uLuxury Accessory Counterfeiters Change Their Methods, Brands Must Catch Upr

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  (Christine)

  It used to be pretty easy to spot counterfeit luxury goods online: when a handbag that normally costs, say, $3,000 is available for $50 on a website that popped up overnight, that’s usually a pretty good hint. That’s why counterfeiters have an interesting new tactic: they’re improving the quality of their fakes and selling them for prices closer to those of the original item. You know, to keep from arousing customers’ suspicion.

  At the same time, consumers who can afford to drop a few thousand dollars on items like watches or purses are more comfortable making those purchases online, which makes it even more important that they’re sure the items they’re ordering are genuine.

  There are now companies that specialize in this specific field: a recent Bloomberg News article featured MarkMonitor and Data & Data exist specifically to do this for brands that are likely to be counterfeited, though of course they can’t tell you who their clients are. Their method is to trace the seemingly infinite number of sites selling bogus goods back to the relatively few masterminds that run the sites.

  One marketplace notorious for counterfeit goods is trying to become less notorious and carry fewer counterfeit goods. Alibaba has relationships with makers of fancy accessories that range from friendly to litigious, and has formed special partnerships with some brands that allow them to order faster takedowns of counterfeit items.

  How much money is at stake? One research firm estimates that counterfeit sales –– even sales for more than 50 bucks –– result in $82 billion in lost sales for designer and luxury brands every year.

  Luxury Firms Fight Online Fraudsters Over Expensive Fakes [Bloomberg]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWant ESPN Without Having To Buy Other Channels? Maybe In A Few Yearsr

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  As some cable and live-streaming services take a step back from offering costly sports-filled channels in their bundles, the parent company of the biggest sports network on cable is looking at other ways to continue its dominance, namely by selling direct to consumers.

  At least that’s the gist of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s recent interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, in which he suggested that ESPN would one day go the way of HBO Now and other premium cable channels by offering a streaming option available outside of current cable packages.

  But don’t hold your breath for an ESPN-only a la carte option, as Iger says the product is likely five or more years out.

  “If we end up seeing more erosion in the so-called multichannel [cable and satellite TV] bundle, quality will win out,” he said, before noting that the Disney channel lineup could also eventually be sold straight to consumers.

  “Technology is the most disruptive force that so-called traditional media … is facing,” Iger said. “[But] we decided to view technology as a friend, not a foe.”

  The possibility of a standalone ESPN offering would be a significant get for consumers unhappy being tethered to traditional cable packages, as many current streaming services – with the exception of SlingTV – don’t carry ESPN channels.

  Still, consumers’ desire for sports programing appears to be waning; a recent survey from Digitalsmiths found people didn’t really care much about ESPN. In fact, the sports channel ranked 20th when respondents were asked to pick which channels would make their ideal pay-TV bundle.

  The survey isn’t the first inclination that customers – and cable companies – have stopped feeling the love for ESPN.

  Back in April, Verizon FiOS announced it would offer so-called “skinny” TV bundles, where customers pay for only the barest core selection of channels and then add on extra bundles of ten or so channels each grouped according to theme. The base group of channels in the new FiOS plan does not include ESPN. Instead, the channel is included in a sports-themed add-on bundle, which Disney alleges is a breach of Verizon’s contract with the network.

  Disney CEO Iger: ESPN could one day be sold direct [CNBC]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uWhich Cities Have The Highest/Lowest Credit Card Debt Burden?r

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  (Ray J.)

  The average amount of credit card debt varies quite a bit from city to city, as does the ability of consumers to pay down that debt in a timely manner. A new study claims to show that the cities with the least amount of credit card debt burden aren’t necessarily the cities with the least amount of debt.

  The folks at CreditCards.com took a look at credit card debt in the top 25 U.S. markets. In addition to considering the average amount owed by consumers in these cities, the study took into account how much people earned in each market.

  So while the San Francisco/Oakland area has an average credit card debt ($4,393) that is just shy of the national average ($4,410), it’s median yearly income for people over the age of 16 ($44,491) was high compared to most other markets.

  Figuring an average annual interest rate of 13% and monthly payments equal to 15% of the median income, the study calculated that San Francisco-area residents could pay off their balance in only nine months — the best of all 25 markets.

  The market with the most credit card debt was Washington, D.C. ($5,046), but the earnings figure of $45,909 means those in our nation’s capital have the ability to get rid of that debt in just ten months.

  Meanwhile, residents in the Riverside, CA, market had the lowest average credit card debt ($4,137), but also the second-lowest median income ($28,218), meaning they would need 13 months to pay off their cards. That puts Riverside in the middle of the pack at #15.

  San Antonio had the lowest median earnings ($27,491), and significantly more credit card debt ($4,880). At 16 months needed to pay off their cards, these Texans had the most debt burden in the study.

  In terms of regional trends, the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast — with its higher income figures — fared best overall. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, D.C., and Baltimore all placed among the top ten markets.

  California’s results reflected the disparate income and debt levels throughout the massive state. San Francisco was the top of the list, and Sacramento also cracked the top ten. But the rest of state fared worse, like Riverside (#15), Los Angeles (#17), and San Diego (#20).

  Texas dominated the bottom portion of the survey. In addition to San Antonio’s 25th-place ranking, there was Dallas (#24), and Houston (#21).

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uBad News: Security Hole Can Let An Attacker Take Over Your Android Phone With A Single Textr

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  (Scott Akerman)

  It’s a bad news Monday for up to 950 million — yes, that’s almost 1 billion — Android device owners worldwide. A vulnerability that would let a hacker take over your phone remotely has been announced, and it’s a doozy.

  The damage travels by text, Forbes reports, and takes advantage of a weakness in a piece of code called Stagefright.

  Stagefright is a tool Android uses to play back media — any text you get that’s an MMS (as opposed to an SMS) is played back to you using Stagefright. Any app that can read your text messages sits on top of that code, from Google Hangouts to your pre-installed default “Messaging” program.

  Joshua Drake, the security researcher who discovered the flaw, told Forbes that the only thing a hacker would need to send out exploitations would be phone numbers. Attackers could then send messages to those numbers with bad code packaged in that would allow them to access the receiving device and steal data.

  The level of access attackers would gain would allow access to files stored on SD cards as well as on the phone memory. Attackers could also turn your phone into a bug, remotely recording audio and video without your knowledge. Bluetooth access is also hackable via Stagefright. All versions of Android from 2.2 and up are considered vulnerable.

  If that sounds terrifying, well, it kind of is. And then it gets worse. The exploit isn’t like a virus-laden e-mail attachment; you don’t actually have to try to view the media in order to be affected. Merely looking at the message in some apps is enough.

  And then there are the apps where you don’t even have to open the message: for folks who use Google Hangouts to read their texts, Hangouts would open and access the exploit code “immediately before you even look at your phone… before you even get the notification,” Drake told Forbes, adding that it’s possible then to delete the message before the user even receives an alert, making the attack completely silent.

  The good news is, after Drake reported his findings, Google has verified and corrected seven security holes. But here’s the bad news: Google doesn’t update Android phones directly. Service providers do. So Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and other, smaller carriers all have to push patches to their own Android customers… and they are not known for doing so quickly.

  Drake will be speaking about his process for discovering vulnerabilities in Android at the Black Hat InfoSec conference in Las Vegas next week.

  Stagefright: It Only Takes One Text To Hack 950 Million Android Phones [Forbes]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uOh Great, Here’s Another Halloween Candy Display In Julyr

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• Just in case you thought it might be some kind of fluke that Walgreens had their Halloween candy out on July 21, we assure you that Walgreens isn’t alone in this sort of wacky midsummer merchandising. Nope: John sent along this photo taken in a Giant Eagle store of a display of seasonally-themed M&Ms and Snickers bars.

  

  The date this was taken: July 23. We know that you have to fill those seasonal sections up however you can, retailers, but can’t we at least have summer until the end of July?

  We’ve already seen pumpkin spice food items creeping into stores as early as mid-July. How can we convince retailers to respect the sanctity of seasons?

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uFiat Chrysler Receives Record $105 Million Fine For Failure To Address 23 Recallsr

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  (Ralph Krawczyk Jr)

  For the second time this year, federal regulators have handed down a record-setting fine to an automaker for failing to properly report and investigate possible defects. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration levied a $105 million fine against Fiat Chrysler, following months of investigations into the car maker’s leisurely pace in fixing more than 11 million vehicles connected to 23 safety recalls.

  The $105 million civil penalty surpasses the previous record-making $70 million fine regulators imposed on Honda earlier this year for failing to report faulty airbags, the New York Times reports.

  “This civil penalty puts manufacturers on notice that the department will act when they do not take their obligations to repair safety defects seriously,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Sunday.

  The $105 million penalty includes a $70 million cash penalty, $20 million to be spent on meeting performance requirements, and a $15 million penalty to be assessed if an independent monitor discovers the company has other violations of safety laws.

  As part of the agreement, Fiat Chrysler admitted to violating federal rules requiring timely recalls and notifications to vehicle owners, dealers and regulators.

  “We also accept the resulting consequences with renewed resolve to improve our handling of recalls and re-establish the trust our customers place in us,” the company said in a statement.

  Under the consent order, the company must allow outside oversight of its safety practices. General Motors recently agreed to similar conditions following an investigation into its long-delayed ignition switch defect.

  Additionally, the company must buy back nearly 500,000 vehicles with defective suspensions that can cause drivers to lose control.

  The NYT reports that owners of more than one million Jeeps with rear-mounted gas tanks that are prone to fires will be given an opportunity to trade in their vehicles at rates above market value. It was this 2013 recall that spurred NHTSA’s review of the company’s many recalls.

  The agency and Chrysler have been involved in a bit of back-and-forth with regard to the Jeep vehicles with rear-mounted fuel tanks that sit too low and put the vehicle at risk of catching fire if involved in a rear-end collision.

  For nearly three years, Chrysler has maintained that the millions of Jeeps do not have a safety defect. However, safety documents show that the issue has resulted in nearly 75 deaths.

  During the summer of 2013, the car manufacturer and NHTSA agreed to a remedy for the issue that involved equipping vehicles with a trailer hitch that could reduce the risk of fires. Since then regulators have shared this displeasure with Chrysler’s slow pace at providing fixes for owners.

  NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind said the hefty fine was a direct result of Fiat Chrysler’s prolonged failure to adequately identify and address recalls.

  “Fiat Chrysler’s pattern of poor performance put millions of its customers, and the driving public, at risk,” he said.

  The fine comes less than a month after regulators held an unusual public hearing to discuss the company’s process for investigating and fixing recalls. During the hearing, NHTSA officials  agreed that the company failed its duties related to the recalls.

  Fiat Chrysler Faces Record $105 Million Fine for Safety Issues [The New York Times]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uYes, Your Plagiarized Twitter Joke Can Be Deleted On Copyright Groundsr

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  (Tom Raftery)
  

  Sometimes reading through Twitter feeds can be like hanging out with that guy in the office who is constantly cracking other folks’ jokes and acting as if he’d dreamt them up on the spot. The big difference is that the office hack won’t have his wisecracks muted for violating the writer’s copyright.

  The Verge points to this Tweet from over the weekend from the @plagiarismisbad account, indicating that a bunch of accounts were having their Tweets deleted over alleged copyright infringement:

  BREAKING NEWS: Twitter is hiding tweets reported stolen. And it's referring to the author as a "copyright holder" http://pic.twitter.com/DkteWMZ7zg

  — Plagiarism Is Bad (@PlagiarismBad) July 25, 2015

  Yup, it’s a not-that-well-known fact that Twitter receives and processes Digital Millennium Copyright Act claims just like YouTube, and Google, and countless other online sites and services. The thing is that people are so used to seeing Tweets shared, seemingly ad infinitum, to the point where the source can be difficult to locate.

  The 140 character limit on Tweets also means most copyright holders aren’t going to get terribly upset if you claim their social media musings as your own. It’s one thing to try to pretend you wrote a clever, one-line quip about a TV personality; it’s another to pretend that you wrote an entire song, book, movie, etc.

  But the fact that lots of people ignore ownership of Twitter content doesn’t mean ownership is nonexistent.

  The writer whose Twitter joke had been reposted by these accounts without attribution defended her decision to have the copycat posts deleted.

  “I simply explained to Twitter that as a freelance writer I make my living writing jokes (and I use some of my tweets to test out jokes in my other writing),” she wrote on her private Twitter account. “I then explained that as such, the jokes are my intellectual property, and that the users in question did not have my permission to repost them without giving me credit.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist