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The Indiana Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division is dedicated to protecting consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls. Perpetrators of scams often use telemarketing as a tool to reach their victims. You can help deter unwanted and fraudulent calls and text messages by signing up for the Do Not Call list here.

By:  Robert W. York

Most everyone, including teenagers drink alcohol – right?  What’s the harm in smoking a little pot from time to time – right?  Nobody is really going to care much if I stick a pair of sunglasses in my pocket and walk out without paying – right?  Hey, what’s the big deal – even if I’m caught I’ll probably just have to pay a fine – right?

This Is What Being Arrested Means:

• You will likely be handcuffed and taken to a holding facility. If you were driving at the time of the arrest, your vehicle will be impounded and you will have to pay for the towing and storage.
• While in the holding facility, you are fully under the control of someone else whether you like it or not.  While there, you will be required to be in the company of the type of persons with whom you may not normally associate.
• Your arrest record, including your photograph and fingerprints, will remain in the police file and will be available to all other police agencies.
• You may be required to post a bond in order to be released.  This means that someone on the outside must pay a bondsman an amount that based upon the crime could amount to thousands of dollars. You will remain in the facility until the bond is paid and even after payment your release could take many hours.
• Conditions of being released on bond will prevent you from participation in your usual activities and life style. Should you violate the conditions, your bond will be revoked and you will be returned to a holding facility.
• You should always retain the services of a criminal defense attorney with the attendant fees being usually in the thousands and the requirement that they be paid up front.
• You will be required to go to court on the day or days as the court directs.  Failure to appear will result in your bond being revoked and commitment to a holding facility.
• While most arrests result in a plea bargain, it is fully up to prosecuting attorney as to what pleas will be accepted.  Even then it is up to the court to decide whether to accept the plea or require you to go to trial.
• Some courts require mandatory jail time based upon the offense committed.  This is particularly true if you have had a prior conviction. Even if you are not sent to jail, your release could well require you to perform many hours of community service, to regularly meet with a probation officer, to pay a substantial fine and to live your life only as permitted by the conditions of your release.
• If the offense involved driving, it is possible for your insurance premiums to skyrocket.
• If you are arrested for a later offense, the fact that you have previously been convicted will be used to determine the amount of your bond and the possible sentence.

Your Arrest Could Keep You From:

• Getting your driver’s license
• Getting your high school diploma
• Being admitted to the Air Force Academy, West Point, Marine, Corps, U.S. Naval Academy, and some post-secondary institutions
• Obtaining certain jobs
• Getting student loans for college (due to drug charges)
• Obtaining legal immigration status

These Employers Could Get Your Juvenile Records:

• Summer camps
• Schools, youth programs, and day care centers
• State licensing agencies for cosmetology, nursing, social work, stockbrokers
• Nursing homes

(Information in part from the Indiana State Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section)

 

From the Better Business Bureau serving Central Indiana:

Who:  Thousands of Internet users across the world

What:  Last November, the FBI took down the servers of international hackers operating out of Estonia.  The hackers had already successfully downloaded malware onto more than half a million computers, turning off virus updates and redirecting consumers to fraudulent websites.  If the servers had simply been shut down, the victims’ computers would not longer be able to access the internet.  Instead, the FBI set up clean servers to replace the ones that were running the scam, and victims have been redirected to those clean servers ever since, usually without any knowledge they’d been infected in the first place.

When:  July 9, 2012

Why:  Originally the rescue servers were to be active until March, but a court ruling extended the program until July 9th.  At that time, the clean servers will be turned off and anyone who is still infected with the malware will lose their internet access.  The FBI believes there are still about 360,000 infected computers in a dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada.

Read the full and learn how to fix your computer article here.

Small business lending picked up in June—the increase shows business owners feel confident about borrowing for growth.

A study released Monday by PayNet, a research firm that tracks loans to small businesses, shows that lending rose 12 percent in May from April’s levels. That’s the largest increase since June 2009, when the economy was pulling out of the recession. Read the full article here.