Now, part of our shock about these numbers comes from the absent-mindedness of travelers who lose sight of a valuable piece of luggage — and one that they probably need to conduct their business or lives at the other end of their flights. But another thought comes to mind: Why don’t the TSA screeners call after people who have left their notebook computers behind — are they themselves too busy? do they assume such left luggage is dangerous and immediately dunk the laptops in a bucket of water?

Calls to LAX and Burbank Airport’s TSA offices went unreturned by posting time, but Sandee McFarland, who works for a private company that manages Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, says screeners do attempt to page passengers who become separated from their belongings — then lists the most-often lost items.

laweekly.com

1,200 laptops a week lost at LAX is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

Here’s how the scam works. When you’re shopping on Craigslist, you make a purchase, then get an email asking you to buy a B.B.B. Purchase Protection Program.

As thousands of people have already found out, the protection program does not exist.

You can protect yourself though when making a purchase by going to www.bbb.org, and review the B.B.B. reliability report. Also, if your buying off Craigslist, they recommend that you deal locally – with folks you can meet in person. This usually avoids 99% of the scam attempts on the site. And, never give yout financial information, like a bank account number or your social security number.

Protect Yourself on Craigslist is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

Although Apple chieftain Steve Jobs has roundly rejected the idea of adult apps for the iPhone since its 2007 release, companies far and wide have been building softcore apps for it. The latest version of the iPhone OS includes parental controls, sparking speculation that Apple may cave and finally allow adult apps.

First Apple allowed porn, now this? As an Apple fan, I’m sad.

businesspundit.com

Apple Store Approves Vibrator iPhone App??? is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

Good security is a key to good productivity. CSO spoke with two home office security experts about security mistakes home office workers often make and here’s the seven deadly sins of home office security.

1. Failing to physically secure the office
2. Failing to install the most basic computer security measures
3. Forgetting Wi-Fi security
4. Failing to separate your business from your home
5. Failing to remember your office is a place of business and is held liable as such
6. Forgetting to back up data
7. Failing to consider bigger business continuity issues

If you work exclusively from home, your office is your world when it comes to your career. But many fail to consider the possibility of how to continue working if certain conditions, such as weather, or a fire, force one out of the house indefinitely.

computerworld.com

Seven Deadly Sins of Home Office Security is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

1. Be wary of “high income” opportunities as well as those touting instant or quick earnings.
2. Look for and verify company contact information. Test e-mail addresses and phone numbers for a response within 24 hours. Always be able to speak to someone on the phone rather than relying strictly on e-mail communication.
3. Watch out for outlandish claims (often in big, bold headlines) and don’t put much stock in income testimonials.
4. Check online forums on a particular business opportunity.
5. Confirm the reliability of companies with the BBB.

Frequent scammers

The BBB also warns consumers about the increase in fraud among door-to-door students selling magazine subscriptions. The scam occurs when the peddlers – typically with a hard-luck story or earning money for charity – take orders and then the magazines never arrive.

Because sales representatives are typically high school or college-age, victims easily believe the fictitious sales pitch and often pay too much money. The BBB has received more than 1,000 complaints in the last year from 46 states.

In some cases the students also have been victims. They were hired by a company to sell magazines door-to-door and then never paid promised commissions.

The Federal Trade Commission Cooling Off Rule requires that you must be offered a cancellation form any time you spend more than $25 from door-to-door salesman. You also are allowed three days to cancel the order.

If you are not offered a cancellation form, don’t buy – plain and simple.

hattiesburgamerican.com

Learn how to spot a home business scam is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

According to Donna, a company called Global Healthcare Inc.,out of London, sent her a contract asking her to cash checks and wire them the money. It was supposedly quicker than doing it overseas. Donna was promised 10-percent of the money cashed, “It looked legitimate I mean I went to paralegal school and I knew some contractual law and so the contract looked legitimate, but it wasn’t evidentially.”

After Donna cashed a check from a “so called” customer and wired the company more than 25-hundred dollars, she later found out the check was fake and she was the one who was stuck paying, “I was so devastated I cried so hard.”

Sgt. Kevin Smith of the St. Petersburg Police Department says, he gets calls like this one at least two times a week, “It’s heartbreaking because you really hate to see people out there trying to work, trying to sell something to be taken advantage of.”

Sgt. Kevin Smith says websites like Career Builder.Com are safe, but people need to be more aware of who they’re dealing with, “Unfortunately anybody has a right to log in and look at those resumes so you really don’t know who’s actually offering you a job.”

He says thieves are also targeting victims through the mail and even fax machines. . Sgt. Smith says it’s difficult to catch the thieves because of trying to coordinate with other countries. He says banks don’t take responsibility for these incidents, because it’s the account holder who’s cashing the checks, even though they’re not aware they’re fake.

Donna now believes if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, “I’m really afraid to go on line anymore and even answer emails from companies.” While she paid an expensive price, she hopes others learn from her experience

First Coast News

Stay at Home Moms Targeted by Online Thieves is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

Social networking sites are not only biting into workplace productivity — they can also pose a major security risk, new research shows.

In a national survey of more than 800 employees across a range of industries, more than half said they spent at least an hour a week accessing blogs, chat rooms, videos, and other social networking tools and services at work, according to Clearswift, a Redwood, Calif.-based Internet security consulting firm.

Clearswift COO Ian Bowles said that despite the well-known dangers of online viruses, bugs, spam, and scams, most business owners are still far too casual with the Internet.

He said the survey results should “raise a red flag” for employers about their susceptibility to data leaks over the Web.

Still, more than half of the employees polled said they felt entitled to use the Internet for personal reasons at work, the survey found.

In recent years, many businesses have included an “acceptable use” policy for workplace Internet use in updated employee handbooks — only 29 percent of the business owners surveyed by Clearswift outright banned the use of social networking sites at work.

Nancy Cooper, an employment law attorney with Portland, Ore.-based Bullivant Houser Bailey PC, advices employers to have policies in place for blogs, chat rooms, and other online activity. Though employers can’t necessarily prevent workers from accessing Web 2.0 sites, they can make it clear there will be consequences for sharing confidential business data, said Cooper, an Inc.com columnist.

Firing an employee for an online infraction is now common enough that legal experts refer to it simply as “dooced,” a term coined from a case involving the author of a blog named dooce.com who was fired for posting angry messages about her employer and co-workers.

inc.com

Employee Web Use Poses Risks is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

When you run a small business, it’s not always easy to find employees who can cover the range of skills you want at the salary available,” explains Missy Rule, the owner of a small Midwestern shipping company. For example, when seeking an administrative assistant, she needed to hire someone who could also help with receptionist duties, accounting, invoicing and filing.

Late last summer Rule thought she had found a reliable hire in Abbie Normal (names and identifying details have been changed throughout this article), who was “very capable, smart, quick and learned really well.” Rule checked references, and a background check came back clean.

Read complete story at CNN Money.

The identity thief is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

VeriTask‘s Biometric Time Clock verifies an employee’s identity through his or her fingerprint. As employees enter and leave the workplace, they check in using a fingerprint scanner, which keeps a precise record of the time. The system can be upgraded to manage a virtually unlimited number of employees, while attendance data can be easily exported to QuickBooks or Microsoft Excel.

The professional version of the Biometric Employee Time Clock, which includes a fingerprint reader and software to manage up to 50 employees, costs $399. An enterprise version, which can manage up to 100 employees, costs $699.

inc.com

Employees Fudging Timesheets? Try Fingerprinting Them is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

She also called on industry leaders to work together more closely at a time when legitimate businesses must thwart global criminal organizations vying for control over sensitive financial data traveling across the Internet.

“Security on the Net is actually an arms race in its most classic form,” she said. “As we build sophisticated tools and fraud models to keep the bad guys out, the bad guys just come up with new ways to target us.”

Whitman said a particularly vexing challenge is safeguarding Internet users from “phishers,” who try to obtain sensitive personal information by masquerading as a trusted Web site or e-mailer. These scams, Whitman said, are eroding the trust of Internet shoppers and hurting e-commerce.

BusinessWeek

eBay CEO Says Web Scams Hurt Business is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

A company called Reality Mobile has already used it to help FBI agents patrol the Super Bowl. Now it’s finding that the same idea could potentially do everything from oil-field analysis to YouTube-like video sharing.

This fall the Virginia-based company will launch a fully customizable version of its software, RealityVision, which works with any Palm OS- or Windows-based wireless device with a built-in camera. “The phone thinks it’s just capturing a video clip like normal,” explains CEO Dave Rensin. “But we’re really stealing that data.”

Along with a video signal, the phones send their GPS coordinates, giving your headquarters as many roving eyes in the field as your employees have phones.

That’s why Rensin has a long list of potential uses for the product. Reality Mobile has already been selling law enforcement on the $250,000 RealityVision system. (The LAPD beta-tested it.)

Business 2.0 Magazine

Turning employees into corporate spies is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

Employees from hell: See why it’s getting harder to fire them

1. Know the laws – The latest federal employment regulations can be found at the Web sites of the Department of Labor, EEOC and OSHA. Local regs are trickier to track, as each state has different regulatory agencies. Most employment lawyers offer pamphlets that describe the pertinent requirements.
2. Have a handbook – It’s probably last on your priority list, but an employee handbook establishes that you treat all employees consistently and don’t single anyone out.
3. Don’t use contracts – Employment contracts can hamper your ability to fire an employee. If a contract states that you will employ someone for two years, you can’t let him go after six months.
4. Keep written records – Think “evidence.” Have managers document conversations and evaluations immediately, even if it’s just jotting a (professionally worded) note for the files.
5. Don’t move the aggrieved - Don’t assume that your problems will be solved by transferring an employee to another position. He may not consider the new job to be equivalent and could charge retaliation.
6. Hire well - Even the lowest-level prospect – the kind who is typically hired quickly – should be thoroughly vetted by at least two interviewers. Check references.
7. Be proactive - Even the smallest personnel issue should be addressed immediately. Any delay will give a potential employee from hell the time to stockpile ammunition for a lawsuit.

money.cnn.com

7 ways to avoid employees from hell is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

Hitachi plans to start marketing these new chips—seriously no bigger than a speck of dust at 0.05 x 0.05 mm—in two to three years. The company says this super-tiny chip can be used in paper, currency, gift certificates, and the like, but as some sites have pointed out, today’s chips are already small enough for those uses. So, as Engadget cracked, does this mean we should be watching what we eat in case of some James-Bond-style pepper-shaker swap?

tech.yahoo.com

Be Afraid: Powder-Sized RFID Chips is a post from: Top Business Opportunities

1. Protect Your Passwords
2. Use Proven Service Providers
3. Shred Everything
4. Fight the “Clone Wars”
5. Troll eBay
6. What Mom Always Told You: “Never talk to strangers!”
7. Never leave your physical mail (incoming or outgoing) in your mailbox overnight.
8. Don’t share any sensitive information with anyone who doesn’t need to know it.
9. Be careful of any shareware you download and use because it can contain spyware and even viruses intended to steal critical information.
10. Use common sense and never think you’re invulnerable to an attack that could derail your business with one little misstep.

practicalecommerce.com

Fraud-proofing your ebiz is a post from: Top Business Opportunities