Beware & Protect Yourself 02 (Jan 09 - Aug 10)

[kennynah]

That shipment was then "re-exported" — which under U.S. law doesn't mean it had to be sent back to China.

( So another third world country will have these bracelets ? )

willing seller, willing buyer...

[millionairemind]

May 14, 2010
Beware of fake landlords
They target expatriates, offer fake properties
By Mavis Toh

AS THE expatriate population grows, con men have started trawling Singapore-based rental websites, targeting foreigners who are looking to rent properties here.

Posing as owners of choice properties such as condominiums in District 10, they give potential tenants fake addresses and even pictures of well-furnished homes to trick unsuspecting foreigners into wiring down payments to them.

The police did not give details on how many people have been cheated in online property rental scams.

[kennynah]

willing victim, willing conman

[winston]

McDonald's recalls 12 million Shrek drinking glasses

June 04, 2010 09:26 AM ET


DETROIT (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp has recalled 12 million "Shrek"-themed drinking glasses after the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned consumers to stop using them because they contain the toxic metal cadmium.

[winston]

Japan PM says foot-and-mouth 'national crisis'

Japan's new Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday labelled the country's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth in a decade a "national crisis", as he visited farms in the southwest hit by the disease.

"I want to do everything in my power to stop spreading the infection and terminate it," Kan told affected livestock farmers in Miyazaki prefecture, 850 kilometres (520 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

Kan, who took office on Tuesday, has appointed Masahiko Yamada as farm minister to replace Hirotaka Akamatsu, who came under fire over a slow response to the infection.

The highly contagious virus has brought to a halt beef and pork exports from the affected area and crippled Miyazaki's premium beef industry.

The outbreak, Japan's first since 2000, was detected in late April and spread quickly, and local authorities have started slaughtering more than 200,000 animals in the hard-hit prefecture.

"I regard the foot-and-mouth disease as a national crisis," Kan told Miyazaki Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru, who asked the central government to boost support.

Foot-and-mouth affects cloven-hoofed animals, also including sheep, goats and deer. It is rarely transmitted to humans but spreads easily between animals, causing them pain and often killing their young.

Source: AFP Asian Edition

[winston]

Mozzarella gets the blues in Italy amid complaints

Not your usual blue cheese: Italy confiscates 70,000 mozzarella balls after some turn blue

Italian police confiscated some 70,000 balls of mozzarella in Turin after consumers noticed the milky-white cheese quickly developed a bluish tint when the package was opened.

Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Calan ordered ministry laboratories to investigate what he called a disturbing development.

State TV said Saturday that a customer called police after noticing the mozzarella, made in Germany for an Italian company, turned blue after contact with air, and that several merchants in Turin received similar complaints about the cheese.

TV said samples were also sent to laboratories that normally deal with anti-doping testing in sport to see if they can detect any foreign substances.

Source: AP News

[millionairemind]

Jun 30, 2010
'Honey-laundering' busted

Honey-laundering is just one of many unsavoury practices that have besmirched China's vast honey industry and raised complaints from competing American beekeepers. -- PHOTO: AP

BEIJING - BUSINESSMAN Yan Yongxiang was trying to get around stiff US levies on imports of cheap Chinese honey. So he sent 15 shipping containers of cut-rate honey to the Philippines, where it was relabelled and sent on to the United States.

It is called honey-laundering, and the subterfuge let Yan skirt US$656,515 (S$917,647) in taxes before he was caught in a bust and pleaded guilty.

Yan's factory in central China's Henan province even filtered the metals and pollen from the honey so that US tests would not show it came from China, according to the 60-year-old's plea agreement. Now he awaits sentencing in a US jail.

Honey-laundering is just one of many unsavoury practices that have besmirched China's vast honey industry and raised complaints from competing American beekeepers. China produces more honey than anywhere else in the world, about 300,000 tonnes a year or about 25 per cent of the global total. But stocks are tainted with a potentially dangerous antibiotic and cheaper honeys are increasingly getting passed off as more expensive varieties.

Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration seized 64 drums of Chinese honey tainted with chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, at a warehouse in Philadelphia. Last year, the agency said two Chinese honey shipments were found to contain the drug, which is approved for medical use but banned in food products because in rare cases it can cause aplastic anemia, a potentially fatal illness.

Experts say quality problems are hard to avoid in a business dominated by small manufacturers, many of whom are poor and uneducated. US Senator Charles Schumer of New York has called for a federal standard for pure honey similar to guidelines already established for olive oil to help combat fakes or blends. Honey fraud and honey-laundering are part of a controversial debate over whether or not the US needs heavy subsidies to protect its homegrown honey industry. -- AP

[winston]

Selling Skills

If you're talking to a female salesperson and she reaches out and briefly puts her hand on your bicep, or your forearm, or she simply shakes your hand, just go ahead and sign on the dotted line because it's over, you're cooked, the deal is done.

That's the conclusion of two different marketing studies from Columbia University.

When subjects were asked to choose between a safe investment and a risky investment, those who were made to feel comfortable were much more likely to go with the risky choice--especially if they were touched by a woman who explained the choices.

And yes, these same results occurred with subjects of both sexes, not just men.

The leader of the study told Reuters Health, "If you're a doctor, or are in sales, this is a form of communication you might want to keep in mind."

And I would add to that: Keep it in mind ESPECIALLY if you're a doctor. Not so you can sell a patient on a therapy, but so you can avoid manipulation by drug sales reps. Because invariably, drug reps are young, good looking, and motivated. And most of them are women.

And if they reach out for that easy little touch…


Source: HSI

[millionairemind]

Jul 1, 2010
Keep an eye on fish prices
By Ng Kai Ling & Lim Wei Chean
WHEN it comes to fish, it pays to know your soon hock from your sultan. Wild-caught species of the latter are exceedingly rare, and can cost more than $300 per kg at restaurants here.

Now, a debate is brewing about whether customers should be told upfront if an item they order comes with a price tag that is off the charts.

It was sparked by the case of a customer who wanted to be known only as Mr Liu, who went to the Feng Shui Inn restaurant at Resorts World Sentosa with four friends from Hong Kong on June 12.

Mr Liu originally wanted to order a soon hock or Marble Goby dish, but when told that the restaurant had run out of it, he went with a waiter's recommendation and ordered sultan fish instead.

He told the Chinese evening newspaper Lianhe Wanbao that the waiter did not tell him the price of the fish, but he assumed it would be about the same price as soon hock, which costs about $90 per kg. But Mr Liu said he and his friends got a shock when they received a bill for $1,224 for the 1.8kg fish.

He complained and received a 15 per cent discount. But his main grouse was that the waiter didn't let him know the price of the sultan when he recommended it.

When contacted, RWS spokesman Robin Goh explained that Feng Shui Inn serves a very premium clientele. He said: 'It is not always appropriate to state menu prices to high-end customers who have come to expect certain discretion, especially when they entertain high-level guests. This is a practice shared by most high-end restaurants.'

[LenaHuat]

This thread is "Beware and Protect yourself", really Mr Liu should have more modest taste or arm himself with more $$. His HK friends wouldn't know a sultan fish from a sea bass. This case is different from that Newton hawker centre incident. He can't be unstreet smart.