Recent police incidents and arrests in Fredericksburg:

CHILD NEGLECT:

 Walmart, 1800 Carl D Silver Pkwy, 1/11 10:25 am.  A customer reported that he found an infant left unattended inside a vehicle in the parking lot.  The baby was crying and secured in a child restraint seat.  A few minutes after the officer arrived on the scene, the baby’s mother returned to the car.  The subsequent investigation revealed that the mother completed two separate shopping transactions in the store, leaving the infant in the vehicle for about thirty minutes.  Emma Okyere, 37, of Stafford was arrested for felony child neglect and incarcerated at the Rappahannock Regional Jail under a $1500 bond.   The infant was turned over to Child Protective Services and later released to a family member.  

 LARCENY:

 Walmart, 1800 Carl D Silver Pkwy, 1/11 2:00 am.  A Spotsylvania resident reported that a vehicle that had been loaned to her from an auto dealership was stolen from the parking lot while she was inside the store.  The keys were left inside the vehicle and police were not contacted about the theft until 11:00 am.  The investigating officer later determined that the vehicle was recovered by the Virginia State Police in Spotsylvania County during the early morning hours.  The investigation is ongoing.   

 ARRESTS:

 Bryan Hernandez, 18, of Spotsylvania was arrested for embezzlement.

FREDERICKSBURG- A woman shopping at a Fredericksburg Walmart was arrested Thursday because police said she left her baby in her vehicle while in the store.

Emma Okyere, 37, of Stafford, was arrested for felony child neglect just before 10:30 am at the Walmart at 1800 Carl D. Silver Parkway in Fredericksburg.

A customer reported that he found a crying infant left unattended inside a vehicle in the parking lot. The baby was in a child restraint seat, police said.

A few minutes after the officer arrivedat the store, the babys mother returned to the car. Police found that Okyere completedtwo separate shopping transactions in the store, leaving the infant in the vehicle for about 30 minutes.

Okye was incarcerated at the Rappahannock Regional Jail under a $1,500 bond. The infant was turned over to Child Protective Services and later released to a family member, police said.

CHENNAI: A complaint from a private bank, alleging fraudulent online shopping transactions through its system, led to the arrest of three Nigerians by Central Crime Branch sleuths at Sembakkam on Tuesday.

â??The Nigerians are being interrogated and full details of the fraud are likely to emerge in a day or two,â? said Commissioner of Police J K Tripathy.   The swift action came after Senthil Kumar, manager, Axis Bank, Fraud Control Unit, approached the crime branch police on Monday evening, alleging â??fraudulent Internet transactions through Axis Bank for purchase of goods through online shopping.â?

Registering a case under Sections 420 and 468 of the IPC and 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, a special CCB team probing the case found that the purchases had been made from bigshoebazaar.com and yebhi.com, through stolen credit/debit card data belonging to bank customers residing in the US and the UK.

The fraudsters had ordered LED television units and about 30 pairs of shoes, among other goods, with an incomplete postal address in Sembakkam for delivery, additional deputy commissioner, CCB, Dr M Sudhakar told Express. â??The bank approached us following a notification received from Visa and Mastercard Associations, stating that other banks had complained that credit card/debit data of their customers – foreign nationals – had been stolen for making online purchases,â? he said. Probe revealed that the addressee was calling the dispatcher for early delivery and the location was identified with the help of the courier agency and enquiry.

On Tuesday morning, the special team, led by Sudhakar, swooped on the Sembakkam address and found several Africans staying there. After questioning them, the team zeroed in on three Nigerians and took them into custody.

Identifying them as Obasato Oladapo Olatunbosum (29) alias Richard, Dicson M Dickson (26), both from Lagos, and Abiodun O Oyekunla (30) of Ejigbo in Osun state, Sudhakar said the trio arrived in India on a student visa.  Now, Dickson does not have a valid passport.

Interrogation revealed that the three men stayed in New Delhi and Bangalore before coming to Chennai, where they had been holed up in Sembakkam for the last three years. They claimed that they obtained the card details from associates in the US and UK and also downloaded them from certain websites. â??While the three men received the goods, we are probing whether they made online orders or somebody else did,â? another CCB official said. The CCB team seized a  Santro car, LED TVs, six mobile phones, three cameras, three watches, seven perfume bottles, three laptops and 32 pairs of shoes, purchased through online shopping.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)

SEATTLE, WA, Dec 05, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Optify, the leading provider of online marketing software and
services for the real time web, today announced its top five 2012
predictions based on insights from customers, analysts, and partners.

The past year saw many new developments in online marketing,
including evolving organic and paid search landscape, convergence of
social media and search marketing, growth of mobile and local
searches, and a rapid rise in spending on social media marketing
using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Online marketers have
only begun to explore and respond to these new opportunities.

In this evolving landscape, Optify’s top predictions include:

1. Mainstream Organizations Adopt Marketing Automation & Social CRM

Marketing automation has traditionally consisted of email and email
nurturing. However, 2011 witnessed the expansion of Social CRM,
enabling another channel to reach and interact with customers and it
has become one of the fastest growing segments within the CRM
industry. In the next year, Social CRM will evolve from an early
adopter strategy into a mainstream solution for organizations wanting
to connect marketing operations from the top of the funnel, to online
search, down through sales and customer management. Companies that
learn how to adopt and implement these solutions will more
effectively be able to reach and engage with their customers and have
a clearer path to a positive sales and marketing ROI.

2. Social Media Becomes an Increasing Factor in Search Algorithms

Social media networks are growing. In 2011, Facebook’s social signals
were integrated into Bing search and Google+ emerged with native
integration into Google search. Companies also started using social
media in earnest and began experimenting with ways to influence their
rankings using these social factors. In 2012, Optify expects this
trend to continue with social media becoming more of a key component
of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) algorithms. For companies
looking to preserve or improve their rankings, social marketing
activities will no longer be optional; they will be a necessary
element of traffic driving success.

3. Customers and employees become an extended part of companies’
marketing teams

As social networks are used ever more frequently for aggregating and
sharing interests, expect opinions, both positive and negative, about
products and services to spread with lightening speed. As a result,
businesses customer relationships will become increasingly focused on
creating and managing perceptions. In 2010, companies began listening
to customers wants and needs via social buzz. In 2011, they focused
on responding to digital customer commentary. In 2012, companies will
need to proactively scale their marketing efforts by creating and
sharing information with employees and influential customer
evangelists to help define their brands, products and services from
the ground up. Salesforce.com’s recent extension of their Chatter
feature, allowing businesses to share information and files with
their customers through a hosted network, is early evidence of this.

4. Mobile + Social Evolve Together to Create New User Scenarios

Customer interactions and purchases, in specific marketplaces such as
travel, shopping and dining, will occur with increasing frequency on
mobile devices. A recent study found a third of all American adults
utilize smartphones and that number is expected to rise in the coming
year. Travel related click-through-rates are already higher on mobile
devices than on PCs and location-based marketing fueled by companies
like FourSquare will continue to soar. Online purchasing is
indisputably moving to mobile. Google estimates 44% of last-minute
online shopping searches will come from smartphones and tablets. This
holiday, the majority of last minute shopping transactions are
expected to take place on mobile devices. This creates an opportunity
for marketers to zoom in on specific and unique user scenarios they
may not have been able to address using pure traditional online
marketing tactics.

5. Facebook platform grows and expands into new markets

Facebook’s IPO in 2012 is estimated to surpass Google’s IPO (1.67
billion in 2004) with a goal of raising $10 billion. This should fund
quite a bit of expansion. With a large infusion of IPO cash and the
potential to create social shopping experiences, Facebook will be
well positioned to give online retailer Amazon a run for its money.
While analysts have begun speculating Amazon will launch a smartphone
in 2012, Facebook will likely do the same. These visionary companies
see that the mobile phone is quickly becoming the portal to purchase;
an opportunity to get in front of customers before they’ve even
arrived online or a physical store. Facebook, along with their
competitors, will be vying to put their products and services in
their users’ hands first. Expect Facebook to also leverage ‘other
people’s work’ to build a developer ecosystem similar to
Salesforce.com, Amazon and Google’s Android marketplace to capture
the innovation of others to help expand their platform.

“Success for marketers in 2012 will be based on their ability to
embrace and implement integrated online, search, and social marketing
campaigns,” said Anthony Joseph, VP Marketing of Optify.
“Experimentation with emerging mediums will be warranted, but an
integrated solution that measures ROI and return on effort across
these various channels will be critical to know what’s working and
what isn’t.”

About Optify
Optify is the leading provider of marketing software
and services for the Real Time Web. Optify’s hosted, easy-to-use
platform enables businesses and online publishers to generate more
leads and traffic through organic search and social media, create and
manage social media campaigns, prioritize visitors and leads, and
track and share results with simple but powerful enterprise scale
reporting. Optify is available in multiple editions to scale from
smaller businesses to the largest enterprise requirements and
includes a free trial. Optify is headquartered in Seattle, Wash.,
with offices in Silicon Valley and Israel. For more insights on how
to optimize for the real-time web, visit the Optify Lead Generation
Blog at
www.optify.net/blog/ .

Contact:
Ali Kramer
Barokas Public Relations
optify@barokas.com
206-264-8220

SOURCE: Optify

mailto:optify@barokas.com

Copyright 2011 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

Haldimand has managed to stay sane!

As far as I (and the vast Sachem research department) can tell, there was no Black Friday Sale lunacy in Caledonia, Cayuga, Hagersville or Dunnville.

Not yet! The same sanity claim cant be said by many border-hoppers in Hamilton and Burlington and suckered Black Friday shoppers in Toronto and other major Canadian shopper area.

Despite the fact that Black Friday is meaningless in Canada- hatched as a purely American marketing gimmick, creating the day-after the US Thanksgiving Day spending in stores which program and bait bargain-crazed shoppers to come out, often at ridiculously early store-opening hours, to Christmas shop and spend, spend, spend so retailers can be in the black.

Americans exaggerate most things, so Black Friday has consistently been touted as the biggest shopping day of the year.

With some things, especially social trends, some Canadians are in hopeless denial about being wannabe Americans. And especially in the Haldimand, Hamilton, Burlington and Niagara burbs, maniac shoppers do have an edge: geography.

Give or take, we are an hour or less away from the madness that is Black Friday shopping in Buffalo.

Other shopaholic areas like Toronto, Montreal or Calgary are not so geographically privileged, so they chose to gradually adopt the American Black Friday shopping gimmick, regardless. Besides, if there was money-spending logic to the madness, Canadians would be getting early morning bargoons on Black Tuesday, after our Thanksgiving Day Monday. But it doesnt happen. For Canadians, the day after Thanksgiving Day is just a normal day. No sales. No shopping gimmicks. No madness.
Like other things American, Black Friday shopping has resoundingly caught-on in Canada. For the sole reason of gimmicky shopping, Canadian stores are seamlessly pretending to be American, the Friday after the annual American Thanksgiving Day Thursday.

Its been two weeks since this years version and some numbers have been crunched.

This year, according to Moneris Solutions, Canadas largest debit and credit card processor, Canadians spent 8 per cent more on Black Friday shopping transactions (not counting border-hopping) than they did on Black Friday, 2010.

The flabbergasting mystery (for some of us normal people) is the power of the Black Friday gimmick and how it transforms otherwise nice, normal people into Stepford shoppers.

As the numbers show, more and more Canadians are buying into the Black Friday spell.
Some of the manipulative deals sucker gatecrashers to be at the stores door by 4 or 5 in the morning. This year, some major US stores actually opened at midnight and yes, there were line-ups by 10 oclock or earlier.

Since I am just a dedicated mall valet and Sherpa guide- whose job it is to lug bags to the car- Colleen simply rolls her eyes when I spout off with grunts about maniac sale-gimmicks like Black Friday. Really??? 75% off? And youre still making money? So how much was I insultingly overcharged last Friday?

Attention Caledonia, Cayuga, Hagersville and Dunnville shoppers! Congrats on staying normal and sane and not playing the Black Friday game.

New research shows that online shoppers will quit if their ID checks take more than 4 minutes.

Online retailers are feeling the repercussions of having lengthy identity checks for online shopping transactions.

A new Study released by Experian, in partnership with the International Fraud Prevention Research Centre, reveals that long online identity and security procedures continue to be frustrating for consumers, with the average abandoning online transactions around four minutes.

Nick Mothershaw, Director of Identity and Fraud at Experian said with the recent boom of online retail purchasing, customers want an easy and fast process when shopping.

Our tolerance time is short at only four minutes, so its up to retailers to make sure they make it as fast and easy as possible without compromising on levels of security.

Online Identity checks are still, however, considered to be an important measure.

According to Professor Paul Barnes, Director of the International Fraud Prevention Research Centre, checks are extremely necessary no matter the amount of time involved.

Not only do they protect the business from intrusion and fraud but they protect the consumer as well, reducing both security costs, which are passed on in the form of higher prices, and the chance of the person being the victim of fraud. We all benefit and we are all safer.

Consumer online tolerance times vary amongst different sectors and Industries:

Gaming – 3 minutes
Retail – 4 minutes
Transport – 5 minutes
Telecoms – 5 minutes
Online banking – 5 minutes
Travel – 6 minutes
Insurance – 6 minutes
In-branch banking – 6 minutes

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• Nov 02, 2011 – 9:09 AM
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OUR OPINION: Plan better for our busiest road

While City planners meticulously set parameters for development in various parts of Peterborough, one of the most important and visible areas is left to grow wild. Were talking about the Parkway — the gateway to our city.

When Costco was making plans to come to town, we lamented the addition of yet another set of traffic lights along a stretch of pavement that was not designed as the arterial road it has become. As we predicted, the store has become a magnet for other retailers which will add even more cars and congestion.

At this point, the City is trying to sort out how the addition of Lowes hardware store will fit into the mix. If there had been any forethought at all, this would have been set out in a secondary plan years ago. Instead, businesses arrive with their wish lists and the City tries to accommodate them in the interests of building a stronger tax base and creating more jobs.

Apparently these retailers arent interested in the five retail nodes already identified in the Official Plan. They want to be near Costco and the draw to that area will only increase as more shopping transactions are made there.

Already, traffic gets backed up on Lansdowne Street as drivers steer their way to The Parkway. That congestion will only get worse if not handled properly.

The City has invested heavily into improving The Parkway interchange at Hwy. 115 but if more lights and store entrances are built just north of there, the arrival into Peterborough will be a slow and frustrating one.

Is this really how we want to greet people when they get here? Remember the value of a first impression.

It costs taxpayers a great deal of money to go back and rebuild roads and intersections to meet demands. Doing it right the first time is not only practical, it is more fiscally responsible.

Without a plan, how do you avoid creating another bottleneck down the street?

To top it off, the City has agreed to sell half the property it had set aside for a GO station, which could be shared with the Shining Waters Railway. What had been a forward-thinking purchase has now been sacrificed for shortterm gain of building a corporate hardware store. Just look at the crammed parking lots at the Oshawa and Whitby GO stations. If only they had the land we apparently think is surplus.

Whats done is done.

However, we beseech City officials to look further down the road when planning what happens around The Parkway. Otherwise, people stuck in crawling traffic will spend lots of time just getting into this city.

Will they want to come back? We would sure have to up our game to convince them its worth the drive.

Reports of the death of cash are greatly exaggerated, Mr. Carney said Monday as the central bank put the new polymer $100 bill into circulation. Our research shows that cash is used for more than half of all shopping transactions.

The Bank of Canada has a vested interest in touting the relevancy of cold hard cash these days. The shift to polymer banknotes represents the biggest change to Canadas money supply since the rainbow-coloured money was introduced in the 1960s.

As of Monday afternoon, Canadian banks are issuing polymer $100 bills instead of paper. The new polymer $50 bill arrives in March, while the rest of the denominations the $20, $10 and $5 will be released in 2013. Smooth and shiny, the sleek new bills are made of thin layers of plastic that are nearly impossible to rip, and believed to be almost as difficult to counterfeit.

Mr. Carneys comments come at a time when the banking industry is working on ways to make cash payments obsolete. Some of Canadas largest financial institutions and credit-card issuers have joined forces with phone companies to develop payment systems that will allow consumers to pay digitally from their phones at the cash register, similar to using a debit card.

While the development of those types of payments will make purchases more convenient for consumers who dont want to carry cash or bother with change, the chances of getting rid of currency bills entirely is remote, since cash is the most commonly accepted form of payment.

Canadians, as a consequence, need a currency that they can trust, Mr. Carney said.

Canada is one of about 30 countries to have ditched paper-style bills, including Australia, which pioneered the use of polymer bills in the 1980s.

The introduction of polymer bills in Canada comes after a sharp increase in counterfeiting rates a decade ago, as home computers, colour printers and scanner technology got cheaper and more sophisticated. Canadas paper banknotes, which are actually made of cotton fibre, will be removed from circulation over the next few years as more polymer denominations are introduced.

The central bank is using the $100 note as its test run for its other denominations, hoping to work out any kinks in the introduction of the polymer bills. Banks have been testing the new notes in their machines for months, said Martine Warren, the Bank of Canadas scientific adviser.

Weve been working with the market for over two years to make sure that ATMs and all banknote-processing equipment are ready for these polymer notes, Ms. Warren said. We distributed test notes and advance designs of the genuine notes to machine manufacturers far earlier than we have in the past to make sure that the circulation system is ready for these polymer notes.

The Bank of Canada has been working with the banking sector on the development of electronic payments, but the central bank has no plans to reduce the amount of banknotes in circulation. While the new polymer bills will cost about 19 cents to produce, roughly double what the paper notes of past series cost, they will last at least 2.5 times longer, Mr. Carney said.

Paper notes will still be legal tender, however banks will begin removing them from circulation as more polymer notes are introduced. Unlike the cotton-paper-based notes, the polymer banknotes have a see-through area that is not possible with ink on paper, which the central bank believes will be the most difficult aspect to counterfeit.

It is a great pleasure to be here in the MaRS Discovery District, where science and innovation meet.

I am here to announce the issue of the new $100 bank note which is available, as of today, in banks across the country.

We are very proud of our innovative polymer bank notes. They are more secure, more economical, and better for the environment than any we have issued previously. These notes are also potent symbols of our rich heritage.

The design of the $100 bank note celebrates Canadian innovation in medical research, including the discovery of insulin to treat diabetes. We are honoured to issue this note on the site where Banting and Best conducted their groundbreaking research almost a century ago.

Many forget that diabetes was once a death sentence. The discovery of insulin changed that.

It was at that desk, Sir Frederick Banting’s desk, where science and innovation met and the lives of hundreds of millions of people changed.

Today’s date is no coincidence. November 14 is World Diabetes Day and the 120th anniversary of Sir Frederick Banting’s birth.

This $100 note is a tribute to Canadian researchers who have left their mark in many areas. Allow me to mention the transformational work of John Hopps, who invented the pacemaker in 1950. He developed this life-saving device at the University of Torontos Banting Institute, located across the street from here.

This spirit of innovation carries on today and so the note also celebrates the scientists who continue to make our world a better place by improving the lives of many. Here in MaRS, medical professionals are mapping the human genetic code as well as tackling some of the most daunting medical challenges of our time, including cancer and macular degeneration.

These polymer notes don’t just celebrate innovation; they are themselves at the frontier of bank note technology. They were developed by a team of physicists, chemists, engineers and other experts from the Bank of Canada and from across the bank note industry.

There is no other currency like it anywhere in the world. These new notes contain a unique combination of transparency, holography and other sophisticated security elements.

In addition to impressive security features to stay ahead of counterfeiting threats, these bank notes will last longer–at least two-and-a-half times longer than paper–and will therefore be more economical.

These bank notes are also green. Their environmental footprint is smaller than that of the old currency made from cotton-based bank note paper. Once these new notes are removed from circulation, they will be recycled into other products right here in Canada.

Since the new notes were unveiled last June, Bank of Canada staff across the country have been training the millions of cash handlers and tens of thousands of police officers about how to check the security features of the notes. This training, of course, is ongoing. The RCMP continues to be a strong and committed partner in the fight against counterfeiting.

Reports of the death of cash are greatly exaggerated: Our research shows that cash is used for more than half of all shopping transactions. Canadians need a currency they can trust. That is why we are launching today the most secure and advanced note series in the Bank’s history.

In short, these new bank notes are a 21st century innovation in which all Canadians can take pride. We are honoured to launch them here at MaRS, with its links to past glories, current successes, and the promise of future Canadian medical innovation.

–>

Some 69% of the on-the-go UK mobile users have told a survey by JiWire that they are willing to share their location to receive more relevant content. In the US, 53% are willing, with mobile consumers under the age of 34 are more eager to share, with 60% offering their location for better information.

As people become increasingly mobile, they are looking for more relevant content and deals at their fingertips. In fact, 52% expect to use their mobile device more for holiday shopping this season, compared to last year, says the latest Mobile Audience Insights Report, which examines location-based and proximity marketing trends, mobile shopping behaviors, connected device adoption and public Wi-Fi trends.

According to the study, 31% said that the ability to compare prices is the most valuable aspect of mobile for shopping. When it comes to proximity, 29% want sales and promotions within one mile of a store, while 24% want promotions within 10 miles of the store. Some 38% prefer to receive local deals over email.

Interstingly, the average mobile consumer now owns 2.4 connected devices.

Sales and promotions are the most popular types of information that mobile consumers are looking for when engaging with location-based services. The study examined how consumers rated various services when one mile and 10 miles from a location. Sales and promotions took the top position at both distances in the US.

However, product availability and directions are of more interest at the 10 mile range, indicating consumer preferences for certain information begin to change with distance.

Customer reviews were the location-based information most sought after in the UK, regardless of distance. The data shows that proximity becomes a key factor for brands to consider when leveraging location-based advertising.

Looking ahead to the US shopping season, the report shows that 52% of the on-the-go audience is planning to use their mobile device more this holiday season. While mobile users are increasingly comfortable using their mobile devices for shopping transactions, more than half plan to compare prices and research or read reviews on products before purchasing.

“The mobile revolution continues to evolve and we are seeing much higher adoption of mobile devices, services and offerings than ever before,” said David Staas, senior vice president of marketing at JiWire. “Location is clearly a key driver of mobile commerce, whether it’s for finding local deals or engaging with major brands through location media. The early data suggest that this will be a major trend this coming holiday season.”

Local deals are increasingly an integral part of the mobile shopping experience, with 92% percent purchasing at least one deal per month. The growth in local deals is also being driven by sharing. Seventy five percent of the on-the-go audience is sharing deals regularly, up 21% from last quarter. The most popular way to share is through email, word of mouth and Facebook. On average consumers are spending less than $50 on local deals, though overall men are more willing to spend more than women.

Tablets continue to gain momentum with 32% already owning a tablet device in the US. This is even higher in the UK with 75% of respondents either already owning or planning to purchase a tablet. More than half of the on-the-go audience in the UK prefers the iOS platform.

Compared with other devices, the iPad saw the most growth this quarter to gain 20.9% of the mobile device landscape and overtake the iPod touch. While there was a dip in iOS marketshare, Windows has surged ahead with its Windows Mobile 7, taking the fourth spot in the top 10 devices and gaining 3.7% marketshare.

In the UK, iOS continues to decline for the second consecutive quarter while Android and Windows gain 1.5 and 2.2% respectively.