| Cascade Bank's name used in fraud scheme
Let's get right to the point: Everett-based Cascade Bank is not e-mailing you trying to get you to verify your account or to do anything else with online banking.
But somebody else is.
And what they're really looking to do is to rip you off.
Like many of its counterparts around the country, Cascade has been targeted recently in an Internet scheme called phishing.
You've probably heard of it before. Phishing (pronounced fishing) is where someone masquerades as a trusted organization, government agency or business and tries to hook you into revealing information so they can tap into your financial accounts or your credit.
Carol Nelson, Cascade's president and CEO, has been learning a lot about phishing these days as the bank has brought in some federal agents to help it crack down on mass e-mails and to shut down the fake bank sites that the messages direct people to.
Wachovia boosts online offerings for small biz
Wachovia Corp. is expanding its online product offerings to include electronic deposits and bad-check recovery. The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank -- Central Florida's third-largest financial institution -- says the service will provide small businesses with cash-management services comparable to those available to most large businesses. With online deposits, small business owners can scan paper checks from their desktops and electronically send the images to Wachovia for deposit. Wachovia says the Internet-based application eliminates the need for software installation. To qualify, customers must have been in business for at least one year and have a Wachovia deposit account. In addition, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) has hired Federal Automated Recovery Systems, a subsidiary of Infinity Business Group Inc., to manage the electronic re-presentment of checks that have been returned for insufficient funds.
Miracle Machines | The 21st-century snake oil
They can cure cancer, reduce cholesterol, end allergies, treat cavities, kill parasites and even eliminate AIDS. "Energy medicine" devices can be as small as a television remote control, or as large as a steamer trunk. Their operators say the devices work by transmitting radio frequencies or electromagnetic waves through the body, identifying problems, then "zapping" them. Their claims are a fraud — the 21st-century version of snake oil. But a Seattle Times investigation has discovered that thousands of these unproven devices — many of them illegal or dangerous — are found in hundreds of venues nationwide, from the Puyallup Fair, to health-care clinics in Florida, to an 866-bed regional hospital in Missouri. These are not the devices in wide use by medical doctors, such as electrical stimulators used for sports injuries.
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