Current Events in December 2023

Moonseasleep of China is recalling about 11,000 Moonsea pack and play mattresses.

The mattresses violate multiple provisions of the federal safety regulation for crib mattresses, including the thickness test and missing warnings and labels, posing a suffocation hazard to infants.

No incidents or injuries are reported.

This recall involves Moonseasleep pack and play mattresses that are 37.5 inches long and 26 inches wide, are white and fold in a tri-fold pattern.

The top of the mattress has a repeating diamond pattern.

A small tag on the mattress contains the date code in the format DD.MM.YYYY. Date codes from 15/08/2022 to 23/08/2023 are involved in this recall.

The mattresses came folded in a black canvas bag with the brand “MOONSEA” printed on it.

The mattresses, manufactured in China, were sold exclusively online at Amazon.com from January through August 2023 for about $40.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled pack and play mattresses, and contact Moonseasleep to receive a full refund and for directions on how to dispose of the mattresses.

Moonseasleep and Amazon are contacting all purchasers directly.

Consumers may contact Moonseasleep by email at service@moonseasleep.com or online at https://www.moonseasleep.com/pages/product-recalls for more information.

Sumitomo Rubber USA is recalling 1,900 Falken Wildpeak AT3W size 265/70R17 115T, and Wildpeak HT02 size LT235/85R16 120/116S tires.

Due to a manufacturing error, the tires may have a puncture in the sidewall and leak air, increasing the risk of a crash

What to do

Dealers will replace the affected tires free of charge.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed January 11, 2024.

Owners may contact Sumitomo customer service at (877) 763-0416.

Getting to and from school is supposed to be a safe activity – supposed to be. But, if your child rides the school bus, there may be more nonsense going on than them getting a noogie or getting their pigtails pulled.

Security company Tenable says it found security flaws in Edulog's Parent Portal, which thousands of K-12 districts use to enable parents to follow their students' bus routes. 

If you’re thinking it’s no big deal, think about this: If someone cunning enough wanted to pinpoint the names of students, what bus they’re riding on, how to contact their parents, the bus’s current location, pick-up and drop-off times, and notifications about delays or route changes, wouldn’t you be a little worried?

It's undetermined just how many kids and parents were at risk. Edulog doesn’t disclose an exact number of app users on its website and did not respond to a ConsumerAffairs request for such data, but those 7,500 school districts it works with are in 49 US states. 

Those include Henrico County Va., (Richmond) where school buses transport 28,000 students daily, Durham N.C., where 18,000 students ride the bus, and Jefferson Co. Public Schools (Louisville) where some 10,000 parents reportedly have downloaded the app after a massive bus issue that caused the school district to close school for a week. 

Edulog takes action – but was it enough?

Fortunately, this story’s ending is half good and half, hmm. When Tenable made Edulog aware of these gaffes, Edulog sat up, listened, and patched  the flaws, so they aren't exposed to cybercriminals anymore. 

The flip side of this is that ConsumerAffairs understands that Edulog has decided not to tell customers that there ever was a security issue, so it’s possible that parents will remain in the dark that their kids could have been tracked by bad actors unless school districts opt to go public with that information.

“Even without the vulnerabilities discovered in the Parent Portal services, there isn’t necessarily anything stopping a malicious actor from signing up for an account and obtaining a registration code for a given school through other means," Jimi Sebree, senior staff research engineer at Tenable said.

"The actor could ask another parent, call the school and pretend to be a parent or simply search for one on the internet."

ConsumerAffairs asked both Edulog and several school districts what was being done in light of the report. Only Peoria Unified (AZ) responded, saying it is working with Edulog on the issue and to its knowledge, there has not been any data breach of its students' data.

Parents, school districts need to take action

Getting to and from school is supposed to be a safe activity, and this is just one of the hundreds of apps and software schools use every day. However, app companies can play it loose with apps that school districts suggest their students use. One report found that 96% of educational apps share children’s personal information with third parties.

“This is a situation where all those involved – Edulog employees, agents for the school districts, and parents using the services – are responsible for making sure the data relating to these services is handled properly,” Tenable said.

Tenable says that any parent concerned about their child’s privacy should examine what data the app developer says it’s using.

The App Store and GooglePlay stores both require apps to list permissions used by the apps. They don't necessarily require any transparency regarding the types of data collected, but if you’re a parent and want something more definitive as to what kinds of information schools are able to share with private parties, FERPA is probably the best reference.

If you’ve ever tried to cancel your cable service, it’s possible you were gobsmacked by junk fees. Fed up trying to respond to all those complaints, the Federal  Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to initiate a proposed rule barring cable providers from charging "early termination fees” that can often exceed $200, like it did Karen of Redondo Beach Calif., when she tried to cancel her Spectrum contract.

If you want to think of this as a shell game, you’re entitled to it. You may cancel your service for any number of reasons – moving, financial hardship, or poor service.

According to Mark Chen at Billsmart, you’re probably going to get charged an early termination fee unless you’re dead or in the military, and even in those cases, you’ll need to provide proof.

A tough battle made tougher

The Biden administration has had some wind at its back on the issue of junk fees up to now, but not in this situation. 

The Commission’s efforts are already facing major headwinds from cable providers and trade groups. Accountable.US spokesperson Liz Zelnick said that despite what consumers want, those groups are dropping tens of millions of dollars lobbying against federal efforts.

“CEOs chasing profits would rather make excuses for junk fees than consider it’s a big reason why so many of their customers are cutting the cord,” she said. 

“Americans should have the power to end services they don’t want without being price-gouged with hundreds of dollars in termination junk fees.”

But do you have that power? Sadly, little or nothing at all. The best thing you can do is ask for some mercy on the fees, be sent to someone in “retention” and ask for a better deal, or just suck it up, pay what they’re asking for, and chalk it up as a bad experience.

Ah, the fine print

You see, these companies have “fine print” on their side – and when you signed up for the service, you agreed to what’s in that fine print as was the case with Michelle from South Milwaukee Wisc., when she tried to cancel her Spectrum service.

Michelle’s understanding was that she would get an “adjusted bill,” but when that adjustment never appeared and she called back, the company’s tune changed a bit.

“I was advised today that there is fine print on the bill that says that it doesn't matter when you cancel your service you will have to pay until the end of the billing cycle," she wrote. 

"At no point during my conversation when I was canceling service, did the agent tell me this, in fact, just the opposite as I already stated above, she said I would get an adjusted bill in the next couple of days."

It's another reason to pay these things with a credit card and let the credit card company do your fighting for you. There’s no guarantee, but as ConsumerAffairs has found out several times over the last year, credit cards do offer more consumer protection than almost anything else. Just sayin’...

In October, mortgage rates were around 8%, but that didn’t deter home sellers. Data compiled by CoreLogic shows home prices that month were 4.7% higher than in October 2022.

But all real estate is local. Price changes varied from market to market across the country.

To provide a visual element to these price changes, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York put the data into a map of the U.S. Homes in counties shaded in blue gained value while those in brown lost value. Counties in white were not measured.

The map shows that red-hot Miami-Dade County cooled down a bit in October, with home prices rising 8.8%, down from recent double-digit gains. Maricopa County, Arizona – another active market during the pandemic, saw home prices rise but only by 2.2%.

Markets with double-digit gains were few are far between. Home prices in Chippewa Falls, Wisc., surged 22.2%. The price of a home in Becker County, Minn., rose 15.5% and 16.1% in Siskiyou County, Calif., the northernmost country in the state.

Price declines were more numerous in the West and Southwest. Home prices in Travis County, home of Austin, were down over 6%. Home prices in Okanogan County, Wash., were 5.3% lower than a year ago.

While the October 2023 map doesn’t show the housing market “crash” that many people predicted, the October 2022 map shows just how much prices have changed in 12 months.

In October 2022, home prices in Miami-Dade County increased 22.2% over the previous year and prices in Albany County, Wyo., a popular ski area, had gained 20.2%.

With scammers running rampant this holiday season, it’s more important than ever for consumers to stay vigilant and safe in the final weeks leading up to Christmas – and into the new year. 

In an effort to bring some levity to the serious situation of cybersecurity, while also providing consumers with tangible advice on staying safe, Karin Garrido, vice president and general manager at AT&T, Pacific States, shared “The 12 Cybersecurity Don’ts of Christmas” with ConsumerAffairs. 

While the security tips may seem funny and lighthearted – and they are – their sentiments ring true. With online shopping, shipping gifts, and the general frenzy of the holidays, it’s easy to get lax with online security measures. 

With Garrido’s advice, the goal is to keep your private information private for the holiday season and beyond. 

The 12 Cybersecurity Don’ts of Christmas

Here is Garidoo’s official “12 Cybersecurity Don’ts of Christmas:” 

1. Re-gifting passwords: Just like last year's fruitcake, re-gifting passwords across multiple accounts is a no-go. Santa uses a password manager.

- If you use the same password on several accounts, then all those accounts are vulnerable if your password is exposed on just one of them. It’s hard to keep track of so many passwords, so a reputable “password manager” is a good option. 

2. Clicking on mischievous links: Not all links are wrapped with good intentions. Think twice before clicking on them, and three times before entering information.

3. Ignoring software update elves: These diligent elves deliver security patches that shield devices from new threats. Don't ignore their hard work!

4. Typing Santa’s credit card number on an open network: Public Wi-Fi networks can be as open as a chimney on Christmas Eve. Don’t expose sensitive intel to cyber-Scrooges.

- As a precaution against electronic snooping, you should avoid typing in sensitive information like credit card numbers when you’re using public Wi-Fi. 

5. Keeping a cluttered digital house: You might get unwanted company, so it’s wise to delete old downloads and emails that are full of personal information.

- If someone succeeds in breaking into your email or computer, what will they find? If you don’t need old emails with your Social Security number and other personal information, it’s best to delete them.

6. Downloading a Trojan reindeer: Untrusted software downloads can be like a Trojan reindeer, carrying unwanted malware gifts.

- This is a longtime safety tip. Don’t download software from non-trusted sites or unexpected pop-ups.

7. Forgetting to back up data: Regular data backups are like keeping an extra set of presents in the attic, just in case. 

-If you have documents or photos that you wouldn’t want to lose, copy them in more than one secure place on a regular basis. 

8. Oversharing on social media: Oversharing personal information is like leaving your doors and windows wide open during the holidays. Facts about you can be used by fraudsters in many ways. Your pet’s name or mother’s family name may be a backup for a forgotten password. 

9. Bypassing multi-factor authentication: This adds an extra layer of security for your accounts, just like double wrapping those precious gifts. If a criminal gets your password, an extra line of defense can help keep them out of an account. 

10. Leaving devices unattended: Devices left alone in public places are as tempting as unattended milk and cookies. Use a screen lock, too.

11. Using Santa123 as the North Pole password: Weak and predictable passwords are like a flimsy lock on a treasure chest of gifts.To make a password long and strong, consider a passphrase with several words inside it. Longer is recommended to help defeat automated password guessing. 

12. Having a bit of eggnog and forgetting to log off a public device: This is like leaving your sleigh full of gifts unattended in the town square. Occasionally we all may need to log into a hotel or public library computer. Uncheck “remember me” and don’t forget to log out. 

Scams don’t end with the holidays

Though the holiday season will wrap up in a few weeks, that doesn’t mean scammers’ work is done. Consumers need to keep cybersecurity at the top of their minds into the new year, as advancements in technology are likely to make it easier than ever to be on the receiving end of a scam. 

“The rise of AI and Deepfakes will result in more sophisticated communications fraud and imposter attacks,” Clayton LiaBraaten, senior executive advisor at Truecaller, told ConsumerAffairs. “In 2024, large language model (LLM) technology will enable highly granular data scraping and mining to enable extremely targeted, contextually relevant scam and fraud campaigns at scale."

Yes, 2024 is an election year. Consumers will likely be inundated by political voice and text SPAM. Not all of it will be legitimate.

Volvo Car USA is recalling 2,911model year 2015-2024 XC90 s.

The second-row seat belt buckle and lower belt anchor bolts may not be tightened properly.

A seat belt buckle that is not tightened properly may not restrain an occupant as intended, increasing the risk of injury during a crash.

What to do

Dealers will inspect and tighten the second-row seat belt buckle anchorage bolts -- as necessary -- free of charge.

Owners will be notified by mail beginning January 29, 2024.

Owners may contact Volvo customer service at (800) 458-1552. Volvo Car's number for this recall is R10259.

It turns out Wall Street was right. Stocks rallied last month on the growing belief that not only was the Federal Reserve done hiking interest rates, it would cut rates next year.

At the conclusion of the Fed’s December meeting, members of the Fed’s Open Market Committee (FMOC) released projections for 2024. Most penciled in three cuts in the federal funds rate, which determines interest rates on car loans, credit cards and banks’ prime lending rates.

Not surprisingly, stocks surged with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 512 points, or 1.2%.

What it means

Here’s what that does to the investment environment:

• Savers will likely get less interest on their money. Yields on Treasury bonds fell on the news.

• Tech stocks, which led the November rally, gained even more.

• Oil prices rose after finishing the previous day at their lowest level since June.

• The price of gold, which had fallen over the last couple of weeks, posted a solid gain.

But it may be too soon for investors to make significant moves based on the Fed’s outlook. Oliver Rust, head of Product at Truflation, says the outlook is far from certain.

“With the labor market still running exceptionally hot and Truflation forecasting inflation will rise again in December, we expect policymakers will have to review their position and consider whether they need to increase rates again,” Rust told ConsumerAffairs.

There are still Fed ‘hawks’

“This would be a shock to the market, which is now overwhelmingly expecting the Fed’s next move to be an interest rate cut – though the majority now expect this to happen in May, rather than March. However, the market may be underestimating the extent of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish stance.”

Rust also notes two of the incoming FOMC members next year also have hawkish views on monetary policy.

“This could further sway the committee toward another interest rate hike, should economic data suggest this is required,” he said. 

"In short, we are not seeing the economic slowdown required to bring inflation fully under control, which remains a core part of the Fed’s mandate. We expect Chairman Powell to remain firmly committed to this goal in 2024. If he does not see the necessary softening in the economic data in the new year, we believe he may still push for another 0.25% interest rate hike – and perhaps gain more support from his committee than he would have done this month.”

Generally, higher interest rates are a negative drag on stocks since they increase companies’ operating costs and can drag down profits.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is working to put a law into effect that would get drunk drivers off the road. 

The agency wants to put alcohol-detection technology in all new passenger vehicles. In preventing drunk and impaired driving, the efforts would effectively save thousands of lives across the country. 

“It is tragic that drunk driving crashes are one of the leading causes of roadway fatalities in this country and far too many lives are lost,” said Polly Trottenberg, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. “The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking we are announcing today is the first step toward a new safety standard requiring alcohol-impaired-driving prevention technology in new passenger vehicles.” 

Taking the first steps

As Trottenberg explained, the NHTSA has submitted an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement alcohol-detecting technology into passenger vehicles. This is the first step required to eventually have the rule turned into federal law. 

According to the Advanced Notice that NHTSA submitted, there is a great opportunity to make lasting change across the country with more widespread implementation of this technology. 

However, the agency also pointed out some of the current roadblocks. The current technology isn’t designed for drunk and impaired driving detection; there are issues differentiating between varying states of impairment; false positives and general immaturity of the technology. 

With all of this in mind, NHTSA has identified new technologies that could be improved upon to work in these specific cases, including monitoring systems that would prevent drivers from shifting their cars into gear if they're over the legal alcohol limit. 

The goal now is to get as much insight into the available technologies as possible and determine if such features could be implemented into cars on such a large scale. This process – of the proposed rule becoming a law – can take several years. 

The official submission goes into great detail on the country’s history with drunk driving, the definition of impaired driving, current efforts to curtail drunk driving, and more. 

A nationwide problem

The announcement of the new rule comes during December, which has been dubbed National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. According to NHTSA’s data, drunk and impaired driving is a nationwide problem on several levels. 

The agency estimated that alcohol-related injuries, fatalities, and property damage cost the U.S. roughly $280 billion per year. 

On top of that, the number of lives lost as a result of drunk driving continues to be a cause for concern. The most current data comes from 2021, a year in which over 13,300 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes.

Is now a good time to refinance your mortgage? If you had asked that question in October the answer would have probably been “absolutely not.” Mortgage rates were around 8% at the time.

But what a difference two months makes. Rates have drifted lower over the last couple of weeks. After the Federal Reserve declined to raise rates at its December meeting and signaled rate cuts next year, they moved even lower.

Even before the Fed action, current homeowners with higher mortgage rates were racing to refinance, to shave a little off their monthly house payment. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 7.4% this week from one week earlier. 

On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased by 6% compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 19% from the previous week and was 27% higher than the same week one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 39.2% of total applications from 34.7% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.3 percent of total applications.

Things should get even better next year

MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni said the Fed’s pivot at the December meeting should make it even more advantageous to refinance.

“Additional rate hikes no longer appear to be part of the conversation,” he said. “It is all about the pace of cuts from here. This is good news for the housing and mortgage markets. We expect that this path for monetary policy should support further declines in mortgage rates, just in time for the spring housing market. We are forecasting modest growth in new and existing home sales in 2024, supporting growth in purchase originations, following an extraordinarily slow 2023.”

Mortgage rates are heavily influenced by the yield on the Treasury’s 10-year bond. That yield dropped below 4% this week for the first time since August.

DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said the news should get even better for refinancing homeowners and those hoping to buy a home. After the Fed decision, Gundlach predicted the influential 10-year Treasury yield will to the 3% range next year.

Three Mazda models have earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) TOP SAFETY PICK+ award, the group's highest measure of safety on the road.

The three models are the 2024 Mazda 3 sedan, Mazda 3 hatchback and Mazda CX-30. The first two are small cars while the CX-30 is a small SUV.

What, exactly, sets them apart? All three were judged to have a “good” rating in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, original moderate overlap front and updated side tests.

All three have “acceptable” or “good” headlights across all trim levels and have a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations.

On the other hand, the next-highest tier of IIHS ratings –  TOP SAFETY PICK award – only requires an acceptable rating in the updated side test and only an advanced or superior rating in the daytime vehicle-to-pedestrian test.

According to IIHS, the Mazda 3 sedan and hatchback both meet the requirements for the higher-tier award with all standard equipment. The standard front crash prevention system earns superior ratings in both the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations. 

Two separate headlight variations are offered with different trims, one rated good and the other rated acceptable.

‘Constant pursuit of advanced safety’

"Mazda is proud to add to our list of top award winners," said Tom Donnelly, president and CEO of Mazda North America Operations. "We do so out of our constant pursuit of advanced safety, always aiming to provide our customers with the highest level of support and protection."

Previously, all three models earned IIHS's lower-tier TOP SAFETY PICK award. For the 2024 model year, Mazda said it made  system enhancements that improved safety and allowed the vehicles to earn the top, superior ratings in IIHS's pedestrian crash avoidance ratings, including their new nighttime tests.

IIHS says the CX-30 also qualifies for the “plus” with standard equipment. All models come with a front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings in the daytime and nighttime tests, and the two available headlight variations both earn good ratings.