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Red Deer RCMP offer crime prevention tips for the holiday season

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4 minute read

Red Deer, Alberta – While the Christmas season is intended to be a time of joy and celebration, for many criminals it also provides unique opportunities for more Grinch-like behaviour. Red Deer RCMP offer some practical crime prevention tips to help you ensure your holiday season isn’t marred by theft, damage and other criminal activity.

 Protect yourself while shopping – thieves hang out in parking lots looking for easy opportunities

·         Be careful with purses and wallets – carry your purse under your arm and keep wallets in an inside pocket. Never leave purses or wallets in a vehicle.

·         Stow shopping bags in the trunk of your vehicle or out of sight to discourage smash and grab thefts.

·         If you store shopping bags in your vehicle then go back inside to continue shopping, move your vehicle – thieves looking for smash and grab opportunities will think you’ve left.

·         Load your packages into your trunk or otherwise out of sight before you leave one business, not when you get to the next one.

·         Never leave cash, electronics, garage door openers or valuables in plain sight in your vehicle.

·         Stay alert to your surroundings and be aware of the people around you. Look around your vehicle as you approach it.

·         Always lock your vehicle and close the windows, even if you’re only gone for a few minutes.

·         Never leave vehicles unlocked and running, and never hide spare keys inside your vehicle.

 

Protect your mail

·         Arrange to have packages delivered to a trusted neighbour if you won’t be home to receive them.

·         Check your mail daily – theft of mail increases over the holidays as thieves look for cards with cash or gift cards inside.

Protect your home

·         Avoid displaying gifts where they can be seen from a window or doorway.

·         Break down large packaging and dispose of it discreetly – don’t advertise to thieves that you’re the proud owner of new electronics or other tempting items.

·         Always lock your home’s doors and windows, even if you’re only gone for a few minutes.

 

Travelling this holiday season?

·         Stop newspaper and mail deliveries and have someone shovel your sidewalks while you’re away.

·         Give a spare key to a trusted friend or neighbour and let them know how to reach you while you’re away.

·         Tell a trusted neighbour you’re going to be away and ask them to call police immediately if they see suspicious activity on your property.

·         Place lights on timers and set them to turn off and on at different times.

·         Invite a neighbour to park in your driveway or have a friend move your vehicle if you left it at home.

 

Red Deer RCMP send warm wishes to Red Deerians for a safe and happy holiday season, and thank citizens for their continued support in reporting suspicious and criminal activity to the RCMP complaint line at 403-343-5575.

Read more about area crime on Todayville.com. 

 

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Crime

Red Deer RCMP warn public regarding circulation of counterfeit currency

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News release from Red Deer RCMP

Red Deer RCMP are alerting the public to look out for counterfeit currency.

Red Deer RCMP have received multiple reports of transactions where $50 and $100 counterfeit bills were used or attempted to be used. Anyone in the area who handles currency are alerted to be on the lookout for suspicious bills and should they come into contact with it, report it to police.

The Bank of Canada has the following advice for dealing with counterfeit currency:

  • Politely refuse the note and explain that you suspect that it may be counterfeit.
  • Ask for another note (and check it too).
  • Advise the person to check the note with the local police.
  • Inform your local police of a possible attempt to pass suspected counterfeit money.
  • Be courteous. Remember that the person in possession of the bill could be an innocent victim who does not realize that the note is suspicious.

If you think you have come across counterfeit currency please contact Red Deer RCMP at 403-406-2200. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the “P3 Tips” app available through the Apple App or Google Play Store. To report crime online, or for access to RCMP news and information, download the Alberta RCMP app through Apple or Google Play.

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Business

DOJ charges 7 Chinese spies with targeting US political leaders, major businesses

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From LifeSiteNews

By Matt Lamb

The hackers ‘spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials’ as part of a massive Chinese espionage operation, according to the DOJ.

Hackers targeted defense contractors, American political leaders, and U.S. companies with malware as part of a surveillance operation for the Chinese Communist Party, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges.

The DOJ released details on the indictment of seven Chinese individuals who have been charged with “conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud,” according to a Monday news release.

The individuals are part of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) group who “spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives,” according to the DOJ.

Officials unsealed the indictment on Monday, though charges were originally filed in January.

The indictment provides further insight into how the CCP targets American companies and political leaders for retribution and influence using computer viruses.

The CCP and its Ministry of State Security “sought to obtain information on political, economic and security policies that might affect the PRC, along with military, scientific and technical information of value to the PRC,” the indictment states. “Among other things, the MSS and its state security departments focused on surreptitiously identifying and influencing the foreign policy of other countries, including the United States.”

The hackers used a front company called Wuhan XRZ beginning in at least 2010. They would send fake emails to U.S. senators, business leaders, and information technology companies looking to gain access. They were successful in hacking defense contractors, information technology providers, and universities, among other victims.

The DOJ itself was targeted, along the Commerce Department, the Treasury Department, and the White House.

The Justice Department alleges:

These computer network intrusion activities resulted in the confirmed and potential compromise of work and personal email accounts, cloud storage accounts and telephone call records belonging to millions of Americans, including at least some information that could be released in support of malign influence targeting democratic processes and institutions, and economic plans, intellectual property, and trade secrets belonging to American businesses, and contributed to the estimated billions of dollars lost every year as a result of the PRC’s state-sponsored apparatus to transfer U.S. technology to the PRC.

“If the recipient activated the tracking link by opening the email, information about the recipient, including the recipient’s location, IP addresses, network schematics and specific devices used to access the pertinent email accounts, was transmitted to a server controlled by the Conspirators,” the DOJ stated. “The Conspirators used this method to enable more direct and sophisticated targeting of recipients’ home routers and other electronic devices, including those of high ranking U.S. government officials and politicians and election campaign staff from both major U.S. political parties.”

In just a few months in 2018, the hackers “sent more than 10,000 malicious email messages” to “high-ranking U.S. government officials and their advisors, including officials involved in international policy and foreign trade issues.”

They also targeted campaign staff for “a presidential campaign” in 2020. The filing does not state which campaign.

European Union and United Kingdom leaders who were part of the anti-Communist Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China were also targeted.

Other victims included: “a nuclear power engineering company,” a defense contractor, an aerospace contractor, and “a leading American manufacturer of software and computer services based in California.”

Telecommunications companies, law firms, and steel companies were also targeted.

The CCP impersonated real steel companies in order to gain access to their emails during a battle over tariffs on China. After the Trump administration announced new steel tariffs in 2018, the hackers “registered a malicious domain impersonating the legitimate domain of one of the largest steel producers in the United States (the ‘American Steel Company’)” as well as the International Steel Trade Forum.

“These malicious domains allowed the Conspirators to communicate with malware they installed on the network of the American Steel Company to access and surveil the victim,” the DOJ stated.

They also targeted the Norwegian government in 2018 because it was considering awarding the Nobel Prize to Hong Kong democracy activists.

The PRC is a “malicious nation state,” a federal prosecutor stated in the DOJ news release.

“These allegations pull back the curtain on China’s vast illegal hacking operation that targeted sensitive data from U.S. elected and government officials, journalists, and academics; valuable information from American companies; and political dissidents in America and abroad. Their sinister scheme victimized thousands of people and entities across the world, and lasted for well over a decade,”  U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York stated in the news release.

“America’s sovereignty extends to its cyberspace. Today’s charges demonstrate my office’s commitment to upholding and protecting that jurisdiction, and to putting an end to malicious nation state cyber activity.”

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