services like Foursquare allow you to fulfill some primeval urge to colonize the planet. A part of that is letting everyone know you own that specific spot. You get to tell where you are and if you’re there first, it’s yours. O, and of course there’s badges..

Foursquare

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That’s right, slap them across the face.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information

Please Rob Me.

Already the cost of identity crime is put at up to $200 million a year in New Zealand. Facebook, Bebo and Twitter continue to gain popularity but having weak passwords and posting personal information make the sites easy prey for criminals.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff said recent reports suggested a huge increase in social networking sites being used for identity fraud. If someone got enough personal information, including your name, address, date of birth, bank account number or employment details, they could apply for a credit card or loan in your name, she said. “Your personal information has value – don’t let someone else profit from it.”

Internal Affairs said identity crime was increasingly used to facilitate other crime.

Identity crime – including creating a false identity with fictitious data and counterfeit documents, stealing the identity of another person or colluding with someone to get access to their data or documents – is believed to cost between $132m to $200m to the economy annually.

Detective Sergeant John van den Heuvel, of the National Cyber Crime Centre, said people freely posted information on the internet – from their date of birth, pets names, where they worked and what they did. Often security settings were not activated.

“It’s a huge amount of personal information you wouldn’t stop and give to the person on the street.” Criminals could pose as a friend of a friend and become accepted into the inner circle, sending scam emails for money or gathering details.

“It’s clear that criminals do `fish’ these social networking sites to gain evidence,” he said. “They can monitor your activity if you’re sending out tweets when you’re not home or excited about your overseas holiday. Who are you telling this too?”

Sites could be hacked because of weak passwords.

Green MP Sue Bradford’s Twitter account was hacked last year with messages posted about her sex life; she has since changed her password.

Dutch website PleaseRobMe.com was started last month highlighting the danger of sharing too much information and how vulnerable people can be to burglars. It lists “recent empty homes” showing tweets from people broadcasting where they are.

This week is Fraud Awareness Week.

Source: Facebook, Twitter offer crims rich pickings | Stuff.co.nz.