(NEW YORK) — Venmo, Zelle and Cash App are leaving consumers vulnerable to fraud that’s “draining bank accounts of significant sums of money,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in letters to the companies that own those financial apps. He demanded they increase protections.
Bragg’s letters said he was writing “in response to a growing number of incidents” involving fraud and theft “through the exploitation of your company’s mobile financial applications on personal electronic devices such as iPhones.”
Peer-to-peer payment services now handle an estimated $1 trillion in payments and the district attorney said “frauds and scams have proliferated” as usage climbs.
In the past year, there have been thefts stretching from Los Angeles, where several people were robbed of thousands of dollars through Venmo at knifepoint, to Orlando, where a woman had thousands drained from her Venmo after a child asked to use her phone. Similar thefts and robberies have been publicly reported in West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia and elsewhere across the United States.
“These crimes involve an unauthorized user gaining access to unlocked devices and then draining bank accounts of significant sums of money, making purchases with mobile financial applications, and using financial information from the applications to open new accounts,” Bragg’s letters said. “Offenders also take over the phone’s security by changing passwords, recovery accounts, and application settings. The ease with which offenders can collect five- and even six-figure windfalls in a matter of minutes is incentivizing a large number of individuals to commit these crimes, which are creating serious financial, and in some cases physical, harm to our residents.”
The district attorney called on Venmo, Zelle and Cash App to adopt additional security measures, including imposing limits on transactions, requiring secondary verification of up to a day and better monitoring of unusual activity.
“I am concerned about the troubling rise in illegal behavior that has developed because of insufficient security measures connected with your software and business policy decisions,” Bragg’s letters said.
He is requesting meetings with the companies.
Paypall, the owner of Venmo; Square Inc, the owner of Cash App; and Zelle did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — A children’s clothing brand is facing criticism for the way it handled one employee’s request to work remotely while her newborn son was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The controversy erupted into public view last week when Ying Liu, the founder and CEO of Kyte Baby, a company that sells infant sleep sacks and clothing made with bamboo material, took to TikTok to issue an apology to the employee, identified as Marissa, whose parental leave request was denied.
“Hey guys, it’s Ying. I wanted to hop on here to sincerely apologize to Marissa for how her parental leave was communicated and handled in the midst of her incredible journey of adoption and starting a family,” Liu, a mother of five, according to the Kyte Baby website, said in the 90-second video, posted to Kyte Baby’s TikTok account on Jan. 18. “I have been trying to reach out to her to apologize directly as well.”
Liu said in the video that Kyte Baby “prides itself” on being a “family-oriented company,” and said she would be reviewing the company’s human resources “policy and procedures,” in light of the incident.
The employee, Marissa, reportedly adopted a son who was hospitalized in the NICU following his birth in late December. ABC News has not been able to reach the employee for comment.
Liu’s apology, which received more than two million views, drew criticisms from some TikTok users who characterized it as inauthentic and not going far enough to support the employee. Other commenters threatened to boycott the brand.
Shortly after posting the first video, Liu posted a second video on TikTok in which she acknowledged the first apology was “scripted” and “wasn’t sincere.”
She explained in the second video that she was the leader who “vetoed” Marissa’s request to work remotely while her son was in the NICU, saying, “I own 100% of that.”
“When I think back, this was a terrible decision,” Liu said. “I was insensitive, selfish and was only focused on the fact that her job had always been done on-site and I did not see the possibility of doing it remotely.”
Liu also said in the video, which received six million views, that she agreed with people who said Kyte Baby needs to set an example as a women-led business focused on baby products.
“I think a lot of comments are right. We need to set the example because we are in the baby business,” she said. “I want to [go] above and beyond in protecting women and giving them the right protection and benefits when they’re having babies.”
Spotlight on lack of protections, flexibility for parents
The Kyte Baby controversy has turned a spotlight on the lack of paid protections for new parents in the United States.
Currently, the U.S. is part of only a small pool of countries worldwide that do not guarantee paid leave.
Just one-quarter of all U.S. workers have access to paid family leave from their employer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Under current U.S. policy — the Family and Medical Leave Act — employees who qualify can take time off to care for a newborn or loved one or recover from illness without fear of losing their job, but in many cases the leave is unpaid.
Some commenters on TikTok also raised the issue of a lack of protections for adoptive parents in the U.S., questioning whether the outcome would have been different had the Kyte Baby employee carried her baby.
The backlash against Kyte Baby denying its employee’s request for remote work also comes as working moms continue to rebuild following the coronavirus pandemic, during which approximately 3.5 million moms of school-age children had to leave active work, shift into paid or unpaid leave, lost their job or exited the labor market altogether, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While many women had to leave the workforce due to child care issues, the pandemic also highlighted the benefits of remote work, particularly for working moms. Since last year, the participation rate for women in the workforce between the ages of 25 and 54 has been at an all-time high, according to researchers from the Brookings Institution. Researchers attributed that rise, in part, to the increased ability to telework.
Despite those figures, many employers have instituted or continued to push for in-office mandates over the past year, arguing that returning to the office contributes to greater productivity, collaboration and overall workplace culture. Cities themselves say the shift in remote work at some companies has also forced them to reconsider what to do with empty or unfilled office buildings, with some attempting to convert unused space into housing.
Kyte Baby pledges to change its maternity leave policy
While much of the backlash against Kyte Baby focused on the company doing too little, too late, the company was applauded by some for apologizing and course-correcting in wake of the outcry.
“We all make mistakes. The fact that you are owning it and making it right is what matters. Change comes from learning, learning comes from mistakes,” wrote one commenter.
A spokesperson for Kyte Baby told ABC News in a statement Monday that the company is revising its maternity leave policy.
The spokesperson said the employee in question, Marissa, has “declined” the company’s offer to return to her position at Kyte Baby.
“We continue to apologize to both Marissa and our Kyte Baby community for the handling of her maternity leave. Over the last few days our team has been working to make changes to ensure that something like this does not happen again. We are revising our maternity policy to give new parents, both biological and nonbiological, more time off and creating a better process to support our employees,” the spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, Marissa worked with Kyte Baby as an on-site employee in the company’s photo studio, and had been with them for “a little over seven months” when she made the remote work request.
“Based on our maternity policy at the time, all parents, whether biological or non-biological, who have worked for the company for at least six months, but less than one year, receive two weeks paid maternity time and are required to sign a contract saying that they will return to their job for six months after their paid leave is complete. Employees with the company over one year receive four weeks paid maternity time and are required to sign a contract saying that they will return to their job for six months after their paid leave is complete,” the spokesperson said.
“Marissa was offered the standard package with two weeks maternity time, but given her son’s situation, was unable to sign the six-month contract. She did propose a remote option for her job that, in the moment, did not work for us since she worked a largely on-site position in our photo studio. We let her know that her job would be here if and when she opted to return. Marissa opted to leave at this point. However, upon reflection we should have taken more steps to accommodate her situation,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve since realized that Kyte Baby needs to stand by their values of being a woman owned, family company,” they added. “We have reached out to Marissa directly and let her know that her job is here if and when she is ready to come back. We have also offered to work with her on a remote position. At this time Marissa has declined our offer. We are revising our maternity policy by Feb. 1 and will be updating our internal team at that time.”
(NEW YORK) — TikTok users are loud and proud, not just about their dance moves and style choices, but also when it comes to budgeting.
The recent #loudbudgeting trend, which has racked up nearly 10 million views and counting, is all about sharing your savings goals and shouting it from the proverbial rooftops, and TikTokkers and financial experts alike say the viral trend could help people cut back on impulse purchases and make smarter financial choices.
Among the vocal advocates behind loud budgeting is Lukas Battle.
“It’s not ‘I don’t have enough,’ it’s ‘I don’t want to spend,'” Battle explained in a now viral TikTok video.
Battle told “Good Morning America” that staying quiet about your finances and setting spending limits don’t have to be shrouded in shame.
“My friend wants to go out to dinner. I’m gonna just text them ‘loud budgeting’ this month. I think financial transparency with your friends is something that you don’t have to be embarrassed about,” Battle said.
With the cost of living and home prices still high, financial educator Tiffany Aliche of “The Budgetnista” told “GMA” people can use loud budgeting on their journey to achieving financial goals.
“Budgeting out loud, it’s not just the words, but also having these tools in place,” Aliche said. “It holds you accountable. But also, it allows the people that care about you to also hold you accountable.”
One way Aliche said she puts loud budgeting into action is to place a “deactivation sticker” on her credit card as a visual reminder to save money.
“Whenever I take out the card, it’s a physical reminder, because I’m budgeting out loud,” Aliche explained. “Is this a need? Is this a love? Because if it’s just a like or a want, that’s $10, $20, $30 less that I can put toward my [goal of a] dream trip.”
To get started with loud budgeting, Aliche recommends a few beginner tips.
Budgeting basics
Start a “money list.”
Check credit and debit card statements.
Divide your money into categories.
Write down your spending per month in each category.
Aliche also recommends taking the guesswork out of dividing your funds by asking your bank and/or employer to automatically split your paycheck into separate accounts.
Each account can be dedicated to a purpose or goal, such as one for bills, one for savings, and another for entertainment purchases.
(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 38,000 for the first time ever on Monday, setting a record high and capping a steady rise that stretches back to last week.
The S&P 500 also reached a record high, closing at about 4,850.
The major stock indexes kicked off the year with sluggish performance but began to turn upward in the middle of last week.
The recent surge follows a stellar showing for markets in 2023, driven in large part by optimism about the prospects for a “soft landing,” in which inflation comes down to normal levels while the economy avoids a recession.
Investor enthusiasm about AI also helped drive returns.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft revealed Friday that some of its corporate email accounts were hacked by a Russian-backed group.
The tech company said in a blog post that its security team detected the attack on Jan. 12 and quickly identified the group responsible: Midnight Blizzard, “the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as Nobelium.”
In late November, the group allegedly used a “password spray attack,” where a user uses a single common password against multiple accounts on the same application, to “compromise a legacy non-production test tenant account and gain a foothold,” according to Microsoft.
The group then “used the account’s permissions to access a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions, and exfiltrated some emails and attached documents,” the company said.
The hackers allegedly were targeting email accounts for information related to Midnight Blizzard, Microsoft said.
“To date, there is no evidence that the threat actor had any access to customer environments, production systems, source code, or AI systems. We will notify customers if any action is required,” the company said.
The company said it is in the process of informing its affected users.
(NEW YORK) — Sports Illustrated employees were notified on Friday that their jobs were being terminated.
The Sports Illustrated union posted on X: “This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship. We are calling on ABG to ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years.”
The magazine is owned by Authentic Brands Group.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Postal Service will increase stamp prices starting Sunday, a USPS representative confirmed to “Good Morning America.”
The cost of first-class stamps will rise from 66 cents to 68 cents for letters weighing one ounce or less.
Package shipping costs will also increase by nearly six percent, with Priority Mail Express costs going up by 5.9 percent, Priority Mail increasing by 5.7 percent, and Ground Advantage going up 5.4 percent.
The price hikes, the fifth increase in two years, are part of the Postal Service’s ten-year “Delivering for America” plan to raise rates and recover from plunging profits – a projected $160 billion loss over the next ten years
Some of the cost-cutting measures have already translated into slower deliveries, while the increased prices will more significantly affect residents in the non-contiguous states and territories, like Alaska and Hawaii. Those areas will see an increase of more than nine percent, prompting lawmakers like Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan to speak out.
“No state, including Alaska, should be punished by our own federal government because of geography,” Sullivan said in part in a statement in December. “These hikes have the potential to severely negatively impact Alaskans – already reeling from inflation – who are more reliant on the USPS for basic goods and services than other Americans.”
(NEW YORK) — U.S. credit card debt has soared over the last couple of years and recently it reached a major milestone.
Americans’ combined credit card balances topped $1 trillion dollars last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
By comparison, combined credit card balances were $680 billion a decade ago, according to federal data.
While growing online sales have fueled the spike, business experts say the numbers are concerning as more people are not paying off their full balances and facing costly interest payments.
During the pandemic, many Americans used stimulus payments from the government to help pay off their credit card debt, but things drastically changed once the stimulus dollars dried up.
At the end of 2021, 39% of credit card holders carried debt from month to month, but that jumped to 47% in 2023, according to data from Bankrate, a consumer financial services company.
The number of Americans missing payments also has increased as the average credit card balance now stands at just over $6,000, which is the highest in more than a decade, according to TransUnion.
Credit card delinquencies are rising fastest among lower-income borrowers, millennials and people who hold other kinds of debt, like auto or student loans, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Experts say the effects of rising inflation are one of the major factors behind the problem.
With prices rising, consumers have had to spend more on their cards for their goods.
At the same time, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to combat inflation, leaving credit card users with higher payments if they don’t pay off their monthly balance in full.
For example, a credit card user with a balance of $5,000 would have to pay an additional $7,000 in interest with a 21% rate if they paid their bill’s $35 minimum, according to Bankrate. And it would take 16 years to pay off the debt.
Credit card holders do have options to alleviate the debt, according to experts.
They can sign up for a balance transfer credit card, which allows a user to move existing debt to a new card, usually at much lower interest rates for a set amount of time.
Consumers can also call their credit card company and try to negotiate a lower interest rate. Credit counseling services are also a strong option to lower debt, according to experts.
Experts also warn against opening and closing credit card accounts too quickly as it can lower your credit score.
(NEW YORK) — Big Tech companies laid off hundreds of employees in recent days, commanding headlines and confronting workers across the economy with a question: Am I next?
Amazon and Google each imposed cuts, with Apple shutting down a 121-person team in San Diego, Calif., telling workers they must either transfer to Texas or leave the company, Bloomberg reported.
In all, the tech sector has laid off nearly 8,000 workers so far this year, according to layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks tech-sector employment.
The job cuts stem in large part from an ongoing staff reevaluation specific to the tech industry, since sales have retreated from the blistering pace attained during the pandemic, analysts said, noting comparatively scant layoffs across the wider workforce.
However, the recent cutbacks in tech also are due to the rise of artificial intelligence and the persistence of high interest rates, some analysts said, foretelling similar risks for workers across major swathes of the economy.
“I could see some layoffs in other areas of the economy but not as widespread as we’re seeing in tech,” Joshua White, Vanderbilt University finance professor and former economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission, told ABC News.
The string of high-profile job cuts arrives at a time when employment in the wider labor force remains robust.
A stronger-than-expected jobs report demonstrated solid hiring growth in December, rebuking fears of a shrinking workforce anytime soon, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The layoff rate for November, the most recent month on record, stands at a near-historic low of 1%, according to BLS data.
Even the job cuts in tech are relatively small compared with tens of thousands of employees laid off at the outset of last year.
This resilience in the labor force has coincided with a prolonged period of high interest rates at the Federal Reserve, which typically slow the economy and increase the risk of job cuts.
“Layoffs and firings are unusually rare throughout the economy,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told ABC News. “It’s surprising to me that employment hasn’t fallen more.”
Still, the job cuts at Big Tech firms could portend layoffs in other sectors, since the wider economy remains vulnerable to disruption from artificial intelligence, as well as from losses induced by high interest rates, some analysts said.
Layoffs at Google, for instance, affected hundreds of workers focused on the company’s well-known products, such as Google Assistant, as well as Google-owned YouTube.
The cuts came in part from the company’s priority shift toward AI, according to an internal memo from CEO Sundar Pichai, confirmed to ABC News by a Google spokesperson.
Apple did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did Amazon.
“Tech companies are hiring and firing on a small scale very often because they’re still experimenting with how to commercialize and scale AI,” Daniel Keum, a professor of management at the Columbia University Business School, told ABC News.
“Surely AI will spread – it will just spread at an uneven pace across different sectors,” Keum added, noting that he expects AI adoption to ripple through the economy over about 10 years. “People should be concerned.”
Corey Stahle, an economist at job-listing website Indeed, acknowledged a shift toward AI may be responsible for some of the layoffs in tech, but he rejected the notion of imminent cuts in other sectors due to the technology.
“We’re not at that point,” Stahle told ABC News. “These technologies are unlocking human potential and making workers more productive and efficient so far.”
Employees across the economy, according to some analysts, also are at risk of layoffs due to high interest rates, which make it more costly for companies to borrow money.
The tech sector is particularly sensitive to elevated borrowing costs, Chris Kayes, a professor at George Washington University School of Business, told ABC News, pointing out that tech firms often rely on loans for an extended period of time before they turn a profit.
Even Big Tech companies, Kayes added, depend on borrowed funds to support some of their spending.
Despite indications from the Fed of rate cuts later this year, companies economy-wide will need to weather an environment of high borrowing costs for the foreseeable future, leaving their employees vulnerable to cuts.
“That will continue to be something hanging over the job market,” Kayes said.
Reluctant to overstate the risk, however, Kayes downplayed the recent job cuts in tech. “These are fairly small layoffs,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. economic activity changed little in recent weeks as hiring stalled, prices grew modestly and the private sector feared uncertainty tied to the 2024 election, a Federal Reserve report released on Wednesday showed.
A rosy outlook nevertheless pervaded the findings, since industry officials anticipated interest rate cuts this year, the report said.
On the whole, the report depicts an economy that has downshifted from blistering growth in the middle of last year, slowing hiring and putting the brakes on price increases.
The report, known as the Beige Book, detailed economic conditions in 12 different regions — known as “districts” — based on the results of interviews with businesses by local Fed officials.
The fresh information suggests that a prolonged period of high interest rates has succeeded in cooling the economy, which could reinforce the Fed’s plans to cut rates in the coming months.
Private sector officials nationwide drew hope from the prospect of such an outcome, the Fed report said.
“Districts continued to note that high interest rates were limiting auto sales and real estate deals; however, the prospect of falling interest rates was cited by numerous contacts in various sectors as a source of optimism,” the report said.
The fresh report appeared to contradict some economic data from recent weeks indicating robust performance.
A stronger-than-expected jobs report demonstrated solid hiring growth in December, rebuking fears of an economic downturn anytime soon.
Consumer prices, meanwhile, rose 3.4% in December compared to a year ago, accelerating markedly from the previous month and defying a smooth path down to normal levels, a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week showed.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Tuesday the central bank expects to cut rates this year, but that it won’t be “rushed” to make the decision soon.
Those remarks helped send treasury yields soaring and major stock indexes tumbling on Wednesday.
The Fed risks a rebound of inflation if it cuts interest rates too quickly. An additional burst of economic activity for an already robust economy could hike demand and raise prices once again.
While the vast majority of districts reported little or no change in economic conditions, three districts reported modest growth and one reported moderate decline, the Fed report said.
Similarly, the report added, most districts described little or no change in overall employment levels. The slow hiring gave businesses in many districts confidence that wage growth would ease in the coming months, the Fed said.
Those expectations align with forecasts at the Fed of continued progress in the inflation fight over the course of this year.
When facing high inflation, policymakers fear what’s referred to as a price-wage spiral, in which a rise in prices prompts workers to demand raises that help them afford goods, which in turn pushes up prices, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle of runaway inflation.
If wage growth slows, however, policymakers gain assurance the economy will avert a spike in prices.
Inflation stands well below last summer’s peak of over 9%, but remains more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
Many market observers are expecting interest rate cuts as soon as a Fed meeting in March. As of last week, markets put the probability of a rate cut in March at 75%, said Ellen Zentner, chief U.S. economist and managing director at Morgan Stanley.
However, observers holding such expectations “may be in for a disappointment,” Zentner wrote earlier this month, citing strong job gains that allow the Fed to keep rates high without fear of an imminent recession.
The cushion affords Fed policymakers “room to watch and wait,” Zentner added.
