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Once presenting itself as one of the world’s most welcoming countries to refugees and immigrants, Canada is launching a global online ad campaign cautioning asylum-seekers that making a claim is hard. The C$250,000 ($178,662) in advertisements will run through March in 11 languages, including Spanish, Urdu, Ukrainian, Hindi and Tamil, the immigration department told Reuters. They are part of a broader shift in tone by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unpopular government on immigration and an effort to clamp down on refugee claims. Migrants have been blamed for high housing prices, although some experts argue this is a simplistic explanation, and polls show a growing number of Canadians think the country admits too many newcomers. The four-month campaign is budgeted to cost a third of the total spend on similar advertisements over the previous seven years. Search queries such as “how to claim asylum in Canada” and “refugee Canada” will prompt sponsored content titled “Canada’s asylum system – Asylum Facts,” the ministry said. “Claiming asylum in Canada is not easy. There are strict guidelines to qualify. Find out what you need to know before you make a life-changing decision,” one ad reads. Canada has long been seen as a welcoming place for newcomers. Now its leaders are slashing immigration and trying to get temporary residents to leave and to prevent people fleeing U.S. President-elect Donald Trump from claiming asylum. “Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is working to combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation about Canada’s immigration system, and to highlight the risks of working with unauthorized representatives,” a department spokesperson wrote in an email. It may be an uphill battle. Canada’s refugee system faces a 260,000-case backlog amid growing global displacement. The government has little control over who claims asylum. Its immigration minister has hinted at fast-tracking claims deemed unlikely to succeed. The government is hoping millions of people will leave the country on their own when their visas expire, and the immigration minister has threatened to deport them if they do not. It is a dramatic about-face for a government that for years set out the welcome mat. In January 2017, when Trump took office, Trudeau tweeted: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” On Nov. 17, nearly eight years later, Trudeau published a video promoting his government’s immigration policies, calling out “bad actors” who “have been exploiting our immigration system for their own interests.” Last month, the Liberal government, trailing in polls, announced it is slashing permanent and temporary immigration. The population is projected to shrink slightly for two years. Ad campaigns to counter misinformation on how to apply for asylum could be useful, said University of Ottawa law professor and immigration expert Jamie Chai Yun Liew. “On the other hand, if they’re saying, ‘You’re not welcome’ ... it does seem contrary to Canada’s approach in the past,” she said. “They’ve switched their messaging.”
San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and top backup Jordan Mason are being placed on injured reserve. McCaffrey left the snowy field in Buffalo on Sunday night after a 5-yard gain that was preceded by him heading to the sideline in apparent pain at the end of an 18-yard run. McCaffrey was diagnosed with a posterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee and did not play in the second half. The 49ers also lost Jordan Mason, who emerged in a starting role with McCaffrey out the first two months of the season, to an ankle injury. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that Mason has a high-ankle sprain, which typically requires a recovery window of 4-6 weeks. Those moves push rookie Isaac Guerendo into the RB1 spot. He scored the team's only touchdown at Buffalo. The IR slots in San Francisco are manned by multiple starters, including wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and safety Talanoa Hufanga. Mason had a team-leading 789 rushing yards and scored three touchdowns. Being placed on IR means he's not eligible to play until the regular-season finale at Arizona. McCaffrey had 53 yards on seven carries on Sunday night and caught two passes for 14 yards before exiting. He was playing in just his fourth game of the season after missing the first eight because of Achilles tendinitis. McCaffrey was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year last season, when he led the league with 2,023 yards from scrimmage: a league-leading 1,459 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns plus 67 catches for 564 yards and seven scores. McCaffrey hasn't scored a touchdown in his four appearances this season. He has rushed for 202 yards on 50 carries and caught 15 passes for 146 yards. "It was frustrating," Shanahan said after the game. "He had a great week of practice and I could feel his urgency and stuff and thought he came out great, looking really good, and it looked like he just got his shoestring there. ... I hurt for him, and tough for our team not having him." The 49ers (5-7) played without defensive end Nick Bosa (oblique) and left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) in the 35-10 loss. San Francisco has lost three in a row heading into next Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears (4-8) in Santa Clara, Calif. San Francisco resides two games behind the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks (7-5) with five games remaining on the schedule. Seattle and San Francisco split their season series. --Field Level Media
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 21, 2024-- Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP, and VMware software, today announced Rimini ConnectTM Console , a single-pane-of-glass management tool that unifies and simplifies the administration and monitoring of Rimini ConnectTM, Rimini Street’s industry-leading suite of interoperability solutions. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241121087329/en/ Rimini Street Announces New Management Console for Rimini ConnectTM Suite of Interoperability Solutions (Graphic: Business Wire) Immediately available for Rimini ConnectTM for Browsers and for additional Rimini Connect solutions in the future, Rimini Connect Console is the latest advancement in Rimini Street’s interoperability solutions suite which are designed to extend the useful life of existing systems by insulating applications from changes in dynamic technology stacks and compatibility standards that may otherwise require costly upgrades or custom development. Rimini Connect Console unifies and automates several important capabilities into one centralized management tool, including: “Maintaining application interoperability with constant updates to dynamic technology stacks is a challenging, costly and never-ending effort that consumes potentially millions of dollars in forced software upgrades or development of custom, highly technical solutions,” said Desmond Whitt, vice president & general manager of Rimini Connect, adding that “Rimini Connect solutions future-proof your enterprise software against interoperability issues and Rimini Connect Console is designed to unify and streamline the monitoring and management of Rimini Connect solutions at scale, beginning with Rimini Connect for Browsers.” Rimini Connect Helps Businesses Achieve Modernization Without Disruption Built on Rimini Street’s experience of successfully resolving thousands of compatibility issues for clients since 2005, Rimini Connect provides a suite of seamless interoperability solutions that can resolve compatibility issues without requiring an upgrade of your core enterprise software. For example, Rimini Connect for Browsers enables IT teams to implement the latest releases of browsers without delay or worry of negative impact to current application releases. It also strategically decouples existing enterprise software from technology stack version dependencies, providing the flexibility needed for organizations to take control of their IT roadmap. Officeworks , a leading Australian retailer with over 167 stores nationwide and already a Rimini Street client for support of their SAP systems, deployed Rimini Connect for Browsers when Microsoft announced it would retire Internet Explorer 11. They needed to ensure their mission-critical applications would not be jeopardized by the change in browser availability or require an expensive, disruptive upgrade to maintain compatibility. “This project really was a collaborative experience with the Rimini Street team.... For us, it was about making this transition as seamlessly as possible without any interruption to business, and Rimini Street helped us achieve that,” said Michael Howard, chief operating officer at Officeworks. Rimini Street Continues to Invest in the Future of its Clients with New Interoperability Capabilities Known for helping clients maximize the potential of their IT investments, gain flexibility, and enjoy better support and savings from a trusted partner, Rimini Street continues to invest in interoperability solutions like Rimini Connect Console that help clients at scale to future-proof and extend the useful lifespan of their existing, robust systems without worrying about changing compatibility standards. “Rimini Connect Console is the latest of our continuously expanding offerings to help organizations achieve their goal of growth and profitability while reducing risk,” said Whitt. “We not only help extend the life of systems, we also help make it easier to manage them, lessening overhead costs and freeing teams to focus on higher value priorities for the business.” Learn more about how to remove interoperability challenges without upgrades by choosing Rimini Connect . About Rimini Street, Inc. Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support and innovation solutions and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software. The Company offers a comprehensive portfolio of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize enterprise application, database, and technology software. The Company has signed thousands of contracts with Fortune Global 100, Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and government organizations who selected Rimini Street as their trusted, proven mission-critical enterprise software solutions provider and achieved better operational outcomes, realized billions of US dollars in savings and funded AI and other innovation investments. To learn more, please visit www.riministreet.com , and connect with Rimini Street on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 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These statements are based on various assumptions and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance, nor are these statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Rimini Street’s business, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, adverse developments in and costs associated with defending pending litigation or any new litigation, including the disposition of pending motions to appeal and any new claims; additional expenses to be incurred in order to comply with injunctions against certain of our business practices and the impact on future period revenue and costs; changes in the business environment in which Rimini Street operates, including the impact of any macro-economic trends and changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as general financial, economic, regulatory and political conditions affecting the industry in which we operate and the industries in which our clients operate; the evolution of the enterprise software management and support landscape and our ability to attract and retain clients and further penetrate our client base; significant competition in the software support services industry; customer adoption of our expanded portfolio of products and services and products and services we expect to introduce; our ability to grow our revenue, manage our cost of revenue and accurately forecast revenue; the expected impact of recent and anticipated future reductions in our workforce and associated reorganization costs; estimates of our total addressable market and expectations of client savings relative to use of other providers; variability of timing in our sales cycle; risks relating to retention rates, including our ability to accurately predict retention rates; the loss of one or more members of our management team; our ability to attract and retain additional qualified personnel, including sales personnel, and retain key personnel; our business plan, our ability to grow in the future and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability; our plans to wind down the offering of services for Oracle PeopleSoft products; the volatility of our stock price and related compliance with stock exchange requirements; our need and ability to raise equity or debt financing on favorable terms and our ability to generate cash flows from operations to help fund increased investment in our growth initiatives; risks associated with global operations; our ability to prevent unauthorized access to our information technology systems and other cybersecurity threats, protect the confidential information of our employees and clients and comply with privacy regulations; our ability to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting; our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand and intellectual property; changes in laws and regulations, including changes in tax laws or unfavorable outcomes of tax positions we take, a failure by us to establish adequate tax reserves, or our ability to realize benefits from our net operating losses; the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters; our credit facility’s ongoing debt service obligations and financial and operational covenants on our business and related interest rate risk, including uncertainty from the transition to SOFR or other interest rate benchmarks; the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements; the amount and timing of repurchases, if any, under our stock repurchase program and our ability to enhance stockholder value through such program; uncertainty as to the long-term value of Rimini Street’s equity securities; catastrophic events that disrupt our business or that of our clients; and those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Rimini Street’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on October 30, 2024, and as updated from time to time by Rimini Street’s future Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other filings by Rimini Street with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street’s assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241121087329/en/ CONTACT: Janet Ravin VP, Global Communications Rimini Street, Inc. +1 702 285-3532 pr@riministreet.com KEYWORD: NEVADA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: DATA MANAGEMENT APPS/APPLICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE NETWORKS INTERNET HARDWARE SOURCE: Rimini Street, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/21/2024 04:00 PM/DISC: 11/21/2024 04:00 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241121087329/en
The NFL is making sure sportsmanship is always followed on the field, even if it means fining one of their star quarterbacks. Over the weekend, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahome s was fined almost $15,000 after making a "violent gesture" during an away game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, November 17, which was ultimately the Chiefs' first loss of the season. It's the latest in a series of fines players have received recently, whether over inappropriate touchdown celebrations or for making political statements. Per NBC Sports , Patrick, 29, was fined $14,069 after he used his fingers to mimic shooting a gun, in celebration of throwing a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Noah Gray. The Chiefs, who had had an undefeated season until now and won the last Super Bowl, ultimately lost the game 30-21, their first loss in almost a year, after losing to the Las Vegas Raiders during a Christmas Day game last year. Though Patrick hasn't addressed the fine, he did speak to reporters about his team's first loss after the game. "It's a good football team, so there's nothing to hang your head [about]," he said, adding: "We feel like we can play better, so we will get back to work and try to use this as a spark so that we can be a better football team in the end." He went on: "I'm hoping that [losing] is a benefit. I'm not going to say I or we relaxed, but at the same time I feel like we were just coming away with these wins at the end of the game." His teammate, tight end Travis Kelce , also spoke out during an episode of his New Heights podcast, which he hosts with his brother Jason Kelce. "I don't give a [expletive] how your body is feeling, I don't give a [expletive] where your mentality is off the field," he bluntly declared, emphasizing: "When you step into that building, we are here to figure [expletive] out. We are here to get better as football players for the football team." This isn't the first time Patrick, or anyone from the Chiefs' team, including their own coach, has received a fine. Back in December of last year, Patrick was fined $50,000, also during a game against the Bills, for "verbally abusing" an official during the game, which they also lost, CBS Sports reported at the time. Moreover, during that same game, the team's coach Andy Reid, who has been head coach for just over ten years, was fined a whopping $100,000 for publicly criticizing an official.A POPULAR US fast food chain has revealed its menu ahead of opening its first UK restaurant in a few days' time. This will eventually also include a super-hot flavour, called the Reaper, that bosses were previously unsure if Brits could handle. Dave's Hot Chicken will be opening its first-ever British restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue, London on December 7. It will be serve up dishes including the chain's signature chicken tenders, seasoned French fries and jumbo sliders - which will also be available for home delivery from January next year. To accompany the mains, there'll be a range of sides and condiments on offer - including kale slaw, pickles, Dave's speciality sauce and mac and cheese. And, you can order your chicken in any of six different spice levels - from no spice all the way through to extra hot. Read more Money News The Reaper, an even spicier rub available in US branches, will also come to the UK soon , The Sun reported last month. This is after Managing Director Jim Attwood raised concerns it might be too hot for sensitive British taste buds. He said: "After conducting taste tests here in the UK, we found the Reaper to be so hot that it left participants crying from the sheer heat of the spice mix." James Flanders, The Sun's chief consumer reporter, got an exclusive first taste of Dave's signature dish - Dave's Hot Chicken Sliders, featuring succulent chicken breast coated in a dry rub. Most read in Money He described the flavours as "game-changing" and was "astounded by the size of the chicken". He even declared the food better than KFC . Dave's Hot Chicken was founded in 2017 in the US by Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan and Tommy Rubenyan as a late-night pop-up in a parking lot. The three childhood friends scraped together $900 to launch the venture - which quickly gained popularity, leading to the opening of a brick-and-mortar restaurant in East Hollywood . In 2019, the founders partnered with Wetzel's Pretzels co-founder Bill Phelps to begin franchising - with 200 branches currently running across the US. Now, Dave's Hot Chicken has partnered with Azzurri Group to spearhead its UK rollout - the company behind Zizzi, ASK Italian, Coco di Mama, and Boojum. US FAST FOOD EXPANSION INTO THE UK Dave's Hot Chicken is far from the only American chain looking to make the transition across the pond. The burger joint Wendy's is already a hit in the US with over 6,000 restaurants . Now the chain that "blows McDonald's out of the water" has plans to open 400 locations. The chain returned to the UK high street in 2021 after a 20-year hiatus. Wendy's is most famous for its square-shaped hamburgers, which are designed to maximise the amount of meat in every bite. Fast food giant Chick-fil-A is set to bring its beloved chicken sandwiches to our high streets next year. The Sun exclusively revealed the exact locations of their first five permanent UK restaurants . Tex-Mex brand Velvet Taco will also make its UK debut next spring . Popeyes entered the UK market in 2021 and has proved to be a hit with ravenous customers ever since. In just 30 months, the brand opened over 38 restaurants across the UK . It has plans to reach the 60-restaurant milestone by the end of 2024. Shake Shack , which started out as a hotdog cart, recently opened its first restaurant inside a UK train station . Brits commuting in St. Pancras International Station can now grab their favourite burgers before jumping onto their train. The new spot marks the fast food giant's 16th location in the UK since it was launched in Covent Garden in 2013. While most of Shake Shack's UK sites are based in London, bosses have expanded into other locations in recent years, including Essex , Oxford , and Cardiff . Shake Shack's humble beginnings trace back to a New York hot dog cart helmed by Randy Garutti. Wingstop currently operates 39 sites across the UK and will open 15 more in 2024 . Lemon Pepper Holdings, which runs the fast food chain's UK portfolio, said the move would create up to 750 jobs . The US hospitality brand said it is its biggest year of expansion since launching Wingstop in the UK six years ago. Dunkin' Donuts , which currently has 30 stores in the UK, hopes to open 30 new branches over the next couple of years as part of a major expansion plan. Dunkin' Donuts landed in the UK in St John's in Liverpool in May 2016. READ MORE SUN STORIES The chain is huge in the US, with almost 9,500 stores spread across the country. It sells a range of doughnuts, other sweet treats, and hot and cold drinks.
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) Stock Price Down 0% – Should You Sell?BEIRUT — Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the militant group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the all-out war. An Israeli bomb squad policeman carries the remains of a rocket that was fired from Lebanon on Sunday in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, northern Israel. Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the militants. Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines. Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war. Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups. The Israeli police bomb squad inspects the site after a missile fired from Lebanon hit the area Sunday in Petah Tikva, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there. In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing. The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether injuries and damage were caused by rockets or interceptors. Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later. Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. A flock of birds flies above the smoke from Israeli airstrikes Sunday in Dahiyeh, Beirut. Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted command centers for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to the Lebanese c... The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.” U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week. Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group. Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate $208 million to assist the Lebanese military. But Borrell later said that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in reaching an agreement for a cease-fire" and that it seemed Israel was seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France as a member of the international committee that would oversee the cease-fire's implementation. The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers. With talks for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war's only hostage-release deal. “It’s hard to hold on to hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin," said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her husband and two young sons. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the rest of the 250 who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack were released in last year's cease-fire. Talks for another deal recently had several setbacks, including the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who pushed for a deal, and Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation. Hamas wants Israel to end the war and withdraw all troops from Gaza. Israel has offered only to pause its offensive. The Palestinian death toll from the war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. On Sunday, six people were killed in strikes in central Gaza, according to AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. How often do you buy something online ? A couple of times a month? A couple of times a week? A couple of times a day? Everybody's answer will be different, but collectively, it's done a lot: Online retail accounted for over $1 trillion of purchases in the U.S. in 2022 and a record $277.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023 alone. Retailers ranging from titans like Amazon and Walmart, down to local small-town shops work very hard to land their share of that business. Sadly and inevitably—so do criminals and scammers. At any given moment, they operate millions of bogus sites. So how can you spot those fake online shopping sites? Spokeo provides a guide. In the early days of the internet , it took some genuine skills to set up a website, but those days are gone. A quick search will show that there are lots of apps and services offering websites on a prefabricated "fill in the blanks" basis, and most web hosts provide those tools as part of the service when someone signs up with them. It's even easier on social media . If you were opening a "side hustle" business tomorrow from your home, you could set up your own Facebook page tonight in under an hour, with exactly zero knowledge of websites. Once that page is set up, you just need to throw a few dollars in the direction of Facebook's advertising department, and they'll start advertising your page to users. It's no harder to promote a website, except in that case, you'd give your advertising dollars to Google. This is a simplified overview, but the main point holds: Establishing a presence online has become a very democratized process, open to anyone with minimal skills and even the smallest budget for advertising. That's been a boon for legitimate entrepreneurs, but it also makes life very easy indeed for scammers. There are multiple types of bogus websites . Some are imposters, created to look very much like a legitimate commercial or government site that you're familiar with, such as Amazon or Netflix. Others don't imitate a specific site, but instead attempt to capture the look and feel of those sites in general (whether that be a retail site, a government or bank page, or even something relatively shady like a gambling or porn site). Next, scammers find ways to drive traffic to their site. Often that's through phishing texts or emails, but deceptive ads on social media or search engines like Google and Bing work just as well. Once a browser arrives at the criminals' site (or, in some cases, downloads their app), any number of bad things can happen. One is that they'll download malware onto your devices, which can capture passwords or steal personal information. A more straightforward risk is that the browser will cheerfully enter their personal and banking/credit card information, thinking they're making a legitimate purchase. That's largely why fake online shopping sites are so dangerous, and so useful to scammers and identity thieves. Most bogus sites share some or all of those characteristics, but shopping sites are a very specific type of bogus site with some quirks of their own. One characteristic to count on—whether the website directly impersonates a major retailer like Amazon, a niche retailer like MEC, or just positions itself as an anonymously general retail site—is that it will offer unusually low pricing on high-demand products. That might be a mass-market item like the latest gaming console, a suddenly in-demand item that's unavailable through normal channels (remember trying to get masks and sanitizing wipes during COVID-19?), or something as mundane as disposable diapers or high-capacity computer drives. Whatever the product, the advertised price will be low enough to get attention. The bogus site will have any number of ways to transfer a browser's money to its coffers, depending on the scammers' intentions and skillset. A few of the most common include: These are all aside from the potential to infect devices or steal payment information . Sites focused on identity theft might consider a faux purchase to be just the added gravy. How common is online shopping fraud? Well, the news is pretty bad. The FTC's 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book recorded over 327,000 online shopping complaints, the fourth-highest category for overall complaints and second among fraud categories. You would expect these sites to be more prevalent during the final quarter of the year, corresponding to the holiday gift-giving season—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas itself—and they are, but that doesn't mean you can relax during the other nine months of the year. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, or APWG, identified nearly a million fake or phishing websites during the first quarter of 2022 alone (not a busy time of year for shopping), for example. To be clear, only 14.6% of those were eCommerce sites, but that still translates to well over 140,000 bogus shopping sites. The true number is almost certainly higher because the APWG only tracks the ones that use a phishing approach. Many opt to simply buy advertising instead (or as well), and those won't be captured in the APWG's statistics. However you slice it, there's a definite risk of encountering these sites when you shop. The good news is that bogus shopping sites aren't hard to spot, once you're aware of the risk. They aren't built for permanence; scammers pull them together quickly and cheaply and then abandon them once they stop producing.That "just good enough" approach leaves plenty of visible signs you can detect. Below, here's what to look for when recognizing fake online shopping sites. Bad images Bogus sites don't have direct access to the real products' manufacturing images, so they resort to copying and pasting from legitimate sites. \That means bogus sites' product images (and often their fake logos, if they impersonate a legitimate site) are fuzzy and low-res. A URL that's slightly "off" Imposter sites obviously can't have the same URL as the legitimate site, so they'll usually have a URL that looks right, but isn't quite. They might have a typo in the name, or incorporate the real company's name into their URL in a non-standard way ("myfakesite.amazon.com.123xyz.com"), or—sneakiest of all—use a letter from a different language's character set , which looks the same to the eye, but not to the computer. Broken links The scammers may have simply copied and pasted user interface elements from a legitimate site, in which case many links on the site may be broken (or simply not clickable). Lots of missing elements A legitimate retail website will have several pages of legalese, often starting with a pop-up about its cookie policy or privacy policy. You should certainly expect to see a detailed document spelling out shipping policies, return and refund policies, and similar details. If those are missing or brief and vapid, it's probably a fake site. Limited options for payment Sites that plan to take your money and run will often show oddly specific payment options, from wire transfers to gift cards to cryptocurrency. The thing those payment methods have in common is that it's very difficult to get money back once it's spent. Sites geared around capturing your personal or payment information, on the other hand, may insist on getting your credit card. Typos, grammar, and linguistic errors Simple, silly language errors are often a red flag. Scammers may not be native English speakers, and it shows up in awkward or sometimes inappropriate phrasing. Errors in actual product listings aren't necessarily a smoking gun—you'll see them frequently on real Amazon pages—because they come from the manufacturers, who are often not English speakers. Language errors on the rest of the site are more of a concern. HTTP vs. HTTPS In the address bar of your browser, a legitimate retail site's URL will start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP, and will show a closed lock symbol. The majority of fake sites now also have an HTTPS URL and will show the lock (so this isn't as helpful as it used to be), but less-sophisticated scammers may miss that detail. You can automatically rule those ones out. And, of course, the biggest red flag of all is an unrealistically low price on the product you're looking for. We all want to get a really good deal, but that impulse will often lead you astray. If a shopping site fails those basic "eyeball" tests, the smart thing to do is just close that browser tab and walk away. If you want to dig deeper, or if you aren't sure, there are a few quick and easy ways to verify a site's legitimacy. Use a URL/website checker Remember those really sneaky fake URLs that use a letter from another alphabet? The best way to check those (and other problematic elements in a URL) is through a URL verifier/website reputation service, like the ones from URLVoid and Google . Just copy (don't click!) the link, and paste it into the checker. If the site is sketchy, they'll tell you. Look up the site on a registry Domain names all need to be registered and there are several lookup tools to check this, like ICANN's registration lookup (think of it as Spokeo for websites). If a site claims to be Amazon but was registered just a few weeks ago, that's a really big red flag. Similarly, if the site isn't located where it should be, or if the ownership data is obscured, that's grounds for concern. Turn to Google If you have a bad feeling about a particular site, do a quick Google or Bing (or whatever) search that pairs the site's name with keywords like "scam," "fraud," "bogus" or "ripoff" and see what comes up. If you get a lot of hits, that's definitely grounds for concern. Go Forth and Shop (Safely) If a given site fails any or all of those tests, then keeping your wallet in your pocket is definitely the smart choice. Instead of making the purchase, report the site instead to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC's Report Fraud website. That will get the investigative wheels turning and may help protect someone less wary from falling victim to the scammers. As always, wariness and skepticism are your friends when it comes to avoiding scams. Don't click on links in emails, texts , or social media messages; instead, go to the company's site by typing the URL directly. If you search a company's page on Google, scroll down through the actual search results until you find it instead of clicking on the sponsored results or advertisements at the top. Most of all, remember the golden rule of scam avoidance: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Keeping those principles in mind, and using the tips given here to screen out dubious sites means you'll be able to shop 'til you drop (safely), despite the vast number of scammers out there. And that—as the credit card ads like to say—is priceless. This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!None
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