Business and Finance

Wilfrid Sio was suspicious when he got an email from PayPal, with a subject line saying account verification.

"Congratulations! You have been chosen by the Online Department to take part in our survey. In return, we will credit $99 to your account, just for your time."

Instead of clicking on the link in the email, he wrote to me instead.

Send it to spoof@paypal.com, I told him.

The company’s response: "You’re right – it was a phishing attempt and we’re working on stopping the fraud. By reporting the problem, you’ve made a difference."

Phishing (pronounced fishing) is a fraud designed to steal your identity. It uses false pretenses to get you to disclose sensitive personal information, such as credit card numbers or account passwords.

A common scam involves sending a fraudulent email that claims to be from a well-known company. Phishing can also be carried out in person, over the phone, through fraudulent pop-up windows and websites.

How do you spot a phishing email?

There are some telltale signs, which I verified by comparing Sio’s spoof against a genuine PayPal email I received recently (telling me the credit card used for my account had expired).

• Generic greeting. A typical phishing email will have a generic greeting, such as "Dear User." The spoof was addressed to "Dear client, PayPal." All real PayPal emails will use your first and last name.
• False sense of urgency. A phishing email will try to deceive you by saying you will be in jeopardy if your account is not updated right away. The spoof said the survey deadline was Nov. 30, three weeks after the mailing date, to avoid losing out on the $99 credit.
• Fake links. A phishing email will have a link that looks legitimate, but may send you to a fraudulent website. The spoof had a link to www.xcyg.net, which preceded the PayPal name and led me to Beijing Sunrise Technology Co. Ltd. (almost entirely in Chinese). Always check where a link is going before you click and if it looks suspicious, don’t click it.

Eric Hagedorn, an experienced eBay seller, says you should never sign into your PayPal account from a link provided by an email, no matter what the email says.

"This is how 90 per cent of all PayPal accounts get hacked – the person gives away their password to a fake PayPal site."

Always log into PayPal by opening a new browser and typing in the following, https://www.paypal.com/ca.

The term "https" should precede any web address (or URL) where you enter personal information. The "s" stands for secure. If you don’t see "https," you’re not in a secure web session and you should not enter data.

Now there’s an extra layer of security for the 8 million registered PayPal accounts in Canada – a foolproof system to prevent your account from being hacked.

The PayPal security key, which costs $5, has two forms. You can carry a small device, the size of a credit card, which lets you create a unique six-digit security code each time you log into your account. Or you can sign up to get unique security codes sent by text message to your mobile phone.

"With this in place, you can give your passwords to hackers and they’ll still be unable to break into your account," Hagedorn says.

PayPal, owned by eBay Inc., accounted for 31 per cent of company revenues in the last quarter. It’s now accepted by other online retailers such as Dell and La Senza.

Next Sunday, I’ll look at prepaid credit cards and problems that can arise when using them online.

eroseman@thestar.ca

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Qwest Communications International Inc posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit and boosted its full-year outlook as it planned more cut costs, sending its shares up 3.4 percent.

While the telephone operator’s quarterly revenue fell 9.6 percent, slightly steeper than analysts had expected, investors cheered Qwest’s ability to rein in costs.

“They’re shrinking their way to greatness here,” said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King. “It continues to be a cost-cutting story.”

Like bigger phone companies AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, Qwest has been losing home phone customers to cable rivals and to wireless, as some consumers forsake landlines to depend entirely on cellphones.

Qwest reported a third-quarter net profit of $136 million, or 8 cents per share, compared with $145 million, or 8 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding unusual items, earnings per share would have been 9 cents compared with the average analyst estimate of 7 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

In the quarter, Qwest’s cost of sales fell to $932 million from $1.23 billion a year ago.

Revenue fell to $3.05 billion, compared to the average Street estimate of $3.07 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company said “wireless substitution, increased unemployment, low business formation and soft housing trends” in its 14-state operating region cut into revenue faxless payday advance.

However, Qwest forecast full-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to be at the upper end of its previous target of $4.25 billion to $4.4 billion.

Qwest also cut its capital spending target for the year to $1.6 billion or lower, from its previous budget of $1.7 billion or lower, and raised its estimate for full-year adjusted free cash flow to a range of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion, from the previous target of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion.

“Qwest’s numbers were generally in line and slightly better on the outlook,” said Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen. “The name of the game for Qwest this quarter and for the rest of the year is strong cost cutting.”

Total access lines fell about 11 percent in the quarter, with the biggest decline coming in its consumer business, Qwest said.

“We are optimistic about our prospects as the economy begins to improve in the quarters ahead,” Qwest Chief Executive Edward Mueller said in the earnings statement.

Qwest shares rose 3.4 percent, or 12 cents, in premarket trade to $3.57.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Derek Caney)

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Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii issued his clearest warning yet that his nation is open to intervening in the currency market even as the Group of Seven declined to criticize the tumbling dollar.

“If currencies show some excessive moves in a biased direction, we will take action,” Fujii said Oct. 3 in Istanbul after a meeting of G-7 finance ministers and central bankers. He declined to say if the yen is now trading in such a way.

Fujii’s position has shifted since his initial remarks on taking office last month, when he opposed seeking a “weak” yen and selling the currency which last week rose to an eight-month high of 88.24 against the dollar. The gain is threatening the profits of exporters from Canon Inc. to Toyota Motor Corp.

The change in stance reflects a slide in the dollar that has sparked concern from Canada to France over the potential impact on economic recoveries. While the G-7 stopped short of issuing a specific call for a stronger U.S. currency, Fujii’s language raises the risk of the first currency-market action by a G-7 nation since 2004.

“Japan is thinking more about the currency’s effect on the real economy, and if necessary they’ll intervene,” Gerard Lyons, the London-based chief economist of Standard Chartered Bank, said in Istanbul. “For now they seem to want to talk it down, but eventually they’ll have to do something about it.”

Comments ‘Misunderstood’

Fujii, 77, said last month he opposed stepping into the foreign-exchange market in principle, before revising that comment to say he wasn’t an advocate of a strong currency and that Japan was open to acting should the market move “abnormally.” Fujii said in Istanbul that his early comments about the yen “have been a bit misunderstood,” and that currencies should be set by markets.

Fujii is confusing traders and likely still wants the yen to gain as the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which won power in August, tries to refocus the economy toward domestic demand and away from exports, said Stephen Jen, a managing director at BlueGold Capital Management LLP in London.

“I doubt Finance Minister Fujii will materially change his stance until Japan is pushed deep into recession,” Jen said.

Japan hasn’t entered the foreign exchange market since the central bank, at the request of the Finance Ministry, sold a record 14.8 trillion yen ($164 billion) in the first quarter of 2004 to restrain the currency. In his first tenure as finance chief, from August 1993 until June 1994, Fujii oversaw more than 1.3 trillion yen ($15 billion) of yen sales. The G-7 hasn’t intervened as a group since September 2000.

Export-Driven Recovery

The yen’s appreciation threatens to undermine Japan’s export-driven economic recovery as the jobless rate hovers near a record high and deflation continues. Tokyo-based Canon, the country’s biggest maker of office equipment, estimates every 1 yen appreciation against the dollar will lower its second-half operating profit by 4.2 billion yen.

The “current level around 90 yen is a bit painful,” Yukitoshi Funo, executive vice president of Toyota City-based Toyota, the world’s largest seller of hybrid autos, said on Sept. 25. “I think the yen should be a little weaker.”

Fujii struck a different tone than his G-7 colleagues, who repeated that “excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates have adverse implications for economic and financial stability no teletrack payday loans.”

That means further declines in the dollar are likely, said Sophia Drossos, co-head for global foreign exchange strategy at Morgan Stanley in New York. In April 2008, the G-7 spoke out against a declining dollar by complaining about “sharp fluctuations in major currencies.”

Recognizing Limitations

“If the G-7 wanted to push back more forcefully, they could have,” said Drossos, a former manager of the Federal Reserve’s foreign-exchange portfolio. “Since they didn’t, they may be tolerant of recent moves or they may recognize their limitations in slowing recent trends.”

The dollar may also be undermined as governments and central bankers seek to tackle so-called imbalances such as the U.S. trade deficit and China’s current-account surplus, said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group in London.

“This inevitably validates dollar weakness” he said. “This was an impossible circle for the G-7 to square.”

Still, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said after the meeting that there is a need for a “strong dollar.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters that “it is very important to the United States that we continue to have a strong dollar.”

Pressure on China

The G-7 kept pressure on China to allow greater flexibility in the yuan in the interest of smoothing out lopsided flows of trade and investment. While the dollar has dropped 14 percent against a basket of seven currencies since early March, it has gained 0.3 percent against the yuan, which is managed by Chinese authorities.

That is handing Chinese exporters an advantage in overseas markets and forcing other nations to shoulder the burden of the dollar’s dive.

“We all need to have our currencies fluctuate” if their relative values are to be set by the market, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in an interview yesterday. He added: “There’s clearly upward pressure on the Canadian dollar.”

Lagarde said she was “struck” by Chinese pledges to bolster domestic demand. It was “very precise language” that, if followed, will help “address global imbalances” and “have consequences on exchange rates,” she said.

‘Fragile’ Recovery

G-7 officials said the global economic recovery is “fragile” and promised to maintain stimulus programs until growth takes hold. They met in Turkey before this week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary and World Bank and a week after the G-20 leaders named that forum as the primary arena for international economic policy-making.

The transfer of power toward the G-20, which includes emerging markets such as China and Brazil, prompted the G-7 finance officials to say they would tighten the schedule of their meetings, work more in parallel with G-20 events and issue statements only on merit. G-20 finance chiefs will meet next month in Scotland.

“We agreed that we want to work more informally again in the future, taking a step back to what it used to be like in the past,” said German Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen.

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In a victory for Boeing, a preliminary World Trade Organization panel is likely to rule on Friday that European governments illegally subsidized Airbus aircraft, the Wall Street Journal said, citing trade officials, lawyers and executives from both sides.

The expected ruling in the biggest trade dispute in the WTO’s nearly 15-year history has been years in the making.

Britain three weeks ago pledged 340 million pounds ($553.5 million) in loans to help Airbus develop the A350 widebody passenger jet, which is intended to compete with Boeing’s much-delayed 787 Dreamliner.

Germany would provide 1.1 billion euros ($1.57 billion) and France 1.4 billion euros ($2.0 billion), German and French officials have said.

Last week, a Ted Austell, Boeing’s vice president for government operations, told reporters that he hoped the expected ruling would force European governments to reconsider plans to help finance the A350.

Boeing and Airbus could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

($1=.6143 Pound =.7006 Euro)

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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Ontario teachers have upped their bet on Toronto sports fans, setting off a new round of speculation about the value of the city’s hockey, basketball and soccer teams.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan said yesterday it is buying a further 7.7 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment from media company CTVglobemedia.

That will leave Teachers’ with a 66 per cent stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC and the Marlies, plus the Air Canada Centre, BMO Field and Ricoh Coliseum.

The owner with the second-largest stake is businessman and MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum, who also increased his significant stake when he bought 7.7 per cent from CTVglobemedia in February.

In a release, Ivan Fecan, president of CTVglobemedia, said the broadcaster-publisher sold at a profit but said nothing about the sale or purchase price.

"The time is right for us to exit and redeploy the proceeds from this sale to pay down debt," Fecan revealed.

Like other media companies in Canada, CTV is faced with declining advertising revenue. Meanwhile, its lenders will require it to keep debt service costs in line with cash flow.

It has been a constant guessing game to determine the market value of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

Forbes business magazine estimated last November the Leafs were the most valuable hockey franchise in North America at $449 million (U.S.) and the Raptors the 17th most valuable basketball franchise at $310 million. Part of those estimates included the value of the Air Canada Centre, estimating it was worth about $228 million free credit report without a credit card. So, those three assets were supposedly worth $876 million (U.S.), or about $1.07 billion (Canadian) at the time.

The only public disclosure from an insider is contained in the 2008 annual report of the Ontario Teachers’ Plan.

The report reveals the pension plan put a total value of $1.58 billion in private Canadian equity holdings. It held a 25 per cent stake in CTVglobemedia and, at the time, a 58 per cent stake in MLSE, plus an undisclosed number of other companies worth less than $100 million each.

Any estimate of the value of these firms would be based on old data in a period of rapidly deteriorating ad revenue. An estimate at time of sale would be complicated further by the fact the buyers are part-owners of the motivated seller.

Pension plan executives would have had an interest in propping up CTVglobemedia while, at the same time, assigning a significant value to Maple Leaf Sports.

Spokespersons for CTVglobemedia and Ontario Teachers’ both declined comment beyond what was in their release. All parties would have committed to keep the private transaction, well, private.

Tanenbaum chose not to return a telephone call, as did Eugene Melnyk, owner of Ontario’s other major league hockey team, the Ottawa Senators franchise.

A spokesperson for would-be franchise purchaser Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research In Motion, said he would not talk to the press.

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Struggling handset maker Sony Ericsson is focusing on a return to profit and increasing its market share, incoming Chief Executive Bert Nordberg told Reuters in an interview.

“I would go for increased market share and restoring profitability,” Nordberg said when asked where he hopes to see Sony Ericsson in 1-2 years’ time.

He said turning to profit “can’t be too far away.”

Sony Ericsson said on Monday Chief Executive Dick Komiyama would retire at the end of the year, with Ericsson executive Nordberg to take the helm effective October 15 payday advance.

The venture has reported steep losses in past quarters and seen its market share slip to below 5 percent.

Nordberg said he would continue ongoing restructuring at the firm and look for a strategic refocus of its product portfolio — the company’s key weakness.

“In this industry you need smash-hit products,” he said. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki)

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Citing weak demand for coal used to fuel power plants, Patriot Coal Corp. will shut a mine in southern West Virginia and eliminate 314 jobs.

Employees were notified that they’ll lose their jobs as of Oct. 5, Creve Coeur-based Patriot said in a statement.

The mine being closed produces about 2.5 million tons of coal a year. It is part of a complex that also includes an underground mine.

The recession and cooler weather across parts of the country have led to a decline in electricity demand. In response, coal producers have shut or idled mines and slashed budgets free business cards.

“Our strategy is to concentrate production at lower-cost mining complexes,” Patriot CEO Richard M. Whiting said in a statement. “By ceasing operations at this higher-cost surface mine, Patriot will keep valuable permitted reserves in the ground until the market yields more favorable pricing and margins.”

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Dave Difani had no desire to use his engineering degree when he graduated from college. Instead, in 1986, he chose to gamble on revamping a rowdy biker bar in the Tower Grove South neighborhood in St. Louis. The bar was old, small and disliked by neighbors because of fights that would spill out of it at night.

But Difani used a family inheritance to buy the building and committed to turning his new bar, Black Thorn Pub & Pizza, into a respectable establishment. His entire life became about the bar. He worked evenings and late nights before retiring to the basement for rest. He learned to fix the old building’s plumbing and electricity to save money. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was his.

It took years, but Difani said he was able to change his clientele by making prices high enough to drive out the bikers but cheap enough to attract college students from St. Louis University. He later developed a softball league, 10 years after starting the business, began selling one of St. Louis’ most well-known pizza pies. Black Thorn’s deep-dish pizza is known as much for flavor as for the time it takes to cook (often more than an hour).

In the past five years, Difani has allowed his staff to run most of the business’ daily operations. He said he often stops in to help maintain the 100-year-old building, but Difani is usually gone in time to pick up his kids from the school bus.
How hard was it?

The early years were fun. There were three apartments upstairs which helped make the mortgage. I had a mattress downstairs right under the bar, right next to the boiler so I’d be warm in the winter time. … I spent two years downstairs. I rigged a shower over the drain in the the concrete floor because every cent that I had was going into the business.

How did you turn the corner to a new clientele and image?

In 1988, I sponsored a softball league, which played out of Tower Grove Park, and that was probably what saved us. It turned my worst season into my best season. The summer season had been bad in 1987, because all the students and my friends were gone. Business had dropped off the table and I didn’t know quite what to do about it cash loans in 1 hour. … By the time I quit the league (after 20 years) and turned it over to a friend, we had 52 or 54 teams playing at four or five different parks.

Why did you choose to make thicker pizzas instead of a traditional St. Louis-style thin crust?

The St. Louis style pizza is a wonderful invention. But when you’re starting a business and you have no money, and you’ve got $20 in your wallet and you want dinner, if you spend that $20 you’re going to want dinner from it, lunch tomorrow and probably dinner tomorrow.

… As much as I enjoyed the St. Louis style, it didn’t fill me up and I didn’t feel it was a cost-effective way to spend $20. And I never wanted anyone to feel that way about my product.

How have you been able to overcome the long time it takes to make your pizza?

To this day, it amazes me. … It’s nothing to ask people to wait an hour or hour and a half. As a matter fact, we have had waits go over two and a half hours and have had people say that’s OK.

Personally, I wouldn’t do it! (Laughs) … That is what I mean when I say that once somebody desires your product, telling them it’s a two-hour wait, is not necessarily bad. It brings it in perspective: This is what people will do to have my pizza.

How have you been able to let go and spend less time running the business?

The simplest way I can think to explain it is you hire trustworthy people and then you trust them. I love my staff, try to take care of them. They take care of me. Numbers don’t lie; there are accounting processes that you go through to make sure not too much is lost due to spoilage or things of that nature.

… I have moved on to a point where I love the time I’m able to spend with my family. … My advice is when you get to the point where the business can sustain itself, then allow it to, because there is so much more to life.

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Bank of America Corp. could eventually shrink its 6,100-branch network by about 10 percent as consumers utilize other methods of banking, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Bank of America spokesman James Mahoney made the comments when asked about a published report that CEO Ken Lewis and another bank executive described such a plan to investors at a meeting last week.

The move would be a pullback from the bank’s two-decade expansion, most recently under Lewis’ command, which expanded the bank from coast to coast.

The bank does not have a specific number of branches that will ultimately compose its franchise, Mahoney said, adding there’s no immediate plan to close 10 percent of the bank’s branches.

"In response to a question from an investor on the magnitude of branch closings, Lewis did acknowledge that the range could be potentially 10 percent," Mahoney said.

However, Richard Bove of Rochdale Research said the reason for the closures is both economic and regulatory.

"While the bank is likely to close the branches, the reason being given is simply farcical," Bove wrote Tuesday. "The branches will be closed because they are not economically viable."

The news comes as Bank of America continues to be under the careful watch of the U business cards.S. government, while it works to integrate two recent deals.

Bank of America acquired troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. last summer and investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. in January.

Those two acquisitions have proven challenging for Lewis, who was stripped of his chairman title by a shareholder vote at the annual meeting in April.

The bank and Lewis have been under intense scrutiny because Bank of America is one of the biggest recipients of government bailout money — $45 billion — and because the losses at Merrill Lynch turned out to be much higher than expected.

Last week, Bank of America announced a big second-quarter profit but tempered the news by reporting that it is still contending with losses from failed loans.

During a call with analysts, Lewis said it would be "much tougher" to turn a profit for the rest of the year.

Bank of America has roughly 61 branches and 2,800 employees in metro St. Louis.

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Canadian new car sales are in a slump, down 18 per cent in the first six months of 2009.

This means you can find some great new car buys as the 2010 models start to come in.

Dealers are still rolling out cash rebates, low-rate financing, free gasoline and job-loss protection plans to get you in the door.

But you have to shop carefully. The incentives aren’t as rich as earlier in the year, experts say, and some popular models are in short supply.

"This is a wake-up call to people who think they can keep the old car around," says Paul Timoteo, president of Armada Data Corp., which runs several automotive websites.

"Summer is a very good time to buy, when the market is a bit slower."

Incentives for buyers are good, but not quite as generous as in the recent past, says Dennis DesRosiers, a well-known auto industry analyst.

General Motors, which had the most generous incentives, has gone through bankruptcy protection – meaning that other automakers do not have to match GM’s incentives any more.

Some companies, however, are bucking industry trends.

Hyundai Canada sold 21 per cent more cars in the first half of this year, boosted by low prices and much improved quality.

Just ask DesRosiers what brand he’d pick as the best combination of price, quality and fuel efficiency.

"Hands down, it’s Hyundai," he says. "In terms of value for money, it’s offering the best deals in the market, bar none."

What brands would he stay away from?

"I’d avoid brands that are bankrupt, such as Saab, Hummer and Pontiac, primarily because the resale value will drop.

"This happened with Mercury and Oldsmobile after they were discontinued. Of course, you can buy a Pontiac if you want to drive it until it dies."

Chrysler Canada has big cash rebates and low-rate financing after coming out of bankruptcy protection. But since production stopped for several weeks, inventory is low.

"Chrysler and GM are both short of cars," says Zvi Richman of First Rate Auto Leasing Inc., who acts as a broker.

Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda are trimming back rebates after their sales dropped this year online cash advance.

"There are still good deals on some models, but not as high as in February or March," Richman says about the two big Japanese automakers.

"Honda Civic had a $1,500 cash rebate earlier this year, but now it’s zero. Honda Odyssey, no rebate. Toyota Sienna, no rebate."

Remember when all the ads screamed, "Now is the best time in history to buy a new car?"

Well, the message got through, Timoteo says.

"The deals are becoming few and far between. Because the dealers were running scared in the spring and didn’t order enough cars, now it’s too late to order. Everyone is scrambling."

Timoteo runs a consumer website, CarCostCanada.com, which supplies dealer cost invoices for $39.95.

In the past two years, his members have saved an average of more than $5,500 on GM models and $6,000 on new Cadillacs.

There are different types of cash incentives, Timoteo says. Automakers can discount the car’s suggested retail price and offer rebates to buyers over and above that amount.

As well, automakers can offer rebates directly to dealers. These dealer incentives are rarely advertised and only known to buyers who do their homework.

The Automobile Protection Association, a consumer group with offices in Toronto and Montreal, also has a dealer cost pricing service.

APA counsellor George Powell likes the Hyundai Elantra, which has a five-year bumper-to-bumper warranty, zero per cent financing for three years or 0.9 per cent financing for four years, plus a cash rebate of $3,000 to $3,350.

But he warns buyers to hurry before the incentives run out.

His son Geoff got a $6,500 rebate on a 2009 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan with leather seats and sunroof last March.

Today, the cash-back amount has gone down to $4,500.

"He was $781.20 better off buying in March than today," Powell says.

eroseman@thestar.ca

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