Current Events in February 2020

Many consumers have prioritized healthy eating in an effort to improve their health, and a new study shows that a specific type of food could help us live longer. 

According to researchers, fermented soy products should be the new thing that consumers incorporate into their diets. The team found that eating more foods with fermented soy could reduce the risk of death. 

“In this large prospective study conducted in Japan with a high rate of soy consumption, no significant association was found between intake of total soy products and all cause mortality,” the researchers wrote. “In contrast, a higher intake of fermented soy products (natto and miso) was associated with a lower risk of mortality.” 

Living longer 

As the researchers explained, they conducted their study in Japan, including nearly 100,000 participants between the ages of 45 and 74. The primary factor involved in the study was the participants’ diets; the researchers then followed up with them over the course of 15 years to determine how their health fared in relation to their eating habits. 

The study revealed that participants who were eating more fermented soy products lowered their risk of death from all causes by 10 percent. 

The researchers were inclined to study this topic because experts have mixed opinions when it comes to the benefits associated with soy. However, they found that fermented soy -- which consumers can get through foods like tofu, miso, or natto -- has several nutritional benefits, including higher levels of potassium and fiber. 

The researchers also found that participants who regularly ate natto, a Japanese specialty that is fermented with the probiotic Bacillus subtilis, specifically lowered their risk of cardiovascular-related deaths. 

Moving forward, the team hopes to push these findings even further in an effort to “perhaps...inform the development of healthier and more palatable products. These efforts should be collaborative, including not only researchers but also policy makers and the food industry.” 

Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, and many consumers will be looking to find the perfect gift or sentiment to share with their loved one. But while the day devoted to love appeals to romantic couples, there are still those who think the whole holiday is overrated. 

That’s the demographic that Coors Light is looking to appeal to with its latest promotion. 

From February 4 through February 21, the company is offering to pay up to $100 in fees for the first 1,000 consumers who adopt a dog.

“With almost half of millennials planning to stay in on Valentine’s Day, we wanted to empower people to savor the day with Coors Light and a dog by their side,” said Chelsea Parker, a marketing manager at Molson Coors.

How to apply

Consumers will need to be of legal drinking age and living in an eligible state to apply for the promotion. 

Participants can text the code “COORS4k9” and a picture of their adoption paperwork to the number 28130 to enter. After reviewing each submission, the company will send $100 to the first 1,000 applicants. 

For more details on the promotion, consumers can visit Coors Light’s promotional website here.

Bobcat Company of West Fargo, N.D., is recalling about 575 model year 2017-2018 Bobcat 3650 Utility Vehicles sold in the U.S. and Canada.

The rear brake line can become punctured causing the brakes to fail, posing a collision and crash hazard.

No incidents or injuries are reported.

This recall involves model year 2017-2018 Bobcat 3650 utility vehicles that are white and black with orange decals.

“Bobcat” is printed on the hood of the utility vehicle and “3650” is printed on the rear box. The vehicle identification numbers (VINs) can be found on a label affixed to the vehicle frame under the seat and storage bin on the passenger side.

The following vehicles are included in this recall:

The utility vehicles, manufactured in the U.S., were sold at Bobcat dealers nationwide from May 2016, through February 2019, for between $24,000 and $29,000.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled vehicles and contact a Bobcat dealer to schedule a free inspection and repair. Bobcat is notifying dealers and contacting affected registered owners directly.

Consumers may contact:Bobcat at (800) 743-4340 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (CT) Monday through Friday or online at www.bobcat.com and click on “For Owners” at the top of the page. Click “CPSC Recalls” for more information.

Savannah Food Company is recalling cornbread dressing and bread stuffing that include frozen diced eggs.

The products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

No confirmed illnesses are reported.

The following items, packaged in either plastic or aluminum trays with “Use By” dates ranging from “USE BY 04/2021” to “USE BY 12/2021” stamped on the package label and side of corrugated case, are being recalled:.

The recalled products were distributed through wholesale distributors to restaurants, delis, cafeterias, and foodservice establishments in Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Arkansas.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should discard or return them to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions may contact Savannah Food Company at (731) 925 -1155, Monday through Friday 8:00am – 4:00pm (CST).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has launched Identity Theft Central, giving consumers beefed-up access to advice on protecting themselves against identity theft, phishing, and online scams, as well as ways to better secure their data.  

“Improving awareness and outreach are hallmarks of initiatives to combat identity theft coordinated by the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax industry, all working in partnership under the Security Summit banner,” the IRS said in a news release.

“Security Summit partners have made substantial progress in the fight against tax-related identity theft. But thieves are still constantly looking for ways to steal the identities of individuals, tax professionals and businesses in order to file fraudulent tax returns for refunds.”

Clearer tax-related info for everyone

In building out Identity Theft Central, the IRS focused on streamlining things so consumers, tax professionals, and businesses each have separate areas. Within its system, the IRS provides the following:

• Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft, including what to do if someone becomes a victim of identity theft. Included are videos designed to help consumers spot phishing email scams and how to protect their phones and computers.

• Identity Theft Information for Tax Professionals, including knowing responsibilities under the law.

• Identity Theft Information for Businesses, including how to recognize the signs of identity theft.

Do you know the signs of identity theft?

Like those pesky superbugs that keep evolving, cyber thieves keep upping their game, too. The safeguards that worked in 2019 might be old hat to someone trying to steal your identity in 2020. What’s worse, the IRS says consumers might not even know they’re a victim until the agency notices something odd in a tax return and notifies the consumer. 

Nonetheless, there are some simple things to be on the lookout for that signal possible tax-related identity theft:

• If you get a letter from the IRS inquiring about a suspicious tax return that you did not file.

• If you can’t e-file your tax return because of a duplicate Social Security number. 

• If you get a tax transcript in the mail that you did not request.

• If you get an IRS notice that an online account has been created in your name.

• If you get an IRS notice that your existing online account has been accessed or disabled when you took no action.

• If you get an IRS notice that you owe additional tax or refund offset, or that you have had collection actions taken against you for a year you did not file a tax return.

• If IRS records indicate you received wages or other income from an employer you didn’t work for.

Treat your personal information like cash

The IRS says if consumers can treat their personal information like cash and not leave it lying around, then they can stay one step ahead of most cyber hooligans. 

Stronger, more unique passwords are a good place to start. An even smarter move is getting a password manager that can serve up passwords that are much stronger than the name of your childhood pet.

ConsumerAffairs has put together a guide to password managers that might help you find one that fits your needs and works across all your devices. That guide can be found here.

As the risk of an opioid overdose continues to cause concern for consumers, researchers have now made an interesting discovery in the world of prescription drugs. 

According to a new study, researchers have found that nearly 50 percent of all opioid prescriptions can be traced back to just one percent of drug providers. 

“Most prescriptions written throughout by the majority of providers are below recommended thresholds, suggesting that most U.S. providers are careful in their prescribing,” the researchers wrote. “However, a small portion of providers account for a highly disproportionate proportion of opioids.”

Tracking the trends

To understand the logistics behind opioid prescriptions, the researchers evaluated private insurance coverage for more than 60 million people across the country. This information gave the researchers data on opioid prescriptions, allowing them to track where the drugs were coming from and who they were going to. 

The researchers explained that a standard opioid prescription for pain management will recommend that patients take 50 morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) per day for no more than one full week. 

With that figure in mind, the study revealed that not only had many patients received access to much higher doses, but nearly half of all prescriptions were doled out by just one percent of all opioid providers. Findings showed that much of the remaining 99 percent were following opioid guidelines, with the large majority of these providers prescribing patients lower daily doses across fewer days. 

However, drug providers in that top one percent were found to disregard both of those measures, as over 80 percent of their prescriptions were for longer than one week; nearly 50 percent surpassed the 50 MMEs per day dosage. 

Curbing the opioid epidemic

This information is crucial when thinking about the opioid epidemic across the U.S. and how patients could unknowingly be taking higher doses of this powerful drug. 

While opioid-related guidelines have received some pushback from healthcare providers, the researchers think that future changes to regulations should be targeted to the top one percent of drug providers, as this study revealed that the overwhelming majority of the health care industry is responsibly administering opioids to their patients. 

Numerous studies suggest that the effects of climate change could have a drastic impact on our way of life. One way that could happen is through more dangerous disease epidemics. 

Researchers from Florida State University (FSU) say that rapidly changing weather patterns could cause viruses like the flu to become more dangerous and affect more people.

"The historical flu data from different parts of the world showed that the spread of flu epidemic has been more closely tied to rapid weather variability, implying that the lapsed human immune system in winter caused by rapidly changing weather makes a person more susceptible to flu virus," said FSU associate professor Zhaohua Wu.

More dangerous flu epidemics

Consumers might think that colder temperatures and humidity are a big factor when it comes to the spread of the flu virus, but the researchers say that’s not necessarily the case. After analyzing air temperatures from the late 1990s to 2018, they found that some years with warmer temperatures resulted in much more deadly flu epidemics.

The team says that the 2017-18 flu season was one of the warmest on record, but statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that 186 children died from the flu during that time, breaking the previous record of 171 set in 2012-13. 

Because rapidly changing weather is a hallmark of climate change, fatal epidemics may become even more likely as the climate destabilizes. The researchers say that keeping this in mind could help policymakers implement interventions that ultimately help save consumers’ lives.

"The autumn rapid weather variability and its characteristic change in a warming climate may serve not only as a skillful predictor for spread of flu in the following season but also a good estimator of future flu risk," Wu said. "Including this factor in flu spread models may lead to significantly improved predictions of flu epidemic."

The full study has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. 

As consumer privacy continues to seemingly spin out of control, a new study shines some interesting light on which consumers are the most concerned and what exactly they’re concerned about.

In the throes of Data Privacy Month, Viber, a messaging and calling app, went on a mission to find those things out. Here’s what it uncovered in that survey.

Consumer privacy concerns

When asked what their biggest privacy concern is in 2020...

• One-third of consumers (33 percent) said their #1 concern was safeguarding their data. Breaking down that metric a bit more, nearly half of women (47 percent), but only three in 10 men (28 percent), expressed that concern.

• Members of Generation Z (the generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s) are the least concerned demographic when it comes to privacy and safeguarding their data.

  • Viber’s study showed that 3 in 10 Gen Z’ers (30 percent) are not concerned about privacy this year, compared to millennials (17 percent) and baby boomers (13 percent).

  • Baby boomers (42 percent) are most concerned about safeguarding their data this year, compared to millennials (25 percent) and Gen Z’ers (22 percent).

• Consumers are more worried about tax identity theft (8 percent) than government surveillance (6 percent), social media breaches (5 percent) and online impersonation attempts (3 percent).

  • Men (7 percent) are more concerned about government surveillance than women (4 percent).

Steps consumers can take to safeguard their data

“With data breaches increasing by 17 percent in 2019, it comes as no surprise that one-third of consumers (33 percent) say that their biggest privacy concern in 2020 is safeguarding their data,” Debbi Dougherty, Head of Communications, Rakuten Viber, told ConsumerAffairs.

“For too long, irresponsible tech companies and social media platforms have been taking advantage of, mishandling and downright not disclosing how they intend to use our data. While the California Consumer Privacy act that went into effect at the beginning of this year is a win for consumers in the fight for privacy in that state specifically, there are still things all consumers can do to go the extra mile in helping to protect themselves and their data.”

What are the best steps consumers can take? Dougherty laid out three for ConsumerAffairs:

1. Be mindful of the apps you use. Check to see if apps where more private information is typically shared, like messaging platforms, are end-to-end encrypted. If they are, it means the company behind the app you’re using can’t read your personal chats or serve you ads based on private conversations -- thus ensuring your data is kept private.

2. Use better passwords. Simply put, one of the best things you can do is avoid reusing the same password across multiple accounts. While that piece of advice may sound like common sense, another recent report shows that more than half  (51 percent) of Americans admit to reusing passwords/PINs across multiple accounts. Poor privacy habits like this make it easier for hackers to gain entry into multiple accounts, thus putting consumers’ data privacy at a greater risk.

3. Don’t neglect your device’s privacy updates. Don’t ignore them. If a company sends out a privacy update, take the time to read it and educate yourself on the changes. One of the best ways to protect your data is to be aware of what it is being used for when you create a new account with a social platform. While this may seem tedious and time consuming, you will be better off for it in the long run.

Macy’s is closing 125 department stores over the next three years, a major blow to shopping malls already struggling to fill empty spaces and attract consumers.

In addition, the department store chain is reducing its corporate workforce by 2,000 and closing its dual headquarters office in Cincinnati, consolidating those functions in New York. The company presented these moves as part of “an updated strategy” to stabilize profitability.

“We have a clear vision of where Macy’s, Inc. and our brands, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, fit into retail today,” said Jeff Gennette, chairman and CEO at Macy’s. “We are confident in our Polaris strategy, and we have the resources required to return Macy’s, Inc. to sustainable, profitable growth.”

Working on the bottom line

Gennette said the company will focus its efforts on the healthy parts of the business while directly addressing those areas not contributing to the bottom line.

“Over the past three years, we have shown we can grow the top-line; however, we have significant work to do to improve the bottom-line,” he said.

Macy’s has a strong online retail channel but is also burdened with real estate due to operating stores across the country -- mostly in malls where foot traffic has continually declined over the last decade.

In 2017, Macy’s closed 68 stores after a disappointing holiday season, calling it "a series of actions to streamline its store portfolio, intensify cost efficiency efforts and execute its real estate strategy." The closings were part of about 100 that were originally announced in August 2016.

After these latest cuts, Macy’s will have about 400 stores in operation. In its analysis of the move, The Wall Street Journal notes that Macy’s struggled financially as it began to pull out of shopping malls and focus more spending on e-commerce.

Malls are big losers

After the people losing their jobs, the biggest losers in Macy’s move may be the nation’s shopping malls. These malls have lost other anchors such as Sears and JC Penney in recent months, with the retailers closing more stores in the face of rising online competition.

Some struggling malls have attempted to reinvent themselves. In suburban Richmond, Va., Virginia Center Commons sold a significant portion of its property to Henrico County, which plans to build a 200,000 square foot sports complex, taking over space formerly occupied by Sears.

As for Macy’s, Gennette says this latest round of store-closings will allow the department store chain to “stabilize margin in 2020 and set the foundation for sustainable, profitable growth.”

While texting and driving has become troublesome for both teens and adults, a new study looked at the risk texting poses for pedestrians crossing the street. 

According to the researchers, texting, more so than any other pedestrian habit like talking on the phone or listening to music, creates the biggest risk for those crossing the street. 

“Given the ubiquity of smartphones, social media, apps, digital video, and streaming music, which has infiltrated most aspects of daily life, distracted walking and street cross will be a road safety issue for the foreseeable future,” the researchers explained. “Establishing the relationship between distracted walking behaviour and crash risk is an essential research need.” 

Staying attentive 

To understand how consumers’ actions while crossing the street could affect their safety, the researchers analyzed several previous studies to determine the common trends that emerged. 

With nearly 1,000 participants involved in all of the studies, the researchers assessed the distracting habits that pedestrians engage in while walking and the safety measures they took when crossing the street. 

The participants from the various studies were evaluated on several counts: 

• How often they looked both ways before crossing

• The time it took to start crossing 

• The time it took to make it safely across

• Near misses and accidents with other pedestrians or cars

• Missing the chance to cross the street

The three main behaviors associated with pedestrian distraction were talking on the phone, listening to music, and texting. 

Ultimately, talking on the phone proved not to be an issue for pedestrians’ safety; however, texting was found to be the biggest hindrance to safety when crossing the street. The researchers also found that listening to music can make pedestrians’ trip a bit longer, as they were more likely to miss the chance to cross or take a beat too long to start crossing. 

Texting increased the likelihood that pedestrians would be involved in accidents -- both with other walkers and with cars on the road. Moreover, those who were texting were less likely to check the intersection before walking. 

The researchers don’t predict this trend to end anytime soon. They say it’s up to pedestrians to prioritize their safety and pause their texting until they’re safely where they need to be. 

Chrysler is recalling 222,207 model year 2014-2019 Ram ProMasters with 6L engines.

The transmission shifter cable may separate and disconnect from the transmission, causing the vehicle to not perform shifts intended by the driver and the gear shift lever position not matching the actual transmission gear.

The driver may be unaware of the actual gear position and unintended vehicle movement can occur, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will replace the transmission shift cable free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin March 13, 2020.

Owners may contact Ram Trucks at (866) 726-4636. Chrysler's number for this recall is W00.

Mitsubishi Motors North America (MMNA) is recalling 20,000 model year 1998-2000 Monteros.

These vehicles were equipped with Non-Azide Driver airbag Inflators (NADI) and do not contain phase stabilized ammonium nitrate (PSAN) propellant.

Due to a manufacturing issue, the NADI inflators may absorb moisture, causing the inflators to rupture or the airbag cushion to underinflate.

An inflator rupture may result in metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants. An underinflated airbag may not properly protect the occupant. Both increase the risk of serious injury or death.

What to do

The remedy for this recall is still under development.

The recall is expected to begin March 22, 2020.

Owners may contact MMNA customer service at (888) 648-7820. MMNA's number for this recall is SR-20-001.

Airbnb, like Uber, is a major disrupter of an existing industry. It’s popular with travelers who like having an entire apartment for the same price as a small hotel room.

But a new report by Vice warns that scammers have begun to take advantage of the company’s “loosely written” rules to stick consumers with filthy accommodations or switch them at the last minute to accommodations that are far inferior to what was presented online.

The report was written by a reporter who said she had been victimized by scammers using Airbnb that have allegedly created fake profiles and reviews and switched properties at the last minute.

While many people rave about the Airbnb experience -- and this reporter has had very good luck -- ConsumerAffairs readers complain about many of the experiences cited in the Vice report. Donald of La Quinta, Calif., booked a condo in Vietnam and said he was a victim of a bait and switch.

“Advertised one place at a premium price and amenities,” Donald wrote. “Tried to switch to an inferior property. I had to stay in another place. Airbnb paid them.”

Bugs

James of Canonsburg, Pa., complained that he and his wife found dead and living insects throughout their Airbnb property when they checked in.

“Also, the shower was disgusting with mold and hair,” James wrote in his ConsumerAffairs post. “There were used bars of soap and a used loofah in the shower also. The fridge and freezer were also uncleaned with pieces of food inside both. We left the house within 2 hours of checking in. When presented with these problems, Airbnb was VERY unwilling to help with a refund although their policy clearly states that in cases like ours, a 100% refund will be issued.”

James reports that he did, in fact, receive a refund from Airbnb, but he said he was required to submit a number of photographs. When confronted with an unacceptable Airbnb, it is always wise to take pictures of the objectionable features before leaving. Mark, of Ottawa, Ontario, learned this the hard way when he checked into a unit he said had a number of safety issues.

“Stayed there 10 min, contacted Airbnb same day,” Mark told ConsumerAffairs. “They said I needed pictures of this. Can't go back there to take pictures now.”

Working to correct the problem

In the past, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has publicly addressed many of these issues. He told a recent DealBook conference that the company has more work to do to improve the verification process.

A spokesperson for Airbnb told Vice that the company is already working to resolve these issues and will closely review listings for accuracy and confirm the identity of hosts.

Consumers selecting an Airbnb should read all the reviews posted by previous guests, not just the ones at the top. 

As colleges and universities continue to raise tuition and fees, students are looking for the best value. The latest report from The Princeton Review may offer some helpful guidance.

The publication has published its list of the 200 Best Value Colleges for 2020. The list singles out the undergraduate institutes that provide the best return on investment (ROI). The colleges and universities making the list are not necessarily the cheapest.

Number one on the list is Princeton University, where the annual tuition cost is $54,000. It’s followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvey Mudd College, located in Claremont, Calif. You’ll find the full list here.

Some schools scored better than others in different aspects of value. In addition to the full list, The Princeton Review provided the following breakdown:

• Best Schools for Financial Aid — Vassar College (NY)

• Best Career Placement — Harvey Mudd College (CA)

• Best Schools for Internships — Wabash College (IN)

• Best Schools for Making an Impact— Wesleyan University (CT)

• Best Alumni Networks — Wabash College (IN)

• Best Value Colleges for Students with No Demonstrated Need — Harvey Mudd College (CA)

An exclusive list

The company based its list on surveys conducted with the administrators at 656 colleges in 2018–19. The administrators were quizzed on academic performance, cost of attending, availability of financial aid, career services, graduation rates, student debt, and alumni support. 

Finally, The Princeton Review talked to students attending the colleges and consulted PayScale.com surveys of alumni of the schools about their careers and income.

"The schools we chose as our Best Value Colleges for 2020 comprise only 7 percent of the nation's four-year colleges," said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief. "They are truly distinctive and diverse in their programs, size, region, and type, yet they are similar in three areas.”

The common characteristics, said Franek, are outstanding academics, generous financial aid and/or relatively low cost of attendance, and top-shelf career services. 

“We recommend them highly to college applicants and parents seeking schools that are academically top-notch and committed to making their programs affordable,” he said. “These colleges are also standouts at guiding their students to rewarding futures."

A lower bottom line

While the findings provide a wealth of information, many students are simply looking for the lowest cost of attending college and obtaining a bachelor’s degree. Most corporate employers demand a degree these days but aren’t that picky about where it came from.

Colleges that offer online degrees and have some of the lowest out-of-state tuition include Chadron State College in Nebraska; Oklahoma Panhandle State University; Minot State University in North Dakota; Southern University in New Orleans; and Mississippi Valley State University.

Another option for a cost-conscious student is to attend a local community college for the first two years and transfer to a state college or university to complete the degree requirements. The cost savings can be substantial.

The American Association of Community Colleges puts the average cost of attending a two-year school at less than $3,500 a year. That compares to nearly $10,000 at the average state-supported four-year school.

Attackers have exploited Twitter in a gigantic grab-and-go that included the personal phone numbers of as many as 17 million users. 

Twitter came clean on Monday about a December hack job that exploited its API (application programming interface) by matching usernames with phone numbers via its “Let people who have your phone number find you on Twitter” option. Those who didn’t have that setting enabled lucked out, and their phone number wasn’t exposed. 

"We immediately suspended these accounts and are disclosing the details of our investigation to you today because we believe it’s important that you are aware of what happened, and how we fixed it,” the company confessed.

State-sponsored actors?

While the accounts associated with the hack were from a “wide range of countries,” Twitter’s investigation found that “a particularly high volume of requests coming from individual IP addresses located within Iran, Israel, and Malaysia.” The platform says it’s possible that some of those addresses “may have ties to state-sponsored actors” and that it was disclosing that information “out of an abundance of caution and as a matter of principle.”

The Jerusalem Post says its investigation of the matter leads it to believe that former Israeli intelligence agents have found ways to gain backdoor access not only to Twitter, but a variety of social-media platforms. However, the Post stopped short of saying with certainty that agents used the techniques while they were employed by Israeli intelligence. 

“There have been numerous reports that top intelligence agencies, including American ones, are sometimes able to use such techniques,” it wrote.

Make sure you’re protected

While Twitter didn’t say why it waited more than a month to go public with the phone number swindle, it did say that it made changes to users’ phone number options in hopes that a similar heist won’t happen again. 

“We’re very sorry this happened. We recognize and appreciate the trust you place in us, and are committed to earning that trust every day. You can reach out to our Office of Data Protection through this form if you have questions.”

Twitter users can double-check to make sure their phone numbers and personal emails are safe from prying eyes. According to HackerNews, all it takes is navigating to the 'Discoverability' setting in a user’s Twitter account and disabling it.