It's possible to break out of your Verizon Wireless contract in the next 60 days without paying an early termination fee because they're increasing the "regulatory fee" they charge customers from $.13 to $.16. This is what is known as a "materially adverse change of contract" and by standard contract law, it renders the contract void if one of the parties doesn't like the change.

First you'll want to bone up on what materially adverse change of contract means. Basically you signed a contract to get a given service at a given price, and after you signed it, they made it cost more. It doesn't matter if it's $50, a penny, or in this case, 3 cents. It's still materially adverse.

Then you'll have to call up Verizon and ask to be transferred to the retentions department. There you will pitch your case that this fee is a materially adverse change of contract, it voids the contract, and you demand to be let out of your contract without paying an early termination fee.

If they offer you freebies, turn them down. If they ask you if there is any other reason whatsoever, like your satisfaction with the service or the quality of it, that is making you leave, say no. Be single-mindedly focused on how this fee increase is the reason why you want to leave. And don't be scared. Despite its important-sounding name, the "Regulatory fee" is not charged by the government, it's just another fee Verizon assesses.

The reps may argue with you, they may tell you information that is not accurate, they may give you the runaround. Sometimes they're misinformed, other times they're just under extreme pressure not to let anyone leave without paying the toll. Don't be afraid to hang up and try someone else or escalate to a supervisor.

Worst comes to worst and they refuse to abide by standard contract law, you can take them to small claims court.

You only have 60 days from July 1st to make the cancellation because after that it is assumed that you have accepted any change to the contract.

Here's the relevant information from Verizon's customer agreement

“

Can Verizon Wireless Change This Agreement or My Service?

We may change prices or any other term of your Service or this agreement at any time,but we'll provide notice first, including written notice if you have Postpay Service. If you use your Service after the change takes effect, that means you're accepting the change. If you're a Postpay customer and a change to your Plan or this agreement has a material adverse effect on you, you can cancel the line of Service that has been affected within 60 days of receiving the notice with no early termination fee.

”

To help buck up your confidence, here are a few success stories and tactics from people who have successfully used these fees to get out of their wireless contracts without paying an early termination fee:

 

 

The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.

 

 

Justin Choi IT Security Manager

5161 California Avenue Suite 250 , Irvine CA 92612

E-mail justin.choi@nhnusainc.com

Tel 949 863 1292 ext 234 Mobile 949 954 0079 fax 949 863 9418

http://www.ijji.com/

 

 

Company	Symbol	Dividend Yield	5yr Dividend Growth %	3yr Income Growth %	Payout Ratio	1 Year Return %	DSO Rating
Regent Pacific Group	RPGLF	23.81	--	10.17	--	358.58	78
Horizon Lines, Inc.	HRZ	23.53	12.7	--	--	-81.62	58
ARMOUR Residential REIT	ARR	19.55	--	96.06	135.71	10.5	88
American Capital Agency	AGNC	19.22	--	--	70.98	35.7	78
Cypress Sharpridge	CYS	18.53	--	--	321.92	12.33	80
Invesco Mortgage Capital .	IVR	16.98	--	--	92.33	11.13	72
Chimera Investment	CIM	16.67	--	--	106.15	18.77	80
Alternate Marketing Networks	ALTM	16.67	--	--	--	200	70
Whiting USA Trust I	WHX	16.47	--	--	100	1.44	66
Logan International, Inc.	LIIZF	15.59	--	-45.61	--	50.59	60
Resource Capital	RSO	15.17	--	29.81	243.9	12.28	90
Annaly Capital Manag	NLY	15.01	20.57	45.15	129.9	16.82	100
Hatteras Financial	HTS	14.94	--	414.03	102.33	25.42	90
Two Harbors Investment	TWO	14.52	--	268.49	92.5	31.18	90
Anworth Mortgage Asset	ANH	13.68	12.02	--	111.49	19.58	90
Golden Ocean Group	GDOCF	13.65	--	82.86	--	-20.23	66
Shin Corporations PLC	SHNZY	13.29	--	--	--	36.48	70
BlackRock Kelso Capital	BKCC	12.65	--	64.01	112.28	14.46	76
Light S.A.	LGSXY	12.58	--	--	--	--	60
Teekay Tankers, Ltd.	TNK	11.85	--	-1.02	302.18	-6.92	42
Prospect Capital	PSEC	11.61	28.74	4.13	82.59	0.49	84
World Wrestling	WWE	11.46	27.68	0.83	202.82	-19.02	60
Capstead Mortgage	CMO	11.11	36.38	72.52	99.34	18.73	90
Barnes & Noble, Inc.	BKS	10.88	--	-19.71	71.02	-54.02	48
MFA Financial, Inc.	MFA	10.85	17.05	107.46	95.7	23.51	92
Brooklyn Federal Banc	BFSB	10.61	--	-34.4	--	-91.31	40
Life Partners Holdings	LPHI	10.57	46.48	100.67	64.89	-47.4	78
Dynex Capital, Inc.	DX	10.14	--	49.06	69.5	23.11	88
Himax Technologies, Inc.	HIMX	10.13	--	-19.21	263.36	-16.35	42
Solar Capital, Ltd.	SLRC	10.05	--	--	42.15	12.96	80
Great Northern Iron Ore	GNI	10.01	7.38	6.52	127.47	40.2	82
Intellectual Tech	ITTI	10	--	10.56	--	10	80
Color Imaging, Inc.	CIIG	10	--	110.5	--	0	74
Avesis, Inc.	AVSS	10	--	--	--	41.94	70
Harbor Bankshares	HRBK	10	--	20.46	--	-59.18	60

Meanwhile, one in eight Twitter accounts is either malicious, suspicious, or suspended, according to a new report from Barracuda Networks

Mar 10, 2010 | 02:53 PM

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading

Twitter has added a new service that detects malicious URLs in an effort to quell the rise in spam and phishing on the microblogging social network.

The new security feature ultimately will scan all URLs before they hit the Twitter feed, but initially is only doing so for URLs sent via Twitter direct messages [DMs] and email notifications about DMs. Twitter is using its own URL shortener for these links: "For the most part, you will not notice this feature because it works behind the scenes but you may notice links shortened to twt.tl in Direct Messages and email notifications," said Del Harvey, Twitter's director of trust and safety, in a blog post last night.

Twitter's security feature comes amid new data revealing the level of abuse on the social network: One in eight Twitter accounts last year was malicious, suspicious, or suspended, according to a report issued today by Barracuda Networks. The surge in celebrities joining Twitter in 2009 resulted in a major jump in spam, phishing, and other abuse on the site, according to the report.

And those numbers have remained steady to date. "We are still seeing Twitter identify 3 to 4 percent of Twitter accounts as malicious. And, meanwhile, 9 to 10 percent of accounts on Twitter are actively engaging in malicious activity," says Paul Judge, chief research officer at Barracuda.

Twitter's abuse rate increased 66 percent during what Barracuda calls the "Twitter Red Carpet Era," the period during November 2008 to April 2009 when a wave of celebrities joined the social network. A copy of the full report is available here (PDF).

Chet Wisniewski, senior security adviser at Sophos, says Twitter's move to defend against attacks on its users is good news, although the announcement doesn't provide much detail on how the service works. "I did some testing, and it appears they are only converting links to their shortener, http://twt.tl, for email notifications of direct messages at this time," Wisniewski says. "Hopefully we will see Twitter partner with more security organizations to help stop spam, viruses, and other scams as well."

As of this posting, Twitter had not responded to a request for an interview.

Barracuda's Judge says protecting Twitter DMs is a good start, but that's not where the majority of malicious links are conducted on Twitter. "We've seen the majority of activity in the public time line, with attackers trying to take advantage of popular trending topics," Judge says. "At least Twitter is acknowledging the [malicious URL] problem."

Judge says it's unclear why Twitter needs a URL shortener to safeguard URLs. "I almost wonder if they wanted to have a URL shortener and are using security as a reason [to launch it]," he says.

Twitter should be conducting more analysis of links being distributed around its platform, and using reputation-based monitoring to catch illegitimate accounts and malicious activity, Judge says.

So far Twitter has mainly been hit by spam and phishing attacks, as well as hacked individual accounts. But a researcher at RSA Conference 2010 last week demonstrated a tool that impersonates a Twitter user's account in order to execute automated targeted attacks on the person's followers.

Pedro Varangot, a security researcher with Core Security Labs, says his team wrote the tool as a way to demonstrate and test for how social networks can be used for spear phishing.

Meanwhile, Twitter's Harvey said in his post that previously, his team was only able to detect phishing scams after the links had been sent. He called the new service "a major blow against phishing" and said that even if a malicious link is sent via an email notification and the recipient clicks on it, Twitter will "be able to keep that user safe."

Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Dark Reading's editors directly, send us a message.

luxuryfashion.zlio.net

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Apple's new iPad aims to remake a market touched on by laptops, tablet computers, netbooks and even the iPod--portable devices for the creation and consumption of media, largely text and video. That also hits its increasingly active competitor Google.



The iPad met a mixture of reviews Wednesday, largely inflected with disappointment by people who were expecting much more--a salvation of journalism, the remaking of reading, destruction of the broadcast world, something like that. On its own, however, it may be a worthy device with an acceptable price point (one likely to fall) that should attract a lot of third-party developers. There is also talk of a new kind of electronic bookstore, which should make publishers happy.

Google ( GOOG - news - people ), on the other hand, may not be so amused. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has talked openly of creating a powerful and cheap netbook computer by late 2010. Judging from his words, the Google netbook (or, given the way fashions are trending, perhaps now a tablet) will be priced far below Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) range of $499 to $829.

Both companies are aiming at the business market, but with very different intentions. Apple, long a seller of hardware, is thinking in terms of something cheaper than a laptop, or better than a netbook. Google sees its device as a means to accessing its main businesses of Internet search and, increasingly, Internet-based office applications like word processing. The Google machine might even be subsidized like a cellphone, thrown on at a deep discount for a subscriber to Google Apps.

The two companies have been coming at each other for a while. Google's Nexus One phone is a rival to Apple's iPhone, and Apple is said to be building big data centers to offer online services a la Google. Earlier this week, Google released software for the iPhone that lets users make cheap long distance calls via the Internet, avoiding some charges by phone companies. Google tried this last year, but Apple did not approve the product. Schmidt resigned from Apple's board soon after. The new Google software can be accessed via the Internet, dodging Apple's control.



Who wins this battle may depend on the market result of corporate style. Both Apple and Google have outstanding recent track records on innovation and disruption, but the companies go about it in very different ways. Older Apple, schooled in selling delightful consumer technology products, has a discipline of process control. Its stuff comes out with the hardware and software created in parallel for maximum performance. With the iPod music player, the online store became part of that process. New versions of products roll out, and sometimes (as with the Mac or the iPhone) outside developers contribute ancillary products, but Apple's taste in the matter rules.

New jobless claims dip less than expected to 570K

WASHINGTON -- New jobless claims fell slightly last week while the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits rose, a sign the job market's recovery will be long and bumpy.

While most economists believe the recession has ended, they predict the jobless rate will keep rising until at least next summer as the country struggles to mount a sustained recovery. The worry is that household incomes will remain depressed and consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the total economy, will continue to lag.

"The lack of job creation remains a big headwind for cash-starved and credit-constrained consumers and thus a major impediment for the fledging recovery," Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in research note.

Most retailers posted sales declines last month as shoppers restrained back-to-school purchases to focus on necessities. Discounters did better than upscale chains, but the results Thursday raised further concern about the upcoming holiday season.

The Institute for Supply Management said its service index, which covers hospitals, retailers, financial services companies and more, inched closer to growth in August, but still contracted for the 11th straight month.

Apple's New Era

Brian Caulfield, 04.28.09, 06:20 PM EDT

The Jobs era has been defined by software. Is that changing?

Not surprisingly, the "new" 17-inch iMac that turned up on Apple's education site is actually the old polycarbonate 17-inch iMac. New, old...what's the difference? [Apple via Techtree via Wired Gadget Lab]

iPhone OS Preview

Brian Caulfield, 03.13.09, 03:20 PM EDT

Apple on Tuesday will discuss new features for its iPhone software.

iPhone OS Preview

Brian Caulfield, 03.13.09, 03:20 PM EDT

Apple on Tuesday will discuss new features for its iPhone software.