Net Cetera: Community Outreach Toolkit

Filed under DoD News by on October 21, 2010 at 11:00 am {one comment}

By Carol A. Kando-Pineda, guest blogger.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness month. Check out OnGuardOnline.gov, a project that provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology community to help you guard against internet fraud, secure your computers and protect your privacy. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, manages On Guard Online. The OnGuard Online website has free tips, tools, videos and games about wireless security, online auctions, protecting your laptop, spam scams, and more.

OnGuardOnline includes Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online – a booklet that helps parents, teachers, law enforcement and other caring adults talk to kids about making safe, responsible decisions when they’re online. The internet offers a world of fun and fulfilling activities but they can come with risks: kids and teens could run into inappropriate conduct, contact or content. Because the online world can feel anonymous, kids sometimes forget that their online actions have real-world consequences.
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FTC Tips For Getting Your Credit Report

Filed under DoD News by on September 23, 2010 at 1:13 pm {no comments}

By Carol A. Kando-Pineda, guest blogger. This post is a follow-up to Carol’s four recent blog posts, “Victim of Identity Theft? ‘How to Close Your Accounts’,” “Tools for ID Victims,” “Deployed? Get an “Active Duty Alert” and “ID Theft, Take Control“

It’s a good idea to check your credit reports regularly – but especially important if you suspect identity theft.

Each of the major nationwide consumer reporting companies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — must give you a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. To order your free annual report from one or all the national consumer reporting companies, here are your options:

  • Visit annualcreditreport.com,
  • Call toll-free 877-322-8228, or
  • Fill out the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service,  P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print out that form at ftc.gov/credit.

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    Victim of Identity Theft? ‘How to Close Your Accounts’

    Filed under DoD News by on August 12, 2010 at 1:48 pm {6 comments}

    By Carol A. Kando-Pineda, guest blogger. This post is a follow-up to Carol’s three recent blog posts, “Tools for ID Victims,” “Deployed? Get an “Active Duty Alert” and “ID Theft, Take Control“

    If you suspect your identity’s been stolen or hijacked, order copies of your credit reports and read them carefully. You’ll have some work to do immediately if you find mistakes or references to accounts that have been opened fraudulently. Close any accounts that may have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.

    Call the security or fraud department of each company.

    • Follow up in writing, and include copies (not originals) of supporting documents, like a police report about the identity theft.
    • Send your letters by certified mail. Ask for a return receipt, so you can document what the company received and when.
    • Keep a file of your correspondence and enclosures.

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    Tools for ID Theft Victims

    Filed under DoD News by on July 29, 2010 at 8:49 am {one comment}

    By Carol A. Kando-Pineda, this post is a follow-up to Carol’s two recent blog posts, “Deployed? Get an “Active Duty Alert” and “ID Theft, Take Control“

    The Federal Trade Commission has these resources to help you assert your legal rights and clean up some of the problems identity theft causes.

    FTC’s Identity Theft Complaint Form. When you file a complaint, it helps law enforcement officials across the country and around the world in their investigations. It also can help prove the crime took place. You can use the standardized printed ID Theft Complaint with a police report to create an Identity Theft Report. That’s a police report with more than the usual amount of detail: it has enough about the crime for the credit reporting companies and the businesses involved to verify that you’re a victim, and to know which accounts and inaccurate information resulted from identity theft.

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    New Twist on Mortgage Fraud

    Filed under DoD News by on June 17, 2010 at 4:18 pm {one comment}

    By Carol A. Kando-Pineda, guest blogger

    The latest mortgage relief scam to exploit financially strapped homeowners involves forensic mortgage loan audits. In exchange for an upfront fee of several hundred dollars, so-called forensic loan auditors, mortgage loan auditors or foreclosure prevention auditors backed by forensic attorneys offer to review a homeowner’s mortgage loan documents to determine whether the lender complied with state and federal mortgage lending laws. The “auditors” say their audit reports can help homeowners avoid foreclosure, accelerate the loan modification process, reduce their loan principal — or even cancel their loan.

    But there is no evidence that forensic loan audits help homeowners get a loan modification or any other foreclosure relief, even if the audit is conducted by a licensed, legitimate and trained auditor, mortgage professional or lawyer. (more…)

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      An United States Air Force C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft from the 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard, conducts flare training off the Ventura County coast. The flares are used as tactical infrared countermeasures to confuse and redirect heat-seeking missiles.

      (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Dave Buttner)


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      Famed Yankees pitcher “Lefty Gomez” once remarked “I’d rather be lucky than good,” but for one Tuskegee Airman, luck and good combined to make him one of the most successful combat pilots of World War II.

      During the summer of 1944, 2nd Lt. Clarence D. “Lucky” Lester was flying the P-51 Mustang over the skies of Italy’s Po Valley providing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with cover support on their way to attack airfields in southern Germany.

      Lester was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, a part of the 332nd Fighter Group, and had earned the nickname “Lucky” “because of all the tight situations from which I had escaped without a scratch or even a bullet hole in my aircraft.”

      Read the story of a flight that helped Lester earn his nickname here.


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      The only African-American ace of World War II, and a former Tuskegee Airman, went on to have a career in the Air Force, as well as success in the business world.

      Lee A. Archer joined the Army in 1941 with high hopes of becoming a pilot, but was initially denied because of his race. When the Army’s policy changed about a year later, Archer was accepted to the training program for black aviators at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama.

      Archer is best known for a day in late 1944 when he was involved in a series of dogfights over German-occupied Hungary. Flying a P-51 Mustang fighter, Archer shot down three German fighters. He would go on to add two more German fighters to his credit to become the first and only African-American ace of the war.

      As a civilian, Archer enjoyed even greater success, serving as vice president for urban affairs with General Foods, as CEO of North Street Capital Corp. and chairman of Hudson Commercial Corp. He also served on the board of directors of Beatrice International Foods and the Institute for American Business.

      Read the rest of his story here.