Institute: Shoppers Let Down Guard While Buying Gifts

A grinch could steal your identity, especially during the holiday shopping season.

The Insurance Information Institute says consumers tend to let their guard down when they’re out buying gifts. It’s a busy time, and people are not always as careful as they should be about guarding their wallets and purses.

«The malls are busy and crowded during the holidays, and it’s a perfect environment for thieves bent on stealing your credit cards or other financial information,» said Jeanne Salvatore, vice president of consumer affairs at the institute. «Shoppers need to be especially careful over the holidays by guarding their credit cards, phone cards, driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers.»

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MIAMI(BUSINESS WIRE)Dec. 2, 2003--Phone1, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Phone1Globalwide, Inc. (OTC:PHGW), a provider of international commercial and wholesale telephone services, today announced it has signed a bilateral carrier agreement with China Network Communications Group Corporation (China Netcom), one of the top telecommunications providers in China. The agreement allows both companies to originate traffic on each other’s networks to reach their respective customers.

Through this agreement, Phone1 will offer what China Netcom calls «Home Country Direct» (HCD) service to the United States from any landline or wireless telephone in China. HCD services include automated and operator-assisted services such as credit and calling card billing, third party billing, and person-to-person calling billed to credit cards, travel cards, collect calls, or one’s own home phone.

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Gail Ellen Daly — Chronicle Staff Writer

STORRS — Christmas is a time of giving and, once again, the University of Connecticut’s transportation services department expects to «stuff the bus» with toys for children.

In addition, however, the department is assembling items for care packages for troops overseas.

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