Car Insurance

You hear it all the time–stories of crooks staging phony car accidents; criminal rings trying to beat the system by making claims for exaggerated injuries; or unscrupulous individuals “stealing” another person’s identity in order to make illegal purchases or rack up huge credit card debts. They can all be summed up in one word: fraud.

There are many things that everyone can do to take a stand against fraud. Plus, taking action has an important fringe benefit–it can save you money. “Insurance fraud costs consumers over 30 billion dollars a year,” says Robert Bryant of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), “which breaks down to $200-300 in additional premium per policy.” All told, fraud costs the average household over $1,000 a year in additional premiums, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

To help people learn about simple techniques to fight fraud, MetLife Auto & Home is offering a free brochure, entitled “About…Being A Victim of Fraud.” The brochure offers useful tips and resources to help fight fraud before it takes place, as well as ways to report suspected fraud and to help minimize the damage in the event you become a victim. Offered as part of MetLife’s popular Life Advice program, the brochure is available by calling 1-800-MET-LIFE (1-800-638-5433).

“People don’t realize that ‘cheating just a little’ is a big part of the problem,” explains John Sargent, Corporate Manager for MetLife Auto & Home’s Special Investigations Unit. “The Insurance Research Council recently conducted a study that showed that 24 percent of Americans felt it was acceptable to overestimate insurance claims to try and make up for the cost of their premium. As a result, insurance companies pay out over three billion dollars a year for this type of ’soft fraud,’ translating into higher premiums for everyone.”

What can the public do? “First and foremost, don’t allow an auto body shop to ‘pad’ your claim by exaggerating the amount of your property damage in order to cover your out-of-pocket deductible - - it’s illegal.” says Sargent. “Also, you may not think that inflating the claim by $250 or $500 would amount to much, but think about the cost when millions of people do it.” The NICB reported that out of the 36 million property damage claims reported in 1999, one-third involved some degree of padding or exaggeration. “12 million people inflating claims by $250 or $500 translates into an astronomical figure,” added Sargent.

EAST has met west, and this time, the boot is on the other foot. That a corporate player from beyond our ken has stepped in to devour one of the 20th century’s most iconic brand names might have taken many by surprise, but this is no anomaly, this is no blip.

This is how business is going to be, and you’d better get used to it now.

Even after days of speculation, IBM’s decision to sell its PC hardware division to Chinese computer maker Lenovo still came as a shock to many, but in reality the Dollars1.75 billion (Pounds900m) deal is merely symptomatic of geopolitics’ rapidly shifting sands. Creating the world’s third biggest PC vendor at the stroke of a pen, it not only stands as testament to China’s inexorable rise as a technology and manufacturing superpower, but also herald’s the dawn of a global marketplace that has long been talked of, but only now is beginning to really happen.

“What’s surprising is not that they sold out to China, but that they didn’t do it years ago. Essentially, this deal has allowed one company to dispose of a loss-making division while boosting the revenues and reach of a second, and in many ways it represents the only logical course of action available to them, ” says Tim Sagar, UK head of Chinese electronics manufacturing giants Haier.

“The announcement makes perfect sense: it moves the production process onto a basis where manufacturing, sales and service are centred wherever the drive to lower costs and increase efficiency is best served. In reality, it is business as usual, and we can expect to see more of the same as the global marketplace moves into overdrive.”

The sense that their epochmaking agreement makes to both companies is relatively clear. For Lenovo, formerly known as Legend, the acquisition affords significant inroads on its path to globalisation, giving the Beijing manufacturer a new US headquarters, world-brand recognition and instant status as one of the sector’s biggest contenders.

For the second year in a row, unauthorized charges to phone bills and switching long-distance providers without the consumer’s consent topped the list of consumer complaints in Missouri, Attorney General Jay Nixon announced Thursday.

Nixon’s office received an estimated 88,000 consumer complaint calls, letters and e-mails in 2004. The final numbers, including consumer mediation dollars, will be available after the first of the year.

The most frequent complaints coming into Nixon’s office involved telephone services, specifically the practices known as cramming - adding services to customers’ bills without their consent - and slamming, in which customers’ long-distance providers are switched without permission. Slamming and cramming complaints accounted for 1,898 of the total.

Home repair fraud, with 1,595 complaints, and travel scams, at 1,355, also continued to be major areas of concern for consumers.

Aggressive enforcement of the no-call law has resulted in a precipitous decline in telemarketing fraud, yet there are still those who will always try to find a way to make a dishonest buck, Nixon said in a statement. Missourians should feel empowered to contact my office any time they feel like someone is trying to pull one of these scams.

For the second year in a row, unauthorized charges to phone bills and switching long-distance providers without the consumer’s consent topped the list of consumer complaints in Missouri, Attorney General Jay Nixon announced Thursday.

Nixon’s office received an estimated 88,000 consumer complaint calls, letters and e-mails in 2004. The final numbers, including consumer mediation dollars, will be available after the first of the year.

The most frequent complaints coming into Nixon’s office involved telephone services, specifically the practices known as cramming - adding services to customers’ bills without their consent - and slamming, in which customers’ long-distance providers are switched without permission. Slamming and cramming complaints accounted for 1,898 of the total.

Home repair fraud, with 1,595 complaints, and travel scams, at 1,355, also continued to be major areas of concern for consumers.

Aggressive enforcement of the no-call law has resulted in a precipitous decline in telemarketing fraud, yet there are still those who will always try to find a way to make a dishonest buck, Nixon said in a statement. Missourians should feel empowered to contact my office any time they feel like someone is trying to pull one of these scams.

BEFORE her wedding, on December 6, 1975, Elizabeth Hanford rehearsed her vows again and again; the groom, Bob Dole, just winged it. The speeches each gave during the 1996 presidential campaign followed the same pattern: his were off-the-cuff, hers polished to translucence. As a result, he would trample through a bog of half-sentences and insider shorthand, while she would wow audiences with her articulateness and poise.

Hard work and thorough preparation have brought Elizabeth Dole to a political height unprecedented for an American woman of her generation. As she considers whether to run for the summit in 2000 or to stay on as president of the Red Cross, she is likely to weigh her options just as methodically as she has done everything else. According to polls, she would be one of the Republican Party’s strongest candidates. She appeals to Christian conservatives and the party establishment, a rare combination. She can raise funds; everyone knows her name — her candidacy would have everything. Everything, that is, but a rationale.

It wouldn’t have one for the same reason she is so popular with such a broad range of people: no one really knows what her politics are. Although she has been in public life for more than three decades, in Administrations of both parties, somehow Elizabeth Dole has managed to keep her political views largely under wraps. Even close associates sometimes forget that she got her start working for LBJ; she was a volunteer worker on the Kennedy - Johnson campaign in 1960 and then, after Harvard Law, joined Johnson’s Office of Consumer Affairs. To the surprise of some colleagues, she stayed there when Nixon took power in 1969. In 1973, President Nixon appointed her to the Federal Trade Commission.