Current Events in August 2014

Cologuard, the first stool-based colorectal screening test that detects the presence of red blood cells and DNA mutations that may indicate the presence of certain kinds of abnormal growths that may be cancers such as colon cancer or precursors to cancer, has won approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Colorectal cancer primarily affects people age 50 and older, and among cancers that affect both men and women, it is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Colorectal cancer screening is effective at reducing illness and death related to colon cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that if everyone age 50 or older had regular screening tests as recommended, at least 60% of colorectal cancer deaths could be avoided.

Colorectal cancer occurs in the colon (large intestine) or rectum (the passageway that connects the colon to the anus). Most colorectal cancers start as abnormal raised or flat tissue growths on the wall of the large intestine or rectum (polyps). Some very large polyps are called advanced adenomas and are more likely than smaller polyps to progress to cancer.

How it works

Using a stool sample, Cologuard detects hemoglobin, a protein molecule that is a component of blood. Cologuard also detects certain mutations associated with colorectal cancer in the DNA of cells shed by advanced adenomas as stool moves through the large intestine and rectum. Patients with positive test results are advised to undergo a diagnostic colonoscopy.

“This approval offers patients and physicians another option to screen for colorectal cancer,” said Alberto Gutierrez, Ph.D., director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “Fecal blood testing is a well-established screening tool and the clinical data showed that the test detected more cancers than a commonly used fecal occult test.”

Approval of the Cologuard does not change current practice guidelines for colorectal cancer screening. Stool DNA testing (also called “fecal DNA testing”) is not currently recommended as a method to screen for colorectal cancer by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).

Among other guidelines, the USPSTF recommends adults age 50 to 75, at average risk for colon cancer, be screened using fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy.

Medicare coverage possible

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a proposed national coverage determination for Cologuard.

The test would be covered once every three years for Medicare beneficiaries who meet all of the following criteria:

• age 50 to 85 years,
• asymptomatic (no signs or symptoms of colorectal disease including but not limited to lower gastrointestinal pain, blood in stool, positive guaiac fecal occult blood test or fecal immunochemical test), and
• average risk of developing colorectal cancer (no personal history of adenomatous polyps, of colorectal cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis; no family history of colorectal cancers or an adenomatous polyp, familial adenomatous polyposis, or hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer).

Cologuard is manufactured by Exact Sciences in Madison, Wis.

Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin can be a convenience, but they are also filled with risks.

According to an advisory issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the risks include unclear costs, volatile exchange rates, the threat of hacking and scams. In addition, companies may not offer help or refunds for lost or stolen funds.

“Virtual currencies may have potential benefits, but consumers need to be cautious and they need to be asking the right questions,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Virtual currencies are not backed by any government or central bank, and at this point consumers are stepping into the Wild West when they engage in the market.”

You could get burned

Virtual currencies are designed to be an alternative to current payment systems. Better-known virtual currencies include Bitcoin, XRP, and Dogecoin. Often referred to in the industry as “digital currencies,” they are a way for people to track, store, and send payments over the Internet, and they may have the potential to make payment processing cheaper or faster.

But they are not backed by any government or central bank. In addition, because virtual currency accounts are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, if a virtual currency company fails -- and many have -- the government will not cover the loss.

Virtual currency companies are springing up around the world to offer products and services to consumers. There are virtual currency exchanges, which are companies that help consumers buy or sell virtual currencies.

There are also online “digital wallet providers,” which are companies that allow consumers to create accounts with them to store and manage their virtual currencies. Many virtual currency exchanges are also wallet providers, and vice versa.

Be on your guard

According to the CFPB advisory:

• Exchange rates are volatile and costs unclear: The exchange rate of Bitcoins to U.S. dollars in 2013 fell as much as 61% in a single day. So far this year, the value of Bitcoins has dropped by as much as 80% in a single day. The advisory explains that consumers who buy virtual currencies should be prepared to weather this kind of volatility. Consumers should also consider whether there are mark-ups or other fees when using an exchange or digital wallet provider. Companies may be charging consumers to buy, spend, or accept virtual currencies.
• Hackers and scammers pose serious security threats: Virtual currencies are targets for highly sophisticated hackers and scammers. Individuals, digital wallet providers, and exchanges are all at risk. For example, if a hacker gains access to a consumer’s Bitcoin “private keys,” which are 64-character codes that unlock the consumer’s funds, consumers can lose all their virtual currency. Fraudsters are also taking advantage of the hype surrounding virtual currencies to pose as Bitcoin exchanges, Bitcoin intermediaries, and Bitcoin traders in an effort to lure consumers to send money, which is then stolen.
• Companies may not offer help or refunds for lost or stolen funds: Some virtual currency companies do not identify their owners, provide phone numbers and addresses, or even specify the country in which they are located. Before using a company’s products or services, consumers should carefully consider if they know how to contact the company in question, and if they know their contractual rights. If a consumer trusts a company to hold their virtual currencies and something goes wrong, the company may not offer the kind of help the consumer would expect from a bank, debit card, or credit card provider. In fact, some virtual currency companies disclaim responsibility for consumer losses if funds are lost or stolen.

What to do

Consumers who encounter a problem with virtual currency products and services – including exchange services or online digital wallets -- can now submit a complaint with the CFPB.

The agency will send the complaint to the appropriate company, and work to get a response. If the complaint is about an issue outside the CFPB’s jurisdiction, it will forward the complaint to the appropriate federal or state regulator.

Importantly, the CFPB will use all complaints to better understand the virtual currency market and its effect on consumers. Complaints will also be used to help enforce federal consumer financial laws and, if appropriate, take consumer protection policy steps.

A celebrity wineseller (who, for all his faults, presumably has a truly amazing sense of taste and smell) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding rich oenophiles by making and selling high-priced counterfeit wine.

Rudy Kurniawan was sentenced in U.S. District Court in New York on Aug. 7 for “carrying out an elaborate scheme in which he manufactured and sold counterfeit bottles of purportedly rare and expensive wine for millions of dollars, and for fraudulently obtaining a $3 million loan from a financing company.”

Kurniawan made counterfeit versions of rare and expensive wine vintages by blending various lower-cost wines until their flavors mimicked those of the expensive wines, then pouring the wine blend into an authentic empty expensive-vintage bottle before slapping a counterfeit label on it.

He sold most of the fraudulent wines to collectors, but also used some of his fake vintages as collateral for a $3 million loan.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Kurniawan is an Indonesian citizen who has been in this country illegally for the last 10 years, after being denied a bid for political asylum. After finishing his prison sentence, he faces deportation.

Continental is recalling approximately 9,000 Continental 120/70 ZR 17 and 120/70 R 17 motorcycle tires sold in the U.S. and Canada.

Some of these tires have a condition in the tread and/or belt which may lead to separation and possible air loss.

The company says it has not received any reports of accidents or injuries in connection with this condition.

The affected tires were sold to original equipment and replacement customers worldwide between 2007 and 2014.

The Continental 120/70 ZR 17 and 120/70 R 17 tires are identified as follows:

The last four digits of the DOT serial numbers indicate the production period (week/year). Tires between 1907 (19th week of 2007) and 2614 (26th week of 2014) are covered by this voluntary safety recall.

No other tire sizes, production periods or product lines are affected.   

It all started when Chester, our 12-year-old pug, walked out onto the back deck and vomited. 

Chester had always had a sensitive stomach but, like most pugs, he lived to eat and would wolf down just about anything that could be chewed. So an occasional abdominal eruption wasn't all that unusual. This felt a little more serious, though, particularly when he refused to eat the next morning.

As the day wore on, Chester continued to refuse food and treats but began slurping huge amounts of water. Anyone who reads the thousands of pet food complaints on our site will know where this is headed -- nowhere good.

But unlike the consumer accounts that blame a change in their pet's diet for their illness, Chester had been eating the same food -- Royal Canin Dental Diet -- for years. We usually added a dollop of yogurt and some thin slices of turkey but never gave him or his sidekick Tater any of the jerky treats that are prime suspects in so many dog deaths.

Whatever the cause, Chester's sudden illness had all the pawprints of an attack of pancreatitis, a serious and potentially life-threatening illness for dogs and humans alike.

Rather than fumble around with different diets, we took the advice we routinely dispense to ConsumerAffairs readers and hustled Chester over to the vet -- and not just to any vet but to the emergency department of a large and elaborately equipped animal hospital that caters to pet lovers in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

On vacation

There, after a quick examination, a technician told us Chester would have to stay overnight for tests, with preliminary results expected the next day. The vet, let's call him Dr. V, who had cared for Chester for years, was on vacation but someone would get back to us, we were assured.

Sure enough, the next afternoon a veterinarian named Mickie called and said that it was hard to tell what was going on deep within Chester and exploratory surgery was called for.

I balked at this.

"Chester is twelve and a half years old," I said. "I don't want to put him through a bunch of heroic measures that will make him miserable and do nothing but prolong the inevitable."

Dr. Mickie was not pleased with this. Her tone turned frosty and she said that "at the very least" Chester needed an MRI. It was too late to do it that day but it could be done the next day, which meant another night in the hospital. I agreed.

Sure enough, the next day the results were in: Chester had an abdominal mass of unknown origin. If we weren't willing to go for exploratory surgery, a needle biopsy might yield some clues. Again, I agreed. It would, of course, mean another night in the hospital. 

The next day's results? Inconclusive. Chester was sent home with a bagful of meds and a carton of "critical care" food, which could be liquified and squirted into his mouth with a syringe if he refused to eat it. He looked a little perkier, having been on IV infusions during his hospital stay.

Pill spitter

We spent the next day or two picking up pills that Chester skillfully spit out and mopping up after the syringe feedings, which went about as well as you'd expect. Taking in no food, spitting out his pills and slurping up gallons of water, he was soon shedding pounds and looking worse than ever.

In the evening of his second or third day home, Chester vomited a large quantity of blood and mucous. We bundled him up and returned to the hospital, where Chester was admitted on an emergency basis again (extra charges apply).

After a bit more drama, including another inconclusive needle biopsy, I caved in and agreed, reluctantly, to the exploratory surgery. We were now trapped in the industrial doggie healthcare system with no visible means of escape.

The surgeon, Dr. D, called the next day and reported that all had gone well. He had "excised" the mysterious mass, which was located in the duodenal region, between the stomach and intestine, being careful to preserve the bile duct, without which all hope is lost be you canine or human.

Chester came home a few days later with a huge stapled scar that stretched nearly the entire length of his abdomen. Again, he was somewhat perky after a steady diet of IV painkillers and fluids. But his condition deteriorated quickly and in a few days, we were back at the emergency entrance.

The doctor working the overnight shift -- a very affable and knowledgeable young man -- noticed that Chester was jaundiced; his eyes, ears and face were yellow, something that can happen when the bile duct is blocked or compromised. Tests showed he was also becoming diabetic as the embattled pancreas failed to produce enough insulin. 

Little rascal

By this time, Chester's longtime doctor, Dr. V, had returned from vacation and invited us to come in for a chat. I had never met the elusive Dr. Mickie or the surgeon. The only veterinarian I had seen face-to-face up to that point was the overnight doctor.

Dr. V was his usual affable self when we visited the next day, rubbing Chester's ears and referring to him as a "little rascal." He admitted Chester's blood work and vital signs were terrible but said he didn't act as sick as his blood chemistry would indicate.

Maybe so, I said, but what was a realistic prognosis at this point? The answer was obvious and Dr. V was honest enough to leave it at a shrug and a handshake. 

We took Chester home on a Thursday. Our daughter, who reminds me that Chester was officially her dog, was visiting from Los Angeles and burst into tears when she saw the pale, skin-and-bones wreck that Chester had become.

Call in the angels

I finally did what I had been wanting to do for the better part of a month and called a veterinary hospice and euthanasia service called Lap of Love. Dr. Christine Shibly agreed to come and visit Chester the next morning for a consultation.

On a springlike Friday morning, Dr. Christine examined Chester and discussed openly and frankly the slippery slope that he was on.

"When you get this pattern involving the pancreas, gall bladder and liver, it's difficult to think you'll have a good outcome," she said. I considered this the first honest thing anyone had said during the entire miserable affair.

Our son, having caught wind of what was in the works, had asked that we wait until he could drive down from New York to see Chester one last time, so we scheduled a Saturday afternoon euthanasia.

But by Friday afternoon, Chester began trembling and grew too weak to walk more than a few steps at a time. Again, he stumbled out to the deck for a round of bloody diarrhea and vomiting. I called Dr. Christine, who graciously agreed to turn around and come back. We set up a quick Facetime chat between our son and Chester -- not great but better than nothing.

Late Friday afternoon, we gathered on the deck, where we had been taking turns holding Chester and comforting him, as Dr. Christine injected a tranquilizer followed by a powerful anesthetic that took Chester peacefully out of a life that had gone on a few weeks longer than it should have. 

Adding up the cost

Humans and dogs aren't really much different physically. It takes the same skill set to minister to sick animals as it does to care for ailing humans. The cost is also comparable, although most of us don't have insurance to cover veterinary care. 

In Chester's case, the animal hospital's tab ran to about $9,000. No doubt it was worth it, in the sense that the services billed were actually rendered. But whether it was worth it to add a month of agony and misery to what had otherwise been a life well lived is questionable.

Humans, after all, give their informed consent for surgery and other invasive treatments. Dogs trust us to protect them, which can sometimes mean knowing when to say no.

As for Dr. Christine, she charged us for only one visit, even though she had driven to our house twice. Her tab, including cremation and a handsome box to hold Chester's ashes, was under $500. Her heartfelt empathy with Chester's suffering and the loving care and relief she granted him were worth many times that. 

Oh, and that exploratory surgery that Dr. Mickie insisted would provide the answer to what ailed Chester? The mass that Dr. D removed was sliced, diced and analyzed multiple times. The results: inconclusive. 

Did you ever think of this -- someone might be stalking your cat? It's not so far-fetched, that cute photo of your cat hanging upside down in your tree just might be on I KnowWhereYourCatLives.com.

If you're not a cat lover it's probably as exciting as a big hairball in your living room. But keep in mind there are millions of cats worldwide, 1 million of them catalogued on IKnow etc., a quarter million of them in the U.S.

The cat photos are pinned to a street-level satellite image of the earth where the photo was taken. The site plots the location coordinates from each photo (which are automatically added when an image is taken) against a map to show where each cat lives.

According to their website, it's just a big data experiment that visualizes a sample of 1 million public pics of cats on a world map, locating them by the latitude and longitude coordinates embedded in their metadata. The cats were accessed via publicly available APIs provided by popular photo sharing websites.

The photos were then run through various clustering algorithms using a supercomputer at Florida State University in order to represent the enormity of the data source.The whole project was put together by Florida State University professor Owen Mundy. He collected the photos by searching the internet for images tagged "cat" on popular photo-hosting sites.

It's a great deal of work to see where your cat lives, but the scary thing is that this technology could be used to create IKnowWhereYour KidLives.com or any number of combinations. It's a reminder that not only is that independent cat not safe roaming the streets but you and those you love could be vulnerable as well.

It stands to reason that with more consumers renting homes instead of purchasing, more people are looking for apartments to rent. So where do you turn?

Craiglist, the local newspaper classifieds, the bulletin board at work? Back in 2011, 3 young friends in the technology field ran into this issue at roughly the same time.

“We were finding it really difficult to use just Craigslist or the existing platforms because the only search criteria they had was number of bedrooms, bathrooms and the price,” Harini Venkatesan, one of the 3 co-founders of RentalRoost told ConsumerAffairs.

So she, Vikram Raghavan and Nitin Shingate founded RentalRoost, a site specifically to match Millennials with the right property in the right neighborhood.

Listing context

“What we realized early on is the rental market is just completely broken and disjointed,” Raghavan said in an interview. “It's not because listings aren't available, it's because you don't know the context for the listing.”

RentalRoost started out in the San Francisco Bay area but recently went nationwide. Its database of properties draws from the major listings platforms, but individual landlords can also post listings at no charge.

A user starts by entering the city where they are seeking a home. Next, they provide lifestyle features that they would like.

A walkable neighborhood, for example. Plenty of restaurants and public transportation options. The site then directs them to listings that meet their criteria.

“Apart from things that are searchable, like restaurants, we've also created algorithms for things that are a little more abstract, like pet friendliness, and kid friendliness, based on things like schools and dog parks,” Venkatesan said. “It's a way to find a rental that fits your lifestyle instead of the other way around.”

RentalRoost’s School-Based Search allows home searchers to select a school and then see which properties fall within the true boundary. Parents can also pick a property and then check to see which school district it belongs.

School ratings provided by GreatSchools even allow home finders to search by school quality.

For college students, RentalRoost’s Off Campus Living tool allows students to research properties by proximity to over 9,000 public and private college campuses.

Reality check

Raghavan says RentalRoost can also provide a reality check. In many cases someone's ideal apartment is out of their price range.

“If you pick a place like San Francisco and inventory is tight, and you say I really need it to be centrally located, I need to have 2 bedrooms, well guess what, you're looking at $4,500,” he said.

When that happens, people start making compromises. He recalls a search he recently observed in which the renter was looking for a lot of space because he had two kids.

The renter also wanted to be near the center of restaurants and cultural attractions. But as he was confronted with the price of apartments that met those specifications he started moving farther out because it was more important to him to have the larger space.

Over 1 million rentals

Raghavan said Rental Roost has over 1 million rental listings in the U.S. and its database also contains 1.5 million homes for sale. It's betting that Millennials, who tend to be the most migratory of generations, will start using it instead of Craigslist when it's time to move.

“When people move to new cities, they may not know the neighborhoods well, but they know their priorities,” said Shingate, the company's CEO. “We provide all the data and search options they need to search by the criteria that matter most.”

For a generation the cost of a college education has been rising much faster than the rate of inflation.

As a result, student loan balances are getting bigger and bigger, to the point that the total amount owed on student loans in the U.S. is well over $1 trillion. The search is on for a solution to out of control spending on higher education.

One possible solution might be speed. Instead of spending 4 or 5 years earning a bachelor's degree, running up thousands of dollars in debt each year, what if you could get that degree in a shorter period of time – maybe 18 months?

Sounds too good to be true, and you know what they say about things that sound like that. But a lot of serious people are giving this idea serious consideration.

In a speech on education President Obama said some colleges are already embracing new ways to provide education for less money.

Presidential example

“Southern New Hampshire University gives course credit based on how well the students master the material, not just on how many hours they spend in the classroom,” Obama said. “If you're learning the material faster you can finish faster, which means you pay less.”

Since Obama's speech a number of schools have begun offering accelerated undergraduate and graduate degree programs that can be taken online. And more of a student's previous work may count toward the degree.

In these accelerated program, schools are being more liberal about accepting credit from another school or educational program. That, in itself, can get them closer to their degree in a shorter period of time.

Credit where credit is due

Accelerate Degree, a Charlottesville, Va.-based organization, says if students bring something to the table before applying to a program – whether it be previous credit, work experience, or another way to receive transfer credit – they will likely find that any level degree can be completed in as little as one year.

While it may be difficult to finish a bachelor's degree in one year, there are a number of graduate degrees that may be obtained in that time.

Fast Track Program

Northeastern University, in Boston, calls it the “Fast Track Program.” It offers accelerated learning in select programs, allowing students to transfer credits and complete their undergraduate degree in 18 months.

Bellevue University, a private non-profit college in Nebraska, offers an accelerated bachelor's degree to students who have an associate's degree or close to 60 college credit hours. The school says students can complete their degrees in as little as 16 months.

“If you have fewer than 60 credits, we have many ways to earn credit beyond the classroom, including credit for training on the job or in the military,” the school advises.

Not right for everyone

An accelerated degree program is obviously aimed at adults who have completed some college but are now in the working world. In their present form these programs may be less suitable for incoming freshmen with no credits.

Beyond that, these programs might not work for everyone. It will take someone with a lot of discipline and willingness to put in the intense work to reach their goals.

That isn't exactly a description of today's college student. A 2011 survey found that most students at traditional colleges are taking longer to graduate – only 40% were completing the work within the traditional 4 years.

Al Gore was laughed at when he and his lawyers debated the meaning of "is" in a legal brief. Now Verizon and other wireless carriers have gotten themselves ensnared in a debate about the meaning of "unlimited." Except no one's laughing this time.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, in particular, is not amused. Last month Wheeler worked over Verizon when it revealed that it was planning to "throttle" the top 5% of its data users who are on unlimited data plans beginning in October -- meaning it would slow down their data connection to discourage them from using the service they're paying for.

But how, Wheeler and millions of others asked, can you penalize someone for using too much of something that is sold as unlimited? Admittedly, the whole unlimited thing put any number of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants out of business but most of them went gracefully; they didn't walk around snatching drumsticks out of their patrons' hands.

Wheeler found it "deeply troubling," and Verizon snapped back that it was deeply disturbed at his attitude, saying basically that everybody else is doing the same thing, calling it a "widely accepted" practice. This, of course, is not always a good defense. Just try it next time you're hauled into traffic court.

Wheeler isn't accusing Verizon of lying but he'd like to find out if the other carriers really are throttling their customers and has asked AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile to outline their policies.

Truth in advertising

You don't have to look back very far to see how this all came about. A few years ago, Verizon and the others wanted to find a way to charge a little bit more for essentially the same thing, so they came up with the "unlimited" label. Customers who agreed to pay a fixed amount per month wouldn't have to worry about going over their data limits because they would be, well, unlimited. 

But like hungry athletes at an after-game picnic, consumers who paid extra for their unlimited service began packing it in -- watching movies, TV shows, making Skype calls and doing who knows what else.

So now Verizon has simply turned the world inside out: if you want to use more data, you need to buy a limited-data plan which is, paradoxically, more expensive than the unlimited plan.

Verizon argues it is within its rights to do this because its contracts contain a clause saying Verizon can change the terms whenever it feels like it. 

It will be interesting to see whether the FCC allows this truly remarkable inside-the-looking-glass reasoning to stand. Just don't stay online too long waiting for the answer. Verizon may throttle you.

The main problem with trying to protect yourself from identity theft is that even if you personally do everything right — say, you're a professional IT- and financial-security genius whose home computer and personal documents are 100% hackproof, theft-proof and malware-proof — you're still at risk from every company, corporation, financier, lender, service provider or governmental organization you ever do business with.

So you can do everything right and still be at risk because you used a credit card at Target or Sally Beauty Supply or P.F. Chang's or any other business that went on to lose customer data to a hacker.

Or maybe you're at risk because you're a legal, licensed driver, and identity thieves broke into your state DMV database.

Or it could simply be that you're an American citizen or resident with any credit history at all, and that's how information about you ended up on the Experian database that became available to an identity thief way the heck over in Vietnam.

Call center

You can also be at risk if ever you contacted the call center of a given company. Last June, AT&T announced that some of its customer Social Security numbers and call histories had been stolen. The hack occurred in April and was discovered in May, yet not until June did AT&T publicly announce it.

That said: AT&T's records weren't actually “hacked” in the sense that an unauthorized outsider managed to sneak into the database somehow. Instead, it was an internal security breach: employees of a call center took advantage of their position to steal information out of customer records.

On April 4, the U.S. Attorney's office for Florida's Southern District announced that it had charged eight people in an identity-theft scheme using information stolen from AT&T's customer files. None of the defendants actually worked for AT&T, though; instead, AT&T had hired Interactive Response Technologies, Inc. (IRT) to handle call-center duties, and one of the eight defendants worked for IRT.

This week, the U.S. Attorney's office announced that the first of those eight defendants, former IRT employee Chouman Emily Syrilien, was sentenced: 34 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Four additional defendants have pleaded guilty but not been sentenced yet.

The whole package

Exactly what customer data did IRT employees have access to, anyway? According to the indictment, pretty much everything an identity thief needs to operate: name, address, e-mail, telephone number, Social Security number, date of birth, credit and debit card account and verification numbers, personal identity numbers and passwords.

Once they had your bank, credit or debit card information, they added themselves as additional “authorized users” without your consent or knowledge, and went on to make unauthorized charges or cash withdrawals in your name.

OK, chalk it up to the pressure to stand out in a sea of applicants. Whatever the cause, it appears job-seekers are tempted to be less than honest (translation: lie) on their resumes. But is it worth the risk?

More than half (58%) of hiring managers responding to a CareerBuilder survey say they’ve caught a lie on a resume, and 33% of these have seen an increase in resume padding since the recession.

Out the door

And they don't like what they're seeing

Fifty-one percent said that they would automatically dismiss a candidate if they caught a lie on his/her resume, while 40% said that it would depend on what the candidate lied about. Seven percent said they’d be willing to overlook a lie if they liked the candidate.

“Trust is very important in professional relationships, and by lying on your resume, you breach that trust from the very outset,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “If you want to enhance your resume, it’s better to focus on playing up tangible examples from your actual experience. Your resume doesn’t necessarily have to be the perfect fit for an organization, but it needs to be relevant and accurate.”

The whoppers

There are certain fabrications job seekers may try to slip past employers more frequently than others. Employers say the most common lies they catch on resumes relate to:

• Embellished skill set – 57%
• Embellished responsibilities – 55%
• Dates of employment – 42%
• Job title – 34%
• Academic degree – 33%
• Companies worked for – 26%
• Accolades/awards – 18%

The stunners

When asked about the most unusual lie they’ve ever caught on a resume, employers recalled:

• Applicant included job experience that was actually his father’s. Both father and son had the same name (one was Sr., one was Jr.).
• Applicant claimed to be the assistant to the prime minister of a foreign country that doesn’t have a prime minister.
• Applicant claimed to have been a high school basketball free throw champion. He admitted it was a lie in the interview.
• Applicant claimed to have been an Olympic medalist.
• Applicant claimed to have been a construction supervisor. The interviewer learned the bulk of his experience was in the completion of a doghouse some years prior.
• Applicant claimed to have 25 years of experience at age 32.
• Applicant claimed to have worked for 20 years as the babysitter of known celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Madonna, etc.
• Applicant listed three jobs over the past several years. Upon contacting the employers, the interviewer learned that the applicant had worked at one for two days, another for one day, and not at all for the third.
• Applicant applied for a position with a company that had just fired him. He listed the company under previous employment and indicated on his resume that he had quit.
• Applicant applied twice for the same position and provided different work history on each application.

Who they lie to

While employers have caught lies on resumes submitted for jobs of all types, levels and industries, some report a higher rate of fibbing than others. The survey found that employers in the following industries catch resume lies more frequently than average:

• Financial Services – 73%
• Leisure and Hospitality – 71%
• Information Technology – 63%
• Health Care (More than 50 employees) – 63%
• Retail – 59%

Gotcha!

Employers may be taking more time looking over individual resumes. Forty-two percent said they currently spend more than 2 minutes reviewing each resume, compared with 33% in December.

Additionally, most employers (86% typically have more than 1 employee review candidates’ resumes, with 65% saying 2 or 3 people go over each resume. Twenty-one percent say resumes are reviewed by 4 or more employees before a decision is made.

The nationwide survey, which was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from May 13 to June 6, 2014, included a representative sample of 2,188 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes.

Checks totaling approximately $800,000 are in the mail to some 1,305 consumers allegedly scammed in two related mortgage relief schemes.

In one scheme, using the name Precision Law Center, the defendants allegedly made false promises to consumers that if they sued their lenders along with other homeowners in so-called “mass joinder” lawsuits, they could obtain favorable mortgage concessions from their lenders or stop the foreclosure process.

In the other, using names such as FreeFedLoanMod.org, HouseHoldRelief.org, and MyHomeSupport.org, the defendants charged consumers for “forensic loan audits,” and allegedly misrepresented that they could use the results to force lenders to give them better mortgage terms.

The checks being sent out by the Federal Trade Commission, through an administrator, must be cashed on or before October 7, 2014. The amount consumers will receive varies depending on how much they lost.

Consumers with questions may call 1-855-294-0136 or visit www.FTC.gov/refunds.  

Makers of antibacterial soaps and other products are gearing up to fight tighter regulation even as scientists find new evidence the compounds pose a danger to pregnant women and their unborn children.

"We looked at the exposure of pregnant women and their fetuses to triclosan and triclocarban, two of the most commonly used germ-killers in soaps and other everyday products," says Benny Pycke, Ph.D., in a study to be presented this week at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

"We found triclosan in all of the urine samples from the pregnant women that we screened. We also detected it in about half of the umbilical cord blood samples we took, which means it transfers to fetuses. Triclocarban was also in many of the samples."

The problem with this, explains Pycke, a research scientist at Arizona State University (ASU), is that there is a growing body of evidence showing that the compounds can lead to developmental and reproductive problems in animals and potentially in humans. Also, some research suggests that the additives could contribute to antibiotic resistance, a growing public health problem.

Constant exposure

Although the human body is efficient at flushing out triclosan and triclocarban, a person's exposure to them can potentially be constant.

"If you cut off the source of exposure, eventually triclosan and triclocarban would quickly be diluted out, but the truth is that we have universal use of these chemicals, and therefore also universal exposure," says Rolf Halden, Ph.D., the lead investigator of the study at ASU.

The compounds are used in more than 2,000 everyday products marketed as antimicrobial, including toothpastes, soaps, detergents, carpets, paints, school supplies and toys, the researchers say.

In June, the Food and Drug Administratio (FDA) warned manufacturers that it would consider new regulations, adding that it had found no evidence over-the-counter (OTC) antibacterial soap products are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water.

"New data suggest that the risks associated with long-term, daily use of antibacterial soaps may outweigh the benefits," said Colleen Rogers, Ph.D., a lead microbiologist at FDA. Among the risks, says Rogers, are indications that certain chemicals in antibacterial soaps may contribute to bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and may have unanticipated hormonal effects.

Minnesota became the first state to pass a ban on the antimicrobial's use in certain products, and it will take effect in January 2017. Some companies, such as Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble, have announced that they are phasing out the compound from some products. 

Shorter babies

Showing what effect antimicrobials have on people is a challenge. But Laura Geer, Ph.D., of the State University of New York, found at least one interesting result.

Geer says the study yielded a link between women with higher levels of another ubiquitous antimicrobial, butyl paraben, which is commonly used in cosmetics, and shorter newborn lengths.

The long-term consequences of this are not clear, but Geer adds that, if this finding is confirmed in larger studies, it could mean that widespread exposure to these compounds could cause a subtle but large-scale shift in birth sizes.

This isn't a story about whether that double soy latte you ordered really has an extra squirt of espresso. It's about how much filler is in your cup. And we're not talking about chicory.

Coffee is becoming a scarce commodity, thanks to climate change and other factors, which makes it more expensive, which in turn gives coffee marketers an economic incentive to do whatever they can to stretch the supply with fillers.

Chicory, widely used in New Orleans and the Acadian parishes of Louisiana, was perhaps the original filler in the U.S. But the locals decided they liked the slight peppery taste it added to coffee and it's now looked upon as a condiment rather than a money-saver.

But for the rest of us, we'd like our coffee straight, thanks -- without corn, barley, wheat or other common fillers. This may be getting a little easier thanks to a new test that's being outlined this week at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Francisco.

95% accurate

"With our test, it is now possible to know with 95% accuracy if coffee is pure or has been tampered with, either with corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, acai seed, brown sugar or starch syrup," said research team leader Suzana Lucy Nixdorf, Ph.D., of the State University of Londrina in Brazil

The problem, she explains, is that "after roasting and grinding the raw material, it becomes impossible to see any difference between grains of lower cost incorporated into the coffee, especially because of the dark color and oily texture of coffee."

Currently, tests to detect these unwanted additives require scientists to check the coffee, and those tests are subjective –– not quantitative, she says. With these tests, the scientists look at the coffee under a microscope or identify various additives by simply tasting the coffee.

In contrast, the new test uses liquid chromatography and statistical tools. This gives her team a much closer look at the ingredients in an unbiased way, according to Nixdorf. Chromatography is a powerful analytical technique that is very sensitive and highly selective.

Because much of the coffee is composed of carbohydrates, researchers could develop a "characteristic fingerprint" when using chromatography that separates out the real coffee compounds, says Nixdorf. The added, unwanted grain fillers generate different levels of sugars than the natural ingredients, so they are easy to identify, she explains.

The task is somewhat urgent, given the coffee crisis that is about to spring itself upon a somnolent world. A study from the U.K.'s Royal Botanic Gardens and the Environment found  that 70% of the world's coffee supply might disappear by 2080 because of conditions caused by climate change.

But shortages due to more immediate issues already are occurring. The coffee-rich country of Brazil typically produces 55 million bags of coffee each year. But according to some reports, the projected amount for 2014 will likely only reach 45 million bags after this January's extensive drought. That's about 42 billion fewer cups of coffee for this year.

Chrysler Group is recalling an estimated 89 Touring models of the 2015 Chrysler 200, 8 of which are in the U.S, and the rest in Canada.

An investigation has found some vehicles built during a five-week production window were equipped with wiring harnesses that may not accommodate certain electrical loads, and may overheat.

The company says it is unaware of any related injuries, accidents or complaints.

Owners will be advised by mail when they may schedule service, which will be performed at no cost to them.

Owners with questions may call Chrysler's customer information center at 1-800-853-1403.

Oberto’s Brands of Kent, Wash., is recalling approximately 57,578 pounds of chicken strip products.

Bloated packages were discovered and further investigation determined that “an undetected process deviation” was responsible for the increased water activity, and that the product met all critical limits during production. The company says it has determined that this a quality control issue and that there are no food safety hazards.

There are no reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

The products subject to recall include:

• 3, 5.75 and 16 oz. film bags of “Smokey Sweet BBQ Style Chicken Strips”
• 2.75, 3, 5.75, 9 and 16 oz. film bags of “Spicy Buffalo Style Chicken Strips”

The Smokey Sweet BBQ Style Chicken Strips were first produced on May 14, 2014, and last packaged on July 28, 2014. The Spicy Buffalo Style Chicken Strips were first produced on May 16, 2014 and last packaged on August 6, 2014.

The product, which bears the establishment number “P4837” on the package, was sent to retail establishments nationwide as well as Internet sales.

Consumers with questions about the recall should contact Lisa Austin, vice president of sales, at (253) 437-6308.  

Volkswagen is recalling certain model year 2009-2014 Tiguan vehicles manufactured from July 2007 to June 2014. When using winterized fuel, in certain conditions bubbles may form in the fuel system which could result in the vehicle stalling.

Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will update the vehicle's software to increase the fuel pump pressure, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin August 19, 2014.

Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-822-8987. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 24AV/2W.

General Motors announced the following recalls:

202,115 model year 2002-2004 Saturn VUEs because the ignition key can possibly be removed when the vehicle is not in the off position. GM is aware of two crashes and one injury potentially related to the issue.

Dealers will inspect for key pullout or key binding, and, if necessary, replace the ignition cylinder and key set at no charge to customers.

Until recall repairs have been performed, it is very important before exiting the vehicle for customers to make sure the vehicle is in “Park” or in the case of a manual transmission to put the transmission into reverse gear and set the parking brake.

48,059 model year 2013 Cadillac ATS four-door sedans and 2013 Buick Encore vehicles in the U.S. In some of these vehicles, the front outboard lapbelt pretensioner cables will retract upon deployment to pull in seat belt webbing, but may not lock, allowing the cable and the retracted webbing to return to their original length under occupant loading.

As a result, there may be a potential of increased occupant movement in certain accidents. Dealers will replace both front outboard lap belt pretensioners. GM is not aware of any crashes or injuries as a result of this issue, which was discovered during frontal crash testing. A stop sale is in effect for unsold models at dealerships until repairs have been made,

14,940 model year 2014-2015 Chevrolet Impala sedans in the U.S. On some LT and LTZ models equipped with a front console storage compartment, the inertia latch on the compartment door may not engage in the event of a rear collision and the front console compartment door may open. Dealers will replace the console door storage compartment door inertia latch. Because this is a non-compliance with a federal motor vehicle safety standard, GM has ordered dealers to hold unsold models of these vehicles until the repair can be made. GM knows of no crashes or injuries related to this condition.

1,968 model year 2009-2010 Chevrolet Aveo and 2009 model year Pontiac G3 vehicles for a brake fluid issue that could lead to longer brake pedal travel and/or reduced braking performance. This was originally a Customer Satisfaction Program issued in 2012 and has been reclassified as a safety recall. GM knows of no crashes or injuries associated with the condition.

1,919 model year 2014 Chevrolet Spark models for left and right lower control arm attaching bolts that may not be tightened to specification. GM has informed owners to have their vehicles transported to Chevrolet dealerships, where they will be inspect the attaching bolts to be sure they are tightened to specification. GM knows of no crashes or injuries related to this issue.