 The nightmare before Christmas continues for Target. Stolen Target customer information from a security breach involving its in-store point-of-sale systems has already begun flooding the black market, according to numerous people in the fraud industry tracking the situation. On Dec. 11, one week after hackers breached Target’s systems, Easy Solutions, a company that tracks fraud, noticed a ten- to twentyfold increase in the number of high-value stolen cards on black market web sites, from nearly every bank and credit union. The black market for credit card and debit card numbers is highly sophisticated, with numerous card-selling sites that are indistinguishable from a modern-day e-commerce site. Many sell cards in bulk to account for the possibility of cancellations. Some go for as little as a quarter. Corporate cards can sell for as much as $45. But the security blogger Brian Krebs, who first broke news of the Target security breach on his website, said some Target customers’ high-value... |
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Until, that is, someone smelled the smoke. At first, we thought, the oven had been left on. Or maybe a neighbor had lit a fire? But then the scent started to take on a sour tinge. Like burning plastic? Or maybe—eek—lighter fluid? And then someone saw the smoke. It was wafting in toward the table. We weren't smelling something from outside. It all was coming from inside the house. The Christmas of 1994, in other words, was the Christmas the Garber family became a statistic: Our tree had caught fire. We are still not sure how. But it was probably, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would say, because we had let our tree go under-watered. Or over-lighted. Or, even more possibly, overdone with reflective ornaments. Perhaps, on the other hand, we had simply situated it too close to a heat source. Regardless: Do not be like the Garbers! Heed the warnings of the CPSC, for your own safety, or at least that of your home! Each year, the Commission publishes, Cassandra-like, a nearly identical list of recommendations meant to help Americans... |
Sandra Cooper remembers the exact date her life started to turn upside down: Sept. 25, 2003. She'd gotten home from her job as an art teacher at Garden Spot High School around 4 p.m. that day. Her husband, Gene, who was on shift work at Armstrong World Industries floor plant, arrived home a short time later. She heard him coming. "I could hear the coughing even before he came up the sidewalk," Sandra Cooper said. "I've never heard anybody cough like that."  His eyes were watering, he had a blinding headache and he was screaming in between hacks. There'd been a spill at work, he told his wife. Chemicals. He had to help clean it up. |
Inspectors came and went from a Walmart-certified factory in Guangdong Province in China, approving its production of more than $2 million in specialty items that would land on Walmart’s shelves in time for Christmas.
But unknown to the inspectors, none of the playful items, including reindeer suits and Mrs. Claus dresses for dogs, that were supplied to Walmart had been manufactured at the factory. Instead, Chinese workers sewed the goods — which had been ordered by the Quaker Pet Group, a company based in New Jersey — at a rogue factory that had not gone through the certification process set by Walmart for labor, worker safety or quality, according to documents and interviews with officials involved.
To receive approval for shipment to Walmart, a Quaker subcontractor just moved the items over to the approved factory, where they were presented to inspectors as though they had been stitched together there and never left the premises.
Soon after the merchandise reached Walmart stores, it began falling apart.
Fifteen hundred miles to the west, the Rosita Knitwear factory in northwestern Bangladesh — which made sweaters for companies across Europe — passed an inspection audit with high grades. A team of four monitors gave the factory hundreds of approving check marks. In all 12 major categories, including working hours, compensation, management practices and health and safety, the factory received the top grade of “good.”...
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