Vol. 12  No. 3                                                                                                                                     March 2008

HAPPY belated EASTER!  I hope you didn’t eat too many Easter Bunnies or Easter Chicks!  Well it’s official – we are now on “day-light savings time” (since March 2^nd), which means we get some extra daylight!  HAPPY SPRINGTIME!  Even though there is still some “snow” on the ground (in shady areas) it will soon melt and then the renewal of “new life” will begin!  Hopefully we can soon put the shovels away (until next winter) and bring out all the necessary gardening and lawn tools!

Please mark the evening of Monday, June 9^th on your calendar because that will be our Annual SRA Picnic (to be held at Rundle Park, Campsite #4, between 5 pm – 7 pm).  It is a pot luck event…so you will receive a call to let us know if you plan to attend, how many guests you plan to bring and to let us know what you will be bringing (e.g. salad, munchies or dessert)!  All the hotdog buns, wieners, condiments, etc. will be provided.  It’s a FUN time and it will be our last meeting until Monday, September 29^th.  Hope to see you there!

Just a friendly reminder - if you are a paid member – Thank you for your “financial support” to our membership!  If you have not paid yet – PLEASE see Fred or Alice Chow and they will gladly take your membership money and get you paid-up and in “good standing”!  Our membership fees are very reasonable at $10.00 for a single person or $15.00 for a family, for the year!  We also welcome charitable donations and a tax receipt will be issued to you for them.  We are a “non-profit” organization but we do have some expenses that need to be paid.

If you have any other ideas and or topics you would like to hear, please let us know by leaving a message on our SRA phone (number 485-3052) and someone will get back to you.  We also have a website at www.sraedmonton.org.

Until next month, Bye4Now…  Gladys Marie Magega, President of the SRA - Edmonton

Tim McCreight

“Telephone & Computer Fraud”

6:30 pm for coffee and treats

For information, call 485-3052

Baptism

A friend of mine took her four-year-old daughter to a baptismal service at her church. Later that night, her daughter took all of her dolls into the bathtub with her and held her own "baptism."

As she dunked each doll under the water, she repeated, "Now I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and hold your nose."

These tips came from a neighborhood watch coordinator.

Put your car keys beside your bed at night. (If you have spare car keys, USE these next to your bed).  If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car.  The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this:
It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation.  It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key chain.  It works if you park in your driveway or garage.  If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break in your house, odds are the burglar won't stick around...after a few seconds it will get the neighbors attention- the criminal won't want that.
 Remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot.  The alarm can work the same way there...this is something that should really be shared with everyone.  Maybe it could save a life or a sexual abuse crime.

Could also be useful for any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can't reach a phone.  The sender's Mother has suggested to her husband (they're an elderly couple) that he carry his car keys with him when working outside in case he falls and no one knows.  He can activate the car alarm and then she'll know there's a problem.

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday.  Maybe we should all take some of his advice.

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. The next time you order cheques have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them.  If someone takes your chequebook, they will not know if you sign your cheques with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign them.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards.  Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED'.

3. When you are writing cheques to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the, 'For' line.  Instead, just put the last four numbers.  The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your cheque as it passes through all the cheque processing channels won't have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your cheques instead of your home phone.  If you have a P.O. box use that instead of your home address.  If you do not have a P.O. box, use your work address. Never have your SIN # printed on your cheques (DUH!).  You can add it if it is necessary.  But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine.  Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc.  You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.  Keep the photocopy in a safe place.  Also carry a photocopy of your passport when travelling either here or abroad.  We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, SIN, credit cards.

Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month.  Within a week, the thief ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.

But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc. were stolen.  This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this)

3. Call the two national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Insurance Number.  I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.  By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done.  There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thief's purchases, none of which knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thief threw my wallet away (someone turned it in).

It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.